Crumb along Reveal

Way back in September, (how is it possible that it's 7 months ago already?), I was dragged by my tendency to start and get caught up in too many projects, into a Crumb Along that I had decided was a good idea, but not at that time, but I ended up doing it anyway, and I'm glad I did. It was a lot of fun, and used up a lot of bits and pieces that would either have sat littering my sewing room, or would have ended in the garbage. I've already shown pictures of it here on the blog, but this post is for the linky party where all of us who were playing in the Crumb Along  reveal our quilts, at whatever stage they happen to be in now. Mine was finished back in December, because it was destined to be a Christmas present.
The quilt ended up being about 62"x64"

There is so much going on in the quilt, that any detailed or fancy quilted would have been lost. So it got a very simple overall meander.

The final recipient of the quilt was our well beloved grand doggie Shelby, who had her very own Christmas gift to unwrap. There are other crumb quilts to see over at the reveal party at Jo's Country Junction. These things are quite fun to do, and there just might be some more of them in my future.........

Crumbs quilt is finished

 Wow, am I ever on a roll. I have another finish. Of course, it isn't a very big quilt, measuring about 60 x 62, and it is quilted with a very simple overall meander. I figured that, since there is so much going on in the quilt itself, complex quilting wouldn't show. Even with the close up, the quilting is difficult to see. For the backing, I found some leftover pieces that were crying to be used up, and to be put into a quilt so they could be loved. I really like the splash of orange tulips down the middle. I hope Shelby likes it, when she gets it for Christmas. I wonder how I'll know if she does, considering she's our chocolate labrador retriever grand-doggy.     And now, I'm off to work. See ya....

Friday edit: Once again, I'm going to link up to AmandaJean's Crazy Mom's Quilts for her Finish it up Friday. And I just found a new linky party that looks like it has a lot of fun stuff to look at, called the Rock 'n Share Party hosted buy a blog called The Shady Porch. Looks Like I'll be spending some time on her front porch.

Crumbs is a flimsy

I have the top for the Crumb Along finished. It still needs quilting, but at least the top is done. It was one of the things I finished up last week before going back to work. A couple of months ago, Laurie, my lovely daughter-in-law, asked for a quilt for their chocolate lab, Shelby. Apparently the dog has taken a liking to sleeping on Averys' quilts, and so would benefit from one of her own. And actually, Shelby is the only member of the family without her own quilt. So, this one is hers. I had a lot of fun doing this quilt. The whole concept of not having to have accurate seams, just working in a free form way was intriguing, and rather liberating. I'll probably keep this concept in my pocket, and bring it out to use in other quilts, maybe as the centre of stars, and that kind of thing, and replace the boring plain fabric squares, with crumbs. I'm linking up to the Crumb along reveal where, as the week goes by, there will be more fun crumb quilts to see.

Design Wall Monday Oct. 31

 I must confess to totally enjoying this time off work. I have managed to get soooooooooo much done, both finishing a couple of older projects, and starting a couple of new. Beach Cottage, from the book Scrap Basket Sensations is now a flimsy. It is actually off the "design line" and onto the longarm for quilting. I'm going to try a free hand meandering feather on it.  On my actual wall are a couple of things. The crumb quilt for the Crumb along is almost done. I need to finish off a few more letters, and then some squares for the last side.

Then, I succumbed to the temptation to start a new quilt. It's a pattern I've had for quite some time, called Summer Rental by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. I'm using the fat quarter bundle of Etchings to make it. I've just started to get into using fabric lines when doing quilts. Beach Cottage was the first time I'd ever used a complete fabric line, in a jelly roll. This is the second time I've done this. So far, I'm happy with the results. These are some of the alternate chain blocks for the quilt. I'm hoping to get started on some of the star blocks today. It's looking rather Christmassy right now, but it won't stay that way. I go back to work on the 12th of November, and would like to see if I can get this one done before then.

I'm linking this post up to the Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times where there are lots more sights to see.

The day after the night before......

I decided yesterday to participate in the Friday Night Sew-in along with, at last count, 198 other bloggers. It is going to take a long time to go through all those posts to see what they were working on last night. I could ration them out....... maybe 10 or 20 at a time? It is so much fun to be able to see what other people are working on, and find new blogs to read. Anyway, I sewed yesterday like a mad woman. I had a leaders and enders project that was ready to go to the next stage. And then this weeks assignment for the Crumb along which was to sew the centre blocks together and add a border.

The first thing I started working on was the leader and ender quilt that I was working on, using the Charlevoix jelly roll that I ordered from the fat quarter shop quite a while ago. As soon as it came in the house, I cut it up, and started on it. Yesterday's job was to finish adding the triangles to the corners of the blocks. It took twice as long to do, since I double sewed them in order to be able to use the triangles that otherwise would have been discarded. 
It is going to have a narrow border of some sort added to this, probably a green of some sort, which might mean a trip to the fabric store, depending on what I can find in my stash.. Then, I am going to use those bonus triangles as a border, and I have some 2 1/2 inch squares left of all the fabrics to use as another pieced border.  And I just now noticed, looking at the picture, that one of the squares in the bottom row is turned the wrong way. It's not sewn together yet, so that's an easy fix. This is a pattern from the book Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett called Beach Cottage.

Then there is the crumb along quilt. The centre is now all sewn together, and is waiting for a border of some sort. I haven't quite decided which fabric to use for it, other than I think it needs to be something fairly light.  There seems to be a lot of darks in the centre of this, and I think it needs some lightening up. I'm also supposed to be working on the outer border blocks, of whatever kind I decide to use. Stars seem to be a popular choice, as are letters, either as an alphabet, or a name. I have a few ideas perking around in my brain, but nothing solidified as yet. I would love to keep working on these today, as well, but there are things around here needing doing. We have to put the trailer to bed for the year, and there is a gazebo in the back yard that needs its fabric taken down and stored. I'm limited by not being able to lift in what I can do to help in these tasks, but I'll do what I can. Which means, I'd best get off the computer, get some clothes on and do something.

Design wall Monday Oct 10

There are a few more crumb blocks up on my wall today, and I've arranged them all up there, and put them all together as if they were going to be sewn together. There are 24 of them up there, and it so far measures 36" x 24". Not really big enough to do much with, just yet. But, there are lots more crumbs left from where these came from. So, as soon as I can see better, I'll get back at them.

I went and visited my sewing machine last night, after we got home from our Thanksgiving weekend. She was looking rather lonely, so I decided to sit down and figure out what, if anything, I could do with her. I quickly found out
 that any kind of precision sewing would definitely
 not be happening. But then I remember a project
I started last year, using crumbs and scraps and
 stings to piece together some wedge shapes in order to get an Endless Chain quilt going. I can see well enough to know when a piece of fabric is big enough to cover the needed space, and well enough to aim for the black line to sew on. So I can play some with these when the sewing bug bites.  I need 336 of these wedges, and I have 247 of them done already. Trimming will obviously have to wait. But, the added bonus will be to help shrink the amount of stuff in my odd shapes and crumbs scrap drawer. I've been thinking I should sit down sometime and go through this drawer and sort of sort it out. Well, doing these wedges will do that. And, if I get these done, I might start one of Bonnie Hunter's quilts called Out on a String. I made one of these shortly after she published the pattern, and would like to do another.

And now, I'm going to link up to Judy's Patchwork times and then go out and do some knitting on the porch, and enjoy the fabulous, record breaking warm weather.

Crumb along

I've been playing with crumbs this evening, and having a blast. This weeks assignment from Jo who is hosting the "Crumb Along", and where there is a linky party that I'm going to hook up with, showing other people's crumb blocks, was to use triangles in the squares. I think these are my favourites, so far, and will probably do the bulk of the rest of my blocks using them in various ways. I think the constant colour in these squares is going to be the greens. I have tons of these little green triangles left from trimming the Rose Log Cabin quilt I did a few months ago. I am hoping to be able to do a lot more of these next week. Jo says we need at least 50 blocks for what she is guiding us to.But, that is going to depend on the results of the cataract surgery tomorrow, and if I can find a pair of drug store reading glasses that will work for me. I suspect the two eyes are going to need different strengths. So, I'm seriously thinking of buying a pair of each of the strengths I need, both pairs having the same frames. Then I can hopefully pop out, and exchange the lenses to the ones I need to make a pair that will work. It's worth a try, anyway. And now, since it is 11:45 pm, and I can't have anything to eat of drink after midnight, I'd better go and have a drink and a snack while I can.

Crumb Along....... I'm hooked

The instructions for the second part of the Crumb along went up today, and I felt like playing today. These things are a blast to make. I'm totally hooked. I've done 5 of the stars, and still need to do the hearts. But I had all kinds of stuff there to do regular crumbs with, so I've made a bunch of 3 1/2 inch crumb squares, that I've sewn together to make up 6 1/2 inch squares to go with the geese and the stars. I have no idea where this is going, but it sure is a lot of fun, and is making a teeny dent in my crumb and string pile. I'm figuring out the stash usage for these by figuring out the number of square inches for each of these squares at 6.5 x6.5 to equal 42.25 square inches each. Then I'm adding 50% to allow for all the seams and the trimmings, for a total of 63.5 square inches each. Figuring that out for 14 squares, gives me approximately 2/3 of a yard used up. It sure doesn't look like I've used up that much fabric. And now, I think I'll go back and play some more, and make up some crumb hearts this time. Fun, fun, fun.......

A Crumb Along

I've been reading posts about this Crumb Along for a couple of weeks now. I thought to myself, "this looks like fun, but not right now". Then, last night I was looking at the posts of various people who have finished some of the crumb blocks, and thought to myself, "this looks like a lot of fun, but not right now". Then, I went upstairs, took a look at my cutting table, and saw some trimmings from blocks that were red, and already had a triangle sewn on one side and thought that they looked like the flying geese for the first step of the crumb along, if only they had another triangle sewn on them. And the next thing I knew, I was sewing on the second triangles, and digging through my crumbs and strings and leftovers. The result......... 5 crumb blocks that I wasn't going to do.   
They measure 6 1/2 inches square. The funny part, or maybe the expected part, is when I finished them, and went back and looked at the posts again, the instructions said to make 2 blocks. As you can see, I read instructions really well.......... not. (giggle). I'm not sure what these will end up as, but they sure are fun. And now, after I finish my second cup of coffee, I'm off to see if I can get the last row of Shakespeare in the Park quilted, and get him off the frame. In the meantime, I'm linking up to Jo's Country Junction where there are a bunch of others also doing the crumb along.