Autumn Tints

     I am getting  sick of half square triangles, so when I came across this picture I decided to take a break from then.  I made this quilt several years ago for a book called Christmas Scrapcrafts.   I sent all the projects to New York to be photographed  and someone walked off with all of them.  The only thing I got back was a few photos. 

     This is a super easy, quick quilt that you could probably finish in a weekend.  I used fabric I had on hand but you can use any colors you want.  You will need 3  yards for the large squares and 3 yards for the light squares, plus assorted amounts of 12 colors for the small squares.

     Cut dark fabric into 7" squares.  Cut light fabric into 4: wide strips.  Cut colored fabrics into 4" strips.  Sew a light and colored fabric together, then cut apart every 4".  Sew two such squares together to form a checkerboard. 

     Working across, start with a plain square, then alternate with a pieced square, end with a plain square.
You will need 12 print #1, 10 print #2, 8 print #3, 6 print #4, 4 print #5 and 2 print#6.
For the second row, start with print #7 then follow the same sequence as the first row.  The left side will start with a new print, then follow the sequence as before.   You will need 12 print #7, 10 print #8, 8 print #9, 6 print # 10, 4 print #11 and 2 print #12.

It's Garden Time

       Next to quilting, gardening is my second passion.   I know it's January and at least here in Ohio there is snow on the ground, but now is the time to start planning the garden.   Several years ago I wrote a book called "Garden Diary".  It's broken down into months and each section begins with "Things To Do This Month."  Here is
the one for January.

1.   Plan this year's garden.
2.   Prune fruit trees, summer blooming trees and shrubs as weather   permits.
3.   Fertilize spring blooming shrubs.
4.   Keep snow build up off evergreen brances to prevent breaking.
5.   Force rhubarb.
6.   Force chichons.
7.   Force bulbs.
8.   Clean and sharpen tools.
9.   Comparison shop the seed companies and decide what you will plant this year.
10.  Assemble flats and soil for next month's indoor planting.

     Hope this gets you in the mood.

 

More Quilt As You Go

      I completed all the blocks for Rainbow Flower, but when I moved the blocks disappeared.  But it was so easy I may try it again.

     This is an 8" block, so cut batting 9" and backing 10".  Each strip finishes at 2" so I would cut 3" strips because I use a 1/2" seam allowance. 

     Position 2" yellow square at upper left corner.  Lay 2" pink square right sides facing over yellow square and stitch in place.  Open out.  Lay pink strip right sides together covering yellow and pink strip.  Cut off even with bottom of pink strip and stitch in place.

Continue adding strips until block is finished.

Below are other designs that can be used with this technique.

Half Square Triangles

     I am obsessed with triangles.  I mentioned before that I cut any leftover scraps into 2: triangles and toss them into a box.  I've decided to use up all those triangles and currently have six quilts in progress.



  For this I sorted the triangles into color groups.  Each block of 25 squares is a different color group.  I plan to set them with white lattice strips.







Half square trangles were made into pinwheels and set with plain white 4" squares.

 

 

I don't know the name of this pattern but the block finishes at 16".  It may look like quarter square triangles, but is three rows of half square triangles set on the diagonal and filled with a half triangle.

 



Lady of the Lake

 

Delectable Mountains

 

 

Designs for half square triangles are limitless.  Many regular patterns use them and are easily adapted to a scrap quilt, either by using scraps for each trangle or using color blocks separated by lattice strips or white squares.

 

 

 

                                        

 

Hey, those are quarter square triangles.  What are they doing here?  Well, I find that quarter square triangles are time consuming to piece and require too much effort to make sure they come out right.  By sewing together to half squae triangles, I now have a quarter square triangle that took only seconds to piece.  Try it, it is much easier.

 



 





 





 

This and That

I did it.  I finished one.  I'm so proud of me.

 

 

I'll grant you it is the smallest, but I finished it!

 

 

My second favorite hobby is gardening.  I have been trying to grow my own herbs for the past few years.  It's amazing how large one small starter plant can get.  The thyme plant I planted two years ago has spread to cover a three foot square.  I use it fresh during the summer and fall, but then I dry armloads for winter use.  With such a harvest, I needed something in which to store the dried herbs. 

      My husband loves Parmesan cheese sprinkled on his popcorn and I decided these wre ideal for storing the herbs.  I printed out labels, glued them onto the jara and viola, herb jars.

 



What I don't grow myself, I purchase in bulk.  I can buy 6-8 ounces of bulk herbs and spices for approximately the same cost as a 2 ounce jar.  The really nice thing about these jars is that they have a divided lid, one side large enough to spoon out the herb, the other side with holes in it for sprinkling.

     When I was in California visiting my daughter, I stumbled across large Folgers coffee containers.  I don't remember exactly how much coffee they contained, but I think about three pounds. They are the perfect size to hold 5 pounds of flour or sugar, and of course, I have one for coffee.

I use the smaller cans for things like brown sugar, rice, powdered sugar, you name it.  Since I put my borwn sugar in one of these containers, I haven't had any hard, dried out sugar.

Decorating the cans has limitless possibilities. There are three separate panels on each can.  For the brown sugar, I copied a picutre of a bear onto a grocery sack, with the label on a separate piece of paper.  For the popcorn, I copied an illustration for an ear of corn.  For the flour and sugar canisters, I copied my favorite recipes for the two side panels.  I really want one with a picture of Cookie Monster for a cookie jar but so far I haven't been able to copy a decent picture of Cookie Monster.

To make the labels, I scanned the desired pictures into a graphics program and sized it to the proper size.  After printing out, I sprayed each picture, front and back with a fixative.   This adds body to the paper and also helps prevent the ink from running.

Cut out the labels and glue in place on the cans.  Allow glue to dry then spray with a clear acrylic sealer.  This will make the labels water resistant so it's easy to wipe off any cooking spills

Quilts in Progress

  I have been busy the last few months.  I've completed four tops, now all I have to do is quilt them.

These are the two I gave instructions for   They went together really fast.

     I mentioned that when I bring a length of fabric home I cut off a 4" to 6" strip to use for scrap quilts.  I cut a lot of these into

triangles that will finish out at 2".  Here are some of the quilts I've made from those triangles.

Sawtooth

This is 4" Pinwheel blocks

Double Pyramid

     I learned the meaning of the saying "It's not a quilt until it's quilted" with this quilt.  I made this several years ago and thought it was really ugly.  I did quilt it with some elaborate fans and it was a thing of beauty.  It  became my favorite quilt.  But, alas, it succumbed to age and having used 100% cotton fabric.  Below are two examples of why I don't like 100% cotton fabric.

This oriinally had Holly Hobby cutouts appliqued to the blocks, most of which are now gone.  The background and lattice strips were cotton/polyester blends.



I showed a picture of this quilt previously.  All the patches around the blue triangles were once a red cotton, which has just disappeared.  The blue and white fabrics were a cotton/polyester blend.

This is a sampler I'm using for a beginning quilter's class.



This was how I used the leftover fabric.

I made two of these 32" blocks.  I love how it turned out, but I don't have any more of the blue fabric and I can't figure out what to do with the two blocks.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

A quick note

     I want to take a minute to apoligize for not posting recently.  I am a complete idiot when it comes to working on the internet.  I tried to access my blog but forgot my password.  Not an unusual occurance for me.  I tried to get my password from whoever is in charge of this function, but I just couldn't read those sqiggly little messages.  I finally e-mailed and was told someone must have been playing with my blog but I wasn't clear on what I was suppsed to do about it.  Anyway, I finally tried again and will be posting more quilts in the next few days.  I also have a craft project you might like.