Finished finished

Including the binding. The pattern, which I love, can be found here. 

Blue baby quilt

Another day spent quilting (not the whole day, mind you) - I finished this baby quilt (finished quilting it, that is - the binding, while attached, isn't sewn down yet, so it still looks slightly unfinished) for an old friend of the family (someone I used to babysit) who is having a baby in September, I think. She lives in the States, so I will have my mother take the quilt back with her when her visit is finished - hence the need to quilt it now.  I used a simple meander with some loops thrown in. It's quick and cheerful.  And yes, she's having a boy.

I also started quilting another quilt for a friend, also to be taken back to the US with my mother, so it too needs to be finished soon. I made good progress on it, but as I decided it wanted to be done in a (admittedly fairly large) clamshell pattern, it will take longer to finish. Plus it's bigger than this one, anyway.  Photos of that later, when it's done.

Cotton Robin quilting

Well, today I managed to quilt the first of the several pieces I need to quilt soon - one, this one, is a round robing with a deadline. The other two are things that I'm hoping to send back to the US with my mother when she goes. One's a baby quilt, so it won't take long; the other is a little larger. But the binding takes time as well...  Anyway. This needed quilting as it has a mailing deadline at the end of the month, so I really don't want it to be late. It did arrive to me very late, but still. Anyway, this is a very tiny closeup of some of the quilting and won't really give anything away, so I figured it was safe. And I didn't want people to think no work was being done!

More scraps going...

A couple more tops for Project Linus, from scrappy bits and pieces, including a bit of novelty fabric I wasn't sure I was ever going to use for anything...

Cross stitch update

Quite a bit done this week, although it may not look like a lot - those solid fill areas take a while and actually the oatmeal (whitish) petals on the flower took a lot longer than I thought they would. 

More on Nadia's batik

These are some blocks (half the number needed) for Nadia's batik quilt - they will make the next round around the existing piece. I decided to do them in a variety of colours as the final two rounds will be solid colour - I'm hoping they won't end up too busy - I guess we'll see, once the rest of them are done and I have them laid out around the centre...

Blue and Orange French Braid

These are some "French Braids" - I decided to do something a little different with my sewing time, rather than work on one of the ongoing projects (not quite ready to quilt the Round Robin yet - still thinking about it)  - These used small pieces - FQ or smaller - in a variety of blues - the ones at the top are pale blue, though it doesn't really show in the photo. I think I will find another orange to sash between them and border around them, and then, who knows...

Cross stitch update

This hasn't been a week of huge progress, although there was some - the central vines are fuller and I've started the flowers. There was also a bit done in the central path, which may not actually show in the photo as I think it's under where I moved the frame to - not highly exciting, frankly.  Still, progress is progress.  I've been quite tired in the evenings, so I tend not to cross-stitch as much when that's the case, because I hate to make mistakes and have to pull stuff out.

More work on the batik quilt

I added three borders today, all mitred. The first was the sort of stripy fabric in browns with a little purple and orange in it (doesn't show much in this photo). 

The second is a narrow orange border, really kind of rust coloured, with trees, though they don't show much in this narrow of a strip.  I plan to use this fabric again as the very outside border.

And finally, another border of the original stripe.

Next step, I have decided, is a border of framed four patch blocks, using some light batiks like the ones in the centre, crossing the green blocks, and a variety of miscellaneous batiks with them. Then there will be two solid borders and that's that.  Of course, first I have to do those framed four patches - I need 32 of them.  But that's a job for another day!

Blue and taupe top

Another set of blocks put together into a top. Of course, while putting these together, I was making more blocks, so I'm not sure I've reduced the overall block pile, though I have once again reduced some of the scraps. Never as many as I think I am going to, when I set out, though.

Another flying goose...

This is the May colour on the So Scrappy Scrap Challenge - yellow. Amazingly, I actually had enough yellow scraps to make this one with only cutting into two slightly larger pieces. Last year I would have had enough yellow scraps, but since I got rid of lots of them last year, they were a bit thinner on the ground this year...

Finished baby quilt

Finished the binding on this one now, so it can go off to its new home with baby Arya. No more baby quilts to make that I know of, but they do always seem to come in bunches...

Cross stitch update, finally

A good start made on the flower on the right hand side of the stem  - a lot better than last week, when I didn't stitch at all, and therefore didn't blog any cross-stitch progress...

Flying geese

Finally catching up with the geese - I still have May to do (yellow) but as it's actually still May, I don't feel too bad about that one!

More scraps out...

In my continuing quest to rid myself of scraps, I made this little top for PL from some 4" crumb blocks I had. There were 21, so I set them on point, even though it makes a kind of unbalanced top with more red spare at one side than the other (thought it occurs to me on seeing this photo, that it would probably look better the other way up). 

Of course, then I decided I was tired of making scrappy log cabins, and would stop doing them (I have 100 x 8" ones, and 48 x 6" ones already made) and go back to crumb blocks for the rest of the small scraps - here they are in a shoebox. They will be used as leaders and enders over the next few months, so there won't be a sudden accumulation of crumb blocks or anything...

Goals!

So, now that it's May, I should probably go back and make sure I did what I was meant to in April...

• April blocks for block lotto - yes, done. Need to mail them!
• circular flying geese blocks for March and April - no.  But I hope to do them this weekend.
• at least one charity quilt top  - yes, a bumper month for tops. A little Irish Chain, some Criss-Crosses, a sashed top to use up some crumb blocks, a strippy block top, one in dull browns and greens,  a simple top with squares using up a herb fabric, a top in pink and blue,  one of these two framed four patch tops (the other I'm keeping), and these two little batik tops. I also have a feeling there's one I haven't blogged yet, but that's ok, I can count in in the month I blog it!  That makes 10 for April. 
• two baby quilts quilted - yes, both done. One with the disappearing nine patches, one with the stretched stars. 

As for May, I shouldn't think I'll be getting up to quite as much, as I don't, unfortunately, have two weeks off in May.  But still, there should be goals:

• May blocks for block lotto
• circular flying geese blocks for March, April, May
• at least one charity quilt top
• baby quilt for Cally
• work on Nadia's batik quilt

One I prepared earlier...

Having shown some of my blocks yesterday, I thought I'd show what happens when you put some of those scrappy log cabins together as a top - busy, yes, but kind of a fun top nonetheless.  Still, that won't be what I do with all of them - some of them will either go with other blocks or have other things done to the block first (like the borders I did on the ones shown yesterday).

Block sets

I was recently congratulating myself on having used up (or given away) all the sets of blocks I had accumulated over the years from swapping - and this is true, I have!  However, this does not mean I'm without sets of blocks which want to be assembled into quilt tops.  Thought I'd share them with you - lucky you.  These ones above are little - 3.5" - and will probably end up being bordered with something before being used. There are only 16, so they definitely need more happening to them before they can make even a small quilt top.  They were an ender and leader project from a stack of brown squares I had in my scraps. 

These are the 8"  scrappy log cabins I've been making this year to get rid of strings/strips.  I'm sort of not counting these because they are a work in progress, though I do intend to use some up as I go along.  At the moment, there are 91 of them.  I might make some in a smaller size as well - perhaps 6". 

Here are 20, 7" framed four patches - the four patches in the centres were made from blue 2" squares from my huge box of 2" squares; the blue and taupe borders were from FQ or smaller pieces. This will probably be the next thing I use as an ender/leader project - putting these into a top. 

Don't even ask why I had so many of these HST units with the batik stripes - I couldn't tell you. There are getting to be progressively fewer as the months go past and someday, I may even use them all up. At the moment, there are 5 light blue, 19 purple and 38 dark blue. They are 7" blocks.

These are another fairly new addition - 15 of the plaid hot crossed nine patch blocks. I made 9 for the block lotto in April; these were what I could make with the rest of the plaid fabric in my stash (admittedly not much - I'm not a big hoarder of plaids).  Again, they simply need to be pieced into a top and will be done soon.

These are 30,  7" blocks I made today using some of my 4" crumb blocks and some pink and orange hand dyes, where I had small, not particularly useful pieces. Not sure how I will lay them out yet.

These are the last of the 4" crumb blocks I made for using small scraps in the past - there are 21 of them, apparently. They are small, so something will probably happen to them - borders, sashing, something.

This is the last of the string hearts from last year's scrapbusting - there are 19 of them in mostly brown, black and green.   They are lurking because I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them.  19 is an awkward number.

...and finally, another thing I did today - I took 20 of the log cabins and bordered them with (different) more or less solid hand-dyes - again, using up some smaller, less useful pieces in my stash. These blocks will create a very different quilt top than the ones with the log cabins simply put together side by side - I have a photo of a top done that way which I have yet to blog - soon!

More using things up

Here's another instance of people doing things with stuff I've passed along - this photo came from Sarah's blog - her quilt ministry has made a lovely quilt using a flimsy I sent along to her - the string hearts - with several borders added. It looks fantastic and will go off to someone who hopefully will be really comforted by it. If Sarah lived in the UK rather than the US, I'd send her a lot more flimsies as her quilt ministry is always able to use them and often turns them into really interesting pieces. As it is, I try to send her stuff when my mother comes to visit (she lives in the US, so she'll take a parcel back to the states and post it for me, so it doesn't cost so much).

People using things up!

Those of you who hang out here a lot will know that I sometimes give stuff away that I don't want any more - quilt tops sometimes, but more often leftover blocks or sets with which I am no longer enamoured, other other bits and pieces. As far as I'm concerned, what then happens with those things is only of interest to me as a matter of curiosity - that is, people are under no obligation whatever to use the things I send them quickly - or at all - and I never check up on them or try to make them feel guilty.  However, it IS fun to see what happens to these things, when something happens.  Two people I've passed things on to have recently been in touch to say they were using those things, so I thought you'd all be interested to see..

First up, Kathy used some crumb blocks which I sent her - not sure if I sent her the 4" blocks or the 6", though I'm thinking they were the 6" because I don't have any of those left and I still have stacks of 4", which I seem to be able to use for things more readily than the 6".  I love what she's done with them - her design does tone them down a bit and make them cheerfully busy, rather than manic. Well done Kathy for a FINISH!  Hoorah!



And Lynne used some HST units (which were offcuts from my red scrappy string heart blocks) to form the centre of some log cabin blocks. She's not finished with her project yet, but it's a great start.  I've pinched this photo from her blog - hopefully she won't mind - but you'll have to go over to her place to see the log cabins themselves...