I was warned

When I woke this morning I KNEW how to use up more of those pesky 1.5 inch squares that I had created some years ago.  Sew them into "twosies".

The sew those into "4-sies" and then "8-sies", and then "11-sies".

Then sew those strips all together into one big block.

My plan is to make FOUR of these blocks to put in the middle of my LEGO quilt.  That will make a bigger square that is 22 finished inches across.  I can add a one inch sashing [to separate it a little from the Lego squares], and that will bring it up to 24 inches, perfect to match the 12 inch finished Lego blocks.

Here's an imperfect glimpse of what that might look like:

 So with all this construction going on today,  I got NOTHING done about cleaning up my sewing room.  I WAS WARNED by Clare that this Lego business is a huge distraction from cleaning. [Ask her how she knows!]

Sara


Gratitudes:

Grand Rapids Women's Chorus fall workshop tomorrow and Sunday
With Charlie's push out the door I walked for 41 minutes today
SlimFast makes for a quick lunch
Baseball playoffs start tonight, Go Tigers!  Go Cardinals!

"Lego" blocks

Tonya Ricucci of lazygalquilting has a tutorial for making a "Lego" quilt top, and now I have seen several bloggers that are following her lead.  It uses scraps that are 1.5 inch in width, and I have a whole drawer full of those that I need to get rid of!

So I am sewing them end to end until I have about four yards in length.

Then I am sewing the two lengths together along the LONG dimension.

After pressing that seam, I cut the double strip into 12.5 inch lengths, and sew two of them together.

I now have a stack of 30 of these sets of four strips.
And I'm not making them into "12sies" until I have more made.  Don't want to have to put the same fabric next to itself, you know. And maybe I'll start using more pieces that are longer.

 Anyway later three of these will be joined into a 12.5 inch block.  Something like the last photo.

These are, or can be set in alternate directions, like a rail fence.

Tonya's looks like she is using a lot of short pieces, so her blocks look more like they are made of Legos.  I'm just throwing in 1.2 - 3 inch pieces every third time, because I am impatient.

But this has now caught my attention.  Will it turn into ANOTHER ufo? I'm planning on getting that drawer fairly empty because in general I don't want to work with pieces that small.

Meanwhile I am mentally gearing up for a clean-up and clearing-out of my sewing room.  There is too much chaos here and it has become less than welcoming to creativity.  I need to cull out the projects that no longer give me joy.  Doing that will make me more productive....I hope.

Sara

Gratitudes:

I own enough stuff to make a mess
Other bloggers inspire me with projects and the urge to clean-up
Amazing night of baseball on the night of game(s) 162

SCRAP Bee for October

Got to work and finished the October blocks for an internet Bee today, a little early, but wanted to get them off my list of things to do.  This is a fun way to make a Liberated Fan half-block.  I don't know if the recipient is going to add a background for the other half-triangle or sew two of these together.

I also sent three baby quilts to the Guild meeting for our hospital's Neonatal Unit.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie left me to sleep in late this morning
Detroit Tigers are on a fantastic hitting streak
Kindle books can now be downloaded from the public library

Quick trip to St. Louis

Vicky and Patrick wanted to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs in baseball, AND Patrick has a four passenger Cessna.  So he flew us down to St. Louis on Friday.

We had good seats at the game.

On Saturday we were able to visit our daughter's family.  We saw an 8th grade football game and observed two teenagers sleeping on the family room sofa for much of the afternoon.

Sunday we went to church at the cathedral and then went out to Grant's Farm to see some of the Clydesdale horses owned by Budweiser.

Then we had a great view of downtown and the arch as we flew away to Michigan!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Fun to fly in a small plane
Saw grandson John catch a pass and score a touchdown!
Back home safely

SCRAP Bee for September

Green block for Victoria's collection in September of green BOM blocks for a quilt for a homeless family.

Dark block is another for Victoria.  She sent out scraps from camouflage uniforms to be used with our own "made from scraps" fabric.  Now that they are both finished, I can send them to her in one envelope.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Managed to walk continuously for 43 minutes today!
Trekking poles help.
Roasting butternut squash pieces with chicken and onions

Wordless Wednesday

Sara

More Retreat

I also finished the borders, quilting and binding on the "King of the Ranch" boy quilt while on retreat.  This was made from two charm packs and some stash fabrics.

And here is the back of that one.

I also took along a set of  Fat Quarters I had won about five years ago.  They are all Christmasy and in muted colors.  Not my style.  But they have been sitting around for so long, when I found them I felt I needed to put them to use.  This is as far as I got, there will be three more rows of four-patches around this center.  This part is quilted now and the rest will be added QAYG, but I didn't have backing fabric along with me.

As I left the house, I grabbed a stack of 3" squares that were packed tight in a drawer, so that I could use them as my "leaders and enders" during the retreat.  Here is the stack of four-in-a-row that resulted.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Restful, quiet day at home

Discovered that our dog can howl when sirens blow on the highway

Another BLT supper

SpoolSpinner Retreat

I was on retreat with my quilting bee, the SpoolSpinners, from last Thursday through Sunday.  One of the quilts I worked on, and FINISHED was the Soccer Boy quilt.

It is simply a "strippy" quilt with soccer fabrics alternating with non-soccer fabrics.  But it has no flowers and no pinks, so maybe some father with a boy in the neo-natal unit will like it for his child.

Here's the back.

I also worked on the Liberated Round Robin's "curves" borders.

I used double wide, packaged seam binding in  black and red rickrack.  I am still in the process of sewing these down and doing the quilting.

We also were shown and then made a cloth wrapper for a small gift.  Our teacher gave us each two 8.5" square flowered fabrics and instructions which we could complete in about 20 minutes. Example on the right.

Later I tried my own fabrics and cut the squares 9.5" to see how much larger the package would end up.  The different is this: the original could hold six Hershey's nuggets, and the larger version could hold eight. [We had the nuggets available on our snack table.]

Sara

Gratitudes:
Another retreat earlier in the week with my spiritual accountability group
Dinner tonight with our DDIL Lynne
Singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" at Grand Rapids Women's Chorus rehearsal tonight