one week left

One week left of our summer before we're back to NYC...

Time for some random play...

clean up

pack up

Get ready for school to start...

Enjoy fall

savor it.

before winter...

Happy Sewing!

this and that

My daughter asked me what  "ragamuffin" was... 

I explained in a round about way,

as it was rather hard to explain... disheveled, orphan...

ORPHAN!

It so happened that I was playing with  these blocks... 

 

Ragamuffin Quilt

I think it fits,  do you agree?

Do you see the TINY little navy and white school house block!  

Thank You Siobhan!  How darn cute is that?

And thank you to all who have contributed... 

I do believe I have enough!

Guess what today is?

Harvest canning!

Salsa baby!

I had a flashback to when I was ten, and helped my mother

peel the skins off blanched tomatoes....

Now some other ten year old has this job...

Boy, does my house smell good!

DING!

oops, gotta go get the salsa out of the canner...

collecting scraps...

This is just my clarification to my daughter that she indeed DOES enjoy playing in my scraps...

She had a chore today to help go through my two bins of scraps to pick out all the tiny bits

for yet another scrappy quilt, using bits that are already SMALL...

She then said, I love this, and this, and this, and this one!

Next thing I know, she has them laid out with batting, and a fabric backing...

(This comes from my girl who said recently she'd never make another quilt, and I couldn't make her)

Mind you, I've never MADE her...  She gets all excited playing with the scraps all on her own...

I ONLY had her pick out my tiny scraps.

There. I said it.  ;-)

So, can you tell she's my kid or what?

Myself?  I have been cutting apart those shirts Tonya and I collected... These are just the cuffs and collars off just 4 shirts!  Look how much I got just from those pieces! Gotta love it... The Accu-quilt works fabulous for this project...
Yes, they are indeed addicting.... (I highly recommend it.)

But my scissors hand has a rubbed sore callus from cutting up the first 8 shirts! 
So be warned...

Cut in shifts...  ;-)

The Star Splitter

Yippeeeeee! YAHOO!!!  I got this blasted STAR SPLITTER top together!!!

I found it very interesting when I posted this at the 15minutesplay site, 

that more than one person said, "isn't the last leg of the quilt just the hardest part to do? "

YES! I sooo get that!

You run out of QUILT MO JO as you near the end, once you have an 

idea what "IT" is going to look like...  

I was dragging my heals as it was, putting this beast, I mean, lovely quilt together...

You'd think after getting more THEN half of the quilt together, I'd have all the quirks worked out...

but no... alas, I think I ripped out nearly every seam twice to get it together 

Sometimes the old brain just didn't work...

But in the end...  I won!  (I LOVE IT)

I added in a few other yellows to break up the rather PERFECT looking border...

I much prefer funky THAN perfect...  I like how it draws your eye around the quilt...

The other HARD part of the quilt was, I have a VERY difficult time

NOT making every quilt a KING SIZE quilt...

I mean, If I am making a quilt, it should at least fit my bed! 

no?

I did settle and make this a full size quilt for my guest room,

but it doesn't match anyway... see? I should have made it king... LOL!

It's a sickness I know...

Speaking of sickness... Tonya took me to a goodwill

store and we pretty much cleaned them out of super soft well worn, men's cotton shirts...

They were on sale that day! super score!

She got me hooked... 

These are all in the wash now, so I can start cutting them apart...

This maybe one, if not two quilts...(maybe three?)

I've been corrected by the PROOFING POLICE on my use of THEN AND THAN...
Obviously my creative skills are better THAN my typing and grammer...
Lot's of luck!

Swirls of colors

A top done... I had some hand work to finish on this, 

which I did, then

I went to baste this top, but realized after I cut the 

backing that I don't have any batting left...

BOOOO!  bummed me out...  I was on such a roll...

Now it will go back into the pile of WIPS... (works in progress)

I will be hand quilting this one...   so it may be a while before you see this done!

LOL.

SAVED!  I rescued this lovely quilt today, marker cutter,

at a local quilt show...  There is one fabric that has burned out on a few squares, 

but the squares where lined... never seen that before... perhaps they added a sheeting of cotton between the batting and the backing...

So it still holds it all in good shape...

there were some really lovely prints in this quilt... prints you just don't see anymore...

I had to have it...

I have to say most of the quilts at this antique quilt show where not very nice...

But this one stuck out... 1/2" squares make up this print...

gorgeous.

This pink and white had the dog quilted out of it...

I like the three side border...

I thought the colors and pattern on this were interesting...

not terribly exciting, but oddly interesting.

This applique' was rather sweet... it hung next to a sun bonnet sue...

This was definitely more interesting... then little miss sue...

And, speaking of interesting, I bought these 70's vintage upholstery

fabric samples.... I'm not sure what I will do with them, but aren't the colors fabulous?

I'm thinking new pillows in my living room, when I get the loft back in order...

color.

ha! I used to love white quilts...white home, white white white...etc... 

now I just need COLOR.

Ever thought about doing a quilt using the two colors, you think you avoid, most?

hmm.... what colors would they be?

 I think white and pink... for me, 

although that doesn't sound like much fun...

how about purple and yellow?

ooh that would be tough.. ACK! my high school colors...

maybe you gotta mix them all up together...

Tell me your worst nightmare for a color combo...

(Don't get me wrong, I love yellows/golds, and purples, just not all together in one quilt.. complimentary or not, it's just my mind goes to an ICK FACTOR when I see them together...
Separately, a purple toned quilt, fab.
Golds, well, that is probably one of my favorite colors to use...after red... or mix them all up with a tone of colors... no problem....)

Gail's circle table topper

Some of you had asked about Gail's Circle table runner she sent me, if she had used a pattern...

I sent her an email, as she doesn't have a blog, to find out for you...  

here is what she sent me.

Cut various width strips and sew together making a larger piece of fabric,

Using your wedge ruler

She just alternated the  ruler up /down across the strata... cut wedges  

Wedges are 3" on the wide end, and 1" at narrow end...

Gail has about 40 wedges to make one circle.

She assembles them from center to outer edge

Press with the seams all going one direction...

She then fuses iron on fleece on the back of the assembled wheel to stabilize it...

( baste around large Ric Rac if desired) then choose your backing fabric...

With right sides together sew outer edge of "O" all the way around. 

trim, and turn through center hole.

PRESS

She then Quilted the topper and finally, making a hole cover or center for the wheel,

 cut a piece of the iron on fleece for the whole, press it onto the hole, then make the center

to make the center,

You Can follow her instructions above, or

cut a circle to fit,  and stitch around 

(either raw edge machine applique or turn your edges

then machine stitch it down, or hand stitch)

I  shortened her final instructions slightly... on covering the whole...

On a little one I made, I machine appliqued the circle on the top...

and quilted it all at once... Your choice...

Feel free to give it a whirl, and take your own liberties.  

Gail, after years of working with fabrics,  is a make it up as you go kind of girl too.

She did not use a pattern, but after so many years of playing with fabrics,

she knew how to quickly play and lay it all out...

Thank You GAIL for sharing your lovely project with us!

20 years later

I put the borders on my very badly constructed blocks from 20 years
ago onto this top I never finished back in 1990...

I decided it was best to just leave it as I had intended, as what
bothered me then...(not being perfect) doesn't bother me now!

Then, I was fascinated by the solid colors of quilts on a poster that
I had called, Quilts of Lancaster county... I think someone gave me a
Amish quilt book way back then too... Although I knew nothing about
quilts other than my grandmothers crazy quilts... I knew I liked what
I saw...

The fabrics are pretty funny... The greens area heavy cotton twill and
the pink and blue are very light weight cottons... Cheap and thin...

I wish I could recall if there was a particular quilt I was looking
at... I recall trying to find solid fabrics, and having had a hard
time finding the right shades... Which must be why I had a heavier
weight green... I also didn't have any money, so price was figured
into it... I found a price tag on the blue and pink.. It was $1.99 a
yard

Anyway, I was in college and skimping by, and had I finished this, it
would have been my first quilt...

Now I need to select a backing, and am wondering if I should keep it a
solid or find some circa 1990 fabric to finish this project off...

Our house phones and cable have been out for two days now...

what a pain.

Happy sewing!!!