Pineapple Blocks

Mid Summer Update

The summer is just half over and I thought I should show you what I have been working on. I have not finished anything for a few weeks but I have slowly worked on quilts and knitting socks. I have most of one sock done, Maybe I can get the toe finished tonight and then be ready to start the second sock. Pretty sock yarn colours!

Next I have been working on a bit of patchwork. Here is my very scrappy Pineapple Log Cabins. I started these maybe 2 years ago ( at least 1 1/2 years ago). I can say I am more then half done enough blocks for a big bed quilt. I will keep going. I do these in set of 20 to 30 blocks. I think after this set is done I still need another 50 or more blocks. 

I have the old singer set up in the living room again and can watch TV up stairs with the family and the dog. I hope to watch some Olympics and sew on my Pineapple blocks.   

String blocks

For the month of April the Leduc guild Lotto block exchange was string blocks. I have been making 2 blocks most of the time. I had fun working on these little scrap gems. Always fun to pull out the strings and sew. The first block I did was made with 4 - 6 1/2 " blocks and set in a pinwheel Then I did 9 - 4 1/2" blocks and played with the setting and this diagonal setting was what I liked the best. 

We just had 15 blocks and left them all together for one draw. I forgot who won. 

Next month May we are doing flowers and we are to use green with Bright colours. 

I played with the 9 small string blocks before I sewed them. First a star.

Then this one.

I almost made the block into this. 

Nice but would be best if the blocks were an even number or a whole lot more of them. 

At our May meeting I am the speaker. I am doing a show and tell and slide show all about Log Cabin Quilts  It is Wednesday May 4th in Leduc at the St David's United Church 7:15. 

Colour of Sunshine

I have 2 Dear Jane blocks done so far. The left one is D-7 Meeting place. Without realizing it I picked to do this block with a fabric called Babble. Meeting Place and Babble, kind of funny. The right block is A-1 Pinwheel Gone Awry. 

I had this last bit of pink to finish up. 25 nine patches to put with all the other nine patches. 

Here is my box of yellow scraps. It is one of my smaller boxes but I still have lots to work with. 

I have a far bit of yellow to do this month, so here is a list.

• Tulips
• Bee block
• Apple cores
• 9 Sampler blocks
• Dear Jane blocks and triangles
• Wild and Goosey blocks
• Flower block 
• And I can always work on getting any rainbow quilt top done or quilted too

I really must get a quilt top or 2 done soon. The 2 quilt guilds I belong to have quilt shows later this year. I have not finished anything new for a while.

I have my Pineapple log cabin blocks out today. I am very close to being done the next set of 27 blocks. Why 27 you may ask, well it turns out I can get 27 units of 1 strip of the red fabric I use in the center.

I have added today's post to Soscrappy's Linky Page for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015.

Pineapple Crazy

I got the next batch of Log Cabin Pineapple blocks done. I finished another 27 (26 shown) 1 needs a little hand fix up. There is lots of pink scraps in these blocks so I am adding this to Soscrappy's link page for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015. Pink is the colour for February.  

I find I like to do these in assemble line order. Add the red center to all and the first bit of white, then the next piece. However it is taking me many many days and hours to do a set of 25 to 27. The pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's book String Fling. I got my mom, Betty, the book for her Birthday over a year ago, it is signed by Bonnie. I think that mom and I may end up making most of the quilts in the book.  If I make the quilt the size in the book, I need 224 of these little 4 1/2" blocks. So I thought I would do sets of just over 25 (in case one block gets lost or cut). So far I have 52 blocks complete out of the 224. 

I got started on the next 27 blocks. I have been doing this in the living room on my older singer in the cabinet. I can watch TV with the family and dogs. I do not let the dogs in my sewing room. Best go, I have Rally obedience class with Gemma later today. 

Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone. 

Tiny Scraps

I have been working on my Grand Illusion Mystery quilt but in between steps I have been digging into some of the tiniest scraps. I have 27 log cabin pineapple blocks done so far. These blocks are from Bonnie Hunter's String Fling book. I did a couple earlier in the year but I have been back at them again.  

They use some of the smallest bits of fabric. That is almost dangerous, because I am keeping some very small pieces of fabric. As I get to the outside, the pieces are much more reasonable to keep.  I just love that I am using every colour in all the blocks and some of the busy prints work so well because the pieces are so small. 

Here is another batch of them started up. I am doing them on the paper foundations and so far the paper has been no trouble taking out.  I am using Chinese Red Kona in the center and White Kona for my light colours. 

I have linked up with Soscrappy's linky page today. Many of the other scrap quilters are getting finished some of their quilt tops or making goals for next year. But I have so many missing blocks still. Next year I will just have to finish up more scrap tops and do less starting projects. I am great at starting but not so good at finishing the quilts. 

Gemma wants a belly rub. We played Agility last night and again the morning. She was such a good girl. 

Antique Quilt Field Trip

Tuesday was a bee group day and we made arrangements to work at the U Of Alberta textile department. Three of us were able to help them work on some antique quilts. A few years ago the department took a very large quilt collection and now they are wanting to display some of them. To display them they are adding a muslin backed Velcro strip to the top back of the quilts. They are all hand sewn to the back of the quilts. We got to handle the quilts with no gloves (washed our hands lots). 

This was quilt #3. I got to work on it. It is a hand pieced log cabin pineapple quilt. It had no batting. It was all hand pieced except the binding ( which I think was added much later to make it looked finished). The last row was a little different also. Like they were running out of the fabric they had in the other rows or was done a few years later. Many of the fabric are men's shirting. Love the Cheddar colour.  

Here is a photo of the back of the log cabin pineapple quilt. You can see the Velcro strip I am added on the bottom of the photo. There were some feed sacks and some very worn out prints used on the back. Some still showed the pencil lines the quilter used. You can see the blocked were pieced together and the seams showing on the back. There were no quilting stitches added, only the piecing was done. I think of this as more of a quilt top, not a finished quilt. Still very old and interesting and shows how it was made. 

Here is my mom working on a flying geese quilt. We just love that bubble gum pink.

Pinky Scrappy Saturday

I have always loved Pineapple log cabin quilts. I started to see a few rainbow log cabin blocks over at A Quilt and a Prayer Blog. I just loved what she was doing. I had to make some too. I got two blocks completely done and started two more.

It is just so cute. They will finish at 6" and the pink blades are 1/2" finished. I can use the 1" strips or larger. I am also using Black Kona cotton for my triangles.

I started by drawing it out on graph paper and making a few copies. It is paper piecing so it goes slowly but wow!

Do not forget to check out Soscrappy's link for more pink scrappy goodness. And for more about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 check out the RSC13 link. Please join in the fun. Next Saturday is the last pink Saturday but you can hop in at any time. Maybe just make one block each month. 

I have inspired my mom to start. She is sorting her scraps by colour and is planning to do something Rainbow. She travels and her sewing is not so consistent. But I hope to show off some of her blocks now and then too.  

This week I also got done two Crumb (poverty piecing)  block at 6". I did some 4" block last year and man these seamed so big. I had to do lots more work to get the extra 2". I think I like 4" better. We will see if I do this size or go back to 4". Also, I am unsure of the black and white part from a Cat. It sticks out.

I got 14 spools done this week. I think I am up to 26 pink spools this month all in Pink. If you do not know about the spools leaders and ender challenge you should go see Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. I started last them summer.

Here is Lex on a walk. Lex and I have had a very busy weekend. First we had a workshop in agility with Kathy Keats Friday night. We just loved it. Then we went to our agility league Saturday morning. And after that we went to Dog Docks for the afternoon dip in the pool. We did three actives in 24 hours and got 6 hours sleep. We hardly had time for eat. I will be going to bed soon.