Happy Accidents

I mentioned I had bought a pound of fabric strips. They are the ends of bolts, so they may be a bit uneven and can be anywhere from 3-5 inches wide. I knew I’d be using small pieces for patchwork so it worked for me. I could not picture how much fabric a pound would be. The internet was mostly not helpful, but being stuck far from home and not allowed to shop in person, I took the chance. I was thrilled with the variety and the amount of fabric I got for that bargain price.

There were blenders, wild prints, and some that were novelty prints including medical themed for nurses’ scrubs. I’ve had a lot of fun challenging myself to put fabrics together that will look better than each alone. Like happy accidents.

I’m making two basic shapes of zip pouches, coin size and makeup size. I will sell them at a flea market booth starting this summer at $15 and $20 each. Come look at some of the fabric combos I’ve made.

The fabrics are for scrubs, one with lungs and bones, the other has medication names.

The pink and green fabric has giraffes on it. I thought to disguise that with the pink stripe alternating.

More scrubs fabrics that really coordinate well. The skeletons on the darker blue are in yoga poses, that made me laugh.

I wanted to use the dark fabric and had to find something else with a similar color to the orange swirls.

I have plenty of fabric to keep going with all my zip pouches, hotpads, drink coasters, and anything else I can think of to quilt for my flea market booth. Wish me luck!

Coping and compensating

Early in December I got another devastating diagnosis – this time it’s an aggressive Leukemia. I’ve been away from home since Dec. 9, with the exception of 2 days in January. I must stay within 30 minutes of the cancer treatment center and my home is much farther away than that.

I’ll be here until the end of May/early June. Since I have my sewing machine, and I didn’t want to waste opportunity, I bought fabric, needles, thread, notions, zippers, and more. I even found someone selling a pound of fabric strips from bolt ends, great variety and well worth the price. I’ll have the flea market booth again this summer and it’s a great time to create homemade quilted goods to sell. That’s the coping – with boredom.

Compensating – I have peripheral neuropathy which has only become worse with the new chemo I’ve been given. My fingers are tingly and going numb, to match my feet and lower legs. I compensate visually – I have to look at everything I do and touch. The sensation in my fingers is like I’ve stuck my wet hands in sand and can’t get any of it off. I found out with iron-on stabilizer that I have to rub it against my cheek to find the rough side. There are a lot of ways to compensate, I just have to find them. Doing without quilting is NOT an option!

I had a stem cell transplant and I’m on an anti-rejection medication that gives me tremors. Have you tried to cut a straight line while your hand jiggles uncontrollably? The good news is that I’m almost at the point they will discontinue that medication and I’ll really be able to speed up.

Enjoy this little photo gallery of items I have sewn to sell. Some look unfinished, I’ll add details after I finally get home. If you have more suggestions, I’d love to hear about them! These are mostly zipper pouches, but I’ll also make hotpads, drink coasters, and anything else that catches my eye, from photos on the internet.

The eyeball version of quick and simple

I’ve had an unexpected health change. I’m well enough to sew a bit but not at home. My elves brought me the project and a portable machine and all the notions I need. This was actually to be part of a toddler’s Christmas which has been delayed, so it’s right on time.

I squared up the flannel first. I did a combination of smoothing it out, folding this way and that, and I’m satisfied it’s as square as if I used my whole work table. I knew the fleece was cut squarely at the store.

To find the width was no issue with the flannel, that’s obvious. With the fleece I used a corner and brought the two sides together until I could tell which was shorter. I folded the flannel in half-width and the fleece the same, and pinned them together temporarily. I cut the edges of the fleece as straight as I could, actually following the poke holes of the selvage. That will be the edge of the self binding so it won’t need to be folded under again.

I decided on a 2-inch border. I stitched it down with a wobble stitch all around, mitering the corners. My plan was to stitch the field of the quilt with a right-angle spiral, just to tack the layers together. It should have been an easy finish at that point but I managed to break a needle without having a backup. I sent it along and the boy’s mom will finish for him what I could not.

This quilt, having no piecing and small blocks and seams, worked out very well for eyeballing measurements and getting things close without having to be precise.

Must pre-shrink flannel

I finally got around to pre-shrinking the flannel for the easy quilt, so while I couldn’t work on that, I tried my hand at making a gnome.

My first few attempts were all wrong – using crochet cotton didn’t work out, it took several patterns before I got the hat the way I liked it. Here is a tutorial of how I did it, which may or may not help you make one of your own.

One thing I have a lot of is leftovers from many projects. As my sister said, she wasn’t the one with 50 years of fabric hoarding. Everything I used, I had already. The bead was a recent purchase for a wind chime repair.

I found a base I could wind the yarn around. I counted 100 rounds. I wanted to know in case I wanted to increase or decrease, but I like it so I’ll keep it at 100. The lid is 3 1/2 inches on each side.

I cut the yarn along the bottom of the tin lid and laid the yarn out straight. I used a crochet hook to feed a length of yarn through the 1 inch wooden bead. I placed it on top of the yarn at the center, then flipped it over, and tied a knot.

I could adjust the yarn so that it covered the bead completely, and I trimmed the ends.

I used a round lid to start the pattern for the hat. I drew about 1/3 of the lid but I made the peak to be quite a bit longer. I used scraps, tried it out, tried again, and tried again. You can make it the way you want it to look. I wonder if you can find Santa hats this size, wouldn’t that be fun? Use felt or fleece if you don’t want to sew. I used my serger to sew the seam up the back and hid the blue ribbon near the top so I had the hanger for the ornament already installed. Of course, turn it right side out. I trimmed the bottom edge so it wasn’t as low as it came out to be.

I glued the hat all around.

I had leftover (surprise!) sweatshirt pieces from this pumpkin project a year ago. It’s fuzzy on the wrong side, so I used that for the cuff of the hat. I cut a length of it but twice as wide as I wanted. I glued it together with the fuzzy side out, then glued it to the gnome hat.

I was looking through my buttons for a black nose, and just for a hoot I put the green one there that I found. I had to have it! I think this is the cutest thing I’ve done!

The glue I use is Aleene’s Tacky Glue. I keep it upside down in a small pickle jar so the glue is always at the tip. That alone saves me a lot of time. Of course, you can use E6000 or hot glue, or whatever you use in your crafting.

I happened to have some KC Chiefs fabric so I fussy-cut to have the arrowhead in the front of the hat. I’m sure someone needs to have these.

Merry Christmas!

Sewing again

I haven’t sewn or quilted for a while, once I got the last baby quilt finished. My husband advanced progression in the Alzheimer’s disease. He was placed in a nursing home where he died peacefully. It has been a rough several months for me, but I’m learning again all that makes me happy.

First, I wanted something to fill my time like a part-time job, but without the exposure to public. I will have to live as if my immunity is very low, just to protect my health. I found a flea market in a place I hadn’t seen one before, with very good traffic. The store is neat, bright, and inviting. After the tour, I paid money down on a booth. I went through all the leftovers of previous flea market booths and priced them. I started attending auctions again (which I love!) to keep a supply coming in. The first two items that sold were homemade hot pads made from leftover quilt squares. I wrote about it seven years ago (!) in this post. I had made more than the two hotpads I first put in the booth, so the next time I brought in inventory I added more. I wonder if they were stocking stuffers, or if they just appealed to the purchaser.

So, I do have plenty to do without the booth, but it gives me a daily purpose. I have a grandson who is 2 years old and doesn’t yet have the quick and simple quilt . I found the perfect fabrics for him, and I’ll whip that up before he comes with his family to visit at Christmas. (I get to meet the baby!)

And lastly, my husband had his preferences for clothing. He had about 4 feet of closet rod with nice dressy shirts, and another section of thermals and flannels. His shelves are loaded with t-shirts, even though I’d already weeded out quite a few to make this lap quilt. I checked with his kids and mine, and I have some projects to do. One more t-shirt quilt and 2 flannel/thermal quilts, all in lap size. That will be a long-term project and I may start designing, then cutting after the new year.

Another quilt ready to ship

I love this one, and I think I say that each time I finish another quilt for another grandchild.

What a bonus it was, when I used some print fabrics as backing squares! My scrap baskets overflow and being able to use larger squares of some of the prints made me feel as though I was making progress in using up the scraps. Well, as any quilter can tell you, it hardly made a dent. It feels as though some of the fabrics will live forever and probably reproduce. I see fabric from dresses made in the 90s, novelty fabrics from the lap quilts I made for my parents, and many others. Logically, I know I used the equivalent of 2 yards of 45″ width quilting fabric. I just don’t see baskets of scraps having any extra space after all this.

Next quilt will use some fat quarters I bought that coordinate. I haven’t settled on the design yet.

Getting rows together

This is more exciting than just sewing 80 blocks and trimming them to size. I had 3 rows sewn together and couldn’t wait to start connecting the rows.

I’ll try to explain the process. I didn’t make this up; I found instructions on several blogs. This is not the only way to connect the QAYG blocks, but it’s the way I chose.

First, I sewed the binding strip to the one side of one block, right sides together.

I stitched along the fold line. Next, I flipped the next block so it was right sides together with the first block. I flipped the stack together and slid the block and the binding so that I could stitch along the fold line.

In the photo above, you can see that I folded the binding along the line of stitching just completed, and unfolded the second part to pin it to the block. At this point, make sure that the blocks are flush at the top and bottom, or your row may be wobbly.

The result is a flat binding strip on the top, and raw edges on the back that should be butted against each other.

The binding on the top, and the raw edges on the back.

The next part is the simplest. Lay the binding to cover the raw edges of the back. You will find that the binding goes from the stitching line on the left block, to the stitching line on the right. Pin, topstitch on each side of the binding. From both front and back you will see a couple of clean rows of topstitching.

At left, two connected rows and two rows ready to stitch, viewing the back of the quilt. At right, same, but the view is of the front.

I am loving how it is coming together. The added feature of the colored block backs alternating with the white backs adds interest, and makes a calmer design. I’ve been informed there are only 2 1/2 weeks until the baby’s due date. I replied that I think the quilt will come a little late.

Portable project

I said this was a great method for putting in just a few minutes here and there. It is also fantastic for being portable.

I live in Missouri but I’m originally from Michigan. I needed to go back for a visit and didn’t want to lose 7 or 8 sewing days, so I brought it along. I managed to fit everything into two smallish boxes, plus the small portable sewing machine.

I could have brought it into the motel room where I stayed overnight on the way there and on the way back. I decided I was too fatigued from the drive to do anything but read and relax.

With rows of 8 blocks and making 10 rows, I will need 80 blocks. Today I counted what I had sewn and trimmed, and it came to 55. I swear, the scraps keep multiplying when my back is turned. There seems to be just as many scraps now as there were before I sewed 55 blocks.

These are some of the favorite blocks I’ve sewn so far. I played with putting the white block in the corner or on point. I used narrow strips on some, wider strips on others.

I’m anxious to put this one all together. I think it will be a colorful feast for the eyes, and I’ll love to welcome the newest grandchild home with this quilt.

First row and then some

On the quilt-as-you-go baby quilt I have completed the first row. Actually, it was completed more than a month ago, I just have found no time to write for the blog. I was trying to take a trip to Michigan to visit family in early June, but life happens and the trip had to be put off. One great thing about preparing for the trip is that I could use my mother’s sewing machine for this project. It is just about the most portable baby quilt project I have done. I started cutting the pieces I would need for it.

The dimensions would be 8 blocks wide by 10 blocks long. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but then I started cutting. I would need 80 back pieces, 5×5 inches. Forty in color, and forty in white. Then I cut 80 pieces of white for the center of each block. Now I would need 80 blocks of batting cut from the pieces in my stash. I’m still not even halfway done with cutting the batting pieces. I also need to cut binding tape in white for connecting the blocks and rows, unless I only plan to make more blocks while away from home.

I gathered many scraps to use for the blocks into a tub. I love tubs with lids, where I can accumulate pieces for a project, or scraps for future projects. I don’t need a mat and rotary cutter for piecing this one, just sew on scraps and trim with scissors. I can square up the blocks when I’m back home.

I had a tentative week that I would be gone for the visit. My animals would be taken care of, gardens doing well, lawn was mowed. Then I had to put off the visit due to family stuff happening here in Missouri. Then another tentative week was planned for later in June, but had to be put off again. I think I will be able to visit for a week later this month.

So, the first row looks like this. Not much, so far. The curve isn’t permanent, it will be straight once I sew rows together.

These pictures show the joining of the blocks, both front and back. In a future post I will show pictures along the way as I join more blocks together. The steps will be the same for joining one row to the next.

Now the surprise – it’s no longer for a potential grandchild, but a real one. There is a bundle of joy coming in October. I’ve known this for a while, but not until after I had started this quilt. I’ll need to get busy on this to allow plenty of time for shipping. My unwritten goal is by the end of September, but the earlier the better. I’m glad this is a quick quilt to make. Once it is shipped off, I’ll start the next.

Quilting in small bits

I am loving one aspect of this project – that I can make a little progress in short bursts of time.

Earlier this month I worked a bit on the quilt blocks. I cut blocks for backing, and also the white centers of the blocks. I’ve decided to lay out the backings alternating a color print with the white backed blocks, in a sort of checkerboard design.

I put a few of the completed blocks together using the binding. Single fold binding gives finished edges where I sew it down. Here are some progress photos.