Table Scraps, and Scraps, and Scraps, and ...

Early this morning, I finished my placemat made with strings. (Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. No sun yet this morning.)

It is my first time linking up with Joyful Quilter for Table Scraps Challenge. (Yay!) You can read all about it here.  If you look closely at the edge on the right-hand side, there's a snowman. 😊

My goal is to make a placemat each month (fingers crossed but no obligations) for this challenge using only strings as that department is overpopulated.

It's also my first time at machine binding. Not perfect but I'm sure by October, I will be more comfortable with this technique. Here's a picture of the back. 

You probably can tell that this is a quilt as you go. Well, except for the little square and the triangle. I have to give credit to Joanne from Canuck Quilter for the design. She calls it Breadcrumbs. (Very appropriate, I'd say.) She does such lovely things and sells her patterns too. Go check her out. Thanks for the inspiration, Joanne. 💙

My leader-enders were 9-Patch, what else? 

I know they aren't red but how can I leave this little bit of scrap alone? It has its own Rainbow! 

I got distracted and not just by this little piece. I was distracted in a BIG way!!

I got Scraps and Scraps and Scraps ... 

Raven has to sniff any suspicious package, in case there's a squirrel hiding in it. Poor Raven, you can not see the squirrels I see. And there's more ...  (anyone doing an I Spy quilt? Elaine, need some more?) 

A sweet (and very generous) sewing sister and her sister cleaned their respective sewing rooms. I won the loot. This is so impressive that I am speechless. I'm in fabric heaven! Thank you so so much, Anne and sister. May you receive as many blessings as I just got. 💖💖

Two questions come to my mind when I look at this picture. ONE:  How much money?  TWO:  How long do I have to live? 😄 Needless to say, I had to dive right in. I'm still working on it. Hence, two 9-Patch blocks that aren't red at all. 

Early this morning, I did play with red and got my first Scrap Jar Star done. 

I'll sew more red this weekend as I am not about to run out of scraps anytime soon. 

Hope everyone stays safe and I'll catch up with you next week. 

Have a great one! 

;^)

Joining 

Joy for Table Scraps Challenge 

Angela for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scraps! 

Red Hot

I like to go grocery shopping early in the morning (fewer people). This morning, it was minus 33C, yes minus. To those who think heated seats are a stupid invention, around here, it's a necessity. Brrr!

But in my sewing room, it's red hot!   

Yep, 9-Patch! 

I found these little pieces of beautiful red fabric and I just had to make a 9-Patch block with it. I couldn't decide which fabric to match it to, so I did both. 

No matter how hard I tried, it kept looking out of focus. After 10 tries, I gave up. 

The newest blocks that I showed you last week, got finished and they now look like this. 

Two different stars appear when you put four together. 

Of course, it will not be only red, although it is hot in red. 

In my last post, I forgot another contender I could use for RSC2022. Remember this one? Sorry, I don't know its name.

I could do units as part of the RSC and eventually assemble the units with the cross in the middle to make the block. That sounds very doable to me. The original pattern has two white dots before the middle cross so I will change this one a little bit. Love the cat fabric. 

I would also like to have a quilt ready to be machine quilted. I could work on it a little bit during my break since I am working from home and it will reduce the list of UFOs. So I started to pin another red beauty. 

It's none other than Field of Poppies. (I thought I had pressed this top!)

 

That's all for now. 

Hope you have a great one. 

;^)

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Spinning My Wheels

I am still pondering about my RSC2022 options. The list is way too long and I find it hard to remove some contenders. Anyone else with this kind of problem? 

The 9-Patch and HSTs are still on ... like forever! Haha.

The crumb bricks too as I don't have enough to do anything with these. 

Chaser Crumb Blocks

Chaser Crumb to be trimmed and sashed

What if I make a mask every month? It looks like we will be needing these for some time still. One thing I forgot to say in my previous post is that we are working from home again. I go to the office two mornings a week to distribute incoming mail and to mail out what was printed by the caseworkers. I like this routine as it gets me out of the house without meeting anyone. Win-win. 

Masks done in November.
The cat one has been washed already and the fabric shrunk
but not the liner so I have to redo this one.
The yellow one is not finished. 

I would love to do a Scrap Jar Star quilt. So I will start sewing 4-Patch blocks (or 16 Patch blocks) (same thing). Do I sew the block in rainbow colours or one colour? 

Both are pleasing to me. Sigh! 

Then the strings are demanding some attention. I have an idea that would be an opportunity for some of them to shine. Still on the drawing board but here's what I have so far. 

The solid coloured fabric from my mother's stash is also something I would like to use up and I love this quilt. 

from Google search

There's also this. 

Hmm! It could be interesting. No, I don't know the name. Yes, I know where I'm going with this. 

I would also love to make another Hidden Gems quilt

or a Burgoyne Surrounded but for a big quilt this time. 

How many hours of sewing do I have in a month? Darn!  That really cramp my style. 

There's also my Personal Rainbow UFO Challenge. The colour red calls for a new project but that's for another post. Stay tuned. 

Oh! Almost forgot. I have two finishes to show you. YES! 

First, it's Stars in Blue, labeled and all. My first finish of the year! Yay! 

Remember this panel I salvaged from a year ago? It was quilted with only batting. No backing. See this post for the story behind it. It was the perfect size for Stars in Blue. Win/win! (I know it's not straight but it'll do.)

The binding is built with dark blue scraps.

I think it was the only solution to my dilemma since nothing looked good from the front and the back. 

Then, there's this finish. 

Phew! Made it. Looking at the fabric for clues of who goes with who was impossible in the Spider Web quilt. Once I organized the yellow pieces together, pointing in the same direction, it went so much faster. 

All I had to do was to turn the pieces in my hand and search for the yellow piece going to the right. 

The rest of the pieces were picked as per their unique shape. 

Now, I'll take it apart and put it away so my son can work on the puzzle he received on New Year's Eve. 

It's nothing interesting so I won't keep you posted on this one. 

The original post was supposed to finish with this paragraph. 

I am sorry to announce that the year didn't start on the right foot for us. Raven disappeared on January 3. I've been very down and still am. I'm pushing myself to sew as I know it will help me (and you will too with the comments and your posts about wonderful stuff). Thank you for being there. 

BUT 

After 10 days away, he came back home. I just couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him on the deck. He lost a lot of weight but is otherwise okay as you can tell from this picture. 

He's still sassy! Haha. I'm so happy. 

Have a great one! 

;^)

 

Joining my quilting friends

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Sarah at Confession of a Fabric Addict

One Continuous Line

... is what time is. It is the last day of the year and yet it is just a regular day before another regular day. Nothing different will happen. No big bang. No threshold to cross. No ritual to do. Well, maybe the clinging of wine glasses but time is just one continuous line. Humans make it the last day of the year. We have to separate things, quantify them and categorize them. When I look back, all I see is one life, mine in one continuous line.

I didn't do a lot of sewing lately but did a lot of quilting. The goal is to get Stars in Blue finished before the end of the year. Almost there. 
This was my Personal Rainbow UFO Challenge for the month of July and August 2021. I got the top together and the backing magically appeared so I sandwiched it right away. It's been waiting ever since. 

The big stars were quilted with one continuous line. I hope you can see it in the next picture 

A loop in the corner going up to the Hourglass unit side where I sew in the ditch (not that easy when you don't use the walking foot) across the bottom and up the other side to make another loop and round I went. The middle square ends up being sewn all around and everything is well secured. 

The little stars got a different treatment. 

I went loopy all around this one. Free motion with no marking so each one is unique and crooked differently, haha. The white spaces around the middle block are quilted in tight straight lines. 

That's it. Nothing very fancy but I like it and it is done. Now, what to use to bind this one? Blue? 

A scrappy binding of blue, orange, and red? If I want to finish it before the bells of New Years' ring, I better hurry and decide soon. I still have all those threads to bury too. Where is my Fairy Quilting Godmother? 

Another thing I've been doing lately is puzzles. Like this. 

Don't get me wrong. I love Bonnie's quilts but when they look like this, they are a nightmare. 

As you can see, I did manage to get some done but that yellow Spider Web quilt is a doozer! But I'm stubborn; I'll get it done eventually. 😉

Here's my Snow Panther. Haha! He is Snow nothing. He really doesn't like snow. He will only step in my footsteps or those made by other animals. He fell through the snow once and never again. He makes sure his footing is secure before he steps in. He's so funny. 

May you all be blessed with a wonderful new year. May your family, friends, and a smile be with you always. May health be by your side throughout. Let's not forget those who have left and cherish those that are with us. Blessings to you as I am blessed with you as my friends. Here's to another year of blogging, sewing, helping out, laughing out loud, counting units, separating blocks, categorizing fabrics into colours, because this is what humans do. So let's enjoy it all again in 2022. 

Cheers! 

;^)

 

Joining Alycia Quilts for the first time for Finished or Not Friday.  

Joining Angela at So Scrappy for Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Family Gathering and Quilting

A simple little post for those who are alone and wish to see some quilty stuff and some fabrics. Like Rebecca, it will be just us with the boys today. A simple family gathering to enjoy. 

In my previous post, I mentioned a bag of cream, grey, and poinsettias print triangles that I sewed and trimmed. They grew into little HSTs and I played with them until I was happy with the layout. 

It was fun playing with these little Broken Dish blocks at 2.5 inches. 

I should have taken more pictures as I was constructing this one. The gold fabric is not cotton and was ... (let me find a nice word) ... umm ... "unpleasant" to cut and sew. It was just a little piece that was given to me and I really liked it but not anymore! I thought it would bring out the gold highlights in the poinsettias fabric. I should have made that border slimmer but it doesn't bother me enough to change it. 

Let's try another picture to capture its real colour. 

Somewhat better. 

The last border is also a given fabric so nothing in this little mat (12.75 X 10.5) is from my stash but all were saved from the trash. The backing will be as the border fabric. It will go to the quilting pile which I need to do something with. 

While sewing the mat, I made 9-Patch blocks as my leader-ender. Here they are in order of completion. As I took the picture I realized that I am easy to influence. The more I worked on the mat, the more I picked the same colours. 

Stars in Blue is at the ready for quilting but I am not. I need to practice before I tackle that one. I feel rusty. I will practice on a placemat or something before I do anything on this one. Hopefully, a practice session or two will happen this weekend. 

Hope you enjoy this day any which way you can. Be it with family, friends, or fabric. 

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework