more scraps and chains

Hello All,

We have had such lovely weather lately. It's been nice after all the rain we got, with more to come this weekend. This time of year is typically sunny and warm, but we really need the rain, so I am glad we've been having it.

I have been playing with scraps more. I dumped out my scrap box and started sorting and trimming. I love the pile of trimmings :)

Here is what I ended up with. 

LOTS of 2" and 2.5" squares!

I sorted thru the 2.5" pile, getting out 8 different colors (it's for a boy quilt, so I wanted specific colors).

 So that I  can make the quilt below.

That quilt is made by  Deanna, at Wedding Dress Blues. She has a LOT of great tutorials for scraps. 

For some reason, I couldn't throw away this pile of little's.  Mostly scraps that are between 1/2" and 1" wide. I just love them!  Some little squares I'll figure out something to do with...

And you know what?? Deanna has a tutorial for them too! For this spools quilt.

AND, when I want to play with more scraps, she has a great Irish Chain star quilt I want to do!! 

Thank you Deanna, for all the lovely tutorials!! I'll be sure to keep cutting up my scraps into, mostly, squares. I DO have a baggy of triangles to use in that star quilt too ;)

I love chain quilts. I recently finished this Irish chain top. I'm not sure if I'll do a border or not.

And on my quilt forum, we were doing a mystery quilt, and turns out it was a chain quilt too! Here are my blocks for that.

Yes, another pink quilt. I do like pink :) I need to get off the computer and start putting these into a top.

Have a great day ya'all!

A new project

Hello All,

While I'm waiting for fabric for my cornerstones quilts, I've been playing with some more scraps. I like to use strips when piecing, so tend to have a lot of various sized strip pieces left over. I save them and got them sorted awhile back.

Last year, I saw this post and knew I had to make one of these quilts, one day. Well, that one day is here... at least I'm getting a start on it.

I'm making the 9 patches, I'll need some this way..

And some this way...

I cut out my background fabric, some of these are left over strips from other projects, but much of it is just cut from yardage. Various Sunkissed pieces in gray.

I've gathered my colorful 1.5" strips, and started sewing them to the background pieces. One set is a row of colored pieces/gray/colored pieces and one set is gray/colored pieces/gray. It doesn't matter that my colored pieces are various lengths.

Then I trim the end and start cutting 1.5" strips from these sets.

When I come to the end of one piece, I just cut it out and continue on my way.

When the sets are all sewn together, I press them with the seams opposite each other. One set towards the middle strip, one set towards the outside strips, so that when I sew them together, they nestle nicely.

I have a lot of pressing and cutting to do...

The weather is gorgeous here this week :) So the kids are outside playing a lot.. which gives me time to head to the sewing room.

Have a great day all.

 Linking up with LeAnn.

Taming the scraps

Hello Everyone,

My poor little blog, I've been neglecting it again. I seem to be in a slump, and haven't been doing that much sewing lately.

So I decided that my newest, and smallest, scrap bin is in danger of overflowing, and I had better do something about it.

I've been sorting... here's some squares of various sizes

Lots and lots of strips, mostly 2.5", but there are some smaller and a few larger. They aren't sorted into various sizes yet, just piled up.

And even some triangles.

My first thought, with all those strips, is a chain quilt of some sort. I love Irish chains. I've been playing around with EQ. And think I have a plan....but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to have to do two quilts here. A triple Irish chain with all those strips, and then something else... we shall see.

But I have to put those aside for now, because I have some beautiful RR's to work on.

One with 30's fabrics, and a bright, jewel starred one. I have to put my thinking cap on and pull out my 30's scraps.

What have you been up to?

Have a great day.

Scrappy box top

My scrappy box top is done! It's very small, only 29"x29".

I was a baaaaad girl, and forgot to trim some of the finished blocks. Didn't even realize it till I was putting the rows together!! Geesh!

But, that just makes the whole thing a little wonky, and wonky quilt blocks are the 'in' thing right now, right?? LOL~! :)

So, I am NOT going to make more. Between the nerve problem in my hand, a huge belly (I'm at week 33 in my pregnancy!!), and not being able to stand for long periods, I just don't want to take the time to do alllllll that trimming these blocks take!

I could add a border....

Or, I could do something drastic!

I'll show you what I decided on doing when it's done.....it involves more strips and some squares.

Have a great weekend!

A WIP

Hello everyone, I've been playing with my scraps this week. And came up with a pile of these.

Nice, colorful 3.5" squares. I'm going to put borders on them, and then set them into a quilt top.

I started out going thru my scraps, pulling all my strips. Some of the strips I had 2 or 3 of. Some I just had 1 strip. Some are long, some are short. I sorted them into piles by their width. From 1 1/4" to 2 1/4".

I paired up my 1 1/4" strips with my 2" strips. Trimming some of the larger ones to those sizes. Put  a 1 1/4" strip on either side of a 2" strip. Some of the strips sets use the same exact fabrics.

And some use the same colorway, but different fabrics.

Then I cut out either one or two 2" strips from the sets, and either two or four 1 1/4" strips from each strip set. How many just depended on how long my strip sets were.

And put them together like so.

 

I LOVE these colors!!!

And now I have a pile of these.

Aren't they pretty!! :)

When I get the borders on, I'll be back...

Have a great day!

Linking up with the Gals on QuiltStory, thank you H&M!

Tutorials...and scraps

Hello everybody, hope you had a great weekend!

I've been playing with scraps. Just making a pretty little wall hanging. The flowers on green was an FQ I had.

I also made these blocks. They are going to be a little wall hanging too.

There are some scraps, I just can't get rid of! LOL

I've also got some tutorials coming up. This Thursday, the 1st, I will have the tutorial for his gift bag up.

And on Dec 9th, I will have the tutorial for my Christmas table runner up. Here is that sneak peek again.

Hope you are all overstuffed from a nice Holiday weekend. I've got some turkey parts and carcass in the freezer, they'll make good soup on a cold winter day. The pies and stuffing are long gone. And now my thoughts are turning toward Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas baking :) Can't wait to make some frosted chocolate ginger bread cookies and some ginger snaps. I think I'll even give my hand a go at some divinity this year.

Have a great evening!