Happy to be Scrappy

Happy to be Scrappy

Monday, November 18, 2013

Progress

There has been a lot of progress on the orange quilt but it is difficult to see it in the pictures.

This picture was taken on Saturday the 9th.  I always like to lay out what is done so I can ogle the pretty blocks.  Nine blocks done and enough 8" sections for a few more.

This picture is from Saturday morning on the 16th. Twenty blocks done.  And it looks like a top ready to be put together.  What may not be obvious is that I still need another 5 blocks to finish this center section. 

Saturday Jen and I had a sew day in Perry.  I don't think I got up out of my chair more than three times all day.  I just kept my head down and string pieced.  I need twenty more 8" sections.  Ten are DONE and the other ten have all of the orange and one of the neutral pieces sewn on.  So in my book they too are almost done.  And I finally got smart and started using the border pieces as leader/enders.  The border is made from 3" squares, and there are a lot of them.  Why, oh, why didn't I start on them sooner.  This is one quilt that feels like it is never going to get done.  I still love it.  But I do believe that I may finally be getting tired of orange.

More progress to come.  Hopefully it won't be weeks before there is enough to show.

Happy sewing,

Julie




Monday, October 28, 2013

Busy Weekend

I was able to get a little sewing done on Saturday morning.  But I actually did more unsewing and resewing then anything else.

One of the bad things about making string blocks is the waste.  And I do not like throwing away fabric. So I tend to try to use as little fabric as possible.  And that can lead to some not so great blocks.

Yes, it looks pretty good.  But lurking up there at the top are several areas that are not going to make it into the quilt.

How in the world did I ever let those short areas get by me the first time.  I have now ripped out and resewn several blocks that needed it.  So instead of making lots of progress I made up for my mistakes.

Done.  Now hopefully I've learned a lesson and will not be so skimpy with all of the rest.  And there are still plenty more to make.

After sewing in the morning came a trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was a beautiful afternoon to spend outside.  Those three kids had a great time and I'm pretty sure the three adults did too.  This one did.

About half of our time was spent wandering around in the 8 acre corn maze.  The first (easy) half we made it through without a problem.  The second half didn't have the same results.  We ended up being led out by a nice employee whose job it was to lead out the lost.  After an hour we figured we'd been lost long enough.  But I'd do it again.

This is not the best picture.  But it is the most accurate.  After a long afternoon playing they were all still ready to go and were having a hard time sitting still long enough for a picture.

Sunday was another busy day.  After I got off work we went to downtown Burlingame for the annual Trunk or Treat.  Grace is a good witch and little A is a monkey.  This was the only time we could get those two to sit in the wagon.  That was just too confining for them.  At least it worked for Allison.

And yes, today I am tired.

Happy Sewing,

Julie






Monday, October 21, 2013

Doll Quilt

Saturday I needed a gift for my great niece Laurel's first birthday.  So Friday when I got home I went right to my extra blocks to put together some left over bow ties.  But instead I found all of this extra pink from another quilt.

After pinning the first two sections I thought of my blog and that I never write anything on it.  And that is why the center section isn't laying flat.  It was is already pinned.

After getting those sections together I didn't think it was wide enough.  So I went to my 2" square tub and grabbed some pink and neutrals to make two more strips to add to the width.  That sentence makes it sound like the container is only 2".  It's not.  But it certainly isn't large enough to hold all my extra 2" squares.

And here it is pinned and all before Wheel of Fortune was over.  It's still a little wonky.  I like things to be symmetrical. I think that's the word.  And as can be seen it is not.  The pinwheel pattern in the middle is one section short.  But those dolls are never going to get that figured out for themselves.

I did get the quilting done Friday night but waited until Saturday morning to bind it.  I think it turned out just great.  Laurel and her dolls will get a lot of use out of this for the next few years.  And if not, her mom can use it as a Valentine table topper.

Happy sewing,

Julie



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

I had a busy weekend. Too many things to do and of course like everyone else, not enough time to get it all done.

My Saturday started with the usual laundry.  In the midst of that I decided to wash some old gently used coats to be donated.  Mistake.



The coat looked like it was still in good condition but apparently the fabric was not.  The blue is a coating on the fabric that disintegrated in my machine.   I started wiping all of it out and then I had the bright idea to let it dry and vacuum it out.  Mistake.  After it dried some of it stuck and had to be scraped out.  And I'm just sure all of those little holes in the washer are still full of it.  Anyway, this resulted in me throwing away not one but two coats, two long sleeve shirts and a pair of gloves (that I was happy to find in the pocket of a coat).  There was no way I was going to run those back through my washer.  I'm still afraid that I'll be walking around with blue specks stuck to me.  Hope not!

My day eventually got better.



Jennifer had brought me her orange fabrics. So I did take the time to cut these into strips for my orange blocks.  But that was as far as I got.  Not a stitch was sewn.


Grace is second from right, in the blue shirt.

No sewing, because it was time to leave for the parade.  This was the first one that Grace was in.  The first of many I'm sure.  This was the church float for the Awana participants.

Victoria and little A at candy level




Aunt Jennifer and Allison
Allison loved the parade.  Lots and lots of people watching to be done.  She jumped out of her skin when the fire trucks were loud but she never acted like it bothered her much. 

After the parade Jennifer and I had some mother/daughter time, which I needed.  And then my day was done.

I sure hope this Saturday is not as full.  I'll be more careful how I start my day.  Maybe not do any laundry at all.  Ha.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Monday, September 30, 2013

On The Wall Today

It's been quite some time since I made an entry specifically to link up with Patchwork Times design wall.  But I have been doing some sewing recently so I decided to share.



These are the six blocks I have completed so far on my "Virginia Bound" quilt top.  This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern from her Book "Scraps and Shirttails".  I have another six sections almost complete.  So at least I've been making a little progress on this.  A section is one star point. It takes four to make one block and the pattern calls for eighty points to make the twenty (15") required blocks. Bonnie's quilt only measures 77 x 91 so I don't know if that's going to work for me or not.  I might have to make mine square. 

I have also completed another 20 QOV blocks to send in to Alycia at Alycia Quilts.  You can read about her block drive by following the link to her blog.


The first twenty I sent in had yellow centers.  After making these it is very apparent I am going to have to add some more yellows to my stash.  And a few more blues wouldn't hurt either.  I'm not sure I could get another twenty blocks out of the yellows I have left.  These blocks have been fun and super simple to make.  They also make me want to sew a log cabin quilt.  Maybe I'll just add one to my list.

Happy Monday and Happy Sewing,

Julie

Friday, September 13, 2013

I have one more seam.  No not a row.  A seam.  That is all that is left to be done to finish the r/w/b star quilt top.  That is the only seam that has been needed for almost two weeks.  Ridiculous, I know.  Anyway, one cannot have too many things going at once.  Therefore, I've started yet another quilt.  Because piecing is what I do best and like the most.




This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I'm pretty sure it's from her book "Scraps and Shirttails".  I don't have the book with me that's why I don't know for certain.  Anyway, I LOVE how this is looking.




I put a couple of blocks together already. I wanted to make certain that my points were going to come together without a separation between them.  Been there, done that already.




As I keep working on these I'm seeing that I like the less busy neutrals a little more than the darker busier ones.  So I think I'll try to work more of those in.  But not too many.  I don't want it to come across as too plain.

I can already tell that I do not have enough orange fabrics to suit me.  So I'll have to try to find a few more fat quarters to work into this.  This one is fun.  I love the look of string piecing.  And there is no doubt that's what this is.


But this was the highlight of last Friday.





I was invited to share breakfast at school with my granddaughter Grace.  They had a special kindergarten with grandparents day at school.  I just love her freckles.  And if you know me you know exactly where they came from.


I couldn't be more proud of Grace.  She is a sweet and thoughtful little girl with a huge heart.

Happy sewing,

Grandma Julie

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Oooo Pretty


I delivered a bid to the state for a contractor/member that I have never met.  Their company is in Hays and we are in Topeka.  Just about as far across Kansas as you can get.  Anyway, to show their appreciation they sent flowers.  And don't those flowers look lovely on my table topper.



Guess now I'll move them out to the front office so everyone can enjoy them.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Churn Dash Table Topper

Here is the Churn Dash table topper I started a week or so ago.  Each block measures 3".  The sashing is 1/2" wide.  The total measurements are 17 1/2" x 17 1/2".

Churn Dash


This cabinet sits in the corner of my office.  Unfortunately it's placement in my office is not optional or it would have been gone months ago.  Therefore, I thought it needed a touch of color on it.




The purple vase and the blue bowl are glass pieces that dd Jennifer made and gave to me.  The purple vase has too narrow of a base to sit securely on that little quilt so it had to be moved to the corner of my desk.


So this is the way the cabinet looks now.  Much better than just that old brown top with gold painted around the edge.  Hmm - paint.  That's an idea.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Monday, September 2, 2013


Practicing posting pictures from my phone. Which is actually using picassa. So feel free to either enjoy or ignore this post. Jesse chose the pictures and actually posted them so it's yet to be seen if I learned anything from that.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

I just finished the last block needed for the r/w/b star quilt. This is exactly how I want to spend my holiday weekend. Relaxing in front of the sewing machine.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Monday, August 26, 2013

On The Wall

I haven't had much to show on a Monday for quite a while.  This morning, however, I have a little project I started last Thursday.  I'm making good progress and hope to have it done in a few days.  And by done I actually mean done.  This is going to go on top of a small cabinet I have in my office.  Anything to make the cabinet look better.




 These churn dash blocks will each measure 3" when done.  As you can see I have the sashing on each side but haven't decided yet if I want to put in different colored cornerstones or just go ahead and finish it with just the blue?  Decisions, decisions.

It was a very busy weekend.  Saturday I had the two little grand kids all day while mom, dad and big sister went to Worlds of Fun.  We had some fun too.




I don't know how Allison ended up with that little stroller on top of her but I just had to get a picture of it.  And before I could set the camera down she was out from under it and off to investigate the next thing Aiden had left out for her to "play with".


Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls. I had tried to make them once before and they did not turn out.  So they were turned out into the trash.  What a waste of time.  But the other day Judy Laquidara put a  recipe on her site for cinnamon rolls so I decided to give it another try.  And lo and behold they turned out just like I knew what I was doing all along.





That is a bowl full of beautiful dough.  I love to punch it down.  Not that I've had much opportunity to do that.  This is only my fourth or fifth attempt at making a yeast dough in umpteen years.  Lately I've been making pizza dough and now cinnamon rolls.  Is bread next?




To ice? Or not to ice? That is the question.  Okay, really no question at all.




Icing it is.  And they are good.  I took a few over to Mom's.  And this morning a few to work.  And now I've been told they taste like a really good cinnamon roll.  So I guess it's not impossible for me to make successful dough.

The most frustrating part of the weekend was once again my lawn mower.  My yard is the bane of my existence and I'm sure my neighbors too. I love grass, flower, greenery all that lovely stuff but I HATE to take care of it.  And this year I haven't.  Part of the reason my yard has gotten away from me is my mower.  Every time I go to start it - it won't.  So I borrow a battery charger wait a few hours and hope for the best.  Well for the last week "the best" hasn't happened.  So yesterday I ended up buying a new battery. And of course that was not good on my wallet.  





This is the picture I took so I could remember which side went where.  Guess what, the posts on the new battery were not on the same side so this picture didn't really help at all.  I'm glad I finally read the manual because it never would have occurred to me which one to hook up first.  But according to the manual red first black last.  Who knew?  I know, the guy who wrote the book.  Anyway, after getting over the fear of shocking the tarnation out of myself I got the battery installed and the mower started right up.  I guess replacing a battery that is probably 10 years old isn't such a bad idea.

So yes, I had a super busy weekend.  But it was fulfilling in so many ways.

Happy sewing,

Julie



Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Block Drive

I have been wanting to participate in the Q.O.V project.  But I never seem to get much DONE.  So I have a hard time committing to making and entire quilt for a donation when I am only finishing one or two a year as it is.  Then yesterday Judy Laquidara had a post about making blocks for Q.O.V.  Well a block is a whole lot more doable than a quilt.  Plus there are prizes.  And I seldom turn down a prize opportunity.

Here is a link to Judy's post for the block drive.  And here is a link to Alycia's original post.  Reading these gave me all the incentive I needed.  The blocks are super simple and Alycia's directions are easy to follow.  And she choose the color scheme.

So here are my first 10 blocks.



Close up view.


I already had out my blue 2" strips so all I needed to do was pull out the yellow ones and cut the 3 1/2" centers.  They went together super fast.  I think I'll make ten more of these maybe using blue in the center this time.  Then I'll hopefully get some of the string flag blocks made too.  Then I'll ship them off and let someone else worry about how to quilt them.  Done!



Happy sewing,

Julie

Friday, August 16, 2013

"Nines Aplenty"

Nines Aplenty

Here is my finished nine patch quilt.  I named it "Nines Aplenty".  After all there needed to be something on the label.  It looks pretty awesome right there on my bed so that is probably where it will stay for a while, or at least until the next one is done.

This quilt measures approximately  86" x 86".  It has 265 nine patch blocks that measure 3" each.  I started making the nine patches in August of 2012 as a Leader/Ender project.  You can see my first post about these blocks here.  This quilt probably has over 200 different fabrics in it. There is at least one fabric that there is only one 1" square included as that is all there was in the bag of fabric trash I was gifted.  I'll give a shout out to Quilting on the Square because one persons trash is another persons treasure. There are 52 six inch Ohio Star blocks that were used to make the border.  I got the idea to use Ohio Star blocks from a Bonnie Hunter quilt.  The blocks on the back of the quilt are from the 2011 - 2012 block of the month blocks from Quilting on the Square in Holton. 



View of the back

Close up of quilting (probably too close)






Anyway, there it is.  Finished!  Now to get the next one to this stage.

On Sunday the pressure foot lever on my machine decide to break.  I know it did that just because I was wanting to sit and sew all day.  On Monday it was at the repair shop, where it still is today. Of course the repair shop is also a fabric store so I came home with 6 half yard cuts of fabric.  I borrowed an OLD Singer of my mom's and just could not get it to sew a stitch.  So last night I borrowed an extra machine my sister Cathy has.  Wish I had an extra like this one.




This morning when I got up I plugged her in and proceeded to finish the couple of blocks I was in the  middle of on Sunday.  The little star is a current leader/ender block.  I'm not thrilled with them but haven't come up with an alternative yet.




And yet another red/white and blue block.  I still need around 7 or 8 of these to get this top done.  They are taking forever.  And I have spent entire days working on them.  Hope it turns out as awesome as I'm thinking.

Just above that block is the unopened package that holds my July b.o.m.  That is what I will be working on this evening.  No pressure.

And once again I've had nothing but problems trying to post to this blog.  It just wouldn't work at all going through internet explorer.  At least I'm finally getting some pictures to load and the words in the right areas through firefox.  Why the difference?  I'm sure that answer comes easier to some than to others.  And I'm an other.

Have a great weekend.

Happy sewing,

Julie


Wednesday, July 31, 2013

July



I am having the worst time trying to get anything posted to this blog today.  Who knows why.  Anyway, since July 4th I have been thinking about posting pictures of some of my red white and blue quilts so here goes.  The sad thing is that the pictures were taken with my phone and they washed out all of the color.  But on a happier note all of these quilts make me smile.

The quilt above on my bed is a snowball quilt and has 462 snowball blocks in it.  The one over the bed is a log cabin quilt my mother made.  She gave it to me last Christmas.

And for the other two pictures that were taken with the same phone and downloaded the same way and at the same time to my computer, well, they won't copy to this posting today.  FRUSTRATED to say the least.  At least July will be over tomorrow and I won't feel the desire to post pictures of the r/w/b quilts anymore.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Superman

Thank goodness I have a son who is Superman.  He seems to be capable of tackling any challenge. For the last two weeks my fancy refrigerator has had an error message on the display. When I looked up the message it said that the fridge was not able to do its auto defrost function. So I watched a few YouTube videos and read a few things about it and did what I could.  Mainly unplugging it for several hours so it could manually defrost.  Nope.  No help. The freezer is frozen but the fridge has no cold air.  And yes, that's exactly what I read would happen.  So I emailed Jesse for help. He watched a few YouTube videos and read a few things about it and came over to tear the fridge apart.  The freezer drawer cover is in the hall in front of the sewing room door.  (oh, no)  There are parts all over the kitchen.  But he will either fix it or it will go to fridge heaven.  Today the parts have been ordered and hope is in the air that all will be okay. 

Now to suffer through another day or two of peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Who knew that virtually everything is made/cooked with something from the refrigerator.  No eggs, milk, butter, cheese, salsa.  I think the salsa is the one that I am missing the most.

The binding is done on the nine patch.  So it is finished!  When I made the label I had to come up with a name so I named it "Nines Aplenty".

No finished pictures of the quilt. Last night I was too busy with the fridge and the grand kids who came over with their mom and dad.

So hopefully within the next day or two I can have refrigerated food again.  And well, if that doesn't work I will be on to the next plan with it.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Monday, July 22, 2013

I have been trying to figure out how to post pictures from my phone onto my blog. If I ever get that figured out I'm sure that there will be more posts from me.
There has been quite a bit of sewing done at my house. I've finished quilting the l/e nine patch. I'm actually working on tacking down the binding tonight. One more side to go. But I got ahead of myself. The label isn't made yet. So I need to get that taken care of.
I've also been working on the r/w/b stars. Only another 50 or so more 6"star blocks to go.

So I certainly have something going on in the sewing room. Just no pictures to prove it.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Oh, happy day!

Great morning. I'm sewing. Seems like forever since I've sat down at my machine. Hopefully I'll make enough progress to share later. But for now I'm just glad to have been sewing long enough to need a break.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July.

Julie

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Sewing. What's that?

No, I have not done a lick of sewing in almost two weeks.  What's up with that.  The worst part is that my sewing machine in set up in my living room right now.  When I do the quilting it all moves in there so I can have a larger table surface to support the quilt.

And since I have done no sewing, I have no sewing related pictures.

There has been quite a bit of time spent the grandkids.  That included a trip to the zoo with Grace, little A and Jennifer.

                                                               Grace

                                       This is Jennifer and A feeding the giraffe lettuce.

I have been to a birthday party for Leland at the Gage Park carousel.  And no, Allison does not have antlers.  But apparently the animal behind her horse does.

                                           Grace and Allison riding the carousel.


I have been to Salina for an overnight stay for work that involved a golf tournament.  I do not play golf. 

The next few days include at least two more eve/days with the kids. They are so much fun that I don't really miss the sewing when I'm with them.

One of these days I do intend to get back to my sewing machine. I am looking forward to it as a matter of fact.  Now just to find the time. 

Happy sewing,

Julie