A Use For Every Scrap

Seeing Bonnie's Sunnyside quilt gave me an idea. My little cross blocks formed the same shape as her pieced blocks; The setting is wonderful, and I thought, Hmm, maybe I could set my little cross blocks like that. If I had some light ones with a dark background.

And there you have it, a way to use up my scrap 2" strips of any colour, and also use my 1.5" strips as the setting. Perfect.

I've made quite a few of the light crosses with dark triangles, but I will need a whole lot more; I think I have enough of the dark crosses to be going on with.

This motley collection of 2" strips weren't long enough to make my Courtyard blocks or the new cross blocks, so I set to and cut all of them into squares. 

I already have a drawer full of squares, so I think I'll have to find a bigger box to store them in.

I don't like using 1.5" squares, but I cut them from the end pieces of the 2" strips, because it seemed wasteful not to..

It took no time at all to amass a sizeable stack of them. I may end up donating them to my sister if they annoy me too much.

I made a few chain blocks from some of the 2" strips.  I used the strips that didn't blend in with the others I was using, and that were long enough to get several squares.  I won't dignify these with a project box. They'll live in the Orphan Block drawers until I find more strips for them, or sell them.

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Scrappy Mountains Scrap Quilt

I've been concentrating the last few days on getting these blocks set into a top.

It's Bonnie's Scrappy Mountain Majesties pattern, and I have made this pattern 6 or 7 times. It's my go to for scraps that have landed in my stash with no idea of what they should be. I just cut 8.5" strips and squares, and make these blocks whenever the inclination strikes.

The whole time I was sewing this together I kept pondering the mystery of a set of blocks I was working on last year. I went through everything in my sewing room, in the shed, down the shop, and I could not find that set of blocks. When I marked this top off my UFO list I could see the other set of blocks on the list; 100 blocks, on November third, 2025. It was a whole quilt's worth of blocks, and I had no idea where they were.

Today, while looking for my box of 1.25" strips, I moved a bolt of fabric and saw an unfamiliar box. When I dragged it out to have a look, lo and behold, it was my missing blocks. I'm very glad they turned up, but I need a bit of a break before I tackle putting them together. There are 6 rows sewn already, so it won't take long, but I have no idea why I put them away in the first place.

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A Growing Stack of Blocks

I don't like these blocks set straight, but prefer them tipped on point. They will have sashing between them, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm just making more and more.

I'm up to 32 already, and I'm not sick of them yet. I'll have to do a mockup in EQ8 and get an idea of what it might look like. I couldn't find a name for them in the Barbara Brackman software, and Mereth suggested Courtyard, so that's what I'm calling them.

I'm busy spinning up a lovely dark fleece, but when I break to have a cup of coffee I've been going through this set of books.

They are a Time-Life set from quite a long time ago; I haunted Ebay until I found a complete set, and then paid an exorbitant amount to have them posted over here. There are 20 titles, covering everything from architecture to food, and I love going through them.

Yesterday I chose the Quilts volume, and made a note of some that caught my eye.

This would obligingly use up a lot of my tiny strips, as well as a chunk of meterage for the sashing.

I know I've complained about my blue stash, and how I'm sick of the colour, but this would be perfect for my repro blues. I made a schoolhouse quilt when my son was in kindy, nearly 40 years ago. I made it as a prize in their raffle, and it was won by my son's best friend. Alas, there is no picture of that, only one of Jonny clutching it happily. I really doubt it has survived, but it's a nice memory.

When I've gone through all the American Country books I'll start on my collection of Country Living. I treasure these, especially the older ones which featured quilts on nearly every page. I was lucky enough to find 20 issues in an opshop, and grabbed them all. What a find!

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Decisions, Decisions

I got busy and put the borders on my scrap squares quilt. The green was the perfect stop border and the light blue made the perfect frame. I love having a huge stash so that there's always something to find in the border department. Though I had to ask Mereth for her piece of the blue, because I couldn't find mine. I know I haven't used it all, as it was a big bargain piece, but I've misfiled it somewhere. All I found were some strips cut for the blue scrap quilts. I need to sort out the stash so I can actually find things again.

In the sewing room I have been happily sewing up these blocks.

I can't find a name for them in EQ8. I will have to allocate a name for them so I can label the project box. I absolutely love piecing these, they're like a checkerboard, but with extra triangles. It makes me happy to lay out another one and methodically piece it together. So much so that I have 27 blocks, and I'm not sick of them yet, so I've made a whole heap more kitted blocks. I will need to consult EQ8 for a setting, because I definitely will not be joining them edge to edge. That would be a pressing nightmare with all those seams meeting.

I need my design board, but it's still full of the Fancy 4-Patch blocks. I keep telling myself to sew them together and be done with it, but I have thoughts about that. I know I want to keep it and quilt it myself, but the thought of all that cream is putting me off. Do I want a mainly cream quilt that will get grubby? What an annoyingly sensible question. How will I quilt it?  I would like to use a Baptist Fan pattern, but cream thread might look awful on the print fabric. I should just do whatever I want to. But still I hesitate. Should I substitute darker alternate squares like Tazzie's quilt?

While sewing up my checkerboard blocks, in my happy place, I spied the leftover HSTs from the Fancy 4-Patch. Hmmm. What if I made a little practice piece, to see what the quilting would actually look like?

When I finished the block I was working on I started putting together little 4-patches, and found the leftover cream fabric, and voila! 

A little practice piece, ready for quilting. When quilting all-over patterns on customer quilts I've often been surprised to see that their chosen cream or white thread doesn't look garish or out of place. Maybe it will be fine on my 1800s repro fabrics.  We'll see. I now have a cute little 18" quiltlet, and no more leftovers. 

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Some Finishes At last

A while ago I started several blue scrap quilts in an effort to get rid of those scraps altogether. What a ridiculous proposition that was! Of course there are still boxes of scraps left over, but at least I have two single bed tops to show for the effort.

The first one is Four Patch Fun, which was a Bonnie leader-ender.

I like the pattern, but I wish I had made it in pink and yellow like her quilt. I'll probably start that one before the end of the year. I have no will power.

This one is Triple Treat, another leader-ender project. I started it to use up those red four-patches, but they weren't accurate, and so the blocks didn't measure what they should have. I hope I've learned a lesson about checking sizes. I really don't enjoy having to fudge every seam, and it was sheer hard work to get the blocks into a finished top.

I was cleaning out project boxes and this was in the Dear Jane box. It's all the remnants of making the blocks, and I'm not going to be needing any of them, as I won't be making the pieced border triangles.

There were a couple of larger pieces, but it was mainly tiny scraps. I don't think I'll be making any more 5" blocks in the future,

so I'll donate them all to Mereth, who loves scraps of all sizes. She will appreciate them so much more than me.

I'm not often awake at daybreak, but I did manage to see the dawn sky the other day. So pretty; if only I was an Early Bird instead of a Night Owl!

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 I've spent most of my sewing time working on the Fancy 4-Patch blocks, purely because I don't have the mental bandwidth to pack them away and find something else. 

I have finished the 50 blocks required, and now I'm just debating if any of them need to be replaced. That yellow block is definitely unlike the others, but Mereth and I both agree that it acts as a focal point. 

I've started joining them in blocks of four, but it's not thrilling work. I need to get my design wall back though.

Another blogger just finished her Fancy Four Patch; Tazzie's quilts are always amazing, and she's certainly put her own stamp on these blocks (scroll down to the end of the post). Just beautiful. Maybe I need to rethink that white in the alternate blocks.....

The Half Log Cabins are still acting as my leader-enders, I've amassed another 20; that's all very well and good, but I don't need any more of them just now.

I finally buckled down and found two fabrics that will work as the borders on my scrap quilt. 

It will be nice to get it finished, and then I can assess what scraps are left. Maybe they will become crumb blocks, maybe they will go in the bin.  Who knows.

We've had some cold mornings lately. I woke up early one morning feeling colder than usual, and checked the weather app. Yep, that's cold. We don't normally have frosts here, not any more. Our winters are getting milder, and our summers more ferocious. 

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Moving At Reduced Speed

I'm finding it difficult to get moving these days. It's partly because it's winter and I want to hibernate, partly because I have very low energy. I recently had some comprehensive blood tests (7 vials of blood!) and consequently discovered that I have hypothyroidism, and very low Vit. D  levels. So I have another medication to add to the daily intake, and I have to take 5 times the usual dose of Vit. D for the next 3 months and then be tested again.  My doctor breezily stated that I would start to have more energy in about 2 weeks, but I'm not there yet, possibly because I have another beastly cold. One interesting thing is that the cold temperatures have stopped bothering me; low thyroid levels apparently make one sensitive to cold. So that's a positive sign that I'm improving.

I'm doing a little bit of sewing here and there. I pulled out the blocks for the Fancy 4-Patch, and started working on them again. I'm pretty sure I have most of the HSTs done, I'll have to take a count later on.

I sewed quite a few of the 4Patch units, and bagged them to complete later. When I'm ready to complete the block it's a simple 9patch to put together, because I've already done all the fiddly bits.

I'm thinking about what I will work on when I have a couple more things crossed off the UFO list. These blocks caught my attention; Bonnie showed a vintage quilt in this pattern last year, and I made a few blocks to see if I liked sewing them. I do like them, and I think I'll cut and kit a heap of blocks. They're made with 2" strips, which will help clear out that drawer.

Last night I was feeling a bit dreary and incapable of creative thought, so I resorted to more Half Log Cabins.  I ran out of pieces again, so today I'll replenish the stacks. 

I've been spinning quite a bit, trying to work through my stash of ready-to-spin fibre.

This was Shetland wool roving, and has been hanging around for about 5 years. I had so much fun when I first got back into spinning, going to Fibre Fests and buying up braids and roving and bags of fluff. It was easier to buy it than spin it though, so I have many things still waiting.

The colours are captivating!

My main love is natural coloured fleece though, and I have a mountain of fleeces that I can't bear to part with. 

At nights I've been working on this chocolate coloured Corriedale. Once I've combed it it turns into luscious little nests of beautiful fibre.

It's so time intensive to prepare raw fleece for spinning; sorting out the best bits, washing the fleece, carding or combing it, spinning it and then washing the finished yarn. And then it's ready to be knitted, or crocheted, or woven. It's the perfect meditative past time for winter days and nights. But it's not quick! 

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