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!

Two more complete

 Today I am working on a broken dishes quilt with a new FMQ design. I like this, it's really quick and secures all the seams. 

***

 

I tried it out on the border for the last one, binding completed this morning. That border fabric that I was determined to use up was tricky to quilt and match for binding.  I don't often quilt the borders, just stitch in the ditch as I like the fluffiness of un-quilted space.  This one was too wide not to have something in. 

• orphan blocks
• quilted on the front in mid green variegated, white polycore on the back
• heavily FMQ for practice
• borders and backing from a bargain bundle that needed using up
• scrappy binding: I had to cut some extra green for this as the border fabric wouldn't take my usual multicolour scrappy binding from off-cuts.

*****

Another finish, more moth practice

• Deep stash borders and backing
• Variegated green cotton on the back; cream poly in the ditch, gifted yellow poly on the borders, various experiments on the moth shapes.
• orphan blocks
• binding from a stash I made up a year ago

 Loopy balloons in the borders and sashing

Variegated thread looks awful on the moths! This was my original intention for the big quilt, glad I tried it out.

The demise of Mickey Mouse

I bought this cotton duvet cover in a charity shop, the motifs are too big to do anything useful with. It has now been chopped into yards of binding for charity quilts.

 

Quilting this single took a long afternoon, quick 'puzzle' waves. Needle break four inches from the end! Grr. 

Another moth in a window charity finish for Linus, I like this design better than the last practice run. So did my daughter in law, the king size will be for her. 

• orphan blocks
• deep stash border and backing
• scrappy binding from previous backing off-cuts
• about 1 x 1.3m

A finish

Charity quilt done, 33x36". 

Backing and borders for the orphan moth blocks from the deep stash.

Scrappy binding from backing trimmings. 

This is the first of several experiments before I quilt the king size, I won't be doing the moth bodies like this. Good job I have the orphans to practice on! 

Roundup without curves

I have been working on hexies for the last month. Piccies later. 

 ***

I gave up on Perkiomen Daydreams as I wasn't happy with my accuracy on earlier blocks. I have pieced the finished  blocks into a cot sized flimsy, as cot sized people are no the quilt police! I will quilt this when I need a baby quilt in a hurry. 

 ***

I have started another postage stamp quilt, from the 1 1/2"  bin. I am not using this size, so I sewed some strip sets together and will sub-cut a few at a time- blocks of colour when I need a quick fix. Teenny bits help me with my accuracy. 

***

I have done a few of these flying geese strips, from 2" scraps in sets 1-8, again, to work on my accuracy. They will probably make a scrappy border for something. 

***

 

These two charity quilts are pinned and ready for quilting, all orphan blocks. I have several filmsies of the moth blocks in this size, I am practicing with the fancy stitches on my Bernina before I quilt the king size version! 

This one is part quilted. 

Much more to do to shape the moths.

 ***

A charity quilt finish today, about 1m square.

This one was frugal:

• Backing was a new gifted polycotton duvet cover
• Many shirts were harmed in the making of the blocks
• All the thread was gifted polyester from my dressmaker mum's stash
• The stripy border was a charity shop cotton duvet cover
• The white border is recycled cotton sheeting
• The scrappy binding is made from off-cuts from previous quilt backings 

=happy!

A hiccup.

The moral of today's post-don't trim your quilt at night in poor lighting without your glasses especially when the fabric is black!  Doh. Fold on the corner perfectly sliced through!

What a pain! I wanted to hand sew the binding last night so I did most of it and left this corner until this morning. 

Insert new binding on corner. Fiddly.

 This was my first free motion scribbly filler, it didn't turn out too bad.  Using neutral thread in case it was awful meant that I couldn't really see what I had already sewn. Catch 23. 

The border is my  all purpose border filler, a very forgiving pattern, especially when you use matching variegated thread on scribbly fabric!  I need to work on a consistent stitch length.

I am calling this  a finish for today as I only have to sew down a few inches of binding. Charity quilt for Linus, about 40" square.  

These are  orphan blocks from 'The Big Green One'

Verbose backing, my favourite kind. 

This week I have pieced some flimsies for charity quilts.

Borders are recycled fabric, but you would never know. 

 Another hiccup that I am calling a deliberate block placement-it wasn't until I took the photo that I saw the red corner block was the wrong way round, but as the fabric says BLAH I am calling it a design feature!

Leftover blocks from 'Kiss in the Corner', with a wide binding, for a larger charity quilt. 

And another, this on has leftover grey strips on the border from  'Moth in a Window'

I used the burgundy block settings that I unpicked from the leftover 'Sisters Choice' blocks for the border. 

Orphan blocks , a larger Linus flimsy. White with orange scrappy border. 

And another. That uses up all but one random broken dishes block!

Crabby border fabric-you can find a use for everything! 

Orphans

 Today I put the borders on this charity quilt

 The blocks were leftovers from this

***

Then I found orphan blocks left over from Sisters Choice

I put borders all the way round 12 of them, they will be place mats. Not my usual colour at all, but I can practice my free motion on these -I got a super slider for Christmas.  There were enough for a table runner too.

 I raided the batting and pieced 12 squares for the mats. Not enough left for the runner at the moment.

 The last one used six pieces!

 ***

I have been working on these, that finish at 6"

There were some 2" pieces of red left: I have fallen in love with my easy angle ruler (new toy) so I tried smaller ones out......

 ....and so I have started a leader ender project! These will finish at a teeny 3"

***

Then I put borders on this..........

 and this......

and this for more charity quilt flimsies.

 ***

 I pieced a scrappy neutral backing for orphan Moth in a Window  blocks for a charity quilt that I made up about 6 months ago. 

***

 I unpicked the burgundy borders from a row of Sisters choice blocks that didn't make it into the main quilt or the table mats

 and there were just enough for another charity quilt.  It will need another border when it it pressed.

I felt like I hadn't achieved much today as I worked on rounding up orphans for lots of things rather than one project, but I guess things are more organised now.  I have thirteen charity quilts from orphan blocks to quilt!  Super slider practice, here I come.