A little playing with new fabric

To celebrate having some "new" fabric to play with, I decided to take some blocks I had sitting around - these scrappy log cabin blocks with HST centres, which I had in various sizes (a result of using different width strips when making them):

and add some borders to the outside, in neutral and green. Now all the neutral (12) and green (9) bordered blocks are 12" squares, so they can be combined in various ways to make some quilt tops. I'd quite like to put the greens and neutrals together in a couple of tops together as I think they would look nice, but that's a project for a different day...

That left me with 16 blocks which were 8" squares, which also can either be combined as is, or perhaps have another round around them in due course. 

Treasure!

I am doubly lucky today - not only has my mum arrived for a visit, but she brought me all the remaining fabric from her house: I sorted through her stash last time I was in the US, to see what I'd like to keep, but didn't have space to bring it home in my luggage. Plus a friend sent me a load of stuff she was getting rid of, some of which I took home with me and some of which I didn't have space for.  She's brought me small parts of the stash before, but this was all the rest of it, and quite a bit to boot, so it's like Christmas here at Chez North.  Lots and lots of lovely pieces. The stuff in the bottom two photos is small pieces, mostly FQ size; the upper two pictures are larger pieces - the neutrals are 2 or 3 metres each, and the other are mostly half metres, with a few one metre pieces.  A lot of them are tonals, which will be really useful. Exciting times!

Blue, Gold and Red log cabin

This scrappy log cabin top has been hanging around a little while waiting to be bordered (as so many things in my house do). After auditioning a variety of stuff, I decided that this dark red print suited it really well.

You can see that with a centre like this, it could have gone a variety of ways. There is a little dark red in the blue print, but you can't really see it at this resolution.

Here are the blocks lurking in my collection of block sets, waiting to be assembled into a top...

Here are some of them when I made them - though this only shows 9, not 12. 

This one shows the blue border print a bit better - you can see the red in it, here.

Another strippy quilt bordered

I was talking about the development of scrap quilts with a friend the other day and got to thinking that it would be interesting to show more development of my scrappy pieces when I blog them - I'll probably still blog them in stages, but because I tend to have long gaps between making the blocks and putting them together and then again before bordering them, it would be interesting to see the process a bit more at the end. So, when I can find the before/after photos, I might give it a go!  Here's a little Linus top with a green border - it was one of several I put together 

using a big pile of blocks I made to use up scrappy strips.

This is what the individual blocks looked like, waiting to be assembled into tops...

ATC Friday

These two sets of round robin cards were sent to me outside of my normal round robin group (which is fine)...I enjoyed working on them anyway. I wasn't really sure what to add to the one with aubergines, until I remembered my big old dictionary, which I picked up in a charity shop - I went with definitions of eggplant, food, edible or something like that. And then added a few circles for interest in the top right corner. 

This one, on the other hand, seemed to sort of finish itself. The word "knit" seemed a no-brainer, though when I looked at my letters, I realised I didn't have enough for all three - but purl is always an option, too!  (Knit two, purl one...)  And the ribbon woven through made a fun effect in the end.

QST centres in blacks and neutrals

And so begins the task of turning small blocks into larger blocks - it's an on-going cycle of block-making in my house - small scraps become small blocks, which added to other small pieces (or sometimes larger ones) become full-size blocks, which get sewn together into tops and bordered - and the offcuts from the borders go into the scrap basket to start it all again!

String and Stripes

Another of the tops made from various string blocks I had before - you've seen the centre, but here it is with a border on it...

String Squares - small to larger

All those little string squares made from short strings have now been joined to make larger string square blocks.... Just waiting to be joined up completely, and then bordered.

Log Cabin Redux

This is a top which I gave away a while back when I was having a clear out. Dolores and her quilting friends enlarged it a little, added some borders and quilted it up; they will now donate it as a fundraiser for the church which one of them attends. Isn't it nice to see things finished and going to good homes!

...and look - they've even given me a credit on the label!

A previous post shows the progress of the top, for those interested...

Simple Charm Quilt II

...and here's the other of the two simple charm quilts, with a stripy border. This is the one which is a little less girly. Not that I am really into gender stereotypes, but you gotta group fabric together somehow... Maybe I should just have said pink/less pink!

Simple Charm Quilt I

Here's one of the two simple charm (5" square) quilts, with a border on it. This is the one which is more girly.

ATC Friday

All of these cards are ones where I was the middle player - so you can see all three steps - the finished product, what it looked like to start with, and what it looked like after my addition to it. I always think these are the most fun to look at...

(how it started)

(I added some themed sequins)

The finished product...

how it started...

I added some large medallions.

Finished product...

how it started...

I added the washi tape across teh top and a black decal.

Easy being green

One quilt with binding one - only two more to go. Plus a couple of small ones hanging about! This one has an intended purpose, though - a wedding present for an upcoming wedding - so it's good that it's done...

Cross Stitch Update

Not a lot of progress this week, as you can see, although I have begun to work my way into the second quarter - however, I did manage to get a quilt binding done (photos tomorrow), so that should count for something. I'll work on this one again next week as I haven't really done much with it this week...

Cross Stitch Patterns In

...but not bought - these two patterns were among those being given away by my friend Julie , so they've come to my stash totally free... I have all I need to stitch up the cow, except possibly the right colour fabric, so I might do it soon (or not); the other one needs some variegated threads, so I'll have to have a look through my collection and see what I have that would suit - I don't have anything in the brand mentioned, nor does my friendly UK supplier. Still, there are lots of other hand-dyes which might work...

Using up all those string blocks

I think this might be the end of them... Another top for the Linus pile.

Scrappy Strings with Leaf Border

Another little Linus top - some more of the scrappy string blocks, with a leaf print border. 

Scrappy Tumblers, bordered

Another little top which now has a border and can go in the Linus pile - this one came out really well, I think. I will definitely do some more scrappy tumblers, some day...

ATC Friday

Three sets of ATC Round Robins on which I was the third (and last) player - I added some butterflies and flowers to these blue butterfly cards, 

I added a fish to these fishy cards

and I added a partridge to this pear tree set (luckily I had a partridge in a pear tree stamp from a set of Christmas stamps)...

String squares with a flower border

As I said before, once the block sets are all together, the task of sewing some borders on begins... Here's one of them...