Overloaded scrap basket (and strip bag)

Nearly full - time to Do Something about these...but what?  Watch this space!

Chunky Windmills - finished

So here are the finished windmills - you can see not only the nice windmill in the centre of each block, but where the secondary windmills will be once the blocks are joined together - great effet, isn't it!

ATC Friday

Some more cards where I added the second round. On these cake cards, I put some found poetry - I don't know if allt he cards got cherries or whether the third item was individual to the different cards, but it works on this one.

And this crow with angel wings - I added some washi tape; the other embellishments were done by player no 3.

Half windmills

A step further in the chunky windmills blocks - the effect will be really obvious once the blocks are fully together.

Cross Stitch Update

It's been a while (well before Christmas) since I worked on this piece, but it was time to pull it out again and carry on working. I've made good progress in the lettering (lettering goes quickly, luckily) and in putting the framework for the border down the side. The pattern is printed in quarters, so the top half is finished, and I'm working on the bottom right at the moment. 

Chunky Windmills, part 2

These are the base units for the chunky windmills blocks - the main block is composed of four of these, so the next step is to put them together into pairs and then after that, into fours...

Katharine's Quilt

Had this one made for a while (beautifully longarm quilted by Lana at Bewitching Stitching), but couldn't show it yet, as it's a present, and has only been given today. 

A start on something else

Picked up a sheet of instructions for a simple block called the Chunky Windmill block for 50p (to benefit the Farnham Quilters) last weekend at Farnham Maltings Quilt Show & Sale, so I decided to have a go using some small piece of batik fabrics from my batik box - here's a start to it. The pattern trims off the waste triangles, but I have stitched another seam to make them into spare triangles to use in scrappy blocks later, of course.  This is only the first step to making the block; more to come!

Wonky 4 patches - finished up

There are loads of these little blocks, now tucked away with my block set stash to be part of some project down the road - not sure quite what, but something.

ATC Friday

A few more round robin cards, now finished. These are cards where I was the second player to work on them, so I can show the finished card (above), what it looked like after my addition (below)...

...and the starter card as it was when I got it.

Both of these have butterfly themes - one of them did before it came to me; the other one, I was responsible for adding butterflies.

Fabric in - the rest of the haul

A few (!) more bits of fabric in, from the Farnham Maltings show - two of these, possibly three are bindings for  quilts which have already been quilted or which are soon to be quilted. The purple spots is a backing for a top which already exists, and the blue and brown polka dots with birds is a "just because" fabric - it was very inexpensive.

This is two packs of FQs in a coordinated range, which I thought would be good for baby quilts, 

and finally, some bits and pieces from the bargin bin - the FQs are just because, including some nice novelties to use in Linus quilts, and the two Dr Who fabrics will become a cushion cover for an upcoming birthday.

Cross stitch update

Finished this little piece, as I assumed I would - now back to the big 13 colonies sampler, I think.  And I might start thinking about another bigger piece to work in rotation. Need to dig through my collection and see what I fancy working on so I can get the supplies in!

Fabric in - Part 2

More fabric acquired at Farnham Maltings, but once again, for a specific project. This one is going to be a Christmas tree skirt. I really liked the deer fabric, so decided to make it a focus and make very simple, quite large blocks on this one. Probably just large, bordered squares. But we'll see.

Fabric in...part 1

Went to Farnham Maltings yesterday, home of the annual quilt show by Farnham Quilters (and others) and The Big Fabric Sale.  There are lots of bargains (by UK standards at least) to be had, and it's often where I pick up backings for quilts, or cheap prints to use as borders for Linus Quilts. Sometimes I also have specific other things to buy.  This time, I was on the hunt for something suitable for a baby quilt for friend - nothing I have made up already is quite right, so my task was to hunt for a focus print and some coordinates...and here they are - more fabric than I will need for the quilt itself, but the tonals will be very useful in stash. Now I just need to make and quilt it (I have a few months, so it's not a problem). 

Block progress

You can see I've made a little progress on the scrappy blocks started yesterday - they are wonky 4 patches, a favourite for my random sewing projects because they are simple and interesting. I have a big stack still waiting to put together, but it was nice to get something sewed!

A little sewing on a cold day

Not a lot of time to sew today, but a little something started, with some 5" squares and some neutral fabrics...

ATC Friday

Some finished round robin ATCs. On all of these, I was the second person to add something, so I can show all three stages. On this card, I added the wooden decoration in the corner. 

...and on this one, I added the washi tape at top and bottom.

Courthouse steps

A finish!  This piece has been quilted for a quite a while, and even had the binding attached, but has just been waiting to be finished up. I finally got around to doing it, and it makes a nice lap-sized quilt for these cold January evenings.

Cross stitch update

After finishing the little mystery last week, I pulled out this one of the Little Sheep Virtues to work on. Not a lot left to do now, so I should finish it up next week, when I think it will be back to the 13 colonies.

(Some of) Ben's blocks

A few blocks progress on the quilts I am making for a friend, whose husband died. These quilts will be for their sons, from some of dad's shirts. This batch uses pieces from some of the softer fabric shirts, with stabiliser, and then bordered with strips from a shirt with better heft to it. 

A lovely bright orange border

I had hoped to have enough of this orange to border two quilts, but in order to get as wide a border as I wanted on this set of blue blocks, I had to sacrifice that... There's still quite a bit of orange to appear within blocks, though.

Small brown quilt with birds

Kind of an odd one, perhaps, but the bird border cheers it up...

Stash!

Many times out there in the internet world of quilting, you see someone's photos of their enormous stash and are either filled with horror or envy; mine is nothing to rival any of that. All the pieces which are half a metre or larger fit in this rather minimal cupboard, and all those boxes have other things in them - one has some non-quilting fabrics, the others have projects or in one case, pieces cut from t-shirts the kids have outgrown but were fond of, so which might end up as a quilt someday (especially Alex).   Still, there's a bit of fabric there, so I thought I'd pull it out at the beginning of the year and have a little inventory to remind myself what there is, where my shortfalls are, etc.  Especially as there's a big fabric sale I try to go to annually, which is next weekend.

These are three unusual pieces. The left is an old tablecloth, which will make a good back when I get a quilt the right size and style. The other two are hand-dyes (not my own) which I am saving for something. Not sure what.

Three large pieces, aimed at being backing fabrics. The hand dye on the right is one I did myself.

These are all fabrics from my "Linus libraray" and as such aren't really part of my stash - they are fabrics from Liz's Project Linus stash, which I've taken away to use as borders for Linus quilts. Or in the case of the front fabric, which is inferior quality, as foundation for string blocks.

Four largeish pieces of neutral fabric, always useful. 

These are all pieces where I have at least a metre but which might not be in a tradition shape, for whatever reason - offcuts from backing, for instance. They will find their way into quilts at some point. 

Prints bought with Linus quilts in mind, probably will end up being borders. 

Prints bought because I liked them, NOT with Linus quilts in mind. All 1 metre pieces.

And misc. 1 metre(ish) pieces, which will no doubt get incorporated into blocks, etc at some point. All quite good for toning.

And then there's my stash of half metre pieces - this photo above and the one below. Many of them are tonal, with a few prints of various sorts thrown in.  

All in all, it's not a huge stash - enough to inspire me to make quilts, but not enough to always find the fabric I need for something. 

Of course, I do have some boxes of smaller pieces as well - perhaps I'll show them at some point in the near future!