Cat-napping

It seems the word went round the neighbourhood that I no longer have a resident quilt inspector. The vacancy has been filled: he does have a home (somewhere), but obviously no duties there. Every time the door is open, he is in! So much for ironing the backing and patches!  Encourage him? Noooo, 'course not!

Testing my lap for comfort too-my last cat didn't do this in 17 years so I made the most of it! 

 He is a bit gorgeous, is genuinely pleased to see me and had a marvelous purr. I am clearly not properly trained yet as I don't act like his real servants at home, he tries to tell me what he wants but I don't understand!

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 Allietare four patches have been waiting since December to be sewn, so I cut the strips that had been hanging over the door for three months and got on with it. 

Then I cut the next stage. The patches were not meeting at the points properly when I sewed a few. (:@{

I had leftovers of the 2" strips, rather than add them boxes, as I had cut a few as goose blocks (too small) I trimmed all the leftovers down for the mini broken dish blocks and goose centres for future use. 

 

Then I sewed a few goose blocks to work out where the accuracy was failing by two whiskers on Allietare blocks. 

I think I have worked it out now, after much goose beheading and broken wings. 

Next update will tell!   

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I have sewn up trimmings from other things to 10 1/2" strips as I go for the crumb quilt, to keep the piles down.

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I am wading my way through ironing several hundred pinwheel and broken dishes blocks, sitting on the floor in front of the TV with the mini board and iron on my lap, on top of a cushion!

These will take a couple of days. 

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I was feeling stressed yesterday morning so sat down to push a few random mini triangles through the machine, it did the trick.  I am thinking these could make Ocean Waves

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We have Storm Katie hitting the south of England today, roof felt/fence panel lifting winds. I will venture a short walk, then it's back to sewing related occupational therapy for me  and finishing this...

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Happy Easter!

Cutting corners

Literally.

And thousands more to go!  

Triangles. I see them in my sleep. 

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As an antidote, I have finished this ten stitch blanket from scraps.

 

It is a double, that will be a car/picnic blanket. 

It took 2 years on and off, 1/3 million stitches! 

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The next on-off scrap blanket is this one....

It is really interesting to knit, no seams as it's knit as you go and grows quickly. 

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The clipped triangles are still being made into broken dishes blocks for a friends housewarming quilt. I am making the more random sets into pinwheels for charity quilts

A couple of hundred to have the seams spun, then be pressed, about the same still to piece. 

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I sewed the crumbs up that I had made from cutting mini broken dishes blocks, as they were all from 2" strips and easy to sort.

The crumb strips join the three sacks of  string and crumb strips waiting to be trimmed down for a crumb quilt and piano key borders!

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Working at the orphanage

Two finishes today, providing a home for five orphans. They are not quilted. 

Sewing on the border-hang on, I'm sewing it to the border-time for lunch and caffeine!

All of these fabrics were bought as clearance ages ago, they are 'my' colours so I bought several yards of each. Wish I had bought much more of the dino fabric. 

The blocks were part of a sew along that I lost interest in, don't know why as I really liked them!  The spicy border fabric with the green line really worked in the block. 

I would have liked to mitre the corners, but there was less than an inch of border to spare, so didn't dare.  This cushion cover is 28", so I couldn't close it successfully with buttons and had no zips: I went hunting for a strip of velcro that has been hanging about for years, perfect. 

I used the dark star anise orange for backing.

Orphans, thimbles and uglies

This solid silver thimble is unblemished. It came into my possession from a house clearance. I was told it was worth £25 so paid it on the spot as it is a perfect fit.

The modern S, M, L, sizes don't fit me properly.  

As  a girl needs more than one thimble, I started looking on Ebay for antique thimbles in a 16 or 17 size. 

I bought two plain thimbles in sterling silver very cheaply. 

If I had cash to spare I could really get into collecting these, but of course only in the sizes that actually fitted!

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This small quilt is now finished for Linus, about 45" square

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I finished this flimsy that will go to a small local charity

 whilst watching Bonnie on archived Quiltcam

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I cut borders and binding for the next big quilt I will be working on

 I also chopped this UGLY (what was I thinking!) for binding and some mini broken dishes blocks (cut it small says Bonnie).

 This ugly will be used as a border on a charity quilt at some point.

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The trimmings from the binding were made into mini broken dishes blocks immediately in an effort to control the crumbs.

 I trimmed them to size guided by the neutrals cut with the easy angle. Looks like you can't cut that reindeer fabric small enough!

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I found two old spiderweb trials-I tried sewing to old sheeting but the result was too thick for a quilt, even if the look was good.

 I put a border on one, cut some heavy duty fabric for a back, and turned it into a cushion cover.

 Antique buttons on the back, and the raw edge of the fabric turned out for interest on the button flap.

 In this trial I didn't like the blocks completely random, The flimsy I made has sections in colour family, this has been a UFO for about 4 years!

I have been working on the rainbow hexie in the evenings. 

Linking for Scraptatsic Tuesday

I HAD to clean the sewing room first!

My latest charity make at the binding stage: I needed free motion practice so this one is quite heavily quilted.

 I usually make charity quilts the width of the fabric so I don't have to piece the backing but I miscalculated with this one, its about 45".  

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I have been cutting triangles for the leader-ender project after raiding the 2" strip bin. 

They are sorted into groups of four

I sorted the odd ones separately, thinking I would make  really scrappy version: this morning I was reading my Kindle copy of More Adventures with Leaders and Enders and realised that the pattern uses these triangles, so I think a very scrappy version is on the menu! (Eventually)

Today the border went on this charity quilt (trimmings from a backing), and I am webbing another.

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I have been doing some of these

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 I have to keep a handle on the crumbs!

 All the trimmings of late have been binding trimmings or 2" ends, so today I sewed them into 10 1\2 inch strips to join the three sacks full I have already-I blitzed all my strings and crumbs before Xmas. I will save that mess for another post!