Author Archives: Norma Hanson

Using up the Green Strips

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I am on a mission to use up all of the green fabric strips that are on my fabric shelf.  The first quilt top that I made was, “Candy Coated” a pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts (by Cheryl Arkison and Amanda Jean Nyberg).  download

This quilt top met with a mishap when I tried to trim the left side.  It ended up being narrower than I would like after my attempt at squaring it up.  After agonizing over ideas to make the quilt wider again, I have given up and made the quilt shorter instead.  Now it is back in proportion to its width and is still plenty long enough for a lap at 63″ x 75″.  I will finish squaring it up after it is quilted.

CANDY COATED - 63 in x 75 in

CANDY COATED – 63 in x 75 in

I ended up with many chunks of pieced fabric strips as leftovers after finishing Candy Coated so I came up with a second quilt which alternates the pieced strips from Candy Coated with framed four patches.  This is a “leftover” quilt.  That name doesn’t seem too glamorous, so it has since been renamed “Strings and Cobblestones” by my good friend LindaJ.  I like this name better than Leftovers, so Strings and Cobblestones it is.

STRINGS AND COBBLESTONES - 57 in x 73 in

STRINGS AND COBBLESTONES – 57 in x 73 in

I still have leftovers from Strings and Cobblestones so I am working on making “slabs” from the bits.  In years gone by, these types of blocks were called Crumb Blocks or Mile a Minute blocks but now in the Sunday Morning Quilts book, the updated name seems to be “slabs”.  I have made several quilts using this technique over the years and it is the only way i have ever found to ensure that 100% of every last little bit of fabric is used in some way.  After putting together slabs, there are no leftovers!

Green slabs.

Green slabs.

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Shhhhhhhh…….someone thinks he is hiding.
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Flimsy Re-Do

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2015_September 7_Sunbonnet Sue Redwork_Flimsy Revised_44 in x 57 in-Optimized

I couldn’t stand it.  Yesterday I thought I had my Sunbonnet Sue Redwork quilt finished to the flimsy stage, but the red border that I had on it just wasn’t working for me.  So after staring at this quilt top on the design wall for the morning, I decided to just remove that red border.  I think that red fabric was a little too heavy and overpowering for the blocks.  Here it is, in its revised finished flimsy stage – now measuring 44 in x 57 in.  I will go ahead and add this one to the “to be quilted” pile.

Two Finished Flimsies

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This is Labour Day weekend here in Canada so that means a three day weekend!  What better way to spend it than sewing?

I have been trying to catch up on some of the UFO’s that have been languishing on the shelves of my studio.  First up, I added borders to my Hawksbill Honu Sashiko piece.  The turtle is a Sylvia Pippen Design.  In April 2013, our quilt guild brought Val Wojutla to our monthly meeting for a trunk show of her work.  The following day, Val stayed to teach a Sashiko class to our membership.

Val Wojutla Trunk Show - April 2013 - Val is holding the class sample for the workshop she taught the following day.

Val Wojutla Trunk Show – April 2013 – Val is holding the class sample for the workshop she taught the following day.

Unfortunately, that class was on a weekday during the busiest month of the year at work for me so I was unable to take the class.  I bought the Honu piece as a kit at one of the vendor booths at a subsequent quilt show.  I also purchased the pattern for the snowflake that Val taught during her workshop.  I haven’t started stitching that snowflake yet.

The fabrics on the borders of my Honu piece were not part of the kit.  The blue outer border print is a Kaffee Fassett fabric.

Hawksbill Honu Sashiko - Flimsy - 24.5 inches square

Hawksbill Honu Sashiko – Flimsy – 24.5 inches square

The second flimsy that I finished today was my Redwork Sunbonnet Sue.  I am not so sure I am totally sold on the outer border.  Next time, I may just forego the borders altogether.  However, the borders have brought it up to 56″ x 69″ which would be a nice size for some little girl’s bed.

The pattern is by Mary Ellen Von Holt of Little Quilts.  The original pattern makes a quilt that finishes 22″ x 28″.   I don’t do “that small” so I enlarged the designs so that they fit nicely within a 9″ finished square.

Unfortunately, I did not record when I started stitching these blocks.  I received the patterns for the blocks in November 2010.  I don’t remember if I started stitching on the blocks right away, but it would have been soon after that time.  I stitched my blocks using DMC pearl cotton number 8, colour 498.  (I just realized that DMC pearl cotton has dye lot numbers.  I have two skeins of colour 498 and they are DEFINITELY not the same red!)  My mother started a similar set of blocks in January 2014 using many different colours of floss.  It will be interesting to see how her blocks turn out.

Sunbonnet Sue Redwork Flimsy - 56" x 69"

Sunbonnet Sue Redwork Flimsy – 56″ x 69″

So that makes two more flimsies for the “to be quilted” pile.

Scrap Vortex

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Scrap Vortex - 64" x 73"

Scrap Vortex – 64″ x 73″

I have been watching other blogs and Pinterest as quilters followed Crazy Mom Quilts’ Scrap Vortex Quilt Along.  Seeing the scrap quilts progress reminded me of my stack of crumb blocks that have been languishing on the shelf.  I decided last weekend to start sewing them together and finished the flimsy this weekend.

I did not put my squares together like was suggested in the quilt along.  My blocks are pieced as strips of scraps similar in size like you would piece coin quilts.  I then join the strips together and square them up into blocks.

This quilt is a bit busy.  I will go ahead and quilt it and then see if it needs something else added.  I have a vision of adding some circular appliques randomly across the top.  For now it is hanging in the closet waiting its turn on the long arm.

 

Disappearing Four Patch

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D4P - Flimsy - 64" x 75"

D4P – Flimsy – 64″ x 75″

Linda, Cher, and I have been planning a sew-in for some time now.  Last weekend – June 29 and 30 – was the weekend that we had set aside to sew together.  After sewing most of last weekend and all of today, I have a finished flimsy.

Linda had said that she wanted to make a blue and white quilt for some time now and she thought that the Disappearing 4 Patch (D4P) block would be just the ticket.  One of the first bed sized quilts that I made was a blue and white quilt so I wasn’t interested in the blue and white colourway.  However, the D4P did sound interesting.  Originally, I was going to make a red and white version.  However, I went through my stash looking for something to test the pattern and came across some pre-cut scrappy 6.5″ squares.  I made three blocks from those squares and decided that I would just keep going with that stack of scrap fabric squares.  I added Kona White to the mix as a background to update the feeling of the quilt as these squares are old!  I will save the red and white fabrics for another project.

My D4P version is a generous lap size with the flimsy finishing at 64″ x 75″.

I was so pleased that I had used up almost all of the pre-cut squares in the making of this project and then I came across another bin of 6.5″ squares.  It looks like I will need to make another project or two to finally see the bottom of that pre-cut fabric bin.