Pineapple!

Finished. There are some threads to trim, but essentially, it's done. Oh, and I have about 20 more labels to sew onto the back - everyone who made a block for me for this quilt also sent a label. Some people made more than one block. I've sewed 4 labels on so far - I can see the label sewing taking some time... But it's done, it's usable - and it's very good looking, if I do say so myself. Thanks once again to everyone who made a block for this quilt and double (or more) thanks again to Sophie, who organised it.

Finished quilting

I had some time this morning to work, so I decided I'd finish up the brown pineapple quilt - hoorah. So here it is, in all its glory. As the blocks for this quilt were made by a wide variety of people on different machines and around the world, they are not all precisely the same sizes or colours, but on the whole, it went together fairly well. The squares in where the blocks meet do have the odd corner a little off, but in general I do like the effect. Not sure what colour I will bind it with yet - I'd love to use the red, but I don't think I have enough, so perhaps a dark brown. But I'm not going to do that for a few weeks, probably, as there are some other things I really need to work on in February and early March.

Blue Winter Hillside

Well, I didn't really work on this piece today, other than to attach a label, but as it's going in the post tomorrow or Tuesday (to someone in another country - which I don't think gives much away as there are only two or three of us in the UK playing along this time!) I thought I'd show it again with the beading done and the binding sewn down. You probably can't see that in addition to lots of blue beads in the trees, there are also a number of clear beads sewn into the sky - terribly hard to photograph, but in person, it does add sparkle. Anyway, I'm hoping its new owner will be pleased with it - I was very happy with how it came out.

I did actually do some work today, but it was yet more pineapple quilting - nearly done now - there is only about an 18" strip left to do, so probably one more good session will finish the quilting. Hoorah! And now that I've finished with the very centre of the piece, it will be much easier for my poor little machine to cope with. Actually, the machine copes very well, despite having only a normal sized throat - it's my shoulders and arms which suffer, with trying to manouevre all that fabric around under a little DSM.

Brown Pineapple

...not something which would normally sound appealing, perhaps, but in this instance, I might make an exception. I had a few hours this afternoon where the kids just wanted to play the new DS game and watch a DVD, so after having a look at my list of February projects and goals I decided I'd tackle some quilting on the pineapple quilt. This is not a project I can do when I only have a short amount of time, because it requires me to move my sewing machine to the dining room table (I can do small quilts upstairs at my machine, but nothing bigger than a baby quilt - just not enough room on the table). Likewise, it's not something I can do when the dining room table is being used for crafts or homework or eating...

Anyway, without spending too much time thinking about how to quilt it, I started in - went with a meander with spirals and suns, in brown thread. I did consider pink, but decided it was too in-your-face. Debated a darkish red, but in the end, though the brown was really what I wanted as the pattern of the pineapple is striking enough that I don't need to add really showy quilting to it. I finished about half of it, maybe a little less, which is a really good start on it. We are around tomorrow for at least the morning, so I might give it another crack and see how far I get.

I don't really want to quilt up all my larger tops on the DSM, but there are a few which it would be nice to get done, including this one.

Bento Boxes

There has been quite a bit of discussion on one of my yahoo groups (BQL - British Quilting List) - about Bento Box quilt blocks (aka quarter log cabin), and being me, I have been itching to make some. But I don't really need more blocks or more unfinished projects, so I was resisting. Today, however, it occurred to me that I need to have several 12" blocks to send to Margaret along with my centre for the Spring Fling Round Robin 3 (in lieu of postage payment), so I could satisfy my urge to piece without actually creating more blocks for myself. Almost. I grabbed my shoebox full of 2.5" strips and went to work - I created 12 (four shown above left), 12" blocks suitable for use in boy quilts for Project Linus (this is what Margaret will be using her blocks for) and have also started on some girl ones - admittedly, I only needed to produce two 12" blocks, but I know she'll be happy of extras - and she does a lot of work hostessing this swap and others, so I thought a little extra wouldn't go amiss.


I also made four (or rather, they will be four once the quarters are joined) for myself from some strips I forgot I had - they came in with my Christmas Booty Quilt from Toni as part of the packaging and though I love these retro prints, there weren't really enough to do much with - in fact, I have added 4 strips of an Amy Butler fabric which is not the same range, but just about matches enough to work. This piece, I will keep for myself, I think - unless an occasion comes up which demands it, of course.


While doing all this (and several loads of laundry, which seems to be my main function in life most of the time!) I also managed to pin baste the brown pineapple quilt - hoorah! - the last of my Janaury goals can be struck off the list - not bad, considering I didn't make the trip out to get the batting until the 31st of January. Of course, my mother arrives Wednesday and then it's half-term the week after, so my free time for sewing in February is going to rapidly diminish. Might be able to squeeze one or two things in, but frankly, it's a good thing I got a lot of them done in early February.

For the birds

Five ATCs for a swap on FAT (Fibre Art Traders). The theme is "For the Birds" - and I used these lovely birds - I've used one once before on an ATC - they are taken from some paper napkins I found in Sainsbury's. I used fusible interfacing behind them to give the tail some shape where it hangs off the edge, and also to stabilise the main body of the bird so I could FMQ it to the background. The backgrounds are a variety of pre-prepared ATC bases cut from various bits and pieces of technique trials, leftovers, discarded projects and so on.


I lalso tried to accomplish the last January item in my sidebar goals today (baste the brown pineapple quilt), only to discover that the large bit of batting I have is about 4 inches too narrow down one side - I don't really have enough bits to piece around it, so will have to pop to a quilt shop before I can do that task. I did piece the backing, though, so at least that's out of the way (only two piece of fabric to put together, but still, it's done).

Oh, and I did spend some time today watching television - in the afternoon, which is unusual for me, but in this instance, well worth it. I won't comment at length here on this blog, but I did say a bit more over on my family blog. Here, I'll just say that I'm sure you all know MY political persuasion - no matter what your own political views are I hope you will all join me in wishing our new President luck in making some inroads into all the serious situations facing both the US and the world.

Saturday stuff

Finally, a bit of a day to call my own - only the morning, but at least it was something - tomorrow will be another lost day, of course, with the summer fair at school, but I do feel a little better about my week!

First order of business was a journal quilt - I've gone for quick and cheerful - used the reject NYB block, quilted it with blue rayon thread, and hey presto - journal quilt!

Then I decided it was time to finish assembling the pineapple quilt top - having gone to the trouble to buy the red inner border fabric. I notice from this picture that I have obviously put a few blocks together in a different pattern from what I originally laid out - it had the paler blocks sort of flowing across the top, and now they are kind of clustered on one side. But I'm still happy with it and no WAY am I going to take it apart now. And now it will go on the "to be quilted" list - near the top, but not quite at the very top, as there are one or two things which need to be done first. Maybe next week I'll have some time to get to the next one...

Friday again

Although I did do some work today, it was only putting together the tops I showed yesterday, so essentially, they look the same as they did yesterday. I did move a few of the pineapple blocks around, but otherwise, nothing has changed. Not too exciting, but I only had about an hour free to work, what with one thing and another.

So instead of showing that, I'll show what came in the post - two more lotto blocks, these from Jana, and 8 fat eights of Japanese fabric, from my Just Japanese club. And that's all she wrote...

Rivers and stuff

Finished up the river postcards (below) and did this week's journal quilt as well - using a river like the ones on the postcards, and a sun like the ones in the sun postcards - only with this one, I used my little soldering iron to trim the sheer around the sun. And a wee bird charm just for fun.



Also spent some time playing with two other things - the first is the set of pineapple blocks I received from various quilty friends as a comfort gift when my dad died in the autumn. The wonderful Sophie organised these pineapples, and I have been trying to find an arrangement for them. There are actually 37 blocks, so I played with arrangements of 35 (5x7) and 36 (6x6) and decided in the end on the arrangement below. The main challenge with arranging these blocks is that some of them have black corners and some have brown. The black ones work much better on the diagonal, so I have decided to keep them clustered together. This arrangement leaves out two blocks - one of which has some black corners and some brown, so it was very hard to use, and the other of which had brown corners, but I chose to leave it out because the fabrics were less tone-on-tone than some of the others and therefore stood out more. The two extra blocks I will either make into cushion covers or use on the back, or find another use for. Now it only remains to sew them together. And decide if it wants a border. And quilt it. And...probably I shouldn't have used the word "only"! Looking at it again, I can see some of the black blocks are very light in the brown logs, so I might move them around a bit. but the basic idea stands.



The second thing I am working on is the background for a challenge quilt with my small virtual group - the challenge is to do something with the theme "Forest" - I used lots of fabrics with trees on them - I've been hoarding them for a while now. Once they are together, I will do lots and lots of quilting (trees, of course) on it, adding various other things, like fibres and who knows what all else. I imagine it will take a while, but luckily, it's not due until September.

Lazy(ish) Sunday

Well, despite kids demanding my attention and husbands (well, only one) deciding to do stuff in the garden which then required him to ask me questions every 10 minutes (what is it with that?) I did manage to get some work done - these are the fronts and backs of the little notebooks from yesterday - I didn't do a lot to them, just a layer of sizeflor (coloured lutradur) and some embellishments - but they do make sweet little notebooks. I might well do some more of them - worth popping into Muji next time I'm in Kingston, at least.

And I also did some more little double four patches - these look a little odd, as there are some very dark and very light ones, and almost no mediums. But they'll all be fine when all 75 of the little beasties are together...

Also below, the two pineapples which came yesterday, which I promised to show - and here they are. These are from Nina. Thanks Nina!

More beach, less sewing

There was no sewing done in the house today - well, not until this evening, when I sewed down some binding on the Four Seasons Quilt - will finish that tomorrow probably and show it then. But the lack of sewing was fine - we had a lovely day out (lots of photos over here) and I brought back a few wee treasures, which I might be able to use in future work (well, not the pebble so much - I just thought it was pretty). The kids collected many more bits and pieces, but I was going for small, relatively flat, and interesting.

Did get some nice post today - a brown postcard for an upcoming brown swap - a pineapple from Dorothy for my pineapple quilt and the newest Quilting Arts (despite them telling me I needed to renew my sub, I keep receiving it - I think they start reminding you to renew about 10 issues in advance...). I am not renewing my sub to this, or to any of my other quilting magazines - I just never seem to have time to read them and try any of the projects. Seems a waste to me. Doesn't mean i won't pick up some copies at shows, etc, but I am going to stop subscribing to them all. Probably even the online ones, though I haven't decided for certain about that yet.

All in a morning's work

Although we had plans today, they were for lunch and the afternoon with friends, so the morning was free. Luckily for me, the children decided that what they really wanted to do with their morning was lounge around in their pyjamas (not something we do much of in this house), watch rubbish on telly and then play on the computers. Which, frankly, seemed fair enough as this is the third day of the holiday and so far, they've had to get up and get started in the mornings due to long lists of things to be done, and will have to do so again tomorrow and Friday. And probably Monday. And Thursday next week. The fact that this meant I was likely to be able to get an hour or two's sewing in had nothing to do with my decision to encourage such sloth. (Sure it didn't.)

Anyway. I got the binding attached to the Four Seasons Quilt - now to stitch it down, do the label, and get it in the post - deadline is 1 May, so plenty of time for that, but I'd like to get it off before we go up to Geoff's mum's next week, just to have it out of the way. Still, it should only take me one evening to do the binding - the quilt is only 20" square (well, technically, I think it's 22" - hopefully that will be ok). And I also finished up some more little double four patches in the taupe/Japanese fabrics. I think that's 28 or so done; I need 75, so it will be a while before I get to the assembly stage. And as I have a number of other things with deadlines coming up, it may get put to the side, but it's a good project for the moment as it can be done in very small amounts, so is good if you keep getting interrupted.

One of the the things I have to think about is a new commission (yes, a paid one) - the sister of friend who I made a quilt for was very taken with it, and has asked if I'd make her something. After explaining that I was happy to make her something but that a)it wouldn't be just like the one I made Caroline and b)quilts cost money, she's still happy to commission, so I am happy to make, though luckily, she knows it won't be right away. I've potentially another commission in the wings as well, once I get my Hawaiian shirt quilts finished, so I'm very pleased about that. And slightly nervous, as one always is, I think, with commissions. I won't be really working on this quilt for my friend's sister just yet, but ideas will be brewing in the back of my mind and I may have to acquire fabric (tragedy, I know).

And speaking of acquisitions, here's what came in the post today. Four more pineapples, from Sophie - two actually from her, and two which had slipped down behind a table and therefore didn't make it with the original batch. I need to go count how many I have - I know there are a few more on the way, but I think it's getting to the point where I will have to plan what I am going to do with them. And see how many more I need to make...

And the postcard is the final one from the fastenings swap, this one from Kandy, who has cleverly used hooks and eyes in her design - really pretty, isn't it! A fun swap, in all.

Monday miscellany

Well, here's what I did this morning (well, two or three are from yesterday) before we went out and spent all our money (new bike for Sarah, a few clothes for both girls including a pair of trainers for one, clarinet books, bike helmet for Olivia, etc etc) - I also got some more work done on the puzzle postcards, but they aren't finished yet - maybe tomorrow, though the morning at least is full of errands again (school shoes this time, dentist appointment, bank, Weight Watchers weigh in, woolworths).


And I got some fun stuff in the post:





both of these items are from Karen in Niceville, Florida (wouldn't you love to live in Niceville? I mean, I've never been there, no idea what it's like, but what a great name). Two blocks are for the pineapple comfort quilt, the other is from the orange swap I did a while back - the block got sent back to her (eventually) apparently because of "addressee unknown" - who knows why, as the address was completely right and was the same one she used the second time. Ah, the wonders of the postal service... Karen always does lovely work, so it's a joy to get blocks from her.

Journal Quilt Project - Week 19

I decided to work on my journal quilt for the week today, and pin together the next Hawaiian shirt quilt - I can only do a little bit of that at a time or the safety pins start to hurt my fingers, so it's useful to have something else to do as well. Given how lovely a week I've had with receiving things in the post, I decided it would be fun to do a quilt using only items I had received from other people - not counting things I've bought, though allowing things I have swapped for. And so, this JQ is made up entirely of things from others, except for the vilene (stabiliser inside), the thread I used and the paper on the back. I know where some of these items came from, but some I can't remember for certain - and it's certainly the case that far more people have sent me things than are represented here - I have had things because of swaps, as birthday presents, things I won in giveaways, things sent as thank you's for things I've sent (which I wasn't asking for anything in return for - hence, not a swap), as extras with a purchase from a seller on eBay or etsy, as consolation squishies when my dad died, and sometimes, just as RAKs (random acts of kindness) - that is, for no reason at all, other than the fact that people are nice. I wanted to celebrate that with this quilt - what better way than to use some of the things!


Here are some of what they are - the background is a piece of shibori, made by Ann H, which recently arrived with the shibori swap from my dyeing group. The three square pieces of fabric and the metallic button are from the scavenger hunt swap I did with Angela on Arts in the Mail - oh and the butterfly is cut from a square of fabric from that swap. The green silk strip, piece of marbled fabric and the fleur-de-lis stencil paper are from the grab-bag I won on Susan's blog. The red snowflake stamped in Angelina was made by chaos for an angelina technique swap in my surface embellishment group. The narrow strip of pale blue felt was one of the things I received (in bigger pieces) with my Valentine's Swap from Amy. The feather was in a recent goodie bag from Karol-Ann, sent from South Africa and was hand-collected by her lovely self. The "PEACE" letter beads are from Cathi, who sent them because she thought I'd use them more than she would. (I wanted to put LOVE to go with the heart, but there was no L - oh well!) The white lace flower was in a recent surprise RAK package from Penny. The bit of interesting thread/ribbon across the top of the piece was a free bobbin which came with an order of ephemera and bits from The Fruit Pixie. The eyelash yarn around the edge came from the stash of Annie, who sympathised with my moanings about the cost of eyelash yarn over here, when one only used it for trim rather than a whole scarf and sent me dozens of colours (ok, maybe a dozen - but it was a lot!). The piece of silk mesh (behind the felt and rhinestone flower) came in a wee package of silk scraps with a Christmas Card from Annica. The peach flower button is from Julie. The shamrock charm and the rhinestone flower came from someone(s) but I can't remember who. It's possible they might have come from Anne or Jane, who sent me bits back when my dad died. (If either of you ladies recognises one of those as being from you, leave a comment and I'll edit my post to say!) And if I got any of them wrong, please correct me - mostly I was doing it from memory, and we know what that's like...

As you can see, a great collection of stuff - and there many more things I have been sent on various occasions, which haven't made it into this little 8x8 journal quilt.




The other thing I did, in addition to pinning the other Hawaiian Quilt (which took ages - I had to finish after the kids got home from school, which means my littlest helper helped lay out the pins ready for pinning...) was to cut some pieces for a mystery quilt I am going to do over here on nancyrose's blog. Believe it or not, I have never done a mystery quilt before (being one of those control freak people who like to see where things are going before they start) - but I have a rather large selection of 5" squares (nickels) and so was tempted to try this, which uses 71 of them for a small quilt - along with some other fabric, of course. And because the instructions are posted every two weeks, I figured I'd have time to keep up. I plan to put it aside as a baby quilt, or, if I don't like it enough, give it to Project Linus. I have pulled out nickel charms in mostly pinks, greens & purples to try to keep it under control a little - needless to say, I haven't made a dent at all in my stacks of nickels. Oh well. Thanks to Helen, who tipped me off to this mystery by mentioning it on her blog...

And finally, not quite so interesting as yesterday's post, but still nice - I received, from Freida, two more blocks for my pineapple quilt, and a nice selection of extra fabrics as I may need/want to make up some more blocks for myself to complete the quilt or make it the size or layout which works best...

Laugh & Log Cabins

Nothing to show of my own (I had an hour or so again today, but just didn't really feel like focussing on anything, so I read email for a little while then went back to school to sort some stuff in the library and uniform shop) but I have lots of fun things to show from the post. First, yesterday's treasure - I knew this was coming - I ordered it from Nikki Wheeler's new etsy shop as a present for a friend. Isn't it lovely?

And today, I got this parcel in the post. Remember a few days ago I got a couple of brown, black & pink pineapple blocks in the post? Well, here are the bulk of the ones that were made for me back in the autumn when Sophie started organising the project. Sophie's original intent was to put them together into a quilt and have it quilted by a longarmer friend, but with her ongoing health issues, the project had been temporarily set aside (more blocks were needed to make a larger piece), so I suggested she just send the blocks to me as they were and I will at some point put them together in some way - at the moment I am waiting to see if anyone else sends blocks along, as some women in the groups have offered to send a few more.

I also got this great brown & pink backing fabric (and coordinating pink piece) and the signature blocks from the women who made blocks for me. I'm really bowled over by them - they are great blocks (see me avoiding using the word "lovely"? I know I over-use it) and I look forward to working with them.

All kinds of everything

Well, it's a good thing I had the entire day today (mostly) to sew as I won't be getting anything done tomorrow - I had a call this afternoon from the school asking if I could go on the trip with the year 3&4's tomorrow (Olivia is going). As my only official plans were sewing and running the school uniform shop for half an hour in the afternoon (one of the school secretaries has said she'll cover that) I felt I could hardly say no. No one can say I'm not a good mum - sacrificing an entire day with no plans but me time to travel across London on a coach full of 7, 8 & 9 year olds to visit the RAF museum... I'm sure it will be fun, right? Of course it will!

So, it's a good thing I got lots done today. First thing I did was finish up a pencil roll for the party Alex is going to on Saturday - I had one about half done from before, so that was quick. I promise a tutorial on the pencil roll fairly soon - maybe next week - several people have asked, and it's not hard, but I just need to remember to take photos as I go along. I still have 3 more to do before this series of parties is finally finished.

Then I made a block for the birthday block swap on about.com - this block is for Debbie, who wanted stars in black and taupe on a cream background. It came out nicely, I think. And then, I rewarded myself by working on something not on my goal list - the blocks for the little spring Four Seasons Sampler I was planning yesterday. I knew I wouldn't be able to leave it alone. This is why I've been keeping goal lists lately - I tend to get distracted. I usually meet all my deadlines, but sometimes things get left behind until the last minute, especially if it's something which doesn't excite me quite as much as something new. So, by keeping lists of goals and deadlines, I'll hopefully be able to keep track a little better and not worry I'm leaving something out.

Anyway, I made up the blocks for the sampler and am very happy with them - they look nice and spring-like to me. Not sure how I will arrange them (though not like in the photo as I've just noticed the shoo-fly and the churn dash next to each other and that doesn't really work). I'm going to let them sit awhile and tell me how they want to be sashed. Maybe next week I will work on them - I've got more on my schedule next week, so my goals for the week will be fewer than this week.



And finally, here's some lovely post - two blocks from Rho as part of a group of blocks that were made for me as a comfort quilt back when my dad died. The blocks haven't been put together yet, partly because there was a shortage of blocks and partly because Sophie, whose lovely idea it was in the first place had been unable to work on it for health reasons. Anyway, Sophie is sending me the blocks she had (they're in the post now, actually, unless they got held up by the tons of snow it's been dumping on Michigan lately) and a few others are sending a few more blocks along to me - these are the first of those. Aren't the colours great? (Well, you know how I feel about brown!)

And on the right, a total surprise in the post from Penny in Australia - a whole bag of goodies. And lovely goodies they are. There's a card made from fabric paper with some cute chooks on it, a "danglie" which is now hanging in my sewing room with some of my other treasures (I decided not to put it onto a keyring or my bag for fear it would break), also a little painting/drawing - looks sort of like a watercolour but not quite - not sure what it was done with but it's lovely. And a bit of lace and an inchie. I think it was Susan who said I get the nicest things in the post - today it's definitely true!