Journal #2

I have been playing with formats for journals and junk journals.

Last month I made an altered book with a sea theme, to write book quotes and inspirational notes in, which I hope to pass to my granddaughter one day. 

It is still work in progress, I have not altered all the pages yet. 

I had fun dyeing the papers with tea, coffee, food dye and alcohol inks, messy but interesting! 

 Playing with paper and glue is like being a kid. very therapeutic! 

Journal

I have always been a secret stationery junkie.  

I discovered junk journals a couple of years ago and I have been experimenting with various formats and styles.  

Yesterday, I made this leather bound journal from a hardback book cover and my sons old sofa!  It is not finished yet and is something of an experiment, as I haven't decided if I want a hard or soft cover. It is stuffed full and functional though, with the various notebooks I use! 

A diary/ daily bullet journal/to do list; personal development notebook; study notebook (I am doing some free courses with the Open University);  general notes and to dos; quotes, passwords and reading list; daily diary, design notes. 

I function much better if I use paper to think and plan, rather than electronic media, the act of writing makes it stick in my memory better. 

I have used all sorts of scraps to assemble the junk journal inserts. It makes life more interesting and recycles old papers and envelopes #saveourplanet!  

Inspiration under your feet

I have found some great inspiration this summer wandering around with my camera.  These are a few house  front paths and steps I found. 

Sadly many of them have been ripped up and replaced due to wear and tear of lack of street parking.

Milestone

It is horribly dull and cold today, so the picture doesn't do my EPP top justice: 3829 random hexagons. It won't be quilted yet as I am working on another hand quilting project. The last stitch went in to this yesterday evening. It has taken about six years on and off. 

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I finished a table runner from orphan blocks that has been hanging around for over a year waiting for quilting. I free motion quilted this in a spiderweb design to go with the twelve table mats I made over a year ago.

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I sewed the ends in on this small blanket, modelled by grandpup Archie. It will go in my granddaughters play tent. 

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Archie had an early start today, he went to work with my son to meet the team, he is now curled up in his scrap shirt quilt blanket having forty winks, whilst my son puts his bonsai trees to sleep for the winter in the poly tunnel in my garden. 

Currently reading:

Linky

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

emsscrapbag

Mittens and orphans

Two finishes today: super thick crochet mitts for my 8 month old granddaughter and a quilted mat for her play tent (at Christmas)

The mat was made from orphan blocks from Bonnies sisters choice, that I gave as a gift a couple of years ago

Linus quilt bound

Boyish quilt for Project Linus UK finally bound and ready! 

Orphan blocks, Bonnies Garlic Knots variation.  

I intended to make a quilt for me, but I didn't like the bright white, too much contrast for my taste. 

The colours are brighter in sunny weather, it has been dull here for days, sewing weather.

Please excuse my dog ears

A weekend of pressing...some time ago I stitched hundreds of HSTs for charity quilts from all sorts of fabrics (probably about a year ago!).  I will use these as leader-ender patches whilst sewing on other things. So many dog ears to clean up! 

I put the borders on my granddaughters first quilt, made from orphan moth in a window blocks. That backing is soooo cute! It was on sale, I ordered 5 metres but they only had two and a half in stock 😕

I started cutting all the string blocks to size for crumb quilt strips.  I am saving 3 1/2" strips for a scrappy border for some UFO or other! 

Sewing this weekend was Allietare blocks from Bonnies mystery a while ago. All the component bocks are made for this quilt, so it's only the  large block assembly that's needed. My daughter in law may claim this one. 

Last night I finished the binding for a Linus quilt made from orphan blocks. 

Definitely a girl quilt!

Decluttering and mending

I started another ten stitch blanket this week for Project Linus UK (well, 20 really-it grows quicker!)

I have a lot of random green yarn scraps, they may as well go to make someone warm rather than be binned. It will be my YouTube  watching project for cold winter nights. 

Sewing this week has been clothing repairs and a few 3" finished leader-ender broken dishes blocks...

...and a LOT of draw cleaning and reorganisation! I have five empty drawers now that I must not fill up with NEW projects! 

I found lots of  half made four patches left over from Perkiomen Daydreams-this was intended to be a large quilt, however I wasn't happy with the accuracy, so it ended up as a cot size flimsy. 

I need to find something to do with several hundred navy four patches that finish at 2". 

Project Linus

Another Linus finish. 

Not the best picture, the colours are brighter in real life! 

These orphan blocks have been languishing for over 10 years, they were a first try for background fabric. I felt the seagull fabric was too busy and too dark for a big quilt. 

I recently had a sort through and decided they had to be used or go, so now they will cheer up a poorly child, hopefully. 

I like the seagulls and their dinosaur relatives in juxtaposition. 

The border blues came from my scrap users system stash, the binding is scrappy. 

It was quilted with gifted polyester thread. 

Hexies

The Random Hexie has about 30 more to go and the top is done! 

I did a lot last week whilst watching the snooker. 

I haven't counted yet, but I recon there are about 4000 hexies. 

Finished pic soon! 

Linus batch

You can get a better look at this batch of Linus quilts that went to good homes by clicking on the 'finishes' tab at the top of the blog.

All made from donations or orphan blocks!  

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