Roundup

 

I made a big push to complete the 1" square king size. 

I decided to border it in black and white.

When your  1 1/2" finished leader ender triangles look enormous........................!

I only have ONE border to sew on and the top is done. 

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I ironed a bit more of the stash of strings, but got bored before I trimmed them, it can wait for a wet winter afternoon

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I put together a few blocks for ocean waves, as the dump draw for sewn hsts was full

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I had a week sitting two dogs and two cats. I didn't get many hexies done, as you can see, all four thought I was there to provide a lap!   Love those four though! 

Progress is good, just have the edges to square off now.  

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Not much progress on the gansey inspired jacket, though I have started on a sleeve

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I finished a seaweed scarf for a gift

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I finished grandpuppy Archie's blankie made from shirt parts and batting scraps, double thick, quickly quilted. 

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 Two more placemats bound and borders sewn to two garlic knots Linus quilts

Thats it!

This week

 

 I have been ironing the stash of strips and strings that were sewing up in three batches over the last year. That's a 64 litre bin under that pile! I have another refuse sack full, probably about the same.

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 These are  ironed, only the trimming to do.....

I am cutting some as standard 4" for a scrappy piano key border

The rest are various widths. I think there will be enough for at least four king sized quilts, with yards of piano key border!

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I have decided to use the 1 1/2 " finished leader ender triangles to make Bonnie's Ocean Waves 

Some way to go!  

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A little more of the 1 " postage stamp quilt ...... I am saving two of every set, for a future project.

 

This is about 1/3 complete

Noah with his new quilt

All tucked up! I made this with the leftover blocks from his parents wedding quilt: this one was machine quilted, his parents king took nearly three years to do by hand, way overdue!

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.