Valentine's are done!

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Every Tuesday, I am inspired by "Tackle it Tuesday" over on http://www.5minutesformom.com/ (see if this link works... http://www.5minutesformom.com/2931/tt-christmas-thank-you-cards/ ). You can check out what other Mom's have tackled this week. Each small step in getting something done is a victory!
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On Tuesdays I usually really try hard to get something "additional" crossed off my list. It works remarkably well - getting me to get in gear to get ALL the Christmas decorations put away right after Christmas, sending out Thank you cards, clean out the toy box, etc. and now... this Tuesday - my objective was to get the Valentine's Day cards done. Last week I bought the piece of posterboard at the Dollar Store. Yesterday I traced the hearts and gave 1/2 to DH to cut out and the 2 of us sat at the table cutting away. Then - Little Boy was set loose with the tubes of glitter, Elmer's glue, paintbrushes, and those glittery things we used as decorations. Believe me - I was very anxious to use those things up - they had come in a little bag and my son found them about 2 weeks ago and they ended up getting strewn all about the house. I've picked them up a few times - vacuming any that I missed. So, yesterday I was really determined to use them ALL!!! Here is a photo of our combined efforts - me working very quickly beside my son to make sure that there was enough glitter to go on all the cards and moving each heart out of the way to dry as it was finished. FAST can be important when working on a pre-schooler craft project. The more you can have done ahead of time - the easier it is! Oh and one more piece of advice - DON'T go for the Martha Stewart look, LOL!!! As for the glitter - we get tubes at the dollar store, but they don't have a shaker. You can get a spice shaker at the dollor store too and just move the glitter into the shaker jar - as needed - believe me, it will last much, much longer in a shaker jar! Anyway - that project is now complete, the table cleaned, the floor vacumed... and it feels good to know that I won't be worrying about it next week!

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As for my own heart project - here is a peek at 4 blocks I made up. I cut all the background squares out and DH marked the diagonal line on each one for me! Not only that - I gave DH a pair of scissors and had him trim all the dog ears on the bonus 1/2 square triangles! I'm always happy to have help. The background squares are cut 3.5" and 2". I have the link to the pattern, but will have to post it on another post since it is bookmarked on a different computer.
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And here is a photo of the stack of bricks, with the 1st big square positioned - ready for sewing. I seperated the bricks into 2 piles and then placed the squares - that way I would be sure to sew 1/2 of them to the right and the other 1/2 to the left to get the heart shape on the bottom. There they sit - all ready for whenever I have 5 minutes here and there to sew. Here and there - sure adds up!

Test Blocks

Laurie made a comment that she finds it hard to cut into batiks. And if it weren't for her comment - I probably would have stuck that great pile of batiks Susan sent to me on my shelf - to "age" and be pulled out occassionally for fabric petting. Oh the possibilities of uncut fabric! But then again, with Laurie's "warning" fresh in my mind I decided that I must cut right into that fabric and get the "hard" part over with! Ta-Da!!!

One thing about batiks - many have great designs... so I didn't exactly want to start out by cutting those fabrics down into strips for the strip bins - to be used "someday". Nope, I wanted to find a pattern that would showcase their beauty, where I could use them ALL and have a nice project to work on here and there (believe me, here and there does add up!) . Keep in mind - the fabric sizes varied - a few fat quarters, and a bunch of long strips anywhere from 4.5" - 9" by the width of the fabric. Hummm, what to do? What to do?

I've been wanting to make some heart blocks and just so happened to have the cutting directions for 2 different heart blocks on my table. So, last night I made "test" blocks of each size just to see how they made up. 8" and 6" finished. I like to make a test block or 2 before cutting all my fabrics up - sometimes I really don't like how a test block goes together. One block - no harm done, right? Quick lesson. Not s0 if you cut enough fabric for an entire quilt and then learn you don't really like working on a particular block. A test block is well worth the little bit of extra effort!!! DH and I both liked the 6" best - and the 6" block makes much better use of the fabric seeing that it is just 3.5" X 6.5" batik bricks with no other pieces to cut (other than background), doesn't "cut" up the batik design with seams and is an easy block! And, since 2 different heart halfs are joined together - it won't matter that each fabric yielded a different number of bricks - it is a mix and match type block. With a bit of careful cutting - altogether I managed to get enough bricks to make 67 of those 6" heart blocks!!! The background will be a pale solid yellow I have on hand.

Did you notice the "bonus triangle squares in the test block photo? The 6" block gives me those itty bitty tiny 1" squares - I won't make anymore of those because honestly - I think they are too small to justify the thread usage! But - the block also gives me a larger, more usable unit as well (the medium sized one). The largest one is from the 8" block.

And look there - I have a great little collection of new scraps from cutting the bricks. Little scraps mind you - I used almost every bit of the fabric in cutting the bricks. Still - enough scraps to include in a bars quilt or string stars, or postage stamp, or, or, or??? I love scraps! Not sure when these heart blocks will be done, but the hard part is over, right? Pattern selected and fabrics cut. Yippee!!!

Stashbusting Sunday Report

Grandmother's Choice - currently measuring 85X66.5" I have a beautiful bed with curved headboard and footboard - so I like to make my quilts to fit across the opposite way most people do. A pillowtuck simply does not work for me because - well, I usually have 6 pillows on the bed (removed for the photo!). And - I don't want to jam the quilt down into the footboard - which would likely cause permanent wrinkles. Many of the quilts my Nana and Great Aunt (on my Dad's side) made had the bottom 2 corners cut out to fit the 4 poster beds - and they were all that funny 3/4 bed size that they don't make anymore. That is the great thing about making your own quilts - you can make them to suit yourself as you go. Well, in anycase - this is what Grandmother's Choice currently looks like on the bed - technically it could be finished at this point. Except I want it to go a bit further up under the pillows (in the photo you can see the top of my Bars quilt - that row of squares running along the top - NOT part of Grandmother's Choice quilt). And, I have plenty of that blue fabric still left - so I might as well go ahead and make 2 more rows of flying geese to run along the top and bottom. I think it will look interesting because of how I already added 2 rows of flying geese then the borders all around and then there will be 2 more rows of flying geese. Maybe this photo will better show what I am talking about... Then again, I might just add a row of triangles or something. But, I do have to say - I really LOVE how the flying geese run along the length of the bed drop on this.
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And - nope! My geese do not perfectly end at the end of the row - I just added a bit of matching blue and called it good. I am not going to spend hours agonizing over math when a little snip of matching fabric does just as nicely. You don't even notice when you look at the quilt top as a whole.

But lookie here - what do I see? A box filled with NEW to me fabrics!!!!

Susan over at Desert Sky mailed me this goodie package! Look at all these lovely - and a big variety - of fabrics. Lots of batiks, which I have maybe only 1 or 2 so it will be fun to play with these, dark country colors -which I tend to use alot, some fun novelties - just wait until Little Boy sees those! The timing on this box was especially nice because I had hoped to get some fabrics at Marden's this past trip - and drove right on by in order to beat an approaching storm home. I hardly EVER get to a fabric store so you can imagine how much I really wanted to stop. But - better safe than sorry. Except - I am not sorry at all because in the end I do have NEW fabrics, yippee! Thank you Susan!!!!