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. 

Green from spinning

MORE pinwheels

See this 80 litre bin? About 5 years ago I had a cutting frenzy and ended up with thousands of hst's finishing at 3" that I have barely used.

There seemed to be more green  than anything else, hence the green/brown pinwheels.

I am zoning out on green, I needed a change of colour for a bit. 

I kitted up hundreds of box kite sets whilst watching TV and barely made an impact on the bin!

These make up fast, finishing at 9" I haven't  made  a block this big for ages, seems enormous!  I tried two to see which way the light/dark triangles should go. Sixteen  triangles used in one block, ideal. I have tried to pick out a lot of the uglies, so this will be a darker, more masculine looking project, definitely NO acid brights.

Blocks look better with light on the outside. The centres probably won't be and exact match with the outside triangles as the scrap bin contains cuts of 3 1/2" squares cut at least 2 years later (I didn't start the scrap users system at the same time as I cut the triangles). 

The danger is I will spent too long finding the 'perfect' centre square match for each block!

I have also kitted up for the 1 1/2" finished  goose components  to go with the green pinwheels. 

There will be a  flying goose border too- the quilt will be about 100" square, thats a lot of geese. They will probably end up being a leader-ender project when it comes to the border. A serendipitous find last week on line in  the sale: there really will be geese in the crops!

I  found these scrappy strips sets left over from 'Dancing Sisters'- no point in leaving them languishing, I cut them down to goose components, 2" X 3 1/2". Sorting them into identical sets of four was a pain, but at leas the fabric is being used up now. The  crumb bin is refilling!

Sorting through the stash, I need to cut more green/brown goose components, I have mostly pulled fabric with a directional element in for these.

Time for bed I think

~(;@?

Linking for Building Blocks Tuesday
and
WIP WEDNESDAY 

Discoveries and Excess

A couple of months ago I finished the top (no borders yet!) for 'The Big Green One'. It took ages as I was never in love with the colours and kept putting it aside.  It will look OK with a red border, I have decided. 

 Leftovers: lots of triangles.  Lots. So I am making up some pinwheels and for x four patches, using my seam guide on this machine for the first time. Accuracy much better!

. I still need to mindlessly sew to de-stress, so this fits the bill for now. Pinwheels will finish at 6". 

I have a design in my head-for this I need geese. I have to work on the accuracy, this practice strip with randoms from the stash bin is 1/4" plus longer on one side, so it must be about my piecing.   I will try some more today to get it right.

Liking these colours. 

I have done a few Perkiomen Daydreams leader-ender blocks-hoping the seam guide improves my accuracy here to. 

I found a random bin that I had stuffed things into-these were another attempt to use up all my strings-scrappy meandering braids.

 Yards and yards!

I found a pattern on pinterest that I can use them for

Genius!

 

 

But- no!  I found some more strings too, just when I thought I had cracked it and used every last one up!!

I also rediscovered these blocks- they only need laying out and putting together-a job for the next wet weekend.

One of Bonnie's patterns-she had been keeping me company on Quiltcam archive.

Stripping

 I think I am almost done with  stripping!  I have emptied three large bins: I now have three large bin bags stuffed to the top with sewn up 10  1/2 " units ranging from 2" to 15". 

I have sewn over 2km of seams and used up nearly 5km of gifted poly-core thread in some really ugly colours, and used lots of shirts!

Kiss in the Corner

Then I found 8 yards of moo trimmings from Kiss in the Corner backing. In it went.

 I have made the 8 scrappy houses I found into blocks to be sewn into the top row of the quilt and included some small  random trial blocks.

 Things often got out of hand. 

And who bought all that ugly fabric? 

There was always a way to blend it in.

 I will not be ironing and cutting into crumb strips until the winter, as it will take weeks.  The next job is to clean the sewing room!

Then I need to maintain the Singer 201 mum gave me, she bought it second had with all the attachments at a boot sale 15 years ago for £12!  Runs like a dream, and is quieter than my Bernina.

Dedicated space.

Yipppppeeee!  I now have a dedicated sewing room, though in true quilter fashion, its too small, even though it's the biggest bedroom in the house!  In the reorganisation, I found lots of orphan blocks that I have sewn up for Linus, just to get them out of the way.   Now I'm webbing a double, that was ready to go, Dancing Sisters Choice. 

Sisters Choice blocks, this will be a gift.

 

Orphan red moth in a window blocks, with orphan four patch centre strip-all of this was either assembled or pre-cut. Easy!  I just had to cut an outer border.

 

 

Mauve moth blocks, with pre-sewn mini moth centre, border was all that needed cutting.

 There are another three moth Linus quilt tops assembled, in various colours.

Four orphan spiderweb blocks: I tried out the seagull background fabric and it didn't pop enough. I like the juxtaposition of the seagulls with their distant dinosaur relatives on the inner border. Outer blue border was leftover from another project.

Orphan twisted nine patch blocks, Linus size!

I now have seven tops ready to be quilted for Linus. 

I have a few of these done, about 40 of 400 or so, for Perkiomen daydreams. I am really trying to do this as a Leader-Ender project.

So far, so good...

A few quick pics, I want to keep up the momentum!

Morning Dreaming

Still sorting out the roomful of craftiness. 

Inspiration note: I was daydreaming in bed this morning about what to do with my green strips-this is the green/blue bin........ it's mostly greens now as the blues were used up for this project, 'Orange and Blue',still work in progress.  

Thistles. Like this.... courtesy of Bonnie Hunters 'TALKIN' TURKEY': green strips, purple spikes. 

What do you think?

                                                                                                              

Taking stock

I made a good resolution not to buy fabric this year. 

after all the upheaval of decorating and moving rooms around, I shoved everything in the small bedroom as I had to get my sons room clear (he's home!) 

Yesterday I bought two of the biggest storage boxes I could find, 64 litres, thinking I would get lots of fabric in these. I have only just crammed the black and whites into one box.  

There's a whole 6 ft x 10 ft room of this stuff to sort yet!

The Big Clean-up!

I finished slicing this afternoon.  Some of the charity quilts will be basic 4" finished squares, some bricks and  I plan some stars to practice my flying geese accuracy. Then I'll tackle the tactile quilts.

 I have always felt that small quilts are somehow 'cheating' but after making the baby quilt I can now see how they are useful for practice.

I took the 'pledge' at Rossieblog-see the button top right.

I have pledged with 862 others: 

The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision.

So please fee free to comment and offer me insights!

The links to all the other bloggers are on her page, just click the button (later!)

I have to admit to a small misdemeanor with regard to  my new years resolution: I was buying thread from

 http://www.empressmills.co.uk/ 

and they have started selling fabric. 

 I only bought 1 metre in the sale-the one I really wanted for making the crossbars in my planned churn dash quilt was out of stock, or it would have been 4 metres! 

The triangles for this will be leftover greens and greys that are already sewn up for moth in the window and the big green one.

Yet ANOTHER project!  But I am using up orphan blocks, so I guess that's OK.....

 I really don't know why this block appeals to me so much-when I make this quilt it will be for me!  I think I need a striped fabric for the bars, a strong look. 

I have a huge box of crumbs and strips left over from the latest round of slashing.

 I have an idea to use the crumbs in a raw edge way for one of the tactile quilts that I will wash to create texture before I send it off. 

Excited!

I work as a purchaser for a sign company.  

 One of my key suppliers, a metalwork company, that I have spoken to every day for 7 years has made me a quilting frame for Christmas!!!

 

I sent him a design sketch 18 months ago and it fizzled as an idea, but he's done it now as a gift!!   I supply him and his small workforce with cakes on a fairly regular basis as I am often harassing him several times a day, poor man, to do-this-do-that NOW pretty please.

It's still in the car at the moment, so no pictures yet...........yes, I *really* want to try it out, but I had an accident last Sunday-I was steam cleaning the living room carpet and knocked over the machine, spilling 4 litres of water!!!  I have been sitting hand quilting with a fan heater on full blast pointing at the carpet for a week that I scrounged from work, trying to dry it out.  Took a while to figure out how to point it downwards without it scorching the carpet..............

I think were OK now, so I will be able to finish the other half of the carpet later today and re-assemble the living room into some sort of normality!

I was talking to a colleague at work about my UFOs, and have made a commitment to finish three by the end of March....erm!

Her sister works with severely disabled children and receives quilts from project Linus in the UK (I have previously donated fabric and wadding but not sewn). 

Well, they are in need of specialist sensory quilts, so I have at least one to make by 14th February (UK Valentines day) as I have bagged a fundraiser day at work and I need an example of around 40 x 40 inches to show everyone. 

I will be doing red, yellow, blue, black and white, bold colours. I found some cheap fur fabric and silky lining on the internet, so now to practice my texturing- I have this lovely book for ideas......

So, actually, that's FOUR by the end of March.  

I'd better get on with it!

A little exercise to clear the cobwebs....

...in two respects!


I have been feeling distinctly under the weather for the last couple of days, haven't been to work.  Yesterday I slept ALL day. And I slept late this morning until 10am.  Not like me at all.  I could have stayed there longer but my back was aching from all the laying around!  I had the fidgets this evening, no doubt from feeling thoroughly rested so I started moving a few things into my sons room while he is away to decorate....I'm going to email him this picture!  The double bed is buried, all the floor space is taken up with fabric in storage, wool in storage, UFOs, two huge rolls of wadding, FOUR giant bags of polystyrene beads to make bean bags (I've had those over 5 years), boxes of strings and more. I'm not sure this will fit in the little bedroom!  Good job I got my son to put his fishing gear in the loft before he went.

I will be taking up the old carpet and maybe prepping the paintwork this weekend.  I have hoovered away the cobwebs already.

I will have to work round this unit, there is nowhere to move it to..............

..........it has my browns and larger pieces/backing in.  I can never resist good quality fabric at silly prices for backing!   I almost weakened today and bought 8 metres of Makower strawberry fabric for backing, but I stopped myself!  Whew!