Monday, August 30, 2021

Bats & Boos & Back to Blogging

 


Hello, My Quilty Friends!

All is well here in my scrapatch.

Life just resulted in my taking a short break from blogging. 

I have been doing some sewing but I have fallen behind in a few projects.


This center block for my  


Bats & Boos Mystery QAL quilt.

This block was not hard but it was very time consuming for me.

There are 81 pieces in this 12.5" unfinished block.

 I am very happy with the result.

The finishing step is up and calls for a plain border 



 Step 4 ~ Finishing ~ Free PDF Here.

The finished quilt size is 40.5" square.

As I am making a throw size quilt I am working on a wider custom border 

with cornerstone blocks.

I hope to have more photos soon of my finishing steps. 

I hope you are having a safe and happy quilty week.


Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 33


 Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 33


I have not been sewing much the last few days.

There have been other happenings that have kept me away from my sewing machine and my computer.

Hope to be back here more regularly again and to have something to show you soon.

Thanks for all who visit and comment and share.


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Scrappy Saturday Sewing & Battening Down the Hatches

 


This has been Week 3 Triangles for 30 Days of Improv


After I cut my free form triangles ...


... and sewed my five blocks ... 


... I sewed together the triangle scraps in my basket in random order.
If the scrap fits, I sews it. 


As I was trimming and squaring my block, 


... the idea popped into my head to sew a triangle shaped block.


As I did not have enough scraps left in my basket to sew the top of the triangle,
I decided to use my equilateral triangle ruler to cut one large triangle from one of my layer cake squares. 


I sewed this to the top of my random scraps block.



I had to add a few more bits to the edges to get a perfect triangle
and the I trimmed.  I will add setting triangles of the blue background fabric when I lay out my quilt. 

The rest of today will be spent taking down outside canopies and swings and lawn furniture and tucking them in the sheds.  Then we will be taking down the hanging baskets and setting them and the window boxes against the house and other sheltered places. 

Time to batten down the hatches as the hurricane churning up the east coast is headed for a direct hit on our quilty corner of the world.  

This morning we filled the feeders so the birds could get a good meal ahead of the storm.  Then we will take these down, too, and put away anything that could become flying debris.

As we are inland, we will most likely just get a lot of rain and some gusty winds.

Hopefully, our power will stay on.
If not, I shall be hand stitching by window and candle light.


May you and yours stay safe and well and free of harm.



Friday, August 20, 2021

30 Days of Improv ~ Week 3 ~ Triangles

Here are my five blocks for 


Week 3 ~ Triangles @ Broadcloth Studio


I started this 30 Days of Improv QAL here. 

This is a fun sew along. 


I started the week by free cutting triangles from my layer cake pieces.
The blue steel grunge in my setting fabric.


One of the daily prompts called for using scalene triangles,
which have three uneven sides and tree different angles. 


I sewed these to make four random quarters and trimmed. 


Then I trimmed the long edge of the halves to have a 1/4" seam allowance.


This is the result.


Then I trimmed to form a small block. 


I am really enjoying the randomness of these blocks.
The improv sewing is a nice break from the precise sewing of my other block projects. 

Looking forward to Week 4.

Have a happy quilty weekend! 


Thursday, August 19, 2021

I Like Thursday #107 ~ Rainy Day Smiles


 Welcome to I Like Thursday.

It is a rainy day today in the scrapatch 

which always makes this song play in my head ... 

"It's a Rainy Day Song @ Sesame Street, 1980

My oldest son loved Sesame Street and the kiddos sang this all the time. 

I really do not mind the rain as it has been hot and dry the last few days

and the gardens and trees need it. 


My roses are thriving this year and I am enjoying late blooms popping up in the green foliage. 

As it is Thursday, I am sharing the small joys in life with my friends,

I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color


The kitties know how to spend a rainy day.

Sew do I ... 

It is triangles week @   30 Days of Improv  

Sew I shall spend the day inside in my happy place.


When I take and tea and biscuit break, I will enjoy perusing this magazine that Mr Scrapatch brought home from the store.


The cover quilt is nice, but this one is my favorite. 

This is APQ ~ October 2021

For my tea break I like herbal and plain wholegrain biscuits,

like these Oatcakes from Stockans in Orkney

I like tins to store them and I buy refills in a shop in the USA. 


I shall also be enjoying my new prescription bluelight progressive lens.

These are very helpful with my vision issues.

May you have a Happy Thursday!


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 32

 


Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 32


I have been working on my 

Bats & Boos Mystery QAL

This is the first on the four pumpkin blocks.

I have played with the fabrics and made a few personal design changes.


The biggest change was the stems

These are the pieces I cut to make a more traditional stem instead of the hour glass units in the original cutting instructions.


Free Pumpkin Block Instructions ~ Click Here


I am happy with the result. 

I think the fabric choices work well with the purple 

Bat Blocks ~ Step 1

I hope to have Step 3 done by the end of the day. 


What are you working on this week?

Please share ... :) 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

To-Do Tuesday Time ~ Slowly Sewing and Stitching

I have been playing with my fabrics for the 

Bats & Boos Mystery QAL

trying to decide on which of my pretty fabrics to place where in each block.

Choosing fabrics can be time consuming for me.

I have too many good choices.


I have decided and I am sewing.

There are a lot of pieces in these Week 2 Pumpkin Blocks.

More photos soon. 

~~~ 

Score Time for To-Do Tuesday's Goals for the Week:

1)  Make more Kinship Fusion Sampler Blocks ... no

2) Catch up with the weekly Summer in the Garden quilt block next Monday ... no

3) Make more Cozy & Magical Sampler Spree Blocks ... yes

4) Slow Stitch of my project of choice.  Photo Here ... yes

5) Make the blocks for the weekly prompt for the  30 Days of Improv Blocks ... yes

6)  Complete Step 2 of the Bats & Boos Mystery QAL ... no ... still sewing 

7) Replace spent annuals with seasonal mums in my window boxes ... yes

Score: 4 yes/3 no

~~~

This Week's Goals: 

1)  Make more Kinship Fusion Sampler Blocks

2) Catch up with the weekly Summer in the Garden quilt blocks ... 2 weeks now.

3) Make more Cozy & Magical Sampler Spree Blocks.

4) Add a few more embroidered leaves to my Fall Leaves Quilt

5) Make the blocks for the weekly prompt for the  30 Days of Improv Blocks 

6) Complete Step 3 of the Bats & Boos Mystery QAL


Six goals are enough for this week. 

I have been having some mobility issues again and standing has been difficult.

It does mean that more of my embroidered leaves may be happening. 

Sitting and stitching has been quite nice.


I am Linking Up with 


To-Do Tuesday @ chrisknits

I am enjoying this weekly review of my sewing projects.

I am not feeling bad about "The Score" as my biggest goal is always

 to have fun in my happy quilty place. 


Have a Happy Quilty Week! 

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Slow Stitching Sunday ~ Fall Leaves Time of Year


Every year at this time, we add some fall mums to our garden 

and I pull out this quilt and do some very slow stitching.


Here is this quilt on August 15, 2020

This is the quilt before I started the embroidered leaves:


There are 64 background squares in this Schnibbles quilt top
completed Here in August, 2012. 
I have been slowly embroidering free form leaves since then.
I add a few more embroidered leaves every year.

Linking up again this year with 




One year I will be finished.


Perhaps this will be the year. 

Happy Stitching! 

Friday, August 13, 2021

A Fun Day in the Sewing Scrapatch

 


Improv ~ Stripes  ~ End Of Week

for the

30 Days of Improv Blocks QAL

@ Broadcloth Studio

Day 5 of Stripes Week called for incorporating negative space as a design element.

I pulled this 10" square from a different layer cake by Gingiber.


Then I pulled some cutoff strips from my scrap basket. 


After I cut and sewed my first improv, this little kitty came to supervise and help.
Do you know which little kitty is giving her paw of approval?


Here is another clue.


It is Maestro!

For those of you who read my kitty stories, you will know that Maestro has had few trips to the vets this summer. This is actually the first time she has jumped up on the table to help me  sew in weeks.


I am sew happy she is feeling playful again. 


This is the block that Maestro and I made together.

After that I played some more with my scraps. 


Which resulted in this scrappy improv block.


Then there were 7 blocks.


Then I went back to my machine to use up as many of the scrap strips as I could to make a long strip to add to the strip section of my quilt.


I am happy with this week of improv sewing and am looking to the new prompt for the week in my Sunday emails.

Time to work on my Bats & Boos Pumpkin blocks.


What are you planning to work on this weekend?

Have a happy quilty time!