Architectual quilting

If any of you are on Instagram, check out robertkaufman today. They are featuring my daughter Lisa's quilt blocks. She finds pictures of buildings that she likes and turns them into quilt blocks.

 

You can also she all her quilting on her instagram, @lizafranfran on Instagram.

Since Al and I returned from vacation in Florida I've been catching up on projects started before our trip. I finished all my scrappy blocks and finished quilting my Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt.

Now I have to decide on a binding....

I might do something very dark or very red...so that it stands out.

Now this quilt top below is the UFO of the month that has to be finished. I am pushing myself to have it done by the end of the month. That leaves me what?...3 or 4 days? Sounds reasonable..

And this is the paper pieced stars that I took to Florida and worked on. I was able to add on about 2 rows. It needs a couple more stars in the row on the left and then one row on the bottom. After that I have to figure out how I'm finishing it and IF I'm hand quilting. That's the way I'm leaning.

Finished another scrappy spool block

This blog post is kind of an experiment...
I'm trying to see if I can post from my phone.

 I finished making my scrappy blocks and this red spools
block was the final one for this month. Now that it's done I can get to work on this months UFO. Below are some of the scrappy blocks...purple for January, aqua for February and red for March.

The UFO is number 5 and on my list and it's a 30s reproduction
quilt that I started about a year ago to use up scraps. As is usually the case, it didn't make a dent in the pile😩 I could probably make a dozen more... I'll post a picture of it when I get it taped to my floor for basting.

Another UFO that needed to be quilted finally moved to the top of my list. I need to pin baste my UFO of the month but this Scrappy Trip Around The World was hogging all my pins....so I'm quilting this so that I can pin the other...

Working on RED scrappy blocks

Al and I just got back from a two week vacation in Florida. We had a great time...the weather was perfect. I did miss my sewing machine though. Our new car is a whole lot smaller than the SUV we had last year. It forced me to pack much lighter and that meant nixing the sewing stuff...except for my Englush Paper Piecec Stars. 

Now that we're home I've gotten to work on stitching up March's scraps...reds (soscrappy.blogspot.com). I finished up on Scrap Jar Star block and three of my little log cabin blocks...I should give these a name. 

I didn't quite finish my red spool block...maybe tomorrow. 

The block below is just selvage scraps I had stuffed in a jar. On Pinterest or Instagram, I saw a cute bag with selvage pockets... This might become a bag or if I'm lazy it'll become a mug rug. Just hate to waste them, you know?

So here's my epp stars...working on them as Al drives. I NEED to get this quilt done....not only because it's been 7 or 8 years in the making but because my daughter picked it as her wedding quilt. Their first anniversary is in June. It would be a great time to give it to them. 

I can't tell you how long I've been working on this project....feels like FOREVER! I did a little math on the way home from Florida... It takes me one hour to cut, baste and stitch one star. It takes another hour to cut some white pieces, baste them, attach them to the star then attach the star to the quilt. I have 15 rows of 14 stars...so 210 approximately. Two hours per star is 410 hours and that's not counting the half pieces to finish the edge. Also not counting the hand quilting I'm planning on doing. 

I know my daughter appreciates the work into this one because she's a quilter..and I know it will be in good hands in the future.

Okay, so the only sewing I brought down to Fl with me was the EPP... So when I got a little bored with that what could I do but SHOP! :)

Rainbow's End in Dunedin Fl was having a march sale... 35% off Kaffe, Tula a Pink, Brandon M., cat/dog prints and more. Couldn't resist that!! 

March is here, FINALLY!

I love March. This is usually the month that Al and I take a 2 to 3 week vacation....leave winter and Michigan behind for the sunshine of Florida. And this year is no exception. We just arrived at the condo that we rent each year. Surprise, surprise...the weather is gorgeous!! Joking of course because ITS ALWAYS beautiful!

So since it's March the scrappy color has changed...it's red this month. I brought a few fabrics with me so that I could work on hand sewing but I wont be doing any scrappy blocks until I head home. My project for the next two weeks will be to work on my daughter's wedding quilt which is UFO number 11. The UFO for March is supposed to be #5 so I guess I'll be working on both. Bringing a sewing machine to the beach just isn't feasible ....our car is tiny and I have a ton of stuff as it is. If I add in a machine, cutting board, tools, more fabrics, more threads...well you know the drill, Al will have a FIT!

 

So hand sewing it is. These fabrics above are part of the scraps I brought for the hand sewing. Lisa and Dustin's wedding quilt is the 30's repro English paper pieced 6-point stars (that's a mouthful) that I've been working on for ages....AND I do mean ages...7-8 years! Sometime...maybe 4 years ago...Lisa asked if this could be here quilt someday. She hadn't met Dustin but once they were engaged she said she wanted this one for her wedding quilt. I told her it was unlikely that I'd get it done in time but I would try. Well, I knew that wasn't going to happen. Wedding plans, wedding shower, other daughter had our first grandbaby....life got in the way. SO, now I'm going to see if I can get it done for their first anniversary I'll post some pictures of the progress as I work.

So here's my sewing room for the next two weeks...not too hard to take, huh?

Scrappy block tutorial

These are more Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks that I made for one of my rainbow quilts. I've a feeling there are going to be quite a few quilts coming out of this SCRAP CHALLENGE! My scraps are overflowing so I'm happy to be working on them but my UFO list is growing and that's not good! It's probably up to 38 or 39...I KNOW, shocking! But when you consider that I've been quilting since the 80's (and collecting fabric since the 60's), I have a HUGE pile of scraps.


And another good thing is...family members are getting quilts... multiple quilts. Plus plenty for donations and auctions. I think a few will go to the hospital up north here. They have a program where a child that has to stay overnight at the hospital for the first time, gets a teddy bear and a quilt.
This is a wonderful thing...just thinking of my grandson....well, if he ever had to stay he would be really scared. So yes, a few will go there.

These are two of my "sea green/ aqua" blocks that I made for the SO SCRAPPY

RSC17. Some I made today and some yesterday. Al and I have a large painting job that is taking most of everyday so I've been getting up an hour early so that I can have a relaxing cup of coffee and do some stitching. My vision isn't the greatest anymore so stitching in the evening just doesn't work.... plus I'm tired by time we get home and make dinner...etc.

I thought some of you might want to try this block...It's really simple but not very large. It's only 7"...7-1/2" before adding to a quilt. It uses up some of those 1-1/2" strips many of you have collected.

I try to find blocks that use up what I have and my pile of 1-1/2" strips is high and falling over...

I place dark 1-1/2" squares in the four corners and the center...This seems to bring the block alive. The background works with low volume fabrics, white, creams, light grays,...etc.

Pick medium volume fabrics for the 3-1/2" and 2-1/2" color pieces. They need to stand out from the background but be lighter than the dark squares.

I hope you can read this photo of my block...I took a picture of my eq7 printout. If you can't let me know and I'll print off a sheet then photograph that.

TO PUT THE BLOCK TOGETHER, I made 4 little log cabins...start with the darkest 1-1/2" squares. Attach the little white square. Then the white 2-1/2", then the color 2-1/2" and finally the color 3-1/2".

Press those 4 small log cabins then place them like the block shows. It'll be like sewing up a 9 patch now. If anyone wants a picture of how it goes together...I will gladly take photos of the next one I make as I do it.

So to put this quilt together, I was planning on turning them on point and cut 7-1/2" squares of white scraps...using them as the alternate block. BUT, my daughter likes how they look in the picture above, place on the bed with a little white sashing. So that's probably how I'll do them. I might use a 3" sashing and put PLUS sign blocks as cornerstones...sort of the way I did my purple and gray quilt. OR I might just keep it all white.

Early sewing on a Scrappy Saturday

Got up early to sew a bit before work. Working on more Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in aqua. When I figured out how many blocks I would need for this quilt I figured about 64. So if I have 10 colors that's about 6 each...maybe 7 or another color. I have 5 purples...and pieces to make one more. Same with my aqua/sea green. I really like the blues...any blues ...might do one or two extra aqua.

I put a pattern for this block on my February 18th blog entry... scrappy block tutorial

As I was digging through my aqua scraps I found this old piece of Peter Pan fabric. It's REALLY old!  Quite possibly from the 80s. I'm inserting a little here and there. Sure hope it doesn't bleed. I know I prewashed it years ago...crossing my fingers.

Ready to stitch up a couple more then I've got to leave...wish I could spend more time quilting!

Playing with scraps

This is a new block I'm playing with to use up 1-1/2" scrap strips. The blocks finish at 7" so I'm going to put them on point and use a light background in the alternating spots so that the quilt will be light and colorful. Plus I like how these blocks look almost circular from a distance.

And as of today I finished the last scrappy #triparoundtheworldblocks ...42 of them. This was made JUST from scraps.... I cut up a bunch of small scraps into 2-1/2" strips and squares. The squares went into this. I have a small pile of squares left...guess those will go in the scrap box for now.

Tomorrow, or Sunday, I start putting the blocks together for a lap sized top... 60"x70"....no borders...just quilt and bind.

Aqua Scrap Blocks plus a Spools block TUTORIAL

The weekend was pretty good as far as getting some sewing time in. I was able to work on quite a few projects plus cut up some scraps, clean a little and organize. The cleaning was necessary because I couldn't find my piece that were precut for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Spools.

Last month I made sure the navy pieces and the spool bottoms and tops were precut....I wasn't sure how much of the greige fabric I had for the spools. And as it turned out there was JUST enough. So I put aside the pieces for 20 blocks and cut the navy....then put it in a container, labeled it, and LOST IT. Yup, I'm so well organized...NOT. Well, today when I was opening every container, I looked under my desk and found a small box with the spools fabric...YAY! Why did I put it there? Who knows....

Want to make this block? It's REALLY easy. DOWN BELOW is a print off from EQ that I used to design my block. There may be similar blocks out there but I didn't see one with a really easy bottom and top of spool. I didn't wasn't any angles...this is supposed to be easy and pretty much mindless....my favorite type of weekend sewing.

It makes a 12" block...12-1/2" before incorporating into the quilt.

So to start I stitch 1-1/2" and 2" string pieces (7-1/2" long) together till I have 7-1/2" x 8-1/2". You could also oversize the pieces a little... maybe 8" long...keep adding strips of any size till it's over 8-1/2" then trim to exactly 7-1/2" wide by 8-1/2" tall.

Cut the spool bottom and top pieces...see the cutting below...attach the spool bottom to a background piece...same size...do the same for the top piece.

Now it's just like a 9 patch to put together...EASY!

Attach the corner squares to the top and bottom...Attach side pieces to your scrappy strip center.

And now just sew the 3 rows.

This is my finished aqua block...February's color at So Scrappy RSC17 the RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE for 2017.

Here's the print off with all the measurements for making the block...I used (2) 1-1/2" x 7-1/2" strips and (4) 2"x7-1/2" strips but you could use any combo and trim it to 7-1/2" x 8-1/2".

So that was part of my sewing this weekend... I also made another Hazel the Hedgehog for my Fancy Forest quilt. I made her in this months color of aqua and teal since I had those pieces out.

I'm up to 4 critters...long way to go but boy are they fun to make!

lkj

UFO #9 finished!

At Patchwork Times this month, the UFO to work on is number 9, which for me was this one above. This was a race to finish up since I had promised that it would be my brothers when it was finally finished and his birthday is Monday! He lives in Oregon and I'm in Michigan so that means it had to be finished yesterday so that I could mail it today on my way to work....talk about pressure! But that's what I need sometimes to finish up stuff....so It's on it's way. 

Check off #9.

So today after work I did a little stitching on my Scrappy Trip Around the World. I now have 26 of the 42 blocks I need....I may up that to 48 ...they're 10" blocks so 60"x70" or 60"x 80"....haven't decided.

And this will get a little attention tonight and tomorrow. It's an old quilt my daughter found but some of the Dresden fan pieces are just falling apart. 

Super Bowl? Nope...

Spent a few hours quilting this UFO. It's almost done...hopefully today after work I can finish.

BBQ University was keeping me company as I stitched. Getting hungry!

A very scrappy Saturday

I started the morning by finishing up the pin basting of my UFO #9, the black, white and aqua one that will become my brothers birthday gift. 

Then on to more fun sewing.....

This months scrap color at SoScrappy is Aqua...or sea green ...or something that's not blue and not green. Not a problem! That's probably what I have the most of after blue. I made up one scrap jar star block to add to my one reserved purple block from January....I'll have a purple scrap jar quilt and a rainbow quilt. 

I didn't get to making my aqua spool block yet but that's because I can't find the darn things. I cleaned up after all the purple blocks ....then someone must have broken in and LOST my pieces! ;) hopefully the navy strips will show up again...

So as I stitched I noticed my strip jar for my crocheted rug was overflowing....

Stitched those into a long strip and rolled into a HUGE ball. That will give me a nice project to do as I watch TV.

This is the other project that got a little attention...I made a few more blocks. I'm up to 18 and figure I will need 42. 

So with all this sewing I needed a reward...I took a short break and visited the local quilt shop. I didn't buy much...just some of these adorable kitties.