{Post 1,482} HST Shirt Quilt Center Blocks Finished

The title pretty much says it all.  I have 12 x 14 blocks finished for the HST shirt quilt.  Here they are laid out on my design wall.

Last night I could not sleep at all...so I ended up staying up until 5 AM.  Slept until 10:45 this AM, and I feel fine.  I figured sewing was as good of a past time as any.

My next sewing chore will be webbing them.  I think I'm going to laboriously piece a back like I did for this quilt to use up large chunks of shirts that don't do well in blocks.  They might be an odd color that stands out too much, too soft to piece well, or whatever.  I have a strip of crumb blocks that I'll be putting on there, too.  A lot more piecing.

Of course, the above one needs borders.  I'm thinking of treating it like I did this quilt and use a similar color for an inner then an outer border.  Maybe green this time?

{Post 1,480} I'm Sew and Sew

After a nearly sleepless night, I decided to sew some this AM.  Didn't really have the energy to do much else.

I have finished 96 crumb blocks as of now.  I found a bin of light shirt scraps (yay!) that I added to some of the ones I already knew the location of and pieced some light squares.  Here is what I have so far.  If the blocks were sewn to each other, it would only measure 36" x 40", but it is a good start.  First the mystery bin:

I listed a bunch of new patterns on eBay.  whistlersmother10 is my user name.  Some Thimbleberries cream FQs and a couple templates, too.  Check them out.  

{Post 1,479} Even More Crumb HSTs

I owe my b-friend (that's short for blog-friend) Natasha a big thank you for starting me on this journey of crumbs.  I already have a recipient in mind for this one.  I am using up the tiniest of pieces, and it's so colorful and pretty.  So much to look at in a scrap quilt, too.  

My square blocks are 4-1/2" unfinished.  I am getting some pieced light half blocks now, and that just adds more interest.

Eighty-two blocks now:

{Post 1,477} Move It, Move It, Move It

Fifty-six crumb blocks (4-1/2" unfinished) made so far.  Many, many in process.  

Last night I started playing around with settings.  There are legion.

Here are 4 I started with to get an idea of how these would play together.  The lighting is harsh...canned lights right above the edge of the design wall.  Not a lot of space in here for my 4' x 8' design walls.

Which one do you like best?  I have a few more ideas, but not enough blocks yet to implement them.

{Post 1,475} More Crumb HSTs

Had trouble sleeping at 11 PM or so tonight (it's after 2:30 AM), so I got up and pieced some more HST crumb blocks a la Scraps a Plenty.

After taking this picture I pieced 8 more.  Each little block is 4-1/2" square unfinished.  This represents a chunk 16" tall by 36" wide.  Many more to go, but I have a big stack of pieces pressed and trimmed for adding on more units.  This is fun, but takes a long time.  It's kind of mindless sewing, so it is fun and relaxing.  Looking forward to seeing the finished product, as usual (way early).

{Post 1,472} Then There Were a Few More

{Post 1,471} All Scrap-A-Plenty's Fault

Maybe this is just a reality check, but I don't think I bought THAT many shirts.  If you click on "shirt quilt" under labels, you will see that I have already made quite a few quilts from shirts already.  

I have so many crumbs of my shirts.  I keep them all corralled, so they are easy to access and keep track of anyway.

Top picture is a string of 2-piecers waiting to be ironed.

My friend, N, of Scraps-A-Plenty made a crumb quilt lately.  Hers isn't made of shirts, but mine will be. Look here to see hers.  I like the zigzag setting, so that's what I am going to try.  I don't have many light shirts, so I just cut up some whole pieces of light shirts.  I will eventually have scraps of those as well.  I need some bright colors.  These are really dark and boring.  

{Post 1,468} Squares Surrounded in Use!!!

Here is my latest quilt for our bedroom, Squares Surrounded.  It is, of course, my favorite so far.  It combines my favorite things...scraps, a unifying striking color, scraps, small pieces, scraps, upcycled shirts, and scraps!!

Here are two views and then a peek at the back.

I am glad I took the extra time to make a beautiful machine quilting pattern instead of just meandering or something simple.  My only regret?  I would have made it longer.  Ah, well...it is fine!!

If you are new to my blog, here is a tip for you.  If you click on the label at the bottom, it will take you to all the posts for that subject.

{Post 1,467} Machine Quilting Squares Surrounded

Just started quilting this today.  I was going to do a fast and easy meandering, but it's for MY bed, and I'll be seeing it a lot.  I thought it was worth the extra time for the fancier stitching.  Only have two passes done.

We had bad weather yesterday afternoon and night...sleet, rain, then snow.  Everything was covered with a thin layer of ice.  We never lost power though, and we are thankful for that.

View out my front door:

{Post 1,446} Fern Ziggle Quilting

This is the first row of my secret project.  I usually forget about the Fern Ziggle pattern, but I really like it.  I have used it two other times that I recall.

{Post 1,445} Center of Runner Pieced

These are some shirt crumb blocks I made while piecing some more String Squares blocks.  I finished 16 more of the SS blocks!

I am making these crumb blocks into a table runner for my cousin once removed.  We have just recently reconnected after about 40 years on Facebook.  Her posts encourage me.  She has such a strong sense of family.  I am mailing it to her as a surprise.  

Must add a wide border, quilt, bind, and label it first!

It is 17" x 13" now.  I will add a 2" border all around from the same shirt and then a binding.  The small blocks are 4" square unfinished.  I had some tiny crumbs.  These type of quilts intrigue me.  

I used the same red shirt for the 20 tiny (1" unfinished) cornerstones.

{Post 1,439} Christmas Shirt 9-Patch Ready to Web

These are the blocks for my BIL's family's Christmas quilt.  I've only known him 29 years, no need to get in a rush about making him a quilt, right?

I will sew these into a top on Saturday at Second Saturday Sewers.  That's sewers as in seamstresses, not waste water runoff!

There is a possibility of adding more blocks to this, but I'll see how I like it as is.  This will be 54" x 72".  I think a couple more rows might be in store, but this will give me 3 hours of sewing to do for the sew-in on Saturday.

{Post 1,436] New Layout for Shirt Strings

This is really what I was looking for with those blocks.  Now I can plan how many blocks I want for a large throw and get cutting.  It looks like I'll have a lot more piecing time away from home, so I need to have a stack of pieces cut and ready to sew!

{Post 1,435] Sew'cializing

I went to a new-to-me sewing group last night from 5-8:30.  It's called the "sew-cialize" group.  I got all 99 blocks for my Christmas gift quilt finished as well as 3 of the shirt string blocks shown.  The 9-patches are 5" square; the string blocks are 6-1/2" square.

For the first time, I used my Featherweight exclusively and for a l-o-n-g time.  It performed like the workhorse it is, and did it beautifully.

The blue 9-patch quilt top in the back of the first picture is the same design as the one the green blocks are going to be used in.  I wanted it to be lighter overall, so I switched where the cream and color go in the 9-patch.  It was sooooo boring to use the same two fabrics over and over, but having others to chat with certainly made it more interesting.

The natural muslin was a purchase made at a textile warehouse near me.  I like the color with the shirts.  I was going to make a different setting with the blocks, but this one appeals to me.  Time will tell as to where this quilt design goes.

{Post 1,377} Churn Dash Mini Finished

Here is my latest mini...a 14-1/2" square Churn Dash.  It is made from all shirts in my burgeoning collection.  I love sewing with shirts.  I guess I'd also love sewing with reclaimed fabric.  It's the old use it up mindset, I guess.

The bottom picture shows it playing with friends.

{Post 1,240} Two Minis...Scale is Crucial

Here are two minis I pieced this AM.  Both are 12-1/2" square.  The one on the left has 2" finished blocks, the one on the right has 3" finished blocks.  I like them both.  Choosing a size depends on what looks you want.  

A close-up of the one on the left, which will be added to my stack of mini quilts after quilting for my someday mini-quilt wall.

Both are pieced from men's shirts and muslin.  I think the one with 3" blocks would look good with the outer muslin edge trimmed down a bit with a plaid border.  But I'm leaving that up to the new owner.

{Post 1,238} Lady in Waiting

Yesterday I was out and unexpectedly had 2-1/2 hours on my hands.  There was a mix-up as to when I needed to pick up some folks at the airport, and I ended up realizing there had been a mistake after waiting an hour at the airport.  The time sort of flew because I was reading an interesting book on my Kindle.  Going home would have been a huge waste of time.  What's a girl to do?

Fortunately, I still had my "lady-in-waiting" bag in my purse from my recent FL trip.  This phrase is one I got from my friend, Janet, at the Rogue Quilter blog.  I was able to make 2 whole more hexagons and attach them to the mother ship.  

First picture shows a PIECED center hexagon (I didn't have one fabric big enough, but I couldn't let that little detail stop me from making progress).  Second picture is the progress so far on this project.  I have a bobbin in the top left hexagon to show scale.

{Post 1,234} Quilting Finished...On To Binding!

I have just enough of the backing fabric (a favorite navy Moda with little stars with blue dots in the center) for binding.  It's what's left on the sides and the end of the quilt.  I am going to do the back to front all by machine style.  

That will have to wait a couple weeks though.  We are making a trip to Florida to celebrate our anniversary with our daughter, whose anniversary is on the same day as ours.  Twenty-five years for us, and two for her :)

Then we are hosting a family for 5 days.  I might be able to squeeze binding time in there somewhere.  You know I'll try!

It was hard to get a picture of the quilting.  I used a light blue thread, and it was such a good choice!  It blended very well.  I like the quilting pattern and can picture using this one in various scale often in the future.  It feels so good to have another pattern in my very limited arsenal!!

{Post 1,233} Some Center Quilting

{Post 1,232} Quilting Underway on Shirts Abound

After much practice yesterday (OK, not all that much) on paper, I am attempting the swirl pattern.  I have learned what NOT to do...not if I can just remember to NOT do it!  Here is a sample of what I'm doing.  I took the picture with my hand there so you can see how LARGE and scale of the pattern is!  Light blue thread seemed the best match for the myriad of colors on the top.  I used the same thread in the bobbin although the backing fabric is navy blue (I had one 2" wide piece left on the bolt after piecing the back...whew!).  I can't take the pressure of making sure the thread tension is perfect so I don't get dots on the opposite side of that color thread.  This is FLYING along!

Incidentally, this is only one of two places where the exact same light border fabric is on both sides of the dark plaid center.  I have a lot of freckles, and here they are in living color: