Category: Sewing

Scrap Happy for February 15th 2024

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Late, but not so late as last time…  😉

When doing laundry *two years previous, I suddenly noticed that the bed pillow covers were disintegrated!  Completely.  I have patched small holes in linens in the past, but this was truly beyond patching.

*And yes, I am truly shocked to realize how behind I’ve been in blogging, much less posting for scrap happy.  Sigh.  Yet here I am trying my best to get in the groove again.

Taking the usable 18 inch zippers out of the old pillowcase covers saved me quite a bit.  And going to the quilt closet I found percale sheeting that I had *purchased in quantity over ten years previous.  It came in a queen sized width, and the bundle I chose was about seven yards total.  I have used this cotton percale for many projects over the years.

*This and many of my quilt fabrics came from Sir’s in Tennessee, which sadly burned down about six years ago. The sewing, quilting, and upholstering aficionados, here in Alabama and Tennessee, have felt the loss deeply as he did not rebuild.

As you can see, this came together quite easily.  Seam down the side, one to close the bottom and the insertion of the old zipper.  “Better than store bought.” I say.  Cost to make would have to be estimated, but maybe 1 or 2 dollars?  And, pillow covers are really inexpensive to buy, about $4.00?  But, the satisfaction in making them myself was of immeasurably more value than the money saved.

Regarding the work journal:  the booklet is called a bullet journal and allows me to mark off the lines and columns easily where I see need.  I am purposely working on items that need to be completed from a long time ago… you know, the UFOs that seem to get squirreled away.  Right?

The system has what you are working on listed on the left and then columns from left to right for each step.

  • pattern
  • fabric
  • cut
  • pieced
  • backing
  • basted
  • quilted
  • bound
  • completed
  • SOLD!

From the photo above: Garden Snail needs me to decide on placement/layout and get it sewn.  Then its off to the quilters.  Pineapple Triangles is one I got and had the fabric for, but wouldn’t let myself start until I finished these UFOs… because…  I need to be disciplined! “Black Stallion” was not in the photo above but was recently bound and it needs a binding to be complete. Binding, like framing a photo or painting, makes the whole thing come alive!  (Binding is cut and the reveal will come soon!)

Thanks to Kate and Gun for getting us together and working!

ScrapHappy happens each month on the 15th.  The many participants are listed below, and although they don’t participate every time, it’s always fun to see what they have created from their scraps!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa,
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

~*~*~*~*~

 

—> An announcement or warning for all

I will be discussing my health in a day or two. AND right up front, I am not dying, OK!  😀  But for those who really don’t want to know I will let you know in the title that I am talking about health issues so you may skip it if you desire.  The things I am facing are medical issues that I know millions of others are dealing with, and so I feel the need to share my experience.  If you are clearly not interested as a whole group, then I will start a new blog channel and post my experience and information there.  I refuse to post any of this to Youtube, Instagram, X, or the like, as I find them all tedious and, with the exception of X, quite likely to block or fact check anything they don’t like.  You have been warned. 😉

 

 

Scrap Happy: management

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I have a lot of scraps.  Scraps in drawers, scraps in baskets, scraps I really like, and some I don’t.  Big ones, little ones, some minuscule too.  Some are from quilting, crafting and sewing and quite a few are from old clothing; specifically Bob’s old shirts.  He’s a basic plaid man for shirts.

These past few weeks I’ve seen the need to manage them all.

So as not to overwhelm myself I decided to begin on the cutting table.  You know, all the stuff I didn’t want to put away lest I forget about it.  No judgements now.  You know it happens to all of us from time to time.

I scooted over the wastebasket and immediately tossed the scraps I don’t like.  Then I sorted by type and size.  I began the process of cutting to common sized block sizes.  Inchies, 2.5″, 4″, 5″, but I left the strips alone because, no matter how you cut them, strips make really awesome project starters.

I have begun making inchies, which are cut to 1.5″ to allow for the 1/4 inch seams, from any bits of fabric that will allow a 1.5 cut block.  Smaller that that?  Saved for crumb quilting or straight to trash.

Bob’s shirts I began cutting to 2.5″ and 5″ blocks when I suddenly realized I was working too hard. Five inch blocks can be cut into 2.5 inch blocks!  Larger cuts give me greater future options.

The Kaffe quarter circles will remain as they are.  They can be sewn together into half circles, whole circles or appliqued as flowers or wreaths, or who can say what I’ll come up with in the future?

This is only some of my scraps, but they are labelled and being properly stored.  Probably organized into that basket of Bob’s old filleted shirts! When I’ve emptied it of course.

The 15th of each month is the day Gun in Sweden and Kate in Australia, host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

Though ScrapHappy is open to anyone who uses or reuses scraps to make something beautiful and/or useful, they may not post every time.  Go take a look, because there is always something of interest there:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol,
Preeti, Edith, Debbierose

Scrap Happy for November 15, 2019

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It’s a bit melancholy for me this round, but I will share with you what I began several months back.  🙂

Each month we took Buddy in to be groomed because he was too big and too HaiRy for us to keep him looking and smelling nice.  And each month the groomer sent him home in a cute kerchief tied about his neck.  I couldn’t throw them out.

hey!  it’s fabric after all!  ok?

So I began making quilt blocks out of them

Some were bones and some were balls

and I didn’t get the Buddy Quilt done in time…

I am going to finish it  and will include a blank block in the middle to put our dog’s names on it. I feel it is a great save of what otherwise would be landfill fodder.   It will be a good memory quilt to honor Buddy and all the other pups past and present.

And now go see what other’s have made this past month for Scrap Happy!

~*~

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen and Connie

 

 

 

Things that happened while I was away

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I mostly finished my Quilting studio.

I never showed you because I was embarrassed that it wasn’t all cleaned up.

Suddenly this week I realized that if it was all cleaned up, then it meant nothing was getting made.

I’ll settle for neat and well used.

🙂

NOTE:  Things on hold during my quilting frenzy are painting the noticeable unpainted edges of the shelving and computer table, and making those roller shades so I can block the sun from blinding me two times a day.  I have the fabric; I just need a minute…  😉