Kiss in the corner

A little progress has been made this week towards edge filling, I'm approaching the second corner.  I didn't get much done in the evenings, this was my first full week back at work after 5 weeks of on and off illness and I was tired! 

Sunday morning, I woke early, sun streaming in.  I made a pint of tea, went back to bed and caught up on Quiltcam whilst I did some sewing.  Very cozy.













These are the colours I am choosing from to quilt with











Lunchtime therapy has been brown hexies this week, I took them visiting yesterday too.

I found these synthetic threads on ebay for machine quilting, aren't the colours delicious?   Don't know what the quality is like, or even if they're colour fast ( I will be testing that as they are manufactured abroad). I'm not going to recommend the seller as my delivery got 'lost' and my emails were ignored, then my questions were not addressed (there's more but don't start me off!).  It was a MONTH before they arrived. Gr. However wonderful these threads are I will not be using the seller again. I'm a professional purchaser and deal with suppliers all day long so I know things go wrong sometimes, but customer service is about what you do when it IS going wrong and a lot of the time it was nothing!

I have never had much luck with ebay (:</




About a month ago I was charity shop browsing and I found a bigger-than-king size white cotton duvet cover, all soft from use and wonderful quality.  I'm having that for backing, I thought, for a minuscule  £4.   It's now on my bed as it goes with my newly painted white room!  It has a really high thread count, is slightly textured-extreme close-up.  Yesterday I found another one, but I think that will end up on my bed too for the time being!

I think its time for a tea refill and a to start my new book, promised as a gift to DubaiReader, another Bookcrosser.  I have about 850 books to read so I had to organise a draw as I couldn't make my mind up!

Pressing on

I have to get this done!  It's well overdue.  I did about three hours yesterday.

Distraction 2

I sewed more sisters choice sets yesterday to get to this stage...........if you sew in the same order every time they act as their own leader/ender project  in a neat string ready for snipping and pressing.  Then I sew the borders on, working on two blocks at a time.

I sewed these yesterday using  snips for the tie knots.  I'm trying to move the colours to orange and red so I don't end up with too many pink blocks.  I didn't need to do any of these as leaders, it really IS a distraction. 

I now when I have trimmed, I sew the  knots onto cream 2" squares, pair up with the coloured squares, and the sets go in the box ready to be sewn later as leader enders when they are needed as such.

Sorting out the pile of snips wasn't too fun.  That's why I'm sewing them up as I get them now.  These corners are around
1  1/2", just the right size.

A slight distraction

What to do with the waste from Sisters Choice? Each block generates 8 snips of pink and 8 cream. 

 This is is an odd block, I like these.  And see the deliberate mistake? 

All those triangles on the border strips get snipped off.

Light bulb moment.   Leaders and enders........

 

....for bow tie knots

A little try out...seems fine to me once I worked out how to get the irregular snips fairly straight by lining up with the opposite edges.

Happy days!  Reuse and recycle.  The bow tie quilt may end up with a lot of pink in!

A few more blocks completed, I have done around 100 now.

An I have even managed to use up a random FQ that I thought of as irredeemably ugly-see that pink and brown diamond fabric?  Just shows you have to find the right quilt for it.

I can't leave these alone!

The latest set.

There are some oddities in here-garlic and owls.......

.......and some make do and mends (I like these a lot!)

Whilst I was photographing another one with odd star points I saw one of those deliberate mistakes.....

oops.

And this weeks read is a history of the South Bank  in London, from rural carp ponds to brothels and theatres in Shakespeares time...that's as far as I have got!

Slave to the rythm

These are so relaxing to make-twelve more.

The colour is much nicer in real time!

All the quad strips are cut and randomly put into sets. 

Everything  is ready to pick up and go whenever I feel the urge.

One for baby (maybe if it's a girl) and a king size for me.

Creative insomnia

I stayed up until after 2.30 a.m., sleepless due to a hacking cough, for three nights. I had to do something.........

I have started an affair with pink, a previously loathed-as-a-stereotype colour, thought I seemed to have a bit of it..........

I have cut some more and kitted up for a full size quilt as I love the way this looks. 

I have absolutely no doubt that I have overdone it again!

All the cornerstones are pre-cut, just a few 2 x 5" cream strips needed. 

There is quilting to do before I indulge in this though. And it is indulgence, there is something about the rhythm of assembling these blocks that is soothing.

I think I have cracked the baggy edge issue too.

Advice needed and stocktake results

First, advice:  does anyone know if you can stop those nasty blogs piggybacking  to redirect to them?  It has been happening for a while (from Russia) but today I have had 25 hits!

I have had a look at 'settings' but I can't see how it can be stopped (:¬/

Anyways: a bit of a tidy  up over the last couple of days.......

I made enough blue nine patches for the potential baby quilt and a 6 x 7' bed topper, all pressed and waiting now, about 270 altogether. I couldn't believe how quick these were.  It helped that they were already cut and paired, of course.

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I had some leftover pairs of blues which I was going to sew up into four patches, but I left them as they can be used for a border as they are.

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All 244 'big green one' blocks are pressed.

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 To get a good mix in the four patches I overdid it a little (surprised?!):  I spent about three hours whilst watching a film yesterday spinning the seams and packing them away-I estimate there are 500-600 spares-a flying start on a new project later, yay!  These finish at 3".

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There are also some paired triangles that I'm thinking will be used for my churn dash that is in the WIP in my head list (yes, I have one of those too!); these finish at 3".

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There are lots of leftovers that are unmatched/paired as well.

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I had a rummage through the pinks too, in case it's a pink quilt event, not a blue one and put some sets together from 2" pre-cut squares.  I cut a few 2 x 5" strips and had a play........

These finish at 7 1/2".  I must stop NOW as I don't want another UFO.  These will make a much needed cushion cover or join the 'orphans' if not used for a cot quilt.

More work needed on the border accuracy on these.

WIP update

I tuned out and sewed and sewed blue on blue yesterday evening.   Then I thought to count what I already had before that-126 blocks-more than enough to make the baby quilt already!  I have a sneaky feeling that I will be well on the way to a bed topper by the time the 2" squares are sewn up!  I will  put on a film and press them later.


I have 224 patches for 'the big green one' to press ready for top assembly too.


One of these days I will follow a pattern and cut enough to make one quilt at a time.

I have the bug now.  And a lot of pinky orange squares already cut......I could use these as churn dash centres maybe....or a top for a Christmas gift......

I feel another WIP coming on.......

This is Bonnie's current quiltcam project, a baby quilt.

Whilst I was tidying up I found this old leaders and enders project that took over as 'a not too much concentration' sewing afternoon about a year ago and hasn't seen the light of day since as I had no object in mind.

You know where this is going don't you!

I have two baby quilts to make..........I don't know the sex of the babies yet, but by sashing the blue blocks with a bright pink I think they will do for either.

I'm going to sew up the blocks this weekend and wait for a coupe of weeks to find out about the babies and then choose the sashing.

I have hundreds more 2" blocks cut, so I can make a pink one if I find the parents would prefer that without too much trouble. 

Weekend roundup

I sewed up 224 blocks for 'the big green one'

It will be a while before I piece this top though. 

I made about 50 bow ties too.

I undid machine quilting on this three times!

Stock take for Darwin's Flower garden:

I have all these rosette sets spare!

Looks like I did  it again......

Flimsy construction complete with dubious photos!

I have been asked how I put together the crumbs flimsy.

First make some quilts and have lots of leftovers!  Don't throw any of it away.  You often have ends left from cutting squares/triangles from strips, these were the basis of this quilt.  Also those blocks that end up irredeemably wonky can be sliced up and put in. I have a few of those!  And some of those 'uglies' that leave you awestruck at your mindset when you bought them.  Slice them up.

Here you can see leftovers from 4", 2",
2 1/2" strips and brown angled ends from cutting hexies.  I cut my selvedges off at about 1 1/2" and they go in too.

And wonky triangles, old shirts, anything you can scrounge.

 I sewed similar size bits into pairs, then joined the pairs, then the sets of 4 etc, until I got strips around 13" long.  This is the maximum manageable length I think as it becomes uneven the longer the strips are. 

I had a mannic couple of weeks a year or so ago at this, but in future I will do them in smaller batches as I go.  I won't need to worry that similar colours are together as the strips wont get joined for a long time, until I have enough for a whole quilt.
 




Then steam your strips from the back with the seams all going in one direction, pulling out the  strip gently so you open up the seams; iron again from the front, then trim to size along the longest edge.

Put the strips together until they measure about 13" square.    Press from the back,  easing out the seams, then the front, and trim to 12 1/2".  I chose this size for ease as it fitted my square ruler.

Then join your squares.   This will need some close quilting I think, as there are thousands of seams that can unravel if given too much room for maneuver!

Crumbs, its a flimsy!

This was supposed to be a 4' x 5' beach rug. I trimmed all the strips the other day that had been pieced for a couple of years, put them into 12'' squares and trimmed again and kept piecing. I will make this into a quilt, not a beach blanket, its 6' x 7'!  I had no idea that there were so many crumbs.  Just think, I could have thrown all this away! It will be a great one to practice my free motion quilting on as it won't be visible. 

I have just enough left for a mug hug rug!

I have got a little further with the 'real' beach blanket and papered some more hexies for 'Darwin's flower garden'.  These sets are almost done now.