EE - Exuberant Ellsworth Afghan

This afghan, triple crocheted (with single crocheted rows between each triple) was used with the huge skein of dark charcoal that Heather got me at Christmas.  However, I also used in in another afghan, so I didn't have enough.  I tried finding more on the internet, but that color (sumac) is no longer being made and is out or stock everywhere.  Luckily, on a whim, I went into Marden's in August (8 month later!) and they had ONE skein left.  Can you believe that?  Meant to be or what?

I used bigger small balls of leftover yarn than for the green magic knot blanket.  This works up fast and fun, and I love the magic knot - so NO weaving in ends.  Hope the knots don't come out!

Finished blanket:
124 sts. in each row
54 sets of tc/sc in length

Finished 9/29/24

One Charm Pack Table Runner by Sew the Distance

 She uses a fun trick to sew this together, and teaches a simple way to separate the darks, lights, and mediums.

Her YouTube tutorial is here.

Crumb Blocks/Strips Into Crumb Quilts

Agilejack's Fresh Start Quilt

Complete directions for blocks (shown below).

NOT HARD AT ALL!!!

Another idea:

Nine patch crumb blocks with unifying center and border!

Another nine-patch, also on the YouTube video below.

Here's a 9-minute YouTube video from MerryMabelMarket that is no-nonsense, quick, and fun to watch.  She's making 6 1/2 inch color-block squares: 

A Great Idea

I have a whole bucket full of batik hexies that I sewed together in a four-patch years ago without a clue about how I would eventually sew them all together.

Well, I saw this on someone's blog and I sat up straighter.....

Interesting ideas are forming in my tangled brain.......

Arkansas Crossroads Quilt

Let's Make One!

 Super Simple, and so cool looking!

4-patches, 16-patches, and some snowballs make this terrific quilt.  It can be made with any size square...the one I watched used 1 1/2 inch squares of scraps with a 2 1/2 inch light single-fabric to make the X.  

You can make any size square and and size quilt using her measurements.  

Wonderful YouTube video here.  Her website with written directions is here.

Paper Pieced Mini Houses - Easy-Peezy-Simple-Small

Photo will go here as soon as I create one - can't be downloaded from internet.

Watch Stitch with Rachel YouTube directions

Etsy shop where I purchased the pattern: JitkaDesign

Spring Season Quilt Block by Beth Shibley of My Sewing Room

 I love that the two hourglass blocks and all the half square triangles are made with slightly larger squares, then cut down (I'd use my BlockLoc ruler) to make accurately-sized 2 1/2 inch squares.

A 10:45 YouTube video can be found here.  Cutting directions below.

Each block is a 5 x 5 -  of 2/12 inch squares, so the end block is 10.5 inches.

Would make a super scrappy quilt, and maybe a way to work on a leaders and enders project?

Cutting info

For the center five:

Cut FOUR (4) 2 1/2” squares - scrappy
Cut ONE (1) 2 1/2” square - white
For the two hourglass blocks:

Cut TWO (2) 3 1/2” squares - Red print
Cut TWO (2) 3 1/2” squares - White

For the sixteen half square triangles:

Cut FOUR (4) 3” squares - yellow /green print
Cut FOUR (4) 3” squares - lavender print
Cut EIGHT (8) 3” squares - white

My Blog's Artsy-Fartsy Table of Contents

Quilt Patterns

     10-Inch Heart Square from Pin Cut Sew

     11 Different Patterns using leftover/scrap 2 1/2 inch strips by The Quilted Forest

     16-Patch Delight by Lori Dickman

     Arkansas Crossroads

     Color Wash Scrap Quilt by Terry Rowland

     Crumb Blocks into Crumb Quilts by Merry Mabel Market

     Fold & Sew SIMPLE Square-in-a-Square

     Fresh Start Quilt by Agilejack (scrap/crumb strips - gorgeous and easy!)

     Hidden Trails Table Runner from Charm Pack by Moonkin Stitchery

     One Charm Pack Table Runner by Sew the Distance

     Paper Pieced Mini Houses

     Potato Chip Blocks (using 2 x 3 1/2 in. blocks or 2 1/2 x 4 1/2)

     Scrap Strips Diamond Trip (Donna / Jordan Fabrics)

     Spring Season Quilt Block by Beth Shibley

     Sweet & Salty by Charisma Horton

     Unallocated by Michelle McKillop

Gifts to Sew

     Tissue Holders (TOO easy) thanks Ronda Winstead

     Easy, EASY Simple Fabric Bookmarks thanks to Jona Giammulva

Yarn Projects

     2022 Homeless Blanket Project (through Charles Bruce Fdtn.)

     Kim's Magic Blanket

Yarn Patterns

     Amigurumi Octopus 

     Linen Stitch Dishcloth

     Bathroom Mat using leftover yarn tied together

Knitting Book Reviews

Picture Books About Knitting and/or Yarn

Yarn Bombing

Art Techniques to Try

     Neurographic Art

Artists

     Blair, Mary (Disney Artist)

     Gaudi, Antoni (architect)

     Haring, Keith

     Kahlo, Frida

     Kandinsky, Vasily

     Kusama, Yayoi

     Lewis, Maudie (Canada's Grandma Moses)

     Matisse, Henri

     O'Keeffe, Georgia

     Pippin, Horace

     Rousseau, Henri

     Sumner, Kae (6' 3" Disney Artist & Founder of Int'l Tall Person's Clubs)

     VanGogh, Vincent

     Warhol, Andy

Color Wash Scrap Quilt by Terry Rowland

Easy, fun, gorgeous, and perfect for lots and lots of scraps!

Great video of putting this together, leaving no questions and needing no pattern!

 

Wonderful Facebook Group with gorgeous quilts

Sweet & Salty Quilt - Getting ready to begin

Getting ready to start Charisma Horton's "Sweet & Salty" quilt, using her Banana Split ruler.  I don't like the quilt shown here, but I have my own idea, and purchased a jelly roll and coordinating fabrics at Humble Stitch this weekend.

I discovered this quilt by watching the "Sew the Distance" YouTube channel, which I very much enjoy.  Not a lot of extra chatter.  Great hints.

Check it out here.

"Unallocated" Quilt Pattern by Michelle McKillop

Unallocated Quilt Pattern

If you go to the Instagram website it shows a close-up, a very easy square to make (two at a time!) which would be a great ender/starter project.

To make two blocks:
Cut two 3 3/8th" squares of a dark and a light, cut them in half diagonally.
Cut two logs 1.5"×3"
Cut two logs 1.5"×4"

2020 Quilter's Trek: TRUE BLUE (formerly Row by Row)

This year I'm going to actually make the quilt.  It'll be in different shades of blues and I'm really looking forward to getting started.  I've ordered a few of the kits, they're on the way!

My first call was for my favorite block in all my searching all over the country.  I'm quite sure it was the owner I spoke with, and she was super nice and talkative.   She says these fabrics are from her favorite lines.  The kit was $14.99 and s/h was $4.95, which seemed pretty darned reasonable to me.  Can't wait to see and touch the fabric.  Love that there are words on the background fabric!

My second call was to Lind, WA.  I loved the idea of including a crazy quilted square, and their kit cost and shipping was incredibly reasonable ($10 plus $2.20 s/h) and I think this one will be easy and fun to put together!  Christy told me about retreats they have if I ever get anywhere nearby, and they sound great.  I think she says they're about 70 miles from Spokane.  Fun!

My third call was to Knit One Quilt Too in Rhode Island.  You had to order the kit ($18.95) through their website and s/h is ten bucks.  This seemed a bit much, so I decided to look further before purchasing.

The fourth call stayed right here in Pennsylvania, to Wormelsdorf.  I'm going to have to hit the maps ti figure out where in PA they are.   In Stitches Quilt Store used yo-yos as flower ins a basket that looks pretty easy, with an appliqued handle on each.  I think I can tackle that, something a little different....  The kit was $17.99 with s/h $4.75. Okeedokee!

This is so much fun, might as well track down another!  My call to Cambridge Quilt Shop in Cambridge, MA was easy as pie!  It looks like an extremely easy kit and packs a punch - and I can add anything and everything to embellish it if I want. The kit is for the HOME, she added the HOPE to give another idea of how it might be used.   The kit is $14.95 and she though s/h would be somewhere between four and five bucks.  SOLD!

Well, I've spent $75.00 on this quilt so far, time to yank in the reins until next payday.  But was this ever fun!  I wonder when the first one will arrive?

I really like the background of this Dresden plate, and I love the idea of appliqueing the ties to it.  Unfortunately she doesn't have any extra of that fabric (I thought it might be nice to use in other places in the quilt) but I could always cut away the background behind the applique, right?  She'll send an invoice via email to continue the purchase, So now I have a block from Missouri!  It's 16.95 plus tax which includes s/h.  Can't go wrong!

Black & White Hexie Quilt

If I go back to blogs from March and April 2015, I can remember the first steps of this quilt, in Tucson.  I pulled it out today from a shelf in my PA home and decided to get started with it again.

Here's what I found sewn together, not much: (and there were 47 completed flowers in a lovely stack)

6/7/2020 Up to 182 hexies.  So much fun so far sewing this together!

6/11/2020  289 hexies

6/12/20 387 hexies.  I'm going to stop adding on too much for a day or two, I need to concentrate on getting a short stack of the horizontal diamonds ready to just grab and add.  I've got plenty of the 18-hexie flowers.  I'm loving the way this quilt looks!

6/14  New from-scratch elongated horizontal diamonds AND 523 hexies.

  

6/17 Sewing, sewing, sewing....660 hexies.....

6/21  797 hexies, slowly but surely.  Just received four more yards of white fabric, don't want to run out!

7/5/2020 917 hexagons.  Been sewing together lots of the diagonals with b/w center, and not doing too much to the quilt itself,  I'm down to 24 (out of original 50) larger flowers that are ready to go.  Guess I'm going to have to do some calculations so that I know how many more flowers and diagonals I have to prep.  Good for visiting, waiting in the car, sitting my the ducks, and other times away from home.

Will have to triple check these preliminary figures, but:

standard full size quilt: 84 x 90

width: 8 flowers across = 76.5 in.

9 flowers across = 85.5 in.

length: 10 flowers down should equal about 92 inches

I'm thinking 9 flowers across by 10 flowers down

Need 90 finished flowers total

That means making 40 more.....don't groan!

This is fun, right?

7/16/2020  Sewing, sewing, sewing.  1060 finished hexies included so far, with lots of new finished larger flowers and diagonals.... 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's a sketch of the different sewn-together blocks I want to have ready to pick up and add as I begin in earnest to sew this together:

Here's the photo of what I'd laid out on the wall in Tucson before I moved:

Ella's Flower Garden Hexie Quilt

Let's watch this sucker grow!

4/13/2020 This is where I left off a couple of years ago - 66 flowers joined.

4/14/2020  77 flowers

4/15/2020 84 flowers

4/17/2020 100 flowers and now a rectangle!

4/22/2020  130 flowers, my fingers are sore, but it's looking GOOD!  When I compare where I was and what it looked like nine days ago, I'm ecstatic!

4/27/2020 148 flowers, another row increasing width to 11 rows wide.

5/1/2020 160 flowers, adding a double row to the length, making it 15 flowers for the longest outside strip.... It's getting harder to photograph.

5/15/20 I think I finished the top...Ella, layed down with it and said it's perfect...let's hope so!  190 flowers total.

Now, how to finish it?

Dede's Christmas Hexie Table Runner: The Second in a Possible Series

This one's for Dede.  And although I have a lot of black fabric left, it's really hard for me to see to sew on it, AND because I don't think Dede would like the black (though she might) She loves reds and greens for Christmas, so I'll leave out the blues and purples that I love.  I found enough white to use on hers. Her table's a very long 90 inches, so this one'll have to be a long one!  So here goes.

4/1/2020
The first flower:

4/1/2020 A first day's progress  

4/2/2020 And at the end of the second day....time on my hands because I'm quarantined....Six flowers!

4/3/2020 Day 3 of cutting and sewing white hexies, then attaching.   The first photo is an idea for the future - making a round centerpiece...I think it looks cool.... but then I added more to continue this table runner.

And at the end of Day 3, here's where I was.  9 flowers...

4/4/2020 Day four of working on this table runner and Day 22 of the quarantine, I'm still making the white hexies like crazy and since I want to keep this mainly reds, greens, blacks, and whites, I also cut and made a few more flowers.  This will slow me down a bit, because before this i had a pile of already-made flowers to choose from.  Finished Season 3 of Travelers (the last one, unfortunately).  It's coming together quite nicely, I think. I must admit, my fingers are sore.  12 flowers!

4/5/2020 Day 5 and 16 1/2 Flowers!
I also sewed and pressed three strings of 9 hexies to attach to towels.

4/6/2020 Day 6 and 19 flowers...getting there!
I also appliqued two flowers to the fronts of potholder squares.

It's growing!

4/7/2020 Day 7 - 22 flowers
I'm now making new flowers...most of the previous sewing was done with flowers I'd already jointed.  Very sore right middle finger where my skin is getting tougher and tougher, lol!

4/8/2020 Day 8....25.5 flowers, and on I go!
     Running out of fabrics that make me happy, although I have 8 or 9 flowers that don't "do it" for me, so I'm hunting around for fabrics that work for me.

4/9/2020 Day 9 ... 27 flowers
     I decided that I want this to be at least 72" long, and that two flowers measure about 12  inches.  Therefore, I'll probably need anywhere from 12 to 14  flowers down the center, so many more.  I don't want to stop, because I really want to finish this, but I'm getting tired of it... that means either 4, 7, or 10 more flowers to go. I'm starting to groan.

4/11/20120 DAY 11 Finished the top!

4/17/2020 Ironed and ironed and ironed....took out all the outside papers and took to Deb Weigle to quilt!