More scrapping in blue

Tuesday 6/13/17
You'd think that after making two quilt tops (one to be posted later since it's not complete) that I'd have caught up with some of those blue scraps. Well, guess what! I decided that I need more variety in the blue strips that are already cut. Yeah. Variety. That's the ticket.

So I was down to about half a bucket of scraps when I decided to use some 2.5" strips from an abandoned project. And since I was making one project, I may as well make two. All the same I figured. 

Check it out--organized! Skinny strips for
the QAL, 2.5 strips sort of arranged by lengths.

What I didn't figure was that I'd really get into this blue phase. After finishing the first quilt and taking pictures, I thought it would be a good idea to cut a few more strips in preparation for the June Quilt Along with AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Why not use blue? I like blue. I have tons of blue fabric. I want to use up some of that blue. 








Wednesday 6/14/17
I got an early start and decided that I'd continue working on the Crazy Mom QAL. AmandaJean writes really well so her directions made the project seem relatively effortless. I already had gobs of skinny strips ready to go, and I felt that I could really make some headway today. 

Everything goes to the ironing 

board to get pressed.

And I did.

I thought I'd share my process. Bear with me if you will.

First I pulled fabric, which is relatively easy since I am not very discriminating: I took out everything I don't like or was especially small and all bits I know I'll never use. Maybe I am discriminating after all. 

Isn't this a pretty picture?

The next step is to cut. I tried to cut mostly 2.5" widths and learned (the hard way) that it's a good idea to divide the strips into three piles. No numbers used here. Just put the strips into any pile it fits. Sort of. Get close. Don't stress.

As I cut 2.5" widths, I also cut a few smaller widths for the Crazy Mom QAL. Anything between one and two inches is AmandaJean's recommendation. 

I dropped some 2.5s in anyway. Can I claim it's for the sake of variety or do I have to admit to lazyiness? Ha! Believe what ever you want.

The QAL strips I also chopped into 5" lengths so that I could easily sew them, press and then cut the whole blocks into 4½" X 8½".

At first I tried to be very methodical about sewing the pieces together. Then I tried to mixed the pieces up and pick up two without looking. That drove me to the brink of insanity. 

And I realized that I didn't have enough pieces anyway. So back to the stash and the pressing and the cutting. And about that time I said, "Screw the whole thing and make a mess and get it over with." I sewed like a mad woman, which I may have been. And sewed. And sewed. 

And you know what I got for my money and time? Pairs. Not blocks, mind you. Pairs. Those have to be sewn into quads. And the quads have to be sewn in whatever makes 8½ inches. Basically it's a crap shoot because I clearly have not thought that far ahead.

I do have something else to show you, however. 

I mostly aim for the trash can. And I mostly make three pointers. I'm not so good on the foul shots, but then I never was. 

Come Out to Play ~~ a blue finish!

Every now and again I make a baby quilt with a title from a nursery rhyme. It's just a thing I've been doing for six or seven years. I love the idea of baby quilts and nursery rhymes, and I can't seem to let it go. Perhaps I should go back and figure out how many I've made in this series. 

This little quilt is about 40" X 40" and uses quarter log cabin blocks, an idea I snagged from Cynthia Brunz of Quilting is more fun than housework. 

After I asked for opinions on layout (here), and got the same answer from almost every respondent, I had to go with this one. 

Because the setting has a medallion feel to it, I decided to focus on it and quilted a large grid pattern. Then to set off the grid, I quilted a square around it. 

The original idea was to use up some of those blue scraps and practice some of my quilting motifs, so in the blocks around the medallion I quilted different motifs. I also used a bit of yardage from the stash for backing and pieces of leftover navy for the binding. 

Because the weather is so unpredictable, I quickly went outside to snap pictures on my new orange Adirondack chair that Richard made a few weeks ago. Doesn't that orange just pop? Wait till you see the rest of the chairs! They look like a bed of huge flowers!

But that's a post for another time. This is a post about the quilt, so here are the stats...

	Quilt Stats
	Name:	Come Out to Play
	Size:	40" X 40"
	Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics from stash
	Background:	n/a
	Binding:	scrap fabrics left from blocks
	Pattern:	Quarter Log Cabin
	Quilting:	practice quilting / variety of motifs

Linking up with

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Crazy Mom Quilts 

Another Day with Leah ~~ a finish!

How's that for a play on words? Ha. Leah may not appreciate it, but it's not likely that she's sitting around eating bonbons and reading my blog like you are.

Nope, Leah Day is a workaholic. How do I know? Well, I know Leah. I've followed her, liked her, read her work, and saw her (once) in person in Houston, maybe? I'm not sure where, but I am sure that she is cute and sweet and smiles. Even more than I do. Yes, I smile. Lots! Especially when I'm at a big quilt show.  



But wait, this post is about two Sundays ago, when I worked on this quilt and quilted it to completion in one day! Yes! Loaded it on the longarm, quilted it, pulled it off the machine ... all in one Sunday afternoon. 

Want to know my secret? It's big. No, not the quilt. It's the secret that's big. Rather the secret is big motifs. Check it out. A different motif for each square, every one about three times its normal size. 

I wanted a soft hand because this is a baby quilt that will probably get used more than most. I don't know why I think so, I just know boys. This baby boy is going to a house of three big sisters and a big brother. I figure he will get lots of playtime and naptime and lovey time. Those all need quilts, right? There you go. 

I just hope his mom (my coworker) enjoys the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it for little Blaise. I've even added the label since these pictures and wrapped it up in a pretty bag. 

Since I mentioned using Leah Day's motifs earlier, I thought I'd show you a couple of photos of the back so you can see them. (The photo above is really two, despite that they look like one.)

Please don't look at the "eyelashes" in the quilting. I would love to figure out how to fix this problem myself. It's a common issue with my quilting, so apparently tension is not my forte. Oh but I love my little bitty circles and zigzags and swirls. However these eyelashes seem to be my biggest problem. Do you have this problem, and if so, how do you fix it?

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: S T R I N G S

Before I get to entangled in today's post, I want to tell you that I started a new board "church, pew" which I imagine you can guess is all about church pews and how people are using them in home decor. 


The reason for the board is that I have a couple of pews that we bought three years ago and I need ideas on how to use them in our dining room since I need more seating there. My problem is that the sides on my pews are too tall. So my real goal is to find a way to trim them down or rework them. 

Okay, now for Sunday Quilt Inspiration: STRINGS....

So string quilts.....

As always, most of these are on my "heart, quilts" Pinterest board. Enjoy!

Hot, hot, oh, so hot!

Temperatures are reaching the high 90's and the heat index reaches 110 degrees almost daily.  It's simply miserable out-of-doors, so I've been trying to avoid it.  Of course, sometimes it's impossible. 

Yesterday I decided to help Richard with his gardening: I made him a couple of canvas sacks to use while picking vegetables.  They both have shoulder straps to  free up his hands while picking cucumbers, okra, peas, squash--just about anything except tomatoes. 

Everyone asks if I help him OUTSIDE....well, not much.  I go but this heat triggers my migraines.   Besides, he's a fast picker and doesn't really want my whining assistance.  I mostly stay indoors.

Today I not only stayed indoors, I did a little quilting.  I've managed to finish quilting Angie's string quilt.  That means just binding left.

 I dragged it outside to snap a couple of pictures after the sun had dropped below the trees. I waited for the outdoors to cool off a bit, so it was almost too dark!  The mosquitoes were out, so I had to hurry anyway.  There's really no winning at this time of year.

I decided that since this quilt has so many straight lines, I'd have to do something with curves.  Using a khaki colored thread, I started with the green lines and quilted in long free-form wavy lines from one side to the other, crisscrossing them so that the seams locked together because the spaces are too far otherwise.  I also didn't want to have to work at keeping them even or exact.  Instead I wanted an organic feel to the quilting.

After I completed a section, I looked under the quilt to see if whether I needed additional lines to fill in areas that were lacking. 

Over the blue lines, I practiced a simple diamond grid but forgot to get a photo.   The squiggles are easy and fast, and the quilt is soft and squishy.