This and That and a Few Other Things

This week I made a few more HST Four Patches. I had a small bag of black multicolor 4.5 inch width pieces left over from making several different quilts I want to use up. I decided to make these blocks from any pieces long enough. I also have a little box of solid scraps I'm using.  I was working on these blocks and a few others in October because the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color was dark neutrals. 

Someone sent me a baggie of blue waste triangles. I sorted them into groups of eight matching or similar. 

I grabbed a few 4 inch width scraps long enough to cut eight squares for Wonky Star backgrounds. I also found s few four inch blue squares for Star centers. Sixteen blocks will yield a small quilt 42 x 42.

I ironed some of my October leader/enders. Some 2.5 inch HSTS in baggies from previous projects or from others  got made and trimmed and then made into Broken Dishes blocks.  I have a box of Broken Dishes blocks in many different sizes. Someday when I run out of HST parts I will dig into the box and make some quilts.

More Broken Dishes in different sizes and Wonky QSTs that need dog ears trimmed for my Medallion quilt collection. 

More Broken Dishes and a couple of QSTs that were a little wonky for the orphanage. 

A Whole Lot Of Scrap Busting

Shoofly

10.5 inch blocks

Red is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for this month so I've been mostly working with red scraps to make my blocks. Then I noticed I was close to my target on several block sets so some other colors crept in. 

Shoofly

10.5 inch blocks

I have been making these from 4 inch width scraps since last year. I have a box of scraps that width - most have been given to me by others - that I've been trying to empty. To make the Shoofly blocks I've been pulling out the longest strips in the color of the month and one other color. 

My goal was 35 blocks and now I have made that goal and I have a complete block set for a 5 x 7 layout. For now the block set will go into the SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin. 

Now I can mark this block off my list of RSC projects. 

Broken Dishes

7 inch blocks

With shorter 4 inch width pieces I've been making Broken Dishes blocks in the RSC color of the month plus one other color. I've also been making these blocks since last year. 

This week after I made my blocks with red scraps I noticed I only needed 12 more blocks toward my goal of 88 blocks...

...so I made 12 more blocks from the remaining scraps in the 4 inch width scrap box. 

Now this is another block set completed and ready to go to the SAR bin.  They will be set 8 x 11. 

Hollow Nine

10.5 inch blocks

These are made with 4 inch squares. 

I made 3 blocks with red squares and then decided to look through my cut squares to see if I had enough squares in any colors to make more. 

So that's all I could make with what was already in my 4 inch cut squares bag. My target is 24 blocks and now I have 22. I'll look through the rest of the scraps in the box and cut more squares for those two blocks and get them made so these can go into the SAR bin. 

So now I have completed almost all of the RSC projects I had going with 4 inch width scraps but I still have lots of smaller bits in the box. So now I need a plan for those. 

The smallest pieces will go into 4 x 2.5 bricks. I recently started making Bricks and Stones units using black 2.5 inch squares and 4 x 2.5 bricks as a way to use up some smaller 2.5 inch width scraps. 

The strip on the bottom I usually make with the pieces less than a square when I make RSC blocks. I save those up and eventually make a quilt with them when I get enough strips. I think my next one might have strips of varying widths alternating with strips of Flying Geese.

16 Patch

6 inch blocks

RSC color alternating with green scraps in the blocks. 

I think I have been making these as an RSC project for a couple of years from whatever shows up in my 2 inch width scraps that is long enough for a block.  When I started these I had a lot of green scrap chunks to use up so that is how I decided on green as the alternating color. 

I started the month with 111 blocks toward my goal of 120 or 130 blocks. After I made my blocks with red I noticed I only needed a few more so made a total of 19 blocks.  I must not have taken a picture of the other 7 blocks I made this week even though I propped them up for a photo.Well, anyway, I made my goal of 130 blocks to be set 10 x 13. This is another block to check off my RSC project list and will also join the other block sets completed this week in the SAR bin. 

Easy Breezy

6 inch blocks

I started making these at the beginning of the year with 2 inch width scraps. I now have 42 towards a goal of 120 or 130. 

Rail Fence

4.5 inch blocks

New Project

After I completed the 16 Patches made with 2 inch width scraps I assessed what was left in that scrap bin and decided to start making  Rail Fence blocks with black centers. 

Cheerios

10.5 inch blocks

I've been making these since last year and set aside any sets of 4 - 4.5 inch squares I come across to make these blocks. I think most of the squares I used in the red ones I made this month came from others. 

This is one of those blocks I make until scraps run out or I get tired of making them. Then I divide them up into different comfort quilts. I now have 73 blocks.  How about that...I could use 20 in a child's quilt and 48 in a twin sized quilt and have some blocks left over! Maybe that's what I'll do!

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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

My husband John is the treasure. In June we will celebrate 52 years of marriage. 

John has dysphagia (difficulty swallowing food or drink) caused by radiation he had many years ago for oropharyngeal cancer. He ended up in the hospital a couple of times a couple of years ago and one of the times they put in a G-tube and the other time he was malnourished, dehydrated and had aspiration pneumonia. After they put in the G-tube he was bolus feeding (injecting liquid diet into tube with syringe several times a day); however, he could not tolerate that rate of feeding and was aspirating most of the liquid into his lungs.  Then they put him on a feeding pump to slowly pump liquids into him over a 12 hour period. And he has to stay sitting at about a 30 degree angle during that time and an hour or so afterwards so he spends most of his days and nights in a recliner. He is still weak but since he has gained a little strength and weight he is able to get around without a walker; however, a short walk outside or anywhere else wears him out. 

Yesterday he had a visit with the pulmonologist, who tries to keep him from more hospital visits with aspiration pneumonia, and Dr. said he is making a referral to a speech therapist. They are hoping he can start doing some kinds of exercises and work up to maybe being able to swallow soup without aspirating. In the meantime Dr. said to start reading out loud and/or singing in the shower. John seemed happy with the news that he might someday be able to swallow water or soup without aspirating or coughing it up. He is rather frustrated with being tied to a food pump for so many hours a day. 

Where Did Those Yellow Scraps Go?

Shoo Fly

10.5 inch blocks

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color this month is yellow. At the beginning of the month I didn't think I had very many yellow scraps; however, here it is another week and I'm still using yellow scraps. 

Shoo Fly

10.5 inch blocks

I now have 29 toward my goal of 35. 

I have a box of 4 inch width scraps I want to empty and this is one of the blocks I'm making with the longer scraps. 

Broken Dishes

7 inch blocks

I now have 48 blocks toward a goal of 88.

These are also made with 4 inch width scraps.

16 Patch

10 inch blocks

I set aside a few red, blue and yellow novelties to use in this quilt. I also try to match up the novelty with a scrap from the 3 inch width scrap box if I can. If not I cut from a scrap chunk. 

I only need four more blocks toward my goall of 24. Maybe (or maybe not) I will make up the other four this week and get that top assembled. 

A couple more 16 Patch in red, blue, yellow. 

After I cut a 3 inch width piece off of that chunk of yellow fabric with colorful lizards I had a 2 inch width strip left so I made a couple of six inch 16 Patches alternating with green for my collection that now numbers 111 blocks. My goal is 120 or 130. Gosh, maybe (or maybe not) this week I will make 9 more 16 Patch blocks and make a top. I'll have to look at what I have in 2 inch width strips. 

Sawtooth Stars

10 inch blocks

(aka Orphan Curtis because I've used orphan blocks as the centers)

Last year when I was working on emptying out a box of 3 inch width scraps I made a lot of tops. I didn't get around to finishing this one up but kitted up 5.5 inch (unfinished) orphan blocks with 3 inch width scraps to be used for the star points. These were the ones that had yellow scraps for the points. I only have 5 more blocks to make. Maybe (or maybe not) this week??? 

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 now have 64 toward my goal of 88 (I think). 

Floral Wonky Windmills

8 inch blocks

34 of 63 blocks

Made from 4.5 inch width scraps.

These scraps were left over from making Posies so that's why a couple of other colors sneaked in. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

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...