Traditional Tuesday - Week 9

Jenifer has posted the traditional version of this week's string block - Traditional Tuesday Block 9.  The strings were 1" wide (a size I recently swore off because I thought they were just too small) and, of course, they had to be that narrow since the blocks we're all making are 6.5".  Bigger strings just wouldn't have the same graphic appeal in a small block.  Check out the pattern links in my TT blog page if you want to jump in on this sampler (we're at block 9 of a 64 block sampler).

I used two more squares from my stash of thin cotton foundations, starched for today's sewing and trimmed to about 7.5" square. Then I laid my ruler's diagonal line down the centre two fabrics to have the corners end precisely on the seam between the light and dark before trimming to 6.5".  It worked perfectly.  Maybe I'm going to rethink that too small for strings standard.  There are some really great quilt layouts for this small string block on Jenifer's blog post today.  In fact, this size string block would make a fantastic project on it's own, or as a border treatment.  I'm thinking of a table topper size or wall hanging, where small piecing can be really effective.

Meanwhile, back on the daily scrap trimming front.... Looky here what I hit in my scrap trimming pile today.  Just yesterday I told another quilter that I don't have any soft pastels in my stash... none at all.  Then today, I lifted a big dark rust-coloured christmassy scrap off the top of the pile and came across this stack of 4", 5", and 6" full width and half width of fabric strips of whisper soft pastels.  I didn't notice them when ironing the scraps in this pile, that must have been at a critical moment in the murder mystery I was watching on the PVR.  It's quite a substantial pile - Two yards worth.  (Yes, Janet, my roguish friend, I weighed them to figure that out. lol)  These are going into stash as a bundle for a future something sweet project, I'm thinking for a baby.  Do I know anyone having a baby?

I keep waffling back and forth on whether I want to start working on Bonnie's new mystery project Orca Bay starting this Friday, or keep my nose to the grindstone on unfinished projects.  I bought some black tonal yardage online for the mystery, but could just as easily tuck that into stash for future use.  I've just got so much on the go right now.  I've been sewing with single minded obsession, trying to finish some projects so I can fit it in.  I tell myself I'm working this hard to get to more UFOs and finally get them done... but secretly I know I'm trying to free up some daily time for the mystery.  I think I put in almost 8 hours yesterday when all the trimming, sewing, pressing and blogging is added up.  That's an unusually big sewing day for me.  I did get all my Great HST Caper units sewn into 3 block rows and all 180 seams pressed.  Just two more seams per block and I'll have my 30 12.5" quilt blocks ready to join into a new quilt top.

Today's mail brought me the long-awaited copy of Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts.  This means I can get back to my Crumb-Along project, which I set aside because I was struggling with piecing letters on my own.  Yeah, I like that excuse, it sounds reasonable. 

This morning, I was so distracted thinking about all the quilty things I want to get done today, I stepped into the shower with my glasses on.  But at least I had taken off my pyjamas this time.

Scrappy Sunday

I managed to get to the sewing machine before Lucas settled in for his afternoon snooze today and quickly sewed up another 6 string blocks.  I think I'll move on to making sashing strips and 9 patches in my next crumb/string session.

Even just making a few blocks a week and these stacked up quite quickly.  I have 30 string blocks (8.5" square) and 48 crumb blocks (6" square) since starting this process two months ago.

Pieced another 4 crumb blocks today.  Tonya's book is in the mail so I will get back to trying out more letters and words when it arrives.

My crumb bin is filling up fast from all the scrap trimming I've been doing.  Some of the quilters on the Liberated Quilters Yahoo Group mentioned that they sort and bag their small fabric bits by colour and keep them with the larger pieces and yardage in their stash.  That would certainly make it easier to make a more co-ordinated looking crumb quilt.  Mine is looking more like a dog's breakfast really and not a good representative of what can be done with crumb blocks.  There are some real beauties in the pics at the Crumb-Along Flickr Pool.  I have to say, though, that the very idea of sorting out the crumbs by colour isn't very appealing to me.  It might make a good take-along chore at Christmas time when I'll be away from my sewing machine and slowly going mad from the withdrawal.

And the final choice on the Shady Lanes borders?  I didn't like the black floral afterall.  I figured that out after walking past the display just a few times.  I thought it looked too dark and with none of the scrap fabrics in it, it made me wrinkle my nose every time.  I've decided to go really simple.  Some of the neutral, the dark red stripe, the half-square triangles and some more neutral to stabilize the sawtooth piecing.  The last time I had piecing that went to the edge of the quilt, I lost my points when the quilt was squared and trimmed.

Tomorrow I'll start adding borders.  Tonight, I'm going to spend some time exploring in my 2" strip bin, to see if I can come up with 100 different co-ordinated fabrics for the 100-patch block.  I don't get to start sewing anything new until I finish a couple of projects, but it's a good sitting in front of the television activity.  At least it keeps me from snacking.

Running out of roosts for my chickens

It was bound to happen... all my chickens coming home to roost at the same time and that day being one in which I have about 1.5 hours of sewing time.  (I'm actually supposed to be eating, changing my clothes and getting out the door again, but I can do a lot with a cheese sandwich in one hand, and they've all seen me without make-up on before anyway.)

I'm making twice the number of 6.5" sampler blocks for both of Jenifer Dick's samplers, Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday .  I've gotten into the habit of sewing two blocks for both these sampler blocks on Tuesdays.  I rather enjoy comparing the two techniques to make the same block.  All I had time for today was the Modern Monday blocks.

Tuesday is also the day Jo posts her latest Crumb-Along instructions, which I started out sewing on Tuesdays and eventually moved to later in the week because I like to include sewing string blocks for my String Quilt project and found I couldn't do it all on the same day as the weekly sampler blocks.

Today is the 25th of the month, so the Bloggers' BOM block has been posted.  And I was planning on getting it done right away and making more bright scrappy nine patches for a Sister's Choice project I'm making with strips from the same bin.  Yeah...well...so much for planning.

And today is also the start of 12 Days of Christmas Sampler Quilt-Along .  The first block has been posted.  It's really cute, but it's paper pieced and fussy-cut... which has me doing the ol' take one step back and melt into the crowd shimy.  I've decided, with regret, that I really do have too much on my plate so will probably not be doing this one afterall.

Got to run now.

Fat Cat in the Stash

There's a new fat cat in the stash...  and every time I see him I have to laugh.

I have never worked with pieces so small.  The piece with fussy cut eyes was less than 3/4" square.  I had no choice on the size as there were other eyes all around them that needed to be kept out of the finished block.  I kind of messed up the head.  You'll notice it's a little square rather than heart shaped.  But those eyes are fantastic.  I have been struggling with getting back to my Crumb-Along piecing, and this little block got me all motivated again.

It wasn't lack of enthusiasm for crumb blocks....  I'm supposed to be making words, but I'm not very good at it, and I don't have the book.  (I'm guessing that having some instruction might make the process more enjoyable.)  Making letters is really a long process for me, fraught with a lot of grunting, teeth clenching, head scratching and seam ripping (and quite a few bad words being spoken aloud).  As a result, I seem to have come up with every excuse in the world for not making them (including housework so that should tell you how hard it is for me).  I've decided to skip them, finish making enough crumb blocks to make this quilt project the right size and not worry about word blocks for now.  I do want to make letters and words - even have an all-word project in mind.  And I will learn how to do it (sez I, with determination).  I just need to get a copy of Tonya's book if I want to maintain what little bit of sanity I have.

And crumb blocks are going to be part of my regular routine from now on.  There are so many fantastic liberated piecing designs I've recently discovered and want to try out in the next crumb quilt.  There's a fantastic long list of tutorials linked here on Michele Bilyeu's blog With Heart and Hands.  I left the crumbs out for some more piecing tonight (with the baseball game on in the background, of course).

In addition to the new cat block, I finished making the next six blocks for the Shady Lanes project today.

And substituted half-square triangle trimming for my usual daily scrap trimming.  Another day of trimming these bonus HSTs from the Shady Lane sashing strips and I will be getting back to the pile or ironed scraps from the big scrap bin.

In recognition of the inspiration he provided, Lucas received 3 cat treat goodies, and nearly took off the end of my finger in his enthusiasm.  He's still out of sorts about the diet I've got him on, but has stopped making pitiful yowling noises around the empty food dish between meals.

Scrappy Saturday

In the absence of home-made soup, I found a package of dehydrated chicken noodle soup in my cupboard - a poor replacement but it seems to have done the trick in fighting off whatever it was that laid me flat yesterday, though I did get half the binding done on a bed-sized quilt.  Soup, along with the aspirin and a good night's sleep, and I'm feeling completely refreshed today.  I finished ten log-cabin blocks for my Crumb-Along project.

This brings my block count up to 57.  The funny thing is that my crumb bin still looks as full as if I had never started.  Granted, I've been adding a few bits and pieces to it from other project trimmings, but it seems rather fantastic to me how full the bin is.  When I consider that the stack of finished blocks I've made using crumbs wouldn't fit in the crumb bin, and that it should still be full without the fabric pieces I've pulled out to make them.  I was thinking I'd stop at 64 blocks (8 x 8) but at 6" each, that would only make the finished top 44" x 44", which doesn't seem a good size at which to stop.  I guess I'll just keep on crumbing.

I had to stop and put some order to the mess I've been building for the last three days.  I've got in-process projects on every surface, in bags, boxes, plastic containers and just stacked one on top of the other. 

There's the bonus half-square triangles from my Shady Lanes project... I'm keeping them separate from the box of 1200 scrappy half-square triangles for now, in case I want to use them in the Shady Lanes border.

And the skinny 1" strips from the crumb bin that I've pulled out to use as Leaders n' Enders for my next crumb project.  When you see how many I've pulled out, and add the 57 crumb blocks, it just boggles the mind that the crumb bin is still so full that it has to be ruthlessly compacted before it will close properly.

I have three UFOs sitting (rather optimistically) on the sewing table as visual reminders....

And the box of components for the Shady Lane quilt top.  Hmmm.  Yes.  I think I'll make up the sashings for the next row of blocks today.  Drawing sewing lines on the backs of dark fabric squares goes better in daylight, as does sewing them.

And I still have a box full of two-patches which I've been using as Leaders n' Enders forever.  I will admit that I'm rather tired of making four patches.  And the Shady Lane project box is full of more four patches and sixteen-patches than I can use in one quilt top.  I think I'll put the two-patch box aside for awhile.

I can't help thinking about the Law of the Tomatoes.  My Dad is a good gardener and enjoys tomato sandwiches, but there always comes a point in the summer where the tomato production outpaces his capacity to eat them.  He feels obligated to eat tomatoes just past their prime, rather than those of perfect ripeness.  (He grew up during the depression and can't bear to throw out edible food.)  This results in him eating over-ripe tomatoes in an endless futile attempt to catch up.  He'd never get to eat another good tomato if my mother didn't step in and claim all the past-prime tomatoes for a soup or sauce she makes only to get him out of his predicament.

Sometimes I feel like I'm working with fabrics I don't like anymore just to use them up.  At this rate, I'll never get to use the good stuff.

String Block Recovery n' Crumbing

I figured out how to save the string block that I accidentally trimmed a 1/2" too short.  Here's the block measuring 8" x 8.5".

I sliced it in half through the middle stripe.

And sewed in a new fabric strip, lining up the pieces at the centre point so the two halves weren't too off kilter from each other (which would have made squaring it a bit of a problem).

Ta-dah!  Newly trimmed 8.5" square string block.  I had less than 1/8" to trim off to make it the right size.  No quilting gremlins throwing their weight around today it would seem.

I spent the next three hours making crooked log cabin blocks for my crumb project - Jo's post on the latest block tutorial is here => Crumb-Along Week 6.  I still have about an inch of fabric needed on each one of my blocks before it's the right size.  I just ran out of steam before I could finish them.  I think I picked up a cold or something visiting relatives last week... there were some suspicious sniffles under all the exuberant hugs....  anyway, giving in to the overall feeling of malaise (I just really feel yucky), I spent the rest of the day under an unfinished quilt attaching binding by hand and watching taped television on the PVR.

I could really use some home-made chicken soup right now.

Crumb-Along Tuesday - Week 5

Only got two blocks made for Crumb-Along today.  I'd like to tell you that I purposefully chose all my ugliest fabric crumbs to make these.... (peeyew!)  but the truth is, that's what I grabbed when I dipped my hand into the crumb bin today.  I'm hoping they kind of get swallowed up in the rest of the crumb blocks I've made so far.  You can see those in this blog post.

And to make those, I cheated on making the half square triangles.  I took them from a box where I keep trimmed bonus HSTs sized 1.5", 1.75", and 2".

I might have made more, but as I was digging in the crumb box for the bigger chunks, I got distracted by thinking about what kind of project could use these skinny little bits....  Now I think I've mentioned before that my crumbs are on the tiny side.  Here's a pic of what I mean.  Not quite an inch wide and two inches long.  Now, why on earth did I keep that?

Thoughts of Tonya's lego blocks (link on the right under tutorials) running through my head, and images of Katell's gorgeous crumb blocks... Have you seen them?  I love the butterflies she posted on her blog and to the Flickr Group Pool?  A link to her blog is here.  Some of the components in her Ohio Stars are cut from stripped fabrics.  That's when I started combining skinny strips to make big enough pieces of fabric from which to cut bigger block components.  And that took up most of the rest of the night.

Sunday Scrapping - Still Crumbing....

Today's crumb blocks......ta-dah!  The first one I've nicknamed fat cat in the stash (inspired by Lucas' repeated naughty forays onto the sewing table last night to poke around the crumbs and strings - looking for food no doubt.

And here's a pic of all the blocks so far.  <long silence, distant sound of sirens coming through the window>  I'm not sure what I'm feeling looking at this pic.  (click on the pic a couple of times to supersize it and you'll no doubt feel what I'm feeling.)  I don't know if I want to say Ewwwww or Wow!  It's reading as...hmmm... very colourful and rather happy (I think, rather cautiously).  Does anyone know how big we're making these things?!!!!

Some rather startling things I've learned about crumb piecing wonky blocks:

1.  No matter how large the box you place on the floor beside your chair to trim over, at least 25% of the threads and snippets will waft like falling leaves to land beside it.  If you open the patio door, it's 40%.

2.  The people who make ironing board covers are obviously in league with the people who make lint brushes.

3.  Crumbs (strings too), once fluffed a couple of times in a desperate effort to locate a particular fabric or colour, will no longer fit in their assigned bin.


I'm done with crumbs for the day.  I can only handle so much and then I feel like I'm in sensory overload.  I've cleaned up my sewing area and might get back to sewing this evening - maybe sewing bindings or making my sunny lanes sashing.  I have enough squares with lines drawn on the backs to make half of my sew n' flip corners.

Tomorrow is Modern Monday and it's also the start of a Quilt Party at  Jenifer Dick's blog Forty-Two Quilts.  I'm not sure what this party is all about, but anything that involves designers like Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, or Jacquie of Tall Grass Prairie Studio, plus a few other recognizable names sounds interesting to me.

Saturday Scrapping - Crumb Along Blocks

First thing this morning, with coffee in hand and laptop warmed up, I clicked my way over to Suzanne's blog Colorado Lady to look at her crumb block progress.  She had made letters!  I left her a complimentary comment, answered a few emails, then got to work on my Saturday list.

My daily 30 HSTs got squared up, I trimmed two quilts, and made binding for them.  Then I sat down and drew lines on the back of squares for my sew n' flip corners for the Sunny Lanes sashing.  That got tedious really quick and after I made myself do enough to make eight blocks, I logged back in and found Suzanne's response to my comment.  She said the letter blocks were fairly easy and she didn't even have the book.  I  don't have the book yet either, it's on my to-buy list for my next trip to the fabric store.  But with Suzanne's assurance and suggestions, I thought I'd try my skill at making letters.  Anything to not have to draw lines on the backs of squares.


My first word is the size of two crumb bocks.  I'm thinking it will go in the border somewhere, not sure how.....

The L, O and E were fairly easy.  The V was a bit more challenging, but with the use of my Dear Jane pyramid ruler, I got the angles that worked for me.  After admiring the word for a little while (and feeling a little smug), I thought I'd try another - going with the idea of "words of wisdom to live your life by".  So I decided to make the word SING.

The S and I were done in no time.  For the N, I again used my Dear Jane ruler.  The G was a bit of a nightmare.  If I hadn't already finished S-I-N, it clearly would have been a "forget this" situation.  But as the first three letters were done, and looked darn good, and I couldn't leave it at the word SIN (not exactly a word to live your life by, though many do), so I struggled through, ripped out a few times, muttered under my breath, and finally ended up with a G that looked like a G.  Some other words I'm considering:  dance, laugh, pray... 

My crumb bin is full of thin strips and that made sewing letters kind of a natural project.  Made a few more random crumb blocks while I was at it.  Kind of the small crumb version of Lego Blocks on Lazy Gal Quilting Blog.

I should have sewed bindings on those two quilts before I started crumbing - my sewing table is in a state of complete creative chaos and I'm not ready to put everything away just yet.  This crumb project is becoming an obsession.

Crumb-Along Week 4 - Nine Patches n' Four Patches

I've had a busy sewing day.  Made my weekly block for Jenifer Dick's Traditional Tuesday Sampler, made six more string blocks for Donna's String Quilt w/ 9 Patches, and then escaped all my troubles through some Crumb-Along sewing.  I joined a lot of teeny pieces to make bigger pieces, and tossed about ten partially formed crumb blocks back into the crumb bin at the end of today's sewing.  Maybe my next session will go that much faster.


I started by making some really teeny tiny wonky nine patches.  What a struggle!

I've had a revelation though.  It's not that the crumbs are too small.  It's that my fingers are just too darn big!

I cut some 3.5" random squares in angle cuts and made some wonky four patches.

I made ten crumb blocks today.  Here's the first six.

Every time I do this, I have a favourite block.  This is today's favourite.

And I made three more stars.  I've decided to use these half-framed stars as my border, so I'll need to make quite a few more.  Maybe if I start making them as my leader n' ender and not just on Tuesdays.

Crumb-Along - Week 2 (Stars n' Hearts)

This week, we're making stars and hearts.  Jo's pictorial and instructions are posted here.

So far my only complaint is that they weren't posted at 3:00 am - when I had a bout of insomnia.  Just kidding!  Jo is doing an amazing job of leading, encouraging and contributing to the delinquency of quilters and all while she's celebrating two new additions to her family: Betty (a sassy little featherweight) and Mildred (a sturdy reliable Singer).  I hope they are sleeping through the night.  Congratulations Jo!

The Crumblers have begun uploading pics of their blocks to the Crumb Along Group Pool on Flickr and visiting each others' blogs (especially those linked at the bottom of Jo's instruction posts) and leaving encouraging comments.  (Don't forget to check your comment settings Crumblers.)

My approach to crumb quilting is to grab a handful of crumbs and not worry about the colours.  There's a real hodge-podge here: country, civil war repros, brights, novelties.  I figure it will all work out in the end.  When I have enough blocks made, I'll put them on the design wall and see if I need more of a particular colour at that time.  I had fun with the heart blocks.  I started out cautiously and made two red ones.

Then I made a pink one.

I think this is my favourite one.

And I made two stars.  They went together so slick!  I'm really pleased with how wonky they are.  I stayed away from my cutting mat, my ruler and my rotary cutter this time and it worked perfectly!  I even stayed away from the iron, proceeded by finger pressing, so the trips to the ironing board were few and far between.

I can see myself making a lot more of the star blocks.  They were a lot of fun, and the seams butted into place without pressing.  I only stopped at this point because I had promised myself I could get started on the string quilt blocks.  I went fishing in my 2" strip bin and pulled out a red, a yellow, and an orange strip to get started.  And when I couldn't decide on one, I just shrugged and used them all.

And I got 6 string blocks made in hardly any time at all.  Donna had suggested starching my foundation fabrics and that worked like a dream!  A pic of the quilt I'm going to make and Donna's advice for proceeding on the string blocks w/ 9patches is here.

The clean up phase.  Honestly, if I didn't have so many UFOs that need finishing, labeling, binding, etc, I think I'd just leave the crumbs and strings out and keep having fun.  But I have a list of must-do work and a pile on my kitchen table waiting for it`s turn at the sewing machine.  The rather optimistic deadline I`ve set for this work is this weekend.  So I reluctantly put a stop to the new blocks.  Would you believe my string box is big enough to accomodate both bags of finished blocks!

And here, it's all back on the shelf and waiting for my next crumbing session.

I think my cat ate a few fabric snippets off the floor, he's been walking around clearing his throat for the last half hour.