Crumbs, no strings!

 All the crumbs are sewn, every last one.  I have a whole pile of two tone hexies to be trimmed, go into the Random Hexie quilt box- so glad I didn't throw out these half hexies from ends of rows when cutting.

All the part crumb/string strips have been sewn onto 

1 1/2" strips I pulled from the bin, to keep them tidy for the next round of using up scraps.

Whilst stock taking I found all these, many more than I thought I had-blue, random and black and white nine patches, and ugly green 16 patches!  

The black ones are for Morphine quilt. One set will be a churn dash.

I also found lots of 10 1/2" squares from my last attempt to use up the crumbs, when I gave up!

I am going to have a lot of crumb quilts.

Quick pictorial update from my mobile

I have done a lot of hand sewing in the last few weeks.......a whole pile of random hexie units completed

and about 20 more sewn into strip sets ready to go (yes, it's organised!).

I cut more hexies as I needed some for the rainbow hexie, one large section complete now......

 More strips ready to go.... (excuse the bare feet!)

The bins were refilled, much cutting (I did a fabric swap with a Bookcrosser friend): this is the random bin...........

Hundreds more sewn up already

This weekend I looked at all the offcuts from the hexie cutting and decided as they were all the same size they should be sewn into strips NOW for the next crumb quilt-it took about 7 hours but at least it's manageable this way, crumbs from one cutting project are the same size-last time I had a giant unmanageable bin of mixed sizes.  I like the fact that every piece is angled.

I had cut more strips for the new leader-ender project, Bonnie's Perkiomen Daydreams; I sewed these into pairs today, that took a couple of hours.  A few weeks of pressing and cutting ahead into 1 1/2" pair units. 

I tried a few out to see how bulky the seams would be on 1" finished patches-seams OK!

I have almost finished the bow ties!  There will be about 1200. This was supposed to be a leader-ender project but it didn't work out that way.  Last few pairs waiting to go......

I sewed the badly cut hexies into units of the right size, these will go into the random hexie bin.  It's going to be fun finding these in the finished quilt. I tried for contrast.

I am all nine-patched out!  I think I have enough for a double with some sashing now; I haven't decided on the setting yet.  I have hundreds more 2" squares cut, its hardly touched the surface. 

 .

All the black and white nine patches are complete for 'Morphie'.  I need to decide on the next block pattern and cut more black and whites, triangles this time.   No planning, this is a decide as I go project.

As this little project will NEVER get done at home, I have taken the 1/2" diamonds to work to do in my lunch break. All the chaps I work with have asked with varying levels of puzzlement, 'What....': they haven't seen paper piecing before.  When I explain it will take about 10 years and need 14,000 pieces they just shake their heads!

This weeks read

Chosen from Mount 'To Be Read' because of 'A Good Read' on Radio 4 this week.

Catch up

I have used some mindless sewing on the road to recovery to occupy myself over the last few weeks. 

I sewed some more bow ties, about 300, I guess: I can't wait to start putting these together, but I must finish the sets I have kitted up, so I have maximum variety-this is a sample I made earlier to try a layout.  There will be about 1200 when I'm done, all finishing at 3". I think there are about 900 done already, the double quilt will need 1000 or so.

Most of the knots don't match the bows exactly: I had all the squares cut and waiting, I refused to cut more fabric so I raided the 1 1/2" strip bin for most of the bow tie  'knots'.

I have sewn some strips for the rainbow hexie

 ........and the Darwins Flower garden now has-almost-all the corners done-red, orange, blue, green, so just the border paths on the four 'corners' and the green 'hedge' edging to do, the end is in sight.

 Centre.... 

..before I sewed the orange up...

  ....and the blue corner almost done.  

The blues are really vibrant, I have a new phone with a truly rubbish camera, this picture is adjusted for white balance!  I have a new camera too, but its barely out of the box, I will have to get familiar with it.

Over  Christmas I lost myself in making the nine patches for the black and white quilt 'Morphine', about 100 of them.  I will be cutting triangles next for this quilt.

I have plans for a design wall, I will definitely need to to lay this one out. 

I got really bored with black and white, and started sewing randomly coloured mis-matched nine patches as leaders and enders, from pre-cut 2" squares, taking care to use up all the uglies.   They took over and I made about 200!  I haven't  decided what to do with them yet. 

I have not been working on the random hexie, though I know I only have about 5 more sets to sew before I have enough for a double quilt, this seems to have grown faster than anything else.  The top will definitely be done this year.  Not hand quilted though, there are others in the queue before this!

I can remember roughly when and how I acquired all these random fabrics!  Why can't I remember where I put the car keys!!!

 This year needs to be about machine quilting- I have a bout 10 tops ready to go.  I keep putting it off as 'I'm not good enough'. Things will get out of hand with the number I have to quilt soon-as if it's not already out of hand!

I have decided on the next leader-ender project, it will keep me busy for the next two years at least, it's Bonnie Hunters Perkiomen day dreams, each little square finishes at 1 inch. 

This is the basic unit......

Pale blue, yellow , red, and dark blue.

About 10,000 squares in a double. Gulp.

Summary for 2014

1. Two projects started!! (Random nine patch, black and white 'Morphine' nine patch)
2. Significant progress on Darwin's flower garden, bow ties and rainbow hexie.
3.  Another project planned. 
4. Promises of finishes!

Overactive imagination

In the design sense, this is not normally something I suffer with.  In the last two days I have modified and old idea and come up with two more-oh, I really need to retire to get all this done!

For my first year City and Guilds I came up with a trilobite design wall hanging that never got made, probably because it was rather too complex.  

 

Then I thought I would make it into a full sized quilt but never got round to it. 

The latest imaginative trilobite incarnation is a cushion with lots of prairie points.

I had surgery yesterday and whilst in recovery, my mood pleasantly enhanced (;¬}, the ceiling became very interesting and my mind wandered!  I have only had time to do a couple of quick sketches between snoozes toady, I just had to get the ideas down before they faded along with the 'enhancement'!  Probably only makes sense to me, but here they are.......

This will be black and white HSTs assembled in vertical grading across a quilt.  The inspiration was the tiny refractions from a three tube fluorescent light fitting cover!  It only occurred to me afterwards that it must have been good at diffusing light as I spent about four hours looking at it on an off!    I will cut these HSTs at he same time as the planned black and white 'Farmers Wife' quilt later in the year and use them as the leaders and enders project.  I have LOTS of black and whites I have been collecting in sales for a while now. 

The next two are only scrappy sketches for me to get he idea on paper before I forget.  

One inspired from the ceiling air vent yesterday that had a lop-sided louvred appearance and viewed interesting angles of light and dark grey. 

The last one is on a favourite theme of 'evolution' for which there are already several ideas in the creative pot. 

This time, its block evolution, starting with a square in one corner, then three adjoining squares bisected corner to corner, diagonally and unevenly,he patterns evolving across the quilt with gradually more complexity. This one will need a design wall!