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.

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! 

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! 

Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 31

 

Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show  ~ Week 31

I am working on my 30 Days of Improv Blocks QAL .

Here is my Block 2 for Stripes Week.

The prompt suggested working with skinny and wider strips as a design element.

I am happy with this block and think it will work well with my last week blocks.

I was thinking "filmstrip" when I was playing with the narrow black and white print strips.  Adding the strip border made with my shorter strip pieces adds a nice improv touch, I think.

Playing with these strips has been a fun diversion from all of the precise piecing needed for all of the block-alongs and sampler quilts that I have in process.

What are you working on this week?

Please share ... :-) 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tuesday's To-Do ~ 30 Days of Improv Week 2

 Week 2 ~ #30daysofimprovqal ~ Stripes

This week we are playing with our strips for the improv challenge.

I gathered what was left of my scraps from last week ... 

and there really were not many.

So I cut a nice pile of colorful strips of varying widths and wonkyness. 

Day 1 called for sewing strip sets by alternating directions of or stitching.

I have been doing this for strip sets for many years.

I sewed in pairs. 

Then I paired them up and sewed in the opposite direction. 

Then I pressed and sewed some more.

At the end of my sewing time, I had these strip sets 

Foe my Day 1 Block I just trimmed one down the size of my Week 1 Blocks.

I trimmed the cut-off ends, too, for another block.

I am really enjoying this improv challenge.

The free form sewing is a nice break from making the fussy sampler blocks.

~~~

Time to review my weekly goals list:

~~~

Last Week's Goals:

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

2) Make the Weekly Summer in the Garden quilt block next Monday ... no

3) Continue my Sew Sampler Sell Off and de-stash efforts ... yes

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

5) Slow Stitch of my project of choice.  Photo coming soon ... no 

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

7)  Have fun in my happy sewing place ... yes ... I started a new project ... Bats & Boos QAL ~ Started Here

Score: 4 yes/3 no

Calling this a win because I really had fun sewing. 

~~~

New Goals for the Week:

1)  Make more Kinship Fusion Sampler Blocks. 

2) Catch up with the weekly Summer in the Garden quilt block next Monday.

3) Make more Cozy & Magical Sampler Spree Blocks.

4) Slow Stitch of my project of choice.  Photo coming soon.

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

6)  Complete Step 2 of the Bats & Boos Mystery QAL

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

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! 

Scrappy Happy Improv Sewing

 

Week 1 of my 30 Days of Improv QAL blocks are done!

I will probably use more of the Blue Steel Grunge

 to make these blocks fit together in perfect harmony. 

After I sewed Day 5 Block Posted Here, 

I realized that I almost had enough blocks to make a 

large square block for Improv Squares week. 

So I gathered my scraps and cut-offs from my previous blocks

 and sewed one more 5.5" scrappy square block.

This is one of my favorite improv blocks of the week.

It was fun playing with the small scraps.

I am ready for tomorrow's email giving me the improv challenge of the week.

and looking forward to sewing.

In the meantime, I will be catching up on some blocks for other projects

and enjoying the warm weather and great outdoors and my family.

What are you sewing this weekend? 

May you and yours be safe and well.