Potato Chip Block --

 I bet you can't make just one. 

I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a Accuquilt Die that cuts a 2.5" x 4.5" rectangle so I could more easily cut the blocks for a potato chip block.  I do have a 2.5" strip cutter so I can cut the strips from leftover pieces or used fat quarters. 

My friend Nancy offered her rectangle die from her 8.5" Cube and bingo my brain fired a synapse. Why couldn't I use my rectangle in my 9.5" Cube.  So I got to work cutting bits and bobs of fabric that could be put to a perfect use. Lots of lights and some medium and darks. (I need to cut way more to make a quilt. 

Then the sewing. I didn't actually sew it the way I've usually seen them made.  But I realize it didn't make much of a difference.  Here's my new block. 

I know you are wondering what I did "wrong."  My center 2 rectangles should be up and down.  But wait! I checked the other 4 blocks I've made and a couple of them aren't the way I "thought" they should go. If I were willing to unpick some seams I would have the first 2 rectangles turned so the seam is up and down. Then the rest would have been the same. Hum, I'm back from a slight trip down the rabbit hole to see if I could find a definitive Potato Chip block. Um, no, not in the 5 minutes I spent looking.  So this block is fine! 

So, here's the info if you have any of the regular Cubes. Number 8 die can be used for making Potato Chip blocks.  Yep, any size Cube, Number 8 die. My 9.5" die gave me a block that measures about 13.75".  I also have a 3.5" x 6.5" rectangle that I will be trying also.  But I'm pretty sure it will work too -- just a bigger finished block will result. 

When picking colors I "try" not to pick one that will be overwhelming dark. Yes, like the upper right top piece. It is actually a dark green with a lighter design. I will be more careful in the future because I like a lighter, airier look to these blocks. 

Evidently, I now have 2 potato chip quilts going. One for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this one for the 9.5" Cube.  Oh boy. Maybe I can make a dent in some of my scraps and fat quarters.  

I'm linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss and Finished or Not Friday.

Now it is on to finishing a rail fence top.  Or quilting a red, white and blue quilt. Or maybe cutting some more chips, er rectangles from scraps and half used fat quarters. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 8 - 2024

It's been a hot week and I'm guessing it will be nearly as hot this week.  That means it's perfect weather to spend time in my quilting studio -- in the basement. I did spend a lot of time in my cool basement. And, a lot of stitching was accomplished.  Here are the details. 

7/1/24

✅Make small bag — finished the two fronts, on to the lining.

✅ Keep working on seaside top — more pieces have been sewn down, more threads tied off. 

✅Process more scraps—made a little dent mostly cut by hand rather than by my Accuquilt. 

✅Bind Spinner — done.

✅Cut out a kit for retreat — started on a half log cabin using 2” strips. 

   

I didn't take all that many pictures of what I was working on from my goal's list this week. 

I did work on a half log cabin by cutting the various pieces to the correct size.  Here's a sample block -- it always helps to try the block out before spending hours cutting out more pieces! 

This doesn't represent my plans as it is quite color co-ordinated. This photo is pretty dark compared to what it really looks like also.  See my piles of pieces below. I started by picking fabrics from my 2" strip drawer. I've also pulled some fabrics from miscellaneous boxes of scraps, fat quarters, and my scrap baskets. Happily, I've seen a real dent in the 2" strip drawer and other locations in the studio.  Here's part of what I've cut already. 

I am using Sharyn Squire Craig's book Design Challenge: Half Log Cabin Quilts as my source for sizing and sizes.  I took a class from her sometime in the mid 1990s.   I haven't decided if I want the top to be 6 x 8 (48 blocks), 45 x 60",  or 6 x 10 (60 blocks), 45 x 75". Blocks are 8" unfinished.  I figure I'll need 432 pieces or 540 pieces depending on the size.  That's a lot of pieces. 

What I didn't plan on was quilting a top for a customer.  Nancy needed it quickly so I decided to get it done ASAP.  It was a joy to quilt -- I enjoy quilting pretty quilts. Here's a section of it. 

She chose Easy Peasy Baptist Fan by Naomi Hynes.

Thread was Omni White. 

Next up is what I hope to accomplish this week. 

7/9/24

Keep working on seaside top

Finish small bag 

Cut another kit for retreat 

Organize and pack up retreat supplies 

Make backing for a quilt top

And now, my 15 minutes of stitching results:

W/ending 7/7 — 189 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 7/7days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 182/189 days
• Success rate = 96.2%

I'm linking up with my regular Monday Linky parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  I forgot to link up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Musings on Monday morning like I normally do. Oops. Hope you can spend some time checking them out now. 

We've enjoyed watching hummingbirds come to our feeder.  I was able to get this picture with my cell phone. (Does anyone have a real camera any more?) 

Anyone know what type a hummer he is? (Or maybe she.) We get two hummers who have squabbles over the feeder.  I enjoy watching them and the birds at our other feeder.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

To Do Tuesday!

 Yep, I ended up with no Monday Meanderings post and skipped right on to To Do Tuesday.  I will share part of Monday distractions at the end of this post. 

First up -- my very weak goals achievements from last week. I will note that it doesn't really bother me that I didn't accomplish all my goals.  I'm still getting tired from the Covid bout and my motivation levels have been lower than usual. That said I will tout my forward progress on several projects.

10/17/22

Bind Flowers and 9 Patch quilt — started not finished

Quilt and bind another quilt — more than half quilted 

✅Finish sewing Tumbling Triangles together 

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt — nothing done 

Make ✅Sept & October BOM from A Quilting Life -- one still to do 

✅Work on Halloween quilt — laid the first border out and a possible second border. But no sewing. 

It was a bigger list than I usually have and as I said, I did make forward progress. So what am going to do this week? 

10/24/22

Finish quilting and bind quilt

Finish binding Flowers and 9 Patch quilt

Make October BOM from A Quilting Life

Work on Halloween quilt

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt

Sew borders on Traffic Jam 

Oh my!  It's as long as last week's list! Although several goals are well on their way to completion.  

I messed up the binding on Flowers and 9 Patch by sewing the binding to the front of the quilt.  Normally I'd sew the second time by machine except I don't like machine sewing from the back. So I'm hand stitching that.  I was multi tasking the binding while Ruthie quilted the next quilt. All was going fine when unbeknownst to me the top thread jumped out of one of the guides. A half later I realized it. The back tension was a flat line.  So I ripped it out.  Not that hard actually because I could pull out that back thread pretty easily.  That was in the evening on Sunday. Poof -- the week was gone. 

Here's what I seemed to spend way more time on than anything else. (Nope, it wasn't on the list.) 

This is Traffic Jam, a free pattern from Pat Sloan. You can find it here. I'm switching it up a bit by using 4 blocks.  If you cut 2.5" squares and have a slew of them, this is a great pattern to use them.  The block is 12.5" square, unfinished.  Pat's quilt comes out 56" x 56".  Mine will be about 40". It's been easy to sew the 2.5" squares as leader-enders.  And, yep, this has been part of my distraction over the last few weeks.  I'm down to getting the border done. I've chosen only two rows of squares for the border rather than three shown in the pattern.  I'm making an effort to use lighter and brighter squares and I'm throwing in some cute animals and the like. (Hum, it was a dark day outside when I took this picture so you can't see the bright parrot, dogs, and lions in the 2.5" squares. Rats!) I decided I might as well put this on my list for this week because I know I'm going to work on it.

I made this walker bag and turned it into the guild outreach committee last week. The floral fabric has a definite late 80s vibe to me.  It's a decorator fabric so it is a bit heavier than quilting cotton. Unfortunately, I have about 15 yards more of the fabric I was given from an estate of a quilter. (Or at least I "think" that is where I got it.) My issue is I don't have many fabrics I can use with it.  I have one more cut out.  And I'll be scouring my stash to see if I have any other fabrics I can pair with it. Or maybe I'll check JoAnns for clearance fabrics that might go with it. I hope I can find some more velcro and grosgrain ribbon in my stash.  I liked this pattern and if you want to make some walker bags check out the pattern here. Evidently, I am the only person at guild to turn in a walker bag this year. So, I guess I'll be making some more as the need is great. 

And on to my big distraction.  We met our son and grandkids yesterday (Monday) in downtown Fredericksburg.  We thought they would enjoy tracking down all of the otter statues in the city.  The seven statues took us all over downtown. As we found one the kids marked them off on a map.  After a good hour at the playground having found the last statue, we returned to the Visitor's Center where they were given a very nice goody bag with buttons, postcards to color, and other assorted goodies.  

Two pups and two kids.  It was a beautiful day out and we all had a great time.  (Did I mention I went to work out for the first time in many weeks in the morning? And, I had Spotsylvanian rehearsal in the evening? And, I got over 10,000 steps in yesterday?  No wondered I'm so worn out today! 😁!) 

I'm linking up to the following parties.

 

To Do Tuesday

Design Wall Monday 

Midweek Makers 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 10 - 2021

Happy Mother's Day  

I spent the day happily working playing in the studio.  Both of my children called so we had great chats.  It's always fun to catch up.  

Friday afternoon I drove down to the Richmond area and made a stop at Quilter's Corner. I got there just as a huge cloud unloaded rain for at least an hour and included some lightning and thunder.  I was happily searching the store for some fabric to make a new wall hanging. I found some great batik and made the purchase.  The rain had slowed quite a bit so no big deal driving out to my friend's house.  Dorothy is a certified Studio 180 teacher.  She has the most beautiful quilts hanging around her house.  It was like a personal quilt show to see what she's been making over the last few years. 

Early the next morning we went to our guild meeting (Country Piecemakers in Powhatan.)  It was a lot of fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen since July. After the meeting Dorothy got started on giving us lots of hints and help to make a LeMoyne Star block using Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire LeMoyne Star tool.  

I should have finished one star in the appx 3 hours we were working on it but I made a major mistake -- I forgot to trim the points before I tried to sew them together.  Out came Jack to do his thing.  I did succeed in getting half a star finished.  We didn't have lunch and I was getting hangry so decided I would finish at home.  A quick fast food lunch and back on the road to home. 

Here's my finished star.  If you look carefully you'll notice the center doesn't come together as well as it should.  It's very close.  But, I'm not redoing it.  I think the next one I make will finish at 12". The one shown is 8". The previous one I made was 6.  I'm thinking of using the colors of the polka dots to make more stars.  There is a pattern that comes with the tool that uses a bunch of different size stars together. I suppose I should keep making some so I get better at matching the points. 

On to my goals this week.  Um, not quite successful there.  I really didn't count in the fact that I would be gone for a day and a half when I set these goals.  Oh well.  Here's last weeks: 

5/3/2021

Border doggy tumbler ✅

Quilt ✅and bind one of my quilts 

Start cutting-table clean up ✔️ — started but a little more to do

Put together green scrap basket ✅

Pull a UFO to work on — nothing done  

Here's a sneak peek of the bunny quilt I finished quilting.  Binding will go on this  coming week I hope. 

I finally finished the green basket for my fabric scraps.

Would someone please tell me how come the green scraps are overflowing but the others aren't?  Maybe because I use more of the other scraps. (Odd note -- I have very few green quilts.) 

I'm looking forward to my friend Sharon coming up on Friday.  We will be knee deep in talking, quilting and having fun.  Here are some of the things I hope to work on this week. 

5/10/2021

Begin red table runner 

Pull a UFO to work on

Quilt daughter Jenny’s quilt

Bind a bunny quilt 

I'm worn out so will end here with my favorite Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. I'll try again to hit up To Do Tuesday. Shame on me for forgetting!  Done!  Join the parties and let's start surfing. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 9 -- 28 -- 2020

Here we are at the end of September. Really? One third of 2020 is past. Last week I decided I really wanted to get my red basket done so I started on it early in the week.  And, YEA ME! I finished it.  Here's the finished basket waiting on the shelf for me to grab some red scraps from it. 

Notice the small strip of red with white speckles?  That's the handle I added. 

As a base idea I used the pattern Catch All Caddy 2 from By Annie. It was featured on the Craftsy class Sew Sturdy Home Organizers by Annie Unrein. I didn't make the basket as shown. I used the measurements and the techniques as described in the video.  I left off pockets, changed the size, added a handle, and changed the way the top was finished.  Most of the changes were on purpose.  A few were "oops!  Here's how I put this together.

You can see the "made" fabric using scraps here. 

First up was quilting all the pieces. I used Pellon Flex Foam between the lining and the made fabric.  I believe mine was fusible on both sides.  I had several left over pieces from various projects so I might have used By Annie's brand as well as the Pellon.  I chose to do a diagonal row of stitching.  This was a relatively small project so I chose to quilt on my domestic machine rather than my long arm. 

Here are all the pieces quilted, trimmed and ready to be put together. Notice the Wonder Clips ready to be used?  It was much easier to clip at various steps than to use pins. 

Remember me writing I made some changes on purpose but not all? My first change was when I cut the side pieces 1/2" smaller than the pattern called for.  Not a big deal really but I did have to trim the bottom piece to fit.  I also wasn't thinking straight when I sewed the pieces right sides together it should have been lining fabrics together.  The cute binding was suppose to be on the outside of the basket. Oops is right.  I could have made this the outside but I wanted all the scrappy fabric to be the outside. 

My plan was to simplify the basket as much as possible. So I decided a circle of fabric sewn than flipped would work just fine for the top.  Here the clips came in handy as I fitted the top. 

One side of the finished basket.  The handle is on the left side/front.  I wish I could say I made a big dent in the red scraps when this was done but, not really. 

Scraps thrown in the basket and ready to put on the shelf.  (Hum, I wonder what that bright blue fabric is?) 

My new red scrap basket has been working out well. I've grabbed it and found some scraps to use on the snowball blocks I've been making.  I've stashed a few odd ball pieces of red fabric in it easily.  

With the experience of this one I'm looking forward to making some more baskets to hold various other colors.  The one issue I have with this basket is the sides (as shown above and in the first picture above) bulge out.  It does it whether it has any thing in it or if it is stuffed full.  I like that the Flex Foam does a good job of maintaining the shape of the basket.  But it is more expensive than, say batting or other stabilizers.  I wonder if I added interfacing to the top finish it might hold it's shape a little better. 

I have a new basket pattern coming so I will try it and see if it might be easier to make.  I'll keep you posted although I don't think I'll even start it for a few more weeks. 

Are you ready to do some blog visiting?  I'm linking up with my regular Monday parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Be sure to visit a few blogs to see what people are working on.  You might just get a new idea for your "I Want to Make" list. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 31 -2020

August is just about gone. Is it just me or has this month zoomed by also?  (And I don't mean a Zoom meeting although I've been enjoying a lot during the month.)  It seems that I may have committed to more posts than I can deliver.  I skipped Friday but I'll be showing a finish today instead. 

First, although I was hoping to make a big dent in my homespun collection, for some reason it doesn't look like all that much has been used. I spent part of a Zoom  get together refolding what is left.  It was completely full to the top before. Hum,  there is quite a bit left still. Maybe I'll need to do another one, strips maybe 'cause I have lots of smaller pieces left. 

Here's one of my finishes from this month. This was completely from stash. The center of the stars was a Hoffman Challenge fabric years ago. I thought I was really clever with the top and bottom row.... but I think it would have looked much better if I centered a flying goose in the middle and then left a half goose (otherwise known as a half square triangle) at the far sides. Oh well.  

I used So Fine thread (Gerber Daisy #495). 

The quilting design is "Star Struck" from My Creative Stitches.  The design comes with both sharp points on the stars and rounded points on the stars.  This one is rounded. 

It's actually hard to see the stars on most of these pictures.  But the one above you should be able to see them.  I decided after I was all done I probably should have made each row smaller.  It was set about 13.5" wide and 10.25 tall.  (I forget the number of repeats.) When I use this particular design again, I'll make these two numbers closer to the same size.  I can do that by changing the number of patterns across and the number of rows.  

I haven't been sewing as much as usual, or so it seems.  I'm hoping to get at least one other of my goals done by Tuesday afternoon.  One of the things I am doing is upgrading the computer that runs the long arm.  The computer came in and we've got a connector I need on order.  My trusty computer guru will come out to move the program and files for me and set everything up. YEA!  I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a design quilted with it but I hope it is soon. 

I'm linking up with my go-to linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday. (You know the drill, I'll link with these two blogs when they post.)  I'm hoping for lots of fun eye candy when I check out these parties. 

Hum, I see Blogger has changed something else.  I always check my links to make sure they are working, but tonight the option was no longer available. Rats. On rare occasions I have linked incorrectly. Oh well.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

OMG May Goal

For some reason I didn't realize that there was a linky party over at Red Letter Quilts every month for the One Monthly Goal announcement.  I've been announcing next month's goal in the same blog post for the ending of the month. I figured it out this week. So, here's another little post about my next OMG.  Hum, maybe I wasn't eligible for the previous months.  That's ok as I really like getting the UFO I pick done each month. 

I'm working on a batik rail fence variation.  I've been busily sewing together all of the "rails" I got at a retreat swap.  They are now sewn in pairs.  Tomorrow or Friday I hope to get them into "4s" so I can then figure out how much sashing I'm going to need.  Here's what I do know -- I want a bigger quilt.  I figured out I was going to end up with 14 12" blocks of rails.  Hum, a 2 x 7 set? Or 3 x 4 with a few left over?   I don't think so!  

Today I made enough rails to be able to make 3 more blocks.  Except, really 17?  That is definitely not going to work.  Tomorrow I will count all the blocks I have and decide whether I really need more or not.  I will probably want to make 3 more blocks. (I may not have remembered the right number so it could be more or less!)   Twenty blocks would be great as a 4 x 5 set.  Then just add sashing and border/s and I'll have a nice size quilt.  

 

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts, Let's Bee Social, and Needle and Thread Thursday.   Take some time to see what folks are doing in their studio.  Mine needs a good straightening as I've been grabbing all sorts of batiks to try to finish my blocks.  I refolded the batiks I wasn't going to use and put them back on the shelf.  I still have a pile of reds out from several weeks ago.  

I'm curious how you store your bits and drabs of scraps.  I do try to keep cutting strips and squares.  But I frequently have bigger pieces that I just don't know what to do with.  Think of the excess fabric backing from trimmed quilts.  I'm considering starting a plastic box for each major color. (The boxes can be stored under my stacks of fabric on the bookshelves and I actually have the boxes. stored They are half full or less with bigger odd pieces.  What's your plan for odd ball size fabrics?  I could sure use some help! 

Happy Quilting All! 

15 Minute Studio Spiff Up #15

I've made a dent in some of my scraps.  I gave away 4 big bags of scraps last week when I was in Maryland for the classes with Bonnie Hunter.  It felt good.  I've been working on Love Shack which is all about using scraps so I'm making progress on using scraps.  Unfortunately, I'm not looking forward to when I need to put away all the scraps I pulled out for the two classes.  

This week's assignment is rulers. 

Here's why.  Several weeks before my trip to Maryland I was getting things prepared to go.  I started early.  I made the blocks we were told we could make in advance.  I gathered my strips and strings for both classes.  I gathered the required rulers.  I told Sharon I had an extra ruler she could use because she didn't have one of them.  

Fast forward to packing for the trip.  I stashed the rulers in various pockets of my machine rolly-tote. I couldn't find an extra ruler for Sharon.  Thursday's class did not take the Easy Angle ruler but I noticed I couldn't seem to find it.  Friday's class did take it.  And I was repacking everything and still couldn't find it.  Go figure!  Friday I was unpacking and put my hand into a side zippered compartment and nearly scraped my fingers on the missing ruler.  Except, it is an older version of the ruler although it has most everything I needed to cut the pieces.  I just had to verify the correct lines to use.  See the little blue one?  That's what I used. But the middle black one would have been easier to see the correct cutting lines except I had remembered I owned it nor could I find it.  

Yesterday when sewing I found the middle Easy Angle ruler.  Newer and a little bigger.  Plus I have an Easy Angle II that is an even bigger version and doesn't even have the sizes needed for the class.  Luckily I found one that Sharon could use by chatting with FCQ members on Facebook. 

There's the back story. I have no idea what rulers I have and where they are!   I'm going to list all my rulers on my computer.  I was all set to buy a new Companion Ruler for the class because I couldn't find mine.  But, JoAnns was out of them.  The very next day I found mine.   It would serve me well to actually keep an inventory of my rulers, preferably on my phone so it is always with me!  

Because I have such a large cutting table I have two ruler racks on it.  One looks like this: 

Yep, it's pretty much empty.  I need to restock it with my rulers so they are easy to reach.  (I broke one of my rulers in transit to the class so I will be buying myself a new 6" x 12" ruler one of these days. )

I have two additional wall mounted ruler holders. They too need to be refilled. (Where do you suppose I've put all the rulers that used to be in these?)  I know I've got some of Deb Tucker's rulers out because I'm taking a class in May so the rulers are not in their normal spots. (by the way, the circles are nested and are great for drawing circles but I can't really cut against them and they are too thin to use with the long arm.  But I love having them!)

So, this week clean up your ruler collection.  I'll be listing mine in a spread sheet just so I can keep track of them.  How do you transport your rulers when you take classes or go to retreats?  I've broken rulers several times while I've tried to transport them.  The 24" rulers are always needed and my big square up rulers are good to have but they are so vulnerable to damage.  How do you protect yours?  

Happy Quilting All!