Rectangles are not squares

 The title of this post might seem like stating the obvious, but it came as a surprise to me!  I saw this string quilt somewhere on the web, and thought it would be an interesting one to do. 

It has rectangles instead of squares, which gives the quilt more of a calming waves feeling, as opposed to the zig zag feeling of squares.  So, I made a few rectangles, and started to lay them out. 

But no matter how I turned them, they all sloped the same way!  Squares can be alternated, but it seems that rectangles, though still four sided, can’t.  What a surprise! So I had to make some blocks sloping in the opposite direction, and it’s beginning to take shape. 

I’m doing it over papers, which is quick and easy, until I have to remove the papers.  I used to have a foundation paper remover on tap, but she rudely moved away when she got married.  I’ll just have to get on with the job myself!  Tough times! 

Scraps tamed!

 I have really enjoyed working with my scraps drawer(s) and I think I’ve made a good dent in them!  

This is all I have left!  Well, not strictly.  Jackie contacted me to express shock that I had confessed to throwing small scraps away, and volunteered to adopt some, so I took her a small (ish) bag round.  I also reassured her that it was only the very, very small bits I was abandoning, not anything significant.  

I also sorted some of the scraps into roughly long, medium and small.  I found that helpful when I was making this quilt. 

It’s just a stitch and flip on foundations, but with the addition of a white 1” strip placed diagonally on each square.  I think it makes it really look good, and since the individual squares finish at 7” the whole thing will finish at 42”, a great Linus size.  

I also made the last few blocks for the scrappy pineapple.  That’s a good scrap quilt, and it goes together really easily, with very little matching points.  This will need a small border to finish it. 

And last but not least, scrappy courthouse steps, a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  No wonder the scraps have gone down!  I’d like to make another stitch and flip, in a wave pattern.  We’ll see when I’ve layered and quilted these! 

More scraps

 I’m determined to keep using up these crumbs and strings, however, most scrap quilts assume you have more than just on strip or square of each fabric, and that’s not usually true of my scrap bin!  I remembered a while ago about a scrappy pineapple quilt I made.  That should be fun, I thought, so looked out the pattern.  It’s a crazymomquilts pattern, and her tutorial is fabulously clear.  She uses pairs of fabrics sewn opposite each other, but I couldn’t always find pieces which were long enough or duplicated, so I chose some pairs which were similar.  It works for me! But scrap quilts can sometimes look a bit, well, scrappy, so I decided to add a bit of order by using red centres for each pineapple. 

On second thoughts, the centres look a bit dominant, so I think I’ll mix it up a bit. 

That’s better.  Since they are all 9” finished, I’ll only need another five blocks to make enough for a Linus quilt, so I’m nearly done! 

Whoops!  I got distracted!  I found this scrappy design on filminthefridge and just had to try it out!  The strips are just stitched and flipped on a foundation, but have a 1” white strip on the diagonal.  How clever is that!  And, bonus, they only use one strip of any particular fabric.  Result! 

Taming the scraps

 I love making scrap quilts.  I love using up fabrics that people have thrown away, and I love meeting old friends (fabric friends) along the way.  I always marvel at how fabric scraps can bring back memories of where it was bought, who you were with, when and what it was for. 

From the top there is shoe fabric bought in New York, remnant of a madras skirt, brushed cotton pyjama fabric bought for son about 20 years ago, batik strip from quilt made for said son 2 years ago, leaf fabric from Rocheberie challenge, horses from great nephew’s baby quilt (he’s now nearly 6), yellow batik Christmas present, Michael Miller fabric bought in Monmouth and blue fabric rescued from husband’s old shirt. 

And here is my crumb and string drawer.  All sorts of goodies in here (plus some baddies!). Bonnie Hunter says, If it’s still ugly, you haven’t cut it small enough!  So, with that in mind, here are some of her scrappy courtyard steps. 

That will surely make in dint in the scraps! 

Not a promotion

 I’m not really a fan of gadgets.  While the early adopters are snapping up the latest fad at quilt shows, I am too mean to pay good money for something which may be useful, or may just end up mouldering in a drawer.  Having said that, there are a few things I have found useful, and this diagonal seam tape is one of them. 

It’s available on the internet for about £7-£8, and I am getting no kickbacks for promoting it.  Mind you, if the company would like to show its gratitude to me, I certainly wouldn’t refuse!  It’s a way of making HSTs, flying geese and flip and stitch units without having to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side! 

How great is that!  Think of all the hours you’ll save!  And it works, honestly, it does. 

Here it is, on my machine.  You just cut a piece off, align the red line with your needle position and stick it on your machine.  That’s the tricky bit.  The black lines are exactly a quarter inch away from the red line, ie the sewing line.  

Then you can sew a diagonal line by keeping the point of the shape exactly central even for large squares. For HSTs, you can keep the point on a black line and you will be sewing a quarter inch away from the centre! 

I find it helps with general accuracy, as you can make sure your fabric is straight before it gets to the needle. A real plus for me! 

And this is something I have found it really useful for.  I’m making a temperature quilt, well two quilts, actually.  I have chosen fabrics to represent weather temperatures, dark blues for very cold, through greens and yellows for warmer and oranges and reds for hot weather.  Each different fabric represents a certain range of a few degrees and each flying goose is one day.  The central goose is the highest temperature and the sky is the lowest.  I’m doing two, because I thought it would be interesting to make a record for the year I was born, which was 1950, and one for this year to compare the weather.  January 1950 is on the left and January 2021 on the right.  As you can see, 1950 started off quite mild, then got colder, while 2021 did the opposite.  It keeps me busy. 

And here is a goose being sewn.  No drawing of diagonals necessary! 

Elephants

 I don’t buy many patterns, but when I saw an elephant quilt pattern on Pat Sloan’s blog, I decided to buy it.  You need to concentrate on it (especially if you want to get one facing the other way!) but I managed to get there in the end. 

There are quite a few pieces to cut, but I cut each block out and then laid all the pieces on my cutting mat so I didn’t get too muddled up.  The sewing is straightforward, and I’d definitely recommend it.  It’s a computer download, so you don’t have to wait for shipping etc.  I’ll certainly make it again, but I’ll plan my background from the start, and use it as the background in each block, rather than using a neutral as I have done, then adding sashing.  

If you haven’t looked at Pat Sloan’s blog before you’ve missed a treat.  It’s a bit in your face, but she has some fabulous ideas. 

Back.

 I haven’t blogged on here for a while.  Google decided not to update Blogger to enable new devices to use it.  I kept on my other blogs (Piecemakers and Project Linus) because they were only updated infrequently, but I got fed up with wrestling with Blogger for my own blog.  However, it seems that Google must have had a rethink (hooray) and suddenly things seem to work much like before!  So, for all those who’ve clambered for me to resume posting (well, two people at least) here we are!  

So, what have I been working on?  During lockdown, I have been gifted two stashes from deceased quilters.  This has been very generous of their families, but what a mess!  It seems I’m not the only one with little bags and boxes of collections of blocks, squares, bits and half things! 

Even some weird stuff.  What on earth is this?  Couldn’t decide if it was a sewing implement or part of a piece of furniture!  

So, since I abhor waste, I have been trying to put as much of the stuff as possible to use.

There was a bag full of HSTs of varying colours, so I made up these bears paw blocks.  The turquoise sashing gives them some oomph.  The squares were all 2.5”.  

There was also a large bag of 2” squares.  This is a bit small for me, but we’re all locked down, so what else did I have to do other than sew them into 16-patches and thence into a top.  Anything goes here, and the fabulous batik border is perfect.  

Two bags of c*** down, plenty to go!