The train is coming

This is what the letters look like now that I've sewn them together. I have to decide what to sew on the top and bottom. Probably some strings or blocks. I thought of the word "Truth" because it's in one of my favorite prayers. And now, the Orphan Train is rolling on, as Finn would say. http://orphantrainsfromfinn.blogspot.com/
I have dug out some orphan blocks and joined them, to make a table runner. This I'm planning to hand quilt. That might take a bit of time, as I'm knitting three things (and have the yarn for more), joining up afghan squares (I hate that job, so it takes me longer to join the squares than to crochet them), and crocheting some flowers (I only made one of those so far.) But the orphan blocks are in the queue.

"Beauty is truth"

Coverlet

How about this, I finished making the string quilt. Actually, I think that this is a coverlet, not a quilt. There is no batting. I sewed together scraps of flannel and then I made a flannel back. Isabella wrote in a comment asking for the pattern. Isabella, there's no pattern. Just put together scraps--these are flannel as it happens, but it could be regular fabric. If the fabric is already in strips, you're all set, if not, use a scissors or rotary cutter and make strips of any width. Press the strips. I joined the strips and then I trimmed the edges. I had three different lengths of strips, as you can see in the photo. I made a pillowcase turn, so that means there's no binding. Afterwards, I pressed and then I top stitched. I did some sewing machine tacking to keep the layers together. So actually, there is absolutely no hand stitching. I made this coverlet for a charity donation.And more good news--I went to the post office and shipped those sock toys that I made for my grand daughters. I know that they check out my blog--so girls, look for a little package in the mail.

I hope that you had as great a Fourth of July as I did--got together with the family. We ate hot dogs and macaroni salad. And after dark, we climbed a nearby hill to see the fireworks going off in the distance. It was a lot of fun.
There'll be a pause until I obtain a quilt batt for the medallion quilt. Meanwhile, I started sewing my leftover bits of flannel together. At first I was thinking that I would sew some strips and then cut the sewn bits up and make them into squares--but I got kind of carried away and before I knew it, I had bunches of sewn-together strips. And so then I decided to make one of those old-fashioned string quilts instead. I've got two different lengths so far, and I guess I'll try to make three different sets of strips. To be continued----

Sock dolls

I made my first stocking doll when I was about 12 years old. It had button eyes and I found a big old button that looked like an acorn for the nose. I hunted around in a couple of stores that had inexpensive tube socks, and I could only find white ones. Oh well. The limbs and tails are made from bits of old t-shirts (left-overs from making a t-shirt quilt.) These sock dolls are for school-age children. If making them for babies and toddlers, don't use button eyes, embroider the eyes instead. I turned the socks inside out, and stitched the top of the heads to form the ears. They are stuffed with left-over quilt batting (what else?) I stitched up the bottoms while inserting the legs. Then I used some quilting thread to sew on the arms and tails. (The rabbit has a pom-pom tail.) I gathered the necks. Then I made crochet chains for the neck bows. And I sewed on buttons and did a bit of fast embroidery for the faces.

I got there, almost

I added some dark blue and I think I've finished the medallion--of course except for the quilting or tying. And it'll take me a few days to acquire a quilt batt. I'll just dig through my stash for a backing. If necessary, I can piece a couple of things together for that. I still have a lot of yardage in my stash. So then I pressed a bunch of flannel bits, and I have enough to make a scrap quilt with those.