KatyQuilts

I seem to have lost part of my week! I still haven’t completely unpacked from last weekend and it is almost time to pack for my next trip to see Baby L. But I have gotten a wee bit of sewing in. A while back, I bought a Moda Scrap pack. I always wanted to see what they were like. I wish I had taken some pictures before I started working with it but you can Google it to see for yourself.

Basically, they are scrap strips left over from their cutting of precuts. You get strips with a pinked edge and a selvedge edge. They are not uniform in width. I think I had about 30 strips in my pack ranging from 2-4″ in width and about 30″ long. I wanted to use it all up in one project with as little waste as possible. So I sewed strips together in sets of three and then cut 6″ squares from the strip sets with my die cutter. I ended up with a rather wonky sort of a rail fence design.

I used the scraps from my scraps to piece a few blocks and ended up with a 36″ x 42″ top. I love the colors and fabrics but can’t say I am in love with the top. Perhaps I will like it better when I am done quilting it.

This is the pantograph I am using:

This was a quick project and will make a great donation quilt. It is a bit funky, which I like. Would I buy another scrap pack? Probably not. But it was a fun little experiment.

Linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday and Gemma for IQuilt.

Daughter #1, Baby E, and I got home late yesterday afternoon. It was an exhausting, emotional trip but I am so glad we went. My mom is doing much better and they sent her home last night. While I was gone, hubby and Daughter #3 went to a garage sale and picked this up for me:

It looks like this top may have been part of a tied quilt at one time. It is dirty and has some holes that need fixing. But it is all made from feed sacks. I am thinking I will repair this and quilt it. I won’t wash it until after that.

Would you wash first?

Not a single stitch of sewing happened while I was away. This morning, I hemmed a pair of pants. Somehow, that doesn’t feel like it counts! Off to work soon.

I am linking up with Connie at Free Motion By the River for Linky Tuesday.

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers for my mom. She is still in the hospital and we are waiting to hear what they will do today. It was hard to leave last night but Daughter #1 and Baby E needed to get back. Before I left, I snapped a few shots of a quilt my sister and I made more than 20 years ago for our parents 30th anniversary.

My sister did all the embroidery. The dates show when that person entered the family. It had empty squares when we made it. It turned out to have just enough for each child, spouse and grandchild.

Have a great Monday!

As I mentioned last week, Daughter #1, Baby E, and I are visiting my parents in Wisconsin. Here are a couple quilts I made long ago for my parents. This one I made for my dad in 1996.

I believe I made it from a Karen Stone paper piecing pattern. I quilted it on my 1955 Singer 201.

The next year, I made a lap quilt for my mom.

Last night, we took my mom to the hospital as she is having more heart issues. We shall see what today brings.

I appreciate all of the comments and visits to my blog but I am not going to be able to respond to all of your lovely comments from the last few days like I normally do.

But the LORD continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, and is faithful to their descendants, to those who keep his covenant, who are careful to obey his commands. (‭Psalms‬ ‭103‬:‭17-18‬ NET)

I started a new project yesterday. A while back I found this pin on Pinterest and found the idea very clever. I understand this idea originated with Sharon Craig. Yesterday, I decided to try it out with a stack of 10″ squares I bought a few years ago from Connecting Threads. Here is one finished block.

The process is simple. You stack up three squares face up on your mat.

Do a bit of slicing and dicing and you get this.

Rearrange the bits and you are ready to sew.

You do have to trim your blocks down to finish them. I got 12 blocks done in short order.

I like that this is a very efficient use of the squares. Not yet sure what this will become. There are enough squares to make 12 more blocks but that would still be a pretty small quilt.

I have another project I should be working on but the ideas aren’t flowing there yet. I think the biggest boost to creativity is to just keep working on something.

Every morning, I get up, have coffee, read my Bible, and talk to God. But it is in the quiet of the sewing room, that my mind becomes quiet too and I can listen and hear Him talk to me.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Yesterday was spent at church, helping a neighbor, watching a Baby E, and delivering some furniture that was purchased at our sale. I did sneak away for just a bit to play with the vintage scraps I cut last week.

These squares finish at 1 inch. I had enough cut to make a couple more rows but I thought that would throw this all out of proportion. So I made another tiny top.

I have a lot of cleaning and laundry to do today but I hope to add borders and prepare these for quilting.

One thing I find very helpful when working with tiny pieces, is to starch the scraps well before cutting. Some of these vintage bits are loosely woven fabric and the starch really helps it to behave.

Linking up with Judy for DWMonday and Marelize for Anything Goes Monday.

No stitching so far this weekend due to the garage sale yesterday. It was so much work but we cleared out lots of stuff!

Here is another treasure recently found by Daughter #3.

Isn’t it fun? It appears the maker used a very thick cotton batting. The backing and sashing are the same, very thin fabric. You can clearly see the seam allowances shadowing through.

It is worn, too worn to risk washing it. I love the quilting on it.

Sadly, I know nothing of the maker. I wonder what her life was like. Was this one of many utility quilts made to keep her family warm? It isn’t a show quit, it was clearly made to be used, and heavily. If this quilt could talk, the stories it might tell……birth, babies napping in the sun, marriages, tents made by children, the sick and dying……I guess those are the stories my quilts could tell also. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to these old textiles.

Hoping to get some stitching time in later today. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised. (‭Proverbs‬ ‭31‬:‭30‬ NLT)