A new start

yes, yes, I know. Must work on my UFOs. But this was such a FUN block from Bonnie Hunter! <whine>

BH Diamond Tile Block

Isn't that just FUN!?!

Tooting my own horn

Making Selvage Edge Blocks

So I sat down and decided to show how I am making my blocks.

 Here is my intial set up with my 2.5 inch black strip going down the middle and two selvage strips on either side, prior to cutting the strips.

First pinnning the strips on the underlayment

Next, I flip the block over and generously trim the excess.

Trimming the excess prior to sewing

 Then trim the other end.

Trimming the opposite end

Time to sew.

Sewing the first selvage strip down

 I flip the block around and sew the second strip down.

Sewing the second selvage strip down

 Time to add more strips.

Adding more strips to the block

Next flip the block over and trim the excess fabric before sewing.

Trimming up yet again

Trimming the other side

Sew down the new strips.

Sewing the next strip

Sewing the other strip

Keep going until you fill up the block.

Easy peasy!

Along the Selvage Edge

Currently I am making some 10.5 inch blocks with a fabric underlayment, with 2.5 inch black strip crosswise across the block and then selvage edge strips on both sides of the black until the square is filled. I whipped up over 50+ of these almost before I realized it.

Wow! So much fun.

Must take some pictures of those.

Now, however, I need to trim all of those 50+ blocks. BORING! 

From now on, I will trim them as I make them. Yowser....

I started creating the blocks for the reverse side as I am going to make these up in a Quilt-As-You-Go style with the selvage edge blocks. 

I am using a modified version of the Moda BakeShop pattern Labyrinth. I say modified because I need a bigger initial block.

Since my other blocks are 10.5 inches, I need an initial block size of 11 inches prior to cutting them in half and sewing them back together. So I used two 3.5 inch strips, one 3 inch strip (in the middle), and two 1.5 inch white strips to make the initial block.

The BakeShop instructions tell you to cut the blocks in different directions but NO. If you put two squares right sides together and do the cut, then they are cut correctly AND the sets of triangles are already paired for sewing together. 

A much better way to do it!

I am going completely scrappy for the labryrinth squares also. So much fun!

Photos will be coming soon!

More placemats!

This weekend I finished four quilted placemats and yesterday during my day-at-home sick day, I completely made two more! Whoo Hoo!

I just love the backing.

Fun backing!

 I just looked up my order from fabric dot com and I purchased this fabric in 2009! O my.

Color blocks - so fun!

I found several hundred five-inch blocks in the boxes of fabric my mother gave me. I still have not made a dent!

And the reverse side

One closeup

I just love all of the different patterns in these squares!

Resigning as UFO Queen

My reign as the Stashbuster Queen of the UFOs has come to an end as I have officially sent the notice that I completed the baby quilt. It is 41 x 47 inches and used 3.7 yards of fabric.

Yay!

Nice and wrinkly from being washed

Sticking to my design wall

I can't believe how the entire quilt stuck to the design wall. I would have thought it would have been too heavy.

A Finish and a new Featherweight!

I was fairly productive since my last post, in spite of having two grandsons running around the house for two days.

I layered and quilted two place mats (out of four). Need to cut the batting for the other two. The tops and backs are cut and waiting.

I bound my 5-inch D4P baby quilt and got it washed and dried by Sunday. I need to take a picture and measure it to determine my yardage used. Then it will be a totally official finish!

I cut out around 10 10.5-inch batting squares from scraps that were donated from my quilting group. One of the longarmers in the group had leftover batting after cutting it off of completed quilts. I guess she didn't want to just throw it away but she wasn't going to use it. YAY! I took it all since no one else wanted it.

I missed my quilting group this weekend but I had two grandsons with me for a sleep over. A very good reason to miss it.

DH made a lovely turkey for Saturday night dinner. My Mom was also with us so the table was very full. The house smelled so yummy all day!

On top of everything else, someone email me from a craigslist posting, a month after I sent my query about a sewing machine. ONE MONTH!

That began a two-day messaging session (off and on). He had taken the post down so I kept asking for better pictures. In the end, I ran out on Sunday at 12:30 pm and got another gorgeous Featherweight machine for $180!!!

It was in tip-top shape, case and all, even if it is a bit dirty. Even the case was in just about perfect condition! Cord was also excellent.

Just look at those decals!!

Lovely decals even it's a bit dirty

Even the manual!

Look at all those feet!

Even the insert and 5 bobbins

Serial number AH439168 - 1948

What's In The (Muffin-Topped) Box?

So I was going to explore a box full of fabrics that has been sitting in my bedroom, the result of "box cleaning."

It is very muffin-topped! Also a shot of one of my 301a's.

Lovely over-full box.

So last night DH and I went out to dinner so I did not really have enough time to do a full investigation of this box. I did check out a few layers.

Some upholstery samples.

 The upholstery samples came from some boxes of my Mom's. Not sure what I am going to do with them.

Quilting samples and 1 Sashiko block from the 2017 MAQF 

Still overflowing

Well, that did not remove much from the box. Humm....

Supplies for making fidgit quilts

Supplies for Sashiko blocks and some gifted bubble fabric

Still no dent!

Love this fabric! 

The pansy fabric is part of one of my UFOs that I am hand-quilting because my free-motion quilting is still not very good at all.

Ok. Now there's a little dent!

Fabrics that need ironing

 Ok, so these need ironing and sticking in my stash.

Yikes. Not much of a dent either!

 So, I am going to have to continue the exploration of the box tomorrow night, after I iron the uncovered fabrics.

So here is a view of my stash that I can see while sitting at my computer...

Fabrics behind my computer

Fabrics to the right of my computer

Ok, that last picture is pretty bad. I will re-do it tonight.

My sewing machine sits in front of my computer so if I sit down at the computer, I must sew at least one thing! JOT - Just One Thing!

Weekend Plus Monday Sewing

Had a productive weekend with my sewing.

I looked through my large stack of 5 inch squares that came with a few new boxes of fabric that was my mom's (and her sister's who has left this mortal coil). I picked 12 * 4 and made four objects that will become placemats. This is not a UFO. These are NEW!

I made 4 Christmas/Winter placemats last month and I have so enjoyed looking at them that I know we need some more but with a different theme.

I added up the selvage blocks that I have been making and I now have over 55+ 10.5 inch blocks that will finish at 10 inches. Ooo, that's a lot. Spent some time last week figuring out how to complete them into a quilt and decided to go in a Quilt-As-You-Go style. I was thinking about just a solid 10.5 square of fabric for the backs and decided... Nah! Not good enough.

Saw the ModaBakeShop pattern Labryinth quilt and decided to biggie size the block to get the right size for me. That means making an 11 inch square that cut in half and sewn back together is 10.5 inches.

So that would be a 3.5 x 11 inch color strip, a 1.5 x 11  inch white strip, a 3 x 11 inch color string,a 1.5 x 11  inch white strip, and a 3.5 x 11 inch color strip.

I have to be really careful cutting the white strips so I can get 4 across the width of fabric but so far, so good! By cutting the strings to size, it sure cuts down on the later sub-cutting and I can get more scrappy.

I created about 10 of the completed blocks this weekend! Yay me!

I am rising in the Queen ranks for the UFO challenge so I also trimmed a baby quilt in preparation to applying the already created binding that I have sitting beside my machine. I am mentally preparing the label also and will probably leave an area empty on the label as I don't know who will be the recipient of it yet. It's my 5-inch Disappearing Four Patch quilt.

So lots was done this weekend. It also helped that I had Monday off too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!