Scrap Basket Sunday - Sewin' Spools

Here it is Scrap Basket Sunday again.  I had some Fig Tree Jelly Roll strips of Urban Indigo in my scrap basket so that's what I decided to be creative with.  

I used the Thimble Blossoms pattern Spools.  I've been wanting to use this pattern for a long time now and I figured it would be great with my Urban Indigo fabric.  I love the chunky thread spools like in this pattern.  I decided to make two mini quilts instead of a big quilt.  I really like that I did each one in just one color with white background.  The fabric for the spool ends was yardage I had in my stash.

Buster is helping me with this photo of the spool quilts.  He's lots better but he did pop into the pool for a quick cool off again this morning, he really is supposed to wait until after his Vet appt. tomorrow before swimming.  You can probably see his scar on his right leg.  The hair is filling in now so soon it won't be very noticeable.  

The check fabric in the lighter spool ends didn't translate well in the photo but it's a brownish color called Mud, fabric is Mini Mikes by Michael Miller.  Here's a close-up picture.

Last couple Sunday's have been fun coming up with a pattern to use with scraps and getting my project done as well.  What will I do next Sunday?  Don't really have a clue yet but come back next week to find out. 

Hope all of you are enjoying Father's Day.

My Low Volume Quilt

Another night of basketball on TV and another night of me sewing my low volume quilt. All of the fabric used for this quilt was in my stash. Used scraps for the blocks and I had about 4 yards of the white with soft blue dots for the setting squares and borders.

Betty helping me again with quilt modeling.

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Sewin' It All Together

Got my blocks sewn into rows and lovin' how this quilt is looking.  Betty is helping me with my photo today.  

Joann had a very good question from my last post inquiring why I have an odd number blocks, 41. It is unusual but here's how it breaks down:

5 rows with 5 patchwork blocks = 25

4 rows with 4 patchwork blocks = 16

That gives a grand total of 41 blocks.  

What I did was add a couple rows making my quilt 9 rows with 9 blocks in each row (patchwork blocks and solid squares).

Then there will be a top and bottom border. The pattern calls for 12" borders, I may have enough fabric for that, I'll measure and see.  After the quilting is done an easy scallop is cut on each end which gives the quilt some charm.

Update on Buster: He's doing much better. Little stinker ran as fast as he could and jumped on the step of the pool before my husband could catch him.  

Playoffs = Off to Play

I've been going nuts last couple of days working on my 16-patch scrappy low volume blocks.  This is the Scrap Basket Sunday project I started this last Sunday.  I've been wanting to make a Low Volume quilt and just so happens my basket of low volume fabrics was over-flowing.  So I spent a couple days cutting out tons of 2 1/2" squares.  

Last evening since basketball playoffs were on TV, it was a perfect time for me to be in my sewing room working on my blocks.  And, patting myself on the back, I managed to get all 40 of my blocks sewn, pressed and trimmed.  I didn't do every bit of the sewing last evening, did some on Sunday and a wee bit Monday evening.  Here's my blocks all done, yay.  There are 41 blocks all together for my quilt. I'm thinking of this Sunday's Scrap Basket Sunday being a reveal of my quilt top sewn together.  

Scrap Basket Sunday - New Project

I started a new Scrappy quilt with my Low Volume fabrics.  This is my first completed 16-Patch block. 

I found this super cute Sew Charming pattern in the magazine Quilt Sampler and instantly wanted to make it.  I love this nice patchwork pattern with the scalloped top and bottom borders.  I changed mine up from the pattern, they stitched together 4 charm squares for a 9 1/2" unfinished block.  I'm doing mine with 2 1/2" squares for a 16-Patch block and unfinished size of 8 1/2".  

I'm using scraps of fabric for this quilt and for the setting squares I'm using a soft white with light blue dots, I already had this fabric and it's perfect for my Low Volume scrappy quilt.  I'm going to call my quilt: Sew Scrappy.

Took me a couple days to cut out this big bunch of 2 1/2" squares.  I couldn't even tell you how many there are, probably about 400 but that's just a guess.  I'm making my quilt a bit bigger than the pattern because I want mine big enough that it could be put on a bed instead of just a quilt to snuggle up with on the couch.  

I have this stack of sets of two squares sewn together so far.  Just going to sew 2's then make them 4's and make my 16-Patch blocks.

Here's my big bunch of squares in a pile on the floor.  I was going through them a bit.  Happy Sunday to all of you.

Oh, update on Buster:  He's doing much better.  I'll go snap a picture of him and be right back.  Ok, I'm back.  I thought of using a different picture but this one is too cute with his Big eyes.  You can see his Frankenstein leg there where he had his surgery.  We can tell even though his leg is still sore and swollen that he's using it more, the knee surgery appears to be a success. Soon he will be able to use all four legs again.

Another update: As I was on the computer doing this post, Buster decided to go swimming and he wasn't supposed to get his leg wet, oops.  I didn't realize he snuck past me. Hopefully he didn't mess up his stitches.

Happy Saturday

Hello blog friends, thanks again for stopping by for a visit.  Life has been busy lately.  Buster had to have surgery on his leg this last Tuesday so that's been keeping us busy helping Buster as he recovers. He's getting better a little bit more every day.  He injured his knee, they call it a luxating patella.  He can start taking short walks in the morning and in the evening so I took him and Betty early this morning before it got too hot outside.  Here he is hanging out in my sewing room, he likes it in my room.  

I've taken my Janome 6600 back to the sewing machine shop twice.  It didn't work right after they fixed it a couple weeks ago.  I think I told you it was doing teeny tiny stitches.  First trip back the sewing machine lady convinced me I was using the wrong menu setting. Of course my sewing machine worked fine that day and made me a liar.  Ok fine, took it home and it was still wonky, sewing teeny tiny stitches then jumping to bigger stitches and couldn't sew a straight line at all, not operator error either I went slow and made sure my fabric was next to the edge of the 1/4" foot.  I looked it up on google and found out that it was probably the feed dogs.  So I took off the plate to see if there was a lot of dust which there wasn't as they just cleaned it.  I flipped the lever to drop the feed dogs for free motion quilting, they went down. Then I flipped it the other way and the feed dogs stayed down wouldn't go back up.  So I drive across town again with my sewing machine and tell them it's still not right the feed dogs are not right.  They finally agree to look at it still insisting nothing is wrong.  Then next day they call and say they adjusted the feed dogs and machine was ready to be picked up.  Finally it is sewing like it's supposed to and quieter too.   What a lot of hassle it is sometimes to get sewing machine repair.  

In between taking care of Buster and driving to the sewing machine shop and of course working I managed to get my pieces sewn and trimmed for June Schnibbles Dulcinea.  Here they are on my design wall just need to sew my blocks together.

My latest thing: Trimming my low volume fabrics into squares for a scrappy low volume quilt.  I love the look of low volume quilts, so Vintage, so nice.  I got this new Hot Pink rotary cutter yesterday at Joann's with my 40% off coupon.  

I hope all of you have a fun day.  I will be trying to stay out of the 110 degree heat.

Scrap-Basket Beauties Sunday

I decided to sew my Cross My Heart blocks together for a table runner instead of making it a large quilt.  Smaller quilts are just more doable for me right now.  This pattern is from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Beauties.  

This is not technically a scrap basket project but I'm going to go with it anyway for Kim's Scrap Basket Sunday.  Kim of course can be found here at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure.  

I like how this looks as a table runner, it's kinda cute in Vintage Modern fabrics.  

So happy to have finished a project too. Well almost, still needs to be quilted, hope to get that done sometime soon.

Thanks again for visiting.

Quilt Top Officially Done!

Yay, I put the outer border on my quilt from Lori's row along. This has been a fun quilt to make and a long time in the making as well. I believe I started it in September. Every couple of weeks Lori would post another row tutorial. I have a bunch of strings to trim then I can send it off to be quilted. Buster was in my sewing room so he ended up in my photo.


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Bee In My Bonnet Quilt

I finally got the border on my Bee In My Bonnet quilt from Lori Holt's quilt along.  This quilt has been in the works since around September.  Every couple of weeks Lori would post instructions for another row.   I like that this quilt has elements from the Seasons: Mittens for Winter, Leaves for Fall, Tulips and Butterflies for Spring.  Took me a while to get into the mood to put on my border. I kept knowing I needed to do it and not really wanting to.  But on the other hand I wanted to finish this quilt.  Well yesterday I finally put on my scallop border.  Now all I need to do is a white 1 1/2" outer border.  This quilt is really big too.  I'm sure it would fit perfectly on a twin size bed.  I'll probably hang it on my wall in my sewing room.  

What is your favorite row?  I have a hard time picking. I love the apples, the patchwork border, the houses, they're all good.  When I get this baby quilted and hung in my sewing room I'll take another picture and show you.  This picture is the best I could do right now cause of the quilt size.

Back to The Shop

Looks like I need to take my Janome 6600 back to the shop.  It's not working right since I got it back a week ago from being repaired.  Look at those microscopic stitches!  And they are not consistant, some a bit bigger but mostly teeny tiny.  My little portable Janome has been my best friend lately.  All I can say is really good thing I don't need to do any quilting anytime soon.

More Ribbon Organization

This idea for cut pieces of ribbon too long to throw away but left un-organized can turn into a big mess.  I got this idea from Pinterest. The picture I saw used the other style of clothespins but this is what I had in the way of clothespins and it works.  I put them in a little basket, not only do they look better but I should be able to find a ribbon I need much easier as well.  Don't you just love Pinterest?  Me too!  I ♥ polka dots too as you can tell.

Ribbon Idea

I wondered around in Target for like an hour today trying to figure out an idea for organizing my ribbon. Came up with this idea. It's a toilet paper roll holder.

The arm of it for holding the TP works great to hold my Jelly Roll strips for my current Cross My Heart block project.

Basket

I made this cute basket for a friend for her birthday which was May 1st.  My friend who I've worked with for 30 years retired on her birthday - May 1st.  She loves to crochet so when I saw this free pattern by Fish Creek Studio I knew it would be perfect for her crochet stuff.  The pattern used Comma fabric and I liked that so I used that fabric too.  The pieced portion was made with a mini charm pack and used every piece of fabric.  I love how it turned out and my friend loved it too which always makes me happy.  If you like this basket you can make one too, go here for the tutorial.

Changed It Up

I already changed my blocks. That's one good thing about them being on a design wall, I can step back and really see if I like the layout. Like it much better now. Looks like I'm ready to sew my blocks together.  Please forgive the darkness of this photo, I took it with my cell phone and didn't adjust the colors like I did in the first photo that I took with my camera.


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Gentle Art Blocks

This is my first time using my new design wall.  It works great for the Schnibbles!  I got my 25 Gentle Art blocks done today.  Arranged them on the design wall, re-arrange, step back think about it, re-arrange again.  I think this placement is okay.  The fabric I'm using is Petite Odile by French General. I had a couple charm packs and they seemed like they would work out fine for this Gentle Art pattern.  May leave it like this or I might change those two bottom right blocks with each other. 

Color Block Pouches

Color Block Pouches is the name of the pattern that I used for these cute little zipper bags. The pattern is by V and Co.  I like the linen fabric on the top, the print on the bottom and the zipper matching the fabrics.  This is a fun little birthday gift for my SIL's birthday which was yesterday.  I'm a bit late with getting it completed and mailed off to her.  Guess it will be stretching out her birthday longer.  I had fun making these little bags.  

Scrap Basket Sunday

For my Scrap Basket Sunday I used a quilt block that I made a while back and wasn't using for anything. I used it to make this pincushion.  I like to have a pincushion in the drawer in my sewing room to put needles with thread.  Sometimes I hand stitch something like the opening of a lining in a tote bag or a hole in a dog toy and there's lots of thread left on the needle. I don't want to throw it away so I just keep it on the needle and stick in the pincushion to use later.  Also, sometimes you need to sew something quickly and it's nice to have the needle already threaded and ready to go.  I bought these nice Teak wood drawer organizers about a week ago at Bed, Bath and Beyond or as I call it the Way Beyond store (that's a joke from the movie Click with Adam Sandler.)

Turned out to be a cute little pincushion. I filled it with walnut shells and still had left over thread on that needle so there you go, I have a spot for that needle now.

I recently organized my drawers in the sewing room, they were in bad need of it.  Much better!

Here's the outside of my cheapie drawer unit. I covered the wood fronts with fabric and put on new drawer pulls.  I love how it turned out.

A Couple More Things

I meant to tell you about the background fabric I used for my mini spool quilt I posted about yesterday. The mini quilt size, by the way, is 17 1/2" square.  The Liberty Love book also shows the spools sewn up into a full size quilt which is really awesome.  

Anyway back to the background fabric.  As you can see in the picture it's a bunch of words about the making of a quilt.  The fabric by Robert Kaufman is called Architextures.  It's really fun.  I bought it in black with white letters too.

This ruler fabric is from the fabric line: Sewing Seeds by Quilting Treasures.  It is also available in Black & Red.

Mini Thread Spool Quilt

Isn't this so cute? Well I think it is. I love this thread spool pattern from the book Liberty Love. The ruler fabric for the border is perfect for a spool quilt.  I picked it up as a fat quarter when I was at a quilt shop in Colorado - Mama Said Sew.  Don't know the name of the fabric or designer but I'm sure it could be figured out with a Google search.  I cut all of the fabric out for this quilt about a month ago and just now got around to sewing it together.  Thanks for visiting. I hope all of you are having a nice Saturday. 


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Sewing Stuff

I got this awesome book in the mail today, Camille's new book, love it! I had pre-ordered this book from Amazon but it wasn't going to arrive until June and I noticed it was out now for purchase. So, I cancelled my Amazon order and ordered from Camille's Etsy shop.

And this is one reason why. So cool to have an autographed copy.  The quilts in this book are very cool. 

Other sewing news:  My Janome 6600 had to go to the shop for  service. I broke the lever for raising and lowering the presser foot. They said it would take about 3 weeks because they have to order the part. It's ok because I have my little portable Janome.  But can I quilt with it? I've never tried and I have a signature quilt that I need to quilt for a co-worker who is retiring on May 24th.  I would have quilted it by hand if necessary.  Today I tried out that wiggly zig-zag stitch that I've seen done on several blogs, Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilts is one of them.  The wiggly zig-zag is a long stretched out zig-zag to become a nice little wavy line.  I played around with the stitches on Baby Janome today and figured it out, yay.  I tried it on a scrap of fabric sandwiched with batting and it looks pretty good.  I'm so happy about that, you have no idea how much.  

Thanks again for stopping by for a visit.  I do my best to write back to you when you comment but if I don't get time please don't take offense. I enjoy each comment and I'm happy to have you visiting my blog to see what silly thing I'm writing about.

Mod Runner

I finished hand quilting this table runner a few days ago and threw it in the wash yesterday. This is a nice table runner pattern designed by Sherri McConnell and can be found in her book A Quilting Life.  I'm giving this as a gift to my Sister Jeannie who is having a birthday in about a week.  My idea for this table runner started with the purchase of the plates in the center with the silhouettes of birds and bird houses.  A nice little combo for my gift.  I think she will like it.  Now to ship it without those plates breaking.

Here's a close up picture of the hand quilting.

What! You want to see Buster.  Ok, here's your Buster fix.  He's so cute.  Happy Sunday Everyone.  Oh, notice my new kitchen chairs that Buster is sitting on.  Garage sale yesterday, 4 chairs for $30, a great deal.

Design Wall

I actually have a design wall.  I always thought there was no room for a design wall in my sewing room but then I found a tutorial called Making a Design Wall For Any Space by Oh, Fransson!  Great idea for how to make this design wall so I gave it a go.  Using foam board from Home Depot and Warm & Natural batting and a staple gun.  My husband actually had an extra piece of the foam board that he used for insulation for his Willys Wagon that he just finished fixing up.  The foam board was 48" wide so we kept that size and cut the other direction 37".  Then I just stretched the batting around the board and stapled with a staple gun.  

I don't have a current project that I need to use my new design board for so I put up some Farmer's Wife blocks.  I didn't think I would like a design wall but it's kinda cool, I think I'll get good use out of it.

Large-Block Quilts Winner

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog for Vickie's Large-Block Quilts book tour.  And thank you so much for your nice compliments on my quilt.  I guess I'm not good at following directions as I'm the only one who made an entire quilt not just a quilt block.  Well, the Stretched Stars pattern just wouldn't have had the same impact with only doing one block and also I just wanted to challenge myself to finish the quilt.

Anyway without further delay here is the winner for a copy of Vickie's book Large-Block Quilts:

Sew Cindy


Cindy sure is a lucky girl.  I hope you will enjoy this book Cindy.

Hat Trick

Here's my April Schnibbles quilt Hat Trick.  Turned out to be Patriotic but didn't start off that way.  My original idea was a Beach Theme. I have some novelty fabric with Beach Houses that I was going to use for the center solid squares. It didn't look bad that way but didn't have the wow factor either, just wasn't doing anything for me so I changed the solid background fabric to a fabric I had with stars and matched well with my 9-patch colors. It's Patriotic and it's cute and so is little Buster helping me out with my photo on our front porch.  I barely had enough day light left for this photo.  Did you notice that I added an additional 9-patch block to the center? Adds just the right touch.

If you are visiting to check on the winner for the book Large-Block Quilts, come back tomorrow and I'll announce the winner.

Vintage Sewing with Vintage Modern

I decided to give my Vintage Singer 99 sewing machine a try today.  First I checked out YouTube to find out how to wind a bobbin and thread the machine.  Figured that out and thought I would actually sew something.  I made 5 of my Cross My Heart blocks that I'm making with the book Scrap Basket Beauties.  Since the edge of the sewing machine foot would have been a pretty narrow seam, I eyeballed it by extending my fabric to the right about 1/8".  It turned out pretty well I think.  I'm not sure how often I'll sew with this machine but it works and of course I love the nice Vintage look  of it in my sewing room.

Since I didn't get any sewing done yesterday for Scrap Basket Sunday at least I got a few blocks made today.  I know the fabric for my blocks are not from a scrap basket but since I'm using the book Scrap Basket Beauties I'm going with that for Scrap Basket Sunday.