There was one housekeeping chore on yesterday's calendar, but then I realized I had several days coming up that were open. It gave me a little flexibility, and so I can rearrange my housekeeping calendar to accommodate my sewing. Not that I would ever hesitate, but you know...somehow it seems legal to put off until tomorrow what could easily be accomplished today. Sewing obviously takes priority over everything except dispensing kitty treats.
Speaking of kitties, Sadie still isn't happy with the pink striped binding on the Snow Globes quilt. We had quite a little discussion about it yesterday.
She couldn't believe I was going ahead with this pink perversion. When I told her I'd stitched too far to change it, she gave it some thought...
and then offered up her final opinion on the matter.
Oh well. You can't please all the cats all the time.
So, it's finished. I had a hard time getting up high enough to get a good picture of it, but here it is. All done. I started this quilt on November 8, 2017, and it ends up at 68 x 68 inches.
This was my goal for October's
so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.
In other hand stitching, I finished the watermelons in my hoop. The original pattern said to use double lazy daisy stitches for the watermelon seeds. I decided to do a satin stitch instead.
I'd estimate it's just slightly less than half finished now.
Next, I'll finish stitching the bowl, and then I'll give myself credit for halfway there.
Back in the sewing room, I was only just getting started sewing this randomly pieced block. This one was made up with a leftover piece (seen in the center) and then I added what remained of the 1-1/2-inch HST's and itty bitty solid pieces.
This all began with a half dozen or so sandwich bags of different sized pieces. It made sense to me to start with the smallest. There were fewer and fewer as I ranged up in size, and besides, the smallest ones were the most tedious to work with. Next, I moved to the 1-3/4 inch ones. I didn't have very many.
For the smallest ones, I sometimes combined them with larger bits. Here, I combined the piece above with the three inchers to make this block:
Then I moved back to the bag containing two-inchers to make this block:
I made these two little blocks with the 2-1/8 inch HST's.
Then, I combined those with some of the 3-3/4 inchers to make this block:
There were quite a few 2-1/4 inch HST's. I first made this block:
There was another one laid out for sewing, but I needed a break. Smitty wanted a break too. All this work was making him hungry for some treats.
In the meantime, I went outside and filled the bird feeders. Surprisingly, this volunteer gerbera daisy had three flowers on it. As I've mentioned before, I plant these every year, and they almost never rebloom. Then this one volunteered in a pot where it was planted at least two years ago. It's been blooming to beat the band ever since it first showed itself. The flower pots have been neglected terribly since our evacuation time, and so I've dubbed this "the little daisy that could."
Okay, but I still had more sewing to do, and so I returned to the sewing room and finished the block I'd laid out earlier.
In the same sandwich bag, I had scraps from a different quilt. I sewed them into a friendship star.
From there, I moved to the 2-1/2 inchers. These were mostly squares left over from the Tuxedo Tales quilt.
In the 2-3/4 inch bag, I found these pieces. For the life of me, I couldn't remember why I made these, but then remembered they were from an Easter block in the Solstice to Solstice quilt.
You can see it kind of in the middle there on the left side of the quilt. As I look at this, I'm realizing that a lot of these bits are leftovers from this quilt.
Okay, and I still had a few more in that size, so I made this block:
Returning to the 3-1/2 inch size, I made this block:
Then I moved to the largest sandwich bag at 3-3/4 inch pieces to make this block:
There were still a few leftovers, and so I ended up trimming a few to fit them together.
In some cases, I trimmed or added a sashing to make them fit. The sashing was a leftover strip of binding.
There are still a few little bits leftover, but I'm finished making blocks. Here they all are. They range in size from about 5 inches to about 9 inches.
There are a few orphan blocks in the mix too. I'll start sewing these together today using some black sashing and a few pops of bright color and a few pops of some of the leftover pieces still left in the sandwich bags. My strategy will be to choose the largest for the middle of the quilt and then work my way around it, adding strips to bring them to size. It'll be like putting together a quilt puzzle. I don't often try making a quilt like this, but it's been a lot of fun mixing and matching and seeing what can be done with all these pieces. Possibly, I can get this sewn into a finished flimsy today, but I'm thinking it'll be at least a two-day job.
So, off I go. Some assembly required.
12 comments:
One quilter's trash is another quilter's stash.
That's an impressive number of scrappy blocks! You remind me that I have a stack of orphans somewhere, too; I'll add that to my search list. Which also reminds me how different our housekeeping approaches are -- mine runs more along the lines of attending to things when I walk into a room and exclaim, "yuck", or something along those lines. No white glove treatment here, thank you. My gerbera yellow daisy bloomed a second time this year, too. I wonder if they've improved the hybrid? Of course, mine is merely an annual in this climate; no second chances here.
Snort! Go Sadie! Seriously, my tablet is thankful that I hadn't taken a sip of tea before scrolling down to that photo. I'll be looking forward to seeing all those blocks in their final configuration in a quilt, as I still have the bits and pieces my granddaughter designed when they last visited.
What a fun way to use leftover HSTs and other bits.im sure you’ll come up with a fun quilt with them. I sort my bits into my scrap bins by color. This year I’ve been make single-color “Creature” quilts with the RSC color of the month and like-colored orphan blocks. It’s been a fun adventure in improv and puzzle piecing!
You do have a lot of leftover blocks; I have "started but didn't finish" things in my drawer...so it's sort of "now what was this going to be?" game when I take them out...it should be fun putting them together...hugs, Julierose
I have some orphan blocks piling up from doing test blocks, etc. Maybe someday I'll have to try this. Nice finish on the snow globe quilt!
You have been a busy busy Lady! Like the finished Snow Glob quilt and the new embroidery! Hugs
My guild is having a game night this week and we are playing poker using leftover blocks, strips, squares, etc. as chips. If I'm any good at poker, I may need to make a trashy quilt. Love seeing how you are making yours.
Oh Sadie, you made me laugh so hard....thank you. The Snow Globe quilt turned out wonderfully and now I'm most interested in seeing this latest 'use it up' quilt evolve. Good for you for even attempting to marry all the scraps together.
Well Sadie is not one to suffer fools gladly is she? No hiding her opinions for her. Good thing you have a tough hide. I'm intrigued by the blocks improv blocks you've made from all the bits and pieces. I've got all sorts of crumb blocks made (and partially made), but I haven't done anything with them. Since I'm going to be stuck home this winter, maybe I'll do some playing.
Pat
A great way to use up those odds and ends. I have a bag of half HSTs that I'm going to do something with at some point, just not at at this point. Looking forward to seeing all the odds and ends in one quilt.
Beautiful quilt! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish!
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