Table Scraps for February ~ Improv and Aqua

 

Improv? ? What? ?  That’s terrifying!  I like aqua!  I’m unfamiliar with improv! It’s curved seams and colors that don’t go together, right? 

So I searched Google!      From The Quilt Show!

Improv Piecing is a piecing technique that takes quilt making in a different direction for the Modern Quilter. The Traditional or Contemporary quilter will have a plan with specific blocks and colors in each location pieced with precision 1/4" seams. Quilters using Improv piecing are not bound by those rules.  The approach is to let your imagination and intuition be your guide to choose random pieces of fabric, sew them together and just keep going.  There are no bounderies with this approach to piecing. A variety of fabrics can be pieced or appliqued with many different threads or yarn. Some quilters approach their project with a specific intention, while others just start to see where the quilt takes them.

There were lot of articles! Then I thought! I own my very own copy of Kelly Young’s book, Scrappy Improv Quilting! Why not use her technique? 

 

So I started building crumb/slab blocks.

I had many strips not very many bits and pieces. So I strip pieced and cut them smaller. Switched the directions, you know! Improv! 

I didn’t cut up Jasmine! I’ll keep that large piece for a special backing or ?”

I cut square, 2.5” of a pretty aqua solid. Bought to put in Noah’s quilt, but the color wasn’t quite right! It works here. 

Slabs of crumps ready to cut into 2.5” squares. Some light, some darker! 

I worked on zig zags as I laid out a plus design for a long skinny table runner for the top of a half wall between our foyer and living room.  

There was graph paper involved!  And teeny tiny templates cause my brain felt overwhelmed!

Some pieces beside the machine.        It needs to be 10 X 51! 

I even improv pieced the batting!

Quilted and trimmed! The quilting was a work in progress, I sort of changed horses in the middle of the stream. Imperfect?   NO!  IMPROV!! 

The view to the messy east end of my cutting table.

Now, the view to messy west end of my cutting table!!

Even the backing was improvisationally pieced!!

On the half wall!  I staged the small Christmas cactus because the pot is aqua, but you can't see the pot, my perspective is off. There is a birthday card in front!  

The binding is scrappy too, mostly because I had lots of 2.5" strips left in my Aqua/Teal basket! I am so pleased with how it looks here. Mr Busy hasn't said one word!  Either he hasn't noticed. Or he hates it and can't think of anything nice to say, so says nothing at all!  I think he hasn't noticed!  

I'm linking up with Joy at The Joyful Quilter and her Table Scraps Challenge Link Up, on Friday the last weekend of the month! 2-25-22!  I'm loving this palindromic week!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!

I LIKE Thursday # 82

Good Morning!  I'm here to tell you a bit about last week. What Mr. Busy and I are doing and what makes our lives pretty darn good!  First, we have been enjoying together:

Entertainment:

Joe Pickett on Spectrum Originals. If you like C.J. Box as an author, this follows the book pretty faithfully! If you aren’t a Spectrum customer, it’s an app available on some devices. I hope that it will be on some other widely available service in the future. Watch for it! 

Sweet Magnolias has returned to Netflix for season 2.

I had to go back to the last episode of season to remember why Kyle was in Tyler’s car, cause Season 2 opens with everyone at the hospital!

Cobra Kai…Season 3 still watching. Will Daniel be able to save his dealership?  Will Kreese get his "comeuppance".  Will Miguel and Sam and Robby be friends?

And we have been watching some Olympics, too!  GO !USA! 

 Catch-22.  with George Clooney . A satire of sorts! Kind of fun!

  

Food: 

It's Comfort Food time of year. I found a few less than fresh hamburger buns on top of the fridge. Sometimes stuff gets put up there off the counter and forgotten! So I decided to make bread pudding! It a favorite of Mr. Busy. I don’t do it often. I decided to bake it in a ceramic quiche pan. I thought it would look pretty. Sometimes it's all about "pretty"

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven, 45 minutes later! It was puffed up almost spilling over the sides of my quiche pan! It did sink as it cooled. Served it with homemade Rum Sauce and ice cream after dinner on Tuesday. It's good, but not great. The ice cream and rum sauce made it almost yummy, but it is thin. Next time, I make it in a square cake pan,. 

I have been trying to catch-up in my sewing room. HST, Crumb blocks, happy blocks for some RSC projects. My Table Scraps for this month is sort of labor intensive so that is taking time, but it is coming together and should be done. No photos! Ok, just a peek! 

And I have been going through some magazines, and patterns. I try to be organized, but I am not as successful at that as I should be.

Mr Busy is doing another puzzle. He finished the Twelve Days of Christmas!

This one is one we started while in California and then put it away cause he had hurt his knee and was not comfortable sitting at a low table. 

He has his puzzle spot all set up now, with two lighted magnifiers and 12 puzzle sorter trays plus an additional sorter that he quickly constructed out of Dollar Store foam board that was in his "stash". 

I'm writing this on Wednesday. We just came home from a quick shopping trip. We stopped at Dairy Queen for the $6 chicken tenders lunch. It's now $7, but still a good deal. Then a short stop at Albertson's for milk, salad dressing, red grapes, guacamole and wine.  Essentials, you know!!

I did a bit of online banking, Mr. Busy is watching a YouTube video. It is windy (24mph) and chilly (45 but feels like 36) outside!  We are warm and toasty in our downstairs family room with the fireplace on. It's electric, but does have a blower so it warms up the room pretty quickly and it "looks and feels cozy"!

Of course there is laundry, kitchen cleaning, and cooking. Also been gathering income tax information! I’m not a fan of that chore.  But on the gratitude side:  I have a roof over my head, a house to clean, clothes and a place to keep them clean, and a financial situation that is enough to provide for us. And allows us the privilege of extras, like fabric, wine, puzzles and lunch out! I need to remember that is not true in many parts of the world or even in our community. We are blessed. 

I hope you will hop over to LeeAnna's I LIKE Thursday post at Not Afraid of Color and click on the links to see others who post about their likes and the good stuff in their lives. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!!

 

Doves Finished or Not Finished Friday #69 10-22-21

 

I'm linking up with Alycia at AlyciaQuilts for Finished or Not Finished Friday. Stop by and see all the other finishes from this week. 

I have a finish today!  A squirrel of sorts, but not one that ran very fast!

The last day of August, I was reading blogs and when I got to Kelly's My Quilt Infatuation, she was introducing a new book. It is called Scrappy Improv Quilting. Now I loved her first book, Stash Statement so I read on. I read all about the small mini quilts and wall hangings featured in this book. Several caught my eye. She finished her post with a statement that she was going to do a giveaway. Just add a single comment and the names would be drawn at random. I told her how much I had enjoyed Stash Statement and how this book was "drool worthy"!

On September 6th I received and email saying I had won the signed copy of her book. I was "over the moon".  It took the USPS awhile to get it to me, but it was well worth the wait. 

I swooned and poured over the pages and the beautiful quilts. I shared it with my stitching friends too. They think I'm a bit "crazy about scraps", so I wanted them to see again what fabulous quilts can come from a bin of scraps. 

My sewing group, had a mini retreat planned for the middle of October. They had selected a challenge last year( when we did not meet) and it was to make some thing using yellow and gray. I finally decided I had better get on the ball. So I looked through the gray I had in my scrap box and found a muted dotted one. I could see it as birds. So Birds of a Feather was selected. This is Kelly's quilt from the book. 

I call mine  "Lonesome No More"!  I think of these as doves. Not Lonesome Doves though. 

Almost finished on Monday. 

I finished the binding, a solid gray, and hanging corners yesterday!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy! 

To Do Tuesday # 61

 

Last week's list!   

1. Get horizontal sashing done on Hollow Nines ✅

2. Cut pieces for gray birds…doves. ✅  I got a little more than just cutting the gray fabric! :)

                                                                  “Lonesome No More”

3. Cut backing for cat couch topper. Nope, rethinking! 

I’m at a Sew-In But Sleep At Home Retreat, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So I am sewing and should get some things accomplished!  I'm home this morning, so will link up with Linda at Texas Quilt Gal's To-Do Tuesday.  Come join us.!

Next week------October 19-25

1. Keep exploring backing options for couch topper. 

2. Does Hollow Nines need a border? If so, what. Skinny white, then colored? Just a patterned wider border? 

3. Finish lime/red/white table topper. TSC-October! 

4. Work on Partridge in a Pine Tree. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy ! 

To-Do Tuesday #60

I’m here to share my progress on my To-Do List from last week and to set a new goal for the upcoming week. Linda at Texas Quilt Gal gives us this forum to be accountable!

Last week….October 5-October 11

1. Get Autumn wall hanging done    ✅ 

2. Get one Growing Up Odd block done. ✅

One done. I had to re do some outside strips so white squares were not touching the sashing! 

3. More rows of Hollow 9 patches. ✅

All 9 rows are done. Horizontal sashing is on the bottom of the first roe, only 7 more to go! 

4. Keep making yellow “fabric”✅

All 4 chunks of yellow “fabric” is made. Now onto the next step! 

Next week  October 12 - 18

1. Get horizontal sashing done on Hollow 9s

2. Cut pieces for gray birds ….doves? 

3. Make backing for cat couch topper! A “squirrel”

I may not get these small tasks done. My brother and SIL are coming for a visit. They haven’t been here since August 2017! We’ve seen them since then, just not at our house! 

This morning we are in the middle of a winter storm warning. 4-8 inches predicted with 40 mph winds! Good sewing weather! Not good weather for preparing for guests! 

See you next week

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy