Saturday, April 25, 2020

Finishing up a Couple of Charity Quilt Tops and Other Activities!

This is the first of two quilt tops  I made from the fabric shown between the hexagons.  I was not crazy about this fabric and it doesn't photograph well at all as it is red, orange and fuchsia which is a weird combination to begin with!  I didn't want to use green around it as it would immediately turn into a Christmas quilt!  It measures about 40 x 60.

Somehow my brain must have been on pause as when I cut more triangles, I made them bigger so couldn't use the leftovers from above.  Fortunately, they were the exact right number for doing the same arrangement as above but with fewer hexagons.  I used another fabric for the in-between pieces and it was primarily the garish red and fuchsia as well.

I always try to use up all the fabric so had enough for these posie blocks and the leftover hexagons.  This won't be very big but will probably do something with it to at least make it baby quilt size (like turning the squares on point).  We shall see but not until the fall as I am rapping up major quilting as I am scheduled for ankle surgery in a couple of weeks and will have to be off my feet for 2 months. Have some English paper piecing to keep me busy and will probably take a bunch of stack and whack fabric and at least pin it in preparation for cutting at some future date.  

To keep ourselves busy while inside, just completed this 1000 - 3 pieces jig saw puzzle.  The funny thing is that my husband and I independently purchased jig saw puzzles that were different (his only had 750 pieces) but the subject matter -- cats and books -- was the same!  Guess we have been married far too long!

I have to admit I have spent a lot of time on the porch looking at the ocean (when we didn't  have 50 mph winds beating down on  us).  A long drive on Monday!

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Evolution of a Baby Quilt Plus the Last of Them for Awhile

Hopefully I have pictured all the baby quilts that I have completed over the past couple of weeks -- 11 altogether but no batting so they won't get done by me anytime soon!  I did three more of this pattern as I like it and it used up all the four patches that I had created.




Same as the one above but I twisted the picture somehow!




I am actually beginning to see a dent in my green bag of 2 1/2 in strips!  




I had a pile of this kid print in 4 1/2 in squares and thought I would make it a focal point of a quilt and not make it so scrappy as it would detract from the print.  This was my first attempt and a definitely no!



This was the second attempt and still didn't make the cut although it was better.  I did so want to use up some of the squares I had already cut up rather than doing more white ones.



I finally decided that this was an okay arrangement as you could see the kid print and the two blues went together.  I have added the light blue as a border and will use the darker blue for the binding.

I got a donation of elastic from a friend in Rochester and used it to make 15 more masks today.  I raided my granddaughter's toy bin (for when she visits down here) and came up with a wonderful and large assortment of kid's craft pipe cleaners which make an awesome nose piece.  Also discovered those hoops you make potholders with as a kid and they are the perfect amount of stretchiness and are all different colors.  


Saturday, April 4, 2020

Baby Quilts and Masks!

Finished  this one finally and am relatively pleased although probably won't do again!!



This was definitely a oops that I didn't notice until I had it sewn together and then I only fixed the problems one at a time as I only noticed one of the twisted four patches at first.  I should have taken pictures as I went along but was trying to be efficient!  I must say that it did give me an idea for a different arrangement!!



Fixed!



My daughter requested some masks as she has been doing our shopping and picking up of medicines etc.  She specifically asked for "tie-dyed" ones.  She used to mock all my dyed t-shirts but wears them almost exclusively these days!!  I hadn't considered doing dyed ones but thought it was a great use of some of those "drop cloths" I had while doing ice dyeing.  I also thought that the center of the kaleidoscopic ice dyed pieces would give them a "designer" look.  She told me that after thee MIRS epidemic in China several years ago, designer face masks were all the rage.  The funny thing is that I was rueing the fact that I had no flannel down here as I don't quilt with flannel so the first three masks were made using some leftover cotton batting which worked fine!  However, as I was assembling the third one, it suddenly occurred to me that I had yards and yards of flannel in cream, white and gray solids as I used flannel as a foundation for my jackets.  As I haven't done a jacket in a couple of years, just forgot about it.  I made seven masks but daughter was off with two before I got them in the picture!

Now back to baby quilts although may make some masks with ties.  Shockingly, even my husband is going to take a couple back home with him!


Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Baby Quilts Anonymous

This is probably my favorite of the various patterns that I  have been trying with the 4 patches.  I may do more now that I have discovered another bolt of plain non-pfd white fabric as I used up the last of the one bolt.  Funny how the bolts disappear but the scrap bag stays about the same.




I saw this variation on the Scrap Enthusiasts Facebook page and decided to try it.  You could not do this one without a design wall and carefully moving pieces to your sewing machine.  It is okay but I decided to try a different variation which I haven't seen anywhere so I guess it is my design!




This is the variation before it was finished.  I finished it today but don't have the picture up yet!  No need for borders on these three as they all measure about 40 inches square.  I still have a huge pile of 4 1/2 inch squares and ended up with two 4 patches after done which I thought was amazing!  There were also only 3 white squares left.  I didn't plan this at all.  Today I cut up the remainder of the first bolt into 4 1/2 squares and 2 1/2 strips so that I can make more 4 patches.  After this batch, I may give the remainder of the squares and 2 1/2 miscellaneous strips to someone else.  I get bored with the same fabrics after a while!  While binge watching Death in Paradise on Britbox, started sewing the strips together to make more 4 patches!!  

Stay tuned.