Assembly lines

This weeks sewing: stitching the rainbow hexie strips together.  I have enough yellow cut for two more strips......

..........more cut and ready to sew up.

.There are also some new purchases to cut hexies and diamonds from before they go in the cupboard.  I always do this. 

I haven't touched the diamonds for a while, probably over 500 already sewn up...........

.

with hundreds more to do!

This is a TV job-scraps to trim for 1/2" finished diamonds: I do this pile before it gets too big as it's not my favorite job.  These are the scraps from the 'orange and blue' project.

 I will be using this little book to source sampler blocks for 'orange and blue' this weekend. 

Life's a beach

Some of my sand and beach pattern pictures for one-day inspiration



Mid week blues

A few of the 30 completed 'made' blue fabric blocks ready for slashing and inserting orange. All of my blue string stash is used up.

Blowing Away The Cobwebs

I needed a walk after work-one of those days-so I drove to a spot on the North Downs in Surrey, 10 minutes away. I took my camera and strolled up the hill, looking for texture and pattern all the way.

I like the texture in this tree stump, especially the bit that has no bark.  this was quite high up, I couldnt get a closer picture.

There are huge, ancient beech trees: I love the light filtered through these trees.

Alien installations

All in a row. I have been fascinated by angles in rooves al my life.  I have no idea why!

Leaf miners-this may be useful for a quilt

Beech root texture

Ancient stump

Machine quilting?

Blissful viewpoint- I sat in the sun for half an hour and looked out over 30 miles to the South Downs in the far distance. I can't draw for toffee but I wanted to!

Tabloid Dreams

I have been distracted by a book this week. I highly recommend this collection of flight of fancy short stories inspired by tabloid headlines.

The end..........in a way......

Every single crumb in the bin is now sewn to another crumb.  I truly have a real leaders and enders project to dip into now.  I had to give it a good start kick start!

This is about 2/3 of the bin, I got up early and finished the other 1/3 this morning, as the mess was overwhelming me-my fault as I had thrown all the bits that really couldn't be used in the corner but there were beginning to creep all over the floor.

There is a huge bagful ready for the compost bin, cotton scraps are supposed to be good for the garden.

Now to clip them all apart. Those are LARGE scissors lost in  the pile.  I'll save that for a different rainy day.

I owed someone muffins for a favour done, I went a bit nuts and made

chocolate orange

banana choc chip walnut

lemon and poppy seed

plum, cardamom and almond

blueberry
vanilla and raspberry jam

He isn't getting them all, the favour wasn't that big! Lots for the freezer for unexpected visitors.  The chocolate ones have an orange After Eight stuffed into them immediately they come out of the oven.  Numnum.  Quite tired now.........  Rather sad I have only sample two, don't dare have more today!

I am so easily lead......where will it all end?

It's hot. Our first few days of SUMMER and it's a shock to the system!  Too hot to concentrate for long.

So I snatch a handful from the crumbs bin every now and then for Number 33.

Oh dear...............I made another mess!

Errrrr......33

These will finish at 12 1/2 "

Goldfish

I have been sewing away on my made fabric blocks, the pile is getting bigger as they fill out.  I have half a dozen large enough to be ready for slashing and adding orange to now. I didn't make them large enough before, there was to much 'waste': I used it to start new blocks-see the middle one here. 

I get better results if  I press after every two strips

added, so its taking a while as there are so may blocks on the go, about 25 now.  More than enough to make a border of some sort for the finished quilt.

I am so easily DISTRACTED!  I found that the 'too big for 1'' diamonds but I can't bear to throw away bin' wasn't useful for the orange and blue project.  It has just sat on the table next to me. Hmm, leaders and enders, I thought.  As most of the pieces in the box are different depth variations of three or four sizes, I rummaged and made these in a few minutes........

I pressed all the seams in one direction so when I trim and join the strips to make blocks I will reverse the seam direction to ease bulk.  I'll do a bit more of this when  start block making again.

Back to work blues

Oh yeah!  Much rather be at home with Bernina! 

Time after work this week has been spent 'making' more blue fabric.  A little bit of tune-out to de-stress.  

See the blue and green string bin in the background? Because I've been rummaging, it looks as if there are more strings in there than when I started, it's overflowing now!

I used all the scraps left from piecing  the blocks to begin new string blocks, as well as working on the ones that are half done.  I think I have too many!  A little bit more to do to make some larger blocks.

I'm is using the fabric more economically, and making piecing quicker: when I pick up a string I keep using that string by adding on more string blocks and choosing one the right size for the end so there's no waste/silly offcuts left.  That's the benefit of having string blocks of different sizes on the go.

I have been looking up more blocks to make for this weekend too.

Without making the whole thing look too 'shirty' I am using up the small pieces from the charity shop shirts I bought  a couple of weeks ago.

7/36, 8/36, 9/36, 10/36

It's difficult to find enough blocks to show off the made fabric element  without being too few and boring. This one is OK.

This one has too much white, but I like it.

Not too keen on this one, bland.

  

Small black patches would have worked better with the white instad of the small blue.....

...........and bulky seams! Alleviated a little by clipping and swirling the four patches.

I am being too critical!  Once they are laid out I can balance the look of the whole thing with the sashings and cornerstones. Meanwhile, practice makes perfect.