Out of Africa...sort of

After meeting up with my friend Sewkalico in London yesterday, I was inspired to dig out the African blocks we swapped several years ago and (gasp!) stitch them together!  I've debated at points in the past, sashing them, but in the end I decided that I kind of like them all melding together. Plus, if I had to wait until I got around to sashing them, who knows how many more years it would be.  Now I just have to work out what to do about a border...

ATC Friday

Another round of round robins - cards I've finished after two other players have worked on them. 

As always, before and after shots...

More de-stripping

My scrapbusting project this week (amidst other, non-sewing things) has been to clear out the strip bag again (or at least partly). 

It wasn't full, precisely, but there was a lot of stuff in there, as you can see from this picture of it all spread out on the table.

Rather than just make strippy squares, I decided to make the strip blocks measure 6x9, and add a wider contrast strip down one side - I don't have a ready selection of 3.5" strips, so I pulled out my box of multicoloured prints in small pieces, many of which I have a hard time incorporating into things, and cut some strips off them in order to finish off the blocks.

I thinned that box out a little (there's still plenty there, but I did get rid of some of the harder to use pieces)

and got rid of a lot of strips - these are the ones that were too short to use - less than 6.5" long.

And these are what's left of the longer strips - not a lot, at least, not compared to what was in there.  And, I have 50,  9" square blocks to make up into quilts.  (50 is a versatile number as I can do two lots of 5x5 blocks or  one 4x5 and one 5x6. Or something else, and have some leftover!)

Cross Stitch Update

Progress. I love these hand-dyed variegated threads - they are so nice for larger areas...

Treats for me!

Look what I got in the post today!  My friend Cathi sent me a big box of treats - a canvas which she made and a whole load of relatively flat embellishments for me to use in my crafting.  Yeah, me!

The canvas is already hung up on my pinboard. I intend to put some of the bits to good use, soon.

Back from the longarmer

After many years of sitting around at my house (and at the longarmer's - she's a friend, so in addition to quilts which need to be done for specific reasons, I always have a few hanging out at her house which can be done in slow periods) this quilt I made for myself using some squares from my Dad's Hawaiian shirts is finally quilted. 

I still have to attach and stitch down the binding, but given that it's only been a top for about 5.5 years, I reckon I can take a month or two to get the binding on!

Faeries with a border

I showed this top when the blocks were assembled, but not, I think, with the border added. Not sure where this floral fabric came from, as it's not very "me" - perhaps from my daugher's stash. Anyway, I thought it suited the quilt top very well...

Another exercise in de-scrapping

In this case, it wasn't exactly scraps, but rather a few small pieces of fabric I wanted to get rid of.  This will definitely need another, wider, border, but it was nice to be able to use the floral fabric as a smaller, inner border.

ATC Friday

Here are some round robin ATCs on which I was the third player. This one was quite a challenge, as it's a funky subject matter, and the design took up a lot of space on the card.  But when in doubt, Found Poetry usually does a nice job.

These also were quite full, so a quick sentiment and a few flowers worked well. Aren't the postage stamps wonderful?

These were very full, but luckily I had a few travel motif stickers (Tim Holtz set, I think), which worked nicely.

Scrappy rows with orange sashing

Another take on my scrap clearage, using different size squares and a couple of rows of tumblers I had leftover. 

Cross stitch update

New one started, as I finished the last two off... What will it be? You'll just have to wait and watch it grow!

Lake Border

...and hey presto - a border!  This one was easy to decide on, as I actually had a piece of taupe-style fabric in my stash - seemed a clear choice. I think this top will go in my baby quilt stash, rather than going to Project Linus. I really like it, and half the blocks were made by a friend anyway...

Lady of the Lake

These are some Lady of the Lake blocks in Japanese taupe and taupe-style fabrics, which I finally got around to putting into a top. I swapped them privately with my friend Cathi for a while, then we sort of stopped. At that point, I had 10 blocks. I decided that I was more likely to use them if I put together 9 and donated the spare to a good cause, than if I had to make two more to up the number to 12. So...  now I think it needs a border!

It's easy being green

Those of you playing along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge will know that May's colour is green...  So I decided to do some green things. Instead of just showing you the finished blocks, I thought I'd walk through the process as well...

Here's my box of green small pieces. I decided to search through my half-metre pieces to find something which was compatible with greens...

I pulled out these six, and decided to go with the one in the bottom middle - African animals and trees. Though I have plans for the one on the bottom right as well. 

I pulled out a bunch of greens to go wtih the African fabric, then decided what to do with it - I decided to alternate 6" squares with blocks made of 3" centres with green borders. 

So I cut as many 6" squares as I could (and the 3" ones to go with them) - here's what happened to that half metre of fabric - 13 6" squares, 12 3" centres, and some strips and scraps for the strip bag and scrap basket. A small handful of tiny bits for the bin, too!

After narrowing the greens down to 6 from the seven above (2 blocks in each fabric), and cutting strips, here's what's left - some strips for the strip basket, a few small scraps and the small pile of greens will go back into the green box.   And now, it's just a matter of assembling the blocks into a top and finding some border fabric for it.

Sudoku Quilt

About a million years ago (ok, 6 1/2), Sarah started making some blocks for a sudoku quilt - but then things came up and she was busy and lost interest and so on.  In the move, we found the project and she said "Oh, I should finish that", so yesterday she made a few more blocks - all the pieces were cut out already except the sashing, so it wasn't hard to get back into it. The plan for which block goes where was there as well, which helped.   She only has two blocks to go now, and then the rest of the sashing. Perhaps we'll manage between us to get it finished this time!

ATC Friday

More news from the world of round robins... Here are some more where I was the last person to add something.  To these, I added some flowers at the top. 

To these, I added some trim and a little brad.

And to these altered playing cards, I added some inking around a template (the one on the left, the ink was too heavy, so I kept that card for myself), a phrase and a little jewel.

Jacobean border...

Here's another in the (rather big) pile of tops which I finished off and gave to Project Linus in and around the Easter Holidays. This one used a fabric from a kit which I bought ages ago, and then eventually decided I wasn't going to do anything with - makes a great border, though. 

Cross Stitch Update

Finished off both the current pieces: the Winter Garden piece (which shows up better in person)

and the Faith Sheep. Only a million or so sheep to go (ok, I think this is my 4th one, so I guess 8 more to go. But they do seem to be endless...)

I've started something new for next week, but I'll show that next week. I might add another one into the rotation as well, rebel that I am!

Ramona's finish

A while back, I gave a bunch of quilt tops to folks who were interested in finishing them up for charity or other good causes; my blogging friend Ramona took two of them, and has already finished one up!  She's a lot speedier than I would have been...  Be sure to click through to her blog to see details of the great quilting on this one.  I look forward to seeing the second one finished, too.