~ Make Us Laugh Blog Hop ~

Welcome to Day 1 of the Make Us Laugh Blog Hop!  The Quilt Qwazy Queens Make Us Laugh Blog hop is hosted by Joan at MooseStash Quilting.

I'm not sure that I can make you laugh but I'm pretty sure I can at least brighten your day with a few images from my most recent happy and bright project.

A Jelly Roll Rug has been on my bucket list since the day I first saw the pattern.  So when Purple Hobbies sent me Jelly Roll Binding/Batting Tool she designed just for making these rugs I was super excited.(You can see my review of  it here.)<---with a GIVEAWAY  Hurry! The giveaway closes tomorrow at midnight. Finding the perfect Jelly Roll was a piece of cake.  Lori Holt Bake Sale 2 was perfect for what I was cooking up in the studio.

Not just one jelly roll but 2!

Yes sir!  The bigger the better!  The Colossal Jelly Roll Rug Pattern by RJ Designs.  I 💕LOVE💕 LOVE💕 LOVE💕 my new rug!  It was a challenge to make but I love a good challenge.  Now let me say the pattern is for a round rug.  As you can see mine is oval.  And that is because I felt it would be easier to make.  In true Lea Anne style I altered the pattern.  I'll be sharing the change I made to the pattern in this coming Saturdays blog post.  

Before we wrap this up and call it done I want to share one little tip with you.  It's easier to show you rather than tell you so watch the video below for a helpful tip on how to make the rug lay flat.  Disclaimer......This may not work for all Rugs.

Make sure to hop over and visit the other bloggers in this blog hop for some cute and fun projects.  Psst...there might even be a freebie or two. 

Wednesday March 18

Life in the Scrapatch

The Darling Dogwood

Words & Stitches

Websterquilt

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Creatin' in the Sticks 

Podunk Pretties YOU ARE HERE

Thursday March 19

Just Let Me Quilt

BeaQuilter

Patchouli Moon Studio

Selina Quilts

Phoebe Moon Designs

Den syende himmel

Karen's Korner

Friday March 20

If These Threads Could Talk

Kathleen McMusing

Samelia's Mum

Seams To Be Sew

Quilt Fabrication

Ms P Designs USA

Monday March 23

One Quilting Circle

Quilt Schmilt

Devoted Quilter

Tuning My Heart Quilts

Home Sewn By Us

Farm Quilter

Tuesday March 24

Songbird Designs

Bumbleberry Stitches

Quilting Gail

Just Because Quilts

Patchwork Breeze

MooseStashQuilting

Thanks for stopping by my little spot in Podunk!  

This post has been linked up over at Quilt Fabrications.  Hop over for quilting inspiration or to find some new quilting friends!

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~ Working with Tiny Fabric Scraps ~

 Scraps, we all have them.  I know many quilters would find my tiny scraps to be trash or stuffing for a dog pillow.  So why do I keep them?   That's a simple answer.....REGRET.  In the past these little bitty scraps would have been tossed out.  A couple of years would pass and I would regret letting them go when I needed smaller pieces of fabric for a project.

My Scrap Happy Baskets quilt is example of the quilts I made using various sizes of scraps.  The circles in the quilt are one inch.  The tutorial for this block can be found here.

Most of the tiny pieces are only good for very tiny applique but there are a few that could still be stitched into a block. In this quilt the squares finish at 1/2" so they started as 1" squares.

 So when I see these small scraps I see potential.  Yes it requires a little bit more patience to work with smaller pieces.  But if you start out with a small project it doesn't seem so overwhelming.  

Finishing a mini quilt with tiny pieces is very rewarding and they look so darn cute hanging in the studio!

The new fusible webbing's for applique give us the freedom to go super duper tiny without needing to turn the edges of the fabric and reducing the time spent making them.  My favorite fusible is Heat and Bond lite.  Why?  Well, it works and it's cheap.  I've used many other more expensive brands that can not hold up to the washing machine and dryer.  This one does what it says.

I bet your wondering at this point why I'm showing pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with the captions...LOL!  Well building up to something and thought you might want to see a close up of the fabrics.

So how low will I go with applique?  My rule of thumb for size is "If I can put a stitch in it".  Well that rule might change with this project.  The pieces are so tiny that the stitches might take away from the fabric or shape of the applique.

They are so small I've pulled out the tweezers.  The silver tweezers on the top were bought years ago at Harbor Freight by Mr. Podunk for making fly fishing lures.  They can be found at Joann's, craft shops and most hardware stores.  The colorful tweezers are Tula Pink's.   This would be a great time to test them out to see if I preferred one over the other.  The result is I could find no real difference in performance or ease of use.  The Tula tweezers came with a little rubber tip to cover the super pointy tips.  The silver tweezers are kinda blunt so there is no reason for a rubber tip.  Both styles can be purchased here if your looking for a pair of tweezers.  The best price would be the silver ones made by Dritz and a 60% coupon at Joann fabrics. 

The tweezers have been a real time saver.  I couldn't imagine making this project without them.  Picking up the fusible shapes and the finished applique piece would have been a real trick without them.

All of the applique is cut and ready to be put into place.  Now I have a small bit of scraps that will finally become trash.

Here's the before and after of my fabric pull.  Not much of a difference.  Can't wait to show you see the finished project....Cute as can be, lots of color!

But your just going to have to wait a few more days.  This project is for a the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop.  My day to share is this Thursday, Feburay 21.

Below is a list of the bloggers participating in the Hop today.   Hope you take the time to check out at least a few of these talented bloggers.  Some of the bloggers are having GIVEAWAYS, you don't miss out on freebies, do you?  

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

#scrapapplique #quilttweezers

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New Beginnings

Just popping in for a quicky share of one of my patterns reworked by a fellow blogger.  You can get all the details over at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting.  There's a giveaway!  The original pattern is called Back Porch Blooms and can be found in the Tutorials tab at the top of my blog.

Thanks Vicki for making my day, you have no idea how much that brightened my day!

Lea Anne

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