The clean up………..

I have made several little wallhangings with a colorwash heart.  If I did this one now I would be more creative with prints at the outside edge of the heart so it would look more rounded and less pixelly.

I brought the pile of scraps upstairs to sort while I watched the news and weather.  These are all of the widths that were too narrow to use for the kit pieces.  I’m picking the pieces I want to keep and I have a buyer for the rest.

Once again I’m going to mention that if you asked me a question in a comment and you didn’t hear back from me, you are a NO REPLY commenter.  The majority of you are Google+ and I can’t even leave a comment on your site because I won’t join (and become a no reply like you are).  I have an email link on the right side bar and another in my profile……..so if you really want an answer….email me.

What is left………….

When cutting the pieces for the kits, the first slice is to straighten the edge of the fabric, about 1/4″ wide.  These pieces will go to the lady that collects for dog bed filler.

After the 6″ strips are cut I slice a sliver off the fold edge of a stack of 4 fabrics.  These will end up in the dog beds too.

The last slice at 21″ leaves the 6″ selvage, sometimes with as much as an inch of the fabric print showing, sometimes just 1/4″ of it showing.  I separate out all of the ones with words and color circles and throw the rest into the dog bed filler bag.

I went to church sewing circle yesterday for a break in cutting.  We were making tote bags for 2 different destinations.

A nice find………..

I was going through some boxes of miscellaneous pieces yesterday and found these pieces left from my quilts called Square Dance and Square Dance 2.  They look like candidates to use in the quilt called Madness in the book “Adding Layers” by Kathy Doughty.

Negative space…….

I was surprised by the shape of the negative space in the center with the stars placed in 2 rows.  It won’t fill evenly with star points; I think it would need equilateral triangles.  I’m planning on making more Spin blocks so I’ll have more scraps to make one more star and then I can see what happens when I move the bottom 2 down and put a star in the middle.  On the other hand a table runner with stars in a straight line sounds good right now.

I finished the ditch quilting on this one last night so the next step is deciding how to trim it.

It was a beautiful day with no wind yesterday.  It was only about 50 degrees but with the sun shining and no wind it felt warmer.  I started my brush pile on the end of the driveway for the first pick up of the season on Monday.

A play day………..

The first time I showed this, it surprised several people just like it surprised me that this is how the Vintage Spin blocks begin, a circle that a square is cut out of, lining up the ruler on key points.

Since then several people have asked me what I was going to do with the trimmings.  Yesterday at the twice monthly sewing day I finally played with them.  I sewed 2 of the pieces together first.

If you look very closely at this photo you will see a clear Plexiglas diamond shaped template on top of the melon shape.  A friend made it for me.

I cut out six of them and laid them out in a star pattern.  I will lose most of that tiny section in the middle when I sew them together.  I can also lay out 3 of them into a hexagon shape but I think I like the star better.  This is still at the playing stage.  Don’t hold me to making what you see here.

Sewing, basting…….

This is the quilt I am basting now.  It has one row of squares hanging off the other side of the double table.  For the new readers, here is where I explain my basting.  Here is another post where I show the needle package.  Most people that hate thread basting are using too short of a needle.  Mine are fine needles about 2″ long, plenty of needle to get hold of to pull through.

I have some people asking if my stitching doesn’t get caught in the basting thread and my answer is that I would rather stitch through a thread than a safety pin.  I don’t have to unbaste as I go but you do have to remove your pins as you go.

I have 4 sets of strips sewn on 24 blocks now.  I still have a long way to go to get 15-16″ blocks.

This is the pile of little pieces that are too short to use in these blocks.  They are anywhere from 1″-2″ wide and most are 3″ long or shorter.  They are calling my name to play and make a small project but I’m resisting.

3 more rounds…………

I sewed on 3 more rounds of strips yesterday.  I think I’ll add one more round of purple before I add the blue.

My neighbors have a mock orange bush on the lot line behind me.  It is as fragrant as the peonies and lilacs.

This is the left back corner of my lot. The mock orange bush is in the center back.  My gardens are like jungles.  This is why I dig up the hostas every 3 years and wiggle the babies loose and pot them.  There isn’t room to let them get any bigger.  I dug out a bunch of the day lilies so I could plant the hostas in the front and you can see the lilies are taking over again.  I have a couple volunteer redbud trees at the left that I’ll probably leave there since a large one to the left of this will probably die off in a few years.

The red wigiela bush is the last of the three to bloom.  It is loaded this year.

The bush has never had a nice shape so I’ll probably trim it way back again this year and see if it looks better next year.

Another color……….

I have added my red/orange and red so next is red/violet.  So far I have just used pieces from my scrap bins but I don’t have any red/violet in there.  I will have to go to my yardage and cut some pieces.  Then will come violet and indigo which I have plenty of in the scrap bins.  It is about the size of a placemat now.  I wonder what size it will be when it is finished.

Very few seams…..

I added 2 rounds of orange to the yellow piece I started Sat. night.  It is about a mug rug size right now.  My plan (I think) is to put all of the colors of the rainbow around it.

I don’t have a cat (or cats) but this was the scene outside my kitchen window yesterday morning.  The black and white cat and the gray cat are large and go through my yard quite often.  I think they are males.  The black cat is new to my yard this past week and I suspect it is a female.  When I left for church the 2 males were in my front yard hissing at each other.  Later in the afternoon the black and white one was in the flower bed outside my picture window and he had blood on his face so I knew they had fought.  I want them to leave so my birds can come back to the feeders.

Playing around………..

I got my hair cut yesterday morning so I don’t feel like a shaggy old woman any more.  I cut some backings and battings for 3 table runners and figured out the border for a quilt.  I pulled 2 pieces that could be the backing of the quilt too so I’ll decide which one today.  Last night I just wanted to play so I got out all of the African fabric scraps and made some crooked cobblestone blocks and some scrap strip piecing.  I know the photo looks like a mess but it is scraps on the left, cobblestone blocks in a pile at the top  and then the 3 strip piecings that might become mug rugs.

My heating problem is fixed so now I need to finish sorting all of the stuff that was in that corner of the bedroom and get the furniture back in place.  I just wasn’t in the mood to do it yesterday.