Progress on several projects

The spate of customer quilts is under control now, so I've been spending a little more time in the sewing room. I have no sense of purpose really, I'm just wandering from one thing to another as the mood takes me. I know this is the aftermath of the busy time I've had for the last 2 months, so I'm just going with the flow.

I've been pondering my UFOs, especially the long term ones, and decided I should work on a few just to maintain a bit of progress. While I was away I finished the last of the 35 blocks I needed for my handsewn Periwinkle blocks, which was momentous. Those things have been hanging around for years.

My intention was to handsew the entire quilt, sashings and borders, but I've gone off that idea. I tried one sashing by hand, and one by machine, and the machine one got the tick of approval. I have other things to be doing with my hand piecng time.

 

I hadn't even looked at these star blocks for quite some time, so I dug out the box and started sewing. I had enough kitted up for 46 blocks; when I kit them I make the 9-patches and the Flying Geese unit for each block and put them in separate baggies. Then it's as easy as sewing a 9-patch to put them together, so it only took a few sewing sessions to finish all the kits. I will have to decide what size I want this quilt; I discovered a tray full of strips precut for more blocks, so there will be more of them in future.

These scraps were cut into 2.5" strips for my scrappy blocks, and I've been using them as leader enders for other projects, so there are 120 of them now. 

Enough for a small quilt, so I might have to choose another leader-ender pattern now. I still have strips to use up, funny how that works.

From there I got a mad idea about using up the horde of 2" strips of bright modern pastels, and decided on Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist. Her strips were 2.5", and mine were smaller, but how hard could it be?  

I made a few dozen of the quarter blocks, and they were sheer fun, and then I started trying to put them into blocks. It was a lot harder than it looked, everywhere I put a block it was adjacent to another identical fabric. Because of the smaller strip size I needed 20 blocks instead of 12, so that meant 80 quarter blocks. It was a lot of work. 

It looks good with a sashing separating the blocks, so I'm filing that idea away for next time. 

It still isn't completely sewn together, but I'll work on it till it is, just so I can clear the design wall and go on to another UFO. I have so many to choose from. I was a bit silly and cut 2.5" strips while I was cutting extra 2" strips, thinking I could make the same pattern again. I think I may choose another pattern now I know how hard I found arranging those blocks.

And of course the strip off cuts turned into another project.... 

There's at least 2 UFOs vying for my attention, I'll choose one while I finish up this project. It's so lovely to feel enthusiastic about sewing once more