My Blue Ridge Beauty (from this book) project completely occupied my time this past week. I have 36 blocks put together, just to check that the light blue pieces were working well with the darker blue.

All good, so it was on to more cutting and piecing.

I cut lots and lots of 3.5" triangles. These were supposed to be leader-enders, while I worked on something else, but I never have much luck setting things aside. Once they were cut, I just had to sew them up.  The same thing happened with the four patch blocks.

Before too long, I had enough pieces for 84 blocks, stacked in sets of 10 in their project box. At this stage, I decided I would sew these into blocks as leader-enders. I'm undecided on the final size. This will make a decent single bed quilt. If I make it 12 x 14 it will be suitable for a larger bed, and I will need another 48 blocks. I'm just not sure what I want at the moment, so for now I"m moving on to something else.

This little idea of mine pleased me. Isla gifts me with all her artwork, so I have a pile of her drawings and colourings. I like to build blocks on a sheet of paper and stack them ready to sew next to the machine.  I was using old magazines, or discarded junk mail, but now I'm using Isla's drawings. It makes me smile as I uncover each one, and it's nice to have a use for them. 

Now that I have the Blue Ridge Beauty kitted, what am I working on? 

I decided to revisit this red and white Jacob's Ladder, and see if I could move it further along. Even if I just get more blocks kitted it would be progress. Those red and white scraps keep turning up in containers all over the sewing room.

And because I have a huge pile of 3.5" and 2" blue strips now,  I wondered what a Carolina Chain (from Bonnie's book) would look like. This is my Plan B for the scraps, if I don't need to make another 48 blocks.  I always have a Plan B.....

Goldilocks and the 3 Bear Paw blocks

A while ago I saw a Bear Paw quilt that someone was making and thought, I've never made that pattern, I should do that. Mind you, I've tried several times, and I just wasn't liking the results enough to continue. But then I searched Pinterest, and saw quite a few that I liked, so I decided to make a trial block and see what size I liked best.

First I made one with 1.5" HSTs. That turned out to be 10.5", way too big for my liking.  So I tried 1" HSTs.  Nope, at 7" that was too small. So I made the block with the cheddar background, with 1.25" HSTs, and that was juuust right. It's actually really surprising what a half inch change in the triangle measurements does; I wasn't expecting it to shrink 3.5". My chosen block will measure around 9", and I'll be able to cut lots of the pieces from scraps.

My main aim lately is to whittle down the drawer of charm square leftovers.  I've  pilfered bits out of each pack for years, and there's only random remnants left. I'm sick of hoarding them, so I'm going to be ruthless and slice them up for this project.

One of my main gripes with this pattern was making 16 HSTs for each block. It was too tedious for words. But what if each quarter was like it's own little block, like the Boxy Bowties? That would be much more doable.

This is just adorable done with all scraps, I'm so pleased with it. My favourite block patterns have a space for light, dark and medium fabrics, so everything in the scrap drawers can join in. This ticks that box.

I know it's going to be a leader-ender, but I need to get a feel for how the blocks are going to look, so I'm making sets of triangles as my MAD piecing for May.  (My ironing pad deserves a new cover, it's disgusting.) I'm cutting up mountains of scraps, and zombie sewing late into the night. I figure if I have the triangles done and kitted, then choosing the medium squares to go with them later on will be pure fun. 

I have never used the cheddar charms from the packs, so I've built up quite a collection.  I have no idea what to do with them, but they can all live in their own container from now on. Maybe a Pinterest search will help with ideas for them as well.

I haven't forgotten this quilt.

The centre is in one piece now, and I just need to tackle the borders. That will involve quite a few decisions though, so I've let myself be distracted by anything and everything. I will get back to it, once the novelty has worn off my new projects. And I haven't had a lot of spare time lately, what with customer quilts and family visits.

I've spent the last 8 days with the grandkids; 4 days in Adelaide with them all, then I brought Isla home for 4 days.

Finn and Thomas are becoming a Unit; Brothers United. It's so sweet when they play together and enjoy each other's company. The fights are getting fewer and shorter; hopefully they won't be twice as much trouble now that they are good mates.

Apparently protective headgear was needed for lunch this day.

Isla really loves one on one time; the boys demand so much attention and she misses out. While they were busy with Mum, Isla and I made a skirt from a discarded piece of fabric we found in the cupboard.

She sewed it all, I just put the elastic in the waist band. She's having so much fun being allowed to use the machine. Unfortunately there have been some scissor related crimes lately, so she's banned from touching scissors for 3 months.  That's going to hurt.

At my place she played in the shed with various sewing things, did lots of colouring in, played the piano, played with my dolls. She could spend the whole holidays with me and not be bored, but the rest of the family would miss out on her then, so it's just a few days each time.

We went back to the little craft shop, so I could buy more blue samples (I'm supposed to be using up what I already have!), 

and she had so much fun playing in the scary railway underpass.

She thought she was so brave being in a tunnel, she ran back and forth about 10 times. So much energy.

So then she relaxed in the autumn sunshine on an old railway cart. And yes, she's lost 2 teeth already. She's growing up so fast.