Saturday stuff

Had a trip to one of my LQS this morning (see below for booty) - and also to pick up a few more presents for my birthday boy (6 on Thursday - tough to believe) and this afternoon I spent some time sewing, thank goodness. Finished piecing the top for the Triptych piece for the Flickr group - I think I will quilt all three sections at the same time, so that the quilting is continuous, but I will then cut them apart and bind them separately. The central panel is 12" square, the other two are 8x12. Simple, but it works.


I also did this little ATC to start the February challenge on Textile Challenges - we were to grab an ATC base, and the first five ingredients we saw and make an ATC. I grabbed a piece of purple fabric, a dryer sheet & Markal paint stick (I counted that as one, as the paintsticks and dryer sheets were sitting together waiting for me to colour some), the orange flower, some flower brads (used the purple one) and a skein of thick purple thread. The back is orange and purple as well, but that didn't have to count as one of the five things. We weren't supposed to take more than 15 minutes (i.e. it's an exercise in not over-thinking things), though I admit to taking closer to 20 - for one thing, the hand-stitching took a while as the thread was very thick and hard to pull through the base. Also, I had to iron the dryer sheet dry (between paper) one I'd paint-sticked it.


And the main work today, I can't show, as it's my Exquisite Corpse - pretty much finished my head, though I have yet to attach the words to the section - need to double check how many as well as have a think about which ones (we are supposed to put some words on each section so it forms a sentence at the end. It's something like - hang on, I'll check - ok, it's "The adjective/ noun adverb/ verb the /adjective /noun") - so I will need to put "The [adjective]" in my square somewhere. Which is good, as I know what adjective. Whew.

These postcards arrived yesterday - they are the results of the painted bondaweb swap - four very different cards, but all nice. They are mine (upper left), Wil's (UR), Tracy's (LL) and Celia's (LR).

I also received my monthly fabric fix - purple theme this month, which is handy, as I happened to notice the other day I had very little purple.

And then there's the booty from the LQS - the batting for the pineapple quilt - which I still can't baste because having basted two baby quilts the other day, I don't have enough safety pins until at least one of them is quilted. But at least I have the batting now. I also picked up the orange fabric to send to Anne for the celtic knotwork on the Ostrich, though I forgot the thread - however, I should be able to get something at my local haberdashery department. I also got a metre of mustard yellow polka-dot fabric, which fulfills two different needs (plus it was in the sale section), a green fat quarter for my FQ swap partner and a replacement 8.5" square ruler as mine has a broken corner - it broke some time ago, and I superglued it back together. It's now broken again and frankly, doesn't seem to want to hold with superglue any more, so I decided I should just buy a new one. It's my favourite size, so it gets a lot of use. Also picked up two patterns in the sale bin (50p each) - one for pincushions and other bits shaped like buttons, the other for penguin Christmas ornaments. Successful shopping, despite the thread!

Words fail me...

So, here's the ultimate in "look what I got today" type posts - these three amazing pieces are my "mini quilt" home from the Cyber Fyber exhibition. In round 2 of the ALQS, Lynda drew my name as partner (yes, that's one of the perks of being the hostess - picking who will make you a quilt) and was originally supposed to make me a nice little art quilt, somewhere in the 20" square region. She contacted me shortly after we started ALQS2 to ask if I'd like to have the quilt she was planning to make for Susan Lenz's Cyber Fyber exhbition - of course, I said yes - it's lovely to own a quilt which has been exhibited. At that point, it was still planned to be a small piece, in the 20" square region. However. As happens with art, the piece(s) had a mind of its own and grew - grew to be three pieces, each of them 24x30". Other than the concern for where in my house (which, unfortunately for me is not a country mansion with its own long gallery or anything like that!) I would hang them, I didn't mind at all. And seeing them in person, well, let's just say, finding space was certainly a non-issue - it would be done! As it happens, I thought they would look rather nice in the newly painted stairwell in my hallway, and I was right. They could do with a little more light (though it's not nearly as dark as it appears in the photos below), but on the whole, they look really good there, and you can see the texture to good effect, as you can get very close. [If you are interested in the technique, Lynda explains a bit about it here - where she talks about a practice piece made in a similar way.]

I took the pieces outside (reasonable light today) to photograph, so here they are together on my patio - in the right order. And some detail shots below - the left photo from the bottom middle of the lefthand piece, the right photo from the top right-hand corner of the far right piece.

And finally, here are some photos of them in the stairwell - lesson learned today - it's bloody hard to photograph a stairwell (actually, I already knew this, as I had tried to photograph the carpet before to show my mother, and failed miserably). As I said above, the light is not as bad as it seems in this photo, though it's not perfect.

So. What a nice end to the ALQS2 swap for me (as some of you know, it has been a bit fraught in places) and what a lovely addition to my decor.

Thank you so much, Lynda - I really, really love them.

Been tagged

A lot of times, I don't bother to respond to being tagged, but as I have nothing much to show today (a little more work was done on the Triptych piece, but it's still really not very interesting and anyway, it's upstairs and I'm too lazy to go photograph it) I thought I'd go ahead. It also helps that this is an easy tag which doesn't require me to list 7 things or 8 things or 16 things or anything else requiring thought. The challenge here is to upload the 6th photo in the 6th folder in your picture folder. For me, the 6th folder was the one called "screensaver", which as you can probably guess, is where the pics are that make up the slideshow on my screensaver. We're supposed to share the story behind the photo - I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume most of you can work it out yourselves, at least approximately. This is Hallowe'en 2006, we were in the US visiting, and my kids were about to acquire more sweets than they'd ever seen in the history of ever. It was a gorgeous, warm, lovely evening, and because Hallowe'en is so much bigger in the US than in the UK, I let them do quite a few houses, so there was a LOT of stuff gathered up. We took it back to the UK with us, and I think there was still some left at Christmas. Or close!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play along, go for it. And thanks to Lisa for the tag - it was fun.

Ostrich News

Been meaning to share this for a few days but keep forgetting to do it when I'm blogging - but I have a delightful piece of wonderfulness to share, so I thought I should probably share it. When I showed this originally, I commented that I thought perhaps it wanted something in the big blank spaces - like a load of orange celtic knotwork or something - well, Anne agreed with me about that, and in fact, offered - nay, virtually begged - to do the knotwork herself. Now, I may be many things, and not all of them complimentary, but I like to think that a Huge Crazy Fool is NOT one of them, so of course I said yes please!

There are any number of people I would be delighted to have work on one of my quilts (so if you want to make an offer, please don't hold back, LOL) but to have Anne's applique on one is right at the top of the list - it will definitely be better looking than any celtic knotwork I could do myself. So, when I get a chance to get the required fabric and thread, I will be sending it all her direction for her to work on at her leisure - and it can certainly be a leisurely project as this top has been sitting around for quite a while already.

It will be great to have this top really finished and ready for quilting - and doubly great to have that knotwork there, as it's something I've been thinking it might need for quite a while - and triply great to have Anne do it, not just because of the quality of her work, but because she and I have been virtual friends for a while now, so owning a piece she's worked on as well will make me feel all warm and happy. Of course, not having met her in person, I suppose it's possible she's an axe murderer* but would an axe murderer really go to all the trouble to design & stitch umpteen million miles of celtic knotwork for someone else? Seems unlikely...

Which brings me to something I've said before and will no doubt say again - aren't bloggers lovely people?

* (some of you will perhaps recognise this reference to a meeting between Hedgehog and Anne, last year, shortly before I met up with Hedgehog in London)

Mt Fuji

Having remembered to buy the dark brown thread amidst my mad pawing through the sale bin yesterday, I was able to finish the Japanese Block of the Month block today. Woo hoo. Maybe I will take an evening next week to trace out the shapes for the next block. I'd really like to get this done and there are only 4 more blocks to go.

I also started working on something for a Triptych themed piece for the 6-12" mini-quilt swap on Flickr - it's three pieces (obviously) which go together in some fashion, due at the end of February. But it's mostly squares and triangles at the moment and not very interesting, so I haven't photographed it. Maybe later this week (though I don't foresee much sewing time until Saturday, as I am going swimming with friends tomorrow morning and to my little quilt group (for the first time in months) on Thursday. And having coffe with friends on Friday. Such is the life!

Back to the birds...

Gots lots of fun stuff to show today - at the top, a gift from Myra, a bit of a surprise. I sent her a cross stitch pattern and maybe something else, can't remember, and she sent this - a cross stitch pattern (which I knew she was sending) and the other bits, which were unexpected - a great project pouch with a zip - handy for holding stuff when taking it places (like a cross-stitch being worked on!), some brads, rings, thread & motifs - all highly useful.

Also received my goodies from I'm a Ginger Monkey's Fat Quarter Swap - my partner is Silvana, and I haven't yet sent her package off (mailing date is 14 Feb, so I'm not really being a slacker, even though I feel slightly guilty for receiving before I send) - but look at the lovely stuff she's sent me - the required 2 FQs of the swap, and then a load of lovely bits - buttons, etc - some floss, all wrapped in a paper napkin which will go straight in the interesting paper drawer and tied with a bit of ribbon. And a nice card, too. Thanks again, Silvana!

And as if that weren't enough, I treated myself to a rummage through the sale bins in my local haberdashery department (which also carries quite a bit of general crafting stuff these days) - I came away with ribbon, brads, paper, an interesting large punch and even remembered to get the two colours of floss I wanted and the dark brown thread so I can work on the Japanese applique tomorrow.

And finally, as it's Monday, an update on cross-stitch progress. I did dig the birds back out and have done two new boxes - well, one and a half, really. I'm not feeling very inspired by the birds at the moment, but as I'd like to finish it, I decided that if I finish a box, I can spend the next few nights working on something different - I want to get at least one box done each week, sometimes two. There aren't that many left to do, so it would be a shame not to finish it.

But I'm also working on something I have a greater desire to do, in parallel, to help keep me from getting too frustrated with the birds. At the moment, it's this little heart pattern, which has only four colours in it - I've started with one of the two colours I had in my floss box - the other two being among today's purchases. When I finish the current bird box, I'll work a little more on this. I'd quite like to finish it before the 14th, as it's somewhat seasonal!

Some finishing up...

First off, this thrilling photo of my Exquisite Corpse project. Now, before Arlee panics, I will warn you that this is the ONLY photo you will see of my work on this project - either my piece or other people's pieces - until the entire thing is finished - not even sneak peeks from now on. What is an Exquisite Corpse, I hear you ask? Well, you can check out the blog here, to see the previous rounds which have been done, but in a nutshell, it's like a round robin, except you don't see what the previous person has done. The first person does the head & shoulders, the next the upper torso, etc. Once I do my head, I will cover all but a half inch of my work and the next person will take it from there, do her (or his) section and then cover all but their bottom half inch. We are working in 7 inch squares, and there are 5 people in a group. This round, we are all doing body or body type images, whereas in previous rounds, there has been more variety. I think this will be a really interesting textile/fibre project and I'm pleased to be taking part, even if it means I can't blog it!



So, following on from yesterday, here's what I did today - half a Japanese block of the month - there is a good deal more buildings, etc to fill in at the bottom, but I have absolutely no dark brown thread, not even a dark medium, so I need to pick some up tomorrow before proceeding. Luckily, most of the houses, etc have nice straight lines, so the applique should go quickly once I have the right thread. So then I decided to quickly finish off one of the almost finished projects from my unfinished section - I added a border to this little flying geese quilt, which will now go on the pile of finished tops waiting to be quilted.

I have added a "List of Shame" (tongue in cheek) to my sidebar to help me monitor my progress in moving those things from section to section and off the list entirely - we'll see how that goes!

So, now what?

Now that I've named and shamed all my outstanding projects, what's next, you may ask. Well, I'm not going to set out to finish all of them - or even most of them - this year or anything unrealistic like that. But what I would like to do is this:

• Finish several of the larger quilts. The brown pineapple is the first larger piece on the list; then maybe the two single bed sized ones for the girls.
• Finish 4 or 5 baby quilts. Two I have pinned up already, so that's a good start. I'll need at least two this year anyway - and that's just the babies I know about already.
• Finish the little flying geese quilt, the multicoloured string quilt and the two quilts for the girls - even if they don't get quilted - to completed top stage. It's silly to have them so close without being done!
• Move as many groups of blocks as possible to the finished top stage - this might not be possible with all the birthday blocks and the Japanese lanterns, but there are at least 5 or 6 sets of blocks which will go together into baby quilts or small lap quilts with a minimum of effort - then at least they aren't hanging around as block sets.
• Not add more sets of blocks which don't get completed - except for the new birthday block swap (which finishes for me in June, so I won't stress if I don't do anything with those blocks for a while - besides, they may be hard to find something to do with, straight away) - this doesn't mean I won't make more block sets, which I might - or I might win on the block lotto again - but I plan to do something with them relatively quickly - like within a few months of getting them - at least moving them to the finished top stage.
• Finish at least two more of the Japanese block of the month blocks by the end of the year. In fact, I am going to start on the one which is already cut out and ready to applique today - not sure how far I will get as I may have to stop to buy the right colour thread for some of the pieces, but tomorrow I have to go to New Malden anyway, which is where my local haberdashery is, so it's a good time to see if I need anything in the way of thread before that!
• Finish at least one cat per month on the sawtooth cats.
• Don't start any more BIG quilts. This shouldn't be too hard a resolution to keep, as I am tending towards smaller works lately anyway, but I am going to resist the temptation entirely. I won't promise I won't start any new tops at all, but I am going to keep them all under 60" square, so that they at least stand a chance of getting quilted someday. And frankly, I shouldn't think I'll start many even at baby quilt or lap size as I have so many sets of blocks I could use for that size quilt now. Obviously, there will be mini quilts started this year, as I have signed up for several mini swaps already, but the nice thing about mini quilts is that they do get finished.

I think all of these things are realistic goals - many of them involve only NOT doing stuff, which at least I know I'll have the time for. Of course, there will be lots of work done this year (I hope) - a lot of which won't involve these quilt tops or blocks at all - there will be a few sets of postcards (though not so many this year), some ATCs, some miscellaneous swapping of various objects, some mini quilts, my house front swap, the Exquisite Corpse and so on. There will also be blocks made for others (birthday block swap, block lotto, African & Dear Jane swaps). But what I'd like to do is control the chaos and get it down to a point where I know that first of all, I like all the blocks and tops I have hanging around and that second of all, there's a reasonable chance the pieces will someday be finished.

Not giving things away - part 4 (last part!)

OK, we're getting near the end now. This last set of stuff is stuff which is partly done or nearly done or a little bit done or... Some of it is very near completion (by which I mean, a completed top), some much less so.



1. Rainbow Olivia quilt. A nesting robin quilt, again from Scrap Quilting Forum. You can't really see this in the photo, but I started with a row of stars (you can see that better here) and the idea was then to do a row in each colour, using whatever the instruction was for that month - so we have a row of red blocks, then orange is curves and circles, yellow was a piano key border, I think, green was crazy piecing, aqua was nine patches, blue was basket blocks, purple was fans, and pink - well, pink hasn't quite ever happened. Just one more row to go, but, it stalled. It's been stalled for a long time now. Like since summer 2007. Really should do a pink row, shouldn't I! Maybe I'll aim to get it done for her birthday (October).

2. Scottie Dog quilt. The Scottie Dogs were from the block lotto - my first win, in June 2006. This quilt is again, almost done. The problem is, it's too narrow. So I need to put a strip of black down each side. You'd think this would be easy, right? It should be. Heck, I'm going to go off right now and add it to my list of February goals. (Not quilting it, just getting those black strips on). I intended this as a bed quilt for Sarah - perhaps I'll try to aim for her birthday (Sept) or Christmas for this one. It really shouldn't be this stalled!



3. This little quilt made from flying geese (from a swap) is almost a completed top - just needs a border around it with the material used along the side of the geese. Another thing which really has no excuse for not being more finished.

4. String blocks - these are the ones from all the strings I had, which I am keeping for myself. I used some for a quilt for my friend Cathi as a housewarming gift, I sent quite a few to Lisa, but these are mine. There are two more seams needed to make this into a top, then it needs quilting.



5. Japanese block of the month. We won't go into which year this block of the month was supposed to be for (apparently, it ran from May-November of 2005). There were nine blocks, then fabric to join them together - the actual blocks are circular designs - you can sort of tell that here. I love the ones I've done (machine applique) but they are time consuming, and I tend to get sidetracked. Actually, it's not the applique part I find the most time-consuming, but the preparation of the pieces. That said, I do have the pieces for block 5 ready to go - I should start it.



6 & 7. Summer Beach House quiltlet. An idea, started it, haven't got around to working on it more. It's in the back of my mind. Also, a bag of pieces cut to make batik goshen stars with taupe backgrounds. Not sure I will ever get to this. I made some for a block lotto ages ago (Sept 2006), really liked the colourway and so cut some more for myself. But...

8. Sawtooth cats. This quilt is supposed going to be for my mother's spare room. If I ever finish it. There are 20 cats, of which I have done 8, one is partly assembled, and I have another one downstairs waiting for me to do the hand-piecing part of it. I like this quilt, but somehow, I lose interest easily. Probably because I have to think about it.

And finally, these two sets of blocks aren't really unfinished in the same way - both of these are ongoing private swaps which are still in progress. But I thought I should show them.

The African blocks (12") are a swap with Karol-Ann, and we have just switched to six inch blocks (after I took this photo, I found one more 12" block which had escaped) to give some other options. I'm not sure if this is one quilt or two, but at some point it will become at least one!



The Dear Jane blocks are a private swap with Cathi - these are 6" blocks, so although we have done a good handful, we can accomodate quite a few more before stopping.

And that's it. It's enough - more than enough - I know. But I'm sure it's not any more than a number of you out there have lurking around. Go on, confess, how many tops do you have tucked away waiting to be quilted? This isn't really the same as the number of projects I am working on at once, of course - although I usually have a handful of things going on at the same time, that's not usually more than 5 or 6 different things (not all quilts) - most of these projects (especially the block sets and finished tops) just sit there waiting - they aren't actively being worked on!

OK, enough blogging. Maybe tomorrow what I show will involve actual work, rather than lack of work, like today's posts - although I did pin baste two quilts today, which has to count for something!

Not giving things away - part 3

Just when you thought it was safe to start reading the blog again, here's another post about all the blocks and tops and whatnot I have hanging around waiting to be used... This one will show all the sets of blocks I HAVEN'T given away in the last year on my blog. There are quite a few, I warn you now!

1. Japanese Lantern Blocks. 8x12". 46 blocks. These are from a swap I ran on about.com in Spring 2007 and although I really liked the idea at the time, I am less enamoured of them now. Still, I think they will make a nice quilt someday, so I am hanging on to them. I may not use all of them when I come to make the quilt, but for the moment, I'm not making any decisions.

2. Black and batik. 9" square. 12 blocks. These are from a swap on another forum on Delphi (not QuiltShoppe or Scrap Quilting, but I can't remember where) and the swap was originally for three 18" blocks and a bunch of 9" blocks. I have used two of the 18" blocks for mini quilts for gifts - one for a leaving present for a friend & colleague of Geoff's and the other as a wedding present for a friend. The third one, I think I gave away, as well as a few of the 9" blocks which didn't work as well as the others. These 12 will make a nice small quilt, so I'm happy to keep them around for a while.

3. Batik stretched stars. 8" square. 20 blocks. Another nice baby quilt. Originally I think I had some grand plan to make more of these with a batik background and cream star points, but well, let's be realistic, folks.

4. Sand and blue batik blocks. 6" square. 20 blocks. From a swap with the euro-swap group - all are pieced onto magic paper or other superthin lining. Just need to put them together. Not sure why I haven't. Keep forgetting they are there, I guess. I think I have enough baby quilt materials to last quite a while!

5. Batik Jacob's Ladder. 12" square. 4 blocks. I had a load of these and sent most of them to Margaret for Project Linus quilts - I decided to keep four of them - with a little border, they'll make a nice baby quilt.

6 & 7. Hand-dyed 9 patches. 6" block. 32 blocks. From a swap on the dyehard group. I used a number of these to make a bag as a present for someone last Christmas (2007) but there are some left. I used the disappearing 9 patch technique - which is what we all had in mind when we did the swap. 6" framed squares in hand dyes. 72 blocks plus 21 with signatures in the centre. Also a dyehard swap, from a long time ago - I'm thinking 2005. Not sure what I will do with these, but I should really do something. Or at least work out how many I need to use so I can pass the others along to someone who can make better use of them!

8. Black HST blocks. 12" square. 16 blocks. These blocks were from a swap where the theme was blocks that could be made solely from HST units - I had more blocks than this, but removed some which weren't the right colour (supposed to be a white background, I think) or which just didn't go with the others. These 16 will make a nice throw, though.

9. Batik Framed Four Patch. 10" square. 62 blocks. Not sure why I have 62 of these - it seems a lot. I think this was a swap on about.com. Here, I will almost certainly separate them into a few smaller sets and then give the leftovers to someone doing charity quilts.

10. This is sort of three sets of blocks, though they are all similar and could be used together - all are 6" square and there are 40 of the ones with purple triangles; 58 of the dark blue and 48 of the light blue. Not quite sure why I made these - there was a point when I did a lot of blocks using batik strips - I had belonged to a batik FQ monthly club and had a lot of batiks. So I made these blocks and then kind of got bored of them. But I will use them for something.

11. These are more that I made at that point, only I have used some of these for a baby quilt for a friend so there are only 26 left. They are 7" squares. There are also 56 half-sized blocks left. I think these would make a nice border on something - that's what I have in mind with saving them, at any rate.

12. This one doesn't have a photo as it seems to have vanished in between my taking the blocks out of the box and counting them and now (read: I managed not to take a photo of them) - 6" Green and Purple Buckeye Beauty blocks - 50 blocks. They look like this - only there are more of them. I won these in the block lotto last summer and intend to make - you guessed it - a baby quilt from them.

13. Layer cake blocks. I think there are 48 of them - when they are all laid out, they look like this. Frankly, I think this will be one for the longarmer, so there's no real rush in getting them put together.

14. The little double four patch blocks with Japanese taupes on the right of the left-hand photo are actually not a set of blocks, as I am still making the blocks. They should go in the NEXT post, which is all the stuff which is sort of being worked on at the moment - not in block or top state, but I photographed them together for some reason, so there you go. Anyway. This is eventually going to be a new runner for Geoff's dresser - which has a runner on it now, but it's old and anyway, it's sometimes nice to wash it and I'd rather have something else to put there in the interim (it's an old dresser made of proper wood, so it scratches easily and gets watermarks, etc).

15. And on the right, the last set of blocks - these vary in size and there are lots of them - I didn't count them, as it happens. They are from the first birthday block swap I hosted on about.com, last year, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. They will all get used for something, but probably not all in the same thing as there are lots of them, plus although they all have black or BOB backgrounds, the blacks vary a lot and some work better together than others.

This may seem a long list, but it's a lot better than last year's list would have been - since last year I have got rid of a number of sets (or partial sets) of blocks, made at least 4 or 5 baby quilts (complete) from blocks and put together a number of sets of blocks into finished tops. I have also passed a few finished tops on to Project Linus or similar to go for charity quilts. Progress is being made, it's just slow. Probably because I am more into small things and mixed media at the moment - though every so often I really just want to make blocks, LOL.

Not giving things away - part 2

Right. On to the rest of the tops - a lot of these are fairly small, which makes me feel a little better about having so many - but only a little!






1. Batik Sawtooth Star Tablecloth. 60x72. 2008. This one I feel better about still having (don't get me wrong - all these tops only cause vague stirrings of guilt - nothing to keep me awake at night!). I won the stars in the block lotto in October 2007, and put the top together in January 2008. So it's only been sitting around for a year! I bought some backing fabric for it this year at Farnham Maltings Fabric Sale, and it's going on my 2009 list for basting and quilting.



12. Brown & Pink Pineapple. 62x80. 2008. This quilt was nearly basted together last week, but the piece of batting I had in the house was too small - just. It may take a week or two to have time to get out and buy batting, so I'm going to move it to my February goals list. This one will definitely get quilted this year. The blocks from this quilt were organised by Sophie when my dad died in the autumn of 2007. Despite some serious health issues herself, she took the time and effort to coordinate the making of these blocks in several different online forums, and had intended to put the quilt together herself and send it to me. In the end, because of all her health issues we decided she should send the blocks to me as they were and I'd put them together myself, which I did. It's a lovely top and of course always makes me feel warm and cosy thinking of all the online friends who took the time and energy to send a block or two!


The rest of the quilt tops on this list are smaller - hoorah. This means, I am that much more likely to get them quilting on my DSM. Doesn't mean they'll all get quilted soon, but at least there's a slightly higher likelihood!




13. Navy & Jewel Tone Friendship stars. 32" square (I think). Note the pins & batting! This one I pinned together today, using the batting which wasn't big enough for the pineapple quilt. Not sure when these blocks are from - it was a swap on Quilt Shoppe Forum (I think) or possibly Scrap Quilting Forum. There was a period where I did a LOT of block swaps. Too many, really, but it's addictive. But these make a lovely baby quilt, and although none of my friends seem to need wedding quilts at the moment, lots of them are having babies...

14. Corn & Beans. 48" square. Again with the pins & batting! Apparently I finished piecing this top in January 2007 (sometimes, having a blog to keep track of these things is a BAD idea). Anyway, just the right size for another baby quilt and to work with the batting piece I had. Both of these baby quilts will get quilted in the next few months - possibly sooner if DH springs another last minute work baby gift on me!




15. Hawaiian Shirt Quilt. 48x60. 2007. This is one of the quilt tops I made from my dad's Hawaiian shirts after he died. I made 4 tops, three of which have been quilted and sent to my stepmom, her mother (who was good friends with my dad and lived more or less with them for the last few years of Dad's life) and my brother and his wife. After I finished thost three - the last of which was finished in the autumn of 2008 - I was a little tired of Hawaiian shirt quilts, so didn't want to quilt mine straight away. I might try to do it this year!


16. Courthouse Steps. 49" square. 2007/8. This top also was made just after my dad died - I bought these fabrics in San Diego in November 2007 when I went for Dad's funeral. It will get quilted at some point as I really like the fabrics.



17. Alex's Quilt. 44x62. I made this top a while back (June 2007, apparently) because a small boy was nagging me SO much to make some of his fabrics into a quilt that I had to. Luckily (for me) after we made it into a top, he stopped nagging. And consequently, it never went any further. Although I did buy some backing fabric for it, so perhaps someday it will actually get finished. Maybe I'll aim for his birthday - when he turns 7! (Because his sixth birthday is in about 2 weeks time...)




18. Shoe Quilt. 42x46. Feb 2008. Originally this was intended as a 40th birthday present for a friend (May 2008) but I've been very out of touch with her, so didn't finish it. I will finish it, and I will give it to her, but as she lives in the US, I will probably aim to take it to her in person the next time we go to visit. I do have backing for it, but am still debating how I want to quilt it - a meander with shoes and handbags, I think, if I can manage them.


19. Christmas table topper. 36" square. These blocks are a few from a swap of Christmas blocks of this design which I did with Scrap Quilting Forum - most of the blocks I got were red & green and I decided a while ago I didn't want them, but I kept the blue ones to make a table topper. Don't really know which Christmas the swap was originally intended for (ok, I checked, the swap was in summer 2006) but I will aim to quilt this for Christmas this year. Fairly safe to set that goal in January, I hope!








20. Little Rail Fence Quilt. 28x32. I made this ages ago, and it used to be quilted and hanging on a wall, but the quilting was really bad and it annoyed me when I got to be a better quilter, so as it was tiny, I took it all out and keep meaning to re-do it. I'm putting this one on the 2009 list as well - it should only take me a couple of hours really, though I think I may need to spend some time blocking it first...


21. ColourShott Knot. 32x32. This is another of those pieces I can't decided if I like or not. It looks strange in this photo because of the colour shott fabrics (which look one colour from one direction and another from a different one) but it looks different head on. This one might actually go on the discard pile. I thought I might turn it into a baby quilt, but actually, I have quite a few pieces which will work for that, so I don't think I'll need it. I'll have a think about it and decide sometime. In the meantime, it doesn't take up much space!




22. Basket Block. 22" square. I won the basket blocks from the block lotto in May 2007 and have used a number of them as mini quilts for various occasions - a couple of quilt angel situations, a blog giveaway and so on. This one I intend to keep for myself. Someday, I will quilt it! The leftover blocks I recently sent to Ann, having decided I had made enough little quilts with them to last a lifetime...


23. Blue String Quilt. 36x36. 2008 - just made this in the past few months. I had intended to buy some flannel or minke for the back at Farnham Maltings, but didn't see any, so I need to hit a haberdashery dept for some - as the blocks have a fabric foundation, I don't want batting and backing as it will be too heavy. Another baby quilt...


And finally.





24. "Arty" Autumn Quilt. 28x32. Ancient. This is from a book called Easy Art Quilts, which I made several things from, a long time ago. This is one of those that I forgot I had - it was in a drawer and I recently (well, a year or so ago) rediscovered it and decided I really liked it and should finish it. I still think that!

So, that's the tops. You can see why I can afford to give some away! Later, when I've a bit more time, I'll do the blocks and the handful of projects which are at some in-betweeny stage (most of my projects are at either block stage or top stage - but not all of them, of course - that would be too easy).