Seeing Straight

Have you ever heard someone say, “If you can sew a straight seam, you can make a quilt”?  I can make a quilt, but I can’t seem to sew straight lines very well!

I attempted to quilt this with parallel vertical lines.  I followed the edge of my walking foot to try to make all the lines evenly spaced, but they are neither perfectly straight or evenly spaced!

My favorite block is this butter yellow version with the bird in the middle.  Every single piece of every single block was made from scraps only, which I’m kind of proud of.  I almost cracked on the last green block and used some fabric from my stash, but then I pulled myself together and looked through my scraps one more time to find two strips long enough for the last two sides.  Victory!

The binding is this great Loulouthi stripe I had in my stash.  And the backing is a SSI yellow swirly fabric I bought in my early sewing days.  It’s not something I’d probably buy today, but I’m glad to finally have a use for it! 

The finished quilt is made of 42 9 1/2 inch blocks and measures 54” x 63”.  It will be gifted at Christmas to relatives visiting my great aunt.  She asked me to make a quilt for them.  Hope they like it!

Linking up to Ellison Lane Quilt’s Scrappy Stash QAL.  Thanks, Jennifer, for putting together such a fun project!

Donuts and Doorways

First, a little WIP Wednesday.

I have 42 blocks for the Scrappy Stash QAL sewn and squared up to 9 1/2 inches.  I’ll be working on it more tonight and hopefully can get it done within a week for the linky party.

I saw on Debbie’s blog A Quilter’s Table that she would be posting about donuts yesterday, so we made some in the morning since my oldest was off from school and we were just hanging out.  When I went shopping last week, I picked up a tube of biscuits so I could make donuts like my mom did when I was a kid.

This method of donut making is fun for the kids, too.

There’s really nothing too it.  Just heat veggie oil on high.  Divide each biscuit in half so it’s not so thick, pinch out a hole, and brown on both sides (it only takes about 4 minutes).  Then cool on a few paper towels and let the kids cover them in cinnamon-sugar.

A few hours later, after we ran some errands and before going to the polls, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and had donuts a second time and hot chocolate.  So yesterday was definitely a donut day! 

I have one last thing to share.  When I first started the Scrappy Stash QAL, my scraps were a hideous tangle of fabrics smooshed in a basket.  I gave it some thought, and since I don’t have any free shelf space in my sewing room, I decided to go with a hanging shoe holder to organize everything by color.

I would have preferred clear plastic, but Target didn’t have much selection and after sorting everything and hanging it in place, I am really pleased with the organized result.  It was a pretty inexpensive storage solution.  I think I read this idea in Sunday Morning Quilts, which has a pretty comprehensive section on scrap organization. 

Have a happy Wednesday!  We might have snow on the way this afternoon, which we are all really excited about.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Tuesday at the Table.

Advent Quilt Part 1 of 3

A few days ago I finished up the first of three Advent quilts I plan to gift to my daughters on December 1st to make the holiday even more special.  I found the Sheri Berri panel on Ebay and bought three of them because as soon as I saw the fabric, I knew I had to make each girl her own.

The quilt measures 36” x 54” which is a pretty respectable size for girls ages 6, 4, and not quite 2 yet.  I am envisioning us all snuggled up on the couch under our Christmas quilts watching a holiday movie together!

The back is flannel from Joanns.  I am heading there tomorrow to pick up two other prints for the backs of the other quilts so the girls can tell them apart.  Joanns flannel is on sale for $2.99 a yard plus there’s a 25% off coupon out there.  Same with rotary blades—a 5 pack is only $16.99 and you can use the 25% off coupon for those too.  I love these deal days because now I never need an excuse not to change my rotary cutter blade. 

Here’s the progress I’ve made on the Scrappy Stash Along so far.  16 blocks and much much neater scraps.  Joy!

Have a quilty weekend!  Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Charm About You.

WIP Wednesday Scrappy Stash & Bee Blocks

In the nick of time, I got my bee blocks done yesterday.

A wonky star preferably not on a white or gray background.  I just love this block.  It reminds me of Easter.

A bright and colorful wonky log cabin block.

And two raw-edge applique circle blocks. 

When I saw the “Scrappy Stash QAL ” at Ellison Lane Quilts, I knew I had to join. There are lots of great QALs out there that I am trying my best to do (Tula Pink, Bee in my Bonnet’s Row Along, and Tracey Jay’s Treasure Boxes for Charity). Log cabin is my favorite block, and as witnessed here by quilt-cat Oreo, my scraps are out of control.

With school cancelled for two days due to the big storm, I had the kids help me organize my scraps by color so I could get started on the blocks. I have so many scraps it is unbelievable. They were all squished down in the big basket, but once we pulled them out, it was like there was 3x the fabric!

The best part about this project is that I will get my scraps organized by color, and I’m only using scraps for the quilt top so hopefully I will get rid of a lot of those scraps. I was able to come up with enough scraps to make all the colors of the rainbow without having to cut up any other fabric. So far I have 5 blocks done, so I think I need 25 more to be in the running for prizes. Are you doing the Scrappy Stash QAL?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Have a great day!