Valerean

I've been trying to figure out how to use the fabric scraps I have that are too narrow to sew, and found a video on using up even the tiniest scraps that inspired me to give it a try. I tweaked her idea a bit by layering my strips on top of a piece of scrap muslin and lightweight Pellon fusible web, as the latter is the only fusible I have on hand. After ironing, I top-stitched the strips on the machine with a zigzag stitch: It worked, so I trimmed the block and turned it into a mug rug with some scrap batting and another piece of muslin To hold everything in place I added more top-stitching, using a straight stitch: It's a sturdy little piece, and definitely an easy way to use even the littlest bits of fabric. My one concern was that it's probably not going to survive the washing machine or the dryer, which would make it a bad technique to use for a quilt. So I put it through both, and here's how it looks after the wash and dry: The raw edges of the

After making the gift tote for Oliver's birthday quilt, here are the scraps I have left: I choose some of the selvage pieces and chain stitched them together in a long strip: I kept sewing the strip to itself and cutting it ala Valerie Nesbitt's strip method until I had a block of patchwork, which I framed with strips of the backing fabric: With scraps of muslin and some batting I turned that into this placemat-size piece. Can you guess what it will be? Here's one I made from scraps of another quilt project: Doggie dish mat! Ha.

Using some leftover soft muslin as the backing, and even some scraps of batting, I hand quilted the gifty tote piece: I stuck with a plain white quilting thread to keep it simple: More scrap muslin served as the lining, and some strips of the backing fabric served as the handles. Here's the finished tote: It's big -- Oliver's birthday quilt fits inside with room to spare for other presents -- but roomy totes are handy when you have to carry all that baby stuff around.

I took this shot on the day my dad died; after we got the call my guy drove me out to a park near our house where we walked around the lake. I remember how beautiful it was that morning; in a strange way that felt like a tribute. Miss you, Dad.

To use up the scraps leftover from making Oliver's birthday quilt I'm first making a matching gift tote to put it in. :) Oliver's mom likes the big totes I make, and this one will use up all the extra patchwork blocks and backing fabric.

Just in case you need some smiles: He's going to need that first haircut soon. And guess who loves books? My wild man. :)

Katherine wanted a new screen background for her phone, but didn't want to buy one. So she drew this: Such talent. If she ever decides to moonlight I think she could make it as an artist or animator, no problem. :)

Last night I needed a gift tote for a care package, but none of the ones I have on hand fit my particular gift. I was also thinking about my zero waste idea. So I hauled out the scrap bag and used some leftover strips, handmade binding, pieces of fat quarters, muslin and some aqua broadcloth to make this with the quilt-as-you-go method: I embellished the strips with gold holographic Sulky in a simple running stitch (which also helped disguise the fold lines I couldn't iron out of the binding strips.) In my scraps I also found a long piece of grosgrain white ribbon which worked nicely as the handles: The bright floral strips and binding are from my Mom's 2019 birthday quilt . The purple and green strips are from the first tote I made for Oliver . The aqua broadcloth I used for the bag and the lining came out of my spring bin cleaning project. It's fun to revisit my old projects this way, too.

I haven't been keeping up with my commitment to zero waste quilting this year, but under the circumstances I'll forgive myself. I've still got six months to use what scraps I've generated. Here's what I have leftover from making Oliver's birthday quilt: I have about three quarters of a yard of the backing fabric, five patchwork blocks, a pile of trimmed pieces and a bag of little bits. My challenge to myself for the summer is to try to use up all these scraps. Stay tuned to see what I can make of them. :)

Oliver's birthday quilt is finished!

All the hand quilting is done on Oliver's birthday quilt, so it's time to finish it: Before I bind it, I have to trim the edges of the excess batting and backing fabric: This step also allows me to trim off any loose threads on the edge: Once the quilt is trimmed I machine sew on the binding on the front: And I hand sew the binding to the backing: The last thing I do is run a lint collector over the entire quilt to collect any thread bits and batting fuzz: To see the finished quilt, stop in tomorrow. :)

We've begun the process of moving Katherine back home from college by packing and transporting a few bins of her things every week. She comes with them and has dinner with us, most recently takeout from our favorite Chinese place. The owner always gives us fortune cookies, and this time Kat and I got the same one (what are the odds of that?) Reads: "Come back later . . . I am sleeping. (yes, cookies need their sleep,too)" Lazy fortune cookies. Made me chuckle. I've been getting some very weird fortunes lately, too: "Emptiness is the mother of all things." Yikes. "Better is the enemy of good." Better being a bad thing? "Golden investment opportunities are" Since this was cut off I'll never know.

One of the best things about being a grandmother is book shopping for my boy: I want to put together a library here for Oliver so I can read to him whenever he visits. I've already got it started with a copy of Go Dog Go , which was his dad's favorite book from childhood. Since Oliver is very hands-on I'm investing in sturdy little board books. They've gotten a lot more interesting since my kids were little. Katherine always loved a pat the bunny book, so I got ths DK Animals book with the little fur inserts. Adorable. Eric Hill's Where's Spot has flaps to show little surprises, which Oliver loves, too. Lots of fun hours reading together ahead. :)

Even before the pandemic I washed my hands probably a dozen times a day. I know that sounds OCD, but I constantly handle pets, food and cleaners, and I'm hyper-vigilant about good hygiene now. I prefer foaming hand soap, as I can rinse it off faster, and keep dispensers by every sink in the house. The problem is the refill liquid (very cheap at Wal-Mart) has been impossible to buy since March, and I'd rather not order it online (I rarely buy anything liquid that has to be shipped.) Yesterday I finally ran out of foaming soap liquid, so I went online and found out how to make my own. Here's the insanely difficult formula: Add one part any liquid soap and four parts water to a foaming soap dispenser. Turn the dispenser over gently from side to side until the soap and water blend. Yep, that's it. I can't believe I've been buying refill bottles all this time when I could have just made it myself for maybe a tenth of the cost. Lesson learned!

About halfway done with hand quilting Oliver's birthday quilt: The white thread I'm using doesn't show up except on the colored patches, but I like the effect: Also doesn't show up on the white backing: I'm still pretty pleased with how it's turning out. As I'm sure you all know at present Florida is experiencing a record number of new Covid-19 cases. Here in my county the infections have doubled in less than two weeks. I've restocked our food and supplies again so we don't have to shop for a while, but I think we have to go back to the "We don't leave the house" strictest level of self-isolation until it's time to move Katherine home from college. She just called this morning to tell us she has a sore throat so she's self-isolating again. Maybe it's just a cold, maybe not, but the real stress for me comes from not knowing and not being able to take care of her.

Oliver's mom sent me these pics of our boy, who by the way will be walking like any minute now. :)

Aside from a computer desk that is going to find a new home with one of Katherine's friends, the upstairs room has been totally cleaned out. This was a herculean effort on the family's part, too, with all of us pitching in to get it done. As it's the hottest room in the house we'll be installing an mini-split a/c unit up there shortly, and having the carpet cleaned, too. Since the room hasn't been painted in fifteen years Kat and her Dad went to work on that: While they worked on that I finished clearing out another closet downstairs so we can store Kat's kitchen stuff in it while she lives with us. :)