Sidetracked Again

 So I dug out some batting scraps last night.

 And turned them into some quilt-as-you-go fabric

 Which ended up in the crumb box, where I found these crumb and string blocks from my men's shirt phase.

That's as far as I've gotten though, because the morning was our garage sale/lemonade stand.  Until it got too hot.  Then it was swimming pool time.  Which has just ended in favor of a late lunch.  I think we have a turn with a rented pressure washer next, but someday I'll get back to my fabric and scraps.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Bright and Light Green

First let me announce the winner of the hand dyed fabric giveaway sponsored by Vicki Welsh.  Thanks to the highly scientific number generator at Random.org, the lucky winner this month will be Edith at Inch by Inch Quilting.  Congratulations Edith, if you will send me your mailing address I will pop your fabric in the mail.
Playing with light and bright green has been fun this week.  I'm back to work again on Monday, so trying to enjoy every last minute is high on my list right now.  So far I've made lots of postage stamp blocks along with some leader and enders blocks that aren't quite nine patches yet.  I've been trying to get a head start on sampler blocks too, just in case things get carried away after the start of school.  I am enjoying the scheduling feature of blogger quite a bit right now.
The kids wanted to have a garage sale this weekend.  It is an excellent excuse to get rid of things, but boy is it hot outside right now!  Hopefully Dad will take a shift this morning for a bit before football practice.  I'm not out of green quite yet, a little more sewing time sure would be handy.

How are your green scraps coming along?  Use mister linky below to share your progress so far.

Look What I Made!

 I've been thinking of making some pretty color coordinated scrap baskets.  I was planning making them from scraps of course.  First though, before making a bunch of scrap fabric with strings and crumbs, I thought I'd work on a prototype.  I found this cute fairy fabric in Mom's stash.  She wasn't a quilter, but she had some fabric that she used for crafts, and my sister brought it to me when she came to visit.

 I used some foam board in the bottom for stability, but the sides fold down for storage.  I might try foam board in the front and back.

I measured it so that three will fit across the little shelves that Kurt put in the closet in my sewing room.  Now I just need two more to fill up the shelf!

Playing with Layouts

I was playing with layout ideas for the postage stamp blocks.  I was thinking of something a little bit asymmetrical with a "V" kind of vibe.  I'll let it simmer a bit I think.

 Speaking of simmer, there is a pot of chili in the crockpot for dinner.

And we used the last of the peaches to make a cobbler using this recipe.  I must admit that I tried a little bit when it came out of the oven and it is delicious.  

Playing with Postage Stamps

 While making the giant postage stamp blocks, I also turned out a big ole stack of smaller blocks. These little guys have just 36 squares per block.  I was thinking of something with a chevron kind of feel.

Here it is from the other side.  Still need more orange blocks, along with a light and dark neutral.  Baby blues would be good too.
There is absolutely nothing we have to do today.  Looking forward to another day of puttering around the house.  Hopefully the kids won't go stir crazy.  They are pretty good at that.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler - Indiana Puzzle

I guess a block named Indiana Puzzle should be crimson and cream, but instead, my block is green and gold. Go Packers!  I like the bright green with a bit of yellow to help transition between colors in the final quilt.

I chose a bright green as the focal color and a green and yellow strip for the accent.  Yellow is the background.  You could stick with one green throughout as well.
Here is your "shopping list":
background yellow = 1.5 inch strip at least 12 inches long
background yellow = 2.5 inch strip at least 9.5 inches long.
accent fabric = 1.5 inch strip at least 12 inches long
focal color = 2.5 inch strip at least 7 inches long

Start by placing your 2.5 inch strips right sides together.  Use the easy angle ruler to cut 4 HST units.  With the remainder of the background strip, cut a 2.5 inch square.

Sew your 1.5 inch strips together and sew the HST units along the long side.  Trim the dog ears and press all 4 squares and the strip set toward the darker fabric.

Sub cut the strip set into 8 1.5 inch segments.

Alternate these segments and sew them together to make 4 four patches.  Press with twirled seams.

Here are your finished subunits(they should all measure 2.5 inches):
4 HSTs in focus green and yellow
4 four patches in accent green and yellow
1 square in yellow

Look carefully at the layout.  They call it Indiana Puzzle for a reason.  The four patches make a circle around the outside of the block while the HST units form parallel lines on either side of the block.

Sew the subunits together as you would any nine patch block and you are done.  Enjoy.

Midweek Update

Counting down the days left in summer vacation.  5 more days until preplanning starts.  Yikes!  Summer goes so fast.   While soaking up the last few hours like a sponge, I am spending some quality time with my sewing machine.  The output level isn't high, but I am enjoying playing with scraps and chipping away at lots of ongoing projects.

  Checkout my Giant Rainbow Postage Stamp blocks.  The center section of each block has 144 1.5 inch squares.  I had a dark green, but it didn't have enough contrast with the light green.  I still have a light blue in the works and then I'll add a dark and light neutral block to bring the total count to 12.  Not quite sure where I will go with the sashing on this one, I was thinking of a garden rail idea with some white and grey.  Plenty of time to think about it.

I was so happy with the way the batik stars turned out that I wanted to make one for myself.  This one will have sampler blocks in the star centers though.  It probably won't be started until the new year, but it is fun to plan ahead.  

We've done school supply shopping, and clothes shopping and new shoe shopping.  Yesterday we stocked up on groceries.  The kids have even been helping with a bit of organization and cleaning.  Not too much though, it is almost the end of their vacation too.  Just a couple of doctors appointments to finish off the summer.  Big sigh, counting down reluctantly.  

RSC Sampler Dakota Farmer

This one looks a lot like a Sawtooth Star.  The corners are HSTs though, instead of just squares.  I think if lots were put together in a quilt it would give a nice secondary pattern in the corners.

 The star points are flying geese units.  There are lots of ways to make a flying goose.  I like the companion angle ruler paired with the easy angle ruler.  You could use whatever method you like, as long as you end up with an unfinished 2 by 3.5 inch goose.
For the companion angle method, find a 2 inch strip of light green and cut 4 triangles.

 For the outer portion of the geese you will need 8 triangles cut from 2 inch strips of darker green.  I cut mine in pairs with the dark green strip folded in half.
After you have cut all the pieces from the separate strips you can pair them up and square off the end to cut 4 sets of HST using the easy angle ruler.

 So here is the summary for cutting:
1 3.5 inch square of focus green
4 triangles of light green cut from 2 inch strips using the companion angle ruler
8 triangles of dark green cut from 2 inch strips using the easy angle ruler
4 pairs of light/dark HST units cut from 2 inch strips using the easy angle ruler

 Start by sewing the HST units together.  On the same trip to the machine you may sew one side of the goose triangle on.  Remove dog ears and press to the dark.

 On your next trip to the sewing machine, sew on the other side of the goose triangle.  Remove dog ears and press to the dark.

 Now that all the subunits are pieced you have an uneven nine patch.  I am just now noticing that the bottom goose is upside down in the picture.  Make sure your dark points all face to the center square!  The dark corners of the HST units are all on the outside of the block.  

 You could sew it together as a nine patch, but I did each row separately to make sure the points all ended up pretty.  Press the center section toward the middle and the top and bottom toward the edges.  The arrangement of the subunits is correct in this picture.  Check to make sure yours is OK too before you finish the block.

After that, just sew your three rows together.  Press the last two seams toward the center to reduce the bulk behind the goose point.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - A Tale of Two Greens

Green is one of those colors that has LOTS of shades.  Hopefully you have used up a big chunk of the darks (evergreen, forest, emerald).  This month we will be focusing on the light and brights (sage, lime,  kiwi).  So I started by pulling out my green fabrics and doing a quick sort.  How about y'all?  Any thoughts on light green yet?
With the start of the new month, we will also celebrate with a fabric giveaway.  To enter this month, leave a comment with the name of your favorite quilt block ever.   I will draw on Monday for the winner of the lovely hand dyed fabric collection from Vicki Welsh.  I still need a snail mail address from last month's winner, Marsha Cooper, who is a no-reply blogger.  Please contact me directly at angela(dot)feldbush(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing address.

RSC Sampler Small Bowties

We will be doing green for August.  I know we already did green this year, but that was dark green.  This time it is all about light and bright. I promise that orange is coming very soon, but August is going to be SO busy for me that I couldn't do justice to it this month.

We did a large Bowtie earlier this year, but the small one is SO much cuter.  It is just four smaller Bowties all put together to make one block.

I decided to use a different green for each block.  You could do two greens or even one if you had enough on one color.  It just depends on what is in your scrap basket.  I pulled out this light blue sky fabric for the background.  Blue and green will probably be near each other in the finished quilt, so having a few blender blocks will be nice I think.

Cutting instructions.
8 - 2 inch squares of background fabric.
For each of four greens:
     2 - 2 inch squares
     2 1.5 inch squares

Place the small green squares in one corner of the background squares, right sides together.  You can mark the green square with a pencil line drawn corner to corner, but I chose to just "eyeball" it.  For squares this small it is hard to miss the corners.

Sew each block from one corner to the next of the small green square.

Flip the green square back and press.

Before you start trimming, check to see if you have any green hanging over the edges.  If you do, it is easy to trim everything evenly into a nice square.  Repeat for all 8 background squares

Next trim away the triangle behind your flip and sew corner.  I usually double sew these for bonus triangles, but these little guys are too small even for me.  Repeat for all 8 background squares.

Now pair each 2 inch square of green with the two background squares with matching greens.  The green triangles point to the middle.

Since there are 8 pairs, I like to line them all up for chain piecing.  Notice that the all face exactly the same way.  This really helps with getting everything oriented the right way.  Pair up your two patches to make four patches and press with the center seams twirled.

 

Now you can decide which layout you like.  The Bowties can run along the same diagonal line.

They could all make a circle, or rotate the other way to make and X.  So many choices.  Pick the one that makes you smile.

I like the circle layout.  Something about the empty spot in the middle makes me happy.