Strings!

I noticed a few weeks ago that my basket of "strings" is overflowing.  Whenever I have a little strip of fabric left, I just throw it in the basket.  Last year I made a Bonnie Hunter pattern, Roll Roll Cotton Boll, which was actually our guild's mystery quilt for 2011-12.  We used our neutral strings to make the alternate blocks.  Well, since I finished that and kept saving strings, my basket looks like this:

Some of the 6" blocks I've been making are in front of the basket, and so far I've got 16.  I make four at a time, and it's a great project when you don't want to start a new project.  I use very thin paper that came from a piece of junk mail as a foundation and then use my 6" square to cut it to size after sewing the strips on.  I hate taking the paper out, and that's why I only do a few at a time.

I noticed there were quite a few long strings in browns and beiges, so I sewed those together and made a few house blocks, too.  I found a pattern in a book by Edyta Sitar, Friendship Strips & Scraps, that combines pieced blocks with appliqued ones.  She seems to favor fusible applique, but I prefer to hand applique, so I have five houses ready for windows and doors.  They are all set for taking along on vacation in a few weeks.  [Dare I point out that I just started another new project!?!]

Today I had to hem some new pants and then I started working on the last two Dresden Plate blocks I started ages ago.  I keep getting side-tracked, though, by a good book - Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple.  It's told in emails, letters, and the diary of a 15 year old whose agoraphobic mother disappears.  The odd characters and writing style make it incredibly fun and hard to put down.

Strippy pinwheels

Here's the little quilt I made over the weekend with 2.5" strips.

I need to figure out what will be on the back - maybe a piece of flannel.  I have the binding all cut and ready to go.  Guess this calls for a trip to JoAnn's...

It's raining, so I worked on a rather complicated block for a lottery for the state quilt guild meeting in May.  Anyone who wants is making Mystery Album,with the gray for the mystery that is Alzheimer's Disease and the spring colors for hope.  We will have a display of the little art quilts people are making for Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative, too.

 

With all the pieces in this one, I sure hope I win the lottery.  I would hate to make any more!

It's been a while...

...since I blogged.  Just busy!  The weather has been gloomy, so I spent quite a bit of time quilting on Oma's Muu Muu this week.  I finished and am now sewing the binding down to the back.  Photo soon, I promise!  I also offered to sew a hanging sleeve onto a friend's quilt.  She thought she'd be back from Florida in time to do that so she could enter it into our quilt show.  But her mother (who I think is 99)  broke her leg, so my friend stayed longer to help.  That makes two hand-sewing projects for me.  Unfortunately, the gloom isn't all that conducive to hand work.  And there isn't enough snow for the little light we do have outside to reflect off of.  Never thought I'd wish for a little snow cover!  Tomorrow it's supposed to be a little more sunny, so I will probably work on those two projects.

Meanwhile, I also finished a log cabin throw and just hung it and its binding in a closet for quilting later.  I will do the same with a little table topper/baby quilt I finished today.  Both quilts are made with strips from the monthly "strip club" at A Quilter's Garden.  I've been receiving a bunch of 2.5" strips for $10 each month, and they are really fun to play with.  The most recent quilt is baby-sized and features lime, orange, turquoise, and purple pinwheels with light backgrounds.  I had just the right striped fabric for the binding, too.

Our Central Vermont Quilt Show is just under two weeks away, so there are a myriad little details for all of us to worry about.  We had a good meeting last week, and it seems everything's on track.  This week our guild meets, so we'll be signing more people up to volunteer and finalizing the demos.

Friday night we went out to dinner with the Greater Barre Democrats, and our speaker was the editor of the local daily paper.  People were a little skeptical about him as our speaker.  They usually want a politician.  But I talked them into it, and I'm glad I did.  He left us with a lot of food for thought about where and how we get our information.  Despite snow, sleet and freezing rain Friday, we had a good turnout.  Then last night, Paul and I went to see the play Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon at the Barre Opera House.  It was great!  Onward for another busy week.  Hope yours includes some stitching time.