WIP Wednesday - June 19

Although it feels like I've been spending more time outside the sewing room than inside, I am getting a few things done. Because summer is a difficult time for me to get motivated to sew, I am trying to pre-cut a few projects so that when I have an hour or two, I can just get right down to sewing.

Alphabet 9-patch

Alphabet 9-patch

Someone had gifted me with an alphabet panel and an assortment of scraps of the same panel. I carefully cut out each letter, found a green print to go with it and some off-white squares to finish the 9-patch blocks and set aside the pieces I cut for sewing on another day.

Scrappy purple squares

I have lots of scraps and they are stored in a large Rubbermaid tub. (Any quilter should have shares in Rubbermaid!) These are destined to end up in scrap quilts and occasionally, I will take some out and do some sorting. If the pieces are bigger than 5x5, I'll just fold them neatly and store with similar colors along with the fat quarters of the same color. Strips are sorted by width - less than 2", 2" and 2.25", and 3". Strips less than 2" are separated out and put aside for string quilts. Smaller pieces of fabric are cut into 2.5", 2" and 1.5" squares. 

How do you sort your scraps? What's the smallest piece of fabric you save? Inquiring minds want to know!

--Ann

Mug Rugs or Mug Mats

I love these little mini-quilts that can be used as coasters under your beverage of choice. But it seems that they are a phenomenon only known to quilters! I thought they would go over well at the last few craft sales I did, but people were saying "Mug rug? What's that?" 

Owl Mug Rug

 Our quilt guild had their year end potluck last week and a few of us exchanged mug rugs with matching mugs.  I found a cute mug with an owl on it at the local Home Sense store. (I love shopping there!) After sketching out the owl, I used fusible web to applique the pieces in place on the mug rug.

Blanket Stitching

Cute owl!

 Then it was off to my sewing machine where I used the blanket stitch to stitch around all the pieces. The beak and black dots on the eyes are just permanent marker.

Tulip Mug Rug

This is the mug rug I received in the swap - a pretty tulip mug from Great Britain with a tulip mug rug! So cute!

--Ann

Spring Blossoms

I love taking photos of the plants that are blooming in my yard - when I focus in on the beauty of a flower, I can forget that the rest of my yard is looking rather messy as it's been too wet to do much gardening at all! So enjoy!

Lily of the Valley

Wild Crab Apple Blossoms

Lady's Slippers

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - June 5

Spring has sprung and the flowers are blooming! At least the lilacs are finally coming out! I love the colours found in nature and this colour combo of lilac, green and blue is going to show up soon in a quilt!

Last quilt guild meeting, I got my next tins to work on. It is supposed to work out that we each get one tin per month, but with a few guild meetings cancelled due to weather and quilters being away for one reason or another, I have 3 more to work on! This tin had a strip of red print fabric and a pattern for these beautiful hearts! This one below is my block - there were some leftover pieces left that I used for the bottom of my heart, I used the fabric provided for the top left and my own fabric for the top right and the little triangles at the top. Fast and easy!

Red Heart Quilt Block - Tinner's challenge!

All 6 blocks so far!

 The next tin had a piece of wild green, orange and blue stripe and a theme of jungle! No patterns included this time! I have some zebra fabric I've had for quite some time and I fussy cut it so there was one zebra face in the center, added a couple borders and finished this block.

My jungle theme quilt block

Jungle theme blocks so far.

Sampler in lime green

 And the last thing I've been working on this week is a set of blocks that were donated to the guild at one time. I've added a lime green batik for sashing and borders and it's now ready for quilting. I'm still not sure if I will be leaving the log cabin blocks in the middle (on the left and right) as they are or if I'll add an applique or something on them. They just seem a bit too pale when everything is all put together. I'm thinking a heart or flower would just add a bit of colour there. This quilt will eventually be part of our charity quilts when it is finished.

--Ann

Today I'm linking up to
Quiltsy WIP's and Whatnots
The Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday #93