Design Wall Monday

Scrappy piano key strips are on the design wall today. These are going to be borders for the scrap vortex quilt. I am piecing the scraps on wax paper to see if I like this technique. It's keeping the strip sets perfectly even and so far, I'm really liking it. A few more sections are needed to add to the quilt top, but right now it's the perfect mindless piecing job!

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

UFO Update

Not much progress has been made on my UFO yet this month, but I am prepared to make lots of progress this week. The first two sections of Votes For Women are quilted, and trimmed. This is not one of my favourite jobs. The three layers have to be trimmed, which totally dulls the rotary blade.



And then you end up with a pile of mess that looks like this. These are the cutoff edge pieces that have to be dealt with.

The batting scraps are cut with scissors (to save the rotary blade from further torture) into smaller pieces and tossed in the dog bed pillowcase, which is attached to my cutting table with binder clips.



The backing scraps are cut into useable sizes of 1", 1.5" and sometimes 2". These are all civil war reproductions so will go into that scrap bin.
Now that this step is completed and I'm ready to make some progress on this quilt!

Scrappy Piecing

Some people call it "free piecing", or "liberated piecing" or "wonky piecing" or "crumb piecing" or "improv piecing".
Whatever you want to call it, it involves picking scraps and sewing them together with no pattern to follow, and no plan in mind. 

When I am sewing like this, I have no idea how what I am creating looks as I'm going along. 
When I put it on the design wall I see what I made. I just love Nemo in the middle of the V!!
When I am sewing scraps I put on my favourite music and I get into a scrappy trance. It's a lovely and relaxed state to enjoy. It's my "fabric yoga" and some stretching is involved walking back and forth from the iron to the sewing machine! And at the end of the session, I just feel so relaxed.
How does this look on the design wall?
Hmmm...don't love this.
I was reminded that when sewing letters, if your letter fabric is light, it's best to not put any light fabrics around it, or your eye gets confused. It's hard to see the letter here when your eye is so confused by the other light fabrics. For sure I will take out the lime green strip beside the top left of the E and maybe that polka dot yellow on the right. 
Scrap happy fun going on over here!

Design Wall Monday

The scrap vortex is still on the design wall. It's finally all in one piece.

There are a couple thousand bits of fabric in this masterpiece! 
I love it!
Right now it measures about 50" x 60".
I think I still want to add another word, so I might piece a few more letters this week and see if I like it even more.
And I'm piecing some scrap strips on freezer paper to make a 6" border.
To see more design wall posts, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

The vortex is still on the design wall, and progress is being made. The letters for the first word are constructed.

I love that the 'S' looks lighter (total seredipidity) and from far away that makes it look like the word is CRAP. I'm happily leaving it like that.
Then the spaces between the letters needed to be filled in with pieced sections. I think this is roughly how it will look.

But before I can sew everything together, the height of the letter sections need to be the same. I measured each one and decided that the letter blocks would be 8.5" tall, so the next step is to sew bits to the top or bottom of each letter and each spacer section to be that measurement. Once they are all the same height I can sew them together to add in this row. 
This is one of the best parts of making a quilt, when you're having fun AND you like how it's all coming together!!
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Dog Beds

The quilt making process generates a lot of scraps. Some of them are too small to be used (even by me!) and some donated scraps are not useable (too flimsy, see-through, pulled threads, etc)
I put these scraps into fabric bags that I sew from old fabric I want to use up. Sometimes I use an old pillowcase.

Also, when you trim up a finished quilt before adding the binding, there is an inch or two of batting that really can't be used for anything.

In my sewing room, I cut up all of this and stuff it into a fabric bag. When the bag is almost full I sew the top closed and ... ta da...
doggie pillows.

When I have a few of these made, I take a trip over to the Humane Society. On my way over, I pick up some bags of treats to donate as a little memorial gesture to my dog Molly.  
These pillows are used as beds for dogs that are waiting for adoption. When the dog goes to it's forever home, the bag just goes into the garbage. But these pillows give the scraps one more season of usefulness before they end up as landfill.

Design Wall - Organized Choas

I am still working on making vortex blocks from thousands of tiny scraps. If you saw my design wall post from last week, you'll notice that the chaos has been organized into rows. Now it is starting to look more like a quilt.

How did I figure this out you ask? The comments from last week's post were very helpful, but it wasn't until I visited some wineries over the weekend that I could visualize the solution. I know it's a bit unorthodox to be inspired at the winery, but that's the truth of what happened. 





I went for a wine tasting tour and saw these skids of bottles of wine. As soon as I saw these boxes, I thought they looked like quilt blocks, and my brain suddenly understood how to piece the quilt top. It showed me how to offset different lengths of blocks while keeping the block height the same. Now that is serendipity!


I came home and started to sew the blocks together in rows. I put an episode of Quiltcam on the computer and enjoyed some free form block construction while listening to Bonnie Hunter chat as she sewed in her basement. It was very relaxing.
The scraps I'm sewing now are from that giant jar that you see on the left of the photo. The jar was given to me by my friends at quilt camp. It's so fun to include scraps from the quilts that my friends have sewn.
The plan of the moment is to make the rows a bit wider than my design wall, which is 49", and then sew the rows together. I have 5 rows started and I think I'll make 7 or 8 rows, so I still have quite a bit of sewing to do.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday - New Project

Have you been following along with the Scrap Vortex QAL? Did you start one? I love Amanda Jean's version, but let me tell you... my scraps are absolutely not that pretty. At all. They are 20+ years old and boring and dusty, so for sure my scraps are not going to result in a quilt that looks like hers. So thankfully I talked myself out of starting one. Self control was strong, but brief.
And then I caved.

Gail (bad influence) + Startitis = new Scrap Vortex

I am totally blaming Gail. She started a vortex quilt and her version looks as awesome as Amanda Jean's - check it out here.  I started to wonder if perhaps my scraps aren't as ugly as I thought, and maybe I should just try one. 
Then Gail double dog dared me! I got Ethel (Singer 301 short bed) out of the cupboard and gave her a good workout sewing up scraps.

Then I had to get Lucy (Singer 301 long bed) to wind some bobbins, since Ethel doesn't like to do that.

Clearly I had a mini flare up of "Startitis". If you haven't heard of this before, it is an incurable disease and can be quite debilitating for creative people. It is an obsession with new ideas, starting new projects, and seeking the adrenaline rush that comes with newness and beginnings, and swooning over the possibility of this becoming something wonderful. It's a great feeling and who doesn't want to feel great?!?
It is hard work to stick with old UFOs, solve the challenges, and trudge through tasks that are not much fun to complete. I'm making slow progress on my UFO of the month, but it's not fun that's for sure.
So I had to do some cognitive gymnastics in order to justify another start, and here are the thoughts I came up with :
* Gail needs some support in her quilting, so really I'm just helping out a friend by sewing along on the same project (well, that's kind of a lame excuse, but I'm using it!) Besides, she double dog dared me, so I had to.
* my scraps are out of control and this is necessary for scrap management (oooohhh...that's a good one!)
* I need a "no brainer" project to work on when I'm really tired. All of my current projects require high brain power, so this will give me something to work on late at night (rationalization, but also true!)

So here are my scrappy vortex blocks on the design wall...

I think I'm going to call this the "Startitis Vortex".
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

One Last Quilt Canada Post

I have already treated my Dad to a special meal for Father's Day, and now I'm watching PGA and FIFA while editing my Quilt Canada photos. Are you tired of hearing about the conference yet?!? As soon as I'm off the computer, I'll be back to some relaxing hand stitching. But for now... one more post about my conference experience.
I took a 2 day class on Improv Piecing with Cheryl Arkison,

Cheryl shows the quilt in her book that my
friend Barb is sewing in brown scraps!

author of A Month of Sundays. If you read my blog regularly you might remember, I won a draw for an autographed copy of her new book last year (read about it here). At that time I had just finished sewing a quilt from her first book Sunday Morning Quilts. 
I love both of these books, so it was great fun to meet Cheryl in person and learn from her for two days about improve piecing.










This is Cheryl's sampler quilt that inspired us to get sewing our scraps and try out some of the techniques of improve quilting.

Improve class Log Cabin blocks

We started with wonky log cabin blocks and that was fun. It was a good place to start since most quilters have sewn a regular log cabin block or two in their quilting history, so making an improve version was comfortable for everyone.

Improve class criss-cross blocks

Then we moved on to criss-cross blocks. 
It's funny how the electrical cord hung down the middle of the photo like another line across the blocks!

Improve class slab blocks

Then we started sewing my favorite block... "slabs". 
I have sewn these before  (click here and here to see them) and I really love this method for using up scraps. I have called it crumb piecing since I love to use up tiny little crumbs of scraps.
We also made free hand curves, stars, and anything else we were inspired to try.

One possible "down" side to improve work ... your sewing table becomes a real big mess in a hurry! There were times when I wondered what I was doing with all this mess! But then I'd look around and see that all the other quilters had the same kind of mess on their table. There is no way around it with this technique! It was a fun class with many interesting blocks sewn and a ton of creative inspiration! 
Thanks Cheryl! And thanks to your family for sharing you with the quilting world!
I will unpack my suitcases and put my blocks up on the design wall... check back tomorrow to see them.

Design Wall Monday - Scraps

I have my treadled scraps on the design wall today. I have been working on this project since I got my Treadle machine, and am piecing the scraps onto adding machine tape.
I found a nice black fabric called "Moda Weave" to use for the sashing. Now I can't decide how wide to cut those black spacer strips.



Should the block sashing strips be the same size as the pieced strips like in the photo on the left? Or more narrow sashing strips as on the right?
















What are your thoughts? Which do you think looks better?
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Scrappy Saturday Blues

Snow and wind caused the cancellation of my winter retreat with my friend last night. It was perfect quilting weather, but when the highways are closed, you are stuck at home. So I had to quilt by myself. Boo :(
I will console myself with all the progress I made with my scrap challenge block production. 

Here are the newest Omigosh blocks made from 1" strips and squares - the smallest bits from the scrap bin. I don't know why I made an orange block! But I did, so there it is in the middle of all the blue blocks. Maybe I just needed to see some sunshine in amongst all that blueness?

I cut any scraps that are 1.5" or a bit bigger into 3" spool block components. Here are my latest spool blocks. I am sewing them into groupings of 4 which makes a 6.5" block.








All the batik scraps go into a different container, and the smallest ones get cut into pieces for my 2.25" Alamo Star blocks. Here are the 6 blue stars I made this month, sewing them as my leader/ender project.

I have had some fun with the block patterns that Angela has been posting. This week I added 2 versions of the block called "54 40 or flight". It is the same pattern as one of the blocks in the Celtic Mystery, so of course I was challenged to try it in half the size. 
Hop over to SoScrappy and enjoy all the scrap postings!

Mid-Week Clean Up

I have been cleaning in the quilt studio. Don't be alarmed! It seems that there is an optimum range for having fabric out where I can see it... too much is overwhelming, but too little seems to hamper the creativity! 
Mostly I am trying to clear surfaces of fabrics from projects that I worked on last year. Every piece needs to be either with the project it belongs to, or it needs to be in the closet, or in a scrap bin... but not on the cutting table! 

It has been very helpful to get a grip on organizing ongoing projects. I am clearing away all the fabrics I don't need to have out right now.  As I am clearing, I have been cutting as many scraps as I encounter into useable pieces. Some of these pieces are blue scraps to make into blocks that Angela has posted.

And some are for more spool blocks, which are my favorites! Here I have a pile of civil war scraps, a pile of random colours, and a pile of blues that I hope to finish up before the end of January.
It feels good to be getting the quilt studio more organized, but the desire to start a new project is getting stronger. I am staying focused so I can finish up a couple of quilts. And I want to have a project ready to machine quilt as soon as I get my sewing machine back from the shop.

Treadling on Tuesday

It has been a long time since I enjoyed some time with my scraps and my Singer treadle. We got reacquainted this past weekend, and I finished stitching 7 more strips for my treadle coin quilt. 
It was wonderfully soothing and pieceful. 
Miss Molly kept trying to divert my attention while I sewed, and I laughed when I noticed on this photo that she left her favorite toy right by the treadle! I think she has been feeling neglected of late, which I will remedy with long walks and romps in the backyard.

Scrappy Saturday - Aqua

My friend Gail from the Cozy Quilter blog wrote about the collection of quilt blocks for Calgary flood victims. I decided to combine my scrappy rainbow goals with the Calgary project and sewed two blocks from my aqua scraps.

Cheryl (of Sunday Morning Quilts) is collecting these 15.5" blocks, which she calls 'slabs', and the full instructions are in her book.
I think this would be a fun year long rainbow scrap project to start, only I would make the slabs 12.5" which is the size of my square up ruler.

These slabs used up most of my teal/aqua scraps and the rest I cut up for spool blocks to sew as leader/enders for the rest of the month. To see more teal/aqua scrap projects, hop over to SoScrappy.

Tuesday Treadling

The treadle time is really adding up!
A few scraps added here and there while cooking supper and doing household chores not only makes me feel more relaxed, but eventually all the effort becomes a finished quilt!

I now have 50 strips pieced... here's the pile.
If there are approximately 10 scraps per strip, that's already 500 little bits that are on their way to being part of a quilt!

Design Wall Monday - Treadle Piecing

My latest treadled scrap blocks are on the design wall today. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my treadle sewing machine! It defies logic to explain how this is a different feeling from sewing on a regular machine (with "a tail" as the treadlers like to say!). I thought my interest in treadling might wane after the novelty wore off, but NOPE!
What do you think of this layout? 
I think I am liking the vertical orientation (you can see the horizontal layout here), and I like the look of a plain light sashing where the batting on the design wall shows through the strips. 
Hop over to Patchwork Times to gather inspiration from the design wall posting.

Green Saturday

Finally had some time to play with my green scraps, so I started a new Rainbow Scrap project! 
I enjoyed sewing the Carrie Nation block for my Votes For Women sampler, and thought it would make the perfect block to use up scraps. 
I was right! It takes 2.5" and 1.5" squares of both lights/backgrounds, and the colour of the month, which for April is green.
These are the green blocks for my new "Rainbow Carrie Nation" quilt.
To see more green scrap projects, hop over to SoScrappy.

Now I'm off to my sewing machine to quilt this project, which is basted and ready to go!

Treadling my Coins

Little scraps are like little coins. 
Small, unimportant, thrown out by many.

In Canada the littlest coin, the penny, is so unimportant, it's not even being made anymore!

But in my sewing room, even the tiniest bits are welcome and will always be put to good use! 
Every little bit counts, and pennies eventually add up.
I am treadling small bits onto adding machine paper and making wonderful strips of scraps. Can't wait to see how great this quilt will be!

Design Wall #10 - Alamo Stars

Each month over at the Rainbow Challenge I have been making different coloured Alamo Star blocks and just couldn't resist putting them up on the design wall to see how many blocks I have made so far, and to see how they are going to look together.
So far there are 48 blocks done and they measure 2.25" each.
And I must say... that's a lot of pink! I definitely need to knock it off with the pink and beef up some of the other colours. 
The colour this month is orange, so there will be 10 more blocks with orange coming soon.
I am making these as leader/ender blocks.
If you don't have a leader/ender project, trust me you NEED (at least) one! You save thread, and you are always making a "bonus" quilt in between other projects.

Reading Bonnie's book called Adventures with Leaders and Enders was life changing for my scraps. Each year I am getting a little more organized in terms of knowing what I will use and in what way, as well as how to store the different sizes and types of scraps. 
To see more quilting design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.