One Thing Accomplished

It's not finished, I'm going to do some sort of narrow border, but it's in one piece and all the leftovers are banished to a deep dark drawer. It's 54 " x 66" so far, and it doesn't need to be much bigger but a border will stabilise those edges. I can say I've met that goal for October.

I don't know what I want to work on next, I'm sort of sick of the tiny scraps. I'll cut up a heap for my Log Cabins, but I've no desire to sew either of them,

Last year I mucked around and made a pile of sampler blocks in various sizes. I wanted something that I had to concentrate on producing, not batch sewing like I usually do. I went through EQ8 and Barbara Brackman's Blockbase software and came up with interesting blocks that it would take some effort to piece. I've never completed a sampler quilt, only orphan quilts, and thought it would be nice to have some new blocks to play with.

Some of them weren't hard, but I chose to do them in sizes that weren't easy to draft.This LeMoyne star inside pieced triangle corners was one of my favourites.

 It took some figuring out, because the star grid didn't correspond to the outside triangles. 

I think this was my favourite, I had to work to get those points matching, but it's a pretty block. I can see a whole quilt of these blocks. One day....

I've always loved the Rolling Star blocks, and finished a whole quilt in the early 80's, hand quilted with with feather wreaths. I have no idea where that quilt is now, it vanished after a quilt exhibition.

Or maybe this graphic triangle block is my favourite. It was fun to make something other than the usual stars and 9-patches and Happy Blocks.

Seeing as I don't know what project to work on next I might just pick another couple of blocks to make while I think about it. It's nice just concentrating on one block instead of 25, or 42.

And another top from the archives: Moth In The Window, another Bonnie Hunter quilt in shirts and chambray. My goodness I use a lot of her patterns! 42 blocks were enough for a quilt, but I'd cut out many more.

 I gritted my teeth and sewed them all up, but I don't want to see them again for a while. I didn't enjoy them half as much as I thought I would. 

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October Goals

My goal for October was to get in touch with all the projects I have, in their various boxes and containers. And plastic bags, as it turns out. There are only a few days left in the month, so I really need to step up the pace.

There are 2 projects that I really want either finished or set up ready to finish.  One is the Bitcoin top, and the other is those pesky little 9-Patches. I'm sick of the amount of space they are taking up, so something needs to be done about them.

If the Bitcoin is in one piece I'll be content with that.  It will probably get a border, but I'll decide that later. It depends if I have pieces leftover. 

If the tiny 9-Patches are sewn into their 12" blocks I'll be happy with that. It would take another afternoon to sash the blocks and get the main part of the top done. It will have a border of pink and cream HSTs, but again, that will be a later task. I'll sew them in batches I think. 

I think there's a good chance of me making significant progress, if I can just concentrate.

There are 2 things I started as leader-enders, that I haven't mentioned yet. Both were begun a a way to use up my never-ending supply of blue fabric and scraps. I love blue, but I'm sick of these particular ones, and because I have so much of them they never seem to get any less. I'm not sure that I've made any headway yet. 

One is Triple Treat, which was a Bonnie Hunter leader-ender from a couple years ago. 

This has the added advantage of using up my red scraps, which I"ve come to hate for some reason. I keep finding containers of them stashed away, and I'm sick of the sight of them. I won't mind if they all vanish into these blocks.

The other is Four Patch Fun, this years challenge. 

I see I started with 2.5" strips and then moved to 2" scraps, of which I have an abundance. Over the winter I worked at cutting up scraps and even yardage, and made a lot of little kits all ready to piece in between my serious sewing.

I resisted making the Triple Treat a primary project while I was dealing with the string blocks, but I may just put them in first place soon. I really enjoy making them, they are so easy to put together now that the 4patches are all made.

Mereth brought me back some Verbena seedlings after her last trip to Adelaide. She potted them on for me, until we can decide where they will live permanently. They are so happy, and so pretty. I'm grateful that I have a gardening sister who helps me have a garden.

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Strings and such

I go back and forth on string piecing. I hate it, I hate the mess, I hate how it takes over the sewing space. But then I can't throw out the skinny strips and bits that aren't suitable for piecing blocks. So I begin strip piecing something to get rid of them, vowing it will be the last time. And then I like the results so much I think it's worth it.

This winter I had a prolonged bout of stringing.

I have so many shirt strings. I mean, SO many. I pieced these 7" blocks over fabric squares to see if I preferred that. It was OK, but I can't say I like the finished patchwork. It seems a little heavy, even though I used very thin fabric. I'm not sure I would do that again. But it needs a border, so I'll have to deal with that eventually. And I actively like removing papers from my string piecing, so not having to do that is not a deciding factor at all.

I had a collection of white and cream strings that needed their own blocks.

I didn't get very far with them, but I really like the muted effect. I need to amass a lot more strips like this before I can go on and make more.

Blue and green is my favourite colour combination, and they were the largest bin of strings. I really put a dent in it with these blocks. I added another 9 before I ran out of variety, so they went back in the box to wait.

I think these bright blocks are my favourites, out of all the string blocks.

That bright stripe fabric down the diagonal of each block was scavenged from a bin of fabric at the op-shop.  Someone had attempted patchwork with giant 15" squares and then stuffed it all in a bag and donated it. There were a lot of solid squares sewn haphazardly together, in what I call clown colours; really harsh reds, yellows and blues. Those were donated back, but I kept this cheerful stripe. I was limited in what I could do with it, because it was all cut into squares, but I instantly thought of string piecing. I pieced these blocks in the middle of a very cold spell of winter, and it was so cheerful that it made me forget the foul weather outside.

I tried very hard to keep my mess to a minimum, but eventually I ran out of strings and patience. When I've had enough I just pack it all away and go back to my normal piecing. Until the next time.

I love these pink flowers on a succulent that I grew from my FIL's garden. He created a beautiful garden no matter where they lived. When I see these lovely flowers I always think of him

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I AM the Squirrel

This picture looks exactly the same as the previous one, but they all are finished and ready to put together. I can't face pulling out the shirts just yet, I'm not ready to make a mess with them, so it can wait a little while. It's a relief to have them complete though.

I'm busy sewing up the Scrappy Mountain Majesty blocks. They are all done and I'm ready to pick out the next set of 20 pairs of squares.

I might have laid out a few on the design wall and started sewing them all together.  I usually have 10 rows of 7.5" blocks, with 10 in each row., That makes a decent size quilt. I'll sew this lot together and label the rows, and put it aside until I have more ready.

A blogger I read recently described herself as a 'craft mad squirrel on a hamster wheel' and that resonated with me. Not because I switch from one craft to another as she does, but because I leap from one project to another with such ease. My projects aren't the squirrels, distracting me. I am the squirrel.

I saw someone making a colour wash like Terry Rowland's, so I watched her videos on YouTube. 

Oh dear. Before I knew it I'd gathered up a heap of little bits from scrap bags and finished projects and started kitting up little 3.5" squares. It's surprising how many scrapbags that I've acquired from opshops and quilt shops contain small bits of Kaffe or Tula fabrics, or bits of huge florals that don't mix well with my other fabric. I found all these without really looking, so I have no doubt that I'll manage to find enough for the 300 or so blocks for a big colourwash. But it will definitely be a long term commitment.

My garden is full of flowers, mainly geraniums or gerberas. The hard to kill type, so that they last through our summers. This one is like a snowball of double flowers, so pretty. They can be the simplest of flowers, but the doubles are stunning.

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What's next?

I worked all day yesterday on the shirts and now there are 6 plates appliqued. I forgot to get a picture of that, hopefully tomorrow I can show them all completed.

My little cross blocks are multiplying, seemingly without any effort on my part. They are still cute.

My drawers full of modern FQs are calling me.

I'm very tempted to get busy cutting these up, but I haven't chosen a pattern yet. If I used half of each one, would the remainder fit in one drawer? How many quilts would that make?  These are the questions that occupy my mind while I sew.

I picked up a bundle of scraps for a dollar from the op-shop; these were offcuts from quilts backings, complete with cotton batting still attached. I'll use the batting scraps to make some potholders and place mats, and the smallest scraps will go straight into my Log Cabin projects.

There were some useful sized pieces in there, including a handful of very old prints in little pieces.  How old?

The blue is part of my 37yo son's baby quilt, the pink is the scrap I picked up yesterday.  It's old.

After I'd appliqued for a couple of hours I needed some simple sewing time. This collection of triangles was quickly transformed into squares, and then sliced up to make 40 Scrappy Mountain Majesty blocks. 

Blissful block building is ahead.

It's all so straight forward after the intricacies of machine applique.

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Progress

This morning I appliqued one block entirely, on Scarlett, and it went really well.

I can't do all of them at once, because my eyes get too tired to focus properly, but I've got things to sew on the old machine, that I don't need to concentrate on.  

I'll do one or two plates a day, and they will be done soon enough. I'm just using a tiny zigzag and the stitches are blending in nicely.

The box of 8.5" squares was getting very full, so I pulled out 20 pairs and started making the HSTs that are needed for Scrappy Mountain Majesty. 

 Another favourite Bonnie pattern, this will be the 5th one I've made. I love the process, and the end result.

I was chopping up 1/2 a metre of an ugly green fabric into squares when I noticed it was a Jinny Beyer print. It didn't look like her usual fabric, and when I looked closer I realised the pattern was actually stylized letters spelling out Millenium. 

OMGosh, this is 25 years old!  It was part of a scrap bag I bought, so it's been tucked away in at least 2 stashes for a quarter of a century. It's getting used at last.

Another quilt top from the archives; there are several online videos showing how to cut this pattern from 10" squares, but I sized it down to a much smaller starting square. I had so much fun making this, I'm itching to do another one, but I have to finish a few things first.

It's a perfect pattern to show off pretty modern fabrics, of which I have a few. 'How can that be?' you ask, 'don't you love 1800 repros the best in all the world?'

Well yes , but I think I actually love all the fabrics. There's no other explanation.

Spotlight, our discount craft chain, has been having ludicrously cheap sales this year. The last time I visited they were selling FQs 10 for $10, and fabric on the bolt for $4 a metre. We haven't seen prices like that since last century! I asked how it was possible, and the woman serving me said they'd bought all the stock from a US craft chain that closed down.  So we are reaping the benefits of Jo-annes closing down. Amazing.

These cards are from the centres of the FQs, and there are dozens and dozens of them in the sewing room. 

I might have done some stocking up, on several repeat trips, some for me and some for Mereth, and some for Isla. She loves to come with me on my fabric buying expeditions, and is endlessly patient. Her reward is to pick 10 FQs for herself. Her craft cupboard is fully stocked with fabric, yarn, cross stitch and crochet supplies. We sit on her bed chatting away, knitting a scarf for a bear or crocheting something for a friend. It's lovely.

My garden is sporting some lovely flowers for Spring. This is a grey green succulent that scrambles out of its pot, and is covered in these clusters of flowers, each only half an inch. They are so pretty, and so cheerful. They don't need much looking after, which makes them ideal for my haphazard gardening efforts.

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Dresden shirts

When I was wandering around trying to decide which project to work on next I didn't expect it to be this one.

It was begun all the way back in February 2024, and it's been packed into a box ever since.  I kept thinking that it was going to be too hard to complete, when there was so little of it started. But in the interests of getting in touch with ALL the projects, I pulled the box off the shelf, It was surprising to find that all of the Dresden blades had been cut, most had been sewn to create  the points, and if I could just put in a few hours I would see this much further towards completion.

I fiddled around and built another block, worked out a system to streamline the process, and became so intrigued by it all that I finished piecing the 7 plates that I needed. Now I've prepared the little applique circles for the centres, and tomorrow I'll starch the background squares and begin the applique. I'm pretty sure that these blocks are going to need a triple sashing to give them some breathing room; I might do that straight away, or it might have some time on a hanger somewhere.  The blocks are too big to go back in the box, and I'm not going to fold them up. 

I've also been busy with the 9-patches. I have 84 pieced, and I'll be ready to add the sashing to them once I fish out all the fabric that I just packed away.

These things take time. Can't be hasty.

This is a little quilt from the archives, when I was thinning out the modern scraps by making Happy Blocks. I sold it quite easily, but I've still got the modern scraps, and the Happy Blocks have multiplied again.

 It was a nice cheerful quilt to make. I do like limited palettes, even in scrap quilts, and the green, blue and purple are really pretty together.

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 cbott wondered yesterday in the comments what size my 'tiny' 9patches were. They are made from 1.25" strips, so they are 2.25" finished blocks. 

I documented the beginnings of them in this post. 

The quilt I'm making has 16 tiny blocks set with 1" sashing into a 12. 5" block. 

I've dug out the leftovers and made some more 9patches; I need 80 to make 5 more blocks and I have 53 now. Another few nights sewing and I should have all of them done. Then I can finish the larger blocks.

Another query was whether we work in centimetres. Australia mostly quilts in inches; there are metric quilting tools available, but I don't personally know anyone who uses them. Our cutting mats are printed with inches on one side and metric on the other, I never use those markings, I depend on the lines on my rulers for accuracy.

I was in high school in 1971 when the metric system was enforced in schools, so I'm bilingual in inches and centimetres😁. My daughter has gleaned enough knowledge from my quilt room over the years to know what us oldies are talking about when we say things like, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile". My grandchildren say, What's an inch? It's 2.54 centimetres actually.

The last month has been a bit of a jumble, with a trip to Adelaide for a family wedding and the school holidays necessitating a trip to visit the grandkids.  Before I left I was poking around in the sewing room trying to decide on a major project to concentrate on, but nothing really appealed. My 2" strip drawer was too full to close properly, so I pulled them all out and started cutting for these little blocks. 

They finish at 4.25" which is a bit of an odd size, but they used up nearly all the short strips from that drawer, so it closes nicely now. I have no plans for them; I might build them into a bigger block, or use them as a border for another set of blocks. I'm just enjoying making them in fragments of time. 

They take literally minutes to put together, so there's a box of them by the sewing machine and I just sew a few when I want to.

Speaking of sewing machines, my dear old Janome 6500 is starting to behave quite oddly. It had a new motor fitted a couple of years ago, and is still holding up well, but it's started to make a 'boing' noise when I stop sewing. Like a spring being snapped. Well that doesn't sound right at all. Mereth is now sewing on my lovely vintage Bernina after her machine died, and I started to panic that I would be stranded without a serviceable machine. Much as I love my antique ones, I find it hard to maintain a consistent quarter inch seam on them, and I've sewn quite a few of them to a standstill when their electrics break down. It's almost impossible to find someone to work on the really old ones, so I can't depend on them.

So that led to the arrival of Scarlett, a Janome 6650. 

I didn't want an embroidery capable machine, and she has lots of pre-programmed embroidery stitches that I will likely never use, but she's just an updated version of what I've been sewing on for the last 20 years. 

I was grumbling that I couldn't seem to find a perfect 1/4"  seam with her, and then I noticed this on her screen.

Well look at that. No 7 is a built in 1.4".  And it's perfect. There's a 7 mm seam too, if you were inclined to be metric, but like I said, I don't know anyone who uses that. Maybe those young ones who can't interpret the old ways?

I haven't graduated to using her exclusively, but I'll swap the machines over soon, and the 6500 can go down into our workshop. And I won't need to panic anymore.

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