Orange & Blue French Braid

Here's something else I finished off this weekend - the four French braid strips I had from a month or so ago. Not sure what will happen to this, though it will go on the pile I keep (for the time being - it might someday be a gift) rather than the pile I give away, as I like the way it turned out.

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...

Geese Circles

After some more thought, I think I will redo the Farmer's Wife blocks in the taupes - I know I won't regret that, so it's better than trying to find some other piece of fabric in my stash which might work but I might get frustrated with partway through.

I do, however, have a plan for some of the batik stash - I'd like to make some of these blocks. I think I will do them with batik geese and either black or white backgrounds. Or perhaps some of each. Over here, there are links to the pattern, both using foundation piecing (which I will be doing) and templates, depending on what you like...

And as for the larger pieces of fabric I'd like to destash, well, there's always quilt backings!

More funky houses

These are some more funky houses, not from the blocks I had in stash, but made specially for two projects. This one above is part of what will be (providing I get it bound in time) the BQL Skinny Challenge for March/April. Here's the rest:



According to this month's guidelines, the piece will be 7.5x24". I think I made 8" blocks, so it might need a little trim, especially as it's not that heavily quilted.



And there are 4 more, this time joined into a square, which will get quilted up soon and donated to a school art show. Again, the blocks finish at 8".

Stained Glass

Progress was made today on the black crosses quilt - I am sewing the rows together as I go, to avoid that feeling of dread you get when you see a big pile of blocks waiting to be sashed and joined. There will be 4 more rows of blocks to come, and of course a black border all the way around it.

I also worked on some block lotto blocks today, which I can't show until February (which is - yikes! - two days away), but it does mean I got a lot of stuff sewn. And although the stained glass blocks didn't contribute much to the scrap basket, there were some offcuts and miscellany added due to the block lotto blocks. Although, I did also use some bits FROM the scrapbasket in making those blocks, too...

Skinny Challenge

Nope, I'm not on a diet (not yet, anyway - probably soon!) - this is a piece for a challenge that BQL (British Quilting List) is doing this year - several times through the year there will be a challenge in a specific size and those wishing to take part can make a piece, which will then be available for swapping in a similar way to the way my ALQS works. The first challenge, due at the end of February, was for a piece 12x18", so I decided to try out something like a small piece I saw on Julie's blog recently.

This uses some (but not much) of my collection of Lonni Rossi fabrics, which I love, but never seem to find enough chances to use (they are quite large prints, in many cases).



I think it's come out well. If no one puts it on their "want" list, I shall be more than happy to keep it at home!

Shoes done...

...and upside down in this photo, I have just realised - the black should be at the bottom of the windows. Not that it really matters. I do still have to add binding, of course, but the quilting is finished. Wonder what's next? Nothing tomorrow, as I work all day on a Monday. Though I do have a small pile of things to give away from the last sewing-room clearout - maybe I'll get around to finally doing that!

Shoes. And UFOs.

I did manage to squeeze some sewing in today, despite the 1001 errands and the temptation to sit in the sun all afternoon and read (I still did that - just not ALL afternoon). First, I made a couple of blocks for the May block lotto, but as that is still in sneak peek phase (i.e. secret until 1 May) I can't show photos. I can say, though, that the block was good fun to make, easier than you might think, a very cool choice of block to do, and involved lime green. What's not to like? I promise to post photos once it's public as I want to encourage people to give the block lotto in general and this block in particular a try.

Next up, I pulled out one of my UFOs (actually, I left it out the other day when measuring up) and layered, pinned and started quilting it. After a little time spent perusing Dijanne Cevaal's 72 ways not to meander or stipple, I decided to use a spiky frond pattern (or rather, my personal variation thereon). I love this book - it's great for ideas for quilt fillers which are a little different (especially for very small quilts, as some are quilt labour intensive). I frequently change the design slightly for one reason or another - and sometimes more than slightly - but it's a fabulous jumping off point when you are uninspired about what type of design to use. I am seriously thinking of buying the second one.

Anyway, this is the infamous (to some) shoe quilt. It's intended as a belated 40th birthday present for a friend in the US. I look forward to it being the first item crossed off on the UFO tabs.

And speaking of UFO tabs, you may notice there are now 4 of them - just too much stuff for one (or even two) so I have divided them up. Now I'm thinking about a finished quilts tab - or two...

Dresser Runner finished

Our original plans for today - to try to visit a lido (outdoor pool) near us - had to be put aside, partly because the weather was a bit dodgy and partly for Alex to go to the dentist, but I still managed to get some sewing time in, and my planned visit to the LQS (which is near the lido). In my sewing time, I finished quilting the dresser runner - I did take a photo of it which showed the entire length, but this one in the dining room actually shows the effect of the quilting much better. And a detail of the quilting - I just did lines across the width of the piece, with little seed heads, like grass plants. I thought it looked slightly oriental and it was simple to do.



The trip to the LQS produced the fabrics on the left - who knew there were so many Christmas/winter themed light blue fabrics? In addition to the blues and whites, where my stash was very slim, I also replentished my stash of greens. I am thinking, perhaps a little madly, that I will make two of these pieces - I really like the effect, and don't have a lot of Christmas pieces. I have a feeling I might be reluctant to part with the piece once it's finished! Anyway, I can use the all green blocks I made before, though of course the other ones won't be useable. I'll use the dark blue blocks and the blue and green to make something else.

Oddly enough, one or two other things found their way into my shopping basket - a copy of Quilting Arts for me - I haven't bought one in a while - and the other things for Alex and Olivia, who were with me. Normally I only buy them a fat quarter each, but Olivia found this great little roll of red and white strips, so I couldn't say no - she has good taste, doesn't she! In light of that, it didn't seem fair to make Alex choose between the two fat quarters he liked.

What day is it again?

I didn't do much sewing today, as I was feeling lazy - about sewing anyway. Alex and I had a nice walk to the B&Q to look for a replacement lightbulb for the one in the fridge and then to Tesco to pick up a few things to eat. I kept forgetting whether it was Monday or Tuesday - summer holidays do that to me, I guess. When I got back I decided to tackle Nann's block for the Around the World Quilt Swap - here's my block and all the blocks together. This block was paper-pieced as the finished size needed to be 7". I did also start quilting the Japanese Taupe dresser runner - didn't quilt a lot of it, but at least I made a start. I'll save that photo for later in the week, when either it will be finished or I'll need to show something because I've not done any work at all - like Thursday, when we have planned a trip to Legoland.

I also spent some time re-planning the log cabin Christmas tree mini quilt - obviously this is just a rough plan as the fabrics I use will depend on what I find at the LQS, but I think the lighter colours will work much better. I had considered the light blue previously, but it was Margaret's comment about white as a snow background which really clicked - thanks Margaret!

Picture-full...

The opposite of picture-less, of course. And hurrah - internet seems to be back. Thank goodness for that. Here's the EQ5 sketch of the christmas tree quilt - it won't look quite like this of course, as I will use scraps of Christmas fabrics, rather than coordinate all the rounds...



I thought I'd start it nice and early so that in addition to being sure I have time to make the deadline I can either make something different if I don't think this works, or if I really love it, have time to make myself one...

I forgot to mention that the other thing I did yesterday morning was to pin together two small pieces for quilting - the fish quilt for the toilet room and the Japanese Taupe dresser runner. Hopefully they will both get quilted in the next week or so. Both are small, so shouldn't take long to quilt. I probably won't even have to move my machine downstairs to the dining room table, which is always a plus.

Corn & beans redux

Ta da! I have finished quilting the corn and beans quilt - and I did need the second spool of thread, though only a little. Probably if I'd started with one brand new one (I think I've used it on a few postcards, etc) it would have made it through - but that's ok, I love the colour and will gladly use it again. Tomorrow I will try to get the binding on.



I also made a couple of postcards for a batik background swap - I chose a colourful batik and threadpainted over the flowers, then added some couched fibre and sequins. Simple, but effective. On the right, a selection of neutral fabrics I got from my fabric club this month - which is nice as this area of my stash always needs boosting.

Quilting Day

I did lots of sewing today - had an early start as Sarah had to be somewhere by around 9am, so we dropped her off, swung by the supermarket for a few things (and a coffee in Starbucks) and then headed home to do...very little. Well, 3 loads of wash, some tidying up around the house and lots of sewing, while Olivia and Alex watched a film and played on the computer. Ah, bliss.

First thing I did was do some more quilting on the corn an beans. It's now about 1/3 done - quite time-intensive, and I have ordered more thread, just to be on the safe side - fairly sure I will run out before it's done. I also worked on a block for the Around the World Quilt Swap (see above), and then started working on a border for the Spring Fling Round Robin 3, which I can't show. In all, a productive day. Tomorrow we are off to do errands for most of the day, but I might get an hour in the morning to do some more bits and pieces, if I'm lucky.

Clam shell quilting

Although I spent a large portion of today doing very little, I did do a bit of quilting this morning - as the right foot was already on the machine, I decided to pull this out and quilt it - or start, anyway. The quilt is the corn and beans quilt from some time ago, and I thought I'd try this sort of clamshell pattern on it. I like it. I only quilted a small portion of the quilt, as I only worked on it for about an hour, but I should get some more done later in the week. I had intended it as a possible baby quilt, but actually, I thinnk I might keep it. For one thing, I really like it, but for another thing, it's a little large for a baby quilt. We'll see.

Purple Roses

Here are the two things I actually worked on today - I put the outer sashing on the cats - it will now have a sawtooth border around that - this will take a while to piece. I also started working a block with a purple rose theme for the April block for the birthday block swap - I have all the pieces ready (except the stems) - just have to work out how I want to put them together. I have used a pattern for a single rose, with bud & two leaves, but I decided to add another rose, so now of course I will need to fiddle around with it - I can't ever keep anything simple, of course! In the original pattern, the stem was pieced as well, but I may end up do bias strips appliqued on, as it may work better. We'll see - I'm going to try to get the piece together tomorrow, if I don't get too frustrated with it!

Tic Tac Cats

Yes, it looks like a giant tic-tac-toe at the moment (or Naughts & Crosses, as we call it here). I finished the last two cats today (bottom right) and joined the major pieces, but honestly, is there anything more boring than sashing? Seriously, I didn't have enough time to put the sashing pieces around the outside, so that will get done next time - perhaps tomorrow morning, before my life becomes consumed by Monsters and Aliens (a promised cinema trip), a pair of jeans for Olivia, finding a lunch venue that isn't McDonalds and an orthodontist appointment. Yes, the excitement of a school holiday takes some beating!

Anyway, the pale fabric goes all the way around the edges of the quilt as well, then there's a sawtooth border (yep, more piecing!) on the outside - quite a narrow one, and of course, that one's straight, so it's easy peasy.

More cats

Despite a day full of typical holiday kid stuff (swimming, lunch, trip to the playground which is near the pool , refereeing disagreements) I managed to get most of the rest of the cats done - only two more to go, which will hopefully get pieced tomorrow, when the only thing on the agenda is grocery shopping. Then I have to put the pieces together - and then, on to the tails - yuck!

Arc of a cat

No whole cats to show today - though for the sake of good taste, I have resisted titling this post "disembodied cats". I did work on the quilt, as shown above - got all 6 of the remaining backs done. The next step will be to piece the two curves either side of the arc, and then add the background and cat bodies - those are fairly easy additions as all of them are simple shapes, like squares and rectangles. Once that's done, I can join the major pieces together with the other background fabric. All that should go fairly quickly, but I anticipate hitting a stalling point after that - I have to make 20 pieced tails - they are miniature versions of the backs. And then they have to be appliqued on. Ho hum. So I may take a break before I get to that.

For those of you who may be new here, there is a photo of what the finish quilt is meant to look like somewhere back in the dim past of my blog.

Easter Kitties

Well, as my April goals and deadlines are proceeding along apace, I decided to tackle something I've been ignoring - my sawtooth cats. I had planned to make one a month starting in February, but it just wasn't happening. Not sure why, as they aren't that hard, but somehow I lacked motivation. It might be simply that there are lots of pieces to sort out for each one - even after you do the backs - and because of the layout, they aren't necessarily the same in each block - and so on. However, today I got stuck into it and made 6 blocks! The bottom left two (the backs for these were already done), and the group of four in the centre. Tomorrow I will try to do some more, as I am in the mood now and also, having worked on it today, it's fresh in my mind and will hopefully be less hassle to figure out because of that.

In theory, this quilt will be for my mother's spare bedroom, but she tells me there's no hurry for it, as she will have to repaint the bedroom if the quilt is to look good in there. I am thinking I might try to get it done for her next visit, which is in July. We'll see, but it somehow doesn't seem quite as insurmountable an obstacle as before!

Back to school...

Finished up the dresser runner today in another unexpected bit of time at home - mostly on Wednesday mornings I've been going swimming with some friends, but we didn't go today for various reasons, so I snatched a little more sewing time before heading to work (school back today, which means work today for me, though I spent most of it outside in the snow, first at lunchtime with big kids and then in the nursery with little kids. Fun was had by all.) So I finished this first - only took about half an hour as it was in rows already. It's not that big - the squares are only 4", so the overall size is about 20"x60" or so. It will cover the full depth of the dresser, but will hang over the sides at each end.

And then, as I still had an hour or so, I pulled out this baby quilt which I'd handily pinned earlier, and did a quick allover double loop meander on it. Not very inspired, but it works. And the quilt blocks are great for a baby quilt - an instance of a set of swap blocks that really works. Even the one block with a rather light navy blue doesn't look too out of place...