Sew I See!

I'm back, and it hasn't even been a month since the last entry!  😁 Nothing new is finished, but I have a few photos to share. First up, here are the string blocks waiting to become HSTs.  I've made sure to use a wide strip in the center, since that's where they'll be cut in half.   I'm not sure how many I need, because I'm not sure how big the quilt should be.  I'll probably keep making at least a few more blocks, then sit down and do a little math to decide how many more are needed.   - - - - - - - Speaking of doing a little math, earlier this week I calculated how many more crumb strips I need to make a decent-sized throw quilt.  (This is the project with the 3"x10" strips of crumbs pieced onto phonebook foundation papers.)   At that point, the project still needed nineteen strips, but I've been making more since then and probably need only about a dozen more.  However, I'm very low on crumbs now, so that's temporarily on hold....

Still in the "catching up" phase of blogging!  At this point, I'm down to the "odds and ends" section.  The bottom of the barrel, if you will.  😁 First up, the last quilty-ish "finish" since I went AWOL.  It's not a full quilt or even a wall quilt, which is why it didn't deserve a blog entry of its own.  Instead, it's a quilted pillow sham I made for Kimberly's birthday.  (That's my youngest sister, if there's anyone out there reading who doesn't already know. 😅)  One of the things Kimberly likes/collects is raccoons, so I thought I'd try my hand at a paper-pieced raccoon quilt block.  The pattern that ended up catching my eye, however, was not foundation paper pieced, but traditionally pieced.  The pattern is from Sew Fresh Quilts, if anyone is interested.   My version doesn't really do it justice.  It's not bad, but it's not perfect, either!  I did slightly alter the eyes from the original pattern.  I wan...

Did I write about this one already?  I probably mentioned that I had finally bound this quilt, but I don't know if I posted photos or not.   To be honest, photos are almost pointless, because this quilt is so similar to the other version as to be nearly interchangeable.  Some of the "book covers" are different, and they're arranged differently, but to the casual observer, they look the same.   To briefly recap this quilt, it started when I began making a "Tall Tales" foundation paper pieced quilt for my niece.  I enjoyed making the sample "book" block so much that I thought I'd make a second quilt for myself.  All the books were pieced at the same time, but while I finished Clarabel's in time to give it for Christmas 2020 (it's been a while!), mine took longer to complete.  ...Because I stopped wanting to work on it. 😆 Anyway, this quilt is very similar to the first one in just about every way.  Many of the book covers are the same....

I crocheted another doily earlier in the year-- probably in the month or so before Mother's Day in May.  (I remember giving it to Mom, but without looking it up, I'm not positive if it was for her birthday or Mother's Day.) The pattern is "Amelia", a design by Grace Fearon.  The thread is Alize Miss Batik (not sure of the color number).   I don't think I have much more to say about this project.  (Just a ton of photos to share in a moment...)  I still have that other doily-- the huge one-- to block, but I just can't make myself want to deal with it, yet!  Eventually I'll work up the enthusiasm.   In the meantime, I've taken a break from thread crochet.  Instead, I dug out a bag of scrap yarn and made some granny squares, then joined them into 9-patch blocks.  (I need to get a photo of that stack, some time!) When I ran out of sufficient scrap yarn, I stopped.  Now it's gone back into hibernation, but it's one giant step closer ...

  This "ta-da" has been a long time coming, so I don't really have much to say about it...   I started by making string blocks on the treadle.  (Wanting to sew strings on the Minnesota treadle was the whole reason for starting this project.)  I then transformed these string blocks into HSTs (two HST blocks per original string block) with a plain white background.  A stitch-and-flip HST to the other corner of sixteen of these blocks is what makes the scrappy on-point squares in the center of each star.  The layout is easy enough to see.  I added some sashing and borders of background fabric, then topped it off with a simple string-pieced border on just the top and bottom of the quilt.   I pieced a backing from a couple of flannel prints, then free-motion quilted the whole thing with easy swirls.  The final touch was a scrappy binding.   That about covers it.  It's just an easy string-star quilt.  The "exploded" el...

Well, clearly I haven't done a good job of keeping up with craft blogging!  I'm busier these days, but the problem really isn't that I don't have the time.  I waste time online each and every day, reading things that at best bore me and at worst leave me in a worse mood.   I have other things I "should" be doing, yet I still end up drawn into the black hole of time-wasting on the Internet.  I'd feel guilty just saying, "You know what?  I'm really just not going to organize my closet or scrub the shower today.  Yes, there are weeds, but I'm not going to do any weeding right now, either.  I'm going to sew/quilt/doodle/blog!"  It's easier to just sit at the laptop and allow myself to pour minute after minute into time-wasting online, rather than committing to shirking duty 😁 by investing my "wasted" time in something I'd actually enjoy.   Some pointless Internet scrolling is okay, but after a certain point, I'm ju...

I applied the binding to the latest quilt ("Retro-Cali Ribbon Stars").  Then it spent a week waiting for me to stitch down the last side of the label.  I tend to put off hand-stitching, because I don't love it.  When I finally did it, though, it really wasn't that bad, so I went ahead and stitched down the label for the long-languishing second "Tall Tales" quilt that has been nearly-done for such a long time.  I labeled both quilts, let the ink set (at least 24 hours recommended), and gave them their first washes.  Photos and "ta-da" posts to follow soon, I hope.   In the meantime, there are a couple of other projects I can share progress reports on.   First, I completed the fox diamond painting Kimberly gave me for Christmas.  I'm happy with how it turned out!  (They always look better from a distance, but here's a photo, anyway...) I'm already zooming through the next diamond painting-- a picture of flowers in glass jars.  Th...