SPEED-not all it's cracked up to be

Another week, month, year has sped by and leaves me in it's wake wondering what I can say I have accomplished. Whatever it is, it is not enough, I can tell you that. 
I have been working on a little hexagon treat that I shamefully copied from Jo Morton. Well, I did change mine a bit. Jo made the most darling little tree skirt! I hope she won't mind if I share her photo. She is amazing! Follow Jo's blog!

 I added another round of hexagons to mine and made a table topper. I think it will look darling with some greenery on my round kitchen table. The hexies are 5/8 inch. I learned that you measure hexagons by the length of the side. I was able to purchase a couple packs of them at a quilt shop over the summer. It is enjoyable stitching in the evening while watching TV. But let me tell you, these babies take forever! This project has been every evening for a month! In this case speed is not involved. Just consistent stitching!

 Somewhere on line I saw where someone finished the edge of their project by adding hexagons all around the underside of the quilt. Again, tedious, but what a nice edge you get. I should have stopped there because I am not at all happy with my hand quilting on this project. Maybe it doesn't need to be quilted. Can I get a hands up for that?

 I happened upon this project in the December 2012 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine while sorting through my magazines. The design came from a vintage project that Ann Hermes adapted. This is one I wanted to make when I first saw it. I always have scraps, and they prompted me to get to work. I enjoyed this scrappy, wonky project so much that I just kept making blocks, and now I have a much larger quilt like this that I adore! Plus it feels so good to find yourself at the bottom of the scrap box!

 On another note, I have been having a terrible time posting to my Facebook for Patchalot Patterns. Things just don't seem to show up. It is very frustrating. And you know I don't post to my blog like I used to. But I am on Instagram and also on Pinterest. In fact I just noticed that I have 91 boards on Pinterest. Someone please save me from myself! I do think it is a great way to catalog photos of quilts and things that you like. I would prefer to fine tune it a bit, but so far making more boards is my only option. I have so many boards now that sometimes I am not sure where to pin an item. So I make another board.

In reference to my last post, I am now into season 12 of Midsomer Murders and they have become a little spicier and perhaps a bit more graphic. I hope I didn't recommend something that you find offensive down the road. Oddly, it didn't seem as provocative to me as American TV. Then again, my head is down stitching for a good part of the program!

I am a Scrapper!

I have been cleaning up and putting away in my sewing room. When I get serious about it I also clean up all the scraps laying around on the cutting table, floor, etc. I trim them into useable sizes and put them in appropriate boxes. It is menial labor, but relaxing to me as I listen to audible books. I feel like I am getting sooo much done! In fact, I still have a big box of scraps that are just a little too big to trim up. Ah, but I am a scrapper! I love this stuff! Making scrap quilts is always more labor intensive than a regular quilt because you have to do a lot of digging for a variety of fabric and then trim it to size. No worries, I revel it it! And using pre-trimmed pieces during quilt construction makes easy work in scrap quilt creation. So whatever I accomplish now will reward me later. 

During this process I have uncovered remnants of past quilts. I always make extra blocks and have a stash of them. I decided to put a few of these little blocks into little quilts.

These are such simple little things, but simple is always my favorite! Like many of you, I am trying to build up a nice selection of little quilts for a wall display. But I always find myself placing them under table displays or lamps, etc. 

 This one I made for my grandson's dresser. Simple and masculine I think. 

On another note, let me direct you to Lori's blog, Humble Quilts. Lori has decided to sell some of her quilts, and you know what beautiful work she does! Follow the link and see for yourself!

A SCRAPPER IS A SCRAPPER

Yesterday I had to go to the Post Office to mail out a pattern order to England. (I mention that just to impress you). This Post Office is in a little shopping strip, and next door was a small thrift store. I had a few minutes to spare, so I decided to go in and browse. I am always drawn to the dishes and they had a big wall of shelves full of dishes. I picked up a little pie dish and held on to it. Then I saw a little silver tray by Oneida and thought of all the silver I received as wedding gifts and never used. I spotted a silver casserole just like one I once had, all tarnished and unattractive. How sad. Where did mine go?

"Oh look!" I say to myself, "I had dishes just like these that I tried to sell at a garage sale last summer!" Funny how one's mind races from "I should buy this" to "wait a minute, I got rid of this"! Further searching of the shelves found many of the same dish pattern scattered around in no particular order. "Well for heaven's sake, they aren't even arranged together. This is a terrible sales approach!" By this time I am having quite a conversation with myself. "Why are these dishes not selling? These are cute dishes! I only got rid of them because my daughter has some Fly Lady approach to streamlining, and my dishes fell into her path. And then, the ultimate realization: "These are my dishes"!

The thing is, they didn't sell at my garage sale, and now I found them cast off by Goodwill, and still sitting on the shelf at a thrift store that isn't even a major name thrift store. A little part of me is feeling rejected.

After the garage sale last summer my daughter boxed up all the leftovers (after I fled the scene) and she immediately drove them to Goodwill. Sometimes it is difficult parting with things, even though it is the logical thing to do. "I might need that later on", I think.

I do the same thing with all those fabric scraps. "I know I can use that", so it gets saved in a box with others of its kind. I think if you are a scrapper, that logic prevails in other aspects of your life.

But how many remnants does one need, whether they be dishes or fabric or something else? This question remains unanswered. But one thing I do know. Sometimes we have trouble letting go, even when it makes perfect sense to do so.

SCRAPS OF MY TIME

While in Atlanta my daughter and I visited this quilt shop called Red Hen. I loved the red barn look of the outside, plus this great quilt was cut and glued on a board and sealed so that the weather wouldn't damage it. Great idea! It created a very exciting visual entry into the shop!
This is my darling daughter Jennie that I went to visit in Atlanta. She loves the brights, and when I come to visit she suddenly gets inspired to make a quilt! So we worked on this design a bit before I came home.

Jennie also possesses my first Bernina! Isn't this the sweetest machine? I bought it in 1970 for $300, and believe me, it broke the bank. I was so thrilled to own a Bernina, and used that faithful machine for twenty-five years before I got a new one! I now have a Bernina 440, which is a dream! But my first little workhorse will always be my sentimental favorite.

Can you tell how tiny these scraps are? Jennie knows I love scraps so she pulled these out in case they could be of use. I should have placed a ruler in the picture, but maybe you can tell the size from the lettering on the selvedge. When I laughed she indignantly replied that I was the one who taught her to save scraps. OK, guilty, but I feel it is important to have a little room for the seam allowances. :) So there you have it, a little more about my Atlanta trip.

Summer is flying, and so am I. Next weekend I am off to Arizona, you think to have my head examined, going to the desert this time of year. But no, my son's family is moving into a new house and they think I can be of help. If sitting under a fan giving directions will help, then count me in!

BUNDLE OF JOY

Last week I drove north across the James River to Newport News and went to Nancy's Calico Patch. They have the new Windham line of fabric in by Nancy Gere. It is called COLONIES: CHEDDAR AND POISON GREEN. 1830-1860. I may have bought a little of one bolt or another, but when they pointed out the Fat Quarter bundles I was hooked. What is it about those beautiful little rolls of coordinated fabric that speak to me? I have a few bundles waiting patiently on the shelf in my sewing room nestled in with a dozen charm packs. I haven't opened them because I have so many "scraps" that I should use first. I really don't want to turn them loose in my cluttered sewing room. They are so tidy and perfect. More like a decoration, really. Or maybe a very well behaved pet! I do caress them and even play with them. I may even talk to them on occasion and say, "you are so pretty"! Yes, a very well behaved pet! You can see why I don't want to turn them loose in my sewing room. The other inhabitants are so untamed and wild. I don't think my lovely fat quarter bundles are quite ready to fend for themselves yet. I'll just coddle them a while longer.

SPLENDOR IN THE SCRAPS

Well here are the two little quilts for my two nephew's baby boys. They are all quilted and ready to get mailed. I am very pleased with the end result and hope they will be also. I just found out the baby's names. Can you believe this? One named his son Owen, and the the other named his son Ian. I can only think of my friend, their grandmother, calling to these little ones: "IanOwenIanOwen". It kind of has an "einymeanyminymoe" thing going on. Pretty funny, I think!

I have been playing with a new design. I play with ideas on EQ and sometimes it is months later when I go back and play some more, and finally get to where I want to give it the "textile test". Of course that means I actually cut and sew to see if it works.

My plan was to make this quilt in blues and browns. I have been collecting these color families and they are so pretty. I wanted to make a fairly big quilt, so I made large blocks. After making several, enough to get a feel for it, I decided that I really wanted to make smaller blocks. So I cut everything down, sewed it back up and took another look. I then decided that the blue and brown looked really blah. (Sew Primitive Karen says I am color starved.) So now it is open season on any fabric within reach, or even out of reach. You have heard me complain that my sewing room is such a mess. This is why. And I know I don't have to explain to anyone who makes quilts. There is just no easy way to deal with choosing fabric for a scrap quilt. I was just mentioning to Julie Q. (she is also playing with scraps) today that my favorite method of cleaning my sewing room is to pick up scraps and sew them together. It is a slow process, but gratifying! I mentioned to my husband that I could have a sign in my sewing room that says, "Please excuse the mess, things are under construction". Well, it's true. I am constructing things. He's not falling for it.

Meanwhile, I am finding scraps to use that have been around for a long time. They are pieces left from other scrap quilts. I almost think that if you looked at all my quilts you could find a DNA strand that connects them. I love throwing new pieces of fabric into the mix as well. So I am very happy on several levels! I even had a stash of flying geese that were just the right size to add. I LOVE when that happens!

I hope you are finding splendor in the scraps at your abode. ( If you get that, it really dates you!)

Have a happy scrappy day!

PUTTERING WITH PATCHES

My friend Pat, who lives in North Bend, WA, recently sent me a box of R-W-B scraps that she knew I would love. Pat is responsible for teaching me to make quilts. I always had the urge, but never the opportunity, until I met Pat. That was in the early 1990's when we lived in Issaquah, WA. The above photo was taken of us at the APNQ (Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters) in front of a quilt that neither of us made. It was in August of 2000, and happened to be the day the moving truck was at my house, packing us to leave for Virginia, where we now live. No way was I going to miss that event just because a moving van was parked in front of my house! That was eight years ago, and we have only grown more lovely with age. (Don't ask me to prove that).

So this box has been sitting on the floor of my sewing room for a few months at this point. I didn't want to split it up and put it away, because any minute I knew I would dive into it and make a quilt. Last week I had to empty the box onto the floor because I needed the box to send things to my son that he left while he was here. So now visualize all these scraps in a pile on the floor of my already disastrous sewing room. It is like playing hopscotch getting across the floor on any given day.

I had finished three aprons, and now I needed to work on a quilt. I should be completing one of the many UFOs that are hovering about, but luckily my Dad called with the news that my nephew (and his wife, of course) just had another baby boy. Yea! I get to make a baby quilt! My eyes settled on the pile of scraps on the floor, and I decided to spread them out and take inventory. Imagine finding quite a few strips of red, white and blue! You must know by now that this is my favorite color combination. So here I am with lots of two inch strips. What to do, what to do? I started looking for ideas. One of my best resources is YOU out there in Blogland! I just happen to have a few photos of quilts that you have shared. I saw one made from 4-patches and these colors recently. "Oh yeah! That is perfect for my new nephew", says I. Since I already have the two inch strips, it was an obvious decision to make the 4-patches from two inch strips. So zip, zip, and zip, and I have red and white 4-patches all over the place. The next day I cut up a bunch of 3.5 inch squares of various blues, and began sewing these pieces into strips.

Today I finished sewing the rows together, and voila, a quilt is entering the world. This is what I love about quiltmaking: you take a pile of untamed matter (or scraps, as we like to call them) and create something totally new and wonderful! Borders are in the works, and then the quilt will finish at about 42 inches square.

For your viewing pleasure, I included a little picture of my cute granddaughter from a few years ago on the 4th of July.

In actuality, I have made this design before, and love it. But this coloration was inspired by a fellow blogger. I normally include the quilt makers name when I save a photo, and, for whatever reason, I neglected to do that with this quilt. If you happen to read my blog, and you think I may have seen a similar quilt on your blog, let me know and I will happily mail you one of my own delightful, and original patterns! (Disclaimer: if I get too many claims, you may have to send proof)!

Well, that turned out to be the long version of the history of a small quilt! Now I am off to the border!

SCRAPS IN PROGRESS

I have a new small project in progress. This is the center. It will be a small medallion quilt without a pieced center. The fabric center is six inches. Actually at this point it is the size of a block. The fabric in the center is from a recent Jo Morton line and I think it lends itself to this type of focus. It is like old fashioned elegance. Then add lots of wonderful reproduction scraps and I can hardly keep from drooling all over it. The LQS loves my projects, but hates kitting them. Guess why? Too many fabrics--it drives them nuts! I just counted 21 different fabrics in this piece. I LOVE playing with my scraps! Tune in again for the next installation. I have to get to the sewing room and create!