The In-Betweens

 Marjorie and I both enjoy quiet morning stitching and coffee. She also enjoys the sound of chickens, me ... not so much. In between the quiet morning stitching and the evening TV knitting there's a whole lot of day for me to "get it done."

Sometimes I get a lot done and sometimes I seem to just move messy piles around and contemplate getting a lot done. Often, for me, a project has to evolve. Seldom is the end product clear to me when I start pulling bits and pieces together.

I have LOTS of cut-off HST's (1/2-square triangles). When I say - LOTS - I mean a lot of LOTS! After pulling out all the "red and ?" HSTs, I trimmed them up to 1.5" and made piles of 8 that matched or were pretty close.

There were a lot of sets of 8, to me that said - star blocks! I was on a mission to make another quilt using up 1.5" strips. After some "strip-mining" I had all sorts of various blacks and greens. Throw in some 1.5" squares ... I save those too ... and then there was a 1/2-log cabin sort of block.

A few more were stitched together and then a few more. Still not sure where I was going with this quilt. Did I need 9? That would only measure 24" x 24" and leave way too many parts leftover. 16 blocks would be 32" x 32". I can go bigger!

There are now 32 blocks sitting on my table and parts for 4 more. Looks like 36 will be the number. Then what? Marjorie is being very helpful (I think) in sending me different layouts from EQ. Sashing? No sashing? On-Point? Straight set? 4 blocks grouped together?

Oh my  ... that's a whole lot of contemplating that I am not tackling today. Dear readers - you will get to see more of this project and some of the EQ possibilities in the very near future.

I still have HSTs leftover but I think they will hang out here on my very organized paper plate storage system. There's always the next project.

It's now time for another "in betweens" ... I'm going to go into my backyard and smell the roses.

Keep Stitching,

Mary

Mornings are for Handwork

 

Morning has always been a favorite time of day.  The house is quiet, the yard is still, the air is the coolest it will for the day.  I start my day in a comfy chair, on the porch, listening for the chickens to rise and start their sing-song clucking while doing handwork on whatever the project-of-the-hour might be.  Today I’m working on wool applique – the Pattern is Trees of the Season. Want to stitch-along with M&M on your own forest? Email us for the pattern, it's $5.00.  

It hasn’t always been this way, starting the day as slowly as the sun rises in the sky.  More years than not were filled with alarm clocks, school bus schedules, lunches to pack and an office to hurry off to.  But life is made up of different stages and when we reach the stage where we have the opportunity to savior the mornings I highly recommend it.

Whether it’s reading, writing, knitting or hand embroidery I hope you delight in your day and can make time for the things that bring you joy.  Marjorie

Strip Tease - DONE

 Are you drowning in 1.5" strips? Wait, what? You don't have 1.5" strips? This is madness, I say! OK - seriously ... you must have 1.5" strips. I keep mine all jumbled in a basket. Marjorie keeps her neat and tidy in a plastic shoe box. Which ever way works for you - trim up and save those strips ... we have plans!

M&M shared on the Facebook group this fun pattern to use up some strips. We called it STRIP TEASE. For obvious reasons, we are not hashtagging it. Might need to think about #hashtags when planning quilt names, in the future. Just sayin'

This is what's posted in "files" on the M&M Sew Charming Facebook group. Not a member? Join us! Like everything we do, make it your own ... make more blocks or less blocks. Add borders or not. I happen to LOVE the flying geese and made 108 of them.

    

I made 9 blocks all from 1.5" scrappy strips. My Flying Geese blocks (all 108) are also scrappy but I did use 1 solid neutral for the background/sky/wings part. What do you call that part?

Because my sky was neutral and my blocks were also neutral around the outer part of the inner quilt (are you with me?), I decided I needed a separator border. I simply stitched together a long string of 1.5" strips and cut to size. I bordered both sides of my Flying Geese. This is why I went from needing 104 to 108 of those lovelies. 

At this point, my quilt measured 60x60 and I still wanted to make it bigger. Little hint here - I believe Marjorie plans on making more blocks. I went with another border.

This fabric has been in the tub for YEARS! Check out the selvage. I love when the selvage has a copyright date. If it didn't' ... I would never believe that I've had this fabric for 22 years. How wide did I make the outer border? I made it as wide as I could with how much fabric I had. Turned out, I could cut 6 strips at 5.5" wide. I had a teeny bit left over to be added to the scrap bins.

I ended up with a finished quilt of 70" x 70". Here it is DONE on a twin bed (Amelia's room) and on top of a queen bed. 

I enjoyed every part of making Strip Tease, even the 108 Flying Geese. And - the scrap bins are still full and waiting for the next adventure.

We have plans for more scrap-strip-silliness. Stay tuned!

Keep Stitching,

Mary (the other M)

Exciting NEWS

There are a few new things coming from M&M . . . don't you just LOVE our shenanigans? While we can't tell you all the details yet, we can do a couple of sneaky peeks and we can point you in a direction that might help you get prepared.

If you have been following along  with our Facebook group, you know Marjorie just released Block #12 of our 1st BOM.  (hmmmm .... 1st? ... is that a hint?) We shared Mary's finished quilt . . .  because she's speedy, it's DONE.  In case you missed it - here's a look . . .

  

To be fair (and because she just might call me out on it), Marjorie has had to make multiples of all the blocks AND post videos on M&M Sew Charming's Facebook page and she's had a wrist issue for months. Her top is all laid out and ready for stitching. It will be done by our May class - Sashings, Settings, Blocks and Borders. Are you planning to join us? 

Sew . . . what's new? We've both been working on some wool applique. There just might be 12 of these trees. Did I say 12?

We have some friends at Searsport Rug Hooking and we may have been working on a collaboration with them. Their wool is SUPER DUPER in quality and color. I happen to know at least 3 people (M&M and K) who have already ordered all 3 bundles (because we couldn't pick just one) under the heading Trees of the Season.

AND . . . did you have a chance to see our beautiful Amazing Technicolor Dream Quilt? Since this photo was taken a border has been added and it might be next in line for a little longarm magic by Marjorie.

It would be so fun to make one of your very own. It's not hard . . . especially if you just happened to make a few blocks in a certain color every month for 12 months. There's that number 12 again.

Stay tuned for some announcements of what's coming up in June (and beyond). We are always thinking up new and fun stuff . . . we're good that way!

Plays Nice With Blocks

 M&M is giving a lecture/trunk show for Seaside Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Melbourne, FL. We're calling it: Plays Nice With Blocks. We have lots to show (and tell) - quilts made from blocks that shouldn't work together, orphans blocks that are different sizes, blocks that should go together (but how?) and parts and pieces of other quilts that never got used (yet). 

We'll be following up in the afternoon with a class ... you bring your orphans and STUFF and we'll help you design a quilt top that works!

We've been planning this for months, gathering up quilts we had already made using odd ball blocks and finding bits and such to make into new quilts. It's pretty wonderful what can be made from stuff you can't imagine would working together.

Come to the lecture/trunk show/class for inspiration ... or just a few laughs.