Charm Squares

The last couple of weeks I have been cutting squares of fabric.  Why?  Because the fabric was there.  No, I am kidding.  For some time now I have been cutting scraps of fabric into various size squares.  The measurements go from 2 to 6 inches and if anything was smaller that could be a circle for my mini yoyos, I cut those as well.

 

I found that it helps to keep my fabric organized and arranged without all kinds of oddly shaped scraps. So now I have shoe box size bins with various squares.

 

These pieces are usually called Charm squares after the idea of quilts made with squares all of one size but with no fabric design repeated in the quilt.  Women would trade fabric squares like little boys traded baseball cards.  It was a challenge to make those kinds of quilts.  If you are someone who likes scrap quilts it is possible you will use some size square.  If you have them all cut, you are ready to go when the design you like shows up.

 

I have never made a charm quilt but I have found that my boxes of cut up squares have come in handy.  I did one quilt that required 5 inch squares and with some already cut up. I was ready to start piecing.

 

                                             

 

 

When I have taught how to make yoyos, I take along my box of 4 inch squares for the students to choose from.

 

                                           

 

These boxes of fabric come in handy if I need just a little bit of one color for an appliqué or a yoyo embellishment.  I just search the boxes until I find what I need and then I am not cutting in to any yardage of fabric.

 

Some people would get out the rotary cutter and ruler and cut away but I made templates out of  stiff stabilizer material and cut with a scissor.  This allows me to cut while sitting in my chair and watching (or maybe listening to) tv.  It ends up being very relaxing and a bit of a travel down memory lane remembering when and why I had bought the original yardage of fabric.

 

I also make packets of squares for the guild booth at our quilt show and they tend to sell fast.  Not everyone likes to sit and cut fabric squares.  This is why many fabric companies will sell precut fabric in either 2 ½ or 5 inch squares of various lines of fabric.

So if you have a lot of fabric scraps and like to make scrap quilts, consider cutting up the scraps into the size squares you are most likely to use. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have plans for a quilt right now, the squares will come in handy sometime in the future. 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion

 

I Love Pumpkins

I saw pumpkins at the grocery this week and couldn’t resist reposting the blog.  I can’t help it.  I love pumpkins.

 

I think my favorite fall icon/symbol/item is the pumpkin.  My Thanksgiving table always has a pumpkin pie.  I roast the pumpkin seeds from my Jack O’Lanterns.  And even though there are no children in my household, Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without a carved pumpkin.

 

 

                                 

 

 

And of course I make lots of pumpkin quilts, coasters, needle felted ones.  If it has a pumpkin on it, I am probably going to try and make it.

 

Last year I had a blog post entitled Spool Knitted Pumpkin  which showed how to make a spool knitted pumpkin coaster.  Check it out if you like to spool knit.  And I bet crocheters could figure out how to make something similar.

 

 

 

 

I have also used pumpkins with the kids crafts I do at the farmers market.  I traced a pumpkin cookie cutter onto card stock and let the kids decorate it with orange pompoms.  (Check out the blog post: Cookie Cutters Aren’t Just For Cookies )    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lately I have been making needle felted pumpkins.  Using cookie cutters as a form, I have made some ornaments for Halloween and Thanksgiving. How to do this is in the blog post Needle Felting in a Cookie Cutter   Just switch out a pumpkin cookie cutter for the bunny. 

 

 

I haven't even mentioned pumpkin pies or pumpkin bread or pumpkin soup.  What can I say I LOVE pumpkins.

© 2017,  2020 Cheryl Fillion

 

Raz-a-ma-taz in Action -Part 2

So now to finish my pennant. I have a lot of beads and sequins so I decided to play with some of those.  Since I bordered the edge with some fuzzy yarn, I wanted a little fuzzy in the design.  So I felted some little white hearts.

I started with a small heart but it looked lost in the pink, so I added another slightly larger one.  That looked better. 

                                   

This is where I decided to add some beads.  When working with small beads, I have trouble stitching the bead down where I can see the smooth side of the bead and not the hole.  It took some poking of the bead while I was stitching and stitching it down a couple of times, but I finally go the bead to do what I wanted. 

                                        

I have some sequins of various colors and shapes, not just the round sequins you normally think of.  I didn’t have any pink or white ones but I thought silver would go great with my pennant.  I decided to go with some fun shapes like a simple daisy and also some diamond shapes.

The daisies I put up at them in a row.  Now here is something to remember, if you have a sleeve along the back to be able to put a rod through and hang it, don’t tack anything to the sleeve area to the front.  Stitching or even glue will close your sleeve shut.  So I made sure to put my little sequins along the stitch line of the sleeve.  It helped cover up the stitches in the front.

 The other sequin shaped I found fun was the diamond shaped one.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to add it until I found a special button I wanted to put at the bottom of the pennant.  So I lined them up from the smaller heart down toward the point of the pennant. The daisies I attached with pink threaded French knots but these little diamonds I waned to play with more beads.  So I added a bead to the center of the diamond.

The final addition to my pennant was a special button I had – a flamingo.  I like flamingos just as much as I like hearts.  So when I found it, I decided to add it to this fun little Raz-a-ma-taz.  If nothing else it makes me smile when I see it.

What would be your Raz-a-ma-taz?

©2020 Cheryl Fillion

Raz-a-ma-taz in Action

In July I posted my blog on what the word Raz-a-ma-taz means.  When I think of it I see lots of light, color, glitter.  I have been thinking about the word ever since.  With everything that is going on in the world right now, I thought I needed some Raz-a-ma-taz.  so I decided to make a prayer flag.

 I started imaging what it would look like.  Now usually prayer flags are square or rectangle but I have seen some which look like pennants.  That is what my Raz-a-ma-taz needed to be: a different shape, a shape that represented a celebration of some sort. 

How big should my Raz be? I decided the size of typing paper would be good.  It would be big enough for designs but not so big to be overwhelming.

     

So now the fabric.  What to choose.  Well about the time this was all going through my head I came across a box of items I needed to sort (trying to unclutter a bit) and there was a pink, satiny crepe type remnant of fabric. Perfect.  It was pink – a favorite color.  It had a sheen to it and a bit of texture.  That was what I was going to use.  When I cut it out with my pattern,  I added about an inch to the top to be able to make a sleeve for hanging.

                                          

Now what to put on the pennant?  I didn’t want to hem the flag (truth be told I hate hemming) but I did have some fuzzy yarn so why not edge the pennant with the yarn.  It would certainly make it noticeable.

It is time for more designs.  And I also need time so I will show you what I came up with next week.  See you then.

©2020 Cheryl Fillion

 

 

Autumn is here

I posted this blog before but this year with so many events closed and feeling very isolated because of the Covid virus, I needed to remind myself that things do naturally change and have fun with that change. 

Autumn is here.  You can tell by the cooler weather, the falling leaves, the harvest of apples and pumpkins, the falling leaves, the shorter amount of daylight, the falling leaves, the Halloween decorations, and, of course, the falling of leaves.   What is also here is seasonal fun. 

To me fall is here when I see caramel apples in the grocery store and rows of potted mums near the parking lot.  I love to see the trees change colors.  Where I grew up in Green Bay Wisconsin there was a park behind my Mother’s house.  It was filled with maple trees, which would turn the most beautiful red and gold every year.  I still to this day can’t decided if I liked the color of the trees against a blue clear or gray cloudy sky.  Each sky changed the hue of the leaves just a little.  

I was always thought to be crazy because I enjoy raking leaves.  Still do.  It allowed me to be outdoors in cool crisp weather.  I love the smell of the air while raking – it was fresh and earthy.  And there is something meditative about pulling the rake back and forth as I worked across the lawn.  I love to rake; I hate to bag the leaves.  I always wanted to do what writer and psychologist Leo Buscaglia talked about doing.  He liked walking through piles of leaves so much he wanted to bring them into his house.  It’s not so crazy, he would add, when you think that people bring whole trees into their house at Christmas. So what’s a few leaves.  And as he would say, “I am not asking you to clean them up.

Autumn provides a wonderful way to have fun.  It is time for outdoor activities now that the heat of summer has passed.  Why do we need to bag up the leaves?  Put them in a big pile in the middle of your yard and jump in them.  Take a handful and throw them up in the air like confetti.  Roll around in them until your hair is tangled in leaves (you might want that as your Halloween costume.) 

Of course Halloween is the highlight of autumn fun.   Halloween was originally associated with death and the supernatural, falling on the eve of All Saint’s Day, a holy holiday for Catholics and Anglicans.  Now it is a day of fun and parties and dressing up in costume.  It allows children of all ages to fantasize.  I have never been a costume person but my favorite one was an old sheet and a plastic mask to be a friendly ghost when I was about 7. I have liked ghosts ever since.  

I remember that holiday as one where my mother created my brother Jim and my costumes.  I can see her on our living room floor copying in white paint the design of a skeleton on to a black costume she’d sewn for Jim.  I know it was a lot of work but my guess is that she enjoyed doing that much more than buying a store bought costume. 

Autumn and Halloween is when you can have fun and try your hand at something new.  Carve a different face on the pumpkin you bought.  Roast the pumpkin seeds if you have never done that. Try a little bit of costume designing of your own.  Dance a jig in the pile of leaves you have in the back yard (and when you are done, rake them to a corner of the yard and let them decompose through the winter into compost. It will be great for your garden in the spring.) Decorate your house with goblins and ghouls or leaves and gourds.  Try some new apple or pumpkin recipes.  Let the season into your house and life. 

Autumn is here and it can be fun.  So try something new and creative.

© 2016, 2020 – Cheryl Fillion