Thursday, July 12, 2018

Squirrel Alert!

You know how it goes ...

In my last post I told you about sampler blocks I'll be exchanging with other quilters next month.  I think I also made a statement that at some point in the past I had started making smaller setting blocks to go with the sampler blocks.  My thought was now I'd just make some small things, like mug rugs or potholders, with the pieces and parts.

Well, on closer inspection, apparently I had only started organizing myself, with lots of little baggies to collect the bits and bobs required for the various blocks.  This is the sum total of my progress at the point I ditched the original plan.

Lori Smith Sampler blocks
I must have had good intentions, though, because also in the box I found 133 HSTs!
HSTs waiting to be trimmed to 2-1/2"
Apparently I was experimenting with the Magic 8 technique as these are all in sets of 8 (with one extra).  Also lurking in the box was a stack of partially finished 1" Thangles.

Thangles HSTs to finish at 1"
I am determined NOT to put that box back on the shelf (remind me of that next week) so yesterday I began finishing those tiny HSTs.  I tore the papers off while watching TV last night.  I think I'll combine them with some of the 2" (finished) HSTs to make these:


Those tiny triangles are a b**** to work with, though.  I've pretty much given up on keeping points; I figure at that scale who will notice.

My big push has been double 4-patches.  I started by strip piecing a bunch of 1-1/2" strips from the box.  I subcut those into 1-1/2" chunks and made 2" (finished) 4-patches.  I combined them with squares cut from the 2-1/2" strips from the box.

Double 4-Patches
Seeing them all together on the wall, I felt it looked a bit jumbled.  So I added some plain 4-patch blocks.

4-Patch combos
Not only is it now less jumbled, but it will be quicker to make something of a decent size.  Now, if I can just figure out how to work those HSTs into this piece ... hmm ...

7 comments:

  1. That’s the problem with cleaning or moving....things come to the surface that had been forgotten about! I really like where you’re going with both projects.

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  2. I'm with you on making the smalls. I do have a Ringo Lake top to quilt a la Bonnie Hunter but I've been quilting over 45 years and I think I am done. I plan to make some of the small quilts in all those Miniature Quilt magazines I kept for years for......some day. I think it has arrived. Imagine something I can finish reasonably and stack in the magazine basket. YAY!

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  3. NOW you are playing with my sized pieces!!! :o))

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  4. I wish I had your storage boxes,Libby. What a find for me those HST's would be! I love what you are doing with them and those lovely 4 patches as well.

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  5. Funny thing--when going through a 2009 issue of Fons & Porter I found a pattern called "Just Calico," a scrappy quilt that used, well, just calico. Like the units you have here. Those boxes made it through your pre-move purge and then to the new place? High time to make the contents into something! I think that you could intersperse the four-patches with triangles and the four-patches with squares -- not necessarily alternating, but popping them in here and there. (It's hard to describe that in writing.)

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  6. All these projects look like they will be so sweet when they are finished. I think you found some treasures.

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  7. You've got a great start on something that uses up those bits you've already started. It's going to be a fun scrappy project.

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