Presenting, and Projects Progress

Saturday found me in Sarasota, Florida, visiting members of the Sarasota Modern Quilt Guild to present a program I call Scarping Your Scraps. For those of you not familiar with term "scarp," it's a funny misspelling of the word scraps. All blame credit for the term goes to my friend Char at Cloth Stitched. I'm sure she regrets the day she posted that typo. That's when, reading her blog post, I was thinking, "Oh, I'm going to learn about something new that Char's doing!" Scarps. Ha, ha. 😂

So, my scarp presentation involved sharing scrappy makes - everything from quilts to blocks, bags to coasters, and peg loom and braided rugs to confetti pouches and twining - 22 items in all.

I developed the program after Lois, a blog-reader in Sarasota, noted all my scrappy makes, and asked if I could come to share them with her chapter. Pulling together the presentation involved quite a bit of organization on my part, but the outcome was good. I have a better handle on my unfinished scarp projects (just a few), including what they are, and where I'm keeping them! Thanks so much for inviting me, Lois!

My latest knitting finish is a 24" X 36" baby afghan that I'll donate to Children's Home Society of Florida.

My friend Sandy gave me the donated yarn along with a simple pattern using two strands of yarn with a four-row repeat - something easy for me to hone my rusty knitting skills. Edited to add: This "Beautiful Texture Baby Blanket" pattern is found in a book. Here's the link to information on Ravelry. 

Using what remains of the pastel variegated yarn, and another skein of blue yarn, I've begun knitting another baby afghan. 

This past week I also spent some time on the Scrap Play project, begun January 3 in Sherri Lynn Wood's free virtual workshop. Feeling stumped about how to move forward with the improv-y nine patch and HSTs I'd made, I pulled out her book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, and found inspiration. 

I'll be moving forward, using chartreuse-y green prints and solids to make this into something somewhat visually appealing. 

Some of my time has returned to trying to salvage the "Ocean" diamond painting kit, purchased last June from Diamond Painting Pro. While the canvas and square resin drills are both excellent quality, the colors selected and keyed for the chart are less than accurate or attractive. The company tried to resolve my problem, but did NOT come up with appropriate color assignments and drill colors. 

In the top picture, you can see what the sunrise looked like, after I'd painted it according to the Diamond Painting Pro chart. In the bottom picture, you can see how I've begun to slowly correct their mistake, removing pink drills and replacing them with colors 5200 AB (aurora borealis) for the sun, and attempting to paint a gradual color shift of yellows. 

I think it's looking better, but what a tedious job. Removing drills is bad enough (they retain the stickiness of the glue on the canvas surface), but it's been trial and error to choose and place four shades of yellow drills. Argh. 

But I still like the original picture. so I'll keep going. 

We've had a couple nights of freezing temps here in Central Florida, though I don't mind a bit. I still travel to activities in my golf cart (with the canvas sides down, zipped and snapped in place). I've found I mostly have the roads and multi-modal paths to myself!

Also, for the first time in more than a year, I dressed in long long pants! Linda

Class: Braided Rag Rugs

Since many of you have asked questions about, and/or expressed interest in the rug I've been braiding, I contacted Ilka White in Australia to ask when she might again be offering a virtual workshop - Braided Rag Rugs.

After exchanging a couple emails, she let me know that she has scheduled one! I'm letting you know here, and you will find more information on Ilka's website. 

Braided Rag Rugs

Saturday 18 April and Sunday 19 April

Class time on both days: 5-8pm (EDT) That's Florida time 

    If you're in another time zone, check yours HERE.  

Cost for early-birds is $120 AUD (currently $80 USD) or $130 AUD ($87 USD) after Jan 24

Register by Saturday, January 24 to receive the early-bird discount.

I'm thinking to take Ilka's class again, as a refresher, since learning in November 2021. Though, I'm still quite pleased with what I'm seeing in my rug - color!

At 33" X 42" now, progress is slow. The larger it gets, the longer it takes to see growth. But I'm committed to continuing, making it large enough to suit the seating area of our recently-enclosed and tiled lanai floor., as well as use-up all the clothing and home dec items I've collected. 

The first rug I made in Ilka's class was round, and included quilting cottons. 

I won't do that again! I quickly learned that $12 a yard quilting cotton (especially colors I love) is too precious to put into a rug. These days I'm inclined to use cast-off clothing like a $6 XXL t-shirt, or large tablecloth, or flat sheet from Goodwill. Even better is using my own stained and hole-y t-tops. 

The other rugs I made were oval-shaped, though this one is more egg-shaped. I made it for a friend using the home dec fabrics she sent me. I learned through experience that braiding an oval shape can be a little more challenging to get to lay flat, but I've conquered that difficulty. 

I hope I've enticed you to consider registering for Ilka's class. I can attest that she's a fabulous instructor - one of the best I've ever learned from. 

It would be fun to see you there! Linda

Print Stash, and Projects Status

One of my friendly blog-readers asked me if I would share pictures of my fabric stash. (Thanks, Becky P.!) I said I would and then looked at the condition of my closeted piles. Ugh! They were messy. So after about an hour's worth of tidying, I am glad to share these pictures. 

These prints are in a cabinet, stored behind closed doors. Each shelf is 11" high, and 26" across the front. 

These two shelves in the sewing room closet are 23" across the front, and from the bottom shelf to the top shelf measure 26." 

Mind you, these are only prints. My solids stash is separate.

Does this seem like a lot of prints to you? Do you have a bigger print stash than me? Quilters want to know!

I'm finding it extremely difficult to work with these print pieces because 80% (85%?) of them are less than a fat quarter in size. Every single piece has been cut into. No pieces are "new" and uncut.

Still, my 2026 (and beyond) goal is to not buy fabric. Keep sewing with what I have. IF I should succumb to a fabric purchase, it will likely be a solid, or a print that's needed to complete a project. 

I'm not sharing a picture of the three shelves of solids, directly above the print shelves in the first picture. They are still in their messy state.

Last Saturday I attended Sherri Lynn Woods' free Scrap Play workshop on Zoom. It gently tugged me from my sewing funk. It also got me to dump out two bins of solid scraps that I determined to work with. Some of the scraps had been previously sewn and cut away from something else, so I tried to use as many of those pieces as I could. I spent considerable time ironing!

Sherri had us piece improv nine-patch blocks, and gave us a couple prompts. The first was to make a nine patch using only dark values.

It was okay to make a block that was nine-patch-ish, and include a HST, if we happened to have one. Then we were to make a nine-patch using all light values with one dark (bottom).

After the workshop I continued to sew. In my orphan block bin I found some already-pieced HSTs, and from my scraps I sewed more HSTs too. Now, how do I make those nine-patch blocks work with the HSTs?

When I look at that hot mess on my design wall, I wonder how to jigsaw pieces together! I've pulled out Sherri Lynn's book Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters to see what I can come up with. My first inclination is to grab a black and white stripe print and start working it into the design. Or maybe I should piece black and white fabrics to make my own improv strips and checkerboards.

In the past few days I quilted my Sunny Lanes quilt with free-motion swirl hooks. It's my go-to FMQ design when I know I'm going to donate the quilt, and want to get it done on the quick.

Still, my happiest time each day is sitting down to work on my braided rag rug. Thus far, it's about 33" X 43" and will definitely get bigger. 

I'm braiding with 14 fabric strands now. 

The rug has a nubby texture with its combination of t-shirt knits; poly-cotton, and knit bed sheets; poly men's dress shirts; canvas fabric (leftover from bag-making); a damask tablecloth; and four-way stretch knit (leftover from making leggings). I love it! 

  

Linda

2025 Review/2026 Beginnings

Moving right along into 2026, I've gotten a little bit of sewing mojo back, most likely prompted by the fact that later this month I'm giving the Sarasota MQG chapter a program about scraps. The name of my presentation is Scarping Your Scraps. 

To explain Scarping... in 2023, a virtual friend, Char at Cloth Stitched, used the term "scarps" in a blog post title. I picked up on the typo, kidding her about it, and saying how I too liked to scarp my scraps. The rest is history, as I've continued to try to scarp all my print scraps. I've set a goal to use them all by 2033. 

This is my 2025 total fabric used - incoming, outgoing, and the net used. More used than came in. 

While 49 yards of fabric used-up in 2025 is good, compared to using 88.88 yards in 2024, it's not so good. I'm giving myself grace due to the difficult months of October, November, and December, spent visiting Dad, attending his funeral service, and grieving. 

Besides... this is too true.

Other 2025 numbers:

• 255.84 miles walked, in 86 walks, according to Map My Walk app
• 115 audiobooks read, 13 more than in 2024 (Click "Books Read" tab on my home page to reference the list in score order.)
• 70 blog posts published, only 1 less than in 2024
• 7,268 people viewed my September 11 blog post "I've Been Sewing"
• 5,611 people viewed my September 18 blog post "Thread Giveaway" of Scanfil thread
• 4,589 people viewed my September 6 blog post "Away to Georgia and Ohio"
• only 1,628 views of my October 29 Filmstrip Quilt Tutorial with 18 comments 
• the most blog comments - 34 - were received September 18 on "Thread Giveaway"
• 7 large quilts made, 5 fewer than in 2024 (Click "2025 Quilts" tab on my home page.)
• 3 quilts entered into 2026 QuiltCon Raleigh; 2 quilts accepted

In previous years I've also tallied how many quilt guild meetings I attended; how many times and hours I spent line dancing; how many hours I spent in bible study; and such, but not this year. Those numbers don't mean much, other than to say that I've filled my days with activities that have been beneficial for my mental, physical and spiritual health. We all strive for these things, right? 

Now that we're fully into 2026, these are a few of my sewing room WIPs. 

Related to the Scarping Your Scraps presentation, I've determined that my Sunny Lanes quilt needs to be finished. Tutorial for this block on my blog. The top had been in limbo at 53" X 69½", but after holding it again, I decided, "It's heavy!"

Made with thousands of 1" finished squares - actually 1,968! - those seams make it weighty. I'd thought to use a single layer of flannel for backing (without batting), but couldn't find enough of anything in my stash. 

So, I pieced a backing, and will be sandwiching it with Quilter's Dream Request batting. Basting and quilting will be soon. Coming up with enough stash for binding will be another challenge. Scrappy binding might be the solution.

A bit of between-holidays reorganization of my sewing room found me pulling out UFOs and WIPs to put in some semblance of order. Satisfyingly, they're now labeled, and sorted in the closet. 

What I determined to do something with is this bin full of leftover garment sewing fabrics, several sheets and pillow cases, many worn-out t-shirts, a few men's dress shirts, and a tablecloth. I determined it was time to start another braid-in rug. 

In 2020, during a series of virtual workshops, I learned no-sew rug-braiding from Ilka White who lives in Australia. She is the best instructor I've ever learned from. 

Starting with four strands here are progress photos.

At this point I was braiding with 10 strands.

Here I'm up to 12 strands.

Still braiding 12 strands, as of today the rug is 27" X 39". With many materials still unused, I plan to keep going until... who knows? I'm thoroughly lovin' working on this!

Unhappily, I found a mistake made, several rows back, in the baby afghan I've been knitting. The vertical cable is meant to be continuous. Darn me. I'll be carefully unknitting to fix my error. 

All's not wrong in the world, though. This morning's super-moon, as it was competing with our sunrise, reminds me of what's more valuable than a mistake in a baby afghan. God's creation shines.

Linda

End of December

December was a less-than-satisfactory fabric-using month. Not feeling like quiltmaking or sewing contributed greatly to the problem. 

The not-quite 5 yards of fabric used were for:

1. a back and binding on Posh Penelope (see previous post)
2. a sleeve on Infrastructure, a quilt that has arrived in Austin for QuiltCon judging, and
3. bias edges on two vinyl zipper pouches 

My only other December accomplishment was to listen to a lot of books! Twelve of them in December.

Book Recommendations

Though to make it clear, several of the Andy Carpenter books by David Rosenfelt, are only six to seven hours long. As you can see below, I listened to seven of them, which are available to me on both my public library platforms - Hoopla and Cloudi.

I'm hooked on the Andy Carpenter series because of the stories, but also because of the great narrator, Grover Gardner, who reads funny lines in a well-delivered deadpan voice. 

I've gotta ask... have you ever read a book where you found a mistake? A spot in a story that jumped out as wrong? 

I've found two of them in David Rosenfelt books.

1. The first was in the book Sudden Death, when the body of a shooting victim is found in a closet. Early-on, it's determined that the victim was shot in the head. Later, as the investigation is unfolding, it's mentioned that he was shot in the chest. At first I thought, "Ah ha! That's a clue to who did it!" I even rewound the book to confirm I'd heard two different statements. These contradictory factors never reappeared in the story, so I concluded that the book editor never picked up on the mistake. 
2. The second time I found an error was in New Tricks. I stopped the book and played the part for hubs. He agreed that it was incorrect. Laurie, Andy's girlfriend, is shot in her "carotid artery" which is located in her leg. Oops. Everyone's carotid artery is found in the neck.

But I'm forgiving when it comes to this stuff. A good story, especially those with details about things I don't know about, override mistakes. In fact, they're sort of fun to find... like catching spelling or grammatical errors. (I know. I'm weird like that.)

These are my book scores, with 5.0 being the highest possible score.

• 4.4 - Bury the Lead, #3 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - Sudden Death, #4 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - Dead Center, #5 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - Play Dead, #6 Andy Carpenter series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - New Tricks, #7 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - Dog Tags, #8 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt
• 4.4 - One Dog Night, #9 Andy Carpenter Series, David Rosenfelt

• 4.4 - Don't Open Your Eyes,  Liv Constantine
• 4.3 - Forget Me Not, Stacy Willingham
• 4.3 - Before the King: Joanna's Story, Heather Kaufman
• 4.2 - The Correspondent, Virginia Evans
• 4.2 - What Lies in the Woods,  Kate Alice Marshall

The other, non-Andy Carpenter books were fairly good.

I enjoyed the psychological thriller Don't Open Your Eyes, about a wife and mother, Annabelle, whose dreams often predict what will happen in the future. While I don't believe that's possible, the story makes her condition very convincing. The book takes an unexpected turn at the end.

Forget Me Not is another psychological thriller that tells the story of Claire Campbell whose older sister Natalie went missing two decades before. The last Claire knew, Natalie was spending time at a remote island farm and vineyard in South Carolina. On a whim Claire visits that place, and ends up taking a summer job picking grapes. The longer she stays, the more sure she is that people are hiding something about Natalie. 

Before the King is a fictional story about Joanna of the Bible who meets Jesus, questions what He's teaching, and becomes a believer. She financially supports his ministry and becomes an integral part of His story on resurrection day. The author gives Joanna a sister with epilepsy, and how that condition is hidden and denied. 

 

What Lies in The Woods is about lies, lies, and more lies. I was shocked when I learned who was lying about the body that's secretly been lying in the woods for years. Who knew what... who found it... who put it there. This is one of those stories that makes you wonder how the author's mind worked out such a series of events. Does she write from the ending backward?

I don't understand the rave reviews The Correspondent has received. It's a story about a woman, Sybil, who pens letters every day, and the people she encounters and gets to know better through correspondence. Sybil is a very opinionated, somewhat unloveable character who didn't earn my respect or sympathy. But the interwoven stories of the people she corresponds with are interesting.

As I look to Thursday and the start of a new year, I am grateful for the past year of being able to indulge in my favorite activities. I'm also sad about the experiences 2025 brought, specifically, the death of my Dad. I know I'm not the only person to have had a rough 2025. Several friends (two of them are bloggers) have also lost someone dear. Other friends (one is a blogger) have experienced severe health concerns.

All these things remind me to appreciate how good I have it - how God doesn't give me more than I can handle, and if He does, He helps ensure I can handle it. Linda

Posh Penelope Finish

No doubt, Posh Penelope will be my last finish for 2025.

Making this one was a long slog. It's a quilt that 'bout did me in because I quickly learned that the eleventy-billion steps needed to make one block involved more focused attention than I was willing to give. It was definitely not suitable for working on while on a quilt retreat. 

Setting a goal of making eight blocks a month was the only way to make myself reach the finish line. 

I recommend this Posh Penelope Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern only to makers who are strongly self-motivated and committed to a finish.

Posh Penelope, 69" X 81½"

It's certainly pretty. I captured this picture when the quilt top was on the ironing table, and daylight was shining through it. Misaligned seams don't even show!

My go-to method of basting is still with 1" safety pins. Though I occasionally use homemade basting spray (recipe on this blog's home page), I don't like having to put old sheets on the floor around the basting table, to protect the floor from overspray. 

My go-to batting remains Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton Request (lowest loft). 

I find it's the least weighty batting for me handle when a large quilt needs to be shoved around under my sewing machine needle. 

Wanting to get the quilting done, I walking foot quilted the whole thing. Down and dirty! The top thread is pale green Wonderfil Konfetti (50-weight), and Wonderfil DecoBob is on the bottom. On my Bernina 770QE I adjusted the tension to 4.0. 

All of the walking foot quilting is on the diagonal. None of the walking foot quilting is near a seam. 

I was desperate to find a piece of fabric for binding that had the right colors and was large enough to cut 230 linear inches at 2¼" wide. (Except for solids, my print stash is getting that low.) I used-up nearly all of this black and white, with aqua, pink and green stripe. My binding method is No Tails Binding: Mitered Corners by Machine, that's a tutorial here on my blog. 

Backing fabric is a wide back, intentionally purchased for Posh Penelope in July from KC Maker Studio (Kansas City). It's a fabulous quilt shop to visit, if you're ever in Kansas City. In fact, they've expanded since I was there!

I like sitting down with a quilt for a couple of evenings, hand stitching binding.

I can't tell you what a relief it is to have this quilt done and dusted.

 

Special thanks to my DH quilt holder.  😀

Linda