Monday, January 23, 2012

New life for old scraps

I truly didn't mean to start a new project, but I was straightening up my sewing room and came across the scraps from my great-great-grandmother's quilt that I dismantled a couple years ago, and they called out to me. They are so soft, so I found a soft, off-white fabric to pair them with and got to work.

The center is completely constructed (blocks and thin inner border), and I am currently pairing the salvaged HST units to make a pieced outer border. The finished quilt should be about 40" square, and it should use up all that is left of the old scrap quilt.
The HST units were already sewn in the old quilt, but I have to cut them down to 2" first (because most of the seams have disintegrated) and then sew them together with the other HST units.  It is a little less work than making them from scratch, but not much less.  I love all the prints on the old fabrics.
I also whipped up a couple more corner bookmarks today.
Bookmark modeled in Lizbie Brown's Broken Star.  I have all the books in that series except Shoo Fly.  Does anyone know where I can find it?
 Last weekend at my quilt guild meeting, I was asked to provide instructions for the bookmarks for this month's newsletter, so I made some more while I made sure of my instrucions. The next time I give a kid a book, I am ready with a bookmark.


Speaking of books, when I wasn't sewing today, I was reading. I finished Leann Sweeney's The Cat, The Lady, and The Liar, and got started on Katherine Hall Page's The Body in the Basement. I had read one of her books before, The Body in the Kelp, because a quilt played a role in that mystery. It turns out, the book takes place in Maine (where I grew up) and was not only clever but well written with characters that I liked, so I was thrilled to learn that there is another in the series with a quilt in it. I haven't gotten very far into this one, but so far, so good. Truly, if I could spend my days splitting my time between quilting and sewing, what a happy existence that would be!

8 comments:

The Cozy Quilter said...

You must have found a day with more than 24 hours to get all of that accomplished! Your Grandmother's quilt is lovely!

Julie Fukuda said...

Those fabrics in Grandmother's quilt look so familiar. I can see why they were calloing to you. It's nice to find another book written by the author you enjoy. I'm making a list for my next trip to the states.

Becky said...

Love the scrap idea. Good job! I am heading out for a cruise tomorrow and have loaded some books on my ipad. Not necessarily quilt books but books nonetheless. I'm taking a sweater I am knitting to work on.

Linda said...

How about sharing the bookmark instructions with your blog readers. I'd like to make a few for my book club friends.
Linda in Southern Illinois

Taryn said...

Good job recycling all the fabric from your grandmother's quilt. It looks great. I think it would be wonderful to have more of the day to spend on quilting. Life (and work) keeps horning in on my time.

joe tulips said...

These old fabrics are sweet. Way to go....saving history! My great great grandfather moved to Minnesota from Maine back in the 1800's. How far back does your family go in Maine? Now I want to go there and look for graves!

Caz said...

I think your corner bookmarks are great! I love reading your blog btw!!

Char said...

I thought I sent this to you the other day don't know what happened. Is this what you're looking for
http://www.amazon.com/SHOO-FLY-ELIZABETH-BLAIR-MYSTERY-LIZBIE/dp/0340717483 or

http://www.abebooks.com/Shoo-fly-Lizbie-Brown-New-English-Library/1201107991/bd

I love what you did with the blocks from your grandmothers quilt.