• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: scrap quilt edition

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    Thanks for joining me today for T stands for Tuesday with Elizabeth and the gang. I missed last week completely and for the life of me, I can’t even remember what kept me from my weekly post!!! Oh well…on with the show!

    scrap quilt in progress

    I’ve been sorting through my bins of fabric and separating out all the long strips and random shapes to be cut down for my new string quilt project. This pile is 70% blues as I was collecting them for a little boy quilt over a decade ago.  After ironing, I cut each piece down to between 1.5 and 2.5 inches wide.

    scrap quilt progress

    I am piecing the quilt using paper squares with a white strip down the center to serve as a design element in the completed quilt. I’ve used a gluestick to adhere it to each sheet so they are ready to go as I sew. I just eyeballed it so they won’t be perfect but I’m ok with that. It is a scrappy quilt after all.

    scrap quilt in progress

    I shortened my stitch length so that the paper gets perforated and is easy to remove from the fabric once trimmed.

    scrap quilt in progress

    I have a nice little stack of them already.

    scrap quilt in progress

    And look how fun they are going to look when sewn together.

    scrap quilt in progress

    Colorful and scrappy. The other really fun thing for me is that it will be sort of a memory quilt or perhaps fabric journal of previous projects, clothing I’ve salvaged and reminders of people who have passed on but a little part of them lives on for me in the fabric as a memory.  Now just look at that, I’m getting all nostalgic.

    Since this is a post about quilts on T stands for Tuesday, I thought it was a good time to share a bottle of wine my in-laws brought over. I remembered to nab a photo at the very last glass.

    barn quilt wine

    It’s called Barn Quilt Red. This winery is one of three in a small town west of here. The soil must be good for grapes out there. This wine gives a nod to the barn quilts of Carver County.

    barn quilt wine

    The barn quilts are really cool. I haven’t seen all 24 but the ones I have seen are really cool. In fact I think I have a photo of one here on the blog somewhere…hmmm….must look now….here it is!

    rural landscape 1

    This one can be seen from the MN Landscape Arboretum.

    Anyway…more sewing, ironing and cutting,,,not necessarily in that order are in store for me as well as the standard household duties.

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Crafts

    A second look: My favorite quilt

    January 2, 2016 - By 

    To start out the year we are looking back…wait…didn’t I say I was looking ahead in the previous post?

    Secondlook

    We are looking back because it’s Second on the 2nd hosted my my dear friend Elizabeth. Each month on the second she asks that we dig into our blog and reshare a post that deserves a second look.

    Sewing is a passion of mine as well as recycling. In this post from August 2008 I share my favorite quilt and a little about it’s creation.

    We still use the quilt today. It’s now 15 years old and is very well loved.

    Take a look…

    eyes

    This denim quilt was my very first large scale recycling project.

    I carry it in my van for picnics, beach days, a stop at the park or one of those dreaded winter emergencies. After the latest trip to the beach I hung it on the deck rail to dry. I was taken aback by how many memories this quilt holds for me. I love how it has frayed over time. Maybe others would think of this as a flaw but to me, it shows it has been throughly loved.

    I made it when my first born was an infant. Oh, to have that much time on my hands again! I wanted to make something that he could lay and play on, that would be durable, washable, textural and colorful.

    I had a ton of jeans that were never going to fit again plus my hubby’s worn out ones to cut into circles. I used a plate to trace each and every circle by hand then carefully trim with scissors.


    The colorful squares (trust me there are squares under there) were from a stash of fabric I had gotten as a teen when my “grandma” across the street moved from her home to her daughters in CA. She knew I loved sewing and crafting more than her own granddaughter.

    My mom had somehow collected tons of small spools of thread in various colors, not sure why since she didn’t sew but did own a machine. Maybe just wishful thinking on her part. Anyway, I figured that I could make the quilt even more colorful by using different spools of thread throughout the quilt. Generally the bobbin thread and the spool didn’t match as I sewed.

    If you’re curious how I made it check out this tutorial. I think I got my instructions from a magazine but the tutorial has excellent instructions.

  • Blog

    A second look: Recycled Clothing Ragtime quilt

    April 2, 2015 - By 

    SecondlookSince it is April and we’ll be honoring Earth Day as well as Elizabeth’s birthday on the 22nd, I thought it was fitting to take a second look at one of my favorite recycling projects.

    The original post was from September 18, 2008. Incidentally, this quilt is still in use on the boy’s bed even though all 5’10” of him no longer fits underneath it.

    Lets take a second look at the post…

    eyes

    I finished sewing the quilt yesterday morning. I would have been done on Tuesday night but first I put the bobbin in wrong then broke a needle and then put the new needle in backwards so it kept breaking the thread. It was very frustrating. I knew then that it was just time to be done for the day.

    After the sewing, I had to clip each seam allowance every half inch then wash it so it would fray after washing. The nylon stocking that serves as my filter on my washing machine outlet had a large fist size ball of frayed denim and flannel in it. Then the dryer lint trap was even more full of fluff. I would have taken it to a laundry mat but we don’t have any around here anymore. It’s a 20 min drive to the closest one.

    There are several things I love about this quilt:

    1. All the flannel is from my maternity tops and my boy’s flannels from when he was very small.
    2. The denim is from both mine and my hubby’s old jeans. Together we’ve lost about 50lbs!!
    3. The “batting” I used was scraps of polar fleece that I got for free from someone’s “project gone wrong”
    4. This blanket is fairly heavy! This provides good sensory comfort for my boy. He needs/loves heavy blankets to help him sleep through the night.