SCRAP REPORT!

Last week I drew the January scrap challenge paper out of the jar and got "Do something with men's shirts bin."  That was not the one I wanted for January, but being the obedient follower that I am, I dug into the bin of men's shirts.  And, first I tried to come up with an easy way to use them.  I decided to cut 6 1/2" squares because that is how wide my ruler is.  Then I cut them on the diagonal so I could make HSTs.

Here is what I have left after I put together a quilt top measuring 44" x 55".  I will probably border it with larger 6 1/2" by whatever blocks to make a lap quilt or maybe a picnic quilt or I could use them as a backing for another quilt.  At least I have something going with the shirt fabric.  I will probably keep some of the triangles handy to stitch together between other projects and maybe I can use them all up.  I will NOT be getting any more shirts!!

I also quilted my Palmateer Point quilt with Baptist fans.

I've been sick with a cold/sinus infection since Friday and am going stir crazy.

HSTs ETC.

I've been making HSTs day in and day out lately and just finished 40 broken dishes blocks measuring 4 1/2" unfinished.  

Now I will start on 40 more in a different red fabric.

design wall with almost 40 broken dish  blocks underneath my DJ triangles & 1st row.

 In the mean time, I decided to make a couple baby quilts to donate at my quilt guild meeting on Monday.  When I went to a quilt show last month I bought a grab bag for $1.00 and in it was a collection of 6" charm squares.  I put them together into 2 baby quilt tops with borders.

The backings were either free or purchased at a garage sale.

Speaking of garage sales, as many of you know, I love to go to them to see what bargains I can find.  Here's one bargain I found recently - over 2 yards of Timeless Treasures "Paris" fabric for $3.00!  I wonder what I will do with this?

I have an idea, so be sure to come back to see if I get something made soon.

DESIGN WALL REVEALED

A couple months ago I found a set of red work vehicles that was started, but not finished.  I think 2 of them were done.  So I bought them and now I'm working on the last one.  I will put them together into a baby quilt when they are all finished.

Here's my second pink and brown HST doll quilt.  Not layered yet, but the top is done.  And I have a bunch of brown and pink ready to make another one.  I will sell these on my Etsy site.  They are so cute that I couldn't stop.  I have a bunch of triangles ready to sew together as leaders/enders.

Next, I have caught up on the Westerning Women blocks from Civil War Quilts.   I made the April and May blocks.

May Block

April Block

Here are the five 12 1/2" blocks up on my design wall.

I was planning to go with red, white and blue colors, but when April's block came up, I decided to go with greens - makes sense, right?  The blocks finish at 12" and she's going to do 12 of them, one for each month this year.  I might make a few more blocks so I can get a queen size quilt out of it.  

Hope you get some quilting in today!

UM YA YA!

Before I explain "UM YA YA" I want to share some quilty items.  A blogger I follow had a post where she showed her ironing stick, which is used when you want to iron open a seam allowance and it raises it so you don't have to worry about messing up the rest of the seams when you iron.  I looked it up on some sites where it was sold and didn't want to pay anything for it, so I just got a strip of batting (which had been multiplying in my closet) and folded it over, sewed on 2 sides and slipped a dowel rod inside.  I could make it nicer by covering it with muslin, but I guess I'm too lazy to do that.

Home made ironing stick

I recently made a pink and brown HST doll quilt and decided to make another one to sell in my Etsy shop.  The one I made was a special order.  The HSTs finish at 1 1/4" and there are 12 rows of 10 HSTs per row.  It's just like one that I have hanging in my sewing room (I made it while I was a member of "Jo's Little Women Club" in Arlington, TX.  I love this little quilt made with all CW reproduction fabrics and alternating with pink and brown HSTs.

2 rows that need pressing

Using the ironing stick to press open the seam allowance

Here's what I have done so far on this quilt.  I keep running out of pink or brown HSTs because I don't want to put any fabrics next to each other, so I'm constantly digging out something different.  I have 9 rows almost finished, so I will need 3 more rows

The dark brown in this HST is one of my favorite fabrics of all time and I just happened to find one strip of it in my scraps so I made a few HSTs with it.

 I apologize that my pictures are kind of dark.  It was very early when I took these pictures.  Oh, and please excuse my ugly wrong board.  I need to put a new cover on it.

Now we come to "Um Ya Ya."  If you have ever attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, you will know what it is.  My DGS just finished his sophomore year there and he wants me to sew "Um Ya Ya" onto something.  Actually, its the pad for his accordion.  These are the letters I came up with.  Anyway, "Um Ya Ya" is what the students yell at sporting events.  Don't ask me why.  Maybe its a Norwegian phrase - must be.  He is home for the summer, but may take a job at a camp in Washington State and may want to take his accordion along, so I need to get these words sewn onto the pad ASAP.  I think I'll work on it now, just in case he gets that job and needs to leave soon.

Have a wonderful quilty week!  After a very hot weekend, the temperatures will be cooling off by Wednesday.  Woo Hoo!  Um Ya Ya!!

RANDOM SEWING, ETC.

 I bought these blue triangles at a garage sale for $1.00 back when I lived in Texas and decided to finally get them sewn up.  There was some white fabric with them, but not enough, so I found some other white on white to finish them.

There are about 60 HSTs in this batch.  I'm sure I will find a way to use them one of these days!

A friend of mine gave me a ticket to the garden club tour of 5 beautiful yards.  I went on Sunday and took a few pictures.  Remember, these are pictures of garden club members - not my yard.  These 3 pictures were taken with my cell phone, so they aren't real sharp.

These poppies are huge!

Beautiful hydrangea bush!

Fairy garden

OK - here is a picture of a tiny section of my flower garden.  The Calla Lily just came up while we were away and now has one little flower!  Woo Hoo!

Little by little, I'm getting my yard in shape.  When we moved in, it didn't have a lot of things in it except some huge, ugly bushes.  I dug 2 of them out and I've been putting in flowers as I come across things I like.  

WORKING ON LORI'S QUILTALONG

Yesterday I got up early, as usual, and planned to go for a walk after doing a little sewing.  But, then it started to rain!  I was happy because I really wanted to keep working on the "Faithful" block that is Lori's Quilt-A-Long.  Plus, we really needed the rain.

Under my sewing table is a plastic bucket that something came in - I think it was a bed skirt, or something like that.  You know, the kind made out of heavy plastic with a zipper.  Well, I throw extra triangles into that bucket whenever I have some - which is quite often.  

I needed 44 1 3/4" HSTs for the Faithful block and I only had 4 from my other basket of already made up HSTs, so I retrieved the bucket from under the table and started searching for reproduction triangles.  

I found quite a few and started making the HSTs.

I had to get some extra fabric because most of the triangles in the bucket were not reproduction fabric, or were too small.  I tried to use as many different fabrics as I could.  See that brown/beige HST in the lower right corner above?  The dark side with the dark brown and the kind of lacy looking flowers/leaves is one of my favorite fabrics and I think that is the last piece I have of it.  It's kind of sad to use the last piece of a favorite fabric, isn't it?

Some of the triangles were really large, so I just cut them down with this "All-in-One-Ruler."

Here's how my block looks now.  I really like it!

I think there is one more border and then I might add corners to it so it can be an "on point" wall hanging.  I'll think on it some more before deciding.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

NEW IRONING BOARD COVER AND PINWHEELS

In my last post I told you I got some fabric to make a new ironing board cover but I didn't tell you how much I paid for it.  The fabric price was $5.99 a yard - not too bad.  With 60% off, it came to $4.19 for the piece I got and I can get 2 covers, so for one, the price is $2.10!  

A couple years ago I saw this idea on the internet, I suppose on someone's blog, but I don't remember where it was.  It gave these instructions.

1.  Cut off the casing with the string running through it to reuse on the new ironing board cover (IBC), with enough extra fabric so you can sew the new fabric onto it.

2.  Lay the old IBC on top of the new fabric and cut around it.

3.  I cut about 1/2" to 3/4" out from the edge of the old IBC.

4.  Pin the new IBC onto the extra fabric that is attached to the casing for the drawstring.

5.  Sew the new IBC onto the casing.  I used my serger, but a regular straight stitch will work just fine.

 6.  View of it after I sewed it on.

7.  Put on the ironing board.  I added two layers of batting.

Doesn't that look better?  It didn't take very long at all.

I love my old fashioned wood ironing board!

Before we went on our trip, I started gathering up extra HSTs and made pinwheels out of them.  There were all different sizes, so I sewed extra fabric on the smaller ones so they would all be the same size for a donation quilt that I'm going to make.

Oh no!  I just found some more!  They keep appearing out of nowhere!

After squaring up the HST's I put them in plastic baggies so I could use them as needed.

I'm not sure if I have enough for the donation quilt yet, but I'll try to keep working on them as I find them and hopefully can get the quilt put together before December.  My guild is planning a workshop in January where we will donate a big stack of quilts to the children's hospital in memory of our member who died this year - she was a doctor at the hospital until she got sick and she got us started making quilts for them.

Have a good week!

ELLIS COUNTY (TX) QUILT SHOW

When I entered two quilts in the quilt show, I didn't expect to win a ribbon, so I was very excited to see that I won two ribbons!! On this charm quilt, which I hand pieced and hand quilted, I won a second place ribbon as well as a "Merit Hand Quilting" ribbon.

My Polka Dot Girls quilt won a blue ribbon!! I named it "Garden Party."
Here are a few other quilts that I really liked. This one was made by members of the Cedar Hill Quilters Guild (that I belong to) for the president of the guild when she got married. It's made of all batiks and is gorgeous!
I thought this was a darling baby quilt.
A lovely star quilt made of reproduction fabrics.
The colors didn't come out very good on this one, but it was amazing.
In the mean time, I have been putting my string blocks together...
And I made over 200 HSTs (half square triangles) for the flag quilt that I've been wanting to make (and another project). I can't let Theri put me to shame on the flag quilt. Hee Hee! I decided I HAD to go ahead with it and not wait. My sewing machine has been buzzing all week!

Try to keep cool!