A New Tradition

It's Mereth's birthday today. When we were kids Mum had to buy 2 sets of birthday presents; on my birthday we both had a present and on Mereth's day we both got another one. We always got the same thing, so if I opened mine first, Mereth would know what she was getting. To avoid disappointment we got double. Interesting that in modern days one present would not cut it; shades of Dudley Dursley shouting '36 presents! But last year I got 37!' Harry Potter reference there. At Christmas we would sit back to back to unwrap presents, and no exclaiming out loud to ruin the other's surprise. 

I think I might institute a new tradition, to start something new on my birthday. This 9-Patch hired man's quilt was on an auction site somewhere.

The green and yellow print setting fabric appeals to me. I've been hoarding those sort of fabrics for decades.

They have sat on the shelf untouched for long enough.

I have enough for 6 quilts, plus a lot of FQs.

I have three 1 yard pieces of this, which tells me I bought it at Spotlight, from their American precut selection. It's a strange print for them to have, they don't go in for repros, but I gladly bought all I could find. I realised that some of the neutrals I bought yesterday would be perfect for the 9-Patches, and I could use my Precious scraps for the coloured squares. 

And thus another WIP is born.

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A Special Day

Mereth and I planned a birthday trip to Jamestown as an indulgence, and we had a lovely day. Today was my birthday and tomorrow is Mereth's.  People always assume we were born either side of midnight, but the story is far more dramatic than that. I've even had people opine that it couldn't have happened like that, but it did. 

Mereth brought me a lovely bunch of Graham Thomas roses from her garden. I love David Austin roses.

.I bought a neutral pack of 9" squares, because one can never have too many neutrals.

Plus a few discounted eighth metres. The meterage was a mix of half price bolts, and some special ones. I have no idea where I will fit them in the stash drawers.

After the patchwork shop we had lunch at the pub (fish and chips, yum) then went to the hardware to choose some plants.

This pelargonium was in a 6" pot when I bought it early in the year. It put on a wonderful display of flowers in early spring, so pretty. They are still one of my favourite flowers.

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 I spent last week quilting, trying to get the backlog of tops reduced. Being sick, and visiting family, made me very behind. I did 3 quilts for one lady, only 3 more left to do, and then I have one more top to quilt for a friend. I didn't achieve much sewing, I'm pretty wiped out after a day of quilting, so I only managed a few more star blocks, and some Split 9-Patches. I'm rather tired of them, so on the weekend I dug out another project to see if I could hurry it along a bit.

I added 7 blocks to the ones already made. I need to find a name for them in EQ8. They are very undemanding blocks to make, there aren't any difficult bits to match up. I started them to use up 2.5" strips, but they didn't make a dent, hence the Split 9-Patch, which has diminished them. Thank goodness.

This is the next project I want to work on. I already have 20 blocks, and pieces for many more cut and kitted. It's about time I moved it forward. I last worked on this in February of this year, so I have had a nice little break from it.

I've been working on the borders for my Stickle quilt, and have one side finished. I don't know whether to join them to the centre as I finish them, or wait till they are all pieced. I think it would be rather encouraging to get at least one border attached to the mother ship.

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Strip Pieced Top

This top went together really quickly; it was satisfying that there was no drama piecing the blocks together. They were all pretty much exactly the same size.

That makes 17 tops finished this year. My lack of social interaction has meant lots of completion in the sewing room.

I went through the project boxes to see what else I might work on. I started this star quilt last November, and have hardly touched it since. I'd packed away everything these blocks needed, so it wasn't difficult to pick it up again.

A couple of sewing sessions saw 14 blocks completed, and I really enjoyed them, so I will continue working on them. I'll have to work out what size quilt I can make with the limited background fabric I have. It's from Connecting Threads, and I could order more, but I'm trying not to look at that site. It usually turns out to be expensive.

There are some very strange fabrics involved, and often this is the first time they've been used, so it's good to see them out of the stash at last.

While I'm sewing blocks I'm also making Split 9Patches; they aren't strictly leader-enders because I have several bursts of making 10 or so at a time, so now I have finished 3/4 of the top. 

I'm such a failure at leader-enders. I'm also a failure at using up what I've already got. That box of squares has scarcely been touched, because I want to choose the colours I use. I really think that I'll have to send them back to the op-shop.

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Some Strip Piecing For A Change Of Pace

I started these strip pieced blocks in December last year.

Accuquilt had been showing me ads for this block, so I went and had a look. I was a bit aghast that the die was based on the third block (Mosaic 4); all trapezoids and triangles. 

I can strip piece that with far fewer seams, I exclaimed, and did so. I blame Accuquilt for inspiring me to start these blocks.

I'm having fun playing around with colours, experimenting with finding fabrics with the right value to do justice to the design, It's a lot of mindless sewing until the final block construction, which is no harder than a pinwheel,

It's all done with 2" strips, and ends up as a 12" block. 

There's a light purple strip joined to each mid and dark purple strip. Then the darker purples are joined.

Seams are pressed like this so that they'll nest later.

I used the 6" line on the triangle ruler on the edge of the strip. Then the seam is pressed open.

I made 2 strips like these, one seam pressed to the cream, one away from it, and cut with the 6 line along the edge. 

So long as I pay attention to the pressing of the seams, it all goes together really well.

I have a few more blocks to make, and I'm not tired of them. I think there will be more like this in the future.

I've loved strip piecing from the first mention of it, after the invention of rotary cutters. All that straight line sewing, then a few cuts, and it magically forms new blocks and amazing colour effects.

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Mission Accomplished

Mission accomplished; the cutting table has been cleaned up. I still have a little box of scraps to trim up for the scrap drawers, but that shouldn't take long.

I could clear it all away because the Trail Mix top is complete.

I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It's very mid-toned and blendy, which is not my usual style, but I like how the colours flow into one another. I've picked a couple of fabrics for small borders, but it will wait until I go down the shop. There's a lot more room to deal with borders down there.

While I was trying to decide what to work on next I contemplated the Split 9-Patch blocks.  I seem to have just started them, but when I counted I had enough for the first quarter. 36 blocks went up on the wall, and I was rather pleased with how they look.

I need a lot more HSTs, and the go cutter is down in the shed, so I made a heap using the 8-at-a-time method. 6" square, draw diagonals, stitch 1/4" either side.

Cut in half vertically and horizontally, and there you have it; 

8 HSTs that just need a sliver of trimming. It was really quick to do, and in no time I had 80 ready to trim. It was nice mindless sewing.

I spent some time in Adelaide recently, but it wasn't a successful trip. Thomas and Isla started dreadful colds with hacking coughs the first morning of my visit, so I had to stay away from them. Luckily Finn, Seonaid and I didn't get it, but we couldn't go anywhere or do anything while those two were so sick. After 4 days they were well enough to be bored, so I taught all three of them to play Solitaire. That was a raging success.

This is a poignant moment for me; my Mum loved playing cards, and she would play Solitaire (which we called Patience) for hours. Watching her great-granddaughter lay out the cards as she had done so many times almost made me tear up.

Thomas showed me a card he made for me in school. It was so sweet, but the portrait of me was a bit grim.

Finn also drew his version of me. What's with the eyebrows? I asked. They show how happy I am, apparently.

Sheesh. My self image is a bit dented.

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Time For A Tidy Up

 I desperately need to tidy my cutting table and the area all around it. 

I've been cutting scraps, and pulling out fabric for more cutting, for weeks, without taking time to put things away afterwards. It breaks my concentration to have to fit yardage back onto shelves, and squeeze FQs back into drawers, so I just let it pile up around me, until I can't work anymore. I no longer try to break myself of that habit; after all this time, I'm not going to change. The time between cleanups changes, as sometimes I'm more conscientious if I'm not in such a fever of creativity, but I always end up back in the mess.

I pulled out a lot of fabric to try with the Courtyard blocks, auditioning for the setting triangles and the borders. 

So many choices.

I'm stuck as far as deciding. There are several choices I like; one fabric has 7 yards on the bolt and I'd dearly love to use up a chunk of that, but I'm doubtful. Maybe it's not The One? That perfect one, that speaks to me straight away. If there's one habit to break, it's that search for perfection. Over and over again, when I'm caught between 2 choices, it's because both would look nice, and one isn't better than the other. Sigh. I'm going to put the pieces on the design wall down the shop and see if the natural lighting helps me make a decision.

And I may have started another leader-ender, this time with my 2.5" squares and HSTs.

I made a blue and yellow/cream Split 9 Patch many years ago (and sold it), 

and it obligingly used up lots and lots of fabrics that I just didn't want in my stash anymore.  I want to attack this box of squares; 

a lot of them came in scrap bags from the op-shop. They're not horrible, but I won't cry about using them all up.

The HSTs are always available, I cut hundreds of them with the Accuquilt die years ago. It's time to use them up and cut new fabrics to fill the triangle box.

That's a lot of projects, all concentrating on my repro, or sort-of repro fabrics. I'm starting to miss my nice modern pretties. Now that spring is here, I might make something light-hearted and happy. But not until I've cleared up.

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