A String Quilt - Another UFO to Be

This last weekend I started another quilt project.  Just what I need!  Another UFO!   Lately, I can't finish a quilt top to save my life, but I'm very good at starting things.

This one is a string quilt.  What's a string quilt, you ask?  It's a scrap quilt made up of all those leftover strips of fabric you end up with over the years.

My bin of "strings" or strips of leftover fabric.

I decided to randomly sew together strips.  Some people sew their strings to a muslin base.  I don't do this; I just sew them together, then starch them really well so they hold their shape.

An example of a bunch of strips sewn together.

Once the strips are sewn together, I used a 6.5 inch square ruler to cut out my blocks.

A 6.5 inch block  I cut on the diagonal.

When you cut on the diagonal like I did, you end up with these big triangles between the blocks.

You end up with big triangles between the blocks.

Don't throw them away!  All you have to do is sew the long edges together and you can usually eke out another block.  Sometimes, you may need to add another short strip between the two long edges.  Waste not want not!

Sew together on the long edge and you can get another block out of it.

I have no final vision for this quilt and can't even say if it will ever get finished.  For now, I'm just going to have fun making the blocks and emptying my box of strings.

One possible layout for my blocks.

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Highs and Lows in the World of Finance

Here’s my story.  A few months back, I took a pretty darn hefty pay cut so I’ve been living a thriftier than usual life.  I saved all my Christmas and birthday present money and got a good tax refund so I convinced myself that I could splurge a little.  What did I want?  Another sewing machine.

The Brother PQ-1500S - Object of My Desire

Never mind that I already have three sewing machines—my fancy-pants Bernina which I love, my perfectly serviceable serger, and my old faithful Kenmore—I wanted another one to be fully dedicated to use on my quilting frame. The Brother PQ-1500S; a nifty machine that my friend Denise has and that I covet.

So I hemmed and I hawed and I changed my mind at least forty-three times, then I ordered it.  It was done.  Irrevocable.  That sewing machine was on its way.

Not an hour later I got into my car and the air conditioning died. 

Life without A/C in Arizona is hot.

I live in Arizona.  A/C is required.  Sigh.  I was being punished for my frivolousness. 

Oh well, no use crying over it.  I am going to have both a new sewing machine and new A/C in my car so I may as well be excited over it.  Yay!

A sneak peek at a corner of my handkerchief quilt.  You'll see the whole thing when it's done.

I wanted to be ready for the arrival of the Brother PQ-1500S so I spent some time on the weekend readying a couple of quilts for the frame.  The first one you can only have a little peek at.  It’s a handkerchief quilt that I made some time ago.  To get that ready, I needed to piece the backing.  This is a monster-sized quilt . . .  well queen-sized plus a little extra.  I sure am glad I have a frame to put this on.  Gone are the days of trying to shove these big quilts through the tiny sewing machine.  Oy!  My neck hurts just thinking about it.

Second quilt ready for the frame and my new sewing machine.

The second one is a little gem I whipped together recently.  The fabrics (except the border) came from my friend Sue M.  I believe they were leftovers from some project she did as when they arrived they were all bundled together.  Sue has exquisite taste so making something from her scraps is guaranteed to be pretty.  I intend for this to be a charity quilt. 

Closer look--pretty fabrics.

I bought the border, backing and binding fabric.  Okay, it’s been a long time since I paid full price for fabric in a quilt shop.  Holy mackerel, has it gotten expensive!  $11.50 a yard?!  Man, I used to think $8.95 was expensive.  I know, I’m sounding like an old person.  (Why, in my day, fabric only cost a dollar, but we had to walk 5 miles in the snow with no shoes to get it!)  I guess I’m lucky that I inherit scraps from so many people.  I don’t know that I could afford quilting if I didn’t.

Waiting impatiently.

Now, I have to wait impatiently for my new toy to arrive all the while sweating on the way home from work until my A/C gets fixed on my next day off.  I'm not good at delayed gratifiction.

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Blocks from the Past, Catching Up

Awhile back, I did some posts about a group of quilter friends with whom I was doing a block challenge.  Each month we would make four blocks from the book Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past by Marie Henry.  I stayed caught up for three months.  Well, then things fell apart a little.

Everything I've done so far

I've been catching up.  I may actually have shown you some of these blocks before now.  My pile got a little messed up because the cat knocked it off the table when he decided he wanted to sleep where it was sitting.  Darn cat.  Any-who, I think these are the blocks since November.

Road to Fortune

I'm caught up with all the pieced blocks, but I'm still two months behind with the applique blocks.  If I could just spend an hour prepping them, I'd have them done in a couple of evenings.  But, there's just too much fun, creative stuff to do that I put that off.

Union

Jacob's Ladder

Twinkling Star

Friendship Album

Clay's Choice

Baby Bunting

The block above was a b*$&#!  Paper pieced--which I hate--then appliqued to the background.  Oy!  Not fun.

Cake Stand

Gentleman's Fancy

It wasn't until I saw the photo that I realized what a bad job of pressing I had done on that Gentleman's Fancy block.  I'm a little embarrassed to be posting it.

This and That

My goal is to catch up completely--applique blocks and all--by the end of next month.  Wish me luck!

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Blocks from the Past, Month Three

I can' believe my friends and I have been doing our little quilt challenge for three months already.  Our stack of quilt blocks is starting to grow!  This month, I finished my blocks right off the bat.

The applique block for the month is called Indiana Rose.  It was the most complicated block this month.  The rest of them, as you will see, were pretty straight forward.

This one is called Flock of Geese.  It was the easiest block so far.

This is a Duck and Ducklings block. 

This last one is called Jack in the Pulpit. 

I was so relieved that there were no paper pieced blocks this month!  It was like a vacation!

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Blocks from the Past Month 2

In August, I posted about a quilting challenge I had started with some friends of mine.  Each month we would complete four blocks from the book "Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past" by Marie Henry.  That first month, I came out swinging and finished all four blocks in the first week!

The August blocks.

Not so in September.  There were two pieced blocks, one applique block and one paper pieced block.  I whipped out the pieced blocks pretty fast.

I finished the "Surely Ellen" block first.  And don't call me Shirley.

Next was "Sister's Choice."

The applique block took me a little longer, but not much.

The applique block, called Swirl, was extra easy this month.

But, the paper pieced block?  Well, I wanted nothing to do with it!  I even considered not doing it at all or doing another block instead.  It was so complicated!

Well, I waited until October 1st (late!) to do it and it ended up taking almost three hours to finish.  I've made entire quilts in three hours!  I also sewed it together wrong the first time.

Wrong!!!  I almost left it this way as I was very frustrated at this point and I thought it looked fine.

But I finally got it right!  Yay for me!

Crossed Canoes finished correctly.

The October blocks have been announced and none of them are as complex as Crossed Canoes.  Thank goodness.  I should be able to finish them a lot faster.

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Scrap Quilts Again

I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but I’ve been sewing up my friend Denise’s waste triangles again!

She gave me these a couple years back which is when I started work on them. I then abandoned them for awhile in the back of a drawer. Why? I don’t know why. The blocks were so close to being done. It’s just what I do. I need to let them age like a fine wine.

I’m auditioning the lime green fabric for the background. I like the lime green, but don’t love the print, however, I’m trying to stick with what I have in my stash rather than buying something new (if you could see my enormous stash, you’d understand why). I think it will work fine.

Next up from the piles of Denise leftovers, these cuties.

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What to Do with "Waste" Triangles

I have mentioned before that I am a collector of other people’s scraps. I’ll take scraps from anyone, but I love my friend Denise’s scraps the most as she is a prolific quilter and she has great taste in fabric. I particularly love the triangles.

Some people call these waste triangles as they are cut off the corners when making other units such as half square triangles or flying geese, then thrown away {shiver}. I think they are the greatest thing in quilting!

I chain piece them together.

Press them open.

Trim them down to a uniform size.

Them sew them into blocks. In this case, I’ve made the “broken dishes” block, one of my favs.

Like all quilting, there are many steps in this process and it can get a little tedious, especially since I’m working on such a small scale. As you can see here, all these blocks need to be trimmed down to a uniform size which means several nights in front of the TV (see previous post about cutting in front of the TV here).

But the reward is great. How cute are these blocks? The unfinished size is 2.75 inches.

My plan is to sew them together with an alternating solid block. When finished, I should have a nice sized baby quilt. I don’t know anyone having a baby right now, but rest assured, someone will have a baby and I’ll be ready for it.

I’ll be sure to check back in when the top is finished.  In the meantime, tell me what you do with your scraps!

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