Manic

I made it sewing through until 10.45 last night, after staying up 'till 1am the night before, amazing!  Most of the cutting is done-I did it in batches between bouts of sewing-all I need are some 1 1/2 " purple strips to make the cornerstones.   

Today, progress.............I have done about 8 hours!

I wasn't sure I had cut enough of these.............turned out fine..........

Love that basil fabric

Matched sets of reds

Matching the oranges. Peachy.

Blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, green sets for the 'window' sashings all stitched up now.  I won't have to iron these, finger pressing will be fine. Also sewed up the scraps for the cornerstones today.  If I do another one of these I think I will vary the 'moth' colour, not the cornerstones, it will be much quicker!

I lost my glasses for 10 minutes, even the picture is fuzzy without them, couldn't see them for looking!  Doh. There they are.  I need one of those chains that go round your neck.  And a leash.  And behavior classes!!!  Forget the agility though.

The 'oil' reminder came up on the Bernina today, so I took the plate off, brushed it all out, then spent 10 minutes looking for the sole plate.  I had put it away it the box with the brush and the oil. I had just found my glasses then, I think I had a caffine dip, or some such!

Yesterday night I chain pieced stitching the squares to a set of triangles.  I think I have done WAY more than 100 sets!  Tomorrows task is stitching these into pairs to complete the moth blocks.  (Happy to say that my hand piecing has proved to be accurate, that I had done on the triangles, you can see it in this pic. Smirk). Breaks will be ironing and cutting the stitched scraps that I did yesterday into 1 1/2" chunks for the cornerstone.  Love the salad fabric too!

I have done a few dozen of these already to try it out.  This will be the        l   o   n   g   e   s   t        job, I think! I will be able to finger press them, no ironing, the centre seams flatten out OK

Another hour at the machine, then off to bed with The Great Gatsby 

 (;@}

Night night!

Change of plan.

So............. I went to my stash of cut blocks to see if I had anything 'shirty' in there.  Nope: nowhere near enough recycled shirting to think about starting 'moth in a window'.  But hang on.......a couple of quick sketches and a look at the stash of cut strings and blocks and some bad photography......

Hmmmmm.....

.............and a remembrance of some really ugly greys I cut up for my hand piecing project................

...................many of which are sewn up into squares already (by hand)....hmmmmm....they would make good moths..............but it will need a colour lift......

One block with random creams and blues, another with a more even look.  My son and I both preferred the even look.  So, 10 inch blocks, I need 100.  The only thing I need to cut is cream 3 1/2 inch squares and 1 1/2 inch strips for the windows.

The cut sets of borders from the string bin.....

Some extra half square triangles stitched up-all the matching creams were cut as well.

Some short ends stitched together to make the cornerstones- I need more of these, total of 400 sets of four over 6 colours!

This is going so fast-I only THOUGHT about it 24 hours ago.  Boy, does Bonnies scrap users system work!  It was a bonus not having to cut the 3 7/8 inch triangles! A bit more cream cutting is needed. I'm writing this as my back is giving out from standing at the cutting table and iron so long today!

Shirty

I bought three more charity shop shirts today, two pale and one strong stripe.  I had thought of making another sampler quilt with smaller blocks, but it will take too long.  Instead I'm going to use Bonnie Hunters 'Moth in a Window' block to work with: the challenge for this one will be getting the cutting an piecing right with all the cornerstones. Probably around an 8 inch block, but I have to raid my cut blocks first to see if there is any shirting there. Cute quilting will be possible on this one, a chance for me to practice with my Bernina.

 
These are Bonnies blocks......I may have to drop some strong plain reds in there as most of the shirts are plain or plain stripe, we are not big on plaid in the UK!.

I will start kitting these up  this week as I'm waiting for white fabric to arrive and be washed and dried for 'orange and blue'.  Then I will have an idea of how many more shirts I need!  I have other bits to cut as well, I feel a mess coming on.....

I asked everyone at work to donate, only one chap is prepared to give me his old shirts and he has to smuggle them out without his wife knowing.  Another chap keeps promising but they never arrive, I think he's embarrassed at the thought of me sleeping under his clothes.  Men, funny creatures! (:@}All I want is the shirt off their back, I'm hardly a demanding female.

Thank goodness for sewing.  It keeps me sane!

Orange segments

I'm trying a different way: instead of cutting the block and sewing each strip separately, I've done it like this.....bad photos!

I just LOVE this orange fabric, I'm so pleased I found a use for it-it works really well as an accent.  It would be overwhelming as a main fabric, I think.

Seems to be easier, and quicker.  I'll press and trim the edges before the cross-members go in to get a flatter finish.

I need to plan the kind of sashings I want-at the moment I'm thinking at least three rows with cornerstones in orange. It may need five rows as the blocks are so strong. It seems to be moving fast-as I have almost run out of white, I need to stop for a few days until the next batch arrives in case it is slightly different, I want enough of the new 'white on white' distributed throughout the quilt so as not to make it look odd, and have it tie in with the sashings. With any luck it will be the same!

Starbucks update and 24/36, 25/36

They are in the news this evening, Starbucks has exploited a tax law that allows them to pay no UK tax for the last three years.  I sense a nationwide boycott! 

 This one is probably too wibbly to use, even though I was careful with the seams.  Using the made fabric on the edge of blocks causes problems!  Shame, as I like this one.

I have been browsing the patterns on quilters cache: they all have cutting instructions, which saves me brain ache.

The demise of Starbucks in Horsham

Not that I'm fond of coffee particularly.  I use it as a drug for when I have to face anything other than food shopping ('cause shopping is wasted sewing/reading/chilling time, right?).  I do most of my buying on the Internet (somebody stop me!)

The above mentioned franchise had my local Bookcrossing zone shelves, where I took a lot of my releases. Of late, I have generously been given boxes of books on a regular basis for release onto the shelf, I need to find another zone that's active and not too far away. And also has an interesting stock of books! 

There was a good atmosphere in there early on a Sunday mornings. I always went on Sundays as it stopped me buying books in the charity shops as they are closed on Sunday.  The music wasn't intrusive, you could read and sip and relax.  Take a look at my Bookcrossing shelf on the link.  You will see my issues!  In fact, join the community-unless you have already joined, in which case tell me your tag!




Change of topic, if memory serves, this is how being 9 months pregnant felt.....

Sewn Up: 19/36 to 23/36

These were deliberately simple blocks to show off hunks of the made blue fabric. I used wider orange segments for this batch, so I needed bigger blocks to stop everything looking too orange. I need to do some star designs and some pinwheels to balance out the look of the whole next.

Errr.  Spot the deliberate mistake? Not until I uploaded the photo!  Agh!  I'm going to leave it though. ~{;¬?

Kitting up

I have kitted up 5 more blocks for 'orange and blue'.

Now it's cooler in the evenings, I am pressing on with the hand quilted project I need to finish by Christmas as that's when the happy couple come back from traveling. I am not quilting this too heavily in the brown areas as I need to get it done. I am learning lessons already-the hearts mean lots of maneuvering of the quilt! And I didn't really need to quilt the blue squares as they are small, but now I have started.......!

I took it away last week to do in the evenings. 

I took 'pattern' photos, they are everywhere if you look.  Of course, quilters always provide the best inspiration.....

This was in a shop window. Mixed media by local children. 

 

Block pattern.....

 I liked the blocks above the windows....

Quilting pattern in the polished concrete floor at the Turner Contemporary (the exhibition was uninspiring!)

16/36 to 18/36

More orange and blue. I got the strip width right today!

Japanese inspired blocks.....

I am running out of white fabric, I have had to order some more from the 'buy a bolt' section at Lady Sew and Sew!

Off the rails and 11/36 to 15/36 of Orange and Blue

I went from a few evenings of crazy crumb piecing..............

 ................to  'orange and blue' It didn't go well!  This was OK, 11/36, simple shapes and measurements.  

 This was to use up the strips I cut the wrong size!!  But it came out all right, even though I still had to cut the centre twice.  Oh dear.  I should have left it there

This one was to use up those strips and showcase the 'made' fabric  It's a bit wibbly.

 I cut more strips, THEY WERE STILL THE WRONG SIZE!  Aghghgh!  I came up with this original design, which I'm calling OFF THE RAILS.  Its the theme of the day!

This one is another original, to show off the made fabric.  I quite like it: it needs developing as an idea, with yellow and dark blue. I'm going to call it 'Open the Door'.  It's using up triangles I cut the wrong size!

I didn't get to do the block I was aiming for with the strips!  Next time......

The air is turning autumnal....mmm....quilts and books!

This weeks quick read (I could only face a short book after Dombey and Son!) is by Chuck Palahniuk, one of my top five favorite authors.  As for the next book, as I will be away from home, do I take my precious Kindle? NO! I will take  Bookcrossing books I was sent when I won a sweepstake: about 30 arrived!  I need to move them on in the community.

I think I will take two....