A mini, some more masks, and a delivery

This week I made another batch of masks for some friends! I am happy to help those that don't sew and need a mask (not that I really enjoy making them, to be perfectly honest, but I'm doing my part to help family, friends, neighbors, and a local nursing home.) 

Friday was a good mail day as my fabric delivery came! In my last post I mentioned that I was running out of some basic supplies but I was able to order the fabric I needed online since nothing is open locally.  I want to give a shout out to The Fabric Shack! They are working through all the craziness to continue filling orders. They are also waiving shipping charges in the U.S. for now. This is a mother (owner) and daughter team right now and they are doing their best to get fabric out to those in need! It might take a little longer than usual to get your order but it wasn't too long!

I really want to support them so I put in another, bigger order. I will also keep them in mind when I need to order again! If you have any fabric needs, I encourage you to check out The Fabric Shack!

Last Monday, Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict mentioned how she missed sewing with her friends. Her idea was to have a "virtual" sewing meet-up next Monday (tomorrow) with minis that were made since last Monday as a memento of our 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine! I really like this idea as I really wanted to make a quarantine quilt to document this unique time in history!

 A mini is just perfect!

I decided to make my mini with the #Sew Together At Home. That gave me the idea to make a house block with a spool as the 'door' and I drew up a little pattern. Scrounging through my stash, I found the cloud fabric for the background of my house (sky), the red hearts for the 'thread', some red for the banners on the top and bottom. The words are raw edged appliquéd in Kona black. I straight lined machine quilted the sky 1/4" apart, meander in the banners and big stitch hand quilted the house. 

details

This mini is 10" x 12"

(Even though I used the words 'sew' together because this is a sewing meet-up, I could have easily used the word 'so' together because we are 'so together' with our families in this Stay At Home time! I'm sure most of us are not used to being 'so together'.

😩

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

This week my youngest daughter ask me if I could make an artsy wallhanging quilt for her to hang above her bed. She likes a minimalist, modern style. So I looked through some images I saved and....here is a peek. 

This is the 1st quilt that I'm using my natural dyed fabrics from my adventures last summer. You can read about it here. 

 Hope you are getting some quality time in the sewing room! Stay safe and remember we are sew together! 

April's Rainbow Scrap challenge block

For April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela chose light blue! I finally got around to completing my block using scraps from my overflowing blue scrap bin! It is always so hard to take a picture of just one months column block. Each column is only 4 1/2" wide unfinished. 

Here are 4 months together!

I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy. 

I have seen quite a few house blocks going together during this Shelter At Home order. I have also been thinking about doing an I Spy quilt now that I have a grandson. With the suggestion from Allison at Cluck, Cluck Sew, I decided to make an I Spy quilt with houses. I didn't use her free house pattern because I wanted to use smaller squares of novelty fabrics. I drew up a pattern for a house and started cutting 4 1/2" squares from my scraps and stash. I have well over 100 squares cut but I'm not sure how many will be used. 

Here is a sneak peek!

I also joined the Elvira Quarantine Quilt Along that was hosted by Gundrun Erla of GE Quilt Designs. 

Here is what is on my design wall currently. 

I have quite a few projects going (which I usually don't do) but I am finding that I have run out of certain basics and I'm waiting for 1) my online order to deliver 2) local quilt shop and fabric stores to reopen. 

I have exhausted my limited supply of elastic making masks, my supply of fusible interfacing making a t-shirt quilt (which I can't find anywhere!), Kona cotton fabric in white and spa blue. 

I love using my stash but some basics are always in need! 

A little bit of this and that

Although I have been staying at home with the exception of walking the dog and a few porch drop offs, I haven't seem to get a lot done. 

What have I been doing? 

Well, I have done some baking which really isn't in my wheel house. I've made bread, mini donuts and a cake. Today, I'm making scones. 

I've done a little bit of clean up in the gardens. Up until this past weekend, we really haven't had the weather for it. 

I've also been going through old paperwork and shredding, shredding, shredding. And that stack of old magazines that I saved because 'I would definitely do some of the great ideas, make the recipes or go on those fabulous vacations.' I've been going through them one last time and then recycling them. 

One the sewing front, I've made several batches of masks. At first, I tested a couple of patterns but eventually settled on one. I did run out of elastic and switched to ties. I also made a couple with a filter pocket. 

~sent to a local nursing home

~for friends and family

~more friends requests

~my daughter and boyfriend

~more friends and family

On the quilting side, I finished the 2nd quilt that resulted from my improv practice for the #improvtrianglesewalong. This technique by Nicholas Ball is called insert. I'm calling this one Small Wonders.

Depending on the number of inserts, the blocks look like crosses to hashtags. 

I added the inner border from the fabric I used as the inserts and the outer border the background fabric. 

All the fabric for this quilt are from my stash. 

In the center blocks, I straight lined quilted 1/4" apart horizontally. In the inner border, I FMQ large loops, and the outer border I quilted 2 rows of large scallops. 

It finishes at approx. 40" x 40" and will be donated as part of the Hands2Help 2020 challenge. 

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Brag about your Beauties, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, and Friday Foto Fun. 

Lastly, I finally got around to making one more of the Quiet Play Pattern Club 2019 blocks. 

These blocks are all paper pieced. Although I do enjoy paper piecing, I do think they are a bit time consuming. I have a few more blocks to complete before I can start arranging the word and picture blocks in to a quilt top!