{Post 1,119} Wild Goose Blocks

These little blocks are paper pieced.  Last night I had an epiphany about them.  I don't like paper piecing because I hate to waste even the tiniest bits of fabric.  I don't like digging around to see what size piece best fits the place that I need a scrap of fabric to fit!

So last night before I took my daughter to karate, I cut plastic templates for the 3 sizes of pieces in this block.  I took my scrap box and cut cut cut the whole 75 minutes I was there.  I got nearly all the box tamed!  So now I'm going to add to it a handful at a time from my color boxes (only the smallest pieces).  I made it easy peasy.  I used Ziploc sandwich bag with the piece written in large letters on the outside.  I cut the biggest template I could out of each chunk of fabric.  Now when I sew, I will know which bag to look in.  

I don't have a goal for how these blocks are used.  I am just going to keep making them.  I drew the pattern myself.  They are 4" square unfinished.  Soooo cute in person!  Mostly Thimbleberries, but a smackerel of shirts and oddballs that sneaked in there somehow!

{Post 1,118} Surprise Squishy!

Yesterday I received a squishy envelope from my b-friend at the Country Log Cabin.  She hadn't told me she was sending me anything, so that just increased the anticipation.  You know when you get an unexpected envelope from a blogging friend, it has to be good, right?

It was full of selvages (with lots of the fabric showing!).  How did she know I was working on these for my dear daughter in Wisconsin?  There are 6 rows total.  The leftmost row is folded under to make it fit on the design wall.  The 3 rows on the right are just lying there, waiting to be joined to the mother ship.

Below is my sad little selvage box...it's nearly empty!  My new selvages are going to beef it up quite a bit!  Thanks, Country Log Cabin lady ;)

{Post 1,117} Painting Update

Here's Rachel's room.  I got the paint mixed early this AM at Lowe's.  I cut in and rolled the first wall.  It looked great.  

When I added paint to my roller tray and paint cup, it looked like a different color...pinker than the grape popsicle color I used earlier.  Hmmm...was it just my imagination?  Unfortunately, no.  I did the second wall.  

When I got to the third, I had to add more to the paint cup but not the roller tray.  Now there was a definite difference.  I was very discouraged as I had been painting for 5 hours already.  So I went to Lowe's and had them mix up a quart of grape popsicle and add it to what I had left in the gallon container and mix that.  I did the fourth wall (the one with the air conditioning ducts on it if you know the room).  That one has lots of cutting in.  I painted the whole small walls around the ducts with a brush.  Arm yelling ouch!  

I will repaint the whole wall with the different color cutting in and walls on Monday.  Right now my arms and neck are aching.  I just can't stop when I'm doing a huge job.  I should have.  I'm eager for Rachel to set the room to rights.  It looks like several natural disasters happened in there.  See the pics for evidence.

The first one is just the primer color so you can see the difference the paint makes (the paint looks a lot darker in person):

{Post 1,116} Stained Glass & Quilt Stuff for Sale

I have a number of items I gleaned from my sewing room up for sale on Etsy (if I made it) and eBay right now.

Here are the links if you want to buy them: 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290859155915&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

The above one is for this lovely stained glass 8" square quilt block:

Here are some items listed in my Etsy store last night.  All things hanging around here for too long.  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShelbyStitcher?ref=seller_info_count

My shop is "ShelbyStitcher".

{Post 1,115} Changes and Painting

Another one of my chicks flew the nest earlier this week.  I wish her well.  Things are really a-changin' around these parts.  

I'm sure many of you have heart failure just thinking about having 8 children at home at the same time.  That was my everyday life for years and years and years.  Now I have 3 sons and 1 daughter.  

As the rooms changed hands so to speak, it ends up that my poor, lonely, left-behind daughter gets a huge bedroom.  

Her sister who just left did the cutting in on the new paint job (thank you!).  Today I painted all the grooves (it was paneled ages ago) and rolled the primer on.  I had Kilz tinted.  It wasn't the color of the chip we agreed on, but it was pretty close. Rachel decided she liked the color of the primer better than the sample of paint we picked, so I'll take the paint stirrer in to have wall paint matched to it soon.  I am kinda sore.  A sign of my advanced age. 

Here are some before and after shots.  I can hardly wait to help her get everything back in a semblance of order.  

{Post 1,114} Stitch Along

One of my new friends, Janet at Rogue Quilter, showed her little blocks (and I do mean little--they finish at 4" squares...check out all the little pieces!) made from orphans and scraps.  I liked hers so much that I went ahead and made one.  Now I need to quilt and bind it.

Here is a picture.  Notice the comparison in size to my rotary cutter.

I might make another one and set it the way she did.  I like the little 9-patches on hers.  Aren't they cute?

This is 8-1/2" x 22-1/4".  Yes, my rotary cutter has "mine" written on it.  I have to do what I have to do.

~Joan

{Post 1,113} Life Has Been So Daily

This past couple of weeks has been sooooo extremely busy.  Won't bore you with all the details.

I finished machine quilting my daughter's baby quilt.  First grandchild due in a few weeks!

My parents came down last week and stayed a few days, then went to FL to visit a few days with Emily, then came back and stayed a few more days.  My sister's embroidery machine came with them and stayed with me the whole time.  So I played on that some.  That meant several trips to buy threads, stabilizer, etc.  The only things I embroidered were some burp cloths (aka white cloth diapers) and bibs-to-be.  I am not an embroidery lover, but I think I could be. Since I used to sell fabric, quilt kits, etc., I have tons of fabric and likely won't even use it all before I die (not that that's in the plans for this week, but we never know, do we?).  I do not have the time, money, or energy to start a new hobby.  I'll never make all the quilts I have planned now!

Anyway, here are some pics of a few of the things I made.  I embroidered the monogram (or in some cases the name) on the burp cloth then used some specialty stitches on my Janome sewing machine to outline the edges (using embroidery thread).

The last day I would be able to use the machine, I had the (I thought at the time) bright idea of making some bibs.  When my children were small (I had 8 children in 10 years, so there was quite a procession of them), I made some bibs from small towels.  I just flipped down the top, cut a semi-circle for a neck opening, and used bias tape for a tie and to line the cut edge.  Those bibs lasted through all my children, and I'm sure hundreds of washings.  As it was on the spur of the moment, I didn't know the best place to buy small towels.  I stopped in a place I thought would be good, but they didn't have the type of towels I wanted.  I bought some largish wash cloths instead.  I bought a $1 bib to use for a pattern since I don't have a baby model in the house ;)

My plan is to line the bibs with a piece of fabric, sew them right sides together and leave an opening, flip them right side out, topstitch, then add Velcro like the one in the picture.  The terrycloth side will catch and absorb spills better than plain fabric, I'm thinking.

BTW, Bryan is my grandson's last name.

~Joan