9 patch done - sampler blocks done

I finished joining the 9 patches (hooray, wild applause, woohoo!).  It's 60" by 78" and I am considering adding borders to make it a bed-sized quilt....

Getting all those 9 patches joined, means I can go looking for fabrics for the Modern Monday sampler.  This is the view of the bins.  The two on the right hold my UFOs and kits.  The three on the left hold most of my strips.  They are so full, I can't fit the 1.5" strips or charm squares into them.

The 2" strips.

The 2.5" strips.

The 3.5" strips.

Good Grief!  I found more 9 patches - a different size this time.  These were in the 2.5" strip bin and will finish at 6".

I did find some oranges and greens that will work with the fabrics I've already pulled together.

Block 1 of Modern Monday.  I made two blocks.  Then I took a pic and admired them for a long while.  Then I did a little delighted wiggle of joy in my chair.  It's going to look great and it's going to be a lot of fun.

And I found my fabrics and first two blocks a home so they don't get swallowed up in stash and get used for something else.

Then I made a couple of blocks for the Traditional Tuesday sampler.

The blocks came out beautifully, but a little small.  I checked my seam allowance.  It's bang on.  The trimmings were scant threads.  And the blocks came out at 6 1/8" unfinished instead of 6 1/2".

I think I'll try making another couple of blocks with slightly larger components tomorrow.  Maybe my seam allowance is just a couple of threads off.  And of course, I found the second sampler a home of it's own too.

Kits

Small Christmas kits I've received as gifts or won as door prizes.

This Thimbleberries Kit of fabric and pattern was a gift from a very generous and kind friend in my Sewing Circle.

So was this one.

I used to have more of these purchased kits, with pattern and fabric, but I stole fabric out of them for other projects.  Then faced with the problem of replacing the fabrics with a suitable alternative, I decided that I preferred to use the remaining fabric in other projects to making the pattern and dismantled them, adding the fabrics to my stash, and the patterns to my book case.  As these two were gifts, I've left them whole fully intending to complete them.  But they've lain forgotten at the bottom of my UFO box.

I've also kitted my own projects from stash and scraps.  That's where the old cardboard box comes in handy.  If you spend hours pulling fabric strips and squares together for a project, you need to be able to keep them together and separate from the rest of the stash.


There's a couple of bundles I've kept out of stash.  The first one I've nicknamed Lemonade n' Tequila, fabrics in search of a pattern with enough yardage for lots of yummy left-overs for my stash and I can't believe all the fabrics are still together and intact.  As I've said, I have a bad habbit of raiding kits.

This next bundle of fabrics, I've collected to make Judy Martin's Shakespeare in the Park pattern.

Hawaiian florals (a gift), with brilliant blue and sand coloured tonals and the blue/white floral for backing.  I'm going to call it Aloha Shakespeare.  It's been on my wanna-do list for a very long time.

And then there's that big bag of Christmas fabrics, plus the two Christmas fabrics I found in my bin cleanup.  I've grouped all the Christmas themed pieces together.

So there it is, all the kitted bundles in my Kits Drawer.

Is it any wonder I'm thoroughly distracted?!

Peeking - Box # 7

I opened Box # 7 and found a forgotten and unfinished carry-all bag, made from scrappy disappearing 9 patch.  I have the patch work fabric and lining ready, but did not make it to the craft/fabric store to purchase the additional items required to finish the project.

Under the bag parts, there were enough sliced disappearing 9 patch blocks to make a second bag or another project of my choosing.

Don't know what disappearing 9 patch is?  Check out the links to tutorials on Disappearing 9 patch, listed in the Fast & Easy Patterns at Quilting Library Blog

But while I have the camera handy and a stack of sliced blocks, here's a few pics of the process and what you can do with them.

And under the sliced up 9 patches, sliced up 3" squares, 3" x 6" bricks, 3" strips and 6" x 6" squares.

If you read my comments in an earlier blog entry on these size blocks, you might well imagine my reaction at finding more of them. But I spent an hour organizing pattern books last night and came across a pattern that would be great with dark 3" squares. (Actually it uses strip piecing, but it would be so good to use up the last of the 3" stuff.)

Plan:  Unfinished bag to the next in line (am I up to 5 yet?);  the sliced 9 patches into a baggie in my UFO bin until I decide what I want to do with them, and a copy of the wanna-do pattern into the box.  The old distracted me would have immediately started working on a new project.  Instead, I've listed it in the wanna-do someday patterns.  The quicker I finish up some projects, the sooner I can start something new.

Peeking - Boxes # 5 and # 6

Box # 5 contains trimmed bonus HSTs in three sizes - 2", 1.75", and 1.5"

I'm a devotee of double sewing my sew-n-flip corners to get bonus half square triangles. There's a tutorial at Quiltville on the subject called Bonus Triangles Bonanza that explains it far better than I could. Take special note of her comments on making yourself a triangle buddy - a novel idea that will save you hours of trimming and squaring.  There's a couple of quilt blocks that I've been making with these that I really love.

Every time I see those stars they make me smile - I'm going to sash them to make a wall quilt.

The little frugal blocks are really small, each 16 patch square will finish at 6". I can't see making anything bigger than a table runner with them.

The one draw back to working with HSTs this small is the number of seams and layers of fabrics within such a small block.  It can become rather tedious and there's almost as much fabric in the seams as on the surface of the block.  That can add a lot of weight to a bigger project.

Box # 6 is a long standing project - my Orphan Thimbleberries

This box contains various blocks and partial blocks all made with thimbleberries fabrics.  Every now and then, when I want to explore colour and creativity, I take this project out and work on it, adding fabrics here and there to make a block or series of blocks fit.  Piecing left over components into quilt blocks can be an adventure.  It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I get to colour as I go.  I've taken a pic of one corner panel of my orphan quilt.

The Orphan box also contains blocks I made to practice something (like getting perfect and precise star points) or the components of abandonned projects (like 60 little pink and yellow 9 patches).  I've used rows of these stars to lengthen a quilt backing or as the feature in a new quilt project.

Okay.  Two smaller projects queued up and two boxes I've got to keep and find room for.

Peeking - Boxes # 3 and # 4

Boxes 3 and 4 contain the last of that initial stash, the stuff cut into six inch squares ten years ago. I am determined to use it up.

My scrappy Ohio star required me to subcut some of those stupid 6" squares into four 2.5" squares and a 3.5" square out of others to make the QST star points. Once I sashed the blocks together, I remember being rather proud of myself. It looks like what I always pictured as a traditional quilt. After all that extra sub-cutting and piecing, I ran out of steam when it came to a border.

I put together a couple of prairie braid strips, using the 6"x 2.5" stip I trimmed off the squares when cutting for the QST blocks, then felt rather blah about that. Eventually I got distracted by something else and folded it all back into the box, intending to get back to it shortly. Hah!

Then I saw some gorgeous black n' white quilts, and some jaw dropping red n' white quilts at a quilt show... I sat down with the box of 6" squares and separated out the red, white and black 6" squares and started making barrister blocks. It was more an infatuation than an obsession and I only made ten red blocks and eight black blocks before moving on to other distractions.

These pink & purple 10.5" quilt blocks are the result of more "good advice" I picked up at a quilt shop. (Honestly! I need to stop being so willing to follow advice without thinking things through!) Anyway, the advice was that before committing to making a quilt, we should audition it by making a block or two, and if we did this with a colour scheme, we would eventually have enough blocks to make a co-ordinated sampler.

I don't have anymore of these fabrics or any that comes close. Needless to say, the whole audition the blocks and end up with a sampler idea might be an excellent idea, but I think you should put aside enough co-ordinating fabrics to actually make a quilt or go scrappy from the word go. I didn't think of that when I started these and the quilt shop lady didn't mention it (probably because she thought it was obvious). These 11 blocks may end up being pieced into a quilt back for my Scrappy Ohio Star.

After I tried out a couple of Farmer's Daughter blocks, an obsessive compulsion grew in me -- I HAD to make an entire quilt of that block in pinks and greens, which I worked on between other projects. I am a farmer's daughter and the pinks represent the wild rose (the floral emblem of Alberta), and the green of the fields in early summer. That quilt is currently waiting to go to the long arm quilter.

Under all that, the remnant 1.5" x 6" strips trimmed off those silly 6" squares, and the overflow of my 1.5" strip box.

I see I've already begun stitching the 6" lengths together. I think that it's easier to become distracted and abandon an activity if I don't have a specific pattern or project in mind. So I found two string patterns I really like, both free patterns generously offered by Bonnie Hunter at her website Quiltville

Diamond Strings

String X

This means I've just moved these strings to the sewing table as my current leader n' ender sewing assignment. The Scrappy Ohio Star, the braids, the sampler blocks are all next on my hit list. The box has been flattened for recycling.

Box # 4 contains the rest of that stash. Some 6" wide lengths of neutrals and some bricks 2.5" x 4.5" and 2.5" x 6". There is enough here to make another full size quilt (at least). Aaaarrrrgggghhh! This Box goes back on the shelf in the new wardrobe as stash fabric. I refuse to think of starting another new project in the middle of stash reorganization (especially as I haven't hit the UFO bin yet). And I'm going to put the barrister's blocks in here for second consideration.

So far not bad. I've eliminated two of four cardboard boxes, and am actively working on finishing two projects that can realistically be done quite quickly.

I'm making excellent progress on the stash reorganization and, at two boxes a day, will coast to the finish line by the end of the week. If I rushed, I know I would just tuck each item into a plastic bag and into the UFO bin without taking the time to make decisions and set priorities. This also has the benefit of allowing me time to do other things, such as trim HSTs (I've already trimmed ten this morning) and working on sashing my scrappy 9 patch.