Viewing The Stars from the houses made up of Masks!

So not sure what to title this quilt.  A Quilt full of scraps from my bin, but mostly from the leftover pieces from about a thousand masks! So there’s the title.  Describing everyone’s last year. 

Last year, Kim Lapacek of Persimmon Dreams gave out a monthly scrap quilt challenge. Well the Pandemic  lockdowns started in March and everyone was stuck at home.  So the April theme then became houses.  

As we were all stuck at home, my life became engulfed in work and mask making. Thus creating another pile of scraps.  And with my goal for 2020 to use up my scraps, this did not help.  

Then a month later I got my Accuquilt cutter and soon later found a deal on a 6 inch Qube.  The pattern and idea struck me.  Yep, another Terry Original. 

     So for a leader and ended project, another quilt began.  Initially with the simple house blocks. 3.5 inch squares and 1.5 x 3.5 inch flying geese sewn on top.  A very simple house. 

Then I decided they needed something a little simpler, less busy with more open space.  The star idea then appeared. To make them, I sewed the cut off triangles onto the corners of 3.5 inch background pieces.  Then flipped them and squared up each block.  Just making a basic wonky star quilt block. 

This quilt has a lot of small pieces, 1230 to be exact.  Yep, lots of work, lots of scraps and a lot of blessings from God! 

Honestly my greatest form of recycling.  Some donated unwanted fabric and all my leftovers.  In a place that God speaks to me.  We survived 2020!! 

Crazy Jean Pockets

Last Sunday when I saw the theme,  I was like, what am I gonna do.  I could only do something small and what did I really want to do.  I was at work and on day 3 of a 3/7 day long work streak. That night, I went home 2 hours late and laid on my living room couch. All the sudden I thought “I have all those crazy Jean Pockets”.  Mostly from my husband and boys and probably multiplying for about 10 years. 

So my theme was there.  Before I went to work, I pulled out the box of jeans that’s forever growing. I have made at least 2 quilts and another top.  This was the new leftovers and all the usable pockets.  I had already formulated a crazy plan the night before and knew with the number I could get it to work. I then spent day 1 cutting off and squaring (or rectangling) up the blocks.  

Day 2 before work, I started sewing random sized strips on the top and bottom of each pocket. Then separated them out by length.  A few rows made it to 7 pockets.  Yep, a plans coming together. 

Day 3 I started hand sewing patches behind each hole and doing some hand embroidery stitches on each.  I also did a few stitches on areas that I thought may be weak. 

Day 4 I had to pack and only had a few minutes to sew on some stitches.

Day 5 I had to finish packing my bags and hit the road to my quilt retreat. We did not get sewing til after 7. So not much was done. But I did sew a few rows together between hand stitching. I added fabric pieces to the end to make all the rows match with no set pattern or plan. 

But on Day 6 it was get it done time.  And I really think it turned out great.  

The backing is scrap linen that someone gave me, but it matches my top with all the shirt looking fabric.  The binding is the same type of shirt looking woven. All quilted with straight lines to just highlighted the pockets. 

We are retreating at a beautiful house on a pond.  And enjoying this view!!