Scrappy Happy Heart (TSS 029)

LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I found a little time for myself and finally had a chance to work on my scrappy heart! Oh, what fun! I'm finding this quilt is morphing more and more into a "blue and green" quilt (with splashes of red and purple to keep things interesting)! Wow, they are really printing some beautiful greens lately - not easy to find so I'm snatching them up when I see them.  This quilt is really teaching me to move past the glitzy fabrics on the shop shelves and flush out my basics for blending.

As I've now completed twenty (of the 32 blocks - I know! I know! But I'm still working on them as steadily as I can),  I decided to share a quick collage of my blocks to date.

 

These are all 6" blocks (finished) using applique, embroidery, piecing, paper-piecing, and embellishing.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

That's a lot of pieces!

I've decided to keep a counter at the bottom of these posts to track them. 

The totals are based on the original patterns and not on deviations.

Scrappy Happy Heart = 20

Total to Date: 430 pieces*

*The count only includes the blocks I've completed to date

Hello, Old Friend!

It's lovely to spend some time with you, again!

Quilt room is finally clean after a hectic holiday season. Enjoying some log cabins on this snowy, Winter Michigan Sunday.

I always have at least one pick-up-and-put-down project going at a time -- usually a scrap quilt. I've been working on this one on-and-off for probably 12 years! 😊

AQ07: Scrappy Double Pinwheel

Scrappy top using 30's-style fabric and starred sashing

Missing sashings on each side

Hand-pieced

69" x 82"

The weather has turned in Michigan.  Today's highs were only the mid-60's, which has me thinking of stitching warm quilts on cold nights.  Instead of working on my own UFO's, I'm thinking of someone else's.  Here's the latest from the mystery bundle.

The seventh quilt top I pulled off the pile is this scrappy double pinwheel.  If you look closely, you can see it's missing it's last two borders (? sashings?).  I wonder if the original quilter intended to add another border after that.

Lovely, scrappy 30's fabric. I wish I knew enough to know if it's reproduction or not.  When I asked the lady who gave me this bundle, she only knew that the previous owner bought these years ago and then she hung onto them for years.  More research is required.  

Look at the polka dots!!!

My guess is the top is an amalgam of decades of fabric scraps, but it all seems to go together. Too bad they didn't add the date of sale to the tag.  Hindsight... 

You can make out some of the hand stitching at the bottom of this picture.  I think I have more of the starred fabric in my stash.

AQ06: Blue and White Shirtings

Two-tone scrappy top using blue and white shirting fabrics

Both hand- and machine-stitched with mitered corners and Y-seams

Minimal damage - a few minor brown spots

76" x 82"

I have a weakness for the sixth top in the mystery bundle.  I've seen this one called "X's and O'x" before, but this isn't made from cheater blocks.  The solid blue squares are solid and not pieced.

The quilter who made this top hand-stitched y-seams to form the block sections. Imagine how careful she was when cutting these fabrics - all the lines even.

Here's a close-up of the back. Do you see them?  The Y seams?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around how you'd put this together.

Quilt back

And look at the scrappyness!  The eye tricks you until you look closer and see the different fabrics.

Need it a little longer?  Just add a row!  Not enough of a shirting?  Piece it together.  Nobody will notice that the lines in the fabrics don't match up.  Make do!

And here you can see the mitered borders.  Just lovely.

Oh, yes.  This one is a keeper.  Can you imagine it quilt with a thin, cotton batting and draped over your lap while reading a book?  

AQ05: Green Four Patch Variation

Scrappy sashed 4-patch using 30's fabrics and solid green sashing

All blocks, sashing, and borders handstitched

Corners are mitered

74" x 87"

Next up in the mystery bundle is this 30's beauty. All hand pieced, including the sashings and borders.

The dark green is a little thick and a little jarring against the plaid fabrics, but, in a way, it seems just right.

Although a little wavy, it's in mint condition.  Might be nice with a puffier batting to hide some of the bunching.

You do have to appreciate perfectly mitered corners - and done by hand!

AQ04: Appliqued 8-Pointed Stars

Scrappy 8-point stars appliqued to cream background squares

Applique by hand - squares joined by machine

77" x 91"

The latest antique quilt top is a beautiful, scrappy affair with hand-appliqued 8-pointed stars on a solid background. I love the mixing of the polka dots with strips and checks. 

So many thoughts running through my head! Look how crisp those points are! The seams must be tiny as there is no bulk at the points.  Each star lays perfectly flat.  Were these pieces cut using cardboard patterns or did a modern-day acrylic ruler ensure the precision? I really need to get more information on the provenance of these tops!

Did the original quilter intend this to be a picnic quilt or grace a spare bed?  The playful colors invite a nap in the grass, but the top has a lovely weight to it - the type you snuggle under on a crisp, Winter night.

As I pass the pile, I can't help but run my hand over these soft fabrics and smile.

AQ03: Six-Pointed Stars

Six-pointed pieced scrappy stars with pale pink solid alternating blocks

Brown polished fabric is deteriorating

All handstitched

71" x 85"

This is the third of the collection of 10 antique quilts passed into my care.  Lovely matched points and the fabric has such fantastic patterns!

Late 1800's?  The tag says so, but the detail doesn't appear expert. It is all hand-stitched - even the long seams.

The fabrics seem right and the brown has deteriorated (the old brown and red dies were very acidic and notorious for deteriorating the fabric), but so many of the reproduction fabrics now a days are very believable.

You can see a glimpse of the blue tarp peering through
the hole.  All the stars with this fabric has deteriorated.

 Although pink is not my favorite color, I love how beautifully it pairs with the scrappy fabrics.

I haven't quilted much this year; it lost some of its appeal after making them as a commitment for other people and not for fun.  But the stripes and plaids and paisleys really make me itch to get back to my machine.

AQ02: Blue with Pieced Sashing Quilt

Blue Solid Squares with Pieced Sashings

Hand and Machine Stitched

No noticeable tears or stains

72"x90"

Here is the next installment of the mystery quilt bundle. Again, I hesitated posting these as I feel I should know the name of the quilt pattern.

The "Patch Quilt" tag in the corner listed it for $45.00

Can't you just imagine some beautiful design hand quilted in these squares?

The pieced sashing is all hand pieced, but they are
sewn to the solid squares with a sewing machine.

I LOVE scrap quilts.  Can't you imagine this on the bed or the back of a couch?

I don't feel my candid snapshots do the tops justice, but they get progressively more beautiful as we unwrapped the bundle.  I'd love to see this one completed and given to Steve.

Fisher Inspiration

I took a fabulous tour today with Lorna and Corey to the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center.  Led by a Wayne State history graduate student, Pure Detroit offers free tours of the Fisher Building, the Guardian Building, the Ren Cen, and downtown.

I must admit the marble floors made me itch to pull out a pencil and sketchpad for designing quilt tops!

Can you just imagine pulling out your scrappy grays and antique whites to make these beauties into a quilt?

This one especially.  LOVE the stars!

The building was designed by famed architect, Albert Kahn and a very talented design team.  They must've had some amazing quilts in their childhoods!

Have you ever seen a floor that inspired you to create?