Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Still pulling strips






I was originally going to call this post "still stripping", but I figured I'd get a lot of unsavory hits from search engines, so I changed it.  I'm a chicken like that.  Well this week is starting off pretty special.  I won a beautiful doily over on Pammy Sue's blog and was given a Liebster award from Shelly.  Thank you both for your kindness, it made my day.
The Strip Easy Quilt challenge has really got me motivated.  This weekend I sorted through my scrap bin and was able to come up with yet another strip project (although it's not a quilt).
I finished my Thimble Blossom mini Spool quilt, which was a lesson in patience and accuracy for me.  It's far from perfect and a little wonky in places but I learned a few things about piecing postage stamp size squares.  The biggest thing I came away with was to cut more pieces than you actually need.  I had to re-do a few blocks and it was easier to cut a bunch of 1 inch squares from strips at the beginning than to go back to the cutting table, search for a scrap, and re- cut a teensy weensy piece.  I also bought a small rotary cutter (can't believe I didn't have one), which helped a lot.  Except for the white background fabric, this mini quilt is made entirely from strips pulled from my scrap bin, including the binding.
Over on Crazy Mom Quilts, Amanda has a great tutorial on how to crochet a rag rug from fabric strips.   It's really fun to see how the fabric yarn plays out as you crochet.  I like this project a lot, and would like to make two, (ha ha, so ambitious, since I barely have 4 inches done on the first one) one for each pedestal sink in my other downstairs bathroom.
Now if any of you are finding yourself with lots of spring Asparagus on hand, I made a really good soup last week.  You only need 3 main ingredients, leeks, asparagus and chicken broth.
I finished it off with a splash of real cream, and it was super easy and delicious.  Recipe here.
Enjoy your making this week!

Edited to add:
Spools mini quilt by Camille Roskelly for Thimble Blossoms  15"x17"

11 comments:

  1. Oh... I love it! The quilting is great, too! Gotta pull out some more strips... :-)

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  2. First you wow us with that beautiful quilt then I scroll down and I see you crocheting with fabric! I am in awe.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  3. Beautiful spool quilt! I love that. You will feel like you're stripping FOREVER! My hubby helped me and it still took forever. Whatever you are making (a rug?) looks good though. It's totally worth it.

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  4. I really like the look of your rag rug. I can't crochet to save my life.

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  5. The spools look perfect to me, I think you are too picky about the accuracy. The fabric crochet looks good, I want to try that too some day, thank you for the link.
    KATRIN W.

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  6. I love the spool quilt, amazing what can be made from scraps. Been wanting to make a scrap rug for ages but keep chickening out. Does it make your hands real sore, i think thats what puts me off. Yours looks so pretty. Cant wait to see it when its done.
    Have a great day
    Karen x

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  7. Yeah , my most hits is binding and bondage - but most spam comes to amazing archeology???? Go figure ! Gorgeous quilt! X

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  8. Love that mini. How big is that piece? You did a wonderful job on it. At first I thought it was a normal size wall hanging and I thought the stitches were big stitch quilting. Now that my mind rapped around the fact that it is a mini I'm just in awe. Wonderful job.

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  9. Lynne....I love that spool quilt....great idea for the rugs too!!!!!

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  10. Love the spool block quilt! Plus the knitting strips. I knit some batik strips not long ago and made a purse bag and a tote bag too.

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  11. hopping over from the hop, WOW !!

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You guys are awesome! Thank you for the comments!