{Post 1,723} Hot Pads from Slivers

 

Well, I was going to write a post about making a hot pad, potholder, or trivet from trimmed block slivers. But I see that I did that back in March. I keep forgetting to put labels on the posts. If you want to see the tutorial, search my blog for potholder.

When the recipient of my first set’s sister saw them, she asked me to make her some, too. I had just trimmed up a bunch of men’s shirt fabric blocks, so I used those to make some for her. They are still hanging up drying, so they are not complete, but here is a picture reenactment for you.

Tonight I did something I have been needing to do for some time. Actually, I just got started good. I am working on organizing my things. We have 4 closets that are mine to use for non-clothing things. I have a plethora of seasonal decor, seasonal quilts (that is not redundant), items from the days when I did all our church showers and receptions, craft stuff GALORE, etc. It’s time to consolidate one thing to each closet. I tend to just jam something in where it fits. Made great headway in my craft room downstairs. I emptied out the entire closet, sorting into donations and trash and keepers as I went. Oddly enough, only two small boxes went back into the closet. I put the things that went elsewhere in their new location when I handled them, a la A Slob Comes Clean (read the book—it will change your life). So I didn’t make a bigger mess while cleaning up. I threw away 3 13-gallon trash bags of stuff (mostly empty DVD cases) and have 3 bags to donate. My goal is to organize those things so that I can work on stuff for my booth w/o searching every room in the house for supplies. Speaking of stuff for my booth, I made all these pumpkins today. I also stiffened some crocheted snowflakes.

The snowflakes are wet, or I’d show those as well. I do have these that were stiffened and unpinned from a few days ago. Some of my pins left rust marks (!!!!), so they might not be usable.

I hope you are all doing well. Drop me an email or at least leave a comment!

{Post 1,722} New Project ~ Busy, Busy

I have had a productive few days here as far as sewing. I finished and sold this modern quilt. Definitely not my go-to style, but I made it and sold it 5 minutes after the piecing was finished. I machine quilted it in another new-to-me style, and it turned out soooo well. A big shout-out to my quilting friend, BJ, who referred it to the new owner. I am meeting her to deliver it tomorrow. It’s 51” x 70”.

First picture. Washed, dried, and hanging on our half wall.

I had a really large piece of the cream background left, so I used it first on the back, then added a row of the scraps left over from the scraps from the front, then added a width of fabric of the dark rose. It is sort of a reversible quilt. I really like it. One nice feature is that it’s really lightweight.

One of my daughters from 350 miles away came Saturday AM with her family. Her sister, who lives 3 minutes from us, had a birthday, we we had the two families and a couple extras here for supper Sunday night. Had a great meal and a good visit. Spent the last couple days with my daughter from afar. Her family left this afternoon for a few days at the coast. After resting up a little (old age stinks)...

I pulled out these birch tree blocks and arranged them on the design wall in my sewing studio. I had more finished than I realized. I also have a bunch of additional background pieces cut out, so I pieced a couple more. Here is the forest so far. Each block finishes at 9” x 11.5”.

I am buying a bolt of fabric tomorrow. Gray. My only one. I am going to make another modern quilt or two, and I know that’s a really popular color right now. Wish me luck!

Take care, and keep in touch.

{Post 1,721} Finished Customer Quilt

I have a new quilting customer. She is a brand-new quilter, and look what a wonderful job she did! I machine quilted her top today. It is a big one...91” x 109”. I did a Fern Stipple in dark cream thread on it, and I think it turned out wonderfully.

{Post 1,720} So Much Time Has Passed

It has been many moons since I have posted. I looked back at my last pictures to see what had been going on back then. I have had two of my grandkids for a week, a doctor appointment, been to OH and PA for a week, had two times of guests for supper and games (that’s a big rise since several months ago), took a flower-arranging class, rearranged my booth and took on a booth buddy (woman from whom I took class that also sells homemade candles and pottery her husband makes), went to GA again overnight and brought grandkids home, Lazy 5 Ranch today, and tomorrow is one grand’s 6th birthday (he has my heart, so this will be sweet). So, I’ve just been sitting around, LOL!

I’ll start with the most recent stuff first. Well, no, I’ll really just be jumping around. I brought back a 13-gallon trash bag full of mostly floral fabrics from my sister who lives in OH. I had literally just gotten rid of all of my own floral fabrics. Florals are not something I’m drawn to, so I use them very little. I just decided tonight that I need to make masks again. I will use some of the florals for those. My daughter that is the mom of the grands I have right now lives in the Atlanta area. She said they just announced today that kids will need to wear masks to school in the fall, so she asked me to make some for her kids. I already have 4 they can use and will make a couple more for the little princess.

So for the floral fabrics, I used some new ideas from a new YouTuber I have been listening to...Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. I have gleaned several good ideas from her (and Bonnie Hunter, who I’ve been reading for years). I looked through Pinterest for large floral print quilts and decided on 4 I’d like to make. I figured this bag was good for at least 4 queen-sized quilts. I sorted through the entire bag and combined like fabrics and set aside a few (actually very few) pieces I knew I would not use in quilts. I took those to the thrift shop on the next trip there.

Then I took paper plates and wrote the size of piece and how many I needed for each quilt. For example, I had one that had 75 2-1/2” squares. I ironed each piece and straightened up the edge. I started with my largest squares needed. If the fabric was too small, I used the largest size I could get from that print. I stacked them up so I was cutting through several layers. I only worked through about 1/4 of the fabric (it was this past Monday. I watched a friend’s two youngest boys so she could take care of something for 6 hours. One of the boys took a 4-hour nap, so it wasn’t very hard). Once I cut down the big squares, I cut the rest into 2-1/2” squares, then I cut strips from the scraps.

I started using the strips in these blocks that I made without a pattern. I copied a pattern I saw called “Rinse and Repeat”. I saw a close-up of a quilt and could easily see the pattern. So I made these so far. Keep in mind that I have rarely had a spare minute the last 3 weeks.

I started with several sizes of squares and added the same fabric on two sides, log cabin style. Then I trimmed the blocks to 7” square. These were made last night because I wanted a few minutes of machine time. And I mean a FEW minutes. Here is the quilt I copied...

I’d like to make it at least 60” wide. I like that the strings are all different widths, as are the starting squares. Everything can be used in these, but I will limit the color palette slightly. I like the horizontal straight-line modern-looking quilting, too.

We went to the Lazy 5 Ranch today. It ended up taking nearly all day. It has over 750 animals from 6 continents. One drives through. We always left our windows up. What. A. Blast. 

Here is Katie getting her first glimpse of a group of 4 buffalos in front of our van as we pulled in. She is so emotionally expressive. “Are those REAL, Grammy Jo?” Yep!

We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then the drive-thru car wash on our way home. Katie yelled, “Ooooo...there are buffalo boogers on your window!” And she was right. There was also long-horned cattle drool, ostrich feathers, and a host of other animal debris. They definitely get up close and personal!  The little burgundy edge at the bottom of the next picture is the hood of my van.

Here are just a few more pictures to catch up...

 Snap bag from salvages and denim for my booth:

Live flowers I arranged for my (Zoom) class then later gave to a friend going through cancer treatment for the second time in less than a year:

My new booth set-up. We switched the hutch and hanging screen and added a curtain rod for table runners and wreaths (in the fall):

My 2020 hydrangea color:

One of my fancy up-twists. I am a hair model. Helping encourage the gray-haired ladies:

PA visit...son-in-law and grandson:

{Post 1,719} My Plant is Happy

One of the joys of my life is house plants. I have had this plant longer than I have had my husband! For a long time I have moved it around our house. I wanted a nice, good-looking plant stand for it that was fairly high and extremely stable. Enter thrift store. I bought a barstool that had a rotating armed chair on it. Wes removed the seat and screwed on a round piece of wood I had gotten (at a different thrift store to make a wall sign. I took it from there cleaning, sanding, painting (twice), waiting (for the paint to cure)....but it was worth it! Look—my plant is smiling!!!!!!

I love making things for my home—it gives me such satisfaction. Much more than just buying something.

{Post 1,718} For Julie

The sampler quilt I commented about on Julie’s blog. Wonky Feathers pattern. I don’t know how to add a picture to a comment, so I am posting this here for her. I machine quilt for customers. Contact me at joanparker10@gmail.com for a quote on your top.

{Post 1,717} More Projects Finished

I am making one more patriotic item for my booth. I finished up 3 small quilts yesterday. One is a quilt I want to keep. Just need to find the perfect place for it. Here it is, still on my quilt frame. I quilted it with a light blue thread in Wonky Feathers. It is now bound (with the same red fabric as the border) and has a hanging sleeve. I think I’ll try it over my sideboard. Stay tuned! I think it’s about 24” square.

I rarely buy fabric, unless it’s for a specific item. I got a jelly roll with the fabrics in the center above. I bought a yard of the red for the borders of this and the previous (nearly identical) quilt. Tonight I was sitting at my sewing desk wondering what I’d do with the leftover fabric from the jelly roll. I didn’t have much to match it, even for a scrappy quilt. The blue and red are both shades I don’t have in my stash. So I came up with these 16 spool blocks. I had enough for 14 w/o repeating a fabric, then I actually had to use two reds and two blues to have enough to make it an even 4 x 4, or 16.

The lighting is not good in the picture. It’s night time, and the room I have my design wall in has only a center ceiling light. I’m debating whether to add borders or just leave this as is. The blocks finish at 6” each. I have enough of the red with polka dots (3rd row down, second block in) for borders and binding. At least I think I do. I sure have stretched that yard of red!

In news from around our happy little house here, my husband finished installing our new mailbox and post tonight. Now to move my pride and joy—um, I mean my purple clematis vine and Black-eyed Susans. I hope they make it. I have had all those flowers for 20 years. I moved them from our last house. I need to wait until Wes builds the enclosure for the mailbox flowerbed to move them. We are deciding between fake rock and something wood. Since he is doing all the work, I am leaving it up to him. Until a project becomes his, it’s like pushing string to get it to completion. I’m sure some of you can relate. 

I went to my booth today after allergy shots, per my usual. I had finished two more table runners and wanted to get them in the booth before the weekend. Saturdays are the busiest days there. I got a curtain rod and some hangers from Walmart on the way. I hung the curtain rod from the front of my hutch (it is old and falling apart as opposed to old and in good condition). I didn’t realize that the center of the rod is sagging until I got home and looked at the pictures. I also stripped out a screw putting up the rod holder, so I need to take another screw and a drill in. I am thinking I can put a wooden dowel in the middle of the hollow curtain rod to strengthen it. Will go try it tomorrow.  One of my new runners is on the rod and the other has the gold border on the screens. I moved the patriotic large throw to the ladder and put a queen-sized quilt on a child-sized bench I took in.

I am not selling much, but I keep adding things. I can take an honest answer...do you think the booth looks too crowded? Please leave me a comment or send me an email (joanparker10@gmail.com).