Rolling.....

onward in my new quest *VBS* Have you decided to join Michele and I in the Virtual Quilting Bee for Charity? I hope so *VBS* This box of "goodies" from Chris in San Diego, CA has been adding and fueling my actions the past couple of days. As I use her generous donation of parts, bits, strings and blocks, I feel like a pirate with a treasure chest. As I mentioned yesterday, the hospital wash basin,filled to nearly overflowing with MAM beguns(or as friend Ila called it this a.m., "quilt seeds"...don't you just love it?)jolted me into action. I mentioned, over at Pieces, that I would estimate one to two hundred "seeds" that would become MAM blocks. I decided it would be fun(for me, who loves a challenge)to ACTUALLY count them. But not just count...to count out 10 PER DAY and finish them into 6.5" blocks. Why 10? Well, at 6.5", 10 of them gives a vertical row of 60". And that's a good length for a donation quilt *VBS*
 Here's the collage I made of various parts I found in Chris's treasure box. Some of these are already part of a quilt, some before the picture was even taken back in May. I am re-running it in thanks to Chris and all the others great gals who have donated orphan blocks, scraps and parts over the 2 years of this blog. The variety I have to chose from really makes it fun and much easier to make the Orphan Train and associated quilts. Thanks to ALL of you! *VBS*

In the midst of the letters and numbers.....

I sometimes get lost!! This is technically NOT a second post...*VBS*...I manage to mess up where I inserted the text in the post below. When I try to correct it, I get an error message that will NOT let me re-publish...soooooo...here are the links you need to Michele's Virtual Quilting Bee and to my post about the pan of scraps.

"Goin' take a sentimental journey....."

...gonna set my heart at ease". Yup, another old favorite song *VBS* Life is a journey, altho we tend to lose track of that little fact. Life doesn't happen all at once, it's a process and mostly we are too absorbed in our daily life to step back and measure. I don't know how other people feel about "measuring", I wish I did. I'm rather old to have just come to the realization that I'm an 'inchworm' in discuise. That's a song I like also *VBS*. The lucky inchworm measures the marigolds. I am, undoubt, a more sinister measure-er. The passage of time fascinates me. I might as well try to count the grains of sand on the beach as to grasp the passage of time, of things in motion, of movement. And yet, it is that ability to measure time that helps seperate us from the animal kingdom. So why all the talk of measuring?? Well, yesterday I blogged about scraps(and pieces)yet again at my regular blog, Pieces from my scrapbag. This sidebar, as well as that one, contain pictures and tutorial about my approach to scraps. I showed this pan(an old hospital wash basin)of "beguns" for MAM blocks. Read that post if you want all the details, cause to make a long story short...in order to find out JUST how many "beguns" were in that pan, I'd count out 10 PER DAY, finish them and set them aside, until all were finished 6.5" blocks for a mile-a-minute quilt top. The first half of the collage is the pan of "beguns", the second half is today 10 completed blocks, sized and ready to go!
 And since I finished that us, lickity split, I made 3 more of these string blocks that I need to enlarge the string quilt in first half of the picture. My friend Michele, of With heart and hands, a quilting journey, departed on a Virtual Quilting Bee of Charity quilts this past week. I joined her, but never got around to blogging about it. Last week, and part of this week, I have made MAM blocks from an abundant pile of flannel trimmings and scraps. As of today I am finished with them... they number 54-8.5" squares(to be made into a donation quilt). I'm going to carry on with sewing the bits and pieces, the backbone of frugal quiltmaking, the :scraps to treasure" way of thinking. I'm not sure how long this will last, but if you are so inclined, and not too busy measuring things,*VBS*, please join us!

Frugal Friday feature....

a very special quilt, made by Orphan Train Volunteer Carol. Carol blogs at Scraps and Pieces of Our lives. She's our newest orphan train volunteer but once she got started she discovered how much fun it is to play with Orphan blocks and offerings. She had sewn many of her scraps into HSTs(half square triangles) and was debating how to use them. Combining them with some donated panel fabric was the perfect solution!! Another lovely quilt that will go off the the organization she supports. It's a Canadian organization and you can read more about it at Carols blog.*VBS* Great job Carol!!

New Orphans come to play in the Valley....

They rolled in from Texas last week, and a fine bunch they are *VBS* I've been getting acquainted with each one. The new orphans are from my good friend Julie, of Julie Q Quilts.
 I put these new orphans right to work. Sorting them by size and color, stacking some, joining up others.Sometimes, if they arrived already sewn into a row or block, I unsew them and use them differently *VBS* That is pretty much how I work with orphan blocks. Sometimes color is the deciding factor, sometimes it's the height of the block. A great asset to have close at hand, if you are joining up orphan blocks, is an assortment of scraps or precut strips. More often than not, a strip can/will be used as a space filler. That helps you achieve the desired width of the row. When the joined together blocks aren't quite equal to the size you want, you "fill in" with a spacer strip.Sometimes in between the blocks, sometimes at the ends of the row.
 And a treat Julie sent along for me *VBS* A Moda Scrap bag of assorted sized strips from their pink, reds and whites collections. I love it!! Thank you so very much Julie, you are way too good to me *VBS*!