My Leader/Ender Project for 2016

 Over the years, I have been intrigued by postage stamp quilts, but I couldn't imagine having enough  different fabrics to make one.  It takes thousands of pieces of fabric to make one.  Then in my browsing through the internet I came across a postage stamp swap... and I joined!  


The idea for this group is to take a 1.5in WOF strip and cut 25 squares. Do this 25 times for 25 identical sets.  At the time I joined, I was in the process... or just finishing my niece's wedding quilt.... and I had some extra fabric. Perfect! I had to dig through my stash to have the required 25... but I made it work.
 
I mailed the package off to the group leader and waited. In a short while I received a package back with 25 sets of squares.   There were several repeat sets from each quilter but my postage stamp quilt was born.  

Here are my first 8 blocks (my block is laid out and ready to sew at the top). You can see the remaining packages waiting to be sewn on the left.

Here are the steps I use to make these tiny blocks with 25 fabrics that finishes at only 5inches.....

1. Lay out the squares on my side table.

2.  Pick up and sew the first two vertical rows.

3.  Pick up and sew the last two rows.

4.  Add the center row two the first two rows.

5.  I feed through my main project.

6. Pin last 2 rows to first 3 rows.   

  

7.  My little block is now "webbed".

8.  I go back to working on my main project.  When I reach a breaking point I fold over and pin the top row to the next row of my little block and feed it through as an Ender.

9.  I feed through my little block, remove the main project.  Now my little block is a Leader to the next step of my main project.

To date I have made 52 little blocks... and I have a few more packages of little squares cut and ready to sew.  Yes, they are a little fiddly to work with such tiny pieces... but I'm having fun... and isn't that what sewing is all about!?

I am not sure what my final project will look like... I'm still searching the web for ideas.  I've found a few I like... I just have to decide when I have enough little blocks made to start.

2016-03 part 4

Back in January I signed up for a postage stamp swap.  Cut a set of 25 different fabrics into 1.5in squares and mail it off to the swap hostess. You could make as many sets as you wanted.  

I was currently working on a quilt using pinks, purples, and aquas.  I dug through my scraps and easily cut up 12 sets so that I would have more than 1 block to play with.  I emailed the hostess for mailing details.  It was then that I found out a set is actually 25 pkgs of 25 fabrics!  Yikes! I needed 13 more! I dug deeper into my scraps and managed to get a full set.  

Well, Friday, a squishy arrived in the mail full of the 25 return packages of squares.  I could hardly wait to dig in!   I found time to sew eight of these little blocks together.  I absolutely love them!    They finish at just 5inches each so I will need a whole lot more to make some as yet undetermined project.  I can hardly wait until the next swap in the fall.  I will be cutting up a lot more scraps between now and the to add to this collection of little blocks.

2016-02

Globetrotting is now bound and hanging on my living room wall.

This was a 2014 BOM designed by Pat Sloan that had been pieced and waiting its turn to be quilted.  Snowmagedden enabled me to catch up on customer work and gave me an opportunity to complete some of my projects.  :)

Earlier in the year I joined a postage stamp swap... unfortunately I didn't understand all the details until the last minute. We were to cut sets of 25 different 1.5in squares.  No problem!  right!? I cut up some left-over chunks of fabric from two recent projects and packaged 12 identical sets (one set for each registered member) then emailed to confirm. Well it turns out that a set consists of 25 identical pkgs of 25 different squares! Ooops.  I had to go digging into the smaller scraps to complete all the sets, but I made it!  Here's a picture of the first 12 when I thought I was done... I neglected to take a picture of the whole set of 25 packages as I was in a hurry to make it to the post office.

I've begun work on a wedding quilt for my husband's niece who will be getting married in August.  She chose Trip Around the World for a pattern and I chose these fabrics based upon her color preference.  (Yes, some of these fabrics were used for the swap above... I bought lots of extra for another project I want to do later.)  The pattern is for a twin bed calling for 8 fabrics.  I'm guessing and hoping that these 12 fabrics will enlarge it enough to work for the queen size bed they will be sharing.

We haven't had a lot of snow since Snowmagedden last month, but several smaller storms bringing from a dusting to 3inches of snow have kept schools closed for the past week... and I have been entertaining my grandson all week.  We colored, we played with cars and lincoln logs, we read books and worked a reading program online.  But I also needed to sew... so I convinced him to try making a pillow cover from some FQs he chose on our last shopping trip while I treadled away on a project.  I drew a line on the fabric and sat him down with a needle and thread... putting it in an embroidery hoop for easier handling.  He worked for about 2 hours!  But then he wanted to sew faster on my treadle.  He couldn't reach the peddle and sew too so he stood there and guided the fabric and I treadled for him.  Success!



I walked out to the mailbox Thursday to find a package from Quiltville!!!???  I didn't remember ordering anything from her recently.  Looking closer I realized it was addressed to hubby.  He doesn't quilt so I knew it was for me.  I waited VERY patiently until he arrived home from work and handed it to him.   Happy Valentine's Day he says :)  I apparently had talked about it and he went searching and ordered it for me!  :)  And yesterday he came home with a dozen red roses!  He's a keeper!