Stay at Home Robin 2 - quilted

Took the opportunity to quilt this today, spurred on by DH's classic request for a quilt for someone's leaving present - leaving next week. Frankly, it's a good thing I usually have a number of pieces lying around partly finished, so I can pull one out on occasions such as this. Anyway, I've quilted it up and will attach some binding tomorrow or Monday and then it will be ready to go.

Handful of ATCs

A few different sets I've worked on lately (or rather, a single representative from the various sets) - the top is for an altered playing card swap; the cards use pages from an old pocket dictionary, letters from a transparency sheet, and other miscellaneous bits of collage, mostly paper.

These were for a book page background swap (i.e. you have to use book pages for the card backgrounds). I decided to use two different pages (Gigi (in French) and Teach Yourself Physics) woven together. I then added images and lettering on top.

This one was for a printed object swap -using different kinds of objects not specifically intended for printing. I used an empty cotton reel, a cotton ball, an empty blister pack from hayfever tablets, a cotton wool ball, the lid of a pen and an old darning foot from my sewing machine.

Finished mini...

Finished and off in the post to Angela. Hoorah! Many thanks again to everyone who donated to my Walk for Life, whether you did it for the chance to win this little piece, or just because it's a good cause. I raised a total of £154.74, including some gift aid, which isn't bad at all.

Cross stitch Wednesday

Yes, it's Wednesday, so it's time for a cross-stitch update - I did actually manage to get a bit done this week, so it's worth showing! It's coming along slowly, but it's coming along. Beach huts next week - the progress there (when I actually do any stitching in the week!) is much more readily apparent.

A bit of this and that

Among the things I did today was to add a couple of borders to the blue and brown quilt - I couldn't add a border of the other brown fabric (with the cats) as I didn't have enough of it left, but there was plenty of this one. There is still loads of the blue as well, so it's possible I will use it for a backing, when I get to that point. Not sure there's actually enough for a backing, but with a little creative piecing, I'm sure I can get around that.

I also added another row to the Hawaiian shirt top - definitely better now:

And I attached the other two bits of binding from yesterday - which means I now have 4 quilts of varying sizes waiting to be bound. I would have five, but I finished the little Japanese taupe one tonight - I'll show it later in the week as I haven't taken a photo of it yet and it's too dark now.

Tomorrow I am going to the airport to collect my mother for a visit, so I imagine my quilting time in the upcoming days will be less than at present, but hopefully I'll still get a few bits and pieces in!

Miles of Binding...

I attached binding to two quilts today (both baby quilts) - one, I actually quilted as well - nothing very exciting, will show it later. The binding still needs to be turned to the back and hand-stitched, of course, but it's a step in the right direction...

I also made up the binding for these two quilts (they are larger - bed-sized) though I haven't had a chance to attach it yet - that's on the agenda for tomorrow, I think.

There it is, waiting for me! Miles of binding...

And the little taupe Stay at Home Robin quilt needs some binding as well - it's only small, but I should get it done...

What's wrong with this photo...

Not a trick question, really - but now that I've sewn these together, I realise that I really need another row of 6 - this layout is too long and skinny. Easy enough to do - lord knows I have plenty of Hawaiian shirt fabric!

Also sewed together the little string top - can't decided if I like the random width strings or not, but it will do!

Tomorrow, the kids are at tennis camp all day, so I'm going to try to get one of the upcoming baby quilts quilted. Hopefully that will fit nicely into the other things I have to do, which include a bit of laundry (of course) and a bit of hoovering...

White strings...

To continue with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for August (the colour being white), I decided to tackle my (not very large) pile of white strings - obviously I can't use these to make string hearts as I have been doing in other months as there's not enough contrast between the different whites and they won't work on the white/cream/COW backgrounds I've been doing the other heart blocks on. So, I decided to make a few blocks with random white strings in them - using Hawaiian shirt fabric leftover from my dad's shirts. I had forgotten that I still had a ton of fabric left, even after making a number of quilts from the shirts. I found the box with all the fabric in it when I was clearing out last weekend, so I decided to make the little scrappy one above (which is pieced onto a foundation) and then do some blocks with strips across them, like these:

I have nearly used all my white (and lighter coloured cream) strips now!

I will probably give the top one away, but keep the bottom blocks for myself, at least for a while, until some need or other arises. Unfortunately, I still have LOADS of Hawaiian shirt fabric. I will have to think of something else to do with it which uses up greater amounts (maybe some pieced backs...)

ATCs...

In my sewing room clearout I found this lovely piece of painted paper, and decided to use it as a background for some ATCs. There's still some left, so I'm sure it will feature again!

Granny's Flower Garden

This is a really quick quilt top put together from the block Granny's Flower Garden on Quilter's Cache. The block is evocative of a Grandmother's Flower Garden Block but without all the blessed hexagons. I did this partly for the white challenge this month in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and partly to use up some of those floral fat quarters and other pieces which are either leftover from other projects or which have found their way into my stash in some odd way, and which I doubt I'll ever be able to use. Several of these pieces were given to me at some or other point, several are leftovers from other things, I think a few are from a sale bin or perhaps were the one "hmm" fat quarter in a sale selection. Whatever the case may be, they work really well in this setting...

African Violets again

Here are all nine of the finished violets - great block - I'll definitely be doing this one again in future in other colour ways (love this colourway too, mind you - perhaps I'll win them!)

And yes, I know it's Wednesday, but there's no cross-stitch update as I haven't worked on it at all this week! Shame on me. Perhaps I'll do better next week with the other piece...

Finished off with borders

Added the borders to this little one today - originally I had only one corner block to echo the 9-patch, but I ran out of white - or rather, I do still have some more but only needed about 3 inches and didn't want to cut a full strip, so decided to put a second cornerstone in. It will do. I love this little nine patch with one extra block - it really works well, I think - just a little funkier than a traditional nine-patch, which suits me fine - I'm a funkier-than-traditional girl myself...

White scrappy

This month's colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is white. Now, I don't have a lot of white scraps. I do have some strips, which I will try to do something with later in the month, but even if I count neutrals as well as pure white, I don't really have that much - I tend to use whites and neutrals up rather than have them hanging around scrappy.

What I did find, however, when clearing out yesterday, was a large white cotton curtain which I had saved to do something with. Perhaps dye in the days I did more (any!) dyeing. Anyway. I decided that I would use the white as a background and use up some other scraps instead of white ones.

Yesterday during my clearout I also found a photo of an old baby quilt (the baby in question being about 7 now) and remembered that I always intended to do another quilt with the block in question, which is this modified nine patch:

This block finishes at about 5" - the one I did before was larger, but I started with 1.5" squares in the centre this time - probably did 2" or 2.5" ones last time.

I'll add a white border to the small top and it can go on the charity quilt pile. And that's 20 more 4.5" or 5" squares out of the scrap stash. May not seem like much, but every little bit helps...

Sewing Room...

About once a year I have a big clear out of my sewing room - it's partly because it just gets really dusty (there's so much stuff in it that it's hard to keep the dust out), partly because after a while stuff tends to get piled up or stuffed in drawers rather than put away properly, and partly because sometimes I just like a change - though with the amount of furniture I have and the shape and size of the room, change is limited. I don't really plan when I am going to do it, I just get to a point where I can't stand it any longer, and then, I have to... In last year's reorganisation, I tried my plastic drawers behind the door and that annoyed me all year long (door didn't open wide enough) so I knew I had to at least change that!

Anyway. The process pretty much takes the entire day and I have all the stuff in the sewing room spread out in the upstairs hallway and on every surface in our bedroom...

I manage to fit an amazing amount of stuff into my sewing room, which is the "box room" of the house - it's smaller than 2.5mx2.5m - not sure how big without measuring it, but definitely not 2.5m in either direction.

Here are some of the shelves before I put the stuff back on them. There's another wooden shelf to the left of the white bookcase - you can see it in the photo below. To the left of the window, the unit which looks like shelves is actually plastic drawers - at the moment, the drawers are out of the unit.

And here we are, late in the afternoon, when things are back on the shelves. Everything is put away except the stuff in the blue plastic basket next to the sewing machine, which is lots of bits and pieces which have to be put back in the right drawer, etc. That's the boring part!

The room's not actually big enough to get back far enough to photograph the whole wall, but here's the corner you saw before, in the empty shelf photo,

and here's part of the bookcase & other shelf. As you can see, I do make very good use of the space, and do manage to have enough space to do most of my work in the room - except if I have to quilt anything which is larger than a small baby quilt - in those instances, I take the sewing machine down to the dining room table...

Winner! (and reminders)

OK, so I've now gone off to random.org and had it draw a number for me for the winner. When I got home, I couldn't find the piece of paper on which I'd written the number of the winner I'd drawn before I left (though I thought it was number 3), so I decided to draw again, just to be on the safe side - and the number drawn (out of 27 possibles - everyone who donated did so in amounts of £5, so for each £5 donated to Walk for Life, one chance was put in the pool) was number 4, which happens to be the same person as no 3, so it is definitely definitely the case that this little quilt really wants to go and live with Angela. Yeah! Once I get it bound, which I might get to this week, I will pop it in the post to you. I think I have your address, unless you have moved recently...

Many thanks to everyone who donated to Walk for Life, either to sponsor me, or to sponsor someone else or to walk yourself! I'll probably do it again next year (the girls want to do it as well), so who knows, perhaps there will be another giveaway to go with another begging blog post!

Oh yes, and a couple of reminders - Julie (Sew and So) and Michelle L, I still need your addresses for the previous giveaway. Anne & Trina, I'll get your things in the post later this week...

Loot!

Of course, being on holiday in a different place, with different shops, I had to go exploring for local quilt shops and whatnot - especially as my partner in crime on this holiday was my friend Cathi, who is also a quilter. I didn't buy a lot in the quilt shop, Coast and Country Quilts and Crafts, though I did pick up a layer cake of this range, Grand Finale by Sandy Gervais for Moda, which I think is a fabulous line - really me. Not sure what I will do with it yet, but a layer cake (10" squares) seemed more practical than a jelly roll. I also picked up a charm pack (5" squares) of the Sunkissed range - I especially like the text in this one! No need to feel guilty about buying fabric (not that I usually do anyway) as I worked out I haven't been to a quilt shop this year yet. I went to the fabric sale at Farnham Maltings, but bought mostly cheaper cuts for backings and have bought plain black a few times - and that's it!

Cath is also very into scrapbooking, and although I don't scrapbook myself, I never mind hitting a scrapbooking shop, as I like to look at (and buy) things like papers, letters, brads, ribbons, transfers, stamps, and other doodads which can be used in ATC making.

These lovely pieces all came from Scrap Angels in St Agnes, where we thoroughly enjoyed looking at pretty much everything in the whole shop, including helping to unpack a shipment that arrived while we were there...

Pick-a-theme Swap

These are ATCs (Artist Trading Cards - 2.5"x3.5") made for a pick-a-theme swap - which means that instead of a single theme, each person in your group picks their own theme. So you make one card for each of four themes, rather than 3 or 4 cards of one theme.

Anyway. The theme for the above card was whimsical birdhouses.

This one was whimsical cats - it's more purple in real life, but purple never does scan (or photograph) well.

Flowers (again, not a great scan - it's a pink sheer fabric on black)

A poodle theme - the body shape isn't quite right, but I am very happy with the fluff.

And this is a hostess card - which is why I can use the heavy metal embellishment - it doesn't have to be mailed on again.

Cross-stitch update

Not a huge amount of progress on this this week (due to more game and card-playing in the evening and less sitting in front of the telly), but I did manage to finish the sand under the fourth beach hut and begin the hut itself. It's coming, at least. Hmm, and looking back I realised I've also finished the roof on the far left hut - so I guess that's more progress than I thought!

All the other posts this week, I did before I left for holiday and scheduled them to post on the right day, but the Wednesday update I needed to actually do on Wednesday, since I wouldn't have done the work before that... OK, technically, I didn't update it until Thursday, but Wednesay is always cross-stitch day, or at least that's the habit I've been in recently.

Brown and Blue with cats

You may remember this from a while back - I've been using it as an "enders and leaders" project, and finally, it got to the stage where I put all the blocks together and made it into a finished top. What will I do with it now - well, it will go in the top stack for a while. And then, who knows. Of course, I still have loads of fabric left of all these fabrics (might use them on the back) - it's possible I will add a border of the cat fabric. We'll see.

African Violets

The August Block Lotto features these great African Violet inspired blocks - on a black background, with the flowers in any shade you can find in an African Violet. They are really quick to do and as a bonus, the instructions come in a variety of sizes (the lotto is making the blocks in the 8" finished size) - I might have to revisit this block as a scrapbuster later in the year... I'll probably make some more of these before the end of the month, but it's such a nice block I wanted to publicise it now so lots of people play along!