Baskets and a box

I found this little decoupaged box at the quilt show last weekend for $1.00.  I figured hey, why not?

It was made in 1971, and it's kinda cute and looks to be handy for lots of things.  Perhaps I'll store small stuff inside, like needle packets or seam rippers or rotary blades. 

Scrappy triangle block 23 - another very easy one with only 4 pieces.

And last but not least ...

I pieced all my baskets - 25!  

After I put in the setting and corner triangles, I'll add another border to bring it up to the 36 x 36" size to meet the challenge.  My friend appliqued flowers in her border, I'll see what the quilt asks for.  Looking good!

That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later...

Triangles, quilt show

Scrappy triangle block 22.  When I saw the pattern for this block I thought of a butterfly flying towards the sky, or an angel with golden wings. 

I found the perfect piece of sky fabric in my scrap bin, it has just the right amount of yellow swirling through it to make it interesting!

Of course I had to redo the bottom piece of block #21!

You know the deer appreciate it by that relieved look on their faces.



I can share a little more quilt show goodness with you; the show was small, yet there was a lot to see.

First, here are the labels from the Political Circus quilt; she chose to make one for each party.  Clever!

Another HST idea, love this heart quilt...

This rail fence is different from all the others I've seen because she pieced most of the strips that make up the rails...

You might not be able to see the detail, but the blue and white quilt on the left caught my attention because each blue 3 (or 4) inch block is made of diagonal strings!

That's it for now, enjoy your Monday.  Sew forth and sew on

I think I can, I think I can...

One day last week I was using my dry iron and it went bzzztt!! and a little spark shot out of the cord.  Ouch!

I bought that iron just two years ago (I posted about it here), I have no idea about the warranty and I didn't want to get into mailing it anywhere,
so I figured I could just get the cord replaced at a small appliance repair shop.

Did you know that's almost impossible?  I sure didn't!

I was looking online for another one, then yesterday (with it being International Women's Day and all) I decided before spending another $30 for a new one, why not try and fix it myself, shoot!  I figured hey -  it's already broken, how much more damage can I do?

Checked YouTube and it didn't look hard at all, so I took the iron to Lowe's to get a replacement cord.

They didn't have what I needed so, long story short, the clerk explained how I could use the same cord if I just cut off the bad part.  He was nice enough cut it off and strip the wires for me.

I think I can, I think I can!

I grabbed my dollar store screwdriver set to remove the little cover plate but I couldn't get a good enough grip to turn the screw ... Took the iron to my neighborhood Ace Hardware, they helped me find a screwdriver that worked.

I was doing okay til I got inside and saw these little mysterious things attached to the ends of the wires.  Went back to Ace (thank goodness it's only 5 blocks away), discovered they're called "terminal rings" and picked up a pack.

By now this was getting old but - I think I can, I think I can!

The inside, before I took anything apart.

New terminals attached and screwed back in place.

Long story kinda short, I was able to repair the cord on my iron for just over $10!  Had fun along the way when one of the small screws fell inside the iron and I couldn't get it out.  One of the terminal rings wouldn't stay crimped on and I had to do it again - twice!  The other one came loose after I had already screwed it onto the terminal thingy.

BUT - I think I can, I think I can!

Hey, I think I DID!!!

My dry iron is revamped and ready to go - I checked and it actually heats up!

Yes!!

On a quilty note, I pieced blocks 20 and 21 from the Year of Scrappy Triangles sew along, two cute ones.

Block 20 reminded me of a bumble bee so I used yellow and black.  Wish the little wing bit on the right side had been turned around though.

In block 21 I was inspired by a piece of deer fabric that I found in my scrap bag.  Don't ask me why I didn't use a piece that actually has their heads attached - oh deer!  I'll replace it.

The dark green and dark blue were picked up from the colors in the deer fabric, but I didn't realize they would mush together so much.  When looking at it in real life the colors stand out better than in the photo.

Well, today I go with my friend Eloise to see Black Panther at the movies, I'm really looking forward to seeing it!  This will be the second time for her, so it must be as good as everybody is saying.

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

A little progress

This weather is so funny lately, I don't know whether to pull out my shorts and sandals or my wooley scarf and mittens!  In either case, we've already gone through two of the six weeks ole Punxatawny Phil predicted.

This week's scrappy triangle block #19 reminded me of a circus tent, with those vertical stripes at the bottom.

It gave me a chance to use more of that cute monkey fabric that I got from JoAnn's bargain table last year.

All stripes, easy peasy!

I've sewn a few more of the flower basket blocks, with three more cut out and ready to trim and sew.

There are a lot of different shades of gold in my stash and they will make the quilt interesting, but I don't want to go too dark -  it's a small quilt after all.

I think I'm going to go ahead and try a diagonal layout for these little beauties.  When I get a few more done - maybe 15 or so - I'll be able to play around with it to make sure.

Since the quilt must measure exactly 36 x 36, it might be kinda tricky to do a diagonal layout.  I want to avoid having a border that's almost as wide as the middle!  But that's why they call it a challenge, right?

Right!

That's it for now, have a great Friday, sew forth and sew on.

The good news is ...

The good news is - I've already filed my 2017 taxes!

And the other good news is I pieced this week's scrappy triangle block, another easy one.

As I mentioned before, the most "difficult" thing about these blocks is choosing the fabric.

This was my first effort, notice how blah it looks with that large triangle?

It looked okay when I laid it out, but when I got it pieced I realized the large triangle completely drowned out that small print fabric that touched it.

I really wanted to use that cute print, so the triangle had to go - it wasn't hard to replace it!

The other good news is I've dashed out more of the little churn dash blocks, I now have over 120 done, yaaay!

I'm going with a 13 x 15 setting, without sashing, with a green 2" inner border.  The outer border will be 4" for sure, but I haven't decided on the color yet.  Alternating black-on-white with white-on-black?  Or should the inner border be black-on-white with a green outer border?? There's plenty time to decide!

That's my good news, now I have to fight with Pepco over the ridiculously large bill they just sent me.  Sew forth and sew on.

Scrappy triangles

I completed four more of the Scrappy Triangle blocks.

I had been looking for a project to use the coffee fabric in where it wouldn't get cut too small, and this scrappy block #12 was perfect!

Not too sure I like how #13 (on the right) turned out, though. A few months from now if I still don't like it to the point where I simply can't live with it, I'll just redo it, right?

I think I I bought this piece of Michael Miller fabric in October, on the Lancaster shopping trip. 

It's a lovely print; I bought it as a neutral but when I got it home, the background actually looked a bit purple.

I used it in block #14 (the large piece next to the aqua), it looks much better in real life than in the photo. 

Block #15 on the right turned out nicely with the gold and green flowered fabric set off by the bold dots. 

Well it's Hump day, make it a great one!  Sew forth and sew on ...

Catching up, a new gift

Every week this month at my casino (notice how I said "my" casino?) they're giving away free handbags to frequent players, to be picked up
on Monday or Tuesday.

I went by yesterday and claimed this nice Bella Russo crossbody bag.  I really need a new bag, so this was right on time!


Meanwhile, I'm falling behind on the weekly scrappy triangle blocks!  Leila releases a new one every Tuesday, and I'm already eight blocks behind, how'd that happen??

Blocks 16 and 17

So ... I started with the latest one and I'm working my way backward to where I stopped.  Some of these are a bit easier to put together than others, but I do like the challenge of placing all those tiny pieces into half of a 6-inch block. 

And I really liked doing that log-cabin type block, the one with the purple top.  This is something I've never ever seen before in a half-square triangle unit!

Blocks 9 thru 11

Because of the holiday busy-ness, Leila designed some blocks that have fewer pieces - sort of like putting us on cruise-control.  I'll be all caught up after I've done blocks 12 thru 15.

I'm rethinking my color combinations a bit more too, I want to stay away from the high-impact combinations and use fabrics that sort of blend more with each other.  I think in the long run the blocks will be easier to set if they're not fighting with each other!

The blocks are so easy to put together, picking the fabrics probably takes longer than actually sewing the blocks! 

That's it for now, have a great Tuesday, sew forth and sew on til later

Churn dashes, scrappy triangle

Three things to be happy about:
(1) bright colored fabrics
(2) fried cabbage
(3) hand made gifts

I spent part of yesterday working on more of those little churn dash blocks.  There was quite a traffic jam behind the presser foot! 

I like to sew the corners and sides on an entire block layout at once, just string em along.  You're looking at something like 13 blocks, ready to be pressed and trimmed.

These little blocks are easy enough to piece, but I was having backache issues bending over my cutting table to trim that many units at one time.

But yesterday a light bulb went off: why not raise the height of the cutting table, from the surface??  (As opposed to placing risers under the table legs, which don't exist.)

A simple project container, with a spare piece of shelving placed on top for stability!  This works perfectly for my 12 x 18" cutting mat.  In the past I had moved all my stuff to the kitchen counter, which is a little higher and it helped a bit - but this is much, much better!

Cootie trimming!

Clipping those little background bits from behind the green bits got done while catching up on the Outlander episodes I recorded.

And last but not least, block 8 of the Year of Scrappy Triangles sew-along.

This is the first one I made with variations of just one color; interesting but the fabrics sort of bleed together.  Oh well...



We've come to the last day of another month, November just flew by!  Have a great Thursday, do something fun, sew forth and sew on...