Easy Street, Step 7

I know this doesn't look like too much yet, but believe me, this took a marathon sewing session today to finish Step 7, which was only posted this morning. Final clue tomorrow morning. Happy New Year!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Yes, it is snowing very nicely at the moment. I am snug and warm in my sewing den. Bonnie Hunter has posted another clue this morning on her Easy Street mystery quilt. We are beginning to build units for the big finale, which posts tomorrow. What a way to end the year! Here is what the units look like that we are making today.

Before Christmas I made funky chicken pin cushions from a pattern that has been languishing in a drawer for several years. The pattern is  Pollo Loco by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.. I haven't been able to show them sooner because our little social group did not meet to exchange Christmas gifts until yesterday. You never know who is lurking in blogland.

The chickens are made from orphan blocks and are filled with crushed walnut shells. The walnut shells are easily available in pet stores, where they are marketed as litter for reptile cages. This is a much better use, in my opinion. I really like using walnut shells instead of batting. The pincushions are nice and weighty with the shells as filling and it also holds pins well, too. The combs and tails are made from fun fur yarn or shredded fabric strips in the case of the checkerboard chicken. Fun fur makes fabulous combs and tails, but a word of warning - it makes a big mess all over your sewing area. Have the vacuum at the ready.

Last, but not least, I have been plugging away at the pineapple blocks, made using Gyleen Fitzgerald's Pineapple Tool. These are easy to make and turn out very accurately using this ruler. Unfortunately it seems to be making no dent whatsoever in the scrap pile.

Grandmother's Choice: Cheyenne

Today Barbara Brackman posted her Grandmother's choice Block of the Week,Cheyenne. Here is my version.

Easy Street Step 6

Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt, Part 6, posted today. It was a relatively easy step, consisting of 128 bricks cut from 2" black and white print strips and 16 squares of green fabric cut diagonally twice. All done and ready for step 7, which will post on Monday morning. The pace is picking up and the last clue will be posted a week from today! I am eager to see what all this cutting and sewing will produce. It is snowing a bit here tonight and it is just so nice to be warm and toasty and sewin' up a storm of my own indoors.

I had a small 4 year old (almost) helper in the sewing room today. She is the daughter of a friend and came with her WebKinz Christmas kittie. Of course Pedro, the kittie, needed a quilt. And of course, it had to be pink. No photos, but it was fun, fast, and done!

More Organizing

I resisted the urge to run out to Target today to look for a pre-lit Christmas tree on sale. More junk to store I thought. I have two artificial trees that never got put up this year, so what is the point really? One of the trees is a small skinny 4-foot artificial tree that in years past was decorated with woodsy ornaments and placed in the front entryway. It will become the regular tree on a small table in the future.

After lunch, I put together this organizer that was on sale last week at Michael's. The drawers will hold the  strips that are being cut up from "discarded" fabric following the closet reorganization of November.

At the rate things are going, several of these organizers will be needed. The plan is to use the strips in pineapple blocks and other scrappy projects. In furtherance of that goal, two more pineapple blocks were added to the first one on the design wall.

The original one is looking less homely now that it has company. Repeat ad infinitum.............

Pineapples!

I received a new toy in the mail today. It's the "Trash to Treasure Pineapple Quilt" book by Gyleen Fitzgerald as well as the Pineapple Tool that goes with the book. I first learned of Gyleen, her tool, and her followers at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2010. There was a table of ladies demonstrating the tool and displaying the quilt they had made using it. I ordered the book and ruler last week, but really didn't expect it before Christmas. Here is Gyleen's web site. And here is the block I made this evening:

Yes, it is a homely thing, I will be the first to admit it. I tried, I really did, to make it totally and completely random and scrappy, according to Gyleen's instructions. The lights and darks were placed in order, though, and the fabric in each round is either the same on all four sides, or similar. But - and here is the important part - the block is absolutely square. Homely though it is, an entire quilt of these blocks will be interesting, if nothing else. The plan is to start whittling down the large amount of fabric left over from the closet cleaning and reorganizing that I showed you here.

The fabrics are either pieces too small (less than 6" WOF), or ones that I don't like any longer. In accordance with Bonnie Hunter's plan, the strips are being cut into 3.5, 2.5, 2.0, and 1.5 inch strips. There is a huge amount of work left to get everything sorted and cut into strips. 15 minutes of cutting at a time seems doable. If you just get started, usually you can last much longer than 15 minutes. Little by little it will get done. The pineapple blocks use 2.5 inch squares in the center, and 1.5 inch strips for the rounds.

When inspiration fails to strike, there will always be the pineapple tool and a bag of strips at hand. Quilts from trash will be the result. If nothing else, the tops can be simply quilted and donated to a worthy cause.

Merry Christmas

Grandmother's Choice: Mother's Delight

I have pretty much completed Christmas cookie baking. All the presents were wrapped last night. My daughter and her significant other are coming for dinner tonight, but until then, I hope to have some time to sew. Here are my helpers.

Jade

Mickey , resting after the battle of the batting scraps