Work on Hatchet Blocks Continues... Slowly

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people  - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

~E.B. White

Quilting

No more green scraps in my bag so I switched to tans. At first they looked good but as more have been added, the excitement of the quilt is dimming. 

My dear friend, Gayle, gave me some of hers and I found several new greens on a shopping trip. But there's still too many tans. 

Out of the blue, Patty sent a box of her scraps which I immediately trawled for greens. I'm switching out some of the tans {so the sets are part tan and part green} but after a while I've just removed the duller blocks and replaced them completely with green.  Eventually I decided the beige carpet might be the problem so I cut background triangles. The background is an abstract print of pink, grey, and white. Its value is similar to the carpet but the difference in color livens the quilt. 

Here are some of the discarded blocks. Funny how these brighter darks work well with the tans. Perhaps the contrast of bright and dull. I'm making plans for a second quilt to expand this idea. 

Meanwhile, I've been creating seed starters from toilet paper rolls for our VBS. The children will fill them with potting soil and seeds, then water and watch for the week. I make these for seeds in my own garden as the edges help distinguish planted seeds from weeks. They aren't difficult but about 250 will be needed. My hands are hurting. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

A New String Quilt Idea

The first casualty of war is the truth.

~Aeschylus

Quilting

Since I've made so many Four-letter-word quilts, I'm down to pretty dull and dark colors in my scrap bag: black, brown, greens, with a few purples and reds. I've been wondering what to make with these when I was reminded of the Hatchet blocks. What if the blocks were made of strings and split between light and dark sides?

These first pieces were made last summer but I found them in the orphan box. 

They look well on the pink and grey print background. Time to make some more. Now it’s hard to find dull strings in my scrap bag. 

Eventually I pushed into dark/bright purples. Those two in the top left are too bright. For one I added some duller strips but simply deleted the other. 

When I completely ran out of greens, I added light browns and tan. They look okay but the green is better. A small shopping trip is in order so this is turning into a longer term project.

At some point the background pieces must be cut so I'll know how large I can make this quilt... Hopefully, lap size. 

While my family’s visiting, we saw the new Pixar movie, Elio. What a treat! Hopefully you can find time to see it, too.

Reading

Max documents several groups efforts to stop the Holocaust including Orthodox Jews in Switzerland. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Stringing Along

We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quilting

The introduction of a story by Donald Hall relates an apocryphal story: 'A man was cleaning the attic of an old house in New England and he found a box which was full of tiny pieces of string. On the lid of the box there was an inscription in an old hand: "String too short to be saved".'

My mother loved quoting the punch line whenever something foolish appeared in our cabinets. We deny packrat tendencies but truth will out. What crazy stuff we save because it might be useful one day. The dreadful warning of this tale {occasionally} restrains me from expanding my quilting stash which I already find overwhelming.

It is also the reason I keep a single small bag for scraps although an amazing amount can be crammed into that bag. I won't purchase containers to subdivide the stuff. My point is to use it up, to keep it moving because this insidious fabric propagates nightly. My scrap bag still looks as full as when I started this recent set of scrap quilts; there are just fewer "pretty" fabrics.

How can I sew this mess? Why am I bothering? How small is too small? What's your limit? What's the smallest scrap you keep? What do you do with the waste? {I know Cathy spreads hers as garden compost.} Questions we face daily.

There are still a ton of strings. I'm tired of diamonds, thought about Chinese Coins, but got the brilliant idea to angle the strings. At least it sounded brilliant. In reality it's been a bit of a pain.

The newspaper foundations are 5.5". No idea why except it's less than six inches so it was easier to cut and the smaller squares don't need such long strings - only about eight inches for the main diagonal. I pulled "longer strings" out so the centers would be easier to plan but still find myself coming up short.

String blocks

What should be the middle string? How can I highlight the angle? The X? I'm way overthinking this.

Wow. It looks like I stuck my finger in an electric outlet. Too wild? I need to think it over.

Projects Around the House

Scanning and shredding continues apace. Two more drawers cleared. I'm finding a few things that still need to be retained physically but hope to limit it to one drawer. Once the compost bin filled I attacked our bookcases and culled three bags of books for the next library sale. QS and I laughingly refer to moving junk out of the house as foundational cleaning. I imagine how happy the house is to lose the weight and I certainly love having more room in the rooms.

We enjoyed a quiet holiday weekend at home. All our family called at some point... and we watched Hamilton. DH took me to the stage play a few years ago as a special gift but the many unique angles of the video recording make it almost as remarkable. 

Voting

Our national election scheduled for November 3 is 119 days away. The Vote411 website can help any American register, check their registration status, and find out what is on their specific ballot. I find printing a sample ballot before going to vote gives me time to double check all my options. Who can you help register? And get to a polling place? Democracy requires the participation of ALL citizens. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies 19

How crazy that although I've made several kaleidoscope quilts I've never made a butterfly quilt. Time to change that. There are several options to choose including Cathy's lovely waste butterflies but, in the spirit of reducing my small pieces, I think I'll make a different one. I've been comparing tutorials from Mrs. Schmenkman and Rita at Red Pepper Quilts. Both used black backgrounds which certainly set the other fabrics off well.  There was a yard of solid blue in my stash which might resemble the sky. I started pulling some fabric. Easy peasy small quilt of about 40-50 blocks.

Then I noticed some fabric intended for a shirt... and I need a shirt. The pattern was not in my new {clear} bin so I had remember where it was. That was an experience. Finally found it behind the DVD storage boxes. How did it ever end up there? You'd think I'd been hiding it. At the bottom was a large set of 2.5" strips cut for a Rachel Clark coat class. It's been sitting here for twenty years.

Vintage strips should make good toddler quilts

Even if it doesn't look like it, almost half of this fabric is green and I have some young friends who like green. The old bait-and-switch still works. Off to make Mini Trips. Hopefully I'll start the butterfly blocks next month. Does anyone else want to join in?

This article about a parasite that attacks monarch butterflies was posted recently. The highest infection rate is in the non-migratory butterflies in Florida and unfortunately there is no cure.

Swallowtail butterflies were busy collecting nectar in the Uncompahgres. QS took the best photo.

Swallowtail tiger butterfly in Uncompahgre National Forest

This butterfly emerged from its chrysalis during our visit to Denver's Butterfly Pavilion.

Kaja made some wonderful points about adding words to quilts. There's quite a difference between planning the wording from the beginning and adding it at the end. Is there are way to combine words with butterflies? I'll have to think about that, too.

Enjoy the day, Ann

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