What's In The Box ~ Part 3

 Hi Quilty Friends!  Today's UFO is a beauty.  This one was started in 2014.  You can see the original blog post here.

Each of the 4 flags measures 34 x 20 with 13  raw edge appliqued stars.

The 5 huge flowers make me smile, who doesn't love flowers?!

All of the templates were neatly tucked in an envelope. Did I plan to make more?

The fabric is from my older fabric stash and have been prewashed but not starched.  Oh, how I dislike working with unstarched fabric.  Well, it's too late to starch now, don't you think?  

 

The red and blue fabrics were purchased at Joann's or Walmart.

The 3 fabrics below I know came from Walmart way back when they decided to get rid of fabric in the early 2000's.  When the fabric went on clearance, I bought as much as I could afford every week and grabbed as many of the free patterns as they would let me take.  Do you remember the monthly free quilt patterns at Walmart?  They also had free crochet patterns every month.

Well, back to my quilt.  The quilt I used as my inspiration was Patriotic Rose.  I planned to buy the pattern until I saw the quilt only finished at 74x74.  I wanted a queen sized quilt. So, I didn't buy the pattern and decided to make one similar and larger.  For my quilt, the stars on the flags were changed because I prefer the look of Betsy Ross flag with all 13 stars in a circle.  The flower was also changed to suit my taste. 

One thing puzzles me...What was my plan for the yellow fabric?  Maybe I thought the blue stars sprinkled around the quilt should be yellow?   I'm not sure if that was the plan but as of today, I like the blue stars and I love this quilt so...this UFO will be moved to the top of the must finish list.

See you soon with another What's In The Box UFO.  It will be one of the two on the top of the box.  Which one would you like to see next?  The red arrow or the orange arrow?

This post it being linked at the following linky party.  Hop over for quilty inspiration.

Melva Loves Scraps: Sew & Tell ~ 12/23/2024

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Old Town Mystery Quilt ~ Part 5 Finished

 Hey Quilty Friends!  Old Town Part 5 was a breeze compared to some of the previous clues. I finished these much faster than I thought.  But in my excitement, I forgot one of Bonnies rules, no pictures on our cutting mats.  So, once again I blurred out the cutting mat lines in some of the pictures.

Bonnie's patterns almost always give the maker several options for making the different units.  My plan for this quilt was to use the Bonnie Hunter Essential Triangle ruler if it was a suggested option.  As you can see, I changed my mind.  The flippy corners method was easier.  I don't need more cutoff triangles for making half square triangle blocks, but I figure, why not?  You have over 4,000 half square triangles, what's a few more?

The instructions suggested drawing a line from corner to corner, then stitching to the right side of the line, basically it's a scant quarter inch.  I chose not to draw a line but to use the seam guide tape.  Just put the point of the square at the needle and stitch, making sure the opposite point stays on the red line.

In no time at all I had all the square in a square units completed.

I also had a huge pile of cut off corners.  Instead of sewing the green and blue triangles together, I will be adding a white triangle to each one of these.

The last part of this week clue was easy.  A bunch of blue and white squares.  I forgot to take a picture of the blue squares.  They were in the first picture at the beginning of this post.

While cutting the white squares I came across a few triangles hiding in the scrap bins.  They were set aside to be used with the flippy corners cut offs to make half square triangles.   To make even more white triangles, the end was cut off all the pieces from previous clues when I cut triangles from strips of fabric.

I haven't counted all the white triangles, but I think there should be more than enough to go with the green and blue cutoffs. 

I thought about stitching all these together today, but it occurred to me, there's still more clues to this mystery quilt.  There may be more triangles in the last few clues.  Maybe I should hold off on making bonus half square triangles until I'm sure these can't be used in another clue. So, to be on the safe side, I gave them their own special little box and will wait until the final quilt reveal before making them into half square triangles.

By sundown last night all the mystery quilt mess was cleaned up and the project was stored away on the top of works in progress cart.  

Sunday is sewing in my jammies day.  I'll be working from the bottom shelf of this cart.  The Bumpkin Baskets quilt has a lot of border applique to be stitched into place.  That should keep me busy all day. 

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Back Door Quilts ~ Fabric Haul ~ 2 Bucks A Block Quilt

Hi Quilty Friends!  Earlier in the week me and my friend Judy went on a little shopping trip to our local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts.  I had a list of needed items...Thimblepads, iron cleaner and Superior Threads Mono-poly thread.  The rest was impulse purchases that we will call Merry Christmas to me!

When I saw the new Cory Yoder line called Cali & Co I couldn't resist the 3 low volume prints.

I grabbed a few more low volume fat quarters because you can never have too many.  The top two prints are Lori Holt prints.  The third print is by Christopher Thompson, and the last print in the stack is by J. Wecker Frisch.

A couple more low volume prints with no information on the selvage.  And a half yard of a beautiful real red print from the Smitten line of fabric by Bonnie and Camille.  A good red print is hard to find these days, so I snatch this one up with no hesitation.  Most so called reds are not red.  They are tomato soup, cranberry or raspberry.  The blue print is by Edyta Sitar and was just too pretty to leave behind.

The shop was having a sale on Christmas and Halloween fabrics, I had no plan on buying either.  As you all know I'm not a big fan of novelty prints.  Sometimes I need to break my own rules.  This Sugar Coated Northcott print was just too darn cute.  It would make an adorable accent on tea towel or maybe a set of potholders for next Christmas.

The last impulse buy was this Scalloped Metal quilt stand.  I've had my eye on it for a year or two.  It's the same shape as my blog logo and it was also my business logo.

The small quilts are held onto the metal stand with magnets.  The quilt designs are cute and made with wool.  I'm allergic to wool clothing so I don't plan on taking the chance of using quilting wool.  I might eventually make the two below with raw edge applique and quilting cotton but for now I'm excited to try my hand at designing at least one of my own.

Now for the other reason we went to the quilt shop.  We wanted to see the new 2 bucks a block quilt for 2025.  It's made with Lori Holt prints.  Judy and I both loved the quilt and decided to sign up for a year's worth of quilty fun. We will pick up our first blocks sometime next month.  

  You can find all the details for this 2 bucks a block quilt program on the Back Door Quilts website by clicking here.

 

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What's In The Box ~ Part 2 ~ Grandmothers Flower Garden

Hi Friends!  Do you ever have a day when you just don't feel like sewing?  It's rare for me, but it does happen, and it happened yesterday.  I didn't feel like doing much of anything but watch TV and go down many quilty rabbit holes.  Late in the afternoon, I decided I should at least take a look in the UFO box for a Part 2 of "What's In The Box" blog post.

I went through this box and organized it on Wednesday evening.  Organizing was nothing more than making sure every project was in a bag.  I didn't open projects already in a bag.  So, as I go through these bags over the next few days, I might find a few surprises hiding inside.  They were put back in the box in no particular order and shared in no particular order.

Today's UFO is three different bags of Grandmothers Flower Garden Blocks and one Sunflower block.

Let's start off with the hand pieced Sunflower. How it got here is a mystery but it sure is cute. The first thought that came to mind for using it was a simple pillow.

The same story for the next two bags of blocks.  I don't remember anything about them.  All are hand pieced and older fabrics.

These are in bag two.  

Bag three. I made these blocks many years ago but when?  After searching my blog for any talk of Grandmothers Flower Garden blocks, I found ZERO posts.  A good guess would be 12 to 16 yrs ago.  I remember working on these while on camping trips and long road trips.  Oh well, they are old and that's good enough.

In the bag is more fabric and cardboard templates for making more blocks. To be on the safe side I'll leave the these stored with the blocks.  Being fickle is something I do really well, so it's a good idea to keep them out of my stash and ready to be used for more blocks.

If all of the blocks from the 3 bags were the same size, they could easily be put into one quilt.  But life likes to throw challenges my way.  Each set is a different size. Oh, I'm certain there's a way to put them all in one quilt but do I want the hassle?  Again, only time will tell.  I love them all and plan to use them, I just don't have a plan.

Over the years I've pulled out my bag of blocks and played with ideas for setting them as applique on a large piece of background fabric.  

A Medallion style quilt, then add some applique around the outside in the blank areas to make it more interesting.

After taking the pictures above, editing and writing this blog post for today it was time to get back to being lazy.  I started looking for ideas online. After about an HOUR, I stumble across a quilt made by Lori Holt.  It was late and I needed to get to bed. So, I opted to cancel the 4 am scheduled post so I could add the following. 

In this quilt Lori's flowers are appliqued to a background fabric then snowballed and set with colorful sashing.  I like it!  Maybe this is an option but on a much larger scale.  Her style of applique would be the quickest way to finish my project.  I don't really like her style other than it's fast.  Since I borrowed her quilt image, I'm not going to tell you or show you her applique technique.  You can find the tutorial by clicking here.

If I choose to go this route, all the blocks from the three bags could be used in one quilt.  It wouldn't be the prettiest quilt, but it would be finished and have a story to tell.  What do you think? 

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