Monday, July 20, 2015

Schlep Bag

I finished another UFO today. It is a Schlep Bag. These were all the rage a few years ago. I still see variations of them where people have made more squares and call it something else. This is from the original free pattern I found years ago online.   I started this project as something to work on at the retreat I attended in Phoenix last February. I cut big squares and quilted each one differently on my longarm. I thought there was a quilted handle too but I guess that did not get done at the time. The square units were cut to 6 1/2 and sewn together. The bag is a great size for putting a carry along project in or some clothes for the weekend or whatever. I was cleaning up my sewing room and found this with a stack of fabrics and decided instead of putting it somewhere I would just finish it.


 Last night I started a new quick quilt project. These are half square triangles cut from 7" squares. Hopefully I can get this top sewn up sometime next week as I will not have time to sew it together this week. It will make a nice sized lap quilt and I used about 2.75 yards of fabric. So with the backing and binding this should bust about 7 yards of stash.

 When I tried to take a photo of this the top few fabrics flew off and I had to run downstairs and go out into the yard to retrieve them. It is a cloudy afternoon with brooding storm clouds that did dump some rain but not as much as we have gotten in the past few storms.





Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Focus Is Now A Finished Top

 I got a very late start on my first go round of the Nesting Robin. I began with one block and could not find inspiration. One day I was just messing around with scraps and such and made the word Focus. I just kept going with it as my Nesting Robin. I have started the second go round and this was not finished. Yesterday I was determined to remedy that so I put the parts back up on the design wall and began piecing together the puzzle. This is how it finally ended up.  This was just a fun project not a work of art. It will hang in my sewing area as a reminder to keep on track with one piece and see it thru. Now I just need to quilt and bind this. There is not enough of the dark blue for binding so I will have to make a decision on that when I get to that step.

It is another beautiful day in New Mexico. We have been getting lots of rains in the evenings and it is about as green as I have ever seen it here.


Sunday, July 12, 2015

Nesting Robin July 2015-Dec 2015 Clue #1





I left my blocks up on the design wall and went and looked at them a few times. I had some ideas for some of them but those will be for another project for another day. You can see in the photo below the second row down the second from the left is the lucky block chosen for my Nesting Robin. I made this as a test block for a Dear Jane swap I did about a decade ago. We used Civil War reproduction fabrics and made a group of 9" blocks. I do not remember the name of the block or the fabric I used for the swap but this is my test block. I used fabrics that were in my stash that made be happy. The block came out nicely and went together quickly the test block had served its purpose so ended up being put aside................until now.






I chose this block because I love the bright vibrant colors. I also like the sense of movement the block had by appearing to be on point when it was not.  I decided to proceed with clue one and washed two new one yard cuts of  rust colored fabrics. While those were in the wash I was cleaning up some things in the sewing room and I came across the strips below that I had made at the retreat I attended two years ago. They were sashing for another quilt and I made too many. They too have been hanging around with no real purpose. On a whim I placed them around my block and played with the right colors.


Humm..................not at all what I had envisioned but a win because they were already made and they look pretty nice. The colors do not match perfectly with what is there but as the quilt grows it will all balance out. Now the fledgling quilt has been started and awaits the next clue!

I hope those of you that are participating are enjoying figuring out your beginning and coming up with a plan to work on the first clue. Don't forget to share your progress.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Nesting Robin July 2015 thru December 2015


What do the blocks in the photo have in common?

Well it is not really a trick question because they are all made of fabric and that is about it. As quilt blocks they really do not have much in common. Some are from swaps and are left over blocks. Some were made by me out of "junk" fabrics to try out blocks before I cut into my "good" fabric. There is one vintage block in the lower right. The big yellow star in the center was made because I was sending off three blocks for comfort quilts and I made one to keep as a reminder of my dear friend who had passed away. The one in the upper right was all hand pieced and has a few faded spots.

Ok so what is the point here. This is a group of Orphan blocks. They are not part of a bigger group of blocks for a quilt...................but each could become part of a new project. I am inviting you to participate in a Nesting Robin with me.

So what is a Nesting Robin? Well it is not a round robin where you send away a block to someone and they add something and send it to the next person who adds something and so forth till you get it back. Nope this is a Nesting Robin in that you will be doing all the work on yourself as the block stays in the Nest.........or with you. This means that you get to make all the decisions on what happens to it and you can follow the rules as you want to interrupt them.

This will be done with a series of "clues". Each month I will tell you what to add next. You will get to decide how to use that clue. If you just do not like my clue then do something you want that month. In the end you will have five borders, rows, or components to put together. Note that you do not need to do borders (or if you do borders they do not have to go all the way around.

If this sounds like fun there is a flicker page that was made for the last go round of this. Those that were working on the Nesting Robin posted a photo of the beginning block or components and then each addition. If you would like to add your photos to that page let me know and I will send you information on it. Please send me e-mail thru my blog with Nesting Robin July 2015 in the subject line and I will tell you how to proceed with the flicker page.

I will post the first clue here: Choose a block, a row of blocks, a panel or whatever you will start with and add something that is with pieces that are longer than they are wide. In addition as an extra challenge use at least one color that is not in your block.

The next clue will be published the second week of August.