No – not the spaghetti you eat but plastic bowls of fabric trimmings from squaring up the blocks at the workshop last Saturday. The bright colored bowls make the scraps really pretty.
Lynn
Monday, June 20, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Scrappity-Do-Dah
These are really easy blocks to make – cut a 6” square, cut it in half diagonally, sew a 1 1/2” x 8 1/2” wide strip between and square up. I did make a goof when I cut my small strips as I cut them at 8” instead of 8 1/2” though but it wasn’t a problem I just squared my blocks a little smaller than some of the others did. Follow the photos below to see how I made the blocks.
One thing I don’t understand from the pattern is that the instructions say to trim the blocks down to 5”. What a lot of fabric to trim off – a big waste I think. I cut my center strip too short and still could trim mine down to 5 1/2”. Others that made the correct size center strip trimmed their blocks to 6” and I did a little figuring and if you cut the center strip 9” long you could square up the block at 6 1/4”. I can’t see wasting as much fabric as the pattern has you trim off. If you want to a 5” block the beginning square should be cut smaller than 6”.
I pressed my seams all one direction so hopefully when I put them together I should be able place the blocks about anywhere by just flipping it if the seams don’t work together. That is the plan but will have to wait until I start putting them together to know if that will work or not.
I have 90 blocks done and don’t really know how many I will make – guess when I run out of blues maybe. Looking at my box of blue fabric I don’t think I want to make that many, even though I would love to make a bigger dent in all those fabrics.
I am not rushing to get this quilt finished and think it will be a fun project to pick up and sew when I have just a few minutes as the blocks are so simple to make.
Lynn
One thing I don’t understand from the pattern is that the instructions say to trim the blocks down to 5”. What a lot of fabric to trim off – a big waste I think. I cut my center strip too short and still could trim mine down to 5 1/2”. Others that made the correct size center strip trimmed their blocks to 6” and I did a little figuring and if you cut the center strip 9” long you could square up the block at 6 1/4”. I can’t see wasting as much fabric as the pattern has you trim off. If you want to a 5” block the beginning square should be cut smaller than 6”.
I pressed my seams all one direction so hopefully when I put them together I should be able place the blocks about anywhere by just flipping it if the seams don’t work together. That is the plan but will have to wait until I start putting them together to know if that will work or not.
I have 90 blocks done and don’t really know how many I will make – guess when I run out of blues maybe. Looking at my box of blue fabric I don’t think I want to make that many, even though I would love to make a bigger dent in all those fabrics.
I am not rushing to get this quilt finished and think it will be a fun project to pick up and sew when I have just a few minutes as the blocks are so simple to make.
Lynn
Monday, June 13, 2011
Guild Workshop
Saturday our local guild had a scrappy quilt workshop. One of our members led the workshop and we got the choice of two different free patterns we all got off the web. These were not difficult patterns and we all could have done them at home but it is so much more fun to sew all day with friends.
I chose to make the Scrappidy-Do-Dah a free pattern from McCalls Quilting. This was designed by Ann Weber and Joanne Rowicki.
The second scrappy quilt was The Next Generation of the Magic 9-Patch by Lyn Brown.
It was a fun day with no yard work, laundry, phone calls, or cooking to do. We have so much fun chatting, sharing tips and getting a large block of time to sew.
I will be blogging more about how I made my blocks next.
Lynn
I chose to make the Scrappidy-Do-Dah a free pattern from McCalls Quilting. This was designed by Ann Weber and Joanne Rowicki.
Here is the start of my quilt. I chose to use all blues so cut two squares and two strips of every blue I have in my “blue box”. I have a lot of blues
Two other member’s quilts…the one on the right is our youngest member’s blocks. She is about 12 I believe. We are so glad she feels comfortable at our meetings and workshops. She is a cutie and really likes to quilt.
It was a fun day with no yard work, laundry, phone calls, or cooking to do. We have so much fun chatting, sharing tips and getting a large block of time to sew.
I will be blogging more about how I made my blocks next.
Lynn
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Gardening Mulch
I have been looking for mulch that will not blow away for years and think I finally found what I have been looking for. A local flower/veg. grower has been selling a mulch that I think will be perfect for the windy conditions we have here in Nebraska and especially here on our farm. I have tried all kinds of bark and shredded wood and they all blow out of the flower beds and are a mess to clean up. I don’t want to use rock as it is hard to move, gets hot with our high temperatures in the summer and is not the best choice around plants.This “new” at least new to me mulch is a soybean mulch. What is soybean mulch you might ask? Well the greenhouse owner’s husband is a farmer and he windrows the stocks, leaves and shells from the soybeans that come out of the back of the combine as he harvests his soybean crop. It normally just falls to the ground to decay where it lays. Windrowing is getting the this debris gathered together in long rows so it can be baled. This farmer and his wife take the baled soybean "stuff" and they chop it up and they sell it bagged or by bulk pickup loads.
I had gone to the business with a friend of mine to get some flowers and she was going to get a couple bags of the mulch and told me her daughter had used it last year and they too live where it is not protected and her mulch didn’t blow all last summer and last winter with the blizzards. I bought a couple of bags to try and put them around a tree in our yard about a month ago and we have had some high windy days and it didn’t move, didn’t get any stems blowing across the lawn so that sold me.
I bought two pickup loads worth and brought it back on a dump trailer and so the last few days I have been taking that pile of mulch and getting it spread around our trees and in my flower beds. Of course this should have been done a couple of months ago while everything is just emerging from the winter as it is more difficult now to get it around the plants and not on the plants since everything is so tall.
It is tiring scooping it into my wheelbarrow and spreading it out, but Oh…it looks so good. It is a little fluffy looking now but it does flatten out with time. It will let moisture through and did I mention…. IT DOES NOT BLOW AROUND!
John and a friend were looking at it and discussing how they could do it next year if we wanted more mulch as we just let it lay in the fields now. The cattle munch on it some but don't eat it too well as it is a little prickly for their tastes even though they relish the actual soybeans left in the field. The big problem was how to chop it as we don’t have a hay bale chopper but they decided a silage cutter would do the chopping too so I may not have to buy it again.
Probably the best benefit of putting this mulch around everything is the physical work out I am getting on my ankle and shoulder. Lifting and reaching is good for my shoulder and all that squatting and bending is making my ankle feel so much better so maybe I have found a new physical therapy exercise I should share with the therapist I went to for months with my ankle.
Still have part of the pile left so the next few days will be filled with more mulching until I use it up. John helped me a little the first day but he is busy doing farm work so it is up to me to get it spread out. Besides I am enjoying working in my flower beds this summer since I had to "let" John do it last year since I was in a cast a large part of the summer. I did take today off to go to a guild workshop and enjoyed the day of sewing. Will share what we did on another post as soon as I have a chance to size my photos.
Lynn
PS...just noticed the close up photo I posted is sure not very pretty as the Gerber Daisy's were looking a little peaked for some reason.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
