Thank you all for the comments about the log cabin quilt. This was made entirely from scraps. Years ago I used to sew samples for a quilt shop owner and a pattern designer. They provided all the fabric that was needed and there were always leftovers……sometimes only a few inches of each fabric, sometimes more. I was piecing somewhere between 18-20 quilts of various sizes per year so the leftovers built up to a point where it was out of control…I did this for 4-5 years……What should do with all this fabric???
So how did I get this mess all under control……..I sorted and arranged (including pressing) into quarter or half or yard cuts……yes sometimes there was over a yard of fabric left…….. and then there were those pieces less than a quarter yard………..what do I do with those. So I started cutting those small pieces into strips. I cut some into 2.5 inch strips and the rest into 1.75 inch strips. I’m not sure why those two sizes were chosen.
So now I have all these strips…..I did a couple of years back give away my totes of 2.5 strips but I kept 1.75 and I have been on a mission since to use them up. I don’t even add to them anymore……..the smaller chunks of fabric I now give away to the church for their charity projects. So for the last two years I have been working (on and off) on using up these strips. I know for a fact I have made 4 full size quilts or bigger from these strips…..the amazing thing is the totes don’t seem like they are getting any emptier………as God as my witness I will use up these strips one day.
If any of you could offer some suggestions on how to get rid of these faster…..I would love to hear from you. All I have done is log cabin and courthouse steps quilts as those seem the easiest for me……if you know of any other quilt blocks that work well with 1.75 inch let me know.
Thank you again for all the wonderful comments.
later……….Mrs scrap quilt maker
Well since your here, I might as well tell you about the stash. I have these totes.
These totes hold 1.75 inch strips of leftover fabric………I have been trying to use the fabric in these totes.
I made these blocks last winter and all year I have been moving them around my sewing space. So on Labor Day (remember thats the day your boss pays you not to work….do you think this holiday should be renamed?????) but anyway I sewed this pile of blocks together and have ended up with this top…..
I’m going to call it done for stashbust purposes. I might add borders to it later when it finally has a home.
I also made an apron this week, I’m such a slop when I cook, so maybe an apron will keep my clothes cleaner.
So for the report this week.
Stash Used…………………………………….7.75 yards
Total used to date…………………….. 79.0 yards (I use may more that I thought
Purchases this week…………………….. 3 yards
Net purchased to date 65 yards
Net used to date …………………………..14 yards!!!!!
later……..Mrs. Fabric buster
My Mother passed away 12 years ago. Just recently we have finally went thru her things. Dad was ready for us to do that. Baking has always been apart of my life and I was the lucky daughter that got all my mom’s recipe books. My mother never owned a cookbook, everything has hand written on cards or in steno books. And now they are mine, all the recipes we grew up with as a child. All in Mom’s handwriting. Brings back a flood of memories of my childhood.
We always had dessert growing up, not every night, but most nights. These desserts we nothing elaborate, usually fruit was dessert, pudding, jello were often used options. Bars, cookies and cakes were there usually once a week. So now I’m baking my way thru Mom’s recipe box (does this sound like the theme of a movie) starting with the bars. I’m sure most of these recipes can now be found on the internet is some form as they were basic.
For tonight’s dessert, we are having
Dream Bars
These are a lovely creation of coconut, pecans that almost taste like pecan pie only much better.
Come bake these lovely creations with me.
Let’s start with the crust. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
We’ll take: 1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened slightly (1/2 hour )
Mix all these together with a pastry blender until they are combined. We want to have the butter on the cooler side as it will make everything crumble together nicely. It will look like this.
Spread this into the bottom of a 9 x 13 cake/bar pan, press with the back of a turner to even out mixture. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Do not apply any cooking spray or oil to bottom of pan as it’s not necessary with butter in the mix.
Mix together the following, this will be the topping and will be baked longer.
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Add: 1 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pour this mixture on top of the crust, spread out evenly.
Bake for 20 minutes longer.
enjoy.
Until next time,
School starts tommorow!!!!!!! Been along summer. Junior High for my youngest!!!!
later……Mrs. I’m happy to get back to my normal routine!!!!!
What Generation Are You!!!!
I’m a product of the 50’s. When I was growing up in rural America, we didn’t pay much attention to what the world was doing around us My parents owned there own business……Dad worked very hard, Mom contributed along with doing all the domestic stuff that was expected at the time, the children of this marriage were the hired help. When we weren’t in school we worked doing what needed to be done for the day….what we needed to survive. We worshiped and prayed together, shared our meals together……our lives revolved around each other.
I’m searching my memory bank to remember if we ever took a vacation……………we didn’t…….the only holiday’s we celebrated were Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and New Years…..but even on those days of celebrating there was some work that needed to be taken care of and then we celebrated.
Celebrating for us meant we went to Grandmas and Grandpas or they came to our home and a meal was prepared and shared. Nothing was fancy, just good wholesome food prepared with our own hands…and most likely grown or raised by ourselves. This was all we knew.
So are there things you just don’t understand in life????? There sure are for me. This holiday thing is tough for me………I can understand the holiday’s mentioned about, and other holidays of Memorial Day and July 4 I can agree with…………….but some of these holidays……Presidents Day, Martin Luthur King Day, and Labor Day………….I just don’t understand why they are needed…….
Granted years ago employers didn’t have the regard for there employees that they do today. We as a nation have seen fit to make laws that assure we all work in safe environments, we limit the week to 40 hours and then after that we are compesated for that extra hours…….the laws have been put in place so the worker is not taken advantage of…..and so I guess today is the reward for our country making sure our hired workers are not abused….but do we need a holiday for that. Since for most of my life, I’ve worked for myself or DH I just don’t understand this holiday……I guess I’m just to Republican!!!
So getting back to my generation thing…………being a 50’s gal…………I’ve seen alot of change over the years……….I’ve dressed up, dressed down, dressed for what ever the mood of the day was. I’ve been thru the hippie thing, been thru the fashion statement thing………so what do I do now…..I dress for comfort. I don’t under-dress or over-dress. But with my dressing I do pay attention to a few basic rules….I chose my garments fitting for my sex. I was blog surfing abit ago and I can across this lovely post. Now I try to be reasonable in how I think but I just couldn’t understand why!!! I’m glad there are those that can think outside the box????
So for the rest of labor day………I’m going to continue working……….
later…Mrs working woman who doesn’t get paid unless she works
what did I buy………nothing……you have to go shopping to buy.
what did I use…….nothing………you have to sew something to be able to use stash.
We have been combining wheat this week……..finally income coming in……..that’s the downside of farming……………..you spend money all year before you get to take in in the Aug and Sept……..after awhile (like years) you get used to how things work.
Next week……..I promise as God as my witness, I will use stash.
later……….
Sometimes life gets in the way of quilting
The pictures are sideways……..Pic 1 was taken from the blackberry while I was loading the grain cart next to the combine…..and pic 2 was grain cart being dumped into the truck….considering you are doing about 3 things at a time besides taking the picture they don’t look half bad……the only good thing, I didn’t dump any wheat on the ground taking the picture.
later……..the hired hand
When you live in a home with your family, everything seems to be community property. You share all the space with the members of household. I do have my business room that holds my longarm quilt machine.
My home was built with this room in mind. It got the preferred spot when the floor plan was being put together…..even though this room is all mine……I don’t count this as my space because of the business use this room has.
Anyway, a few months back Thing 1 (my daughter) ran away from home….ok…..she left to go on with her life along with a major chunk of change for rent and furniture……..but……..its what she left behind that is now mine. I’ll keep her bedroom intact so anytime she comes home there is a bed for her to sleep in……………..but what she doesn’t get to keep is the closet…………..its all mine!!!!
Some of her stuff is still in here………but the old clothes and various pieces of stuff will be liberated in this room and what will be left is going to be my quilt storage room. It’s big………it was planned this way cause I knew she wasn’t going to stay here forever and when she left I was going to claim this closet room as my own. I’ve started on the tranformation of this room…..it will take some time but it will be worth it.
later………..
“I have a report” she said with a smile on her face and a glisen in her eye. Life has been very busy for this struggling stashbusting participant. Many a night she has laid awake wondering “Will I ever visit another quilt shop or at least find the time to bond with my sewing machine. Last week God answered her prayers, not only was she able to visit a quilt shop, but she purchased. Now she thought long and hard about the struggles with in……should she add….shouldn’t she add……but the pressure was to great…..she had to give into the ever so beckoning desire to purchase fabric. It was all so beautiful…..the bolts and bolts of cotton all lined up in rows, all coordinated with each other, rack after rack….how was a woman to resist……the carress of the fabric against her fingers. She could no longer control herself, in a frenzy she tossed the perfectly chosen bolt on the counter and said, “two and a half yards please”.
Now as to not let the guilt burden her, she immediately rushed home to her beloved sewing machine…..would it even turn on after months of being ignored…….would it ever forgive her for the months of neglect. Gently she brushed the lint from the bobbin case, replaced the wore needle, pressed all the right buttons that makes this baby purr like a kitten. At last the motor hummed away as she sewed the most perfect quarter inch seam. She sewed all afternoon, she had to relieve the guilt of the purchase of this fabric that called her name ever so gently. She nearly completed the project at hand before the reality of what she had done set in ………………………………………..
plus her family came home there by destroying any hope of using up all the purchases made. She ended the week coming up a bit short ….only two yards was able to be used from the guilt laden trip…..so as she hangs her head in shame, she vows to use that remaining half yard next week……
later………..the saga continues
There are things in life I try avoid!!! Some things I really like…….cooking, cleaning, laundry……I like doing these simple tasks……..for one thing, most of those tasks don’t require you to think…the toughest decision I have to make when doing those tasks is “do I dust or vacuum first”. Which leads to to why I like doing these ordinary things that most women despise…………I DON’T HAVE TO MAKE ANY DECISIONS when I’m doing them. I am the worlds worst decision maker. Over the course of my life I have talked myself out of so many things…..I am also missed alot of opportunities because I couldn’t make a decision. So what was today’s decision I missed…….I couldn’t decide which one of my quilts I wanted to enter in the show coming up next month……today was the last day to enter……..but I just couldn’t make up my mind. I didn’t want to enter both (I could have) but it was a toss up and I couldn’t decide…..I guess that makes my very pathetic.
I’m not sure when this decision thing started………when I was younger, Mom made all the decisions which I was fine with but when I left home and I had to make them I just put them off….did I miss out on anything…..maybe but that’s water under the bridge. We did miss an opportunity this week…….I need a new vehicle…..there was a two year old vehicle like we wanted (I don’t buy new cause I don’t put many miles on and its just money wasted buying new)….anyway I took my time trying to decide if that was what I wanted to do…..and they sold it to someone else, who no doubt, can make decisions. So we’ll wait on the vehicle until another one comes along. That’s all I have to say about that.
I got some good news today……….I won a Tshirt…….Terri was having a contest to name a quilt design and I won……..I usually don’t enter contests cause usually someone comes up with a better idea or picks the name that I would have chosen before me………and it all goes back to that decision thing……if I could make up my mind faster, I’d probably win more often. But a girl has to get lucky once in a while and today was my lucky day. So Thank you Terri, I know I’ll enjoy the shirt.
We’re cleaning out the old house!!
My Mother passed away several years ago….my Dad and brother continued out on the farm without Mom……and they didn’t do things the way Mom did……she always kept the house neat and clean……….and the boys just didn’t pay as much attention to the house as they should have. But most of the problem is, the house is old, really old and falling apart and its not worth fixing up. So we moved the boys off the farm into town…it was the best, Dad is 81 and my brother has some challenges. So now its time to go thru the house and get rid of all the good junk……some of the stuff is really junk, it should have been pitched to the garbage, but my parents being the pack rats that they are, could not throw stuff away. My sisters and I have been trying to decide what to do with all this stuff. Today we found some very interesting treasurers………worth absolutely nothing in the $$$ department, but in the emotional, sentimental department………Some of this stuff I seen for the first time today………where was this stuff when we were growing up……I would have liked to have seen this stuff years ago…….but it was just put into a closet and forgotten about……..pictures, newpaper clippings……its just tough to deal with.
I need to go shopping!!!
Let me say this first…………..I HATE SHOPPING…refer to that decision thing I talked about earlier. I need some new clothes…everyday clothes……..in the last two weeks I ripped three pair of pants that have just plain worn out. Its getting to the point that I’m wearing my dress (church) clothes around the house cause the everyday stuff is just worn out…….although that isn’t a bad thing wearing skirts and tops for everyday…..it was finally hot here…90’s hot and nothing is cooler than a skirt. I tried going shopping about a month ago with my DD to a mall about 50 miles away from here, but I couldn’t find anything I liked………I don’t do the 3 B’s……..and all the clothes styles utilize the 3 B’s…….don’t those designers know that some of us like to dress our age (50’s) and not show our B’s off…….so I came home with nothing on my shopping trip…….I’ve been trying to do web shopping but I’m still not finding what I would like…..hopefully this fall the designers will come out with some regular clothes again.
So what are the 3 B’s…….that refers to the 3 body parts I refuse to show……boobs, belly and butt.
later………
Quilter Blogs & Store Search
