Quilt Testers In Action

Quilt Testers In Action

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Showing posts with label scrap drawer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scrap drawer. Show all posts

Monday, March 15, 2010

Anyone Have Plans For An Ark?

We aren't even in the area of the state that is getting the most rain, and it still feels like we might need to start construction on a boat! The weathermen keep saying it's going to get lighter, but I just looked outside and it's raining harder than ever. The local newspaper was filled today with pictures of people being rescued from cars that have tried to go through some of the larger "puddles".  Maybe we will see the sun tomorrow (I'm now singing the song from Annie-be glad there is no audio!).


Today I finished the border for the string quilt, and pieced a back for it. In these pictures, the back is shown with the border edge of the quilt stretched out across it. The "flowers" in the border are small 2 inch pieced squares, applied with a close zigzag. The vine is attached with a wider zigzag stitch, on a rough edge. It is almost symmetrical, but I allowed the leaves and tendrils to come off the vine at slightly different angles on each side, just for fun.  


Tomorrow I will shoo the rabbits from the front room, and use the floor to baste the three scrap drawer quilts. Then I finally get to start quilting them. The quilts, that is, not the rabbits.

Hope your day is sunnier than ours.


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

More Blocks From the Scrap Drawer

Today was spent making a stack of string blocks from the strips of fabric in my overflowing scrap drawer. I can close the drawer now, but it is still very full. It must have been almost ready to explode before I started piecing tops from it. Here are some trimmed, and untrimmed blocks.

 One thing that always fascinates me about scrap quilts is how the most unusual combinations of fabric can result in a nice looking quilt. I mean really, who would ever walk into a quilt store and buy these combinations of fabric on purpose:

Or these:

Or these:

And yet, when you put all the blocks in a scrap quilt together, the result is usually quite beautiful. At least, that is what I am hoping for when I sew these together tomorrow! I'll let you judge when its done.

Something else that is interesting with these blocks is the occasional appearance of fabrics that I swear I have never seen before! We all become so familiar with our fabrics that we can pick them out in other peoples quilts, even years later. So where did these little alien scraps come from? My only guess is that they were picked up from someone else's scrap pile in a long ago class. Or, maybe the fabric is breeding in that overstuffed drawer.....

Ginny is still not completely healthy, but is doing well enough that I was able to give her her haircut this past weekend. Weasley had his haircut also, because I didn't want her grooming him and ingesting more hair. Here he is before haircut.

And, here he is after.


Notice the glare. Some people's rabbits go into a trance during haircuts. Mine spend the whole time telling me off. I don't blame them. I give terrible haircuts. But at least the job is done, and it won't happen again for another three months.

Now, back to trimming blocks, so I can be completely covered in fabric bits before heading off to an evening meeting. I hope to show you those blocks assembled into a top tomorrow. 

Wednesday, February 3, 2010