Patio

Happy 2021 to all.  Hopefully this year will see us closer to managing Covid-19 and returning to a more normal life. I divided my time between the grandchildren in Adelaide and my home here, and haven't really gone anywhere except the local supermarket and the coffee shop. I'm content with that though, and quite willing to keep to that routine until a vaccine is available.

We've had appalling colds for the last 4 weeks, so it was a difficult time with grumpy babies and kids, but fingers crossed that we're over that.  It was rounded off nicely with a bout of gastro just before New Years Eve, Thomas was the only one who escaped.  It seems a fitting end to a very strange year.

I helped Shonny and Co. pack up for a 4-day New Year's camping trip. She rang the caravan park to see if they provided toilet paper in the ensuite powered site.  "oh yes,' said the girl brightly, 'there's two rolls so you should be right.' Two adults, 5 children, staying for 4 days; Seonaid took extra.

Once they left I tidied the house and cleaned it top to bottom.  I imagine Shonny will be grateful that she doesn't have to arrive home and deal with the house in the state it was.We couldn't stay on top of everything when we were all throwing up, so it was a disaster zone. I shut the door at 9.30pm, and drove home, and arrived just in time to text everyone Happy New Year and fall into bed.  What a day/week/year!!

Today I'm going to potter in my sewing room and decide what I will sew first. It's been 10 days since I set foot in there, so it will be lovely to reacquaint myself with my projects.

One of the last finishes was the Patio quilt.  It was so enjoyable to put together, and I think I"ll go on making the blocks and see what other settings there are to play with.

I've already started another quilt with these red centres, but some are too dark and are in the reject pile.

I'm sure I can come up with a plan for them.

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Ninepatch pattern

 Renee asked for a pattern for the ninepatch top in the last post.  There isn't a commercial pattern, but it's really simple to calculate what's needed for your own quilt.

73" x 73"

This is my drawing in  EQ8. I've made all the sections a different colour so it's easy to see how the blocks are put together. 

There are 17 complete double nine-patch blocks, made with five 3.5" nine-patches and four 3.5" squares. (85 nine-patches, 68 3.5" squares)

There are 8 partial double nine-patches, made with three 3.5" nine-patches, three 3.5" squares, and a 3.5" x 9.5" strip. (24 nine-patches, twenty four 3.5" squares, eight 3.5" x 9.5" strips)

The blocks are set with twenty four 9.5" squares.

The borders are 8 strips of fabric 5.5" wide, joined in pairs.

EQ8 says these are the fabric requirements;

Mine is completely scrappy except for the border.

Hopefully this is correct, I'll check it later 'cause I'm rushing to get ready for another family thing. Life doesn't slow down when you get older.....

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Brown Ninepatch top

 I finished this a while ago; 12th November in fact. 

Of course I changed things from the original photo from Pinterest. 

I drew it up in EQ8 and then started messing around with it, and decided I really liked it set straight instead.  

I also like the partial blocks that let the chains join along the edges, and the corners blocks that extend the chains out. 

This was so simple to make, and I love the deep colours, it will be a cosy winter quilt. It would also look wonderful in other colour combinations; green with red ninepatches, or pink and green. I will have a play with it in EQ8 and see what I can come up with. The ninepatches are a good leader-ender, and once they're made the quilt goes together really quickly. The 9.5" setting squares used up a lot of small blue remnants in the scrap drawers, so it was a satisfying top to make.  Now I just need to get it quilted before next winter.

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Christmas is coming

2 months since my last post, that must be some sort of record for me. Real life got in the way of blogging, but maybe things will calm down now. And if I think that Christmas fast approaching is 'calm', you have some idea of what the last two months have been like.

I've done several customer quilts, including this intriguing optical illusion.

I quilted my string top from last year, and now it's waiting for it's binding.  I had plans to do 2 more of my own quilts, but customer quilts and family commitments took up all my time.

I did get to do  some spinning, which is very relaxing, and uses up some of my enormous fibre stash.

And I'm still making these blocks and cutting up scraps, and aiming for my goal of 20 tops in 2020.  Unless I knock out a couple of baby quilts I can't see me achieving that, but I'll keep trying until New Year's Eve.

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