More Place mats, Love-seat protection and my first 1 hour basket

If anyone asked what crafting I would be doing this past week after I posted my last blog I would have said finish a quilt top that is in progress or work on my  Vortex scrap blocks. Didn't work out that way.

On Monday I went to JoAnns armed with coupons and picked up some home dec fabric that I could use for furniture protection.We have a very active dog who is allowed full run of the furniture. (Bad parenting skills) The love seat is leather and is about 3 months old.  It is already showing signs of dog scratches. We tried covering the love seat with a quilt but its shear weight on the slippery leather made it fall off several times a day. I came up with this two piece idea that can be pulled off in seconds for company or for laundering.

  I had a little left and made a couple of pillows for the sofa.  

Who could holler at that face?

While I was at JoAnns I found this piece of burlap that worked up wonderfully for a summer catch all on the porch.  It too was on sale. This is the one hour basket that you can find the tutorial for free on Craftsy.  Really does get done in an hour or less.  

And last but far from least I managed to pop out 4 placemats. We are going to visit friends in their new home. They love placemats, so I thought I'd find a block that I liked and have at it.

I used some half square triangles with a white background and pale grey binding. The back which I forgot to photograph is white with grey lines in chevrons. 

All in all a very productive week. Maybe next week I can finish that quilt top I started.

New Scrap Project and some Knitting

I decided to join  in the Scrap Vortex QAL with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts. My biggest problem going in was that I had a minimal scrap pile.  I had gotten rid of all of my scraps before I moved in February.

These are my small scraps

and this is my box of longer scraps.

I did find a bag of scraps from a friend who dropped them on me before she moved that I have incorporated into mine. 

I did find that I have mostly scraps that are from 2 1/2 in strips my favorite size of fabric to work with so my pieces are going to be a little large.  This is where I started. I took a piece from the smaller box and a piece from the bigger box without looking and sewed them together

Trimmed them down, and  sub cut some

and ended up with this wall full for my week one.  We are in week two so I need to go back and start putting these together before week 3  starts on Wednesday.

I also managed to loom a hat for Angel Snugs to send to a pediatric oncology unit

and to whip up a couple of  knitted wash clothes for their annual fund raiser. 

On to a non quilt related note.  Nettie's sister got released from medical hold and we should have her come to live with us mid July.   We are having lots of company coming in the next 3 weeks and felt it would be better for her to come after the commotion has died down.  She is a very timid dog and we want her to start off  in her forever home on a positive note. She will be coming for at least one play date before her full time arrival.  

Little Letters and Placemats and Nettie

This weekend we are meeting our very good friends, grand niece, for the first time.  We have been family friends for the past 30 some odd years. To celebrate this meeting I made her a quilt.

 It is from the Little Letters Quilt Along that Temecula Quilt Company had last fall.  I just love this quilt for little ones.

I had this wonderful little flower print in my stash that I think went perfectly with it.

I was so happy when I got it finished and was ready to wrap it when I remembered this wonderful Easy Peasy Backpack Tutorial.  I was so excited with the idea and to be done before deadline that I got carried away with myself. I really need to slow down.

See the little mishap in the photo. Should have been through the loop.

The big problem was that the tutorial calls for knotting the ends of the strap strips.  I like mine nicely sewn together better than tied.  It would have been so much easier to untie a knot. Oh well. Ripper and I had a lovely chat while undoing a few stitches.

Here is the quilt all wrapped up and ready to go. I am really happy with the outcome and I am pretty sure she will be happy too.


This week at our quild meeting we had a mini class on making the Mile A Minute Quilt. It's the quilt where you use your small scraps to make blocks and then you make them into a quilt.  This version is when you use a long strip of fabric as a starting point to speed up the process.  It works quite well.

Here a couple of the blocks I made during the meeting.   I am currently participating in the  Scrap Vortex QAL with AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts.  Her blocks are similar so I didn't want to make more of this new version at this time.

I used the blocks I made at the guild meeting to make a couple of place mats. I just knew if I didn't use them for something immediately I would toss them in a baggy and they would sit there forever.

I'm really thrilled with how they turned out.

Just an update on Nettie,  she has made herself at home.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

We gave her the recliner but she apparently felt she deserved bigger and better. She has not only taken over the love seat but the quilt as well.