What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It is so satisfying to take those small but beautiful pieces of fabric and give them purpose.

Doll clothes are a great option. These are again for the “babies” of our two granddaughters. And include ribbon for the hair or for waistbands as the girls wish. More planned.

This frame has been setting around for a while, wanting to become something.

So, I took all this.

And created this.

It can be used vertically, or…

horizontally, if you take the stand part off the back.

It isn’t difficult. Search “pincushion from a picture frame” and you will find all sorts of tutorials. This one will be a gift for a quilting friend.

Yesterday, I blogged about a new block I was trying, and I am so glad I did. Thank you for the help. Good thing, I tried a sample. Now to figure out, how to do it.

When I spent time cutting a box of shirts, I cut 7 1/2 inch squares for a quilted twins free pattern called radio waves. I had a handful of shirt strips that I thought I might as well sew them together. I enjoyed making these, as I used 1 1/2 inch strips and mostly muslin by strip piecing, and, then sub cutting ...

Sew day was Saturday with the guild. I had a new project I was anxious to start, and, I wanted to get the borders on this scrappy shirt quilt. I had started the string/crumb borders on Friday. When I laid the quilt out to measure, and cut the borders, I didn't like them at all. Which was a great reason to switch to my exciting new project. That was just what I needed to think about the borders for a bit, and, realize I just needed to keep going. Often, I don't like something at one stage ...

I have been cutting recycled shirts again. I have a few quilts I am cutting, as I go through the shirts. After, those are cut, I am cutting the leftovers into useable sizes. The pile to the right on top is for a brick quilt. I need 70 some and I have 40 some. next going left, any stripes, I am cutting a 4 inch strip for a one block wonder... for someday. next left is 3 1/2 squares. a piece missing from another project,  all the way left is a size big enough to cut for ohio stars ...

Years ago I received a lovely piece of stitchery in a scrap bag. It is done on authentic feedsack material. You can see where the stitches were picked out and some printing on the back.

I didn’t know what to do with it.

I shared it on the blog HERE, and a lovely reader created a pattern for those who might be interested.

But the original languished. I set a goal do something with her in 2021. She has probably waited around 80 years for this moment.

The first thing was to wash. Gently. By hand.

That went fairly ...

I have been trying to stick to just my projects that are goals for the month. But, every now and again, I just need to sew a block for any other project.  I am using recycled shirts to sew these anvil blocks. Since I am still cutting for this shirt quilt, the box is near my machine. I pass by them on my way to sew, and I just needed to make a few.

other anvil blocks here

We are still collecting sap from our maple trees. This may be the last week. It isn't getting below freezing at ...

The blocks are finished and it is moving towards layout.

It is an experiment. I have yet to determine if it is a successful experiment.

As if life weren’t complicated enough, Husband had hip replacement surgery yesterday, Friday.

Fortunately, the procedure went very well and we are home in less than 24 hours.

We anticipate a speedy recovery, but, in the meantime he needs a few helpful objects so that he doesn’t just have to rely on the helpful wife.

So, this morning I woke up early and made him a caddy for his walker.

Just cut the top (I think I used about 16 inches) out of the top of a pair of jeans. Add twill tape to the side belt loops ...

For several years I have kept and counted my empty spools at the end of the year. Silly? Maybe, but the art teacher enjoys them, and I enjoy the counting.

The total for 2020 is 48.

Here are past years for comparison:

2019: 23

2018: 23

2017: 36

2016: 40

2015: 103 (the year of partial spools and the 52 in 2015 project)

Time for Task Two of the Final Countdown.

This time Shelly suggests that we clean up the fabric storage and stray fabric piles.

I regularly maintain my quilting fabric, but there is another, darker place under that table I cleaned off yesterday.

It is my Big Pile Of Junk. We call it that with greatest affection. It is how I am able to say “yes” to all sorts of people and projects. And, I had been thinking about some doll clothes for the granddaughters.

Oh, that was a dangerous thought…

Looking through turned into making piles.

And piles became outfits ...

Years ago Husband cut up a moth-eaten antique Hudson Bay wool blanket to make a coat for trips and activities with his Boy Scouts. Some people might have considered that sacrilege, but it was never going to be used as a blanket.

For some reason, I saved the scraps.

Lately I have been looking at the wool pressing mats and considering whether or not I really needed one, when those scraps came to mind…Did I still have them?

YES! So into the wash they went. And they came out in good shape.

I trimmed edges smooth and square.

And ...

Star gazing is a Bonnie Hunter pattern in her book scraps and shirt tails. This is finish number 27 for the year for me. Many of the scraps for this quilt are upcycled shirts. I cut it out in 2014. It has been a top since 2017 after a back and forth visit to the ufo closet. It's a big quilt 82 x 82 and used 22 yards of fabric. I made mine one row bigger across.

The grandchildren needed library totes, and I had a lot of my Father’s worn out jeans (Thank you for saving them, Momma). (NO, I don’t know why a few of these pictures insist on being sideways…there are many mysteries in life.)

I did create the pattern, but am just not up to writing a tutorial right now. Perhaps in the future.

And I supplemented the totes with MINI TOTES for the dolls of the two granddaughters.

Sturdy and serviceable (and packed with some fun treats), we hope the grandchildren will enjoy some love from Nana Deanna.

I am using recycled shirt fabric to make these anvil blocks. I tend to sew the hsts for 3 blocks at a time as a quick sit at the machine. I trim and press them in the evening while watching tv. It is easy sewing the pieces together the next day. I am using a hunk of muslin that I want to leave the stash. Although, there is something lovely about muslin. It is just a simple fabric, but, it behaves so well. It is much like the second or middle child.

This project came from the book Reinvention, which I borrowed from the local library.

I was so excited to give it a try. I still have a lot of my father’s old jeans that my mother saved for years.  And, I am happy with the results.

BUT, it was not without trial.  I don’t know about the rest of the patterns in the book, but this one had numerous errors.  The measurements were off both in cutting directions and finished sizes of components in at least 4 places.

That is too bad, because it is a great idea ...

It was a big push to finish before I start Teacher Work Days.  Once school starts intense projects are much harder.

This quilt was made for JoAnne by her mother Florence about 1976.  You can tell that Florence was resourceful.  She used the fabric she had.

Every block needed some repair, and that was how I approached it:  One block at a time.  You can read more about some specific repair techniques HERE and HERE.

Since the one-block-at-a-time system seemed to be working so well, I quilted it the same way–A meander-stipple around the birds in each block.  My ...

The entire quilt was a bit of doozy…30 of 30 blocks needing help.

For insight on how I fixed blocks with ruined backgrounds, see HERE.

Today I am sharing one way to fix a damaged applique.  I am not pretending this is a great way, but this block needed two different techniques. So it seemed a good example.

A previous repair had stitched netting over the damaged fabric.  I suspect much of the damage on this block, and a number of other places on the quilt, was due to a combination of different shrinkage after washing and very light ...

The quilt has 30 blocks, and not a single one didn’t need something.  Some were fairly simple, just restitching the ric-rack or mending a small hole, but a few were much more involved.

There is no batting, exactly, in the quilt.  Rather, a recycled, lightweight fleece served as both batting and backing.  There was also essentially no quilting.  Just some stitch-in-the-ditch at the sashing and between the blocks.  The blocks themselves are roughly 13″ x 14″. You can guess some of the problems that causes.

This block, and two similar to it, had ruined backgrounds.  The birds were in ...

This might be out of my league, but I was asked to do it by a long-time neighbor and friend of my parents.

Her mother made her this quilt when she was a young child.  It is much loved and is full of memories…

Each block and each bird have their own personality.

I am tentatively starting to work on it, making repairs one block and a time and hoping for a grand revelation on a finish.  It is mostly not-quilted and there is no batting…

Suggestions?  Ideas?  Encouragements?