Testing, testing

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Rainbath shower gel
(2) guild retreat
(3) Outlander TV series

They're showing the second Outlander installment for this season, and oh my did they pack it down!  It didn't lose any important parts thank goodness, almost 20 years compacted into 2 shows.

Yesterday I gave you a peek at how I'm using some of the scraps from our retreat. 

I found a scrappy block I liked over at 15 Minutes of Play, and I even liked Victoria's bright yellow background fabric.  Here's two test blocks I've done so far:

Remember the longish, thickish crumb piece from yesterday? 

I made a few and cut them into 2" strips.  As you can see, these will have a LOT of seams!

My Companion Angle ruler came in handy to cut those QST's!

Each block needs 16 sub-units, to make 8 hourglass units to surround that center.

I'm still in the "do I want to make this" stage... it's a beautiful block and will be work-intensive.


I have a challenge quilt that's due in December, and a veteran's quilt due at next month's meeting.  Hmmmm....


We'll see, maybe regroup if necessary - sew forth and sew on!

Quilty days are here again!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) fruit butters
(2) steaming oatmeal
(3) an explosion of mums

Hello again, it's been a lonnnng time ... no, come to think of it, it's been a verrrrrry long time!  I've been chastised by several people for not updating my blog and they're right!

I had a great time at my guild's annual retreat last weekend at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA.  The room was HUGE and we had loads of working space!

But you want to know a key ingredient in that great time we all had?  SCRAPS!!!

Loads and loads of SCRAPS!!

Jennifer brought bags and bags and BAGS of scraps to share with everybody, her only stipulation was "I don't want to take any of these back home!"  And she didn't.  I didn't get a picture before we all dove in, but you can get an idea of the sheer volume if you visit her blog, Jennifer's Chronicles.

Azalia, Cheryl H, and I are each making a quilt to show at December's guild meeting, as an example of how to use up those great scraps.

Thank goodness for inventory!  These blocks were pieced here and there over the past year or two.

Bits and pieces come together ... this will be the center of my block!

Part of the outer edge - come see tomorrow!

Sew forth and sew on!

Timing is everything

Three things to be happy about:
(1) opera glasses
(2) Christmas cactusses still blooming
(3) hot oatmeal

Snow!  If you could take the You Tube video I posted two nights ago and rev it up to three times faster, that's the way it would seem now!  So much snow predicted to be coming our way, so many people panicking, with behavior they wouldn't have even glanced at a week ago.  The Federal Government will close early today, with employees who report to work given permission to leave 4 hours early "but no later than 12 noon."  Can you feel the panic?

When a major storm is predicted, the TV news has a way of giving minute by minute "updates" of the problems... "oh look how slow the cars have to drive down this street"  "oh, look at this delivery truck actually sliding out of control" "oh, look how empty the shelves are in this store".

All this "coverage" just makes people panic even more.  I've decided not to participate in it this year because (1) I know snow is coming (2) I know it is expected to be major (3) I know it will last long enough that cleanup will happen Monday, and (4) I know I have enough food, water and meds to take me through it.  Everything else is secondary; I don't need to hear it over and over and over, getting upset!  I won't be watching the coverage.

So that's my soap box opinion, now on to more pleasant things!

Look what came unexpectedly last night!

I want to go forward with making a pinwheel quilt or wall hanging, but it's so tedious to cut so many 2-1/2" squares!  I ordered this die from Amazon on Wednesday the 20th, it was scheduled to be delivered on the 25th - but it came last night, in just one day!

I couldn't wait to start using it!  First thing this morning I dove into some gifted scraps - you know the rules I live by: "OPS's (other people's scraps) are more interesting than your own!"

For this size die, Accuquilt suggests cutting an 8-1/2" piece of fabric and these scraps are such a nice, generous size!

Looking good!

My one concern though, is that one of the blades must be set a bit too high?  Part of the fabric gets wedged tighter in than the other parts, causing the square to fray just a bit when I remove them from the die.

Here we go - a nice pile of 2-1/2" squares, ready to become part of my textured pinwheel quilt!

The die cuts 9 squares, so I have a big plenty to start with.



That's it for now; go safely, carefully and thoughtfully into the storm ...  sew forth and sew on...

Moving right along!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) charm bracelets
(2) keepsakes
(3) seasonal Coffeemate flavors

Sugar & spice? Peppermint mocha?  Gingerbread latte?  Eggnog latte??  Come on, be happy!

Whatever.

I'm digging right into Part 4 of the Allietare mystery - we're using black, baby!

This gives me a chance to cut into some of the new black fabrics I got in Lancaster; I just love this one - animal paw prints!

But look!!!

I've worn out another GO mat, had to open up a new one!  I've got only one more in reserve, I wish they made them stronger.

But the good news is, look at the progress I made on step 4!

Seven sets of "centerless bow ties" made, only 23 more to go.

I'm linking this post up with the Allietare Mystery Monday Link-Up on Bonnie's blog - check it out!

Meanwhile I've done other digging too - lookit these scraps, gotta move em out!

I love receiving other people's scraps, it's always like opening a new present every time I dig into the bag.

As I'm working on Allietare, I'm also making crumb blocks as leader-enders.  When I get a "whole heap" done I'll use my Accuquilt 4-1/2" die to cut these down into usable parts.

If you look closely you'll see some HST's from Allietare part 1 that didn't make the cut - let no scrap be left behind!!

Well I'm off to my last medical appointment of the year, my eye doctor.  Have a great day, finish whipping out those quilty projects, sew forth and sew on ...

Progress, in black and white

Three things to be happy about:
(1) designer eyeglasses
(2) morning sunshine
(3) books that make you laugh

I'm listening to an audible book (The Bone Tree); part of the setting is in the 60's, and they mentioned someone flying from one place to another on Eastern Airlines.  Man, that takes me back!  My first ever ever ever airline flight was on Eastern Airlines, from New Jersey all the way to North Carolina.  I remember when my sister told me I would get a meal and didn't have to pay, I was totally amazed!   Ahh, nostalgia.

I'm making progress on my Passa-whatever quilt!

I decided to concentrate on piecing one unit first, rather than piecing both at the same time.

Since the black and white strips are so boring, I thought I'd go ahead and get those out of the way!

I found a whole bunch of black and white scraps that I had bagged when I was sorting my scraps by color.

It turns out to be a good thing!  Now all I have to do is cut them into 4" pieces at different widths.

Done!

Ready to be pieced for the center of the alternate unit.  Did I mention this is the boring part??

For the size quilt I want to make, I figure I need 84 of each unit.  Eighty-four!

Well, I take it back, it's not really that boring, I just take one piece and add to another til I get a strip that's 9" long. a wider piece on each end.

That little pile doesn't look like much, but there are 50 in there, so combined with the ones already pieced and a few in progress on my sewing machine, I have 24 yet to piece!

They do go kinda fast - one strip at a time... steady as she goes...

Sew forth and sew on...

Oh my goodness!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) gifts from afar
(2) great exhibits
(3) being thought of

I was thought of by my neighbor, as he sunned himself (I guess) in St. Thomas last week - yesterday he presented me with a delicious world famous Tortuga Caribbean rum cake!

The size is just big enough, because this cake is so unbelievably moist and rich, rich, rich!

Just so you know, it's "officially recognized as the #1 souvenir of the Caribbean..."

My other goodness was a scrappy-licious bag of scraps from my friend Robin...

Just look at all the possibilities!

Some really big chunks in there...

These can be cut down into any number of sizes and shapes!

I can use these as the corner squares for my lozenge leader-ender project...

Quilt seeds!

Shall I add these blocks to my "parts department?"

 A long pieced one... I wonder how Robin used the piece this was left over from?

These five inch squares can be cut into 3-1/2" squares for my x and plus project.

The stack I recently cut is slowly dwindling as I kit up the pieces and parts!



Can you tell I'm feeling scrap-happy??  Thanks Robin!  I just love me some scraps, especially if they are gifted to me!

I needed these two happy gifts because I'm still having issues with my PC - it reboots without warning.  Time to take it back to the Geek Squad and see if they can find out what's going on.  This is so annoying, I bought this PC in January 2014, just enough time for the warranty to run out!

That's it for now, have a great Friday... sew forth and sew on til later...

Another UFO

Three things to be happy about:
(1) scary movies
(2) finding hidden treasure
(3) buying fabric online...

... which I haven't done in more than 2 years!

I was going through a bag of scraps (and discards) looking for large hunks to cut down when I found a zippered bag with these cute little blocks!

I vaguely remember participating in a half-square triangle block swap when I used to hang out on the quilting forum at About.com.

Oh my that place has changed in the last 15 or so years!  It started out being called something like "the mining company," covering any and all topics before it evolved into what it is today.  Well, it still does that, but now it's more organized, and Janet Wickell does a fantastic job as their quilt expert!

Anyway, I don't remember how many of these HST's I collected, they're probably scattered here and there among my stuff, but at some point I pieced a few blocks and even joined three sets of pairs together...

There were eleven blocks in the bag, made from 2-1/2" squares with muslin as the background part.

I like the look of these set flush together; this will make a great leader/ender project!  I have lots of 2-1/2" color strips, so as I'm cutting fabric I'll cut some muslin strips to use for HST's.

My Easy Angle ruler will make cutting triangle pairs easy enough.

That's it for now, have a great Monday -  sew forth and sew on til later!

Cutting mostly done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) big red balloons
(2) orange popsicles
(3) strappy sandles

I've done a lot more cutting to clear off my cutting table, and I cut the fabric whether it was Alexander Henry or not!

This 1-3/4 yard piece is hot from JoAnn's that was on their remnant table at $4 a yard!  Had to get it, you know what I mean?

I sliced a 7-inch piece and cut some neutral strips!

Here's a piece that used to make me s-s-stutter!

I've had this for so long, I mean SO LONG, and couldn't think of a project to use it in ... and I didn't want to cut it ... then a few days ago I looked at the fabric and realized I didn't like those flowers anyway!

I'm not a sweet and flowery fabric kinda gal; however, I did fussy cut this piece to get 3-1/2" squares for my x and plus project.  There's more of it left, it'll come out of the box and go under the 2" blade next time I cut!

Wanna see what that messy corner of my table looks like now?

Ta-daaa - big difference!

Just dribs and drubs that I need to neaten off out of the way.

These are some of the scraps I created during the cutting process...

More scraps!!

... and some of the many strips I cut, all a-tangle...

All I managed to sort so far - just the tip of the iceberg!

There's a lot to be said for sorting fabric strips as you cut them:

(1) you save time at the end...

(2) they don't get all tangled up...

(3) you avoid fuzzy edges...

(4) it's more efficient...

(5) they're ready to use in case you want some before you finish cutting...

(6) sew forth and sew on...

Cutting up

Three things to be happy about:
(1) purified drinking water
(2) Jesse French pianos
(3) making your own trail mix

It's not exactly trail mix, but lately I'm snacking on a mixture of raw almonds, Craisins, and crystallized ginger.  One day I was about to get some pre-packaged trail mix from Whole Foods when I realized that little $7.99 bag of stuff only had two things I liked, so I started making my own!  How healthy is it?  I dunno, but at least none of it gets tossed out!

I'm cutting fabric now and I just realized it's taking me away from what I was doing with the Scrap Crystals UFO.  It all started when I really looked at my cutting table...

How does it get that way???

what a mess!

I just started grabbing pieces and cutting 2 inch strips, and those 3-1/2" squares I talked about for the x and plus project.  Then I realized I should be using my GO cutter for the squares, since I have the die!

Well, one thing led to another... I was digging in my container for the 3-1/2" die when I saw a 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" die that came with the set - it was still sealed in the package, had never been used!

So then I decided to cut 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" pieces for the lozenge leader-ender project that I very gently shoved aside a few weeks ago.

Long story short, I now have a stack of 3-1/2" squares and 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" rectangles, ready to be used when I pick the project back up again.  I don't know how many more I need, but I know I need lots!

Did I finish cutting all the fabric leftovers from the cutting table?  Nope - I don't think the pile went down at all!  Today there will definitely be more pressing and cutting and sorting.

Have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on til later!