ScrapHappy Saturday Number 2 of 2026

 

We are a week into the new year! I hope that you are finding time to sew and enjoying some new projects or making progress on your existing blocks. I have 78 out of the 180 blocks that I will need for Saltwater Taffy. I've been alternating between batches of churn dashes and chains. It looks like chain blocks are first up this morning. The four patches use 1.25 inch strips, but I made a big batch of strip sets, so I will just need to sub cut a few of those. 

I was out of 2 inch dot blocks, so I switched to 2 inch bricks for leaders and enders. They make whirly blocks that I will set on point. I haven't done any math to figure out how many of each color to make, I just used up whatever 2 inch leftovers there where in the drawer. 

It was a long week back to school, but everyone is back into the swing of things again. I think we have two full weeks before MLK. I've got some evening events and going into classrooms to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. After that, I am taking a bus tour of 12 private schools in Florida. That should be a lot of fun. Each school will wine and dine us and give us a tour before we move on to the next. It is a lot of school to miss, but it will be worth it to have so much insight to share with my student.

Use the linky below to share your progress so far in the new year. I always enjoy seeing which new projects you all pick out as well as the ones that get revived or rolled over. All of the above options are great choices. As long as it uses scraps, the it accomplishes the goal.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Catching up on UFOs

I got some more blue blocks made while I was working on a UFO. After finishing the basket quilt top last week, I dug out a log cabin UFO to figure out why it got stuck. I had started enough blocks, but then got stuck when I ran out of light colored logs. Once I cut a few more of those, I was good to go and quickly finished up enough blocks for the full sized quilt that is in my mind for the main bedroom at the cabin. 

I really wanted to a barn raising layout, but there isn't really enough space to lay it all out at once. Instead I settled in this alternating light and dark diamond layout. I can lay out a set of 16 blocks and then sew those together pretty quickly. The blocks finish at 7 inches each and I need enough for a king sized bed with a good amount of overhang which should make the layout about 15 by 15. What is going on in your sewing room this weekend? 

 

Day 2 of 2022

 I won't keep counting days forever, but it does feel good to try to accomplish something each day of the new year.   

Accomplishment number 1 for the day, watching the sun come up over the horizon.   Kurt is driving our son Ryan back to college today, and our oldest daughter left to be back and celebrate the new year with her friends.  That just leaves the youngest daughter and I to putter around the house today.   I'm collecting some things for Goodwill and doing some tidying.   With the windows open to a beautiful ocean breeze, it is quite pleasant.   We took down the tree yesterday, which left everything feeling so open and clear.   

The RSC color for January is red, so I might start to play with some red scraps today as well.  

Accomplishment number two is getting this quilt top ready to sew together.  The 16 patch blocks were leaders and enders from many years ago. They were all mixed up with the monochromatic nine patches made from 2 inch squares that I seem to use for so many quilts.   I thought about tossing these out, but started to play on graph paper and came up with this arrangement using groupings of four.  Each group of 4 with 2 inch sashing strip works out to 14 inches.  Big blocks make quilts quickly, so it seemed worth making just a few more to finish off a top.   The lattice and cornerstones are two different rainbow dotted whites and so I found the only piece of dotted fabric with enough for the border.  It just happened to be orange, and so a happy quilt is ready to be turned into a flimsy.   

Next on the list are the last two applique baskets to this quilt that was also started long ago.   I was afraid that I didn't have any of the dotted background fabrics on hand anymore, but was able to find enough to get the last two blocks prepped and ready for some slow stitching.   I can't decide whether these need a lattice and cornerstones treatment, it is trickier with an on point setting, but the baskets seem to need a little space to breath.     

 

I think I will take some time to breath as well and check out Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap!  

Back to Quilting

I was happy to see that the ScrapHappy Saturday post went up as planned.  It is always a little scary to be away from all technology and know that there isn't any way to fix a problem if it pops up.  By Saturday, we were on our way back from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City getting ready to fly home again.  I'll post some vacation pictures soon, but for now I have quilting updates.  

It feels good to be back home again and to have time to spend in front of the sewing machine. It has taken the better part of the last three days to get Anna's dorm room quilt to the flimsy stage.   

 We ordered some extra wide backing fabric for the reverse.  I think there will be enough leftover for pillow shams. 

 The half hexie pattern was slow and required lots of starts and stops.  These are all the leader and ender squares I finished while making sure all the pieces lined up row by row.  I'm just about out of 2.5 inch squares.  The four patches will be joined into 16 patches and add to the collection of blocks for later. 

While emptying photos off of the good camera, I found 429 pictures of Sydney playing lacrosse.  Her summer season if over and she is chilling at home doing not much of anything for the next few weeks until school starts again.  

Sewing in the New Year

 I have been frantically sewing for the last two days, but not on a project that I am ready to share yet.  Instead, here are the leader and ender blocks that I have accomplished along the way.

 There is always a stack of 2.5 inch squares sitting next to the machine, and eventually, they turn into bigger blocks. 

At some point I will put these together into quilts, but for now, I will just let the collection grow. 
This morning I went to the dentist and had to scrape ice off of the windshield!  I don't have an ice scraper!  We tried to buy one once for a fiend moving to Colorado, but no luck.  So I used my handy library card.  That and a few minutes waiting for the defroster to kick in had me on my way.  Hard frost doesn't happen here very often, so it is always quite an event.  We had to bring the tortoise in and I'm sure the palm trees are not happy. 

Here is a photo of our recent ski vacation.  We were waiting for our time on the tubing slope.  I think that might have been everyone's favorite day.  Kurt is back at work this week, so it is just the kids and I bouncing around the house.  The girls want to see a moving this afternoon and Ryan has a potluck party to go to.  I will wrap up my sewing and be on my way.  

Housekeeping

Today Ryan wanted to have a superhero movie marathon while his sisters were at camp.  He made popcorn for us both as we sat through Thor followed by Captain America.  Tomorrow we will top it off with The Avengers which is still in theaters.  Obviously I couldn't just sit and do nothing while all that movie watching was going on.  Instead I pulled out the little basket that sits on the end of the ironing board to catch leaders and enders and odds and ends.  Boy do those little guys build up in a hurry!  They are all neatly filed away now with a new set of nine patches are matched up and ready to go.  By the time that was all done it was time to go and start the camp pick up route.  Then we got home and tidied the kitchen after the kids helped me clean out my car.  Not a bad vacation day all.  If it goes on long enough I'll actually get to all the little projects on my list. 

Tabs

Check out the tabs at the top of my blog.  I've moved some of the margin lists to their own individual pages. 
Did you see the Moda Bakeshop pattern for today?  It is a Barn Raising layout done in 1930s solids.  I am not imagining doing it in solids or from a jelly roll, but wouldn't it make a great leader and ender project?  It is really just a nine patch done with three lights and 6 dark or mediums.  Wouldn't it be super cute done with scraps?

Design Wall Monday November 14, 2011

I've been working on these cheddar bow-ties as leaders and enders for a while now.  The stack seemed to be getting pretty big so I thought I'd throw them up on the wall and see how far they would go.  Seems like there are enough so far for a lap sized quilt.  Maybe I'll keep going until I get enough for twin sized so that this one can go in the donation pile.  Mom called today and asked if I could get some more quilts ready for her Sunday school class to give away for Christmas.  I brought her 9 quilts last time we went up, but she says they are doing Christmas presents for 12 families this year.  They got hit by a bad tornado not long ago and there are a lot of families in need.  I'm sure there must be something else in the stack that will work. 

Another Productive Day

After having school off yesterday and getting to spend quite a bit of time in the sewing room, I felt very spoiled to have everyone out of the house all day today.  First up was finishing off the flimsy for Scrapphappy Squares.  I'm so thankful for the design inspiration from Marlene that sent me down the Garden Rail path with the setting on this one. 

Then it needed a back of course. I had some nice black and rainbow fabric, but as I'll quilt it in white thread, I thought this soft yellow would work better.  I did add an extra rainbow stripe from fabric I had auditioned for the sashes.  Loading it on the frame seemed easier than putting it away and having to iron it all again later.   Though I started the first row of quilting, I was in more of a piecing mood and sewed up the extra half blocks that the Rainbow Crumbs have been waiting for.  I also put up the Cheddar bowties on the newly liberated wall space from the quilt on the frame.  Still having the house to myself, I started in on some more crumb blocks to finish off the rows.  I'm about done with the black and just started on the brown.  I'm still debating on the white, I guess it will depend on the final measurements. 

I was in the midst of my little crumb explosion when the gang came home with the EXCITING news that they qualified to go to the regional Lego Robotics competition during their tournament today. It was supposed to be just an early practice round but I guess it all went so well that they took second for the day. Most exciting of all, their robot got the top prize for design! Much happy dancing was done along with trophy posing and celebratory woohooing. 

Puttering

I head back to school next Wednesday and the kids will be back one week after that. This week has been for getting ready and trying to finish off the loose ends that have been left dangling. Doctors and errands and shopping, so much scurrying around!

After an afternoon of sorting through the school supplies we already had on hand, I was left to wonder why we needed to buy anything at all.  We seem to have plenty of crayons, markers and pencils to supply an entire classroom!  Still, we took our list and checked things off, making sure everyone had what was required.  They each picked out a first day outfit and we supplemented supplies of necessities like socks and underwear.  Anna couldn't remember the last time she needed socks, they just don't go with flip flops!

I spent an evening using glue to connect the corners on the bow-ties for Bonnie's challenge.  I don't like pins on leaders and enders but have been known to drop the entire basket after getting all the pairs matched up.  I only used a dab of glue stick on the outside corner which is going to be trimmed away after ironing anyway.  It seems to be working well so far and about a dozen finished blocks have already come out the other end. 

I also got some fabric goodies in the mail. While I was in Georgia with Mom I put in an order to Connecting Threads. I focused on blues, browns and backgrounds. The blues and browns are for RRCB (which I seriously need to get back to) and the backgrounds are just to try to replenish my stock.  I also got a few spools of thread for the quilting machine. 

What Next?

One of the best parts of the weekend is that big sigh of relief on Friday afternoon followed by the giddy thought of being able to pull out a project and work guilt free for a while. I've been volunteering in Anna's classroom on Fridays, doing hands on science. As soon as that was done, I headed home and started hunting for my weekend project.My midget blocks called to me, I still have that new paper piecing template I drafted for the last block that I want to try out. Yes, this is number one on the want to do list if not the should do list.
My leader's and enders have gotten out of hand and need to be sorted and ironed and such. That wouldn't take long and would help things look a little less chaotic. Definitely on the list for the weekend, but maybe not first up.
The bed has magically attracted lots of extra stuff; mending, fabric, all sorts of miscellaneous junk that seems to land here. This must be done before the new carpet shows up on Tuesday.

Anna is really anxious for me to finish her quilt. It's going to take some thought tough, and it might be beyond the scope of my mental capabilities at the end of a long week.
This scrap quilt has been hanging on the wall for a while now. It wouldn't take long to whip it together into a flimsy.

Yes, that is the winner. When in doubt, pick off the low lying fruit and grab the one ready for a quick finish. I've got two quilts put together into flimsies now that need to be ironed. I hope redbox has something good so that I can have a little ironing party tomorrow. After that I'm going to cross some more off of the ought to be done list.

Housekeeping

Not of the house of course, but today was a quilt related housekeeping day of sorting, organizing and putting away. I spent my "free" time this morning ironing leaders and enders and then filing them away into their respective homes. Some of them are part of ongoing projects, but some of them are just random four patches or nine patches without a destination yet. I feel quite guilty now when I end a line of sewing and cut the threads off without sewing through a square of some sort.
This afternoon was the baby shower for which I made the quilt. It seemed well received and the colors matched well with the planned nursery scheme. Our two guidance counselors did most of the planning and everything was adorably cute. It was all color coordinated and in verse. I am just home from that now and we are watching a movie as a family. I might pull my ironing board out again and work through some more of my odds and ends while watching.
I'm still thinking about what to work on next weekend. I'd like to spend the evenings this week getting everything set up so that I can get lots done during the quilting marathon next weekend. Who else is in?