Cutting corners

Literally.

And thousands more to go!  

Triangles. I see them in my sleep. 

***

As an antidote, I have finished this ten stitch blanket from scraps.

 

It is a double, that will be a car/picnic blanket. 

It took 2 years on and off, 1/3 million stitches! 

***

The next on-off scrap blanket is this one....

It is really interesting to knit, no seams as it's knit as you go and grows quickly. 

***

The clipped triangles are still being made into broken dishes blocks for a friends housewarming quilt. I am making the more random sets into pinwheels for charity quilts

A couple of hundred to have the seams spun, then be pressed, about the same still to piece. 

***

I sewed the crumbs up that I had made from cutting mini broken dishes blocks, as they were all from 2" strips and easy to sort.

The crumb strips join the three sacks of  string and crumb strips waiting to be trimmed down for a crumb quilt and piano key borders!

***

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.

Where is that seam ripper?

 

The green hexie corner is stripped and stashed away. 

I set myself a comfy spot, and put Bonnie's latest Quiltcam on this morning whilst I sewed a couple of Brown Hexie flowers up.......................

......and got these done.....

 

                                                                                          

I got out the quilt which needs the machine quilting ripped out last night, thinking it would take 10 minutes- but I couldn't find a seam ripper-it was impossible to get the small 'in the ditch' stitches out without risking damage so that's postponed until I can get a new one. Grrr!  Moral? 

Be tidier!

 

I'll be sandwiching this playmat next, which will be simply machine quilted  as I need to get at least one of the five done quickly.

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!

Better.......

...............but that's only one corner!  At least it gets tucked behind the kitchen door with the elephant doorstop.

I have 'issues'

I'm having a clear out. There appears to be something about post-it notes. I used  them a lot when I studied at home as  learning aid, along with coloured biros. Perhaps that's it.  I also have a pencil case stuffed with biros and ordinary HB pencils.  I can't draw for toffee (yet!). This a portion of what I found, they were all over the place!

I decided to investigate the issue as I got a spam mail from 3M at  work, who make post-its: I found myself putting things in the basket..........I stopped, thank goodness!

Of course, if I had more colours I could design a block quilt with them.....hm!........the little plasticised  tabs are my favorite type of bookmark, as they don't fall out of the book.

I will sort out my drawing materials too, I'm going on holiday soon so they will come with me.   

Now I have started to move things around in drawers to accommodate groups of things instead of having them all over the place I am making MORE mess, instead to tidying up. Ho hum. As for the paper and notebooks and the used envelopes I collect at work to make the paper hexies...we won't go there!