This morning while I was pretending to sleep in, I started thinking about the words pretty and ugly. In reference to my current quilt top in progress, the Serpentine String. Lately I’ve been de-papering it while watching the quilting happen on the tee shirt quilt. Pulling all the foundation paper off, reveals all the fabrics in their glory. To me, pretty ugly means sort of nice looking, like not THAT ugly, good looking ugly? Or it could be an oxymoron ugly and pretty at the same time. Then there is quantitive pretty, a little less than very, as in that quilt is pretty ugly. I’m going to call it Pretty/Ugly, like those dogs that are not so cute, (bull dogs anyone?) but endearing in their own way. That is what this quilt is to me, all the scraps and strings from so many other projects that were pretty. It’s endearingly pretty ugly.

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It started with the simple task of clearing off the top of a shelving unit. The box had a pile of string blocks from a swap circa 2001-ish. I had cut them into triangles at one point, and then put them in the box “for later”. I started playing with them and Bonnie Hunters Serpentine Quilt popped into my head. The puzzle I had completed just the week before, features this quilt along with six others from the book String Frenzy. I found a few yards of yellow and a pile of newsprint papers and was on my way to making blocks. The string pile I ironed last year was ready for use too. I started with the intent of making a lap quilt, but as I was making the blocks I found that I liked making them and they used a lot of strings. I ended up making 41, one too many, and used up most of the yellow solid. Once I had them all together though, I thought the top looked unfinished. Needed borders, yep, and there were plenty of strings left. I cut the newsprint sheets in half and make a bunch more string blocks of parallel strings. I briefly thought about extending the serpentine into the border to loop back into the next row, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the angles involved. When I put the string border next to the center, it looked too busy and “mushy”. I needed a spacer in between, the yellow would have worked, but I didn’t have enough left over, and not enough of any other yellow in my stash. Blue, when all else fails, add blue, I have lots of blue too. The blue strip was a backing scrap, and there is even enough to make a binding with.

I finished removing all the paper today, what a mess. I’m thinking I’ll bring the shop vac in and vacuum up all the scraps of paper in one go. I have a feeling though, that the little scraps are going to be around for the next week. I need to iron the top flat again too. All those seams are sticking up and not going to play nice with quilting. I have not picked out a quilting design yet, it should be something fairly open, but I want it to add a little texture. I just did a baby quilt with a plain Baptist fan design, I have a few others with different options. I am also thinking stars for some reason. Maybe tomorrow morning’s musings will arrive at something, hopefully better than the name Pretty/Ugly.

Be Kind

I got some things finished yesterday, including bindings on two quilts. My morning goal was to get the blocks for the serpentine string quilt put together. I got the columns done, four more seams to do today, I’m contemplating a stirring border for it, which would really finish up my pile of strings. I feel like the top is just floating, but I’m getting a little tired of string piecing. I did get to do another three rows of fan quilting on the second farm charm quilt, and ended my day with a little roofing of the house from “Pet All the Dogs”. The roof stitching feels like it is taking a bit longer, I’m using variegated thread and one is “supposed to” stitch each cross singly to get a more visible variation of the thread color. I am slow to get the rhythm of it though. I’m looking forward to doing one of the smaller motifs on this sampler, this house is 95 stitches across and about 70 tall, lovin’ the 32 count linen, lol.

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Yesterday I got the backing for the tee shirt quilt cut and re-pieced, now it is wide enough. There are lots of little minky fluffs floating around the sewing room today. I pieced the backing with three center stripes of burgundy and blue, I must remind myself to load it sideways. Sideways loading prevents the humps of seams that develop when rolling the backing onto the frame. The humps can mess with the tension of the backing (especially stretchy minky) and in turn make a mess of it. I have three more rows of baptist fan quilting on the Farm Charm 2 quilt, then I can get to the tee shirt. I’d really like to have this off my to-do list.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict today for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? today. Then I am off to sew on this rainy morning.

Be Kind

Lately it seems like I have been doing all three math related activities. The past three quilt backings I have made were too small. Only one was discovered to be short while quilting though. Two were added to, and the third is still waiting for the fabric to get here. Two of the battings used were franken-battings, I really need to do something with all the cut off batting pieces I have accumulated. I buy most of my batting by the roll, either 90 inches wide or 45 inches wide. King size batts I like to buy already cut to size, as I usually use poly-batts due to the weight of cotton batting. I have gotten better about saving cut off pieces too. I no longer save anything less than 12 inches wide.

The Unity quilting was going along smoothly, or so I thought, until I took it off the frame. There were two whole rows that had rail-roaded bobbin thread on the back. There was a lot of stitch subtracting going on yesterday. The stitching came out fairly easy, partly because of the loose tension of the top thread and partly because of the panto, it was pretty simple. Once I had the rows 2 and 6, unpicked, re-quilting it was pretty simple.

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The multiplying fabric strings is a bit of a mystery. Where did they all come from? I recognize most of them from past quilts and projects, but why did I save them? I don’t make strings specifically while I am cutting fabric for a quilt. Maybe I did at one time? I don’t remember. Usually I cut a bunch of 2 ½ inch squares, I have a bin full of those too. It’s not like I use a lot of 1 ½ inch wide strips either, but that’s what most of them are. Sure there were some Log Cabin quilts, but not that many. It is a big pile and as I make the Serpentine blocks, I think I am making a dent in it, but there always seems to be more in the bin. I do have another bin of extra binding pieces, which I have not opened yet. Maybe I’ll make the binding for this quilt from some of them. That’ll be a yard gone out of that bin.

I made another batch of blocks this weekend. I chain piece them, doing 12 block parts on a chain. I cut the yellow kites and glue them on, then start adding the strings alternating left then right. I have a sharp pair of scissors near me to make the strings short enough, or a bit narrow-er. These blocks are fun to make and I can make five or six in about two hours. I realized today that I’ll have plenty of strings to make another quilt top (or two) once this one is done. Maybe it is time to make the Lego quilt. I am wondering if I can do it without making all my strips 1 and ½ inches wide. Probably, even though most of them are that wide. Just the thought of cutting all the strips makes my wrist ache.

I just don’t want to put them back in the bin and let them multiply anymore. I have been wanting to make the Bonnie Hunter string quilt called Emerald City since last year. I was supposed to have a class with her at Asilomar, but Covid wiped that out. Anyway, I have a whole bunch of greens that I collected to make it, but I “feel” that I need to make use of these scrappy strings first. There aren’t enough greens in the string bin to make that quilt, so it’ll wait. I’m going to look at Pinterest, and see if I can get any ideas for this never ending pile of strings.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

Be Kind

Scrappy Squirrel is a quilter’s superhero, really. She digs into the deep stash and finds new and fun projects that appear at the speed of a sewing machine going pedal to the metal. It started out as a simple chore in the sewing room, clear off a pile of stuff that had accumulated on top of a set of drawers. There was a shoe box with fabric in it, a bag of bonus hsts from Summer Solstice (circa 2014), two large blocks made in a class (circa 2005?) and a Hawaiian quilt block from earlier 2000, parts of a storm at sea, and a bunch of triangles cut from strip sets.

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After much head scratching, I remembered where they were from. In early 2000, I was part of a yahoo group that did various block swaps and group efforts. These blocks came from one of them, the project was to make a strip set of a bunch of strings 18″x 8″ (I think) and cut them into HSTs and attach them to solid triangles. Somewhere along in the past twenty years, I cut them into triangles of the pointy kind and made a few hexagons, and abandoned them in the box. I put them on the design wall, trying to randomize, but it was too eclectic, and kinda ugly. Hmm. I looked at them for a while and that’s when Scrappy Squirrel showed up. Bonnie Hunter was the answer, the quilt on the cover of her book String Frenzy , Serpentine Web. It has lots of triangles and was the ultimate in scrappy goodness. I grabbed the book and looked at the pattern, Yellow, lots of yellow, would it work with these uglies? I had three yards of yellow solid in the stash, yeah, not too bad. The center kite shape, didn’t I have an Accuquilt die that was this shape, yes! The die was slightly longer than the one from the pattern, but I could make it work. I cut a pile of newsprint triangles, yay, paper piecing.

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I made one block, it was fairly easy to do using the triangles and the precut kites, most were 6 seams, square up, and done. I like it, then I grabbed the bin of strings I had ironed this past summer, lots of colors and prints and oldies in there. I was off and running. The former orphans were used up in no time and the pile of strings is being chipped away at. The pattern calls for 50 or so blocks and each block has four kites, I have 10 here. I’m thinking maybe thirty whole blocks, there are half blocks to complete the rows for a throw size.

Today I will do the dog bed covers that Scrappy Squirrel distracted me from yesterday. Really.

Be Kind.

I recently learned that in Cross Stitch land, an FFO is a framed finished object. I have another FFO, the cat head, or as the pattern is titled, Bright Eyes.

I got the frame at Michaels yesterday. I was hoping to find a square frame, but settled on the 8″ x 10″ one. I like the way the wood looks with the colors of the floss/design. I’m not sure if I’m framing and stretching my stitchery in the “correct” way, but they look okay to me. I’m sure there are hundreds of videos I could watch, but I got it done, and that’s what counts.

While at Michaels, I picked up the DMC floss I needed for the Heaven and Nature sing cross stitch. It was 62 cents, as much as I enjoy the beauty of the over-dyed floss, like Weeks, I have a bit of reticence with paying $2.50 a skein. I also picked up the scroll frame holder, I put it together and I am working with it, trying to find the best position. I think the fabric is supposed to be tighter, but I kinda like it looser, so I can stitch through only from the front if I like. I still have to figure out how to easily access the back, flipping the piece up is easy, but I need to lean forward out of my chair to reach it. It puts a strain, like doing sit ups – yuck, on my mid section, stitching is supposed to be relaxing.

I finished quilting my Unity quilt last weekend. as I was taking it off the frame, I noticed railroading on the back. Damn. Two entire rows are like this. I am going to take it out and re-do the quilting. I thought about washing it and seeing if the stitches would pull in, but I think the bobbin thread is too tight and it wouldn’t help. I want to finish the Farm Charm quilt on the frame, and hopefully the minky I ordered for the tee shirt quilt will be here soon and I can get that quilt done. Then I can work on getting Unity fixed, it’s not as difficult as it seems, just have to be methodical. I’m thankful that I chose a panto with no back tracking, so much easier to rip out.

Tomorrow I am planning on making two dog bed covers. A friend of mine commissioned me to make them, one is rectangular and the other is round. I got some rip-stop 600 denier fabric from Seattle Fabrics, along with some zippers and such. Simple sewing on a large scale. It shouldn’t take too long, famous last words, right?

Lastly, I discovered a new to me Floss Tube series. Craftie Emily is a British stitcher, with a lot of projects going at one time. She’s easy to listen too and does beautiful work. Craftie Emily showed a few Long Dog Sampler patterns she is stitching. I went and looked, now I want to do them all. They have one color pieces with so much detail, and samplers that are multicolors. The patterns are in PDF form, downloadable from Great Britain, at about $24.00 each. I really like this one, called Pilgrims Progress, after the book of the same name. Lots of detail, and tiny stitches.

Be Kind.