Two projects in the works

Its not the greatest picture...today is dark and gloomy. You can really feel  that fall is coming.

I've been trying to make one block a day on this scrappy quilt. I'm up to 30 blocks. I really have no idea what size this will end up...just going to keep sewing until I use up all the little scraps, I guess.

Here's my main project. The house is coming along. Windows are being installed today, along with the roof, rough electric, plumbing and heating. 

The decks are almost finished...this is the side deck. 

Al is going over details with the guys...yeah, sure...probably talking cars😖 That's the great room straight ahead. I'm taking the picture from the foyer. It's starting to feel like a house...yay!!

The Charlevoix quilt is "officially" finished

I don't know if you remember, but this quilt was done EXCEPT for binding it. But I just couldn't find the piece of binding fabric I had saved for it. I looked everywhere! But you know how it is when you're living in a temporary place...so much stuff in boxes...and WHICH box?

So when I was teaching the collage class in Charlevoix, I asked if they had any fabric to spare...

They sold me a 1/2 yard of dark blue...enough to finish this.. Yay!

My daughter helped to hold the quilt so I could get a picture...little Charlie came to help..😁

Maybe not...he loves the flowers in our backdrop.

This is one of my finishes for Q3 2019 finish-along. 

Flag pillow

Labor Day will be here before you know it and since I love to decorate for all the holidays, I made a scrappy American flag pillow.

 When I was getting prepped for my collage class, I wanted to included a simple pillow pattern ...this gave me the perfect project to use as a sample.

But I prefer my pillows to have more body...to be quilted. So I took the class sample apart, quilted it then added a back zipper. This pic below is it before:

I added the off center zip then cut binding to finish off the pillow like a quilt.

The binding gives it a finished flange...

Check off another finish for August!

FREE BLOCK PATTERN:

If you would like to make this block

Cut: 

(8) 1-1/2" navy squares

       (8) 1-1/2" white squares
(2) 8-1/2"x1-1/2" white strips
(2) 8-1/2"x1-1/2" red strips
(2) 12-1/2"x1-1/2" white strips
(3) 12-1/2"x1-1/2" red strips
Sew the "stars" section first. Stitch the 16 patch by alternating 2 white and 2 navy squares to form a row. Make 4 rows then stitch the rows together alternating the color the row starts with.
Sew a short red strip to a short white strip. Repeat. Sew these two strips together, red to white. Attach this "striped" section to the 16 patch making sure that a navy square is in the upper left corner and that the top "stripe" is red.
Now sew a long red to a long white. Repeat. Stitch these two sections together, red to white, then sew the extra red to the bottom white. Attach this to the bottom of your stars and stripe section, red stripe on the top and bottom.


To complete the pillow, I added light blue fabric to all sides and trimmed the pillow front to 12-1/2" x 16-1/2"...quilt it with straight line quilting. Make a back piece with a zipper in it, the same size as the front. 
Put WRONG sides together...baste close to edge through all thicknesses. Bind it as you would a quilt. The binding becomes a cute flange...no turning inside out! 

Linking up with Oh Scrap. 

Collage class prep

Saturday I will be teaching collage at Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop in Charlevoix Michigan. This flower block above, is one possible block that the ladies can chose to make. I usually turn these small works of art into pillows. For this class, I will give each student a pillow pattern so that they can do the same.

As I working on my pillows, I'm also making more scrappy HST blocks.

I have 13 blocks done so far.

Earlier today we took the grandsons to the Buckley Old Engine Show. I enjoyed it almost as much as they did. We rode an old, full size, steam engine train plus a quarter scale train. The boys were mesmerized! They really didn't know which way to look...tractors, wagons, trains, old vehicles...just so much to take in.

Have a good weekend!

Still "organizing" these scraps

Nine blocks are made...63 to go...so thats 1000 or so HSTs or 2000 triangle pieces to cut ✂

I'm cutting and cutting and cutting. I think I need a tin or a box so i can stack up the paired HST pieces...ready for starting and ending my stitching. 

This is definitely not a project with a deadline...I'll just "organize" my stitched half-square triangles into blocks as this blue tray gets full. 

I've cleaned out quite a few boxes of fabric, organized them into what I'll be using them for and filled up a donation box for the ones I know I wont get to (or don't like anymore).

I DID actually buy a piece of fabric yesterday...I found a yard of vintage white fabric with red dots...probably from the 50s or 60s. It's washed and pressed, ready to go into my "dear jane" quilt. Yes, playing with that one also. I think I have 5 quilts out here in the table...working on whatever suits me each day.

100 years of fabric...almost

Aren't these cute? I'm trying to press, slice and cut triangles out of all my small pretty pieces. These are more of the amazing feedsack fabrics my daughter gave me a few years back. I'd like to see them all in one quilt but I know I'll never get around to that so I'm adding my favorites to the scrap triangles pile.

There's also an old apron in there that has plenty of usable (unstained) area. 

These are some of the triangles. As I've dug through my scraps I'm finding pieces as old as the 30's/40's, some 50/60's ...one or two from the 70s...quite a few 80's and 90's (my girls were small and i stitched clothes for them) and of course tons from 2000 till now. That's almost 100 years of fabrics!! 

Makes me happy to FINALLY be cutting them up to stitch into blocks❤ 

I DIDN'T start a new quilt...really!

It looks like I started a new quilt doesn't it...ummm....let me explain...hmmm...

See, I wanted to clean out the scrap bin so that I could paint it. But it was still half full even after I made that scrap quilt top last month.

Soooo...I decided to go through ALL the scraps...keep the ones I love...donate the rest. Then I cut triangles from my favorites...LOTS and LOTS of triangles. I use these as leaders and enders all the time. I stacked up a huge pile of paired triangles. They were just too pretty and tempting...I figured I'd stitch up a few...maybe make one block just to see if they looked nice together....

Then three blocks because they were really cute...

Then 6 blocks....

It's going to be a fun scrappy quilt...if I decide to make it into one. I REALLY need to stick to my plan ...no new projects until the others are done. So I didn't really start a new quilt...I just ORGANIZED my scraps into blocks😉