February Fodder

Fodder - n. raw material, as for artistic creation.

"Strings and Things" has been the February theme in my sewing space. Fodder is my "and things". 

Over the past year I've been emptying little baggies of this, that and the other thing. Some baggies have come from others and some are of my making. A lot of the baggies have had HST parts in them. As I sew them together I throw them into little boxes kept near the ironing board. I just never get around to ironing them. So this month I did some ironing and some trimming.  

These are 6 inch finished Broken Dishes blocks made of 3.5 inch unfinished HSTs.  Whenever I make Quarter Square Triangle or Flying Geese blocks I use the Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut parts. Since I don't like to waste the first and last cuts on a strip of fabric at the beginning and end of the strip of fabric I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut HSTs. 

If I have four HSTs the same I usually turn them into Broken Dishes blocks. I have a whole box of Broken Dishes in different sizes - quilt fodder. That's where these will go. 

More six inch Broken Dishes.

And even more six inch Broken Dishes. 

Someone sent me these HST parts - yellows matched up with what looks like crumb pieces? I made the HSTs and then turned them into Broken Dishes. Can't remember the size. 

Those Broken Dishes are now going into the grocery bag of orphan blocks and parts that have yellow and/or orange in them.  The bag is pretty full now so maybe it is time for an orphan block quilt. 

4 inch finished HSTs in lime green and orange.

 I made QSTs for a Bramble Bloom quilt and these were the HST parts cut from the beginning and end of strips used to make those QSTs. 

More HSTs left over from making Bramble Bloom QSTs. These are green and pink. 

I have many more not shown here. Most are in multiples of four. I was going to make Broken Dishes blocks from these but decided to wait on that. I might want to use them in some other way. 

For now they are going into the shoe box of orange, lime green, and pink 4.5 inch width scraps left over from making Bramble Blooms tops.   I also have a bag of scrap chunks in the same colors. 

Four Inch Broken Dishes

I think these are some of the Easy Angle cuts (combined with neutrals) that came from making Flying Geese for my Twilight Flock blocks. 

These will go into my box of various sizes of Broken Dishes blocks. 

This little pile of 3 inch HSTs came from cutting corners while making Pineapple Quilt blocks. 

Those HSTs will go into the box of red, white and blue orphan blocks and parts. I think it's time for another orphan block quilt. That box is full of goodies.

Little QSTs. Sometimes made from binding joins and other times from waste triangles. I trim off the dog ears but otherwise don't care if they are wonky. 

They are joining in with others in a box of wonky little QSTs. Someday I will make a quilt from them inspired by a vintage quilt. That lone star is the center for the medallion quilt. 

This month I also emptied a Banker Box sized box (held reams of printer paper) of quilt back trimmings. Anything wider than six inches got put with scrap chunks organied by color. Some multicolors or big prints I put in a separate box to use for quilt back inserts or scrappy bindings. 

I have a little flat now of those trimmings - 1.5, 2, 2.5,3,3.5,4,4.5,5 and 5.5 inch width strips. They will now join others of the same size. I have quilt blocks going for almost all those sizes. I also ended up with some strings (less than 1.5 inch or wonky) and have already used some of those in this month's string quilts. 

I've got more foddering to do. 

And sew on...

 

WITB #8 - HST Four Patch

It's a top!

HST Four Patch

50 x 70

The other day I posed the question WITB? 

(What's in the box of 3 inch width scraps?)

This is comfort quilt #8 ! 

And I still have some scraps in that box!  

Yes, there's a few oopsie blocks in the quilt. 

Not sure how many more quilt tops I'll be able to make from that box of 3 inch width scraps. I'll work on those scraps until month end and then show you what's left in that box if anything. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Sept. 21 - Roses!  I still have quite a few roses blooming. All of my roses are scented so every once in awhile I stop to smell them. 

 

Piecing Potpourri

I do a lot of piecing but sometimes don't get around to ironing things for quite awhile. I keep a box at the end of my ironing board and throw things into it that need to be ironed or trimmed. Usually it is  leaders/enders or Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks or other block pieces I've kitted up to sew when I just want to do a whole lot of chain piecing at one time on a whole lot of different things. I don't really like to iron. Well, the box was getting full so I was forced into it. So...here's what I ironed...

9 inch Snowball blocks made with 9 Snowballs. Blocks with light and dark corners will alternate in the quilt.  These are a RSC project.  I made a quilt like it a long time ago and after my daughter saw it she asked if she could have it. Oh, yes, indeed!

3 inch Bow Tie blocks

I've been making these from scraps for a long, long time. My goal is 900 blocks and I think now I ony need about 40 more so will probably make my goal in July. 

10 inch Cheerio blocks

This is another RSC project. I started it a couple of months ago. I've made blocks from scraps in the color of the month plus I went through my 4.5 inch squares and pulled out any sets of 4 identical squares to make blocks. I cut block parts and sew pieces together when I'm on a piecing binge.

4 Patch HSTs

made from 3 inch width scraps left over from making last month's Sawtooth Star top. I use an Easy Angle Companion ruler to cut the Flying Geese bodies and I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut HSTs from the two ends so they don't go to waste.   I have a bunch of other 3 inch scraps that I will use to make more blocks for a child's quilt. The blocks finish at 5 inches. Maybe I will alternate them wth squares. Who knows?

Four Patches

made with 2 inch scraps.

My theme is "black, white, and one other color" in each four patch.

Four Inch Broken Dishes

Made with HST parts that resulted from making Flying Geese. See explanation above of rulers I use when making Flying Geese. I think the Geese that went with these fabrics were made into Twilight Flight blocks a few months ago. 

HST parts were the result of making QSTs last month for my Bramble Blooms II medallion center piece. Not sure what these will be used for. Just sewing up scraps.

More HSTs that came to me in a bag of scraps.  I haven't sewn them all yet. Not sure what they will be used for. 

And finally...some strip sets for a Coins quilt made with 2 inch scraps. I think I should see how many strips I have now in my little box of Coins. 

And sew on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

July 25 -- Finished a book!  - Levi's Eyes by Aphrodite Jones.  It is a true crime story. Karl Karlsen murdered his wife and 17 years later murdered his son for insurance money. It took more than 20 years to bring him to justice for both crimes.  I don't understand how a person could be so evil. It gives me nightmares. 

July 26 - I love grapefruit juice and drink a glass almost every day. 

 

A Few Leader/Enders Finally Trimmed and Ironed

I've been making little 3 inch (finished) Old Italian blocks for the last several months. I've been sewing them together as leader/enders. They just pile up waiting to be ironed and trimmed. This is only a portion of what I have finally gotten ironed and trimmed.  I have not counted how many blocks I have but I've been making them from 5 inch squares for a few years. I'm aiming for a large quilt so it will take quite a few. This was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project but I'm taking it out of the list of 2024 projects because I've used up most of my 5 inch squares suitable for this quilt and need to cut more from scraps.  

Awhile back someone gave me a little baggie of 4.5 inch HST parts. I cut some neutral parts to match up with them and then made HSTs and then made Broken Dishes blocks. I have also been working on these as a leader/ender project and finally got some ironed. And again, I need to take count. I have been making Broken Dishes blocks from scraps for a couple of years. I have been putting them in the Parts Department. I may have enough of these 8 inch blocks for a quilt. 

And sew on...

 

Highs and Lows

Late last year I started making two temperature quilts.  One is for 1952 - the year I was born and the other is for last year. I thought it would be fun to compare the two quilts. 

This month I didn't have a theme in my sewing room so I felt like adding on a few months to my temperature quilt and ended up adding April, May and June. 

1952 is on the left. 

These are the last six days of June. My rows consist of 18 HSTs so I need to add some of July to these rows before I add them to the quilt.  June 1952 is on top and June 2022 is on the bottom. I  have assigned a color to each 10 degree range of temperature and am using the same fabrics in both quilts. I am not using any one fabric for each of the colors. The fabrics change every month.   My archived data of highs and lows comes from weather.gov and I'm using the same weather station for the data since I'm now living close to where I was born. 

The low and high for June 25, 1952 was 74 (red) and 95 (orange).

The low and high for June 25, 2022 was 67 (pink) and 84 (yellow).

In each HST the low is the bottom half and the high is the top half. 

June 25 is the first HST on the left. 

So at a glace I can see that the last six days of June 2022 were cooler than the last six days of 1952. 

What Was In All Of Those Bags?

This month the theme in my little sewing space to move UFOs forward has been 1930s. I've finished several quilts and moved old blocks forward into flimsies. I've also been processing 1930s reproduction scraps but haven't blogged much about that yet.  

I've emptied a bunch of bags of bags of bags of scraps this month that have been accumulating for quite some time. There was a receipt in one of the bags dated March 2015.  (My how time flies!) These bags of bags of bags I emptied mostly contained HST pieces.  

I already blogged about a few 10 inch and 7.5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks I made from '30s scraps  and  some 

5 inch Monkey Wrench blocks I made from '30s scraps

now for the rest of the story...

I feel like I played that old memory game...I packed my bag and I put in an Apron...I packed my bag and put in an Apron and a Bib...I paced my bag and put in an Apron, Bib and Crown...

Only I emptied my bags and in it was... (not in alphabetical order)...

Monkey Wrenches 

7.5 inch finished

Broken Dishes

6 inch finished

Broken Dishes

7 inch finished 

Broken Dishes

4 inch finished

A few HSTs in different sizes as well as some wonky QSTs I'll use in one of my other UFOs. 

A couple of the bags held some partial strip sets and a few blocks made from them. I finished up all the blocks. The 3 inch Nine Patches with light corners will go into my box of Nine Patches that will alternate with 3 inch Snowballs. The ones with dark corners will be split between my bin of Nine Patches in all fabrics and that bag of 3 inch Nine Patches/dark corners/30s fabrics.   The little 2 inch pink Four Patches and the little 3 inch purple and yellow Four Patches will go into the 1930s scrap orphanage and maybe be used next month when my theme is Orphans, Strings and Crumbs.

I also organized by width size some scraps that weren't HSTs. Previously they were all thrown together in the bin.  I haven't yet processed those scraps but now they will be easier to make into blocks when I'm ready. I'm actually thinking I will make my usual Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks with them. I usually have an RSC block in process for every size scrap.

And sew on...