Small Things

Simple things, easy things, no-brainier things.  
That seems to be my typical summer activity. 

I've just been working on a few little projects to fill in a few hours here and there and to escape the sun and the heat of summer by retreating to my cold, windowless basement craft room. I really would prefer to have windows in my craft room but in the summer, windowless is perfect. I'm not a summer person. 

This is a pencil case, or a zipper pouch for anything. Made with Grunge Basics by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics in bright colors and a print from the Doe collection by Carolyn Friedlander. These are some of my new favorite fabrics. 

This is my First Aid bag. Someone is always looking for a band aid and for some reason they always seem to end up in two or three different places around the house. And all the other little things that go with them. Where are they?  This is my solution. One bag to hold it all, in one place, and very obvious. It might work for awhile.

A little butterfly bag. This was actually suppose to be smaller to use as a tarot card bag but it's a little larger than I planned on making it. After I started to make it I realized the butterfly print was too wide for the size bag I was planning so I just worked around it and made a little bag anyway. We can all use an extra little bag for something, right?

And a scrappy table runner. I've seen a number of examples of the Trip Around the World quilt block made with scrap fabrics online. They are all so unique and interesting and such an incredibly simple pattern. I see it as a sort of organized randomness, the best of both worlds. And a great was to use up a pile of scrap squares. 

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen 

Never Guesstimate - Completed Quilt Table Runner

I finished piecing the front and back of the patchwork table runner. 

Front. 

Back. 

And I was just going to post this information because I hadn't planned on finishing it right away, I had other things to work on. 

But before I finished the post I had had a little time and decided to get the runner ready to quilt and prepare the binding. Then I thought I'd quilt a little bit before doing something else. Then I was done the quilting and planned to finish the binding later. Long story short, I finished it in one sitting and it didn't really take that long. 

I really like how it came out. But there is one thing I should mention. My big Oops. 

It doesn't fit where I planned it to go. 

I made it for the top of a coffee table. I had 'guessed' the size I needed for the runner by counting the blocks in the width and the length on another table runner that was smaller but also 2" blocks. 

I guess I should have measured it instead. Quilts shrink in dimension, even little ones, when using cotton batting. And you can iron them after washing and get some of the original dimensions back but who does that! And maybe my other 2" blocks weren't 2" blocks. Seam width variations will carry over into all-over dimensional changes. 

Even with some shrinkage this new table runner is still larger than I wanted. 

And you can't see it in the photo but there are some fabric wrinkles on the back because I rushed when finishing it. I really should have stopped at one of those points I thought I should stop and double check everything. It's just so hard to stop when you're getting so close to finishing something. 

But I still like how it came out and will use it.  But now I need to make another one, slightly smaller, for this table. Without guesstimating! Or rushing!

Thanks for reading. 

Aileen