Another Little Project...

I have been working on this in between quilts. It was in a bag of donated fabrics I received several years ago. Just one lonely block, hand stitched, stained and in bad shape.

 I soaked it in the sink with Oxyclean and it cleaned up nicely.

Then, I trimmed off the worst of the edges...

...trying to preserve as much of the points as I could.

I drew a 9.5 inch square on a piece of muslin and ironed it nice and flat and square on my ironing board.  While the quilt block was still wet, I stretched, nudged and pinned it to fit.  Here it is pinned to my ironing board to dry.

After it was dry, and before I took the pins out, I starched and steamed it with my iron to coax it into shape. The perimeter is nice and square, but the center will always be skewed a bit.

Quilted it to a piece of muslin with a scrap of Hobbs 80/20.

I had a hard time finding a 9 inch square frame.  I ordered this from Amazon and I didn't have much choice of color or style in this size. I am framing a few more old quilt blocks and will then decide if I keep it black or paint them and give them a rustic finish.

I think the tilted center gives it a bit of charm.

For now, I stuck it in this little vignette. But, I have other plans for this and other's like in the near future.  I will share when I get that project done this spring.

   

So, This Just Happened....

It's my granddaughter's birthday....

 I made a cover for a 24 inch pillow.

It matches the quilt I made for her a year ago.

You can read about it here.

I love this Slushee fabric by Benartex. 

I had hardly a scrap of this fabric left and I bought it in 2015...so I started searching and was able to find some on eBay!  Paid double, but hey....I only needed a yard.

Happy Birthday Miss J.

The Beast is Tamed!

I am pretty excited to finally get my studio organized. 

I went from this... 

to this....

I have all my yard+ cottons on the upper shelf and anything under a yard, folded like a fat quarter on the lower shelf.

All of my future projects are up here in ziplock bags.

All the backings are sorted. Three stacks of flannels on the left and 3+ stacks of cottons on the right. 

I didn't want to ever unfold and refold another backing just to find out it was not big enough for a quilt top so I measured and labeled all of them.

 I found an odd assortment of orphan blocks, they are tucked in the yellow box.

  It is almost full of orphan blocks.

Flannels and homespun in a separate area.

I already had these 3 boxes of jeans precut into usable fabric from pants.  The tub under the shelf is full of denim too.  Guess I better get a denim quilt on the planning board!

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My scrap drawers under my quilting table went from this...

to this.....

 plus a drawer for kids prints...

These are all under my quilting table so I can easily pull out a drawer to sort and match with the fabrics on the shelves right behind me.

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We made this ironing table for storage.  Here, I have:

a drawer for mixed homespuns...

a drawer for mixed flannel scraps....

storage for all my minky scraps....yes I do make minky scrap quilts.

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My cutting table is my old kitchen bar from 1978.  I have cut fabric on this 39 years (back when my sewing machine was put on my kitchen table.)  In 2006, we redid our old kitchen and re-purposed this gem in my studio.  It is 70 inches long and 32 inches wide. I painted it and took out 3 useless shelves and installed 11 easily removable drawers.  

We added a 72 inch tape measure to the front edge and it makes measuring yardage a snap.

I usually have at least 2 quilts I am working on, so the larger drawers are handy for keeping a project all together.

The great thing about all these drawers is that I can take them out and move them to the ironing board, the sewing table or where ever I need them.

Now that I am organized, it will be super easy to keep it this way, I am very excited and what a great way to spend a few rainy days.

Taming the Beast!

I have been annoyed with all the clutter in my sewing studio for awhile now.  After quilting and sewing for over 10 years I should be annoyed since I never have had great scrap organization.   How could this happen?  I am the person who has kitchen spices in alphabetical order!

I have filled 8 of these drawers with scraps.  They were so stuffed that I had to smooth them down to get them closed.  I don't have any more storage so it was time to get organized.

  I pressed and sorted into color. 

When it was all done, I could relocate them in the bins according to color and they fit a lot better. Now, when I make a quilt, I will be able to take proper care of my scraps and put them into the right bin!

I realized that my huge pile of fleece was taking up my prime real estate here on my shelves.  I refolded and relocated them to the uppermost shelf and can not start to sort our fabric that is fat quarter size and any other yardage over 1/2 yard.

I'm excited to find fabrics I forgot I had.  All these folded piles are still from my scrap bins.  As you can see, I haven't even got to the mess on the middle shelf.  But, I can hardly wait to get it all finished.

I alternate between projects so I don't get too tired of standing at the ironing board.  So, every hour I  sit and piece some blocks on my Snowman quilt.  This is on my design wall.

Notice the Arkansas Crossroads block lurking at the right..

....I have a design idea for all my lovely scraps with that block.  

Forgotten Treasures- One Day Left!

Hi, just a reminder that these lovely Double Wedding Ring blocks and pieces are still for sale!!
  

The bidding will end tonight-June, 15 at midnight Mountain Time!

Right now I have a bid for $75 . . .

. . . and I am auctioning them off to buy batting for Quilts of Valor!


Since I am receiving bids from various sources,
I will keep updating this post as the bids come to keep track of the the highest bidder:
Sue: $30
Sylvia: $40
Cynthia: $50
Carolyn $60
Vickie: $75
If you are interested, you may leave a bid comment at the end of this blog post, or e-mail me at
bunkhousequilts@atcnet.net

Thanks to all whom have expressed interest over the past week!
I have these all boxed up and just need a new home to ship them to.

I posted the original and complete story on this fabric here.

This sweet vintage package of DWR blocks can easily be yours!

As you will read in my earlier post about this unique bundle, I was the lucky recipient of a large supply of fabric yardage and I found a bag of these gems inside!

I need to note that these are remarkably clean: no smells only a stain or two that I could see.  I found no bugs or signs of mice in the package.  Kudos to this lady for keeping this collection so clean for so long!

There are 5 piles of this size of blocks, each pile has approximately 100, yes one hundred blocks!

The remaining fabric here in the drawer consists of 99% cut wedges like you see on the bottom left.  The rest of the fabric pieces are a variety of small scraps. (Bottom right)  

I found a few centers and melons in the box, that could possibly be used for a pattern.  There is also a pattern cut from a newspaper.  I couldn't find a date on it, but there is an ad for a car salesman at a dealership I remember as a kid--it sold out in the mid 60's.  

~~~

This pile of about 100 blocks are a different size.

 Wedges are longer and more narrow.

 Just look at all these fun vintage fabrics~

I love these pink fabrics and after seeing several of them, decided it was "Jack and the Beanstock."  

So, there you go!  Approximately 550-600 Vintage Double Wedding Ring blocks with extra scraps.

I can ship it anywhere in the US for about $10 and anything over that will be use to purchase batting for Quilts of Valor quilts.

I have been quilting for Quilts of Valor since 2008 and quilt at least 2 per month.  My hubby and I supply all the batting for the tops I quilt.  QOV is entirely a volunteer organization and this is a contribution we make.

If you are interested in placing a bid on this awesome vintage package just leave a comment in this blog or my earlier blog post or you may e-mail be at  bunkhousequilts@atcnet.net.

This special package deserves a Home Sweet Home!