Confessional

Fabric used in completed quilts this year:  about 1.8m

Fabric purchased total: 12.5m

This sale items parcel included:

4m of yellow (I bought some before and it's good quality)

2 m of neutral

1m to bulk out my small purple stash

4m black and whites for the designs later in the year.

Progress in the last two days: 

A films worth of hexies  papered up for the 'random' box-see the sharks?

And several documentaries worth of sets for 'Darwins flower garden'

 And a deceased Kindle

 ~{:¬<

Black and white

I sat with the pad on my lap whilst I watched a film the other day and doodled for the 'Evolution' series.  I will create families of blocks with the same number of pieces assembled in different ways. This needs much more thought and doodling yet. It will probably be in black and white. Not sure if it's a wall hanging or bed size, depends on how many viable ideas I come up with. My ideas always reflect my situation-I will try listening to Mozart next time as I was watching  a rather dull film when I did these!

Sensory post

 We have a house guest, Bob, the Roborovski hamster. He is not tame and is very bold-my elderly cat is mildly interested, but she has seen it all before at 17.  Bob lives with a dog, so a mere moggy doesn't bother him at all.  He is a funny bug-eyed thing with big feet for his size.  He is the size of a large egg.  His wheel is noisy and he doesn't smell!

The roses that Linda gave me make me smile

She is a trained florist and her choices are always beautiful to look at.
Thank you Linda! xx

I am reading:

Xeelee by Stephen Baxter, the last book of four in this omnibus

I am looking forward to three days away in London at the end of the month, the first time I will have stayed there-I usually go for the day. And planning my itinerary (V&A museum is on the list).  I am staying in Kew and Docklands.

Yesterday I put together

some of these tactile strips

                   with

 some of these

and took it apart again!
  It just didn't look right.  So, there will be two beach blankets of different designs.

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. 

Old Red Sandstone thread.

This is my spiritual home, Marloes, Pembrokeshrie

This is some of the fantastic geology in the area.  The fold is about 55 feet high.

This is Old Red Sandstone. The textures and colours are numberless.  The cottages built from the stone are chocolate box beautiful.  

I have been collecting red/rust/rock texture fabric for ages now, because the rocks in this area are so inspirational. These fabrics will be the background for my 'Evolution' wall hanging, still in the design stage but always at the forefront of my thinking (I have done lots of thinking in the last couple of weeks!) 

I did some playing a while ago with evolving prairie points.

 The reason for this post?  I found 5000 metre reels of rayon embroidery thread in the most perfect range of colours for this quilt on sale at Lords Sewing .

If you are a European machine embroiderer, check the site. 

This range is gorgeous!

Fuzzy headed

Everything it taking me so long at the moment whilst I recuperate, it's frustrating!

I have three of the five playmat flimsies with borders on, backings chosen and bindings cut ready for sandwiching, which I can't do yet until I recuperate some more.

All of the blocks that made up the five came from my scrap user bins. 

I deliberately chose backings and borders to try to use up older/ cheaper/ up-cycled fabric.

1 .

Backing: charity shop pure cotton curtain

Border: charity shop heavy duty poly cotton 'sheet' from a valance (the under the mattress part, so its perfect!)

Binding: a 'not so neutral' that I have had for too long- I like the pattern but it's not very useful!

2.

Backing: My eldest sons  cotton bedroom curtains from when he was growing up

Border: inner-from the 1 1/2" bin: outer-a long awaited home for a random piece of fabric I got in a bargain mystery parcel

Binding: a pale yellow oriental waves pattern, I bought 5 bargain yards some years ago.

3.

Backing: brand new cotton duvet cover I was given some time ago (not a pattern that I could sleep with)

Border: Two discount/sale fabrics

Binding: another discount/sale fabric, same as the pink

I had some of the border strip left-rather than stuff it into a scrap bin I made four orphan blocks to go into the orphan box-these will one day in the far future find their way into a pieced backing.

A little wobble, I wouldn't say I fell off the wagon!

I went for a constitutional stroll to my local shops: there is a wool/sewing shop there run by a lady well over retirement age.  They have just started running patchwork classes and there were a few bolts of cloth, so I bought a metre of pink and half a metre of yellow very cheaply with the cottons I had gone for.

That means so far this year my total fabric purchases are 2 1/2 metres. I am VERY proud of myself!  I still look in the online stores at sale times , put things in baskets, then don't buy.  I think I may be cured!

I need to buy quite a lot of machine quilting thread for the Threadplay ribbon design I have decided to do on this quilt, as yet un-named.  You can see from the blocks picture how busy it is: I think  strong ribbons of colour will be the only thing that will tie it all together.   I will buy the polycore thread from Empress Mills-I have used their pure cotton machine thread for a while.  The polycore is £12.50 for 7500m!

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.

To do this month list....

.......or at least progress things:

I'm recovering from an operation, thus fairly restricted: as my son said, a guilt free opportunity to please myself- he has been a good cook and bottle washer for the last week!

1. caterpillar corner fill-in to cover my inaccuracies on 'moth in the window'-I have been thinking about what to do with this for ages, caterpillars now seem so obvious to go with the moths-these will be my first public attempt at hand applique and shouldn't take long, so they're at the top of the list                                                                      
   
                                                                                   
2.  finish the green corner strips and stow away for a later date (next couple of days                
   
                                        
3. Unpick the aborted  machined in the ditch quilting (only a few rows) and finish this long overdue gift AFTER deciding on the new quilting pattern that will test my wobbly skills and enhance what I did with the colours-you can barely see this as the blocks are too big, the eye doesn't follow what's happening, it just looks 'busy' at the moment. I think it needs ribbons of dense quilting to enhance the colour layout
   
   
4. layer and machine quilt two of the five playmat flimsies-again practicing technique.
   
5. Find a smaller hoop so I can do the hand quilting for another overdue gift-I can't hold the hoop against my stomach at the moment!                                                                                                               
   
   I am soooo frustrated, I have so many ideas and no time to play with them, partly as I work full time and partly as I already have so much on the go, promised to others (ALL of the above!).  I will try to treat this week as an opportunity to practice what I will do with my retirement and GET IT DONE!    I had a really good week last week propped up with hours spent guiltlessly browsing blogs that I wouldn't normally spend, seeing what everyone is doing, its been great!  You are all such inspirational people.

I would love you to leave a comment, share if you are doing something similar or 'follow' me! xx

Green corner formatted

Tricksy greens, never happy with merging from blue to yellow

This is the last corner. 

Blues were stripped up by yesterday evening.

Now I can sit in a chair and sew the strips together instead of on the floor!

Colour inspiration modification

Isn't this just gorgeous? 

It's an ice cream tulip. 

Re: my post of a couple of days ago, with the burgundy and acid yellow/lime chrysanthemums as inspiration for a quilt colour way-I like this version better.  I'm not a 'pink' girl as a rule, but seeing they green blend into a hint of yellow, then pink, with a fluffy white crown, I think I may try!

Such a shame that tulips are so short lived.  These must be a new variety as three bulbs are around £8. Not quite back to the C17 tulip mania, but too much for my pocket as you would want more than three!

In the blue corner....

The orange flowers are sewn into strips and stashed away. 

I have almost 'stripped' the blue ones.  I'm doing it this way as the floor is the only surface large enough to lay things out- I'm recuperating at the moment so have the time to get the basic layout done quickly and get things off the floor as soon as possible. 

I will lay the greens out tomorrow, but they're tricksy!

Then the slightly tiresome border issue:  I have some 'path' rosettes to cut and sew, to join the red, orange, green and blue sections on with, then measuring as I think it will be too big already to do a 3 row border with path and a couple of rows of foliage, as I wanted to do.  My son and daughter in law have a king sized bed, so this is ENORMOUS.  It will be hand quilted (no doubt over several years!) quite closely to stabilise all the hand sewing.

I do feel I'm getting somewhere with it though, finally. 

Inspired

Flowers my sons girlfriend bought for my birthday, still going strong.  A nice colour way for a quilt-dark red, acid yellow and green......hmm.....not my usual mix.....but I have a pattern in mind..... (again!)

Green Man Quilts

If you are a quilting novice and  live in the Watford area of London check out Green Man Quilts: Sheena is running classes!

We met at our City and Guilds patchwork and quilting class. 

Sheena says: 

I run courses and workshops where you can learn patchwork and quilting skills - some are for a few hours a week and continue for a term, some are one off day courses.
If you would like some one-to-one tuition, I can do that for you.

A Pieceful job

I'm recuperating, but have a serious case of the fidgets: I need something to keep my hands busy whilst I sit and rest.  I got up early and laid out the orange corner flower bed for Darwin's flower garden.  This should take me a couple of days to make up, whilst I watch as many David Attenborough documentaries as I can: 'Africa' is first on the list. 

 This weeks read is 

About half way through and my Kindle died-nasty things happening on the screen, so I guess this one will be finished on the computer, not my favorite way to read. Enjoying the book so far.

Yesterdays fidget job was unpicking 60 blocks that I had sewn up wrong for 'the big green one'.  I did that four weeks ago and put it away as I couldn't face doing it at the time.  There was only one seam to undo and actually it didn't take that long.

I had sewn the four patch and triangle pair together, then had to join two of these sets, I put them the wrong way round: moral?  Keep referring to the drawing, even if your sure!