Novelty log cabins

So, in order to get rid of some of those strips overfilling that bag yesterday, here's where I decided to go with them - some log cabin blocks with novelty centres - the centres also from the scrap basket. I cut the centres in whatever size seemed appropriate (but nothing bigger than 6") and then started adding strips. I didn't worry about the width, as long as they were wider than 1" and narrower than 3".  

Aren't they cute? They aren't stitched together yet, of course, but that will be a project for some other time - I'm in the block making cycle of my scrapmania...

And here's what the strip bag looks like now - ok, it's still about half full - these are the wider-than-3" strips and those strips that were too short to use on the log cabin blocks. Yes, it means more stripping in my future, but not for a little while at least.

Time to get strippy...

Well, here's the scrap basket again after I've had another go at it. There are still some scraps to cut up, admittedly, but most of them have been sorted now...

This was the pile, waiting to be sorted out...

and here's what happened to my bag of strips when I had finished with the sorting. Guess it's time to make something with strips...

Some goodies

A while back, over the half term holiday, I finally got around to stopping at Hobbycraft on the way home from a trip to Ikea (we used to have one near us, but not for a few years. There's one on the way home from Ikea, but by the time I am on the way home from Ikea, usually, I don't have the time or energy to stop...) and picked up some fun bits and pieces. I didn't actually make it to the upstairs part of the shop where all the jewellery stuff is, which is probably a good thing...

Cross Stitch Update

As you may be able to tell, this piece is very nearly finished now - I have only two leaves, the legs of the chequered bird, and the bottom right hand corner of the border to finish. Plus I have to go back and add all the button embellishments.  However, as it's nearly done, I'll be sticking with it next week until it's finished, rather than swapping back to the winter garden sampler. 

Here's the part I've worked on this week a little more closely - you can see I managed to get quite a lot done last week, for a change!

Another bordered top

Here's the other scrappy square quilt I made recently - this one all from one size square (3") - from squares which were already assembled into decent size blocks.  The border on this one works much better than the border on the mixed size squares quilt - perhaps because it's darker and more defined?  For whatever reason, it does.

On another note, I think I'm going to start titling my posts something random like "Cheese Bobsleigh Sofabed" - the number of intensely boring post titles like "another top" must just about put people to sleep...

Given away in 2013

Stuck at home today with a bad back - I can sit for short periods of time, but it's hard getting up and down and twisting is right out - didn't want to take the chance of doing it more injury at school.... I keep feeling like I'm cheating somehow, until I try to move and it hurts again...

Anyway, doing a bit of updating and maintenance on my blog, and realised I hadn't updated the Project Linus page in a few months - so I'll change it over to 2014, but just to remind myself, here's a roundup of quilt tops I made and gave to Linus or another charity in 2013.  Some of these are still sitting in my house waiting for my Linus contact to want them, mind you - but only about 6 or 7 of them.

There may be a few doubles, though I've tried to be careful. And I think one or two of the early ones may have had borders added and then are shown again. Still, as roundups go, it works ok!


November & December

October

September

July

(example of some blocks given away to a friend's Quilt Ministry)

June

May

(given away as blocks to a friend's Quilt Ministry)

April

March

February

January

A little progress...

Gradually working my way through all those 2 inch squares - I am just joing them together in twos (which will then graduate to fours, and so on). There are going to be a lot of them!

Bye-bye hand-dyes

Ok, not really. I have a large box of hand-dyes. It's smaller than it used to be, and doesn't include very large pieces, or fabrics that are just essentially solids (but in a hand-dyed way), which are in another box.

But it was still totally packed - you can see that the box sides are bulging.  So I made some blocks (see top photo) - there are a lot more of them than in the photo, about 40 (42?), and they are 10" square. Each one uses a different hand-dyed or painted fabric. I tried to use smaller pieces, which wouldn't be useful for much else. Did I make a dent in the box? 

Well, it still looks pretty full, but I think you can see a difference!