More Fun with Scraps and Orphans

We all have scraps and orphan blocks in our stash - unless you give/throw them away.  I have given away scraps, but I can't find it in my heart to throw them away.  So I use them for fun and therapeutic sewing. 

Today I started for a "15 minute" play time. That quickly expanded into an hour - and later another 30 to 60 minutes of play.  

I took two pieces that were just kind of square and boring.  I laid them one on top of the other (both right sides up.)  Taking the rotary cutter in hand, they were sliced with a curvy line.  Then, the piece from the top was sewn to the piece from the bottom, and vice-versa.  Then I sewed them together into one piece. 

    That was FUN! 

Next I took some off-cut corners and added them to opposite sides of an existing block 

That block was randomly pieced too. 

Then I found a larger scrap that got cut into two more triangles for the 

other sides.  

It doesn't look square but it is. 

Finally I took a large orphan block and cut it wonky.  

Then I used it, the off cuts and some other fabric and created

This long strip of "pieced fabric."

It is far more interesting now than it was when I started with it. 

I will keep on playing until the muse says "make these into a _____!" 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A bit more on the Scrappy Piecing

Yesterday I added just a bit to make two larger pieces fit together. Then I joined them. 

The top section got a diagonal slice added to it. But then it was a bit too long, 

so I added the strip on the right side of the bottom to sort it out. 

Yes, this is moving slowly, but that is because I am doing

 other things also that are not quilt related. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Happy Thanksgiving - Holiday Sewing

First may I wish all of you in the USA  a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful/grateful for in our lives.  If you are reading this, you have internet and so electricity. You are alive and able to read.  I am grateful that the sun rose again. We truly have a lot to be grateful for if we look honestly.  Sure there are things that aren't as good as we would like, but we need to see the good things and rejoice in them. 

I am rejoicing in finishing the holiday sewing for the great-nephews.  These were really last minute projects.  The boys are here for Thanksgiving but will probably not be here at Christmas, so I have decided to gift these early. 

For the older boys, I have made quilted notebooks with "the Creeper" from their favorite game, "Minecraft."   
Yes, I had to look it up, but I remembered seeing another blogger making a Minecraft quilt for her son.  I used the block pattern that I found and made it smaller to fit the notebooks. 

Under the strips of fabric they are personalized.  I covered the names for the photos.  

For the youngest one,  I decided to make a pillow since he doesn't write yet.  One of his favorite things is the Garbage Truck. (I discovered that it is a common fascination with small children.)  Okay, I confess,  I enjoy watching the arm reach out, grab the receptacle and dump it into the truck.  What can I say, I am a child at heart.  I bought this design from "Linnie Pinnie."  Unfortunately, my embroidery machine went kaput right after I finished this design, so I had to use fusible applique and free motion stitching to do the name on this one. 

When the embroidery machine gave the error, I saw the code was "TG-PM." I looked it up and it is "thread guide-pulse monitor."   I hope it won't be too expensive to repair.  I am really enjoying working with machine embroidery and digitizing.  So, I will get it fixed or replaced, eventually. 

I am maintaining my weight loss and normal blood glucose. So for Thanksgiving day, I have made sugar free cranberry sauce and a sugar free chocolate cake.  The cake is made with zucchini and almond flour rather than wheat.  Those of us whose blood glucose is sensitive to grains have to learn to cook differently.  But it is totally do-able!  I will be "eating on plan" today and NOT overeating.  

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Holiday Sewing

I am sure a lot of you sew or create for the holidays.  I love to give presents that I have made or at least partially made.  This year I am embroidering some flour sack towels to give as gifts to some of my family and extended family.   This is relatively inexpensive but will hopefully give them something that is decorative and useful.   

The first towels I ordered seemed a bit thin to me. Some of those were embroidered while I awaited the second order.  When the 2nd order arrived, I was surprised at the large size of the towels. (Yes, I know it was in the description - but I apparently didn't think it through.)   They are 33" by 38" towels.  You could use them as aprons!  There as a review that mentioned cutting them into quarters and hemming the two cut edges.  I did that with one and realized that it makes them too small. Those four are the size of cloth napkins.   So, I decided to cut them in half - making them 33" by 18" roughly, after hemming the cut edge.  I still have a few to cut and embroider. 

Here are some of the results. 

I love the Sunbonnet Sue ones.  I did a couple of Holiday tree designs at first. 

Then I decided, if it were me, I would prefer some I could use all year. 

And, as I had created the design below - and never did a test sew, 

I decided to change the outer petals to a thicker stitch (a bean stitch)

and use it also.  This one may be for me. 

The design is one I created to be a single run quilting design. 

That means it starts and ends at the same point and only sews a single 

thread for each stitch - just as if you were doing FMQ. 

The top set of towels have been washed and they came out of the wash just fine. 

I was using cut-away stabilizer, but on one I tried a tear-away/wash-away stabilizer. 

I was pleased to see that it did not distort in the wash. 

The star-flower that is on the bottom towel has not been washed. 

The tear-away/wash-away stabilizer is still behind most it.  
I did tear away the outer edges. 

Are you sewing for holidays?

By the way,  any of my family  that may be reading this:

Sorry if I spoiled your surprise. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Scrappy Joy

The scrappy quilt is moving along.  I have one big panel joined together now.  I realize that I haven't posted in over a week, so while I had an assistant to hold the panel, I took a photo of the one big piece. 

In searching for something, I discovered a lot more pieced sections and a few pineapple blocks that will be incorporated later. On this one, I have already added some pieces.

I am thinking that I will make a panel with this one to go next to the panel below.  

I may add a panel of some large piece of fabric between the two panels and only have the two panels on this quilt. The other option I am considering is using three panels with sashing between them. 

Meanwhile, I have also been making some holiday presents that I can't show right now. 

I hope to post more in a few days (or maybe sooner!)

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Another SideStep -and a Finish

The fun scrappy piecing has been placed aside for a few days.   Another project called my name loudly and I had to pick it up and start working on it.  

For quite a while, I have been saving my "practice/classwork" free-motion quilting blocks. There was a nice stack of them. Sometime back, I had started  joining them into rows. I don't know if I ever shared it, but I got back to it this week.  I added two more rows to it.  Today I took it outside for a few photos. 

This is the "front" of the quilt.  It has lots of interesting free motion quilting. 

And there is also some raw edge applique and some machine embroidery on it. 

This is the "back" - but honestly it wouldn't matter which side is up on this quilt.

Both sides will be interesting to look at. 

I had to just flip the edge over. (Ignore my running shoe in the photo.)

Some of this quilting makes me so happy. The quilting around this star is just fun. 

And you may notice that I managed some halfway decent feathers too. 

That promised finish?  Oh yes. 

Mom and I finished that puzzle. 

This is one that I wouldn't mind gluing down and putting on the wall.

This puzzle has so many images in it. There are at least four cats. There

are 8-10 people as well as a plethora of butterflies and dragons.

And the colors are vivid and interesting. 

The big surprise,  it only took nine days for us to finish it. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Showing The Pieces

The last post had no photos of the pieces I have been sewing in odd moments.  Some of you may be thinking that I have "fallen in a hole." But, you can relax!  It isn't true.  I have become less "productive."  Rather I am going slower and enjoying the process more. I have no deadlines and don't wish to set any for myself. 

The scrap pile doesn't seem to be dwindling at all.  Even though all of the pieces here are scraps from various other projects. If the piece is at least 2 1/2" square, I am compelled to save it.  I have bins, boxes and bags of scraps. Here are the results of using a very small portion of those scraps. 

The above is all sewn into one bigger piece. 

While the one below is several pieced sections laid out into one piece.

They are not all joined. 

I think there are twelve sections there.  This is not how it will look

when it is joined.  I am sure more pieces will be added. 

Meanwhile, back at Mom's the puzzle is still "in progress." 

There has been some serious advances in the piecing of it also. 

The part I am least looking forward to working on? 

The red/pink/orange leaves in the tree on the left. 

Of course, it may be like the bridge.  Once we buckle 

down on that section, it may fall into place fairly easily. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Pieces and Puzzle

The sewing has continued and I have several more pieces sewn although they are in the 6-10 inch range and I haven't taken any photos of them.  

I have been keeping up my Spanish lessons, both on Duolingo and my "in-person" lessons.  On Duolingo, I am at 1076 days without missing a single day.  However, I started Duolingo Spanish lessons on September 1, 2018.  So, I have passed the 3 Year mark. I just happened to miss one day so my "streak" is less than perfect.   My "in-person" lessons had to move to Zoom meetings as we are still in the throes of a pandemic, even if many people are ignoring that fact. 

Mom and I started a new puzzle and have made a bit of progress. 

As you can see we have managed to get some of the "easier" parts together. This puzzle was supposed

to come with a poster of the image, but that wasn't in the box when we broke the seal on it. 

I contacted the company, but we are plowing along using the box photo. 

What I have learned is that  the poster really makes it easier for both of us. 

Mom has said "I wish that picture would hurry up and get here."

I have been using my cellphone camera to zoom in on the box photo.  While that is helpful, it still isn't as good as the poster.   

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.