Every morning as soon as I get up, I work on my string quilt blocks. I go straight to the coffee pot, make hot water for my tea and while that is brewing, I sew my 4 1/2 inch string blocks. I have a large supply of strips of various size widths, colors and patterns in a drawer next to my sewing machine. I pull out the strips, sew it onto a foundation paper made from my old phone book and keep repeating until I have 10 blocks sewn. I end the chain piecing with a foundation paper sized 2 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. It is from these little "feeder" blocks that I made my granddaughter's "baby doll" quilt.
I know that sounds very organized, but trust me its not! Sometimes I run out of fabric strips and have to run to my scrap box and clean cut the scraps into various sized strips to put in my drawer next to the sewing machine. I have several plastic boxes full of these scraps. I am trying to justify keeping them or "hoarding" them, as my husband calls it.
These are scraps left from years of cutting butterflies, cats, hexagons, triangles for my customers' orders. There are all sizes and weird shaped pieces left. But, if I cut just so, I can get several strips of different widths and many, many triangles of different sizes! I can't even begin to think of throwing all that fabric away! If that makes me a hoarder, so be it!
I have already made enough blocks to put together a quilt top from these scraps that you can see here Click Here But, it was not big enough to drape over the side of my double bed. So that's why I am sewing more blocks. Plus, after I finish this one, I am making 2 more for my other kids. I think then maybe, I will have used all the scraps in the plastic boxes, LOL!!!
In the meantime, remember the "baby doll" quilt? Well I finally decided, I am going to quilt it on the machine. Even though I am not very experienced in machine quilting, I think I will manage with this one because it is so small. I will post a picture when I am done, maybe on Monday???
My hexagon quilt progress will be posted tomorrow!
Have a great time quilting!
Aveli
Showing posts with label feeder blocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feeder blocks. Show all posts
Friday, July 19, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
A visit from our Youngest
This past week our youngest son has been visiting us while he was on vacation from work. What a treat!
It is always great to have him come to visit us. Even though he only lives 3 hours away, it is difficult to get our schedules on the same track.
So the first thing he says when he gets here is that he is going to barbecue. Even though it wasn't until yesterday that he got an opportunity to do so, it was nice to hear. He always makes a great meal!
This time he barbecued 2 whole chickens. They were scrumptious! And today we get to enjoy more of the leftover chicken. Makes for great sandwiches. . .especially when combined with the indian pueblo bread made by the Santo Domingo indians. Yum Yum!
Sadly, he had to leave today. He goes back to work tonight. :(
While he was here, I was working on my string quilt. Making the blocks that is. I started thinking about making a little doll sized quilt for my granddaughter. They are scheduled to visit some time in August, so I bought my granddaughter a small baby doll. That way she could have a "baby" to play with while she was here. Now I am thinking she would have more fun if she could wrap the doll in a blanket. And of course, a simple receiving blanket type would not do. . .it has to be a quilt!!!
So I started sewing the feeder blocks that I make while working on a project. You know, a little piece of paper with leftover pieces of fabric on it. I am using strips of 8 1/2" x 2 or 2 1/2". I mainly want to conserve the amount of trash I throw out so I recycle my printer paper and print on both sides of the paper. Especially when I am trying out new layouts for my quilts. After printing on both sides, I cut some into fourths for note paper, i.e., grocery lists, notes to self or husband and so forth. Some of the printer paper goes into providing foundation paper for the feeder blocks. I cut the printer paper in half to make two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 pieces and then take those pieces and cut them in half again and end up with the 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 strips.
I layed out the feeder strips into a size that would enable my granddaughter to wrap the doll. I didn't like the layout. So now, I have added white strips between each feeder strip. It made the blanket larger and looks nicer I think.
I will finish sewing it up and take pictures tomorrow and post them here.
It is always great to have him come to visit us. Even though he only lives 3 hours away, it is difficult to get our schedules on the same track.
So the first thing he says when he gets here is that he is going to barbecue. Even though it wasn't until yesterday that he got an opportunity to do so, it was nice to hear. He always makes a great meal!
This time he barbecued 2 whole chickens. They were scrumptious! And today we get to enjoy more of the leftover chicken. Makes for great sandwiches. . .especially when combined with the indian pueblo bread made by the Santo Domingo indians. Yum Yum!
Sadly, he had to leave today. He goes back to work tonight. :(
While he was here, I was working on my string quilt. Making the blocks that is. I started thinking about making a little doll sized quilt for my granddaughter. They are scheduled to visit some time in August, so I bought my granddaughter a small baby doll. That way she could have a "baby" to play with while she was here. Now I am thinking she would have more fun if she could wrap the doll in a blanket. And of course, a simple receiving blanket type would not do. . .it has to be a quilt!!!
So I started sewing the feeder blocks that I make while working on a project. You know, a little piece of paper with leftover pieces of fabric on it. I am using strips of 8 1/2" x 2 or 2 1/2". I mainly want to conserve the amount of trash I throw out so I recycle my printer paper and print on both sides of the paper. Especially when I am trying out new layouts for my quilts. After printing on both sides, I cut some into fourths for note paper, i.e., grocery lists, notes to self or husband and so forth. Some of the printer paper goes into providing foundation paper for the feeder blocks. I cut the printer paper in half to make two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 pieces and then take those pieces and cut them in half again and end up with the 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 strips.
I layed out the feeder strips into a size that would enable my granddaughter to wrap the doll. I didn't like the layout. So now, I have added white strips between each feeder strip. It made the blanket larger and looks nicer I think.
I will finish sewing it up and take pictures tomorrow and post them here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)