Wonky Wishes Finish

I really wanted to try and squeeze in another finish for 2014.

(not that i had that many in 2014 to begin with)

AND I DID….

TA DA! 

I LOVE THIS QUILT!!

This is another Bonnie Hunter pattern.  So far, she has only written the instructions for the 4 star "BLOCK"

but looking at her quilt I figured out the sashing sizes and such.

You can go HERE to see Bonnie's quilt and read what she has to say about this block.

IT'S SO SCRAPPY!!

SONG BIRDS, MUSIC AND PURPLE BUTTERFLIES!

Anything goes!

CARROTS TOO!

I machine quilted it in what I call "MATTRESS PAD" design.  LOL, well, that's what I call it!

Basically a cross hatch design.  You can see it in the previous photo.

My backing is a small red floral calico with a mottled red/rusty binding.

measures 63" x 78"

HEY……..DID I TELL YOU I LOVE THIS QUILT?!

GO MAKE YOU ONE!!

"MADE FABRIC" top

When I first started MAKING FABRIC for these blocks with my saved tiny scraps, 

strips and strings, they were

for pot pads or maybe a table runner or two.....

But then......I thought.......wouldn't they make a great quilt???

The last time I posted on this I had only sewn 16 blocks.  It has now grown into

36 - 8 1/2 inch blocks. The overall measurement is about 48" x 48".

It's decision time.....how big should it be??  Making these blocks with

such small tiny bits and pieces can be like putting a puzzle together and at times

slow...tedious...and time consuming, BUT ohhhh so

worth the effort!

Enjoy the close ups of some of my favorite blocks

Yep.....I know......them there's a lot of seams!

Spider Web Quilt

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y............yes, I finally finished my vintage Victorian style Spider Web. Notice this quilt has 3 paddles or kite shapes instead of the usual 4 we see today in a lot of other Spider Web designs. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this quilt....BUT....let me just tell you, this one is not for the faint of heart!!

LOTS of paper pieced diamonds going on here......
and here...........

MORE papers to deal with. Now you have to tear it all off. (I secretly really truly adore paper piecing !)

I ran out of background fabric. The bottom fabric is the one I ran out of, it was 2 yards worth. I thought "OH NO"....whatever will I do? The quilt is not in a good size/shape to be finished! I was astounded when I dug through my stash and found a fat quarter in the top fabric! Wow, what luck. I determined it was close enough to use. After all, this is a VINTAGE design and isn't that what they did in the old days? Just used what they had on hand. I bet if you clicked on the top photo for a close up you will have a hard time finding where I used the fat quarter pieces.

In the end, after I sewed and sewed Y seams until I thought I would croak I was VERY happy I had used up A LOT of terrible UGLY fabrics that have been hanging around here w-a-y too long.

You can click HERE......HERE.....HERE and HERE for more looks at this quilt style. If you are interested in what all you can do with the diamond shape, go HERE to Kate's Empty Field blog for a look at some fabulous diamond shapes.

Spider Web Quilt

OK.......so I drank the Kool-Aid!! But then again I'm ALWAYS drinking others Kool-Aid from out there in quilty blog land. Especially when it's as good as this!!

I first ran across SUJATA'S kool-aid stand, oh yes, I drank several glasses. Enough for me to get the instructions on this amazing quilt. Sujata did an outstanding job on figuring out all the P's and Q's of this design and shares a fabulous "how-to". I did several sample diamonds trying to get just the right background color. I did one in red....nope, I didn't like that....I had some sort of ugly brown in my stash and thought that would work.....but.....it was pretty gaggy! Nothing spoke to me until I discovered this greenish/grayish color. Yes, at last I could get started.

But before I got started I had to go over and see the kool-aid BARBARA was serving up with this particular design. Of course, Barbara always has the BEST kool-aid on all those oldies but goody vintage quilts and patterns and designs. I JUST LOVE HER BLOG!!! You always come away from her kool-aid stand feeling like you've just drank champagne instead of kool-aid!

Anyone wanting to try this can get the best instructions from both blogs, just click on either or

both of their names above.

I have done about 65 diamonds and have prepped papers for about 70 more.....WOO HOO!! I love how mine is turning out!!!!

Thanks ladies for sharing your kool-aid!!!!

Pincushion

And so I did.........I stopped quilting for a day!

I made this instead!!!!!

My Patty Cake Pincushion was sewn using MORE of my precious little crumbs!

It measures about 7 1/2" round. I had some inspiration here and from my Jan Mullen book Free & Eazy Circles. (thanks Gail for the book) I kind of combined both inspirations together and came up with this. What better time could I have spent? Surrounded by my tiny crummy scraps, using my own made fabric (see previous post), Yo Yos, rick rack some polka dots and a cute little vintage covered button used as a cherry on top?????

QUILTER DOWN!!! QUILTER DOWN!!!

HEY....I may be down, but I'm not out!!!! For some unknown reason something happened to MY BACK last Tuesday!!! OUCH!!! It's been a mystery, but maybe vigorously shaking out those 10 blankets on the back porch may have had something to do with it....???? I'm not able to do much, I'm soooo mad, there are tons of things I need to be doing!!!

SO........I made some of these!!!!!!!

The only place my back feels better is sitting in my sewing chair with the ole heating pad. Not a bad spot to perch whilst I try to mend!!

Out comes my crumb bin! It's time to make some fabric! And boy, do I ever have plenty of crumbs!!! I finally figured out I think the main reason I make quilts is so I can have scraps and crumbs to play with!!! HA! ( no seriously)!

And when I say 'crumbs' I mean CRUMBS!!! I know some of you may think I'm crazy, but I save anything that will hold a seam all the way around and still have 'some'......yes, I said 'some' of the fabric showing. OK ANNIEO stop rolling your eyes!!!

Those 'crumbs' can quickly become larger pieces like these. Before you know it, you have some nice made fabric of your own design!!! LOOK...LOOK how cute they all play together! I usually keep some of these blocks made up, they are great for potholders and such. I make them 8 1/2".

Before you know it you can have THIS!!! If I sew the blocks all together with no sashing this is what I would get. I. LIKE.

This piece of made fabric measures about 25" x 25". I am amazed that alllll those tiny pieces can turn into something that makes my heart sing so!!!!

Mr. Brown Dirt just stood at my design wall and was just mesmerized and in awe of those teeny tiny pieces that were mixed in! He likes it too!!!!

Check out my labels list on my sidebar under CRUMB THERAPY or MAKING FABRIC to read more about my CRUMB THERAPY/FABRIC MAKING.....I've enjoyed 'MAKING FABRIC' since 2008. I think you should try and make some too!!!

..........it's snowing!

I HATE borders

........WEll......sort of........seems I dread doing them! I have several tops that would be finished if only I would just add the borders. It's not that I actually HATE the borders......borders add soooo much to a quilt. The main issue is WHAT I have to go through to add them. I don't have a table or counter long/large enough to accommodate laying out the whole quilt so I can measure and fit the borders to my top.....sooooooo.....here's where my love/hate for borders begin. Push the living room furniture aside.....drag out the vacuum and vacuum ONLY an area big enough for the quilt top....after all, I'm into borders at the time and NOT into vacuuming the whole room......spread out my top and THEN.....AND THEN.....this is when all the bending and squatting starts.....crawling around getting carpet burns on my knees......struggling to keep the GOOBER dog off the top so everything stays flat and smooth. By now I am working up a sweat and I turn on a little fan close by to help keep me cool and calm AND THEN the fan keeps blowing up my quilt top....SOOOOO, off goes the fan......LOLOL.....by now my fat butt has been up and down so much it's ridiculous!!!! BUT I REMAIN DETERMINED!!! The photo above is a close up of one I am working on today.....look at all those tiny pieces......these are called PARALLELOGRAMS!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this border but I HATE HATE HATE the process of getting it attached!! Those borders are getting added to this top. I participated in Bonnie's latest mystery quilt she featured over at her website Quiltville. This one is called Roll Roll Cotton Boll.....AND being a farm gal married to a guy who farms COTTON I figured I should do this one. I used up ALL of my white/off white scraps and strips. It felt good to get that bin emptied so I could freshen it up with some new prints! I didn't make mine as large as her instructions but I think mine will be plenty large. I have already been crawling around on the floor today adding a 1 3/4" bright green inner border with tiny white dots that is not shown in this photo. That tiny green border really made the top pop.....that is when I REALLY decided I liked the quilt. OK....I'm off to grunt and groan some more.....my plan is to get ALL the outside borders sewn on today. And if I'm NOT TOO SORE maybe I'll tackle the borders on my BUTTERFLY quilt. Does any of the above sound familiar?......WHAT DO YOU do when it's time for you to add your borders???

Crummy Therapy

After I made such an 'episode about my little house reunion quilt (previous 2 posts).....My mind/brain/noggin/the creative side of my head was worn and tired......so, the best kind of therapy I can do is to pull out my crumbs (Quiltville term) and do some mindless sewing.....or another term would be to make fabric. When I pull out my tiny scraps and just start sewing them together it is soooo soothing and relaxing. I can still think on other projects without having to pay too much attention to what I'm sewing. I have my stash categorized into all sizes. My crumbs being at the bottom of the spectrum.....the next size up would be chunks and then strips then strings then 1".....well, you get the picture. I started my crummy therapy/making fabric way back in August 2008.

All those different sizes have their own drawer/bin............I pull out my crumb bin....place it right next to my machine and away I go!!! Most of the time I just reach in and sew up what I have pulled out randomly.

You can sew up these tiny little scraps to any size you want. Sometimes I dig through and sew up all the same color....like the greens above.

You could sew up all reds.......oops......looks like a strip got in there with my crumbs.....that's ok to throw some of those in too.

Maybe you would like the black and whites......

Or maybe you save those little teeny tiny half square triangles 'cause they were just so cute you couldn't throw them away!!

But I think mixing them up all scrappy is a VERY good thing too!

AAaahhhhhh.....I feel sooooo much better after a little crummy therapy......you should try it.....you will feel better too.........and just think about the fun things you can make with that wonderful fabric you made and some of that scrap stash you put to good use.

I'll have a future post on what projects I used my crumbs for......now GO.....isn't it time for your therapy session??

Making Fabric

I dumped out some of my crumbs the other day and sorta played around. Thanks Bonnie for sharing about crumbs. It's amazing how cute your pieces are when they are all sewn up together! I like to call it make fabric. Yes, by sewing all these tiny pieces together you can make fabric! You can design it any way you like by what colors and designs you put together!!

I discovered a way to press these little short seams without needing my bulky iron. Several months back I bought one of those little Clover irons. I also bought the larger pressing attachment but haven't put it on yet. Anyway, in my scraps I found two squares ....one of flannel and the other is that warm and natural batting type. I put the two together and I leave it right here in front of me and when I need to press... my little ironing board is right here handy!! Since I am working with such small pieces my mini ironing board doesn't get in my way.

I just keep the Clover iron right at the side on it's stand and it's very handy when pressing time comes. I have one of those June Taylor pressing/cutting mats, but where I have to put it I have to kind of stretch across to use it and then whatever gets caught on my arm sleeve gets raked off onto the floor and THEN I have to BEND OVER to retrieve it. I decided this was entirely too much activity and movement to be going on around my sewing!! I mean...it's bad enough when I have to go all the way back downstairs to get another cup of coffee!! But then again I have discovered that when I sit too long in my chair and then when I NEED to get up I have difficulty standing or walking very good!! SO..I can't win for losing!!!

Here is some of my made fabric pieces shaping up nicely. I've made some pieces large enough to sew up some potholders but I was thinking about pulling out all the pastels and polka dots and doing a baby size quilt. It's always been fun for me to make something basically out of nothing. See if you can too.....DO YOUR OWN THING!!!! Go 'make fabric'....it's sooo inspiring!!!