Feelin' Scrappy!

We had a wonderful weekend!  It was sunny and in the 70s...my sweetheart worked in the yard and the garden and it looks beautiful.  We have 14 acres but the property is divided by a creek so we really live on and keep up the front 5-6 acres...the other side of the creek is woods and a meadow with a big pecan tree in the middle.  Sweetheart keeps the meadow mowed but otherwise the woods are a haven for deer, turkeys and other "wildlife."  I was able to work around in the house a little which made me very tired but very happy.

I did a little sewing on scrappy string blocks last week and plan to do a lot more this week.  I'd like to use up as many of my scraps as possible.  Most of the patterns I'm using are from this site.  Here are my string blocks

Then I started another set of spiderweb blocks..I love the way it makes the star in the center.  I've seen  colors used the make the stars and I love the look but I wanted to start with a white star.  These are fun to do and easy to piece using a paper foundation. 

It's been 4 1/2 months since I have been anywhere other than the hospital or the doctor's office...no restaurants, no fabric stores, NO SHOPPING AT ALL!   Shopping is not my favorite thing to do but I miss getting out and feeling of fabric and looking around.  So I did a little online shopping to keep my sanity :)  I really like Connecting Threads...their fabric is very nice and reasonably priced.  Among other things I found some charm squares on sale.  They are from a fabric line called Canning Day...1930s reproductions. 

On Ebay I purchased some reproduction fat eighths. 

Can you see a theme?  I'll cut 2 1/2" squares from all of these to use in making hexagons for a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  These are ones I'd started previously...I'm using the English paper piecing method...it's so easy and I can sit and make these. 

The quilt in my header was made by my grandmother.  She used feedsacks and flour sacks for the most part.  She always told me the green between each flower was the grass path through the garden.  And she always put a yellow center in her hexagons because "real flowers" had yellow centers :)  So, I will border each block in white and then green so my flowers will have a white fence and a green grass path through the garden! 

I have seen some beautiful, less traditional hexagon blocks being made on some blogs with planned colors and fussy cutting.  They are so very pretty!   I can't wait to try that as well.

I enjoy so much reading blogs and I cherish the friends I've made.  We may never meet but you bless my life.

Karen

OOPS!!  Thank goodness I posted that picture of the spiderweb block with the white star.  What I noticed as I looked at the picture (but didn't notice looking at the block itself...brain fog again?)  was the lack of a seam allowance on two of the star points!  SOOOOO...the block has been taken apart and that will be corrected...I want pointed stars :) 

Scrapping Fun

This week has been filled with medical appointments. For a person who seldom went to the doctor, this is definitely a new way of life. But things are going well and I'm so grateful for wonderful medical professionals who treat me with such kindness and skill. Family and friends who continue to keep me in their prayers are such blessings!

With all this coming and going, I needed to work on something that would allow a lot of stopping and starting. What better than scrap quilting. As the grandchild of pioneers (my quilting grandma came to Indian Territory in a covered wagon), I grew up thinking all quilts were made of scrap fabrics saved from family sewing and feedsacks. This is one of my favorite scrap quilts made by my grandma.
My scrap project right now is a string quilt. I found the instructions here. Sewing these squares is addictive and I keep thinking "I'll do just one more." I stopped to realize I learned to sew in early junior high so that means I've been sewing for half a century (oh, my!!!) and I have saved fabric scraps for much of that time. I don't have scraps from newer fabric lines...mine are REALLY SCRAPS...which makes the blocks very ecletic :) I'm using some of the "less pretty" scraps I have too. Here's some of what I have accomplished.


I think I'll also start some Spiderweb blocks with scraps as well like the ones shown here. One added benefit is that I'm getting all my scraps organized :)


Hope your day is filled with happy stitching.