Scraps are simply the best!

Good morning!!!  The birds are singing, here, and I am playing with scraps.  These are made from 1 1/2 inch wide strips.  So the finished block is two inches.  Pretty tiny, and pretty fun to make!  Five seams make the block.  The little connector pieces of the block are 1 inch to start.  So if you have a 6 inch strip by 1 1/2 inches...you have cut the colored pieces out with an inch to spare.  

I pull this bin out and make some occasionally.  There are a LOT in there!  Someday, I will have enough to make a quilt.  

 I am working on my plaid string quilt, too.  I make a strata, like this, and then sub-cut and trim to make my blocks. I am going scrappy and using up every single string, wide or narrow, so anything goes!

Hope you are having a really good day today!

Julie

Log Cabin Lunatics!!! Ready to finish it up???

My last round was 8 1/2 inch x 1 1/2 inch strips of pale strips, and then the same size colored strips with the red 1 1/2 inch squares attached.  

 I am sewing all my blocks together today!!  Hurrah!!  

Coincidentally, I (Julie) Julierose, and Quiltdiva Julie are all making this quilt!!!  Three Julies!  Are you also sewing along?  

Please see Quilt diva Julie HERE:  Me and My Quilts - Exploring the Possibilities: Project Updates (quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com)

Please see Julierose HERE:  julierosequilts: A FUNKIFIED FLIMSY--FINALLY

 Please see Cathy's quilt, HERE:  https://saneandcrazy.blogspot.com/2021/02/log-cabin-lunacy.html

Please see Caryl's quilt here!!!!  cinnamon holiday workshop: To-Do Tuesday #51 and Log Cabin Loonies (carylquilts.blogspot.com)

Have a lovely day, each of you...it is certainly wonderful here, with heat and water and everything!  WOW!!!  I am so filled with gratitude, after a few days of cold and dark!!

Julie

Hand quilting by candle and flashlight illumination! Hat update too!

Good morning, everyone!!  I am grateful for heat!! We are having rolling blackouts, here in Texas, which means we have 20 hours of dark and cold, and 4 hours of heat, if history serves me (this has happened twice now).   Many of my friends have had no heat since Sunday night.  Whoop whoop for the heat!!!  I wanted to stay productive in the darkness, so I layered this little quilt up, and have been hand quilting it, stitch in the ditch.  I have made very good progress, using my bright candle and a little flashlight.  My stitches are pretty good, surprisingly!

Here is the fabric I used on the back, and my label in place.  The binding is on, too and is waiting for hand stitching.   Great fun!!!

 ********************THE HAT PROJECT!!!!!!!!!********************

I continue to make nursing hats, and this is one of the latest ones.  I wanted to give you all an update!

TADA!!!!!!!!!!!!  Together, we have made 413 nursing hats!!  

I just want to thank you, each of you,  from our hearts to yours, for all of your efforts and love.  Some made hats, some made bags, some made masks for all of us in healthcare.  You are appreciated and loved!!!!!!!  I see your hats every single day, running around on someone's head, and your bags are used every single day.  THANK YOU!!!!! for your generosity of heart!

Have a lovely day: I am off to do all I can while the power is on.  I just pray for the 3 million people in the cold and dark, that their power is restored quickly!!

Julie

Cold!

 Hi everyone, May I ask for prayers for some warmth?  It is very cold in my house.  No electricity means no heat. It is 5 degrees outside.   I am burning old branches in the fireplace and hand quilting by firelight!!!!  May all effected by the power outage be warm soon!

And the forgotten quilt is a top!

And this little forlorn, forgotten quilt is now sewn together, into a quilt top!!  The pink is to add a pop of, well, pink!  LOL!

This quilt will never, ever lie flat.  My sashing, which I just made, is flat, but those blocks I made in the distant past?  Are all different sizes.  No consistent seam allowance, at all.  Does that put me off?  Not in the least, LOL!  I just love it!!  Lots of joy, here.  I am grateful I found it, and I am grateful that my skills are better now than then...grateful for a quarter inch sewing foot on my machine!  Grateful that I have improved on my quilting skills, at least a little bit.  Grateful for those tiny little bits of colorful fabric!!

I am so close on the mystery quilt, too.  This is the third sashing I have made...and this is it, I am telling you, for I am not making another set of sashings!  

All these mystery quilts look so different, depending on fabric placement.  I love them all!!

My favorite block, sewn into the Mrs. Lincoln's sampler quilt.

 Here is some primitive applique, all prepped to sew.  

So that is it for now, all!!!

I wish each of you a lovely day, full of productivity or rest, work or play...just hope it is good for you! Sometimes I think we just have to make up our minds that it is good, no matter what!

Julie

Sunday, and I am off work!

 I have made some string progress.  I decided to empty my plaid basket, and use every string I would find, making a string quilt.  I love playing with the little pieces, so, so much!  Lots of ideas are running around in my little brain...makes me dizzy.  Haha!  Stay tuned, is all I can say.  I have three quilts in the works right now, working steadily along on them; this one, Bonnie's mystery, and the Forgotten quilt!

*************************1930's*****************************

I have been greatly enjoying my study and reading, in the evenings, about the history of the 1930's.  This was more than an American phenomenon, but encompassed (to some degree), the entire world.  

My impressions:  

In the 1920's, greed was king.  There was so much easy money and personal debt out there, and little worry about it...until!  The stock market fell, losing 30 billion of wealth in 4 days.  In addition to poor governmental policy, and massive debt, there was an awful drought, that truly wiped out so many farmers.  I mean to the point the farmers just packed up their pickup trucks and left farms, that had been in the family for generations. It seems to be the perfect storm for a massive economic depression. 

Apples were sold by former executives and workers on the street corners for 5 cents, and no one could buy them...no one had 5 cents to spend.  

Farm land was rented for 8 dollars an acre, for an entire year.  Can you even imagine those prices?  Working men were willing and looking for work, for fifty cents per day.  

As Wall street fell, the banks fell, and then the businesses, and then people...and so went the entire country.  Many folks in the country had an easier time than city people; at least in the country, food could be grown.  Not so in the cities...soup kitchens sprang up, from religious institutions, and also the Red Cross.  

Many people thought that they were self made men, and would not accept any governmental help...not that there was a lot to be had, at first.  It was really hard-scrabble times. Piggy banks were taken from children and the coins used to buy food.  Many men blamed themselves, full of shame, for they could not provide for their families.   Charity meant failure to many.  As unemployment grew,  there was less consumer demand and purchasing of consumer goods, and so the economy spun down.  

An angry mob stormed the US Capitol, demanding their military pensions from WW1 be given to them early.  (The Bonus Expeditionary Force).  I found it interesting that the capitol was stormed quite recently, as well.  

For lack of buyers, entire crops were plowed under.  Cattle were killed, too, as people went hungry.  A mass migration started...the dust bowl days were upon the Midwest and west, and people started migrating to California and other places.  On foot, or with cars that were salvaged, loaded down with household goods.  By railcar, too; the hobo transport.  These hobos were former workers, farmers, family men, fallen on hard times.  They were looking for a way to work, a way to make the next meal.  They would beg at houses for food, until the housewives would put out signs, "no food here, even for ourselves...please do not knock."  

The Red Cross came to the forefront, helping feed people, and help with rudimentary health care. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the presidency...and with him, brought reforms, meant to help.  He had fireside chats (Is there anyone who reads this blog that listened to one, in real time???)  The USA formed work groups, with many civic projects, such as parks, roadside stops, road and bridge projects...anything to provide a working man a wage.  

Part of the reforms, of which there were many, included:

Farmer's Aide

The establishment of a minimum wage

Wall Street was regulated

Booze was legalized (ending prohibition)

Bank deposits were insured by the US government

Many jobless people were employed, as above, with public works.

The citizenry gradually redeposited their hoarded cash, solidifying the banks again.  

The economy did not really recover until the advent of World War 2. Of interest, a young German named Adolf Hitler came on the scene in 1934.  

All this history brings me to what I really want to dig into:  The food, clothing, making do, savings habits, quilts, of course, and work habits of those people that went through the Great depression, and the sequelae for future generations from their experiences.  

So more on that next time!!!!!!!!  Thanks for indulging me in my exploration of this portion of history.  

*******************************Healthy habits****************************

So far we have been:

1.  strengthening those abs, to support our backs!

2.  Drinking our water.

3.  Taking our vitamins

4.  Adding a walk to our days

5. Some simple exercises, every day!

How about adding some good eating habits?  Now this is really the elephant in the room for a lot of us, right?  It is so easy to grab something quick, snacky, with lots of fat and sugar and salt, and not much nutrition.  I challenge each of you, (and mostly myself!) to take a few moments to make a meal to take to work, out of healthy stuff...not such junk as a lot of us get going on!!  Plan your meals...make them in advance...clean some carrots and cauliflower and celery and put them in baggies, ready to pop in your bag, so when that 3 PM "I gotta have a candy bar" craving hits...at least you have something to put in your mouth!!

Have a great day, everyone!

Julie

Now I remember why!!!

I bordered all of the blocks for the  "Quilt I didn't remember" today.  So all the blocks are now done! I remember now, why I didn't finish it...I had no more 2 inch squares, in that box that I was using! Who knows what I was thinking...and why did I not go find more squares??  Also, some of the piecing had 1/4 inch seam allowance...and some did not, LOLOL!!!  So that is why it got rolled up in the length of white material and stashed away!  So I corrected the worst blocks, added borders on all of the blocks, and now am working on the sashing pieces.  PROGRESS!!!!

Here is the block.  All two inch squares.

 I am making progress on my string quilt, too!!  That one is super fun, and super fast.  PLAIDS!  in strings! What could possibly be better?

Hope you are having a lovely day!

Julie

I have no memory of this quilt!

Hmmm.  I was going through the quilt closet to clean, and I found this, rolled up in a yard of white fabric.  I have no memory of making it, but there it is, so I must have.  I recognize all those old fabric pieces from the 80's and 90's and 50's (mom's).  It is definitely pre-blog.  

 I stalled on it for some reason...wonder why?? Probably a squirrel!!!

Julie

End of month update!

I am all ready to applique down these pieces, for the Mrs. Lincoln's Sampler quilt.  Cathy and I are making two blocks a month for this quilt.  It is well on the way to being finished!!!

So here are my blocks for this month.  These blocks are great fun to make!!!

Ok, this is for all of us Log Cabin Lunatics out there...  This is where I am on my log cabin lunacy blocks.  So add a 6 1/2 x 1 1/2 light strip to your blocks, as shown, then the red 1 1/2 inch squares to your 6 1/2 x 1 1/2 dark strips, then sew together as above.  So you can leave your blocks at this size, as they are 8 inches finished.  I added another round to my blocks, so they will be 10 inch, finished size. My aim here is to make a quilt big enough to cover someone, in a hospital bed or a cuddle quilt for chemo or wheelchair. I feel like this is a big win/win...a fun quilt, and some of my 1/2 inch strips used up!  And it is mindless, sewing fun.  Hurrah!!! 

Above is my mini of the month.  It can stand alone as a little quilt, but I am thinking I would like to make a block for each month, with piecing and applique.  Please see Wendy, here...our fearless mini quilt leader!!  It is so much fun to see everyone's mini quilt creations...lovely quilts, all!

Strings!! Strings are just so, so much fun to me!!!  Above is a table runner I made a long time ago.  I don't know when, because there is no date on the back!  You can see that one end had been exposed to the sun.  It was on my old sewing machine, which gets some sun in the afternoon, fading the border fabric.  It is hand quilted through every string, and it a favorite of mine. 

So my friend Annie and I are making string quilts!!  I though I would make a bed sized quilt, from the above table runner idea.  So I am off to the races!!! When we are finished, I hope to show both of our quilts to you! 

I have made a fair few strings quilts over the years...above is one.  It is well used and washed a lot.  In fact, Rosie the poodle has a little accident on this quilt last night, and I just washed it.  It has held up well.  The quilt was made in the "quilt as you go" method.  Rosie would be so embarrassed that I told on her...please do not mention it to her, LOL!

 Here is the back.  I just used what I had, so obviously I ran out of the funky floral fabric...(FFF)  Haha!!!

Hope each of you is having a wonderful day, and off I go on my day!

Julie