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. 

Roundup without curves

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

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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!

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.

Decision made

OK, so, after yesterdays post...............

.............and the decision not to go down the multi-colour background/design wall route, I have decided on two variations of wonky crosses as leader-ender type projects.  

As I have been sewing up my strings into  10 1/2 " strips, I guess another 150 done..............

............I have sewn a few crosses with recycled cotton sheeting background and blue striped shirt background.  I have several of these shirts. The blue one is for me:  I have named them 'Spirit Level 1' and Spirit Level 2'.  

I am not religious, I liked the idea that they needed a spirit level to be straighter!  The seams are coming out at nearer 1/8" on these teeny strings, so the quilts will have to be finely quilted to keep them stable.

More ways to use it up

I have been seriously contemplating taking part in Bonnie's leader-ender challenge, tumblers. I looked around Pinterest and found this quilt and saw FISH!  Then I thought I could add fins with prairie points and buttons for eyes and the whole idea stopped being a leader-ender challenge and became a design wall challenge!  I have shelved that idea, temporarily, as I have enough half done!

I am still powering away on the strings, I feel I am making some headway.  I threw every trimming in the bin without sorting as I cut my projects, so there are some strings less than 1/2" wide, they have to be thrown out. There were a lot.  I was also throwing out 3/4" strings, and really didn't want to, even though they were too small for use.  There were a few hunks and chunks in the bin, so the two came together as an experiment in wonky crosses. 

Not sure about the mixed backgrounds.  I have lots of recycled white sheeting, I may use that and make the 'string' part the highlight. Unless I manage the background colours on a design wall, I think it will just look a mess-I have already decided no new designer projects!

Isle of Man calling.....

These blocks haven't see the light of day since last Christmas. I was fed up with hexies and needed another hand sewing job.  I need at least 100 for a quilt top.



There is no wadding in this quilt. The  10 1/4" backing squares are cut from a variety of fabrics that I had multiple yardages of and will coordinate in the finished top, after a fashion.   I draw diagonal lines on the wrong side of the backing and the 3 1/2" centre square so I can stick a pin through and line them up properly.

This project evolved as a way  to use up ugly greens and clothing-I have got to the stage where I can't throw things out at all, they have to be re-purposed.   The strips are all 2", not cut to length before I start.   The cream strips have duvet covers, pillow cases, accumulated charity shop shirts, my shirts, my mums, colleagues and some cotton quilting fabrics too.  I'm not fussy about using all cottons in this, as its meant to be a utility quilt.  The centre squares I'm using at the moment come from a top I picked up in a 50p bin at a charity shop-the red square is meant to represent the 'fire' in the cabin and this fabric is flame-like!

It is pieced around the centre in the same way as a traditional log cabin, the diagonal lines on the backing help you keep things straight. Once a strip is sewn down, using thread that blends with the backing (you don't see stitching on the front), fold it towards the edge, 1/3 on the bottom, 2/3 of the strip on top, giving a 2/3" overlap.  When I get to the last round, I tack down the last fold.  The backing is about 1/8 to 1/4" larger than the front. Traditionally this is all done by hand, however, I will probably sew the backing together on the machine, then fold and tack the top joints and sew them down with a decorative machine stitch.

The sewing part is really quick, its the lining up and folding for accuracy that takes the time-whilst I'm watching TV, each block takes about 2 1/2 hours.

Additional info here:

 http://needlemenow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/new-handwork-in-february.html

Bits and pieces

 I finished the rough sewing on of the scraps for the beach rug yesterday.  I'm going to back this with some old  heavy cream curtains, no wadding, then quilt it densely to hold down the roughly appliqued pieces.  As its used and washed its going to get more rustic and  soft and frayed.  Another flimsy finished and ready for quilting, there's a backlog! This used up crumbs and random bits of polyester sheeting, everything recycled  instead of thrown out.

This months total for bow ties is 600 and counting.......

Over excited again

If you are a regular reader, you know I have trouble throwing away even the smallest scraps.  These are the snips from Sisters Choice blocks I made a while ago....... some of them I used for pink bow tie knots.

I almost threw a bag of pink and a bag of cream snips out this weekend.   Whilst I'm doing the bow ties, I thought, with the 2" cream squares out, I'll just sew a few pink corners on, then I will HAVE to do something with them one day someday.

I was browsing blog posts, and there is was, all halo lit and pink round the edges......

Lainee, one of my followers over at A Bit of a Novice Quilters Life posted in June about her mini design wall: on it were multi-coloured windmill/star thingies.

I immediately had to try it out......and its going to work!

Yay! Thank you Lainee!  As long as I keep the pinks all the same in a block, and fairly dark, the overall scrappiness of the creams and the star points won't be too overwhelming.   I'm not going to get sidetracked though, this was just the experiment for later on.  This will probably end up as a baby quilt or a Linus quilt (whichever happens to come a long at the time of making!). 

I'm still plodding through the last of the bow ties on the machine-another 100 spun:

that's 400 from the current sewing frenzy so far.

Kiss in the corner

A little progress has been made this week towards edge filling, I'm approaching the second corner.  I didn't get much done in the evenings, this was my first full week back at work after 5 weeks of on and off illness and I was tired! 

Sunday morning, I woke early, sun streaming in.  I made a pint of tea, went back to bed and caught up on Quiltcam whilst I did some sewing.  Very cozy.













These are the colours I am choosing from to quilt with











Lunchtime therapy has been brown hexies this week, I took them visiting yesterday too.

I found these synthetic threads on ebay for machine quilting, aren't the colours delicious?   Don't know what the quality is like, or even if they're colour fast ( I will be testing that as they are manufactured abroad). I'm not going to recommend the seller as my delivery got 'lost' and my emails were ignored, then my questions were not addressed (there's more but don't start me off!).  It was a MONTH before they arrived. Gr. However wonderful these threads are I will not be using the seller again. I'm a professional purchaser and deal with suppliers all day long so I know things go wrong sometimes, but customer service is about what you do when it IS going wrong and a lot of the time it was nothing!

I have never had much luck with ebay (:</




About a month ago I was charity shop browsing and I found a bigger-than-king size white cotton duvet cover, all soft from use and wonderful quality.  I'm having that for backing, I thought, for a minuscule  £4.   It's now on my bed as it goes with my newly painted white room!  It has a really high thread count, is slightly textured-extreme close-up.  Yesterday I found another one, but I think that will end up on my bed too for the time being!

I think its time for a tea refill and a to start my new book, promised as a gift to DubaiReader, another Bookcrosser.  I have about 850 books to read so I had to organise a draw as I couldn't make my mind up!

A slight distraction

What to do with the waste from Sisters Choice? Each block generates 8 snips of pink and 8 cream. 

 This is is an odd block, I like these.  And see the deliberate mistake? 

All those triangles on the border strips get snipped off.

Light bulb moment.   Leaders and enders........

 

....for bow tie knots

A little try out...seems fine to me once I worked out how to get the irregular snips fairly straight by lining up with the opposite edges.

Happy days!  Reuse and recycle.  The bow tie quilt may end up with a lot of pink in!

A few more blocks completed, I have done around 100 now.

An I have even managed to use up a random FQ that I thought of as irredeemably ugly-see that pink and brown diamond fabric?  Just shows you have to find the right quilt for it.

Oh crumbs!

I would love a pineapple quilt, but I know all that paper piecing isn't for me.

 I have lots of crumbs cut down for the 1/2" crazy diamonds English paper pieced quilt already.
















So, what to do with the latest bunch?  I can't face trimming them and I'm tired of looking at them.  I cut some strips of mixed fibre neutrals and had a play, using up some polyester thread that has been hanging about for years.  No shape trimming, just applied to each side of the strips as it comes out of the box.   A bit of mindless sewing that requires no accuracy that can be picked up and dropped is just what the doctor ordered.









The idea is that the strips are joined (and maybe sub-cut, not sure yet), the whole thing is randomly quilted quite heavily and as it's washed, it becomes frayed and tactile.   I was going to do a small test piece, but nothing too drastic will be lost by going for it.  If nothing else it can be the car quilt, for chilly rides and summer picnics and the beach.   I will try to finish up the box of scraps that is here and if more is needed I will keep a strip by the machine to add to as crumbs appear.

 I just remembered these- half a box of paired crumbs











that I used to make these

 and these!

Now I know what I can use them for, this will add variety and intensity!


So, its win/win with regard to using it up

• crumbs 
• applied to random mixed fibre strips that wouldn't normally go into a quilt
• with polyester thread that is  over 20 years old but still strong, which I wouldn't use on cotton fabric (my mum was a seamstress, so it's from her working days)
• previously paired orphan crumbs, strips, blocks
• the wadding will use up pieces
• the backing will be some ugly dark mixed fibre curtains that I was given, perfect for an outdoor blanket!

Happy days, using it up  instead of throwing it out.