Two almost done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) living in the moment
(2) shoe sales
(3) kids swapping lunches

I think progress is a good thing, especially if it belongs to you (me)!  Good progress on my challenge quilt for June, I dismantled it and redid the layout.  All I have to do now is quilt it and it's good to go!  But you'll have to wait 3 months before you see it, anticipation is a good thing too!

I went ahead and finished the inner part of my string blocks, using the wavy design I mentioned.  One thing I noticed (and I'm glad it doesn't matter to me) is that when you use a contrasting middle strip as I did in these blocks, if you use any layout other than having them in an X format, you don't get sharp points.  I like the wavy design but the white tips are blunted where they meet at the top and bottom of each row. 

I pieced these together in a 9-across and 10-down layout, that's a pretty good sized throw especially when I add two borders and I plan to do. 

I pulled two fabrics ... a light one with words for the narrow inner border and a greenish-blue one for the wider outer border. 

The color combo is just fine, but since I haven't cut into these yet I think I'll comb my stash to find some fabrics I've had longer than these.  I got the patriotic fabric at the Hancock's that went out of business in December, I know I have a light (or some other color) that's been growing mushrooms, that I can pull and use for this quilt.  After I do the borders I'll consider this one a flimsy that can languish in my to-be-quilted pile.

I've been seeing a lot of people doing the scrappy granny square blocks and I think I'm getting hooked, I really like that pattern!  Jolene at Blue Elephant Stitches did a tutorial on it that looks super easy, so I grabbed some 2-1/2" squares from my box and laid one out, just to see...

I really like it!  Of course if I did it for real I'd use a white background, but I like the on-point shape it'll be when sewn together.  Also, you only need about a dozen of these to make a decent sized quilt, or even fewer if you're making a kid-sized quilt.  So, looks like another scrappy design will be on my to-do list!

Well today it's another run at the basement, I'm only spending about an hour moving things around down there, maybe while I'm doing laundry.  What are you working on today?  No matter what it is, I have it turns out t obe a great Wednesday for you!

Sew forth and sew on til later...

Scrap attack!

... and based on the amount I started with and the amount I have now, it's anybody's guess who's winning!

I've been making string blocks for the Scrap Attack Strings quilt along, and they're so fuss free!

You can't go wrong with string blocks no matter how you make them!  At this point I've done 24 blocks, which puts me way beyond the 2 a week Chrissy was aiming for; I didn't show the 7 untrimmed ones.  As I was looking at them, I had to laugh because I'm still using some of the strips I cut for the Orca Bay mystery...

See this Christmas print, and the alphabets in the back?  I have a good mix going on here! 

And because I was feeling industrious while looking at TV, I sorted some strips by length into containers for the first three positions on the block - immediately next to the white center strip, next to that, and next to that. 

It's a small thing I know, but if I can just reach into a container and know that strip will be long enough for where I want to put it, it'll save a few seconds.  Seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, hours become a quilt.  Or UFO, or whatever.

There is to be a linky thingy at the Sew Lux blog once a month, so it should be up any day now.  When they activate it I'll hook up and link to it, so you can see how everybody else is doing.  Have a great Monday!

Sew forth and sew on

Just because...

... I need more projects!

Chrissy over at Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts is hosting a Scrap Attack Strings quilt-a-long that looks interesting, so I figured well, why not!  For her size project she's making just two 5" blocks a week for 40 weeks (80 blocks), which will give her a 44 x 55 quilt.  Since I make string blocks every now and then and toss them in a box, I thought I'd go with this quilt-a-long and see what I see.  So far, I've made 6 blocks and they went together really fast!

The one thing that makes these blocks differ from the ones I usually make is, we're using a white strip in the middle.  Chrissy gave a great tutorial on how to "semi-paper-piece" these blocks.  Paper foundations are great but let's admit it - the paper is a pain to remove from all those stitching lines.  Now, it may be a small, tiny minor pain, but it's still a pain.  The way she shows us, you only sew on the paper with that first seam...

You use a shortened stitch for that seam, then for the others you use a regular seam with a 1/4" seam allowance!  Then when you remove the paper, you only have that one seam to tear loose.  Great idea, wish I'd thought of it years ago!

I'm using phone book paper that Bonnie at Quiltville introduced us to, and I'm loving it.  I have a bunch of paper foundations cut and marked, ready to sew.   All I need to do now is cut some white strips for the center, and I'm all set! 

More adventures with the workmen next door, eyowww!  This time it was a good one; two men came around 10 yesterday morning to work on the air handling system.  I had taken some trash outside and saw these floor tiles they'd tossed out for trash, so asked for them.

Some had got broken when they tossed em, but there were still 9 good ones with no chips or anything so I took them all.  What in the world will she do with floor tiles??

I made a trivet!  I use an iron skillet in my oven and I don't like to set the hot skillet directly on my countertop.  Also, I have a glass-top range and an iron skillet would fuse the glass, so that's a BIG no-no!

I put something beneath this one to raise it slightly off the counter top so I won't have heat transfer - hey, it works!

Sew forth and sew on