As Connie said, the trash triangles give “Use it up…” a whole new dimension. Many of you said you’ve been saving these triangles for years – why don’t you use them? You’re waiting for the perfect project? Why don’t you build the project around the triangles? The “perfect” project likely won’t ever show up.
The trash triangles are perfectly imperfect and most of them finish 3/4” to 7/8” finished. I, too, am proud of perfect star points but it was fun to just sew everything together not bothering to match any point. They wouldn’t have matched anyway so I pinned each row end together as well as the middle and made it fit together.
There’s something appealing about this little quilt and you should give something like this a try – just for fun!
And I’ve always said pressing is equally as important as piecing – a good steam press made these puppies love each other.
I have loved all the embroidery as well as the clothes and we should just continue both, dont you think? Anything that’s interesting to you, grandchildren excluded, we’ll probably be interested, too.
I spent the better part of the day finishing binding. Man, I hate binding!
Reader photos
Judith sent pictures of her laundry room decorated with antiques.
Someone recently asked about the color of Harvey’s shirt. I honestly couldn’t remember exactly until I came across this today. Harvey is gray and his shirt is white. If I were doing it again I’d make his feet gray as well instead of making him wear shoes.
Remember this quilt on the table? I couldn’t remember where the design came from.
I stumbled across this today –
And here’s the book it’s found in:
Well, no wonder I couldn’t remember it – a baby book!!!
Here’s another “Use it up….” example. This quilt was made from all the extra and rejected Country Threads blocks in the early 90s. Such a funny quilt but many memories.
These guys are going to be so surprised when I let them go outside this weekend!
The Trash Triangles quilt is beautiful, and Millie seems to approve. I also love the Country Quilting ‘rejects’ quilt; it is just wonderful!
The great variety of reader’s projects from the past brings back so many sweet memories.
Thanks so much, Mary. 🥰
The “Use it up” books were a delight especially taking in the hard winter. The patterns were great and didn’t need a lot of time on each design. Some people really enjoy binding quilts by hand, but when I joined Project Warmth they said I could finish them any way I wanted. So I’ve only finished 1 by hand and all the rest are machine. I figured the PW quilts might not have an easy life, so go for machine.
Mid morning was 49 ABOVE! Snow is melting like mad. Spring is not here, yet. It sure does smell good in the bright sunshine.
Betty in Rapid City
Very interesting pictures today. I love the rooster/hen wallhanging. Very true.
Getting warmer in southeast Iowa. Looking forward to 50’s here soon!
Love the needlework piece of the sewing room with the cat behind the Singer. Mary, is that your sewing space? haha!! Love that laundery room also. Such great old pieces. I have a few but they’re not out so won’t be sharing them. Love this blog!
Am listening to a Jason Coleman piano session on YouTube and loving it–so glad you introduced me/us to him. I like the daily songs, but also the 30 minute sessions. Beautiful.
The trash triangle quilt is so cute! I have a small box of triangles from other quilts that I didn’t want to throw away, but didn’t know what to do with–now I know. The extra blocks/rejected blocks from the ’90s is amazing! May I ask what color thread was used for the quilting– it blends so well and doesn’t detract from the blocks at all.
Sara – that was 25 years ago – I have no idea.
All the quilts today are just beautiful. Early morning eye candy! And I love the laundry room and its antique laundry-themed decor.
Marie C…have you shown us the quilt the runner is laying on?
Judith…your room is a feast to view, but a beast to dust!? It’s amazing all the treasures shared. Thank you everyone!
Judith your laundry room is wonderful and I really enjoyed enlarging the pictures to see all the cute things. Imagine my surprise to see the metal picnic basket up high on the shelf, its the same one I have from my grandmother who lived in Osage, Iowa. It still has the red plastic dishes inside and we often take it on road trips with us. Super cute room for doing laundry in. So many wonderful quilts today and love the idea of using orphan blocks to make something of my own design.
Who could see any points not being perfect in the “Trash Triangle” quilt? Who would care when the resulting quilt is so great! I don’t think my mix of colors would be as charming as your red and white, but I might give it a try, since I have tons of those cut off HSTs lying around.
The pictures you’ve been posting are so lovely. I’d forgotten about all the filet crochet I used to do. I don’t think I have any pictures of them to share now; those were all made when getting film developed was expensive, so I wouldn’t have taken any pictures. All those projects were made as gifts, long gone, but I do hope my daughter still has her framed picture I made for her with her name I created with filet crochet.
As always, this blog is a treat. I had to share twice at the optical illusion quikt. What a clever way to present the strip quilt blocks.
Your scrap quilt with rejects from the 90’s looks super special.
Mary H, your pinwheel/ half triangle quilt is stunning to look at in its simplicity. Thank you for shsaring.
I love to read all the comments. A collection of letters to strangers. Better to read than the news.
Good day, Mary! I loved looking at all the photos today! I am really loving the ‘Use it up’ quilt you made! I would love to do one like this! It is a WOW! In my book! Every block tells a story.
The weather is starting to warm up here out on the south-western reaches of Minnesota! Right now it is 8* and wind is out of the south. Can’t wait for 40’s!. This weekend will be one where we are watching our grandson’s tournament games, they are in Hockey and basketball. They are in elementary school and participate in traveling teams. Seasons ending soon.
Another colorful post to view such gorgeous pictures. I think it’s so wonderful your readers have saved such beautiful clothes, pictures, treasures and pieces to share with all of us. This blog is so interesting and I especially enjoy the friendship we all share caring for one another. There’s a lot to be said about the negative side of social media but the silver lining is if we didn’t have the internet now to keep us together, I’d miss it. The comments are like catching up with friends and hearing about their days.
The embroidery wall hangings are so stunning as I still love to peck away at doing hand embroidery. Such happy pieces to see. I appreciate seeing a fun laundry room with antiques and the pets and the quilts.
It’s snowing away again here so we will have very green lawns come spring. I shoveled the back deck this morning and thought it’s piling up so high around me now. Not as bad as in the Adirondack areas but weatherman said we’ve had 42 days of continuous snow. Lake Ontario is a Great Lake that doesn’t freeze so when snow bands come from north across it, they pick up moisture and hence we get it. We’ve had mild winters in the past so I had to pull out my tall boots to be worn now. I hope it’s a gradual spring thaw or we could have flooding issues like areas in south right now and that’s scary.
Such a treat to see all of the wonderful needlework projects. My favorite part of the quilt process is choosing fabrics & binding. I just love hand sewing the binding down especially on these cold winter days. The “use it up” quilt is inspiring. I have an orphan block quilt idea percolating in my mind & now is the time to get those blocks together. And we certainly enjoyed seeing Hazel! Boone had a few rough days earlier this week & we thought it might be time to say goodbye. After a vet consultation & a diet change he rallied in true terrier fashion.
Des – oh, Boone, I’m so glad it was a simple change of diet for you. I know you’ve got some years on you so hang in there.
The faux 3d quilt is on my to do ….sometime…..list. I would love to buy the Harvey pattern and beat myself for not buying it when you had it available a few years ago. Fingers crossed it will be available again. I’m ready for spring.
Deb C – my new copier is coming next week and I’ll make Harvey available right away.
Yay! Can’t wait! Thank you, Mary.
What a fantastic laundry room Judith!!!! A room like that would certainly make doing the laundry more pleasant. I love the “use it up” quilt. Everything goes together so perfectly! Love those tiny little shoes. So cute. As always, a wonderful post to wake up to.
The quilt with the black on two sides of the blocks sure makes it look like it is 3D. It’s amazing. Another enjoyable blog. Thanks again.
I’m going to a quilt retreat at the beginning of April but have been getting everything ready now. My son is going on his honeymoon for two weeks and not back till the end of March. I am going to be staying at their place looking after all their animals, they have two dogs, 2 rabbits, 4 cockatiels and a pig that is house trained. They live in a townhouse. They also have two horses at a farm about 1/2 hr from their house so I will go clean the stalls everyday. I’ll be exhausted when they get back and will only have three days to pack up so thought I’d better start cutting out the projects I’m taking to work on.
Mary, I love the “use it up” Country Threads quilt! I have magazine articles about your store and designs, and many of your patterns, and the article in Quilt Sampler (BH&G) as well as bunches of your books, including some of the earlier ones which featured more applique. I still have a desire to sew some of your applique quilts but I have never learned hand applique, and at 78 I am not sure I would learn quickly enough to make all of my favorites. Do you think they would look okay in zigzag machine applique? My machine satin stitch used to be fabulous, but I have not done much of it lately, and the zigzag might be faster and more accurate…
Elizabeth, I’d say you should go with a zig zag satin stitch or even play with a tiny buttonhole stitch. That is what I have used most recently to applique as my hands don’t move as well as they did 5 or 10 years ago and will continue to decline so I’m adjusting. I love to make wall hangings for my front door and back door so in order to get them done I now machine stitch down my pieces. I particularly like the looks of using black thread with a tiny buttonhole stitch. And there again it’s daytime sunshine days work cause I struggle with all the lights I need now to sew on black. We do what we do! Go have fun using your machine as I’ve found it’s much better now for my charity quilts binding to do by machine rather than think I need to do the hand binding. My hands and fingers are failing me at times so I change my habits to get a result of finishing.