Scrap Busting Improv!

If you are a regular follower of mine then you know I am kind of displaced at the moment with no normal sewing space and no access to my stash!  In order to avoid having complete withdrawals, I did save out a sack of scraps to give me something to create with if the desire arose.  Here they are dumped on the table.

I shared in yesterday's post that one of my Stash Bee's asked for a string block and I was easily able to create that with my scraps.  You can see that creation here.  I was VERY surprised to see that making this block hardly made a dent in my sack full of scraps.  So I wonder how much I can make only using this sack of scraps?  We shall see!

Following is my very first attempt at improv block making.  I have no plan in my head, just working with the scraps that I have and see what comes out.  The first thing that caught my eye is this bright and colorful 7" x 7"scrap.  It came in a gift of scraps from a fellow stash bee participant and she gave me the most beautiful selection of Kaffe Fasset scraps!  I'm not sure if this is a KF scrap or not, I just know I love it.

The next thing I pulled out is this piece of fabric that was left over from a scrappy round the world that I started making a long time ago.  I never have found the blocks from that phase of my life and hopefully, they will turn up when I get moved in!

I thought this 2 1/2" orange and yellow scrap blended pretty good with my starter piece and wanted to make a border around the floral scrap but it wasn't long enough so I cut it in half lengthwise to make it long enough.  Now I have this!

I found a long skinny scrap of another bright and chaotic print that I thought was long enough to go around all four sides.  So I sewed on two of the sides but the piece remaining wasn't long enough for the other two sides.  Boo!  Time for plan B.

I guess that's why they call it improv.  I measured to see if I'd have enough of the border left if I put some other fabric in the corners.  I did!  So added on some cute polka dots to the strip making it the same width and just slightly longer than the strip so I could trim it off to be square after it was sewed on.  Don't look at those corners that don't match.  Do they hafta?

And now I have this!  I really, like it!  Yes, I know it's got a lot of chaotic color and that's not everybody's thing, but this is so me!

So that's as far as I got that evening.  Did you see anything in that pile of scraps up above that would be fun to try in the next round?   I'm thinking I need to get some new shapes in there somehow.  Or perhaps just start a whole new improv block and have a large variety of them and make some kind of sampler quilt.  What would you do next?

I almost forgot about some pictures I took until I read Barb of Mountain Quiltworks post showing some pictures she snapped in Italy and Greece of patterns that caught her eye.   I went to a conference in Washington DC last month and kept seeing interesting patterns everywhere.  Some of the most interesting patterns seem to be on chairs, carpets and tables!

Carpet #1

 Carpet #2

Back of a chair

Fancy tassels

Something found in the Air & Space Museum, an engine of some sort, I think?

A table seen in the White House!

So what new patterns have you seen today?  If I had a linky party, I would challenge you to post at least three new patterns you saw today and link up!  Maybe that is somewhere down the road one of these days.  :)

Linking up to:

Let's Bee Social

WIP's Wednesday
Midweek Makers
WIP's with Friends
Needle & Thread Thursday
Jo's Country Junction UFO Progress

I FINALLY GET TO SEW AGAIN! String Blocks

Wow!  It feels like forever since I've been able to do any sewing.  I FINALLY got to sew today.   Four 6 1/2" string blocks which will be sewn together to make a 12 1/2" block.

I was thrilled to find out that this is what one of my July stash bee requests was because the only fabric I have available to me right now is one grocery bag full of scraps.  Perfect!! This is probably the earliest I have ever finished a bee block!

If you don't want to read about our 5th wheel adventure, please read the last paragraph for a request for recommendations!

Since this is the first time I've ever sewn in a 5th wheel, it took me a while to get organized but I'll be better prepared for the next sewing session.  

Here is where I sew for the next six weeks . . . My mess in all its glory.  

And then all tidied up, sort of . . .

It is so hot today that we have all the windows covered up with reflective material to keep the heat out.  This is a very old 5th wheel and the cushions could definitely use new covers but I don't have a clue how to go about doing that!   

Way in the end, you can see just three pieces of our normal size sectional.  Two end pieces that recline and the middle corner piece.  They fit like a glove!  Of course, you can only recline one chair at a time or they run into each other.

I'm thinking about pinning up some batting on the back wall and just sticking blocks to it to brighten up the place.  I can see my daughter's laptop case has fallen off her bed and hanging back there.  Not the greatest decoration in the world.  Those string blocks were actually pretty fun to make and didn't make much of a dent in my sack of scraps!  

My husband is the best!  Instead of us having to pare down our wardrobes into what can fit into the 5th wheel . . . behold our new walk-in closet!  There is a door around to the right.

Here is the view from the inside.  We have this parked right across from the 5th wheel so its just a few short steps to pick something out for the day.  Two rods across the back and two long rows of rods along the left side.  We actually fit all three of our wardrobes in there!

It has also been suggested by several people that I get some kind of hand project going while living here.  I really like that idea!  I would like to do a small simple picture with an inspirational saying or quote that is cute and colorful (either embroidery or cross stitch).  Can you hand sewists out there direct me to a site or tell me about a designer I can search for?

Linking to:

Love Laugh Quilt

Cooking Up Quilts
Em's Scrap Bag
Show and Tell Monday with Bambi

New Quilt Room!

About every three or four years my inlaws have the dubious honor of being infested with these creatures in the canyon where they live.   They swarm every square inch of earth and eat everything that is green.   They are huge and one of them would pretty well cover the back of your hand.  Repulsive!  ICK!  Why would I tell you about these?  Read on!

Just a few years ago we were living with my inlaws while waiting for our remodel to be finished.  While there, one of the largest fires in decades swept through the the county burning well over 250,000 acres of land.  This is how close the fire came to where we were living.   It was a miracle (and a lot to do with a large group of church friends coming to fight the fire) that it didn't burn all the buildings, but not a single one was touched.

Later that year, when the rainy season came and there was no vegetation to hold the water, we experienced some flash flooding down the gullies that threatened to wash away a few of the outbuildings on the property.

I've been teased that we have been cursed with plagues!  Fire, flood and locusts!  On the bright side, we did survive!

Oh!  I almost forgot about the rock that came tumbling off the side of a cliff, smashed deep craters in the road leading to the house and also smashed the fence on the other side of the road.  We're talking a HUGE rock!   About the size of a pickup.  I have pictures somewhere but I can't find the memory card it's on.

I mention all these things just to say we have had quite an adventure while we've been waiting for our final home to be built.  And this will seem like a silly thing but I am thrilled about it!  A brand new pretty bronze mailbox with my very own permanent address on it!  This is finally happening!

I never really thought I'd think of a mailbox as beautiful, but THIS ONE IS!!  :)

These mailboxes kind of tell the story of our journey toward our final house.  5451 is the original farmhouse we remodeled, lived in for 8 months and just moved out of a few days ago.  5383 is the one we were going to move into if it didn't sell but it sold just a few weeks after we started building it.  And the sale of the first two is financing the building of our final and permanent home at 5371!  I'll show pictures of that another time.  There isn't much to show right now, it's just in the framing stage.

Here is where we will be living for the next 6 weeks or so . . .

Needless to say I haven't done any sewing for quite a while so I don't really have anything sewing related to talk about today other than to say, I finally bought an Accuquilt!  With no rent or mortgage payments due this month, I decided to splurge!  

And in spite of how long this has been going on there is the light at the end of the tunnel.  Here is proof!  This is my new quilt room!  Can you believe it?  I am going to love sewing in front of that huge window.

So my apologies for not having anything quilt related to show you today but I promise, there will be next time!

There have been so many beautiful quilt creations going on out there in blog land I can hardly stand it!    I guess if I can't sew, I can at least see lots of great eye candy so thanks for that!  Pretty soon, I'll be joining in again.  Yahoo!!

Linking to:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Tip for Pattern Writers

No, I am not getting into the pattern writing business, but I AM a pattern user and I've run into this issue with quite a few of the patterns I have used.

Here is the tip:
When writing pattern instructions, try not to write it referring to the specific colors that were used in your own block or quilt. Instead, refer to objects, sizes, shapes or locations.

I will give examples of why that is important.  Recently, Karen of Tu-Na Quilts, Eats and Travels had members of our International Stash Bee make a cute poodle block for her.  Here is the block she chose for us to make . . . sooo cute!

She requested either a black poodle with a white background or a white poodle with a black background.  The instructions on the original tutorial (which is found at The Objects of Design) made a turquoise poodle.   Now, these instructions are great (and her design is WONDERFUL)  if you are making a colored poodle similar to the one below like the designer made.

The instructions telling how much fabric to buy talk about light and dark fabric when referring to the poodle.  This can get confusing if you are planning on making a white poodle or a black poodle.  Or even a pink poodle with black poofs.

I will repeat my tip:    Refer to objects, sizes or locations rather than specific colors or patterns.  For this pattern, it would be more helpful to say "buy X yards for the body (instead of light fabric), buy Y for the ears and poofs (instead of dark fabric), buy Z for the background (that was already generic enough)."  And when you are talking about which pieces to sew together, it's much easier to understand sew 1 1/4" background piece to four corners of a leg poof piece than it is sew the background fabric to the dark fabric (when the leg poofs you are using might be white).

Big shout out to Karen at Tu-Na Quilts for realizing this would be confusing and creating a set of labels for those of us making poodles for her.  Her labels were perfect!  "Eye", "Ear", "Top of Head" ,  and seriously, even if the instructions mentioned the exact same colors of fabric I was sewing with, I would have still have used her labels.

Here is my version of this cute poodle block.  I probably should have pressed it before I took the picture!

If it is too difficult to name the pieces by type of object, size or location, at the very minimum use lettering or numbering to identify parts and label them on a pattern line drawing.

So that is my 2 cents on writing patterns.  Hope that all makes sense!  I know that is only one small part of  pattern writing, but every little thing you can do to make your directions clear and easily translatable to other fabrics is a plus!

Now go out there and design something awesome for those of us who can't design to save our lives! (or maybe can, but have no desire)

How's that for a pep talk?

Now someone give me one please.  I haven't sewn anything for a week and probably won't be able to for at least another week while we're packing up and preparing to move into a 5th wheel.   I would LOVE to know what your favorite inspiring quote is when you're feeling a little out of sorts.

Linking to:

Tips and tutorial Tuesday

Love,  Laugh, Quilt
Linky Tuesday
Sew Fresh Quilts

Blue Sky Sundaes

Yes, I know I am crazy!  I am making another quilt for one of Ashley's graduating friends.  How could I not?  These girls are like family!  And there is probably one more . . .

Anyway,  she is a cutie patootie that likes sky blue and old fashioned things.   I bought one jelly roll and one layer cake of Blue Sky Sundaes by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for Andover Fabrics which looks like this:

I know some of you have sewn hundreds of quilts, so I am seriously seeking suggestions for patterns to use.  Preferably something that goes together fairly quickly.   Hit me with your best shot!  What is your favorite layer cake and jelly roll pattern that would look good with this fabric?  Keep in mind that this girl is, in her own words, "an old soul."

I seriously appreciate the input I get from my more experienced quilter friends!

Poodle Block

Karen at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats is wanting to decorate her guest room in a French theme so as her turn as Queen Bee she is asking for poodle blocks!  We could make a black poodle on white background or white on black background.    The original pattern designer blogs at The Object of Design.  You can see her right facing poodles here and her left facing poodles here,  Here is the example
Karen gave us.

Isn't she cute?

There were a lot of teeny tiny pieces to deal with on this block and Karen was kind of enough to create a label template for us to label all the pieces.

A rotating cutting mat was definitely a helpful tool for all the trimming of flip triangle corners:

And here is my version of Karen's poodle block (needs more pressing):

Yesterday, there was a yard sale right down the street from my house.  I had to go.  Just HAD TO!  It was one of those where they'll hand you a bag and let you stuff as much into it as you want for $5.  They had a lot of fabric, but most of it was polyester.  Still,  I ended up with about 5 yards of nice low volume cottons and a few nice scraps.  My favorite is the scissors fabric and that was the largest piece.

And one piece of coveted light gray.  Where were you when I needed you for Stash Bee blocks?  This appears to be a from a pillowcase someone took apart.

And this doesn't have anything to do with quilting but I thought it was amusing.  Our cat head butting my husband.

This is one of the clingiest cats we have ever had.  He's constantly wanting to lay on top of you.  He's got a dalmation stomach and tiger legs.

Remember I told you a few weeks ago about one of our employees being in a car crash?  Here's what a truck looks like after a semi turns onto the highway right in front of you while you're traveling 55 mph.  He is lucky to be alive (broken arm and a few broken ribs) and we are so blessed nobody was riding in the passenger seat that day.

It was very interesting reading about my more experienced sewing friend's preferred methods of pressing.  Thank you for sharing!  I am cataloging all the things I learn from you in my brain bank!

I should have a house update for you in a few days.  They are already framing our new house!  I'll share some inside pictures of the house that just sold too.  I've got 9 days to get our house packed up and ready to move out.

So glad you stopped by and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Linking to:
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Bambi's Show and Tell Monday
Oh Scrap!

Three Bee Blocks and June OMG

With graduations, new grandbaby's being born, a niece getting married, and a weeklong business trip out of town, this month was a fail for getting my Bee blocks done on time.  But . . . I finally finished them all.  Here they are in no particular order!  The pattern for this Double Star block can be found here:

These next blocks are for Hive 6 of the Stash Bee.  These are just simple 9-patch blocks that finish at 9 inches.  Just cut up 3 1/2" squares of the colors you want and sew them together with a 1/4" seam allowance.  The Queen Bee's request was that each block have a white or white on white square in the middle and the rest of the block be from one color way.

And last but not least is a block for Irene who requested a block done entirely in grays for a new quilt for her bed!  This is a 9 patch in a 9-patch in a 9-patch!  Very fun!

My June One Month Goal is to get Kenzi's quilt top cut and sewn together.   Here are the fabrics she chose and the order she wants them in!  I love getting specific instructions!    Do you find it rather scary when someone says, oh just do whatever you think looks good?  That is the worst!   Too much leeway leaves me constantly second guessing my decisions.  So thank you, Kenzi for knowing exactly what you want!

Wish me luck on getting this goal done because we will be moving out of our house this month into a rental or 5th wheel (not sure which one yet) while our house is being finished.  I'm crossing fingers for rental!   I should take some more pictures of the interior of the house we WERE going to move into.  It is downright gorgeous!  I'm sad that I don't get to live there.  But not TOO sad, as my final, forever, no-more-moving house has been started!

And last but not least for today's post, I am going to try my hand at writing a pattern.  It will be free because I'm pretty sure the market for this one will be pretty small!  Linda Hungerford at Flourishing Palms made a quilt in the shape of her home state of Florida.  Check it out!

Isn't that great?  I was fascinated by it!  I asked her if she would be publishing a pattern for it and she said no.  But THEN she had so much interest from her own quilt guild that she decided to do it after all.  In the meantime I asked her if I could use hers as inspiration for making one of my own home state of Idaho and she said sure!  And she also agreed to be my mentor if I needed advice.  Before you ask me "Are you crazy?  You've already got too much going on!"  My answer is "You're right!"  So at this point, the state of Idaho is just a concept and that's as far as it's going to be for a while.  I'll let the idea percolate in my head as to how I want to do it.  I've got a few fun ideas that I'll share later.  And in fact, if any of my fellow Idaho friends and yet to be met friends want to tell me what you'd like to see on a quilt like this, by all means please leave a comment!

I'd love to hear from you!

Linking to:

Monday Making

Free Motion by the River

To Do Tuesday

Let's Bee Social

Midweek Makers

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal