I May Have A Scrap Problem... Goodbye March, Hello April!

Hi, all!

Wow!  How fast is this year flying by, right?  It's hard to believe, but it's already April.  It's been a good year so far, and I do believe that I've come to love scrap sewing!  

At the end of February, I decided that for my March scrappy goals I wanted to quilt my Long Time Gone quilt and finish the top of my Gypsy Wife quilt.  And I'm happy to say that I met both of those goals!  Here's my Long Time Gone...

...as it hung on the line drying!  It has a wool batt, my first experience with that but definitely not my last - but that means it can't go in the dryer.  You can see lots more detailed photos that show the quilting and gorgeous texture in this post.

And not only did I get my Gypsy Wife quilt top finished, I got it quilted too!

I'll be posting LOTS more pictures of this one on Friday!  But it's done and I love it...

And as if that wasn't enough, I did some other scrappy sewing in March, too!

I made a kid-sized version of the On-Line quilt, using all solids.  It came out so cute!  This one will be going to Jack's Basket.

I made a second version of the On-Line quilt early in the month when I needed a "brainless" sewing project, and pulled it out of the to-be-quilted pile and put it on the frame!

This quilt also jumped out of the to-be-quilted pile - it's been there a while!  It's made with solid binding scraps, with some black and white bindings thrown into the mix.  I separated them all with a cute rainbow print just to spice it up.   The original intention was to "slice and dice" it and re-assemble it, but I decided finished was better than good intentions!  This quilt will be going to another of the Hands2Help charities.

And just because scrappy sewing is more fun with friends, I got my quilt ministry buddies in on the mindless sewing!  This was one morning's accomplishment, and I think we now have enough for four or five twin size quilts!  

So I think it's safe to say March was a very good and productive month! I still have tons of scraps, but at least now I have something to show for it.  

Then I dug out the Scrap Attack box and pulled out a goal for April...

Now, those templates aren't new any more - I got them over a year ago - but they ARE still unused.  And it's been so long, I couldn't find the original inspiration shot that made me get them, but this is similar...

The arcs aren't pieced, they are one piece.  I love this look!  So I'm going to give it a whirl this month.  We'll see how it goes!

Now I'd love to know what wonderful scrappiness you did in March, and what you plan for April!  Link up below and let's cheer each other on!

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have A Scrap Problem... Gypsy In The House!

Hi, all!

Scraps, scraps everywhere - they can really consume you, can't they?  But every so often, it's nice to have a finish, and be able to look at it and know that you took something that could have been thrown away and turned it into something beautiful.  You may have seen this post about my Long Time Gone quilt...

...and today, I'm happy to say that now I can add Gypsy Wife to the (nearly) finished column!  I went back and looked through my pictures, and found this one, dated August 8, 2017.

That was the day that I started Gypsy Wife, a Jen Kingwell pattern.  The fabrics are Latitude batiks by Kate Spain, and were a wonderful and unexpected gift from Kate herself.  I came home one day to an enormous box on my doorstep, filled with scraps of the line before it even came out, along with a note from Kate saying SURPRISE!  I divided them up into cool and warm colors, pressed and sorted them into these tubs, and started on Gypsy Wife.

The blocks have been finished for a while, but trying to find time to set them into the background strips was hard to do, with so many projects going on.  However, last week I decided that it was time to put those blocks together, AND I DID!

Bear with me, because I've got a lot of pics!  

Isn't it gorgeous?  I love the way it looks like the blocks are floating on the vertical strips.

And even though it was windy, I wanted to get a stained glass shot (or two or three...)

I tried to use mostly warm colors in my blocks, with cool tones as the backgrounds.  Then I used all cool tones as the background vertical strips.

This quilt has a nice variety of blocks, and is a great way to learn to piece well.

There are no paper pieced blocks in this quilt, either. Hooray!

I made one mistake in this quilt - well, at least one! - as I found as I was piecing the last section that one of the blocks I had left wasn't what was called for in that space.  But by then, I wasn't going to go find where I messed up earlier and take it apart, so I made it work.  At least I'll be able to identify it as mine and no one else's!

It was such a rarity to have sunlight, I even love this shot with the sun glare!

One final shot as the sun sets in the west.

And don't think that this top is going to languish on a rack waiting to be quilted - I ordered another wool batt which arrived today, and the back is made and ready to go.  I need to quilt one more ministry quilt to reach a self-imposed finish goal before I load Gypsy Wife on the frame, so I should get to start on it tomorrow sometime.  I can't wait to try out some new designs that I picked up from Christina Cameli's new book, Step-by-Step Texture Quilting!

I still have scraps, scraps everywhere - even in the Latitude tubs - button I have two beautiful scrap quilts that I will be keeping for myself.  And I'm so inspired to keep making scrap quilts!  

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A BIG Finish!!!

Hi, all!

Wow!  It's already Friday!  And since our whoop whoop party was pre-empted last week, I bet I'm not the only one with a lot to whoop about this week!  So let's get started...

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Maybe you remember this picture - taken the day I finished my Long Time Gone quilt top.  Notice the date on the top?  That's right - July 10, 2017.  That. is. pitiful.  I had every intention of hand quilting this top, and it's been sandwiched for more than a year.  I did a little bit of hand quilting, but nowhere near as much as I should have.  I finally realized that if I continued hand quilting it, this quilt would never make it to the binding stage.

So I bit the dust, pulled out the bits of hand quilting I had done, and took the top and back off the batting.  I had a wool batting on hand that I had bought for a quilt for my niece, only to find out that "washable" doesn't really mean easy care/appropriate for a college student.  But that wool batting was perfect for this quilt! I wanted something with a lot of loft that would show off the quilting I wanted to do, plus be warm, light and drape-able.

Lots and lots of quilting went into this baby - it was on the frame for three days!  I had a hard time getting good pics up in my studio, but one day when I turned off the lights to quit for the day, I noticed that the light from the back window made the quilting stand out nicely, and took this picture.  

I didn't think I'd ever get through with it, but finally I reached the bottom of the quilt.  I used both free-motion quilting and ruler-work on this quilt, and don't think I wasn't nervous about it!  But I decided that since it was for me, I was going to do what I wanted and look on it as a learning experience, embracing the mistakes and imperfections.

Because wool batting can't be dried in the dryer, I hung this quilt on the clothesline to catch some sun and breeze.  Once the sun set, I pulled it off and laid it on the guest bed to finish drying.  It was a good place to lay it out flat, and with the ceiling fan, it dried pretty quickly.

And another advantage?  When I came in to check on it in the morning, the light coming in the bedroom window was perfect for showing off the quilting!

Every block was quilted differently!  As I said, I did a lot of ruler work, and also a good bit of tiny stippling or matchstick quilting to make some parts "pop out".

There was some pretty straight line quilting too - I really love the way the background fabric turned out on the block in the lower left corner of this picture!  Those tiny diamond crosshatches really set off the Trip Around The World block, which was mostly ditch-stitched.

Here you can see some of the matchstick quilting I used to make parts of blocks stand out.  Man, that stuff is tiny!  

It was so much fun deciding how to quilt each block!  I really stretched myself, and had a pile of quilting books stacked on my worktable to refer to each time I moved on to another space to quilt.

The back really tells the tale of how much quilting is in this quilt - you can just see all the texture it created!

And isn't this fun?  Jen Kingwell herself signed my quilt at a trunk show and lecture she gave in 2017!  

So here's the skinny about this quilt:

Pattern is Long Time Gone, designed by Jen Kingwell.

Fabrics are scraps of various Kate Spain designs, Good Neighbors by Amanda Jean Nyburg, a line from Connecting Threads called (I think) Nana's Kitchen, maybe? and various other assorted bright scraps.  The sashing between the blocks is the very last of my grandmother's vintage Irish linen that she ordered directly from Ireland during the 60's and 70's to make her suits.

Batting is Hobbs Tuscany Collection Washable Wool Batting.

Quilting is completely hand-guided free motion and ruler work.

And yes, I'm keeping this one!

Oh, and one more thing to whoop about - we currently have 242 people signed up for Hands2Help 2019!  It's not too late to join in the fun if you haven't signed up already - click here and scroll down to the signup area!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop???

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And now it's your turn!  

What's making you whoop it up this week?

See what you find when you google "funky chicken"?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Back to Business As Usual!

Hi, all!

Well, last week was an interesting change of pace!  If you didn't catch them, I invited guest bloggers to highlight each of this year's five Hands2Help charities, one each day of last week.  Which meant that I didn't have a Make-A-List Monday post last week.  So let's take a look at how my list from two weeks ago went, then I'll show you what I did last week...

1.  Finish quilting the customer quilt (without mistakes this time!)

Done, thankfully!  And with no further problems!

2.  Keep working on the vintage quilt repair job.

Done!  Well, at least, still in progress.  It's going to be a slow job, because there's a lot of repair needed, but it is a fun one!

3.  Start preparing next week's blog posts for Hands2Help.

Done!  And there was a lot of great feedback - people liked learning more about the charities!

4.  Keep working on the mindless sewing project.

Done!  I couldn't locate a finished pic of my own top, but here's a pic of the wall full of more blocks we made at church on our monthly sewing day!

5.  Bind four ministry quilts.

Done!  And I even remembered to take a picture!

6.  Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.

We gave away quite a few this week...

This quilt went to a woman whose mother passed away this week...

...and this one went to a woman in hospice care.

Another woman died unexpectedly this week, and we provided several quilts to family members...

This quilt went to her 4 year old granddaughter...

This quilt went to her daughter...

...and this quilt went to the woman's mother.

This quilt went to a church member's new grandbaby...

And this quilt went to a young woman in our community just diagnosed with leukemia.

This beauty went to a woman who just had surgery for breast cancer. 

And finally, this quilt went to a woman who lost her adult child to a brain tumor recently.

In addition to all of that, I also said that I was hoping to PLAY - and PLAY I did!  I had been wanting to make a solids version of the On-Line quilt, and I made a 36" square version that will be donated to Jack's Basket once it's finished.

But wait, that's not all....

I finished my Long Time Gone quilt!  Don't worry, I'll be sharing more about this, probably on Friday - I've taken lots and LOTS of pictures!

And then....

And then I finished my Gypsy Wife top!  It may be a little while before I can get this one on the frame, but I love that it's all put together.  And I love it!  

OK, so that's enough about last week.  Here's my plan for this week...

1.  Finish a ministry quilt for a special request.

2.  Make heart blocks for the drive for the Christchurch victims (more about this on Wednesday's blogpost.)

3.  Work on the vintage quilt.

4.  Quilt the solids On-Line quilt.

5.  H2H administrative stuff - lots of emails!

6.  Sort out H2H prizes.

7.  Taxes. (UGH)

8.  Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.

I also got a new toy last week - a tiny little camera, like a Go Pro (but cheaper!) and I need to learn how to use it so I can start doing video tutorials!  So I think I will spend some time playing with it, too.

So now, the question is - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah