Test blocks

Three things to be happy about:
(1) sugar white sand
(2) the alphabet song
(3) farm stands

Sometimes I feel so sorry for my mailman! I live in a rowhouse, so to deliver my mail he has to walk up 5 steps, across a 2-1/2 foot landing, up another five steps and across my porch to the door. And yesterday he did all that just to shove this through my mail slot:

gobbage! I put it straight into the waste basket, uh, recycle bin. BUT he was doing his job, bless him!

I was awake in the wee hours of the morning, so I took advantage of my blank-eyed stare and worked on more of the 2x8" scrappy strips for about an hour. Then I was sleepy enough to catch more shut-eye til 9 am - you gotta love being retired! Later I sewed three blocks together, I like these.

Four of the strips make one block, which should finish at 8-1/2 inches sewn together.

Sometimes when I sew these I pull a piece of fabric and think hmmm... that's a bit dark or muted or dull. But you know what, I don't see a dull area in the bunch! I think scraps have a natural way of working together, no matter who their neighbors are.

If all goes as planned I'll be playing in the orchard today with a few friends. Peaches are the fruit of the day, I've never picked them before so this will be a whole new experience! Geez I hope it's not too hot - sew forth and sew on til later!

Just stringing along

Three things to be happy about:
(1) eating fresh corn
(2) driving a car carefully
(3) the wings of a butterfly

At our bee's spiderweb workshop Saturday I completed one quarter of a block, and as you recall I wasn't happy about the skinniness of the strings I used.  I went ahead and completed the other three parts and put the block together - it looks great!  By the time I finish a quilt, the skinny strings will be so well absorbed by the other blocks, they won't even be noticed.

Someone emailed me about where I get strings - a lot of strings "just happen" when you've finished cutting strips and you have a little bit left over, not quite big enough to cut another good strip.  Some strings can come from that first cut to straighten the edge of your fabric... rather than just cutting off a snivelly bit, if you have enough fabric you can make the cut a little wider, up to 2 inches or so. 

Or... just place two strings in a container, close the cover and leave them overnight!

Meanwhile I've been working on the 2-1/2 x 8-1/2 paper foundation string blocks that Bonnie Hunter is doing on Quilt Cam, they go together so fast it's like eating peanuts!  So far I've finished around 2 dozen or so, and it's such a fun mix of fabrics...Christmas prints, puppy dogs, music, stars, words, you name it, it's all in there.

That's a great looking group, isn't it?  There's no deadline for getting them finished and I don't know how I'll use them yet but I know I WILL use them!  Piecing strings and scraps is such an easy way to let your fingers play with fabric while your mind wanders here and there, watching TV or listening to a book.  Sometimes when I'm working with strings I'm reminded of one of those cook books "101 Ways to Cook Hamburger" ... there's gotta be at least 1,001 ways to use strings!

How do you use strings, leave me a comment and let me know.  Come on admit it - everybody at one time or other has pieced strings together!  ;o)

Well, that's it for now, have a great Tuesday, stay cool, sew forth and sew on til later!

Busy at the bee

Three things to be happy about:
(1) iced tea with real mint
(2) hot pink
(3) lending a helping hand

Today is my mom's birthday... had she not passed away in 1995, she would have been 100, imagine that!

We had a great bee meeting on Saturday!  Pat did a workshop on the spiderweb quilt that she made last year and displayed at the North Michigan Park community day activities - her quilt won the viewer's choice award.

Anyway, we convinced her to do a workshop, and Saturday was the day.  In my humble opinion, Pat is a very good teacher.  :o)

I like the technique and it's easy to do, but I wasn't crazy about the quarter-block that I made; except for a few pieces I purloined, my strips were all 1 inch wide...bo-RING!

I think I'll like this better made with random-width strips.

We collected about 10 AIDS blocks for the panel; we need to start putting the panel together in September, so the others will be collected by that time.  There were some pretty, creative blocks turned in:

Felicia had asked that we make pillowcase dresses for a project she is helping with; there were quite a few collected...

some people used pillowcases and some just used fabric from their stash.

And then Debbra couldn't resist a photo-op!

She's visiting from California for a few weeks, WeeBee real glad to see her!

Have a great Monday, sew forth and sew on til later...

Silent Sunday

Here we go!

Hi everybody!  I'm baaaaack from being AWOL - it's really been a long time hasn't it?  What have I been doing - I dunno!  I think it was this blurb from Sharon's blog that gave me the little push I needed to jump back in without guilty apologies...

CLOSING THOUGHT 
I have seen so many blogs discussing slacking, loss of interest, guilt in not getting anything started or finished. HEY - it's Summer, it's a heat wave, it's family time, it's outdoors, it's smelling the flowers. I pre-scheduled posts and actually was off and away - yeah, me - not sewing. Enjoying family, grandies, shopping, traveling. It's Summer.

Today is my WeeBee day! I look forward to the meeting because I couldn't make it to the Family Day last month (I think Felicia put pictures on her blog but I couldn't find em) since my guild was having a workshop I wanted to attend. 

At the bee we're doing an AIDS panel, and each member is supposed to make a 10" block.  I wanted to keep it simple, so I made a ribbon with text:

I used 180 pt Script MT Bold to make the words - the font had to be fat enough to stitch around, with the letters hooked together to make it easier.  It'll fly!

Meanwhile, here are two quilts from last week's guild meeting I thought were nice:

The houses were done by a visitor; she found pictures of houses on the web that she liked and made the templates - clever!  I like the second one because of the vibrant colors, and the border treatment.

The season is winding down and we haven't gone berry picking yet - it's been hot!  We still have some time left at Butler's Orchards, maybe we'll get some this year, plus whatever they have in their farm store.  Those cantaloupes I got last year were so yummy-licious!

That's all for now, have a great Saturday!  Sew forth and sew on til later