1/3

About 1/3 of the small flimsies for donation are quilted, eight.  I had a roundup and cut backing for the rest, they need to be gone!

Too many orphan blocks! 

Still to do: 

 Five larger ones here ready to go, for Linus.

And nine flimsiness here for Portage and Linus -there are another two 'moth in a window' flimsies to practice on in this pile. 

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There are three small quilts in progress, quilting/binding stage. 

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One crumb quilt double to be layered, that needs to be done in the next couple of months. Lots of quilting needed to secure all thise seams. I will  be able to use up reels of gifted polyester thread on this. 

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Two finishes, both about 1m square

• Broccoli backing  and green border from deep stash
• orphan blocks
• scrappy binding from backing off-cuts
• FMQ practice: variegated pastel orange and green on the front, cream polyester on the back (that was brave!)
• borders quilted in the ditch

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• broken dishes blocks
• FMQ quilting in cream  polyester front and back
• scrappy binding from backing trimmings
• Border from backing trimmings

On a roll this week.

This single flimsy has been on the shelf for about four years: one day I raided the strip bins for 3 1/2" blue strips, then did nothing with it.  My son saw it and said I would be just right for his friend who has been in and out of hospital for a few months. 

Quickly layered and 'puzzle' quilted in an afternoon.

 

 Today I sewed the binding.

• blue strips from the 3 1/2" strip bin
• quilted with dark mauve embroidery sheen rayon on the front, rust on the back
• moo and mushroom backing from deep stash

The demise of Mickey Mouse

I bought this cotton duvet cover in a charity shop, the motifs are too big to do anything useful with. It has now been chopped into yards of binding for charity quilts.

 

Quilting this single took a long afternoon, quick 'puzzle' waves. Needle break four inches from the end! Grr. 

Another moth in a window charity finish for Linus, I like this design better than the last practice run. So did my daughter in law, the king size will be for her. 

• orphan blocks
• deep stash border and backing
• scrappy binding from previous backing off-cuts
• about 1 x 1.3m

A finish

Charity quilt done, 33x36". 

Backing and borders for the orphan moth blocks from the deep stash.

Scrappy binding from backing trimmings. 

This is the first of several experiments before I quilt the king size, I won't be doing the moth bodies like this. Good job I have the orphans to practice on! 

Roundup without curves

I have been working on hexies for the last month. Piccies later. 

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I gave up on Perkiomen Daydreams as I wasn't happy with my accuracy on earlier blocks. I have pieced the finished  blocks into a cot sized flimsy, as cot sized people are no the quilt police! I will quilt this when I need a baby quilt in a hurry. 

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I have started another postage stamp quilt, from the 1 1/2"  bin. I am not using this size, so I sewed some strip sets together and will sub-cut a few at a time- blocks of colour when I need a quick fix. Teenny bits help me with my accuracy. 

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I have done a few of these flying geese strips, from 2" scraps in sets 1-8, again, to work on my accuracy. They will probably make a scrappy border for something. 

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These two charity quilts are pinned and ready for quilting, all orphan blocks. I have several filmsies of the moth blocks in this size, I am practicing with the fancy stitches on my Bernina before I quilt the king size version! 

This one is part quilted. 

Much more to do to shape the moths.

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A charity quilt finish today, about 1m square.

This one was frugal:

• Backing was a new gifted polycotton duvet cover
• Many shirts were harmed in the making of the blocks
• All the thread was gifted polyester from my dressmaker mum's stash
• The stripy border was a charity shop cotton duvet cover
• The white border is recycled cotton sheeting
• The scrappy binding is made from off-cuts from previous quilt backings 

=happy!

Stripper

I raided the string bin for neutral strings, then chopped into rough 5" strips. I also cut off some selvages as the cream stash was handy and used some uglies up. 

 

 

 

 

Pieced onto 4 1/4" strips of paper: not ideal as it was quite heavy paper, but it did the job.  I used strips from 2 1/2 to 3/4".

My Daughter in law happened to come over and got rather excited about the peeling process! She had not seen this before, so we both worked on the papers for an hour, then I finished them the next day. Help was gratefully received!  I recon I have enough for three borders for king size quilts! Each strip is about 11"; pressing and trimming at a later date, as I could cut them in half for 2" sashing too.

I also made some pieced squares with the larger crumbs as I was going. I can use these as centres in a charity quilt. 

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 Still plugging away with the 3" finished broken dishes blocks as leaders and enders. I have sewn a lot into sets of four as I keep loosing the bits if they hang around on the sewing table too long between being needed. Much more user friendly. I have quite a pile now. I spin the seams as they come off the machine, but don't iron.  These need a lot of accuracy: as they are so small there is no wriggle room.

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This weekend I am working on the Allietare blocks, tricky little things to get the points to meet! Taking it slowly. The blue is my 'red' from Bonnie's design.

 A few more geese were needed for accuracy practice.

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I was all sewed out in the middle of the week: I found some short lengths of yarn, a couple of metres each (I am not a hoarder!) and made a scrumble, very therapeutic.

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Other evenings have been spent ironing blocks and ironing blocks and ironing blocks......

....these are done

 and these are done.

 About the same to go!

I put the mini ironing board  and iron on my lap on top of a cushion in front of the TV, I don't feel its such a terrible chore then.

Cat-napping

It seems the word went round the neighbourhood that I no longer have a resident quilt inspector. The vacancy has been filled: he does have a home (somewhere), but obviously no duties there. Every time the door is open, he is in! So much for ironing the backing and patches!  Encourage him? Noooo, 'course not!

Testing my lap for comfort too-my last cat didn't do this in 17 years so I made the most of it! 

 He is a bit gorgeous, is genuinely pleased to see me and had a marvelous purr. I am clearly not properly trained yet as I don't act like his real servants at home, he tries to tell me what he wants but I don't understand!

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 Allietare four patches have been waiting since December to be sewn, so I cut the strips that had been hanging over the door for three months and got on with it. 

Then I cut the next stage. The patches were not meeting at the points properly when I sewed a few. (:@{

I had leftovers of the 2" strips, rather than add them boxes, as I had cut a few as goose blocks (too small) I trimmed all the leftovers down for the mini broken dish blocks and goose centres for future use. 

 

Then I sewed a few goose blocks to work out where the accuracy was failing by two whiskers on Allietare blocks. 

I think I have worked it out now, after much goose beheading and broken wings. 

Next update will tell!   

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I have sewn up trimmings from other things to 10 1/2" strips as I go for the crumb quilt, to keep the piles down.

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I am wading my way through ironing several hundred pinwheel and broken dishes blocks, sitting on the floor in front of the TV with the mini board and iron on my lap, on top of a cushion!

These will take a couple of days. 

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I was feeling stressed yesterday morning so sat down to push a few random mini triangles through the machine, it did the trick.  I am thinking these could make Ocean Waves

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We have Storm Katie hitting the south of England today, roof felt/fence panel lifting winds. I will venture a short walk, then it's back to sewing related occupational therapy for me  and finishing this...

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Happy Easter!

Cutting corners

Literally.

And thousands more to go!  

Triangles. I see them in my sleep. 

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As an antidote, I have finished this ten stitch blanket from scraps.

 

It is a double, that will be a car/picnic blanket. 

It took 2 years on and off, 1/3 million stitches! 

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The next on-off scrap blanket is this one....

It is really interesting to knit, no seams as it's knit as you go and grows quickly. 

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The clipped triangles are still being made into broken dishes blocks for a friends housewarming quilt. I am making the more random sets into pinwheels for charity quilts

A couple of hundred to have the seams spun, then be pressed, about the same still to piece. 

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I sewed the crumbs up that I had made from cutting mini broken dishes blocks, as they were all from 2" strips and easy to sort.

The crumb strips join the three sacks of  string and crumb strips waiting to be trimmed down for a crumb quilt and piano key borders!

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