For Every Action, There is a ... Reaction

I'm not sure anymore if my desire to sew little pieces of fabric together is a passion or an obsession, but it’s all I want to do.  I have completed my pre-migration south 'must finish' list, so I have a couple of extra weeks to just play, sort, organize, and pack away my sewing mess.  This is often when I make blocks I've always wanted to try but never took the time for.

Action:  Motivated by Tish's Adventures in Wonderland to buckle down and tame my stash/scraps, I unearthed the first bin to work through.  Slightly larger than a shoebox, it's been taking up space for quite a few years, containing leftover layer cake fabrics and scraps from a Connecting Threads' kid's quilt kit that I made 8 or 9 years ago.  Sorry, no picture to show it was stuffed full.

Reaction:  But instead of cutting it up into more manageable pieces for storage purposes, I ended up cutting it all up and sewing it back together.

 

This quilt was inspired by the Knee Socks Quilt Block 

that Elizabeth Hartman designed 

for the Modern Quilt Guild a number of years ago.

I have always wanted to try it.

I am straight line quilting it, FMQing a row of ribbon candy 

in one strip per block to break it up.  It's kind of tedious, so it's going slowly.

But I'm loving it!

And that led to this.  Not scraps, but charm packs.  I thought, "Why can't I do the same thing with some of those charm packs that have almost rooted to the shelves?  I rarely use them, except for applique, because they aren't really and truly 5" square and it frustrates me to work with them.

And here's a little closer look, just so you can see I used text fabric as my background.

Two charm packs will give you a pretty good size.  I only used 63 charms because there wasn't an equal amount of solids, and it will end up being 40.5" x 49.5".  I cut each charm into 3 pieces measuring 2.5", 1.5", and 1".  I used 40" of text print.

At this rate, I will never tame and organize my scraps and leftovers,

but I am sure having fun!

Hope you are, too!

XO.

karen

Be Still my Beating Heart

Early every morning, I sit quietly with my cup of coffee and take a lovely scroll through Quiltland, checking blogs, following links, literally falling down the rabbit hole.  I am an early morning person and this jaunt really motivates and inspires me, and sometimes gets my quilting juices bubbling so rapidly, I don’t even finish my coffee before I’m sitting at my sewing machine, stitching away.  

Yesterday morning,
during my leisurely scroll
down Piecemaker Lane,
I saw this quilt
by Luna Lovequilts
and the needle on
my Quilt Meter went berserk! 
It made my head spin. 

Even if you aren't into modern quilts,

you'll want to pop over to

Sophie's blog,

not only to

check this out and see a full size picture,

but to read about her inspiration.

Way to go, Sophie!

You've nailed it!

Good luck with your QuiltCon submission!

XO,

Karen

Finishing Up, Getting Ready to Go

(Click on pictures to make larger)

I have been winding down my summer island sewing adventure, getting ready for my annual fall migration, and have been working on a very scrappy granny square quilt.  These blocks were made every once in awhile over the last couple of years, and when Crafty Daughter asked for a quilt for her guest room bed, I decided it was time to make good use of this collection of blocks. 




I had accumulated over 30 blocks, and thought that was pretty good, until I did the math.  For a twin size quilt I’d need quite a few more!  But, by adding sashing, I could reduce that number, so I got to work and kept adding to the pile during the summer.  I kept the quilting pretty simple.

The scraps are rather randomly selected, and individually, are quite ugly.  But all together, they aren’t too, too bad.  With the addition of some quilting, it looks pretty good in person!  You see, my daughter has multiple cats who love the quiet, safe space that a seldom used guest room affords, so the request was to make a quilt that wouldn’t show cat fur.  Hmmmmm.  I think that was the deciding factor for choosing these blocks.  It just a scrap quilt, right?  A utility quilt.

Well, scraps or not, it’s still a lot of work!

My time is short, so I took advantage of the quiet before the storm,
to lay it out on the deck to spray baste.
This Texas Star Spangled BOM quilt was almost ready
to come off  the Janome 

and I wanted to be prepared to start quilting granny squares right away!

Guess what?  

Spray basting doesn't work when it’s only 46*F outside.

There has been a bit of chatter out there regarding free quilt patterns hurting the sales of commercial patterns.  I just can’t help but throw in my 2 cents worth, as an everyday, run of the mill quilt maker and consumer of Quilty goodness.  If I see a free quilt pattern that I like, I will make it.  If I see a commercial pattern that I just can't live without, I will buy it.  (Herein lies the problem, I have purchased so many quilt patterns, I can't possibly make them all!  So, I have to really, reallly, realllly need that pattern to buy it!)  IMHO, the market is flooded.  With both.  And don't forget magazines and books.  But, offering a free pattern on the internet is not going to impact sales. 

There, I feel better.  It's not as if quilt designers visit my blog.  Well, not many, anyway.  

I'll finish up by showing you the wallet I made

for Crafty Daughter's birthday.

(A purchased pattern!) 

This is a Mini Diva Wallet by Sew Many Creations.  I thought it would be difficult.  

But it was fun!

(Thanks, Linda, for supplying the pretty fabric.  

Crafty Daughter absolutely loves it!)

Now I"m off to make some binding.  

Enjoy your weekend.

I'm pretty excited to get an extra hour tomorrow morning!

Wish I could have an extra hour every morning.

Mornings are my favorite time of day.

XO,

karen