It's been a while....

 Many projects have been worked on since my last post, some have been finished😇, most not. 

You can catch up with me on https://www.instagram.com/sussex_gansey/

I have been taking stock of my crafting tasks in the last month or so......things have got out of hand!  It has been a useful exercxise whist recovering from back injury. I am trying to get as many of the quilt tops together and finnished as I can, to eliminate all the boxes and baskets of bits. I'm counting plastic storage donation  as a win! 

I have  way too many four  patches from   2" and 1 1/2" strips, made as leaders and enders.  These four patches and pinwheels which I sewed up this week from pre-made scrappy four patches  and red  pre-cut triangles  will be pieced into Patches and Pinwheels, a free pattern  on Bonnie Hunters blog page. They need pressing first, along with a lot of other stuff!  This project hasn't  scratched the surface of the four patches. It will probably be a gift. There are enough scrappy four patches for two quilts and I have more precut triangles......slow and steady😏

I have lots of small four patches and 1 1/2" strips from another project.   I had tried out scrappy houses a while ago, so I have made 15 six  patch strips like this with  what I had. Thats another small pile out of the way. 

I will add to these as I cut more strips. More on the pressing pile.

I have also worked on the scrappy strip block pile, making up the strips, pressing cutting, making up the blocks for trimming to 10" square.  So much to cut and press! 

Old clothing, edge strips, uglies, orphan blocks, wonky blocks, crumbs and chunks, selvedges, ribbon from christmas gifts, it all goes in. 

Linked to Quilting is more fun than Housework...: Oh Scrap! : Strings

These are the leader-ender  broken dishes I have been working on for a couple of years, cut from 2" strips, now being pieced into blocks. I think I have enough for a top. I'm not sure how to set them, side by side, or borders? 

I have been grateful for the things I have finished this winter. This picture is titled Unmade Bed- a puzzle quilt, a ten stitch blanket and a 16 patch leader ender quilt, along with the duvet. Cozy!

Archie the grandpup approves when I sit him

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These are some of the projects I have worked on in the last few months.....

there is much more going on.....

I put these completed  blocks togeather last week. I really like this one, it will be a gift. 

This winter, I put togeather two of these blankets with crochet, made from scrap yarn. the squares are double sided, nice warm pockets , it's very heavy. These took 16 years: I remember when I tried the first square.  As you can tell, I don't do sittting still really. 

I have made and yarn bombed  many jellyfish from scap yarn and buttons.

Much more to come! 

Thanks for dropping by.

💕

Charity quilts update

I have one more bound and ready.  This one is backed with a donated duvet cover . 

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And the next, layering in progress....

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The last three flimsies of the current batch have been webbed.  

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The webbing of my bow tie quilt  is in progress...

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A little bit of cutting-I found this block a while ago, loved the sample and have been cutting the strips for a while. It looks complicated though it is only HSTs and four patches from 1 1/2'' and 2 1/2'' strips. 

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And of course, MORE binding. It has been a week of record temperatures in the UK, so sitting with a quilt on my lap hasn't been an option for most of the week! 

I got this silver thimble in a house clearance. It is marked 'James Walker the London Jeweler'. 

A little bit of research told me that they were given as a free gift with wedding ring purchases.  It came from the house of a 90 year old bachelor!  Maybe he had a romantic disappointment. They used to make thimbles in much smaller size increments, this one fits me perfectly.  Shortly after, I bought another antique one in the perfect size from Ebay.  

Charity quilts

At the moment I'm working on 40 lap quilts for an old folks care home. I have had a lot of stuff hoarded for charity quilts but lacked the enthusiasm to do more than one every six weeks or so. Now I have a definite goal as there are 40 residents.  

Most of the flimsies are done, I finished webbing these tops and putting on scrappy  borders today. I cut the borders at 2 1/4", same as the binding. I love a scrappy binding! 

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A sample batch of 6 have been delivered, including these .

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I bound these two this week

There was a hiccup with this one, I cut the backing tooo small, so some orphan blocks came in handy! 

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These broken dishes blocks are my leader enders, cut from 2" strips 

I have been doing these for months now and have quite a stack, the aim is a queen size! 

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". 

Last push!

I have completed the last three play mat quilts for donation to a local charity. If they want them all, there are thirteen. Any remaining will go with the three I have reserved to Linus.  

I have several cot size to quilt  for Linus, but three doubles have to be quilted first. 

Then it is about time I made myself a quilt! 

•  scrappy broken dishes
• border and backing from the stash
• quilted back and front with tangerine cotton
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• Scrappy binding from gifted poly-cotton duvet cover, backing trimmings and recycled cotton sheeting. 

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•  broken dishes blocks
• backing form the stash
• quilted in Gutermann variegated green on the front, gifted pale blue polyester on the back
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• white border recycled sheeting. 
• grey border and binding was leftover 2"  strips from moth in a window.  

 

• broken dishes blocks
• both borders are recycled bedding
• backing from the stash
• quilted with white poly core on the back, Gutermann brown-yellow variegated on the front
• border stitched in the ditch with white poly core. 
• scrappy binding made from backing trimmings

Four finishes

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• white polycore on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched with variegated red
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• dark blue gifted poly thread on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched in the ditch
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting
• binding from a not-so-neutral neutral, the border and backing are so busy this needed one colour.
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front, a  YLI variegated green in the border
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
•  backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting, blue stripe is a cotton duvet cover
• binding from off-cuts
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester front and back: in the ditch in white on the border
• about 1m square

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. 

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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.

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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.

1/3

About 1/3 of the small flimsies for donation are quilted, eight.  I had a roundup and cut backing for the rest, they need to be gone!

Too many orphan blocks! 

Still to do: 

 Five larger ones here ready to go, for Linus.

And nine flimsiness here for Portage and Linus -there are another two 'moth in a window' flimsies to practice on in this pile. 

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There are three small quilts in progress, quilting/binding stage. 

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One crumb quilt double to be layered, that needs to be done in the next couple of months. Lots of quilting needed to secure all thise seams. I will  be able to use up reels of gifted polyester thread on this. 

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Two finishes, both about 1m square

• Broccoli backing  and green border from deep stash
• orphan blocks
• scrappy binding from backing off-cuts
• FMQ practice: variegated pastel orange and green on the front, cream polyester on the back (that was brave!)
• borders quilted in the ditch

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• broken dishes blocks
• FMQ quilting in cream  polyester front and back
• scrappy binding from backing trimmings
• Border from backing trimmings