Courtyard Blocks

 I have been working on the Courtyard blocks, which I still love. I drew up the block in EQ8 to see how I could arrange them, without the hassle of sewing them edge to edge.

This was the one I really liked.

70 " x 84"

But this was nice too.

67" square

I really like the idea of a 1" frame around all the blocks, so that sent me back to the cutting table to find the original fabrics and see if I could get enough 1.5" strips. Some of the fabrics were completely used up by this, and I felt a pang. I know the aim of the game is to get rid of every last scrap, but some fabrics are hard to let go of.  Oh well, it's done now.

I'm laying out the larger design, even though it will be awkward for me to finish. Those big triangles and borders will need a sizeable chunk of fabric, and I would love to use up 2 of my longer lengths. I'm great at scraps and nibbling away at FQs, but it would be wonderful to use actual yardage for a change. Even though the triangles only require three quarters of a yard, and a yard for the borders, it will still be a chunk of fabric.

EQ8 puts the total yardage at 7.45 yards, which is gratifying; that's quite a lot out of the scrap bags once and for all.

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Little Cross Blocks

I've been concentrating on the Little Cross blocks, needing to see some progress there. 

I don't want to make a big quilt from these blocks, it's just a way to use up some of the blocks I've already made. I was on the verge of not cutting any more, but it's such a good way to use up partial strips that I've reconsidered.

A 9.5" strip will make the cross; it needs a 5" x 2" rectangle and 2 2" squares. 

To make it even more scrappy, you can use different fabrics for the cross.

The background needs a 14.5" strip cut into 4 2" squares and 4 triangles cut with  a triangle ruler such as an Easy Angle.

The cross is made with the 2" squares flanking that rectangle.

The triangles are added over the arms of the cross. They are way too big, but that means they don't need any careful positioning. The point of the triangle should be roughly in the centre of the blue piece. I can sew these on really quickly chain piecing style. 

The triangles are pressed outwards, and the block trimmed to 4 3/4". I usually just trim it to a quarter inch past the points of the cross, which is nearly always the right measurement. That tiny length of bias in every side means it can be finessed to fit the 1.5" strip around the block.

I added the 1.5" strip round the block by cutting 4 3/4" rectangles and 1.5" squares from contrasting fabric. I'm trying very hard not to be too be picky about what I put where.

 I'm using pale fabric for the light crosses because white seemed too big a contrast. This lets me use up even more of the 2" strips, which makes me happy.

I have more than enough of the dark crosses, so I need to concentrate on the light crosses for a while. I'm quite happy to stockpile them with the rest until I come up with a new way to use them.

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A Use For Every Scrap

Seeing Bonnie's Sunnyside quilt gave me an idea. My little cross blocks formed the same shape as her pieced blocks; The setting is wonderful, and I thought, Hmm, maybe I could set my little cross blocks like that. If I had some light ones with a dark background.

And there you have it, a way to use up my scrap 2" strips of any colour, and also use my 1.5" strips as the setting. Perfect.

I've made quite a few of the light crosses with dark triangles, but I will need a whole lot more; I think I have enough of the dark crosses to be going on with.

This motley collection of 2" strips weren't long enough to make my Courtyard blocks or the new cross blocks, so I set to and cut all of them into squares. 

I already have a drawer full of squares, so I think I'll have to find a bigger box to store them in.

I don't like using 1.5" squares, but I cut them from the end pieces of the 2" strips, because it seemed wasteful not to..

It took no time at all to amass a sizeable stack of them. I may end up donating them to my sister if they annoy me too much.

I made a few chain blocks from some of the 2" strips.  I used the strips that didn't blend in with the others I was using, and that were long enough to get several squares.  I won't dignify these with a project box. They'll live in the Orphan Block drawers until I find more strips for them, or sell them.

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Scrappy Mountains Scrap Quilt

I've been concentrating the last few days on getting these blocks set into a top.

It's Bonnie's Scrappy Mountain Majesties pattern, and I have made this pattern 6 or 7 times. It's my go to for scraps that have landed in my stash with no idea of what they should be. I just cut 8.5" strips and squares, and make these blocks whenever the inclination strikes.

The whole time I was sewing this together I kept pondering the mystery of a set of blocks I was working on last year. I went through everything in my sewing room, in the shed, down the shop, and I could not find that set of blocks. When I marked this top off my UFO list I could see the other set of blocks on the list; 100 blocks, on November third, 2025. It was a whole quilt's worth of blocks, and I had no idea where they were.

Today, while looking for my box of 1.25" strips, I moved a bolt of fabric and saw an unfamiliar box. When I dragged it out to have a look, lo and behold, it was my missing blocks. I'm very glad they turned up, but I need a bit of a break before I tackle putting them together. There are 6 rows sewn already, so it won't take long, but I have no idea why I put them away in the first place.

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A Growing Stack of Blocks

I don't like these blocks set straight, but prefer them tipped on point. They will have sashing between them, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm just making more and more.

I'm up to 32 already, and I'm not sick of them yet. I'll have to do a mockup in EQ8 and get an idea of what it might look like. I couldn't find a name for them in the Barbara Brackman software, and Mereth suggested Courtyard, so that's what I'm calling them.

I'm busy spinning up a lovely dark fleece, but when I break to have a cup of coffee I've been going through this set of books.

They are a Time-Life set from quite a long time ago; I haunted Ebay until I found a complete set, and then paid an exorbitant amount to have them posted over here. There are 20 titles, covering everything from architecture to food, and I love going through them.

Yesterday I chose the Quilts volume, and made a note of some that caught my eye.

This would obligingly use up a lot of my tiny strips, as well as a chunk of meterage for the sashing.

I know I've complained about my blue stash, and how I'm sick of the colour, but this would be perfect for my repro blues. I made a schoolhouse quilt when my son was in kindy, nearly 40 years ago. I made it as a prize in their raffle, and it was won by my son's best friend. Alas, there is no picture of that, only one of Jonny clutching it happily. I really doubt it has survived, but it's a nice memory.

When I've gone through all the American Country books I'll start on my collection of Country Living. I treasure these, especially the older ones which featured quilts on nearly every page. I was lucky enough to find 20 issues in an opshop, and grabbed them all. What a find!

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Decisions, Decisions

I got busy and put the borders on my scrap squares quilt. The green was the perfect stop border and the light blue made the perfect frame. I love having a huge stash so that there's always something to find in the border department. Though I had to ask Mereth for her piece of the blue, because I couldn't find mine. I know I haven't used it all, as it was a big bargain piece, but I've misfiled it somewhere. All I found were some strips cut for the blue scrap quilts. I need to sort out the stash so I can actually find things again.

In the sewing room I have been happily sewing up these blocks.

I can't find a name for them in EQ8. I will have to allocate a name for them so I can label the project box. I absolutely love piecing these, they're like a checkerboard, but with extra triangles. It makes me happy to lay out another one and methodically piece it together. So much so that I have 27 blocks, and I'm not sick of them yet, so I've made a whole heap more kitted blocks. I will need to consult EQ8 for a setting, because I definitely will not be joining them edge to edge. That would be a pressing nightmare with all those seams meeting.

I need my design board, but it's still full of the Fancy 4-Patch blocks. I keep telling myself to sew them together and be done with it, but I have thoughts about that. I know I want to keep it and quilt it myself, but the thought of all that cream is putting me off. Do I want a mainly cream quilt that will get grubby? What an annoyingly sensible question. How will I quilt it?  I would like to use a Baptist Fan pattern, but cream thread might look awful on the print fabric. I should just do whatever I want to. But still I hesitate. Should I substitute darker alternate squares like Tazzie's quilt?

While sewing up my checkerboard blocks, in my happy place, I spied the leftover HSTs from the Fancy 4-Patch. Hmmm. What if I made a little practice piece, to see what the quilting would actually look like?

When I finished the block I was working on I started putting together little 4-patches, and found the leftover cream fabric, and voila! 

A little practice piece, ready for quilting. When quilting all-over patterns on customer quilts I've often been surprised to see that their chosen cream or white thread doesn't look garish or out of place. Maybe it will be fine on my 1800s repro fabrics.  We'll see. I now have a cute little 18" quiltlet, and no more leftovers. 

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Some Finishes At last

A while ago I started several blue scrap quilts in an effort to get rid of those scraps altogether. What a ridiculous proposition that was! Of course there are still boxes of scraps left over, but at least I have two single bed tops to show for the effort.

The first one is Four Patch Fun, which was a Bonnie leader-ender.

I like the pattern, but I wish I had made it in pink and yellow like her quilt. I'll probably start that one before the end of the year. I have no will power.

This one is Triple Treat, another leader-ender project. I started it to use up those red four-patches, but they weren't accurate, and so the blocks didn't measure what they should have. I hope I've learned a lesson about checking sizes. I really don't enjoy having to fudge every seam, and it was sheer hard work to get the blocks into a finished top.

I was cleaning out project boxes and this was in the Dear Jane box. It's all the remnants of making the blocks, and I'm not going to be needing any of them, as I won't be making the pieced border triangles.

There were a couple of larger pieces, but it was mainly tiny scraps. I don't think I'll be making any more 5" blocks in the future,

so I'll donate them all to Mereth, who loves scraps of all sizes. She will appreciate them so much more than me.

I'm not often awake at daybreak, but I did manage to see the dawn sky the other day. So pretty; if only I was an Early Bird instead of a Night Owl!

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 I've spent most of my sewing time working on the Fancy 4-Patch blocks, purely because I don't have the mental bandwidth to pack them away and find something else. 

I have finished the 50 blocks required, and now I'm just debating if any of them need to be replaced. That yellow block is definitely unlike the others, but Mereth and I both agree that it acts as a focal point. 

I've started joining them in blocks of four, but it's not thrilling work. I need to get my design wall back though.

Another blogger just finished her Fancy Four Patch; Tazzie's quilts are always amazing, and she's certainly put her own stamp on these blocks (scroll down to the end of the post). Just beautiful. Maybe I need to rethink that white in the alternate blocks.....

The Half Log Cabins are still acting as my leader-enders, I've amassed another 20; that's all very well and good, but I don't need any more of them just now.

I finally buckled down and found two fabrics that will work as the borders on my scrap quilt. 

It will be nice to get it finished, and then I can assess what scraps are left. Maybe they will become crumb blocks, maybe they will go in the bin.  Who knows.

We've had some cold mornings lately. I woke up early one morning feeling colder than usual, and checked the weather app. Yep, that's cold. We don't normally have frosts here, not any more. Our winters are getting milder, and our summers more ferocious. 

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Moving At Reduced Speed

I'm finding it difficult to get moving these days. It's partly because it's winter and I want to hibernate, partly because I have very low energy. I recently had some comprehensive blood tests (7 vials of blood!) and consequently discovered that I have hypothyroidism, and very low Vit. D  levels. So I have another medication to add to the daily intake, and I have to take 5 times the usual dose of Vit. D for the next 3 months and then be tested again.  My doctor breezily stated that I would start to have more energy in about 2 weeks, but I'm not there yet, possibly because I have another beastly cold. One interesting thing is that the cold temperatures have stopped bothering me; low thyroid levels apparently make one sensitive to cold. So that's a positive sign that I'm improving.

I'm doing a little bit of sewing here and there. I pulled out the blocks for the Fancy 4-Patch, and started working on them again. I'm pretty sure I have most of the HSTs done, I'll have to take a count later on.

I sewed quite a few of the 4Patch units, and bagged them to complete later. When I'm ready to complete the block it's a simple 9patch to put together, because I've already done all the fiddly bits.

I'm thinking about what I will work on when I have a couple more things crossed off the UFO list. These blocks caught my attention; Bonnie showed a vintage quilt in this pattern last year, and I made a few blocks to see if I liked sewing them. I do like them, and I think I'll cut and kit a heap of blocks. They're made with 2" strips, which will help clear out that drawer.

Last night I was feeling a bit dreary and incapable of creative thought, so I resorted to more Half Log Cabins.  I ran out of pieces again, so today I'll replenish the stacks. 

I've been spinning quite a bit, trying to work through my stash of ready-to-spin fibre.

This was Shetland wool roving, and has been hanging around for about 5 years. I had so much fun when I first got back into spinning, going to Fibre Fests and buying up braids and roving and bags of fluff. It was easier to buy it than spin it though, so I have many things still waiting.

The colours are captivating!

My main love is natural coloured fleece though, and I have a mountain of fleeces that I can't bear to part with. 

At nights I've been working on this chocolate coloured Corriedale. Once I've combed it it turns into luscious little nests of beautiful fibre.

It's so time intensive to prepare raw fleece for spinning; sorting out the best bits, washing the fleece, carding or combing it, spinning it and then washing the finished yarn. And then it's ready to be knitted, or crocheted, or woven. It's the perfect meditative past time for winter days and nights. But it's not quick! 

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What's Next

I seem to have lost focus after the finishing spree of May. The cold weather hasn't helped my energy levels, but I figure it's time to get over that and make some more progress. 

I sewed a lot of triangles together for the Dear Jane borders; if I concentrate it doesn't take long to make decent progress. I sat on a hard chair the night I sewed these, and when I got up my back complained a lot.  I need to find a comfy chair for my hand sewing sessions.

I spent another week in Adelaide with the family; it was school holidays so I could at least spend time with the kids. I mostly knitted socks, and finished off several pairs that just needed to have the toes grafted. Maybe after doing 5 pairs one after the other I will remember how to do it.

Once I came back from that trip I really had no idea what I was doing when I left, and I had no idea what to work on first. So I picked up a couple of easy things to finish off.

I made 7 Half Log Cabin blocks, so now I have the full 120 I need.

I played around with the Spinning Rectangles to see if I liked them sewn into set of four.

Not bad, but I'll just keep on adding to the box for now, there's no hurry to decide what I'll eventually make.

I have moved my blue/green scrap top further towards a finish. It's in one piece now, and I just need to decide on how I want to border it.

 I still have some scraps left, and it would be nice to use them up, because heavens almighty, they just won't give up and disappear! I'm even considering some string blocks, just to deal with them.

A little Finn story from our last visit; I was explaining how people shrink in height as they get older, and he said "Oh I get it. As they get shorter, they get wider". No Finn, it's not like playdough! It's not like that at all. But he does have a point.

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Catch Up

I spent a week in Adelaide with the family, a very rainy, cold week. The boys and Seonaid had to brave the weather for their soccer games, and Isla and I watched Friends episodes at home in the warmth. Pays to be a girl sometimes.

I did some hand piecing while I was down there; I'm just sewing a light triangle to a printed one at the moment, and later I'll arrange the borders so they will look balanced, and then I can sew them all together. It takes no time at all; the only stumbling block is my hands seizing up because of the cold.

It will take me a day or two to work out where I was in the sewing room, and what projects need attention the most. I'm up to 113 of the Half Log Cabin blocks, so I will probably do the 7 required to get to 120, and then start putting them together.  I used to instructions from this book;

But I don't think I'll use that setting. 

I'm far more likely to put them together as blocks.

Then I'll start amassing enough blocks for another quilt. I do like having them as an ongoing project. I wonder what Bonnie's Leader-Ender block will be this year? We'll find out some time in July.

The last thing I did before leaving Adelaide was visit Spotlight. I had a request from Mereth for more of a backing fabric she liked, and of course I had to rummage through the FQs. Only 10 or so came home with me, but I do like to see what is available.

I'm planning a blue and green quilt, and a purple quilt, so I picked up a few of those colours, plus some random neutrals that took my fancy. Here's hoping I cut them up straight away and don't hoard them.

Yesterday it was lunch with a friend in Jamestown (and picking up more tops to quilt), and then the obligatory visit to the patchwork shop. 

I found more half price fabric, and a couple of longtime favourites that I needed more of. My browns are seriously depleted; no one seems to have repro browns  anymore, so I have to buy them when I find them.

I f I wanted to be truly horrified I would total up the amount of fabric I've bought this year, but it's better that I don't know. That way I can't feel guilty, and I just get to enjoy my new fabric.

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