A stroll round work

I found this little lovely-we make vitreous enamel signs. This is a sample plate of yellows on dark blue for a customer.   The yellow is matt because its been screened but not fired a second time to set the yellow.  This would make a simple but effective 'man' quilt in dark/light blue, and yellows.   A few partial seams  of light blue (where the light blue skylight is reflected) against the yellow, but not too difficult.

Sewing is much the same, pink and kiss in the corner; nothing new as I'm trying to FINISH something!







I saw this in a Sussex village the other day. I was amused. It called this nursery rhyme to mind-I had to look it up, I couldn't remember it from my own childhood, it wasn't something my boys would have been interested in!

 

 

"The three little kittens, they lost their mittens,"

The three little kittens, they lost their mittens,

And they began to cry,

"Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear,

That we have lost our mittens."

"What!   Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!

Then you shall have no pie."

"Meow, meow, meow."

"Then you shall have no pie."

The three little kittens, they found their mittens,

And they began to cry,

"Oh, mother dear, see here, see here,

For we have found our mittens."

"Put on your mittens, you silly kittens,

And you shall have some pie."

"Purr, purr, purr,

Oh, let us have some pie."

The three little kittens put on their mittens,

And soon ate up the pie,

"Oh, mother dear, we greatly fear,

That we have soiled our mittens."

"What, soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens!"

Then they began to sigh,

"Meow, meow, meow,"

Then they began to sigh.

The three little kittens, they washed their mittens,

And hung them out to dry,

"Oh, mother dear, do you not hear,

That we have washed our mittens?"

"What, washed your mittens, then you're good kittens,

But I smell a rat close by."

"Meow, meow, meow,

Kiss in the corner

A little progress has been made this week towards edge filling, I'm approaching the second corner.  I didn't get much done in the evenings, this was my first full week back at work after 5 weeks of on and off illness and I was tired! 

Sunday morning, I woke early, sun streaming in.  I made a pint of tea, went back to bed and caught up on Quiltcam whilst I did some sewing.  Very cozy.













These are the colours I am choosing from to quilt with











Lunchtime therapy has been brown hexies this week, I took them visiting yesterday too.

I found these synthetic threads on ebay for machine quilting, aren't the colours delicious?   Don't know what the quality is like, or even if they're colour fast ( I will be testing that as they are manufactured abroad). I'm not going to recommend the seller as my delivery got 'lost' and my emails were ignored, then my questions were not addressed (there's more but don't start me off!).  It was a MONTH before they arrived. Gr. However wonderful these threads are I will not be using the seller again. I'm a professional purchaser and deal with suppliers all day long so I know things go wrong sometimes, but customer service is about what you do when it IS going wrong and a lot of the time it was nothing!

I have never had much luck with ebay (:</




About a month ago I was charity shop browsing and I found a bigger-than-king size white cotton duvet cover, all soft from use and wonderful quality.  I'm having that for backing, I thought, for a minuscule  £4.   It's now on my bed as it goes with my newly painted white room!  It has a really high thread count, is slightly textured-extreme close-up.  Yesterday I found another one, but I think that will end up on my bed too for the time being!

I think its time for a tea refill and a to start my new book, promised as a gift to DubaiReader, another Bookcrosser.  I have about 850 books to read so I had to organise a draw as I couldn't make my mind up!

Pressing on

I have to get this done!  It's well overdue.  I did about three hours yesterday.

Distraction 2

I sewed more sisters choice sets yesterday to get to this stage...........if you sew in the same order every time they act as their own leader/ender project  in a neat string ready for snipping and pressing.  Then I sew the borders on, working on two blocks at a time.

I sewed these yesterday using  snips for the tie knots.  I'm trying to move the colours to orange and red so I don't end up with too many pink blocks.  I didn't need to do any of these as leaders, it really IS a distraction. 

I now when I have trimmed, I sew the  knots onto cream 2" squares, pair up with the coloured squares, and the sets go in the box ready to be sewn later as leader enders when they are needed as such.

Sorting out the pile of snips wasn't too fun.  That's why I'm sewing them up as I get them now.  These corners are around
1  1/2", just the right size.

A slight distraction

What to do with the waste from Sisters Choice? Each block generates 8 snips of pink and 8 cream. 

 This is is an odd block, I like these.  And see the deliberate mistake? 

All those triangles on the border strips get snipped off.

Light bulb moment.   Leaders and enders........

 

....for bow tie knots

A little try out...seems fine to me once I worked out how to get the irregular snips fairly straight by lining up with the opposite edges.

Happy days!  Reuse and recycle.  The bow tie quilt may end up with a lot of pink in!

A few more blocks completed, I have done around 100 now.

An I have even managed to use up a random FQ that I thought of as irredeemably ugly-see that pink and brown diamond fabric?  Just shows you have to find the right quilt for it.

I can't leave these alone!

The latest set.

There are some oddities in here-garlic and owls.......

.......and some make do and mends (I like these a lot!)

Whilst I was photographing another one with odd star points I saw one of those deliberate mistakes.....

oops.

And this weeks read is a history of the South Bank  in London, from rural carp ponds to brothels and theatres in Shakespeares time...that's as far as I have got!

Slave to the rythm

These are so relaxing to make-twelve more.

The colour is much nicer in real time!

All the quad strips are cut and randomly put into sets. 

Everything  is ready to pick up and go whenever I feel the urge.

One for baby (maybe if it's a girl) and a king size for me.

Creative insomnia

I stayed up until after 2.30 a.m., sleepless due to a hacking cough, for three nights. I had to do something.........

I have started an affair with pink, a previously loathed-as-a-stereotype colour, thought I seemed to have a bit of it..........

I have cut some more and kitted up for a full size quilt as I love the way this looks. 

I have absolutely no doubt that I have overdone it again!

All the cornerstones are pre-cut, just a few 2 x 5" cream strips needed. 

There is quilting to do before I indulge in this though. And it is indulgence, there is something about the rhythm of assembling these blocks that is soothing.

I think I have cracked the baggy edge issue too.