ScrapHappy Saturday - Neutral Blahs

As much as I have loved seeing all the neutral blocks that people are coming up with, I haven't felt inspired yet to really dig into my neutral scraps.  I did get this midget block started last night, but there are no neutrals in it. Today is the day though, I can feel it.  I was madly paper piecing last night, so I might start today with some little houses or log cabin blocks.  How about you?  Any fun neutral based blocks churning in your sewing rooms?
I found the coolest rainbow postage stamp quilt while wandering aimlessly yesterday.  I think I've seen it before, but check it out for inspiration.  

Quilt Heaven

This might not look like most people's idea of nirvana, but I can't imagine a better evening.  Kurt and the kids are having a Top Gear marathon and I am squirreled away in the study making a mess.  Paper piecing isn't the neatest of methods, but it sure is fun to trim away all the ragged edges and end up with pretty little points.  I've got one midget block done and two more ready to go.  No peeking though, I'm posting one each week on Tuesday and have worked my way ahead into the end of May.  Just think of how far ahead I'll be when summer vacation hits!  Must do some school work this weekend though, along with a Girl Scout trip and normal weekend fun.  For now though, I'm off to make some more scraps. 

Tiny Tuesday - Mexican Star

This is Midget Block #77.  It is officially called Rising Sun.  However, I sewed it on the airplane on the way back from our Mexican Vacation, so I am going to call it Mexican Star. It is my block, I can rename it if I want to!  This one was hand pieced, with lots and lots of inset seams.  It was trickier than it looks because of the asymmetry of the star points.  It is hard to tell by looking, but half of the points are larger than the other half.  That means that the brown background pieces have a left and a right which was a little tricky to figure out on crowded bumpy airplane.

 I finally measured and marked each of the sides as long, medium or short and then matched up the short side with the small star points, the medium side with the large star points and the long side with the outside edges.  After that, getting the background corners mitered seemed easy enough.  I was just sewing the last seams as we touched down in Miami.  I am starting to get the hang of the whole hand piecing of inset seams routine, but I started on a curved block today that might just exceed my skill level. 

What's on Your Bed?

Bonnie Hunter posed the question today, "What's on your bed?"  I had to laugh, because Bonnie Hunter is on my bed today.  At least her quilt design is.  I think this pattern was called Spinning Stars.  Originally is was in Quiltmaker magazine, and I seem to remember that it used 2.5 inch strips.  I used 2 inch strips, I guess because I had more of them at that point in time?  Hard to say, but after sewing a few hundred blocks, I thought they needed to be broken up a bit and added the extra green strips to separate the quilt into quadrants.  The checkerboard border followed along with a few more to make it fit on the bed.  I don't have that many quilts that fit on this bed, so this one gets quite a lot of use.  So what is on your bed today?  Go over to Quiltville to play along. 

Happy Easter

 I hope everyone is having a relaxing and rejuvenating Easter Sunday.  I tried sneaking into the sewing room first thing after the egg hunt this morning but was pulled back into a round on house cleaning that lasted until lunch.  Hopefully that silliness is over and I can get back to my little hideaway soon.  I put yellow sashing strips on two sides of my green crumb blocks to give them a less formal feel than a lattice and cornerstone treatment.  I think I still need to randomize the rotations a bit more.  After that I pulled all the cheddar bowties out to see how close I am to getting that one done. It has been ages since I finished anything and I am starting to feel that there are too many irons in the fire. 

Yesterday we went to a HUGE Easter party that a good friend hosts every year.  The kids have all been looking forward to it for ages and were so excited to get all dressed up and smash confetti eggs on all their friends.  I've been sweeping up leftover confetti all day but the kids are already looking forward to next year. 

Easter ScrapHappy Saturday

I hope you all find a little bit of time to sew on this long holiday weekend.  April is the neutral month, so feel free to work with neutrals alone or mix them with another color to catch up or work ahead on whichever pile is the biggest.  I spent yesterday taming scraps and now feel great about sewing away a little bit of the day. 

Use the linky below to share your own scrappy progress.  

Good Friday

So my day off started with a trip to the dentist, a visit from the air conditioner repairman and a piano lesson.  By lunchtime I was all out of errands and happy to settle down with a pile of scraps.  It seems like I just had an extravaganza of scrap taming, but the basket was full again and waiting to be sorted, cut and put away.  Lizzie is keeping me company, snoring away at my side.  It is good to have company.  Kurt volunteered for the afternoon round of errands and has taken the kids off for haircuts, Easter shoes and pool chemicals.  I'm itching to sew something, but first I'd better finish off my little piles of chaos. 

Tiny Tuesday - Snowball Wreath

This is Midget Block number 57.  It is called Snowball Wreath.  I finished it on the way to Cancun.  The star in the background is paper pieced and then the little circle are four patches that are shaped into circles before being appliqued.

I used the freezer paper on the outside technique for this one, and I am liking it a lot now that I have gotten the hang of it.  I think I will order some of the glue that comes in the little needle tip squeeze bottle to keep the pieces in place better. Doesn't the block look even better in Cancun?  This was the view from the balcony in our room. 

Pink Placemat

 I know it is a new month, but I wasn't quite ready to put away my pink scraps yet.  I didn't have much in the pink jars to make crumb blocks. 

Instead I pulled out some 2.5 inch squares which I sewed together into nine patches.  6 of those with a border turned quickly into a pink place-mat to go with the red and green from earlier months.  Anna has claimed this one as her own, in two more months there will be one for each of us.

So now that I am officially ready to switch over to April, I'm ready to go and pull out my light neutral jar.  It is stuffed full of white, cream, ecru, anything that would work for background.  I might see if I can separate it into very light and not quite as light to get enough contrast for a block or two, otherwise I'll catch up on string blocks for Jamestown Landing. There are a few inspiration quilts linked on the RSC12 tab at the top of the page, be sure to check it out if you are stumped. 

And, just because coming home from vacation is so hard, here the view from the balcony of our room at the resort in Mexico. Now, back to life as usual.

Midget Marathon

I am on a manic midget binge.  No actual blocks to show for now, but my Tiny Tuesdays are scheduled to post all the way into May!  I have officially finished off the first two binders which hold blocks 1 - 60.  There are plenty of finished blocks in the other two binders as well when I went out of order for handwork on trips and vacations.  Now I definitely need some simpler power piecing.  I think I'll go see what is easy and ready to be finished off.  It is nice to be home again, catching up on laundry, hanging with the kids.  Life is good.