It's A Finish! Unchained Melody

 

It's a finish!

Unchained Melody

55 x 70

I made the top last year (and several others) when I was working on emptying out a box of 3 inch width strips and squares. 

616 three inch squares in cream,tan,taupe,beige,brown.

I arranged the squares by value. 

I used waste triangles to make chains in all colors of the rainbow. 

There are some fun things that can be found in an itty bitty triangle. 

I quilted with vertical lines each side of the seams in variegated threads. The binding is scrappy browns. 

And sew on...

I Spy A Sixteen Patch Star Finish

Sixteen Patch Star

It's a finish!

40 x 60

In 2023 someone gave me a large bag full of 3 inch squares. For this quilt I pulled out the wild and novelty fabric squares. 

I started making 16 Patch Stars. All of the Stars have white centers and points.  I made several Stars then waited to come across more scraps for more Stars. Finally in 2024 I had enough Stars to make a top. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with vertical lines on each side of the vertical seams. 

The binding is a diagonal stripe. I had to piece together several smaller pieces of that backing fabric.

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

This is the view from my couch of the first of seven Amaryllis to bloom. Gosh, it has two stalks with four flowers. It got top heavy and the plastic pot that came with it was too light weight to hold up the stalks and flowers so I put it on the floor inside a larger terracotta pot. 

 

Four Patch Finish

4 Patches

40 x 60

Back in March 2023 someone gave me a big bag of 3 inch squares. For this quilt I pulled out the blacks, black and whites, whites and colored tone on tone (TOT) squares.   I made four patches that contained black and whites and one TOT square arranged in no particular order.   I had to add a few squares cut from other scraps in order to have enough for a kiddo comfort quilt. 

Then the four patches were sewn together randomly as they came off the pile. 

I finished the top back in September 2024.

I quilted it with black thread on my sewing machine with vertical lines on each side of the seam lines. 

The binding is scrappy blacks and whites that came out of the leftover 2.25 inch binding box. The places I donate kiddo quilts request binding be sewn down by machine. So for kiddo quilts I trim quilts right up to the edge and use 2.25 inch binding sewn first to the back and then turned to the front and sttitched down by machine.    

On other quilts where I attach the binding by hand I trim the quilt 1/4 inch away from the edges and use 2.5 inch binding stitched first to the front and then turned to the back and hand stitched. 

I almost had enough of the black with polka dots for the back. 

This batch of batting seems to have more scrim than usual so the quilts seem a little stiffer than usual but I had no problems quilting so I guess all is okay. 

This month's theme in my sewing space is "Quilting Marathon" so other than make my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for this month then that is what I will be doing most of the time. 

And sew on...

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GROW! (one of my words for 2025)

A new sign for my garden! 😀

 

With 3 Inch Width Scraps, Novelty Pieces and Quilt Back Trimmings

 

16 Patch

10 inch block

made with 3 inch width strips

This past year has been a blur with hubby in and out of the hospital and with me helping him and doing all his chores as well as mine around here. I've also been working on clearing areas of land for some more of my dream gardens.   Also this year I have been blessed with scraps and other quilt makings from many folks who know I like to sew with scraps and also like to make donation quilts especially for kids. In previous years I used to have a few quilt blocks going for almost any size scrap I came across and I would make blocks as scraps happened.  I have fallen behind on that task and now am trying to get back to business as usual.   

So this set of blocks all use 3 inch width scraps. Not only will I use 3 inch width scraps as they happen but I also hope to use up a little box of novelty bits and pieces and empty a box of quilt back trimmings.  The novelties and quilt back trimmings will probably be used along with other widths of scraps but I'll get to that in a different post one of these days. 

So, as you saw above one of the blocks I'm making is 10 inch finished 16 patches in reds,  blues, yellows. Goal is 24 blocks in a 4 x 6 layout.  I have gone through a few quilt back trimmings and novelties and cut a few strip sets. 

Peaks and Valleys

from Jo's Country Junction

Modified to use 3 inch scraps for a 10 inch finished block. 

I will be using that green fabric in all the blocks. 

Goal is 24 blocks for a 4 x 6 layout. I had some 3 inch squares so counted out enough for all my blocks and moving forward I hope to have all pieces cut for this quilt by year end. 

Bits of Bricks

From a Youtube video. I rarely watch them because my computer takes forever to load them and then they are sometimes broken up; however, someone sent me the link so thought I would check it out. 

These units finish at 2.5 x 8.5 and consist of two 3 x 6 inch rectangles. 

The units get staggered a little so there are no seams to match.   I will be adding a 3.5 inch unfinished scrappy border. 

I sewed together the waste triangles from the Bits of Bricks units and will keep them in a baggie and decide what to do with them later. Some might be wonky because I don't take the time to cut an even 1/4 inch from seam lines. I just take a big scissors and snip. I'll just use them wonky in something so I don't have to do a lot of measuring, trimming, etc. on those snippets.  

Also while sorting 3 inch width scraps I cut 3 x 5 rectangles and 2 x 3 rectangles to be used in something later. I cut those sizes because someone gave me some rectangles cut to that size so why not expand on those sizes. They can always go into some type of coin quilt. 

I also cut 3 inch squares for some future use. 

And anything greater than an inch and less than a square gets sewn together into strips for some future use. 

 A month or so ago I emptied out a box of 3 inch width scraps and ended up with 10 tops.  I had also cut a lot of the remaining scraps into pieces for Four Patches.  I'm still working on those. 

So now when I have 3 inch width scraps I know what to do with them right away!  I keep this notebook next to my computer. It is full of doodles of quilt layouts, math, block goals and so forth. It's kind of fun to look back through the notebooks once in awhile.  I also keep a notebook next to my computer that has all sorts of notes and scribbling in it from reminders to quilts to make to seeds to order to quotes I like to tips and research on health, homemade remedies, recipes, and house maintenance. 

And now when I have 3 inch width scraps I can go look in my 3 inch project box and add units and blocks to it.  

And on to the next size scrap...

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

November 27 - I received my order of native wildflower and grasses from Prairie Moon nursery that will sow 1500 square feet. I recently finished clearing the area out front near the ditch. Now is the time to sow because most seeds need cold stratification. More on that later with pics.      I also received a surprise sampler box of 9 Amaryllis from hubby John.  He said he ordered them for me when I was having what he thought was a really bad day. I don't remember what day that was but, hey, maybe I'll have to pretend to have a few more bad days in the future (wink, wink)! 

November 28 - Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for every single day. 

November 29 - Finished a book! Plum Springs by Dan Lawton. A dysfunctional family, child abuse, addictions and vigilante justice. Plum Springs was the winner of the 2019 New Hampshire Writers' Project Readers' Choice Award For Fiction but I'm not sure I really liked the book. I liked the writing style; however, the plot just seemed too far fetched to me. 

And Now The Box Is Empty!

At the end of last month  I posed the question WITB? 

(What's in the 11 x 13 x 8.5 inch box of 3 inch width scraps?)

Most of the squares and scraps in that box came from several different friends this year. I usually have a block in process for almost every size scrap I receive; however, I rarely end up with 3 inch width scraps of my own and when I did I usually cut them in half for 1.5 inch pieces because I have several blocks in process that use that size of scrap. 

I was able to make 9 comfort quilt tops from the scraps in the box and I also made half of the blocks for another. 

I've been kind of obsessed with getting all those scraps used up this month. 

And now I have succeeded in emptying the box but not all the scraps are used yet. They are; however, assigned to different projects or cut for the Parts Department. 

Above is what I will call WITB #11 - Sawtooth Stars with orphan block centers.   I have a little pile of 24 -- 5.5 inch orphan blocks plus some 3 inch scraps to use for star points. I will probably use the same background on all of the stars.   I've put all of the parts and the example Sawtooth Star in a project bag and will make the stars at some later date. 

There are still some 3 inch brown squares left and I just sorted my brown scraps and found some more 3 inch strips so I will make some Hollow Nine blocks...

...and use them as alternate blocks for my 7.5 inch (finished) Churn Dash blocks. I have a partial set of brown Churn Dash blocks left over from all the Churn Dash blocks/quilts I've made in the past years. 

I actually have a box with three different projects that use brown scraps so the Hollow Nines and 3 inch scraps are now in that project box. I may work on some of those blocks next month when the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month is brown. 

I can't believe there were so many brown scraps. I previously used brown and cream squares cut on the diagonals as the sides for Pavement Pattern (Square in Square) blocks and I used brown and cream squares to make Unchained Melody. 

I had several scraps with cherries. So I put those in my little box of fruity scraps. 

The multicolor black and the black and white scraps when into their respective scrap bags. 

For one of my quilts I was only able to make 25 out of 48 Sawtooth Stars out of the green, orange and purple scraps in the box. I put them in a project bag and since I made those 25 stars I have found more 3 inch scraps in the designated colors so added those to the bag. 

This is WITB quilt #12 - Four Patch blocks. I put the ones I made awhile ago in a project bag and as I've been making blocks and tops this month I have set aside any small pieces that will yield 2 squares. They are in the project bag with the Four Patches now. I just need to go through my neutral scraps and cut some squares to be used in the Four Patches. When I get all the Four Patches made I'll count them and see if there are enough for a quilt. If not then I may alternate Four Patches with 5.5 inch squares. Time will tell. 

I have some 3 inch squares left. I will put these in the bin that holds all my different sized squares. 

I have a variety of longer strips left. I'm just going to put them in the Parts Dept. and they may get used as fillers or something like that when I make orphan block quilts.  

Then I cut remaining scraps into rectangles and squares.  The squares went into the squares bag. The rectangles are 3 x 5.5, 3 x 5, 3 x 4.5 and 3 x 2.   I have a box of bags of rectangles in all those different sizes (plus many others). 

And then any pieces between 1 and 2 inches got sewn into strips. I have  box of strips in all different widths that accumulate until there's enough for a Coins quilt of some kind. 

And sew on...

CELEBRATE ! (my word of the year)

Sept. 26 - Scraps! Scrap Quilts! 

 

WITB #10 -- Pink and Blue Coins

It's a top!

Pink and Blue Coins

40  x 60

At the end of last month  I posed the question WITB? 

(What's in the 11 x 13 x 8.5 inch box of 3 inch width scraps?)

This is comfort quilt #10  that I've made from those scraps ! 

And I still have some scraps in that box!  

  I decided I had enough length on a lot of the pinks and blues to cut at least 3 rectangles - 3 x 4.5. I decided on 4.5 because I wanted not only to use the 3 inch width scraps but I also had a few pink 4.5 inch width scraps left from making the pink and gray Wonky Windmills this month. 

And sew on...

***

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Sept. 25 - Mailed 6 quilts to Wrap-A-Smile   AND I received some fun animal skin prints from Cheryl! 

 

WITB #9 - Quiet Time

It's a top!

Quiet Time

Low Volume

57 x 76

The other day I posed the question WITB? 

(What's in the 11 x 13 x 8.5 inch box of 3 inch width scraps?)

This is comfort quilt #9 that I've made from those scraps ! 

And I still have some scraps in that box!  

I was able to make all 48 Nine Patches from the pastel and white squares in the box of scraps. I was just going to make a Nine Patch quit but then it just seemed kind of boring.  I'm not really fond of pastels or white on whites and a lot of those squares in the Nine Patches are old florals.

I decided to turn the Nine Patches into Hot Cross Nine Patches - an old Block Lotto block we made in 2012.    To frame the Nine Patches I used an little pile of old white on white scraps   And for the insert strips I cut some of the 3 inch width pastel scraps into 1 inch strips and when those ran out I used a few pastel scraps from my little box of pastel scraps. 

Well, I don't know what I was thinking when I started down the Hot Cross Nine Patch path...I don't really like to make blocks that get cut apart and then put back together like these. I'd rather just make the finished block than cut them apart because sometimes I am not a precision piecer and sometimes I may cut a little wonky. I'll blame it on bad eyesight.   But now all is said and done and I've moved on to WITB quilt #10.   I only have a few more days left in the month to empty that box of 3 inch scraps!

And sew on...

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Sept. 22 - First day of Autumn!   This time of year when I walk around the gardens at sunrise it looks like there is a golden glow on everything. I wasn't able to capture it in a photo.

Sept. 23 - Finished a book! - Holmes, Marple and Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts.   Three private investigators with famous last names and mysterious pasts work together to solve crimes. It is the first of what is to be a series. The book was okay reading but nothing like Patterson's detective Alex Cross series. Not sure I'll be all that anxious to read the second book in the series when it is released. 

Sept. 24 - Echinacea or Coneflowers.   I added several new varieties to the garden this year. 

Also this year I learned about Aster Yellows. It is a phytoplasma spread to plants by leaf hoppers. The plant then produces some green alien looking flowers. Once a plant gets yellow asters there is no cure for it and plants should be pulled out of the garden. So far I haven't had the heart to do that on my two infected coneflowers -- a white swan and purple coneflower I grew from seeds and have had for a long time. But I guess it has to be done But I don't have the heart to pull up a plant I have had for a long time even if it is now deformed. They are in my native wildflower area and I'm not sure what mother nature would do with these.