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.

Indulgence

I played some more, there are about a dozen of these done now.  I have had to order more oranges to play with the other blue blocks and explore curves. 

I decided against black and white to go with this as I found this busy blue fabric for the smaller block pieces in the stash. Perfect. 

At the weekend I hope to be able to piece a couple of 12" blocks in blue and white, with the larger components cut from the blocks above and the smaller components cut from the blue fabric opposite, all on the white background.

I must be a 'real' quilter now

No shirt shopping today, my son came over with Archie and we went for a rainy, muddy walk in the woods.  Archie loved it and so did we.  This is him after he went out in the garden a few weeks ago and rolled in foxy mess, straight in the bath before he gets anywhere near anything.  Now he looks like a proper dog not a puppy, you can't tell what his ancestry is.  The ears and short legs are his daschound father, everything else is from his Labrador x Staffordshire terrier mum.  He has the Staffy madness and is happy with EVERYTHING and everybody. 

I cut up all the shirts this evening, saving every bit including the collars for the strip bins. All that's left are the seams and bits with iron on interfacing, but look at the waste.  I really can't use any of this, except maybe for a rag rug-agh!!-stop it!! It's going in the compost bin!  I'm going to iron before bed so it will be all tidy in the morning.

After around 15 hours of hand quilting in the last 10 days, not much really, I have developed my first quilters callus!  I am SO proud!

Two Towns Tuesday

 Horsham

Dorking

It's about 10 years since I charity shopped for shirts for quilting-the last time was for the blue borders on the recycled hexagon quilt.  They were about 50p each then. You can see them top left here.......

Even in a recession, some shops were offering 'designer' second hand shirts for fifteen pounds!   I set my limit at five pounds but that had to be for a pattern I really wanted and it had to be an extra large shirt!  I looked at dresses as well: many of them were gored, making the usable solid pieces rather narrow.

I'm not sure if this will be a sampler quilt with each block different, or something more regular. More collecting to do yet,  this is one of next years projects. A potter round some boot sales is in order, if it ever stops raining this summer long enough for one to go ahead!

I'm hoping to have a self styled 'retreat' at home on Friday to do some string piecing.  I have the urge.