I fussed around with fabric placement and positioning and managed to cut a partial block. There is another round of triangles after this, but I'd run out of fabric so I didn't bother with them.

It went together easily enough, but my seam allowance is a bit too scant. The next round of triangles doesn't quite meet the intersection of seams on the previous rounds. I just need to add a few more threads into that seam allowance.

It's not a big deal, but it makes the block look a bit spikier than I'd like.

I did a lot of easy sewing at night, just feeding these squares through the machine. I'm trying to whittle down the scraps and this block uses a satisfying amount of a 2.5" strip.

These Happy blocks require a 4.5" square and I can't always get that from a scrap. I'll go to my FQ stash and cut strips for more blocks, as these are quicker than the square within a square blocks.  And I want to do a Potato Chip quilt soon, so I need a lot of 2.5 x 4.5"  bricks for that.

Sometimes when I'm sick of piecing or cutting I just pick up a little project that needs no concentration. We have baskets of offcuts from our customers' backings; no one has ever asked for these to be given back with the quilt. We could just throw them away, but there's a lot of useable fabric in between the stitching. So I'll sit down with a few strips and a seam ripper and take out the quilting stitches.

There's way too much fabric here to just ditch it. This was from the backing of the last huge quilt I did. The lady who pieced it for her granddaughter was just so over the whole thing, she wanted nothing to do with the leftovers 😄

These will go into string blocks, or eye-spy blocks; we don't have a lot of childrens fabrics in our stashes, so ones like this are always welcome.  Another customer always uses Tilda or William Morris for her backings, so when I've unpicked those I can put them straight into the scrap drawers.  It's a nice little bonus, and it keeps a little more fabric out of landfill.

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Home again

I'm glad to be back after a whole week away. Although I love spending time with the grandkids they do wear me out.  I really hate city traffic, and nightmare carparks, and traipsing all over a big hospital to attend three different appointments. But it also acts as a reality check, because I see people who are worse off than me, so it prompts me to be grateful.

The whole time I was away I kept thinking about that star block that I left half finished, so the first thing I did when I got home was get it all together. I just happened to have strips of this fabric  on my table, so I've decided to make a table topper. Maybe that will stop me using the table as a dumping ground.

Those points look pretty precise, and it all slotted together easily, so I'm calling this die a win.

I then cut out this 8" Weathervane block, and it was so easy to put together. I just used scraps that I could lay my hands on easily (metallics, ugh) and it was no trouble at all to cut and then piece. So this die is a win too.

I made a mistake with the Snail Trail die though. I hadn't really given any thought to how big it was, and I didn't order a mat for it, so I can't use it until I get the mat. That will teach me to order things in haste. I'll have a go at juggling a smaller mat to partially cover the shapes I want, but that will irritate me no end.

After my bout of piecing with teeny tiny diamonds and tiny triangles in the Weathervane block, I'm ready for some easy stuff. Today I think I'll tackle that huge pile of strips I cut, and then devote myself to some mindless quilting. These square within square blocks will be relaxing I think.

Finn is very invested in taking family photos lately, and commandeers my phone for selfies. My little tribe of rascals are growing so quickly. Next time I visit, Isla will be taller than me, and those boys are shooting up. Oh well, at least I'm not shrinking. Yet.

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Bargain Hunting

 I'm tired, yet again. I just can't seem to avoid all the going out, when all I really want to do is stay at home and sew. Blood tests, shopping in the next town, getting a tire fixed, picking up prescriptions: nothing is hard, just time consuming. And in the garden, I've been dealing with an onslaught of mealy bugs like a Biblical plague. How dare they attack my plants!. 

But I don't complain, remember? No whining.

This afternoon, while I waited for my washing to finish, I started ironing and cutting an enormous pile of scraps. They were on every surface, because we'd dragged them out of their hiding places, and I couldn't really function until I made some space.

This was a quarter of them, there were many, many more.

That was a lot of cutting.

 I needed space because a parcel arrived from Accuquilt and I wanted to unpack it straight away. They had a huge sale on discontinued dies, and initially I didn't want any, but then I started looking at the individual shapes on each die and they started to look more useful, Most of them were sold out by the time I decided to jump in, but I got three, and they should prove interesting.

I love that Weathervane shape, so I'm sure I'll use this, it's for an 8" block, which is a favourite size of mine.

This Star block eliminates a lot of tedious cutting, and I do love Star quilts. It ends up at 14".

This 12" Snail Trail block is a huge die, and again, I'm not interested in piecing the block as is, I'm more interested in how I can use those shapes in my own blocks.

These 3 dies plus shipping cost less than a single full price die, so it was a good bargain. Most of the prices have gone back to normal now, so I'm glad I jumped in while I could.

I'm off to Adelaide again for a week, so I don't have time to play. I grabbed a handful of batik strips and ran them through the Star die, and stayed up way too late creating half a star.

I'll finish it when I get home, but it all went together really well, and I can't wait to cut more.

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Progress

I had to go down to the shop to wait for a friend to drop off a top for quilting, so I took the Plaid top and it's border strips, and used the waiting time productively.

The 2.5" border framed the blocks nicely; it feels good to have a finish on a very long term UFO.

On Thursday friend Deb, Mereth and I ran away to Adelaide to indulge in a little retail therapy.  First up was Spotlight for a smidgeon more fabric, then to a favourite plant nursery.

Yes, more $1 FQs.  Seems I can't resist.

As for plants, I bought a strawberry basket loaded with runners from 3 healthy plants. I plan to establish another raised bed at Seonaid's place so the kids can learn about keeping plants alive, and eating the results. The other raised beds they have are flowers and succulents, not much to interest children there.

I also got a few more seedlings of petunias and parsley, to pop into spots where other things died during our hot spells.  My garden mantra is " A small well-tended garden can be a joy." I always over-commit myself, so limiting the garden to just this space has made it much easier for me to maintain.

It took me a day to recover from that adventure, and several medical appointments here in town, but last night I managed to start cutting up some FQs.  I like to cut 7.5" squares to make these kite blocks, but I'd lost the directions I wrote out.

It took me all afternoon to track down the box of blocks, re-engineer the instructions from the pieces, then test them. All of that is resting in the newly labelled project box, ready for when I make a start on those super easy blocks.

My aim is to completely cut those FQs into parts for projects, so I'm working on a cutting plan. They are a mix of quarter yards and quarter metres, so I have to be a bit flexible about what strips I cut. A 7.5" strip and several 2.5" strips accounts for most of one, and then I can decide whether I want a 4.5" strip. And I'm amassing 1.5" strips from the bright FQs for my Film Strip top.

And, in what passes for excitement in a small town, a council crew have been digging up a stormwater pit in the road outside my building. The drains haven't worked properly for the 16 years I've been here, and this might have something to do with it.

The whole pit was clogged with tree roots and dirt; the council planted those trees on the footpath, and the sneaky things sent roots 20 feet away into the drain to keep alive, and then the council had to spend 4 days clearing them out. Past councils planted a lot of unsuitable trees on our footpaths, so it will happen again, but I won't be around to observe.

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