Scarping Continues

Not really wanting to keep sharing the same thing over and over... I am sharing the same thing again (over and over) - my scrap quilt project based on the free Harvest Moon quilt tutorial by Megan Collins. I know. I've been working on it for weeks. But, the end is in sight. Nine block spaces remain to be filled.

A stack of nine cut-out units await piecing. 

By end-of-day today (Friday), I'll be able to finally arrange all 50 blocks, and take them off the design wall in an orderly manner, for piecing later. Later too, of course, I'll cut setting triangles for the sides. But after all this "fabric-making," those setting triangles will be easy!

Those scrappy blocks are coming down just in time for Saturday and Sunday afternoon, four-hour (total of eight hours) virtual workshop with one of the reigning queens of improv, Irene Roderick @hixsonir! Seventeen of us from two Florida MQG chapters (Jacksonville and Central Florida) are taking Irene's Two Step: Dancing With the Wall workshop, and will use only two solid colors to design improvisationally. I'm excited!

Painter's Palette Sachet (left) and Patriot (right)

My two selected fabrics have me going out on a limb. These are Painter's Palette solids in the colors Sachet, the palest lavender; and Patriot, an intense blue. 

They're definitely not my usual colors, but in person, I like the way they vibrantly play off of one another. The intense blue seems to draw out the blue tones of the pale lavender. 

Dear Mr. B

Speaking of "coming down" and "going out on a limb"...

Sadly, Saturday morning marks the moment we'll make our final farewells to our front yard baby, Mr. B, our very special Bismarck palm.

He just keeps looking sadder and sadder as his core growth has visibly disappeared, and the rot of death travels downward. We are going to miss this palm.

So much. 

😢

Book Recommendations

Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams is a title I picked up because of its Florida connection. The story takes place between 1919 WWI France to 1922 Cocoa Beach, Miami, and Maitland. 

Virginia travels from New York to France to be a Red Cross ambulance driver. There she meets a British army surgeon, Simon, who sweeps her off her feet, and doesn't introduce her to his family under after their private wedding. 

In present day 1922, Virginia has traveled with their three year-old daughter to the boomtown of Cocoa Beach, Florida, where she intends to settle Simon's estate. Simon has died in a fire at his citrus plantation home while trying to rebuild his family's lost fortune. While in Florida, she again encounters Simon's twin brother, and beautiful, carefree and fun-loving sister, both of whom want to introduce Virginia to the citrus groves, beaches, and Prohibition   along the coast.

Between Virginia's own secret knowledge about her father's recent conviction for murder, and the sense that she's being watched, she's sure things are not as they seem and that she and her daughter aren't safe. 

Linda's score: 3.8/5.0

If The Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy is a modern day fairy tale about Cindy and Henry.

It's been a number of years since Cindy's mother died and her dad remarried. Cindy was welcomed into the arms of a reality TV producer step-mother, and two step-sisters born nine months apart, but identified as twins. Cindy still hasn't come to grips with her father's fatal car accident when she was in high school. 

Cindy has now graduated from a NYC college with a fashion degree in shoes... her biggest weakness. However with no job, and a stepmother who wants help with her triplets, Cindy travels to Los Angeles where she unexpectedly finds herself interested in being on her stepmother's TV show - Before Midnight - as one of 24 women vying to be chosen as "the one" by a handsome bachelor. When Cindy meets the man - Henry - she realizes she's already acquainted with him. What follows is Henry's on-camera wooing and courtship of every potential partner, and Cindy's unexpected, plus-size-woman rise to social media fame. Are the women on the show for the $100,00 winner's payout? Or do some of them want more from a very public relationship? 

This was a predictable, easy-listening book that was nice for its total escapism. Though I learned a bit too... am I the only one who's never heard of making the best grilled cheese sandwich with mayonnaise? 

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Recently a friend thanked me for helping her, and gave me this framed piece. Kathy made it herself using two chunks of colored glass, two buttons, and a little drawing and lettering. Very special, and so cute! It now graces my sewing room wall. 

"In the crazy quilt of life

I'm so glad you're in my block of friends." 

I'll say the same about you, my blog-reader friends. Thank you for reading and commenting! Linda

Good Friday

Scarping my scraps continues. I'm like a stuck record, one that keeps playing and playing - Oh my, that's a thought that dates me, doesn't it? -  handling print scraps that are still in piles, pressed and sorted by color. Some of those piles are noticeably much smaller! Red, purple, navy and pink are practically down to nothing.

As the piles have shrunk, the number of blocks on the design wall have grown.

My original plan was to make 32 blocks and call it done.

But a reassessment has me aiming for 50 blocks. With setting triangles on the sides, I should end up with a quilt top that's about 70" X 82" - a nice useable quilt size.

I'm only concerned that with the hundreds and hundreds of seams in the quilt top, it might be heavy. Maybe I'll finish the quilt with a flannel or fleece backing, and no batting. I'd like to insert some extra blocks into the backing though. I'll decide when the time comes.

You might have noticed my iron in a previous photo. This week my new Oliso arrived from Missouri Star Quilt Company, an Instagram giveaway for National Quilting Month. Because my name was drawn as the winner, I received: 1) a felted wool pressing mat by The Gypsy Quilter; 2) a can of Magic Quilting and Crafting Fabric Fresh; 3) Iron-Off hot iron cleaner by Dritz; and, 4) a an Oliso smart iron, model T1600. The seafoam color and print along the soleplate are a custom design, specifically made for Missouri Star. 

This new Oliso beats the heck out of the Hamilton Beach iron I've been using! The Oliso has a sensor in the handle that makes it automatically raise and lower, doing so via a mechanism at the bottom of the soleplate, and another in the soleplate, at the tip. How cool is that?! 

Admittedly, it's taken me a bit to remember that I don't need to stand it up. Here's a little video of me using it as I've been sewing scraps together, then pressing seams open before adding more pieces to "make fabric." From the made fabric I use templates to cut convex and concave half-moon shapes.

From now until next Friday, I'll be sewing my scrappy blocks at an ASAP level! That's because next Saturday and Sunday (April 15-16) everything has to be off my design wall to take an Irene Roderick virtual Dancing With the Wall workshop. Irene suggests in her book that nothing else be on the design wall as a quilter creates - nothing should distract from the fabric colors being used to make a improv quilt. So however far I get with these scrappy blocks, they'll be off the wall by the end of next week.

Have you seen the latest bit of math that has been discovered? The "Einstein Tile"? My friend Courtney brought it to my attention. Then I came across a news article about it. David Smith, a novice mathematician recently discovered "the hat," a unique 13-sided geometric shape that "can completely cover a surface without ever creating a repeated pattern."

No doubt quilters will be working out how to turn this into a quilt design! 

Book Recommendations

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda is about a community of people that work at the local college, and are friends, mostly by proximity. Their outside-of-work lives are spent in a small development with a neighborhood pool, and a homeowner's association that communicate through an online message board.

When Ruby unexpectedly returns to the neighborhood, after having just spent 14 months in jail, accused of the crime of killing her next door neighbors, no one knows what to do or how to behave, especially Harper, Ruby's friend and housemate. Ruby's conviction has been overturned, and though Harper has always believed in Ruby's innocence, not everyone agrees. As well, Ruby's odd behavior raised more questions than give assurances that all is well. 

Over the next few days, neighbors begin to share truths that didn't come out during Ruby's trial, and now everyone is more suspicious than ever. Could a killer be living among them?

Linda's score: 3.9/5.0

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande isn't my typical read. In fact it's non-fiction that was recommended to me by my sister, and I'm very glad I read it. In fact, I think it should be required reading for anyone who has ever contemplated living (or dying) with disease or illness, and what one's end-of-life might look like... and should look like.

Dr. Gawande, who grew up in Ohio, researched the process of growing old by talking with people in the field of medicine, and with patients having varying illnesses and debilities. His book reviews the history of nursing homes - how they came to be in the 1950s because hospitals were overrun with people with infirmities - and how the concept of assisted living came about in the 1970s. Today, not every assisted living facility is operated as the concept was first designed and intended. 

Dr. Gawande gives sound statistical information alongside his views that our dependency on medicine to prolong our lives is often at a cost that foregoes the desires of the individual, the (poor) quality of life the sick are able to sustain, and the almost inhuman ways people die - in a way that's often not of their own choosing.

I recommend this book to everyone who knows or will know an elderly person. It's a must-read for anyone living in a retirement community such as The Villages. I didn't give it a 5.0 because of the subject matter which takes a hard look at dying - not a cheery topic, yet, everyone faces it.

Linda's score: 4.5/5.0

It's Holy Week, and I've been trying to soak it in, beginning with the Maundy Thursday, when the Last Supper is remembered as when Jesus knew Judas would betray Him to Roman officers. Then, Jesus's prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, including His last request that "this cup" of suffering be removed from Him. Good Friday is remembered as when Jesus endured several trials and Pontius Pilate ultimately gave Him over to the crowd and their cries of "crucify him!" It's sad to remember the intensely painful way Jesus died on a cross, but the good news is the significance of His death as the means for us to be united with God, when the Temple curtain was torn in two. That event forever removed our separation from God. Jesus' sacrifice was for me, and all of humankind. Today is a good news day. 

Andit's my Dad's 93rd birthday!

Like any great Dad, he reads my blog. In fact, though he has never sewn, or made a quilt, he knows more about quilting than any 93 year-old man you'll ever meet!

You're the best, Dad! Linda

End of Month

It's been a healthy exercise for me to have begun fabric-tracking in 2023. No, I didn't inventory my entire stash to do this! I'm only monitoring, each month, any new fabric that comes into my sewing studio and fabric that goes out in a project.

Disappointingly, January and February saw fabric gains. That's because I used a fabric gift certificate, won two fabric bundle giveaways, and bought yardage at QuiltCon. Though I've been creating in March, I have no quilt finishes to show for my efforts. I am counting as "outgoing fabric" pieced blocks that will becoming my modified version of a scrappy Harvest Moon quilt. This is my March fabric output. Only 2¼ yards, but 'll take it!

I've continued to tackle scrap piles - I'm scarping away! - cutting them into pieces for an Unallocated Quilt; Harvest Moon/yin-yang blocks; and a too-full basket of 1½" squares. Scrap reduction is visible, albeit still very messy!

Not wanting to separate any halves of the full moon (Harvest Moon) blocks I've already made, I've begun to lay out a combination of the full moon blocks, and the modified blocks I've dubbed "yin-yang blocks." I'm positing yin-yang blocks only along the outside. I've made 17 blocks so far. I think I want 32 blocks.

I prefer an on-point quilt layout because I think the design has more interest. Maybe I'll use a black and white stripe for the setting triangles. 

Also this week, during a long Big Cypress Quilters business meeting, I completed joining another row of  Prudence Quilt blocks. This is row five of 13 to be joined together. 

Prudence is a long-term EPP project started in June 2019 after I won Prudence Quilt EPP templates and papers in an Instagram giveaway from @lilabellelanecrations

Book Recommendation

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (who also wrote The Guest List which I gave a score of 4.4) is a suspenseful story about a half brother and sister, Ben and Jess.

As arranged, Jess arrives at Ben's Paris apartment only to find he isn't there. She makes inquiries of the other building occupants, each of whom makes her feel unwelcome. They don't want her there. Everyone knows something about Ben that they aren't sharing. Even the building itself, with its posh units, hidden staircases and dumb waiter, and la cave full of vintage wine, gives Jessie chills. Only Nick, one of Ben's college mates living in the apartment above, sympathizes with Jess's concerns, and is amenable to helping her find Ben. 

The book gives readers a Paris vibe that's different from the colorful and charming city we imagine. A darker side is revealed. With each chapter written from the perspective of a key character - Jess, Ben, Nick, Sophie, Mimi, and the building concierge - the suspense builds. An unpredictable ending made this a very engaging read. 

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

A friend forwarded a subscription email to me, and I'm glad she did. Thanks, Ardie! In a recent message, Sheri Cifaldi-Morel @wholecirclestudio shared 15 of her favorite quilts displayed at QuiltCon. I was delighted to see that our group quilt - Patent Pending - was among them. (The block I made is at the top center, below the scissors. It's a wheel of Aurifil thread spools and a thimble.)

"Patent Pending by Patty Dudek, Charles Cameron, Kitty Wilkins, Linda Hungerford, Pat Cummins, Sarah Ruiz, Valerie Luberecki, Yvonne Fuchs 

Statement: Patent Pending offers a way to remove those unwanted stitches without touching a seam ripper. Since this my least favorite quilting task, I recruited friends to create a Rube Goldberg* machine in quilting form. Our theme was Teamwork. With only the entry and exit points provided, each quilter designed a block for the ball to travel through the quilt. Each block is as wonderful (did you see the bird?**) and as unique and creative as the artist who made them! Assembling the quilt was an enjoyable interactive process, adding details and the final block which actually removed the stitching. My hope is that you enjoy looking at the quilt as much as we enjoyed making it.

* A Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction contraption intentionally design to perform a simple task in an indirect or overly complicated way.

**No bird was harmed in the making of this quilt. 

Featured in the Group or Bee category."  

Below is the last last block in the Rube Goldberg chain reaction. It was made by our group quilt coordinator, Patty Dudek www.elmstreetquilts.blogspot.com @elmstreetquilts. She quilted Patent Pending on her domestic machine. Correction! This block was made by Charles Cameron @feltlikesweets. Thanks for correcting me, Patty!

Linda

Lotsa Scarping, Palm, and Winner

My blog title is an intentional misspelling - scarping; not scrapping. I have adopted the word from Char at clothstitched.blogspot.com and made it mean "the chaos that results from delving into bins of scrap fabrics, and the efforts a quilter makes to press, sort, cut and organize those scraps into useable bits of fabric."

I've been scarping daily for more than a week now! I'm happy to say that as of Sunday, I've touched every single printed scraps that was in four aqua-colored canvas bins (on the left). All the pieces have been pressed and organized into color piles. 

Some have been cut into pieces for an Unallocated quilt - free instructions @mckillopmichelle on Instagram, here I'm prepping these pieces to take on Central Florida MQG retreat in May.

The littlest bits have been cut into 1½" X 1½" squares. My 6" deep Longaberger basket is nearly full. 

But my focus has been on making fabric from which to cut shapes to make Harvest Moon blocks. 

I've been making Harvest Moon blocks like the purple background one, on the right and have 11 such blocks now. But then I got the idea to swap out the arrangement, to make a sort of yin-yang block. I like it. But now I must decide whether to make them all like yin-yang, or keep going with the Harvest Moon block, or do a combo. I'm at a complete loss as to which is best.

As you can see, I have a lot of scraps to work with and will just keep making fabric until I decide which blocks to make. (Must share that I was able to take this picture using my tripod, my new iPhone 14, and the three second timer on my new Apple Watch. I just double-pinch my left-hand thumb and index finger, the timer starts, and the iPhone 14 snaps the picture. Cool, huh?!)

Each day finds me with a little hand-stitching time, so I've finished Kawandi #13. It''s 16" X 19½". 

This morning sunshine photo shows all the lovely texture.

Using only neutral-colored scraps, I stitched it with six colors of Wonderfil #12 Spagetti thread. 

Book Recommendations

Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan is about Lily Atwood, a celebrity journalist whose image is perfect. She has the perfect look; the perfect clothes; the perfect house; and is the perfect mother to seven year-old Rowen. Yet Lily has secrets she keeps even from her producer, Greer - the one who has worked behind-the-scenes to ensure Lily receives all the recognition and awards. Greer is secretly resentful and snarky about Lily's success.

A secret source is providing information that leads to legitimate stories, but Greer learns more about what Lily has kept hidden. What happened to Lily's older sister Cassie, who disappeared from her college campus? Who's Rowen's father? And how is the secret source involved in all this? 

Linda's score: 3.6/5.0

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain begins when it's time for Kayla, an architect, and her four year-old daughter to move into their new, ultra-modern 4,000 square foot home in Round Hill, North Carolina's development called Shadow Ridge Estates. Yet, as excited as they should be about the move, they're mourning the loss of their husband/father, who fell and died while working on the house.

The story line jumps between 2010 Kayla - her trepidation about moving; the exposure she feels because of the house's 50 uncovered windows; the dark woods; a strange, round clearing in the woods; and the proximity of a murky lake - and 1960s Ellie Hockley who grew up in Round Hill, in the old house next to Kayla's new home. In the 1960s, Ellie determines, despite resistance from family and friends, to participate in the S.C.O.P. E. project endorsed by Martin Luther King, Jr.  The program is meant to educate African-Americans about voter registration and civil rights, while the Ku Klux Klan is active, even in Round Hill. Ellie learns there are few people she can trust.

It took a while for the two storylines to merge, but I found that entertaining and enlightening. 

Linda's score: 4.1/5.0

Bad New/Good News

Last Friday was a bad news/good news sort of day.

The bad news came from a tree-trimmer we asked to take a look at our front yard Bismarck Palm, a palm that has been the site of many quilt photos - #quiltinabismarckpalm

In the past few months, Mr. B hasn't been looking very happy. We'd thought to have it trimmed, but then learned it has "twist," likely suffered last November when Hurricane Nicole came through our area with strong winds. Because the palm is above our roof line, it was exposed to high winds that twisted and broke the top center growth spike. 

Because the heart of the palm is broken, it's been rotting from the top downward. This is the rot that the tree man brought down to show us.

We're as heart-broken as the palm, saddened to know we'll no longer enjoy this special palm that we've loved since it was planted on August 14, 2013. It will be removed April 15, 2023. 

In good news, I learned I won an Instagram giveaway for National Quilting Month!

Missouri Star Quilt Company hosted an Instagram giveaway of a "Jenny Bundle" - a can of spray starch; a tube of iron cleaner; a wool pressing mat. and...an Oliso iron! I'm so excited! Thank you Missouri Star Quilt Company!

Not only is March my birthday month (this year my birthday fell ON National Quilting Day) but in March 2021, I won 100 fat quarters of Benartex solid fabrics in their National Quilting Month Instagram giveaway.

I like the month of March. Linda

Scarp My Scraps

For the title of this post, I intentionally used a made-up anagram from the word "scraps." That's because a blogger I follow (She will remain nameless so as not to embarrass her - Hi Char! 👋) used the word "scarp" in a recent post title. I got such a kick out of the word - thinking when I saw it that surely I was going to learn something new, related to quiltmaking - that I'm using it intentionally, 

As you can see, all I've been doing lately is Scarping My Scraps. 

It's been a tedious, messy task. 

I've been handling leftover bits from projects made ten to twelve years ago. Certainly, I've made a number of scrap quilts during that time, but it's clear I've never dug to the bottom of each canvas bin. 

I am now.

Even hubs noticed, asking, "What are you doing now?" And later, after pressing, sorting and cutting for several hours, "Aren't you getting tired of doing that?" 

But I have a goal. I'm simultaneously working on three projects! 

The first continues to be Harvest Moon. To make these, you create fabric from your scraps and then use templates to cut two shapes. Free tutorial by Megan here. 

Then, thanks to a blog comment from my friend Anne @springleafstudio, who pointed me toward the Unallocated scrap quilt on Instagram - see @mckillopmichelle here - I'm cutting pieces for my own Unallocated. These are my test blocks that measure 4" X 4" unfinished. 

Believe it or not, I am feeling productive, though I don't have anything to show for it except sorted piles. 

Oh, and an ever-increasingly full basket of 1½" X 1½" squares! I need to change my rotary blade today.

Another bonus has been to find the bits of brown and black prints that have been lurking, unused, in my scraps. These are colors I don't use in my quilts, so I'll be taking them to Big Cypress to give away. 

I've also begun cutting some of my larger scraps to make a Posh Penelope quilt, a pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful that uses the Quick Curve Ruler.

After seeing two of these quilts made scrappy - the first at our QGOTV quilt show, and another on Instagram - I knew it would be another good way to use scraps. 

Made by Tammy Kaplan, QGOTV

Made by Chris Simon @thecolorfulom

By the time I'm finished with these projects, my scrap bins will be nearly empty! Right?! They will, won't they?

I will have Scarped My Scraps! 😁

Book Recommendation

When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica, is about Jessie Sloan whose mother is dying of cancer. Not knowing who her father is, Jessie understands how alone she is. Deciding she can no longer live in the house where she and her mother shared their lives, Jessie tries to go out on her own - applies to college, rents an apartment, and gets on with her life. But her inability to sleep is playing havoc with her thoughts: what she's seeing and hearing. When the college contacts Jessie, and she learns she doesn't have a social security number, she begins to suspect that she isn't Jessie, and that her mother kept dark secrets from her. Jessie finds a hidden-away picture of a man, and believes he could be her father.

This is one of those plot lines that goes back and forth, from present day Jessie to back-then Eden, Jessie's mom. Though I most often like Mary Kubica stories, this one wasn't quite up to her usual standards. 

Linda's score: 3.8/5.0

Linda