Use it or bin it 2

 I have been knitting. This will be a long jacket, made in one piece: I have borrowed the construction method from gansey knitting. No pattern! I have put it away until it's colder as sitting with this on my lap is like a double knitted blanket! 

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 I have about 250 scrappy nine patches sewn up, I used half of them to make this 'I Spy' dancing nine patch, perfect border fabric bought at a bargain price! Yet to be quilted.....

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Leftover blocks from 'Sisters Square dance': a table runner, twelve table mats and an occasional table cover/mugrug.  Just four finished and bound so far. 

 The original: 

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Still chugging away at the random leader ender 1 1/2" finished triangles.

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Twelve Linus quilts and 10 blankets are ready to go. Mum knitted the blanket strips and  my daughter in law and I crocheted them up.

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 I sewed up hundreds more pairs of 3" finished triangles, ready for .....something! All that pressing, all those dog ears to clip! 

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Some more quilters tinsel made with stitch and flip clippings!

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Garlic Knots: I just could not like this pattern, I would have thought this regular chain piecing project would be fun.  Nope. Tried several variations: I may come back to it in brighter colours someday; meanwhile, the blocks will be put to use, two Linus flimsies. I like the stitch and flip corners for sure and I think I like it better set on point. The contrast between the dark knots and white background it too much.

An ugly, to be put down to experience!

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 Mum gave me her 201k, bought at a boot sale 20 years ago for £16, model from 1950s. 

Oiled, up and running: very clean inside, unmarked paintwork, outside needs some attention. 

The 2 x 3 1/2" brick bin wasn't getting touched, so I sewed them all together to see how she runs: VERY fast and very quiet! I have a Bonnie pattern in mind for these. 

 I also raided the 2" and 3 1/2" squares to make these blocks, very scrappy. Love how they turned out! 

 I had an incident with this little blighter, chasing it round for 5 minutes! 

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Then I tackled the crumb bin, making  strips for the next crumb quilt, mostly from mis-shaped triangles. Must get a bulb!

Then the strip bin: these will be cut down to 10" inches  after pressing. I made a serious mess! 

I also started on the 1" strip bin, use it or bin it! This is work in progress. 

This is the quilt I made with crumbs and strips last time: Eclipse 1. I gifted it as a surprise to a sick colleague and his wife a few weeks ago, with instructions to spread it in the garden and stay until he recovered!

Some serious mindless sewing done in the last two weeks to take my mind of real life for a bit, I am so grateful for this hobby! 

By the way, I have a rotten camera on my phone!

Eclipse II

Another UFO done. This flimsy has been on the shelf for 10 years!!!

Applique detail:

• 10 year old flimsy from strings and crumbs
• pieced onto calico making it heavy (novice error) 
• 66 x 110"
• backing from economy buys in deep stash
• Mickey Mouse cotton duvet cover pre-made binding. 
• gifted pale orange and pale blue wavy line quilting on the front, dark cream polycore on the back. 
• appliqued motifs to cover split seams!
• heavily quilted to stabilise  the many seams as sits so heavy! 
• poly batting
• this will probably be a gift. 

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I did a little more on the postage stamp quilt

 

 

Lots of reading this week. I finished the 1250 pages of 

I needed something lighter, so it was quilty chick-lit on my Kindle!

Now I am onto something more complex from a favourite author

Use it or bin it!

I had a sort out: dozens of batting trimmings and shirt pieces that weren't getting used had to go, but how can I part with it?!

The grandpup needs a blankie when he visits, so I pieced the batting into two cot sized sheets and appliqued the shirt parts onto them using a dense zig-zag. I have not used this function on my machine before so it gave me a chance to experiment with the density, neatness didn't matter too much for a dog bed! 

Back and front of both pieces:all the scraps, uglies and ends of poly thread used. 

 

 

 I will be sandwiching these two together and practicing McTavishing. Archie won't mind if it looks hideous and the quilting is dubious, he just loves his comfort.

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This week I quilted Eclipse #2, it has been pinned and waiting for a couple of weeks. It has been on the shelf for over 10 years waiting!!!

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Yesterday I finished the binding on this cot quilt that I did a month ago. You may think that the colours are a little dull for a baby quilt, but the blocks were orphans from Noah's mum and dads wedding quilt. Noah was I year old last week, so its a late birthday gift. 

• deep stash backing and borders 
• orphan blocks 
• quilted in the ditch in cream, then top stitched in variegated brown
• gifted grey polyester thread on the back
• border quilted randomly with circular eyelet function on my Bernina and stitched in the ditch

The double was hand quilted, I forgot to take a picture  of it finished before I gifted it! 

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Today this cot quilt is done: I started using the bow ties I had sewn together incorrectly for this double flimsy, then added a few more........

• orphan blocks sewn together wrong!
• border fabrics bought recently for charity quilts
• deep stash backing
•  scrappy binding from backing trimmings 
• Quilted in orange cotton on the back, Gutermann variegated green on the front, in a false jigsaw pattern. 
• borders stitched in the ditch

This will need washing as I manged to bleed on the white border and Archie visited unexpectedly and put muddy paw prints on it whilst I was layering it!

I also did a few more strips for the postage stamp quilt.

Postage Stamps

A while ago I decided that my original piecing for Perkiomen Daydreams was not good enough to continue with for a large quilt: I sewed up completed blocks into a cot size.

I may try one of these in a different colour set in the future.

So, I needed work on my piecing accuracy. It's not bad generally, but with 1" finished pieces the 1/16" and 1/23" errors quickly add up.  I had cut lots of 1 1/2" strips from all the ugly fabric I came across, but was not using it. I spent several hours running strip sets through the machine this week and have cut and stitched the strip sets in batches.

The pieced strips are 105" long.  I have played with the assembly, four, eight, six and random patches so it doesn't look too uniform. 

I am keeping back two of each symmetrical four patch I make for future projects, as I would never cut this much variety for one or two quilts.

I am working on 25 patches now to use up part Perkiomen rejects.  

All of the uglies have gone in here! 

Just about had enough of this fix now, it will go away for a bit as I have two large tops to quilt. My accuracy has definitely improved in the last week working on this. 

3,465 of  11,025 1" finished squares in the completed strips so far, with partials done as well. Almost 1/3 done!

Linking for Move it forward Monday
and Oh Scrap!

Eclipse

• Eclipse is finished, 6' x 7'.
• crumb quilt that has been waiting for 5 years to be quilted!
• four different backings from the stash
• binding is a Micky Mouse cotton duvet cover 
• seven motifs hand appliqued, all from one fabric (useful!). Two of them were to cover poor seams, I had to add more to balance the design out. 
• wavy line quilted to stablise all those seams  with 0.33 miles of scrap threads in cotton and polyester. 
• batting is a 1/16" loft Hobbs polyester, bought in a sale

Hours of peaceful binding in the garden 

Linking for
 Move it Forward Monday
Oh Scrap!

Full speed ahead

I have spent the day at full speed, layering and quilting a 6' x 7' flimsy that has been on the shelf for 5 years.

The flimsy is made from crumbs and needed lots of quilting to keep it stable. 

All those seams!  This one is going to have to come with a warranty. I have spotted two places that gape whilst quilting, I have an idea for applique repair  that I can sneakily add and name the quilt to make it look as if it's on purpose.

I used a low loft Hobbs batting that I got in a sale. It is still really heavy!

My nerdy side came out: how many stitches, how much thread in the quilting?

An estimate: 

1.  7' x 6'flimsy
2. quilted 125 rows along the 6' length
3. approximately 11 stitches to 1"
4. 6 x 12=72" 
5. 72" x 11= 792 stitches per row
6. 792st. x 125 rows =99,000 total. 
7. As the rows are not straight add 15%=113,850 stitches
8. 113,850 stitches /11=10,350inches of quilting.
9. That is approximately 0.163 miles/0.26 km of sewing
10. Thread: loft of wadding is 1/16" so for each stitch add 1/16" ; 113,850 stitches x 1/16" =7,115  sixteenths of an inch= 444"
11. top and bottom thread total : (2x 10,350 ") to 444" =21,144" of thread
12.  0.333 miles or 0.54 km of thread. 

I think....................that's a lot of gifted polyester and odd reels of cotton used up!

Last push!

I have completed the last three play mat quilts for donation to a local charity. If they want them all, there are thirteen. Any remaining will go with the three I have reserved to Linus.  

I have several cot size to quilt  for Linus, but three doubles have to be quilted first. 

Then it is about time I made myself a quilt! 

•  scrappy broken dishes
• border and backing from the stash
• quilted back and front with tangerine cotton
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• Scrappy binding from gifted poly-cotton duvet cover, backing trimmings and recycled cotton sheeting. 

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•  broken dishes blocks
• backing form the stash
• quilted in Gutermann variegated green on the front, gifted pale blue polyester on the back
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• white border recycled sheeting. 
• grey border and binding was leftover 2"  strips from moth in a window.  

 

• broken dishes blocks
• both borders are recycled bedding
• backing from the stash
• quilted with white poly core on the back, Gutermann brown-yellow variegated on the front
• border stitched in the ditch with white poly core. 
• scrappy binding made from backing trimmings

Four finishes

• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• white polycore on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched with variegated red
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash
• binding from a roll I made up from 2 1/2" scraps some time ago
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• dark blue gifted poly thread on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front
• border top stitched in the ditch
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
• border and backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting
• binding from a not-so-neutral neutral, the border and backing are so busy this needed one colour.
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester on the back, Gutermann variegated green cotton on the front, a  YLI variegated green in the border
• about 1m square

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• orphan blocks
• charity quilt
•  backing from the stash, white is recycled cotton sheeting, blue stripe is a cotton duvet cover
• binding from off-cuts
• quilted in my new quick favourite fake puzzle design
• quilted with gifted mustard polyester front and back: in the ditch in white on the border
• about 1m square

Two more complete

 Today I am working on a broken dishes quilt with a new FMQ design. I like this, it's really quick and secures all the seams. 

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I tried it out on the border for the last one, binding completed this morning. That border fabric that I was determined to use up was tricky to quilt and match for binding.  I don't often quilt the borders, just stitch in the ditch as I like the fluffiness of un-quilted space.  This one was too wide not to have something in. 

• orphan blocks
• quilted on the front in mid green variegated, white polycore on the back
• heavily FMQ for practice
• borders and backing from a bargain bundle that needed using up
• scrappy binding: I had to cut some extra green for this as the border fabric wouldn't take my usual multicolour scrappy binding from off-cuts.

*****

Another finish, more moth practice

• Deep stash borders and backing
• Variegated green cotton on the back; cream poly in the ditch, gifted yellow poly on the borders, various experiments on the moth shapes.
• orphan blocks
• binding from a stash I made up a year ago

 Loopy balloons in the borders and sashing

Variegated thread looks awful on the moths! This was my original intention for the big quilt, glad I tried it out.