This and That

Some days I think I have nothing in my life that is blog worthy so I don’t post anything. Then I decide to write about one little thing, go to my photos and am inspired to talk about stuff until readers eyes glaze over. This may be one of those days.

I have a group of friends from various parts of the country that convene in a retreat center in Missouri once a year for a week of quilting. This year, I offered to host a block of the month program from January until June when we got together. Several of the group took me up on it. We actually did 2 blocks each month for a total of 12. I used a book which was designed using jelly rolls. This is my finished quilt. My friend, Kris quilted it for me using her programmable long arm machine and did a beautiful job.

In other news, I finished my Made by Hand BOM and am currently caught up.

This is from a BOM program run by Dawn Heese and Stacy of Buttermilk Basin, ( on Facebook). All of the blocks are applique and I’m doing wool on cotton.

A scrap quilt made for our charity project at my quilt guild.

Two of my grandkids have asked for peach freezer jam so I made some this past week. It is all ready for their next visit.

And some photos from my wanderings.

And below, a hollyhock blooming in my garden and Bingham, the town cat.

That’s all for today. Keep on stitchin’! Judy

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I love doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each year and usually do it in my collection of reproduction fabrics. This month’s color was purple. It is a color difficult to find in repro fabrics but I have a few. I did the first in these violet shades, then the second one in the red-violet hues.

Summer Scrap Quilt Mystery

One of the blogs that I follow is Kevin the Quilter. I finally finished the two graduation quilts due this year, so decided to participate in this. Lately, I have been intrigued by two color quilts and have been looking at different versions of blue and white and red and white. This mystery was described as two- color and ” simple”. Sounds like a good summer project, right? We shall see. Ask me in a week or so.

I chose the colors red and cream, a very light cream, but not bright white. It can be made with any size squares, so I chose 2-1/2″. I have two storage areas for scraps, my strip storage and plastic bins of larger scraps (less than 1/2 yd). I pulled the 2-1/2″ strips, then went to the red scrap bin.

Here is what I found, a sandwich baggie full of red 2-1/2″x 5″ rectangles.?? Where did these come from? The scrap fairy?

From that little baggie came 32 four-patches! I only need 184, so have a decent start. Want to play along? I’ll try to add a link, but failing that, just go to Kevin the Quilter blogspot. Be sure to comment if you decide to join in.

http://kevinthequilter.blogspot.com

Judy

A Little Picking

It seems that lately, I’ve been doing more stitchin’ than pickin’. What can I say? My house is full( just ask my husband) and I don’t make the time to go browsing in the antique malls. Also, those of you that have loved antiques for years know that the market has changed a lot. I can spend an hour in an antique mall and find nothing that interests me. Either I’ve “been there, done that” or there is no place for it.

There is still something that will catch my eye though. Boxes! Wood boxes, metal boxes, anything with some writing or graphics on it. Today, I will share some pictures of my recent box purchase.

Here is a better view, as well as a view of the side decoration.

This pretty little box joins a family of metal document boxes. I believe some of them were bank safe deposit boxes, as they have names written on them. Here are some examples of those.

Here are some of them displayed. I love the S in SW Wilkinson.

And JGP always reminds me of JC Penney, the store I shopped for my 4-H and Home Ec projects when I was growing up. When I first saw this box, I thought it said JCP and was so excited until I realized it was a G.

Mrs. Everett Pape

This one says JH Langewisch 1910

This one says CA Mumaw

Such a different era than we live in today, I enjoy imagining what their life was like.

Someday soon, I’ll do a post on my wooden boxes. They are fun to find too. So, this time I will just say

Keep on pickin’

Judy

Catching up

I just realized I had not shared pictures from my muffin top challenge or my string block adventure. All of them are completed tops and some are even quilted.

All Christmas scrap bin quilts are quilted and bound.

Then the string blocks are made into a top.

I have had this little village print for several years and just couldn’t find any place to use it to the best advantage. I think this was a perfect spot for it.

I think that catches me up for now. Hope you are getting some stitching done too.

Judy

Stringing Along

Do you enjoy making string blocks? They use up an unbelievable amount of scraps and are fun to make. I pulled out some to sew on my treadle last weekend, thinking we would lose power during our winter storm (17 inches BTW). I’m having so much fun with them, I’m still using the treadle even though we never lost power. Here’s how I make mine. I’m sure there are neater ways to do it, but this works for me.

I sort my strings into two varieties, tan and cream based colors and white/bright based colors. Above is my tan/cream based and below is a bag of white/bright based strings.

Cut some paper foundations to the desired shape and size. I use the Medicare handbooks that come every year. We always get two so I cut up one and keep one for reference. Telephone books work great too, or the $1 sketch pads from Dollar Tree.

I’m cutting these 3-1/2″ x10-1/2″. Now is the time to shorten your machine stitch a little. I use a 2 on my machine.

Lay down your first string right side up and your second string face down over your first one, long edges even. I start approximately in the center but don’t obsess over it. Sew along the long edge, seam allowance doesn’t matter much as long there is enough to catch both fabrics. I use the original treadle foot which is narrower than 1/4″. Don’t trim yet, just lay another foundation paper under your strings and keep sewing until you run out of string.

I usually cut and sew 10 foundations at a time. When you have added a string to the right side of the center, flip them around and sew a string to the other side of the center strip. Then it’s time to press them. Press toward the ends of the strips. Continue building the strips out to the edge, using different widths, colors and prints. You will want to use a wider strip at the end of each strip to avoid having your seams get too bulky at the end. I use anything 1″ wide to 2-1/2″ wide, saving those wider ones for the ends. After you have filled your foundation, steam press, trim the rectangles even with the paper foundation and then remove the paper. It tears off very easily if you have used a shorter stitch.

Here is my plan for these string pieced rectangles. The center squares are 10-1/2″ and the cornerstones are 3-1/2″. I will use the string pieced rectangles as the sashing .

I’ll post another picture when the top is done.

Have fun with these!

Judy

Stash Enhancement and Organizing

My granddaughters live about 2 hours from me so I don’t see them as often as I would like. They were still on Christmas break this week so I took the opportunity to spend some time with them. On the way home, I decided to stop at the quilt shop in Lexington, (All About Quilting) thinking I could use some background neutrals if there was a good price on them. I found a great creamy paisley on the sale table for $4.00/yd. so bought 2-1/2 yds. I should have stopped there. But, there were several nice civil war prints on the table too. You can guess the rest. I do love a bargain.

Today, I thought to put them away and was confronted with this.

Its a wonder I accomplish anything at all.

This started my Sunday afternoon project, refolding the stash. I got about halfway through it before my back was aching and time ran out, so will try to get back to it tomorrow. It definitely looks better.

I’m pulling out everything that I don’t want to ever see again and offering it my guild sisters this week. Anything they don’t take will go to the local thrift store. I have been quilting since the early 90’s, so you can imagine what is in there. Yes, there was some mauve and country blue.

Judy

Scrap Bin Reduction

My New Years resolution is to make the lids fit on all of my scrap bins. These bins hold all of the pieces smaller than 1/2 yard. It started as fat quarter storage, but quickly went downhill from there. The week before Christmas I started with the Christmas bin because I had it out making bowl cozies for Christmas stockings. Here is the bin when I started.

Disgusting, right?

First, I pulled out everything smaller than a fat quarter and cut 10″ squares, 5″ squares and 2-1/2″ strips. Starting with the 10″ squares, I grabbed these cake mix cards

added some Kona snow squares and made 16 pinwheel blocks.

This quilt top was the result.

Next, the 5″ squares and 2-1/2″ strips became Happy Blocks, 40 of them. I think I will get 2 quilts out of these.

The leftovers fit in the bin with room to spare. Mission accomplished! Only seven more bins to go.

What is your New Years quilting resolution?

Judy

A New Year

Welcome to 2019. I have decided to try a new blogging platform. I have been unhappy with blogger for quite awhile because it was impossible to write a post from my Ipad. Only from the laptop, so a quick post always turned into an hour or more. Also, it seemed to take forever to load photos. So, I’m trying WordPress. It has good reviews and says it is compatible with IPad. We will see. I’m thinking there may be some ads to deal with, so if that becomes a problem, let me know. My next step will be letting blogger followers know, so wish me luck on that.

Judy

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

My Winter Wonderland