Closer to a FInish

I got a bee in my bonnet about finishing This And That, and sewed steadily on the blocks, sure that I would have units left over. Imagine my horror then, to find I actually need another 5 units. It felt like making those 10 extra HSTs would take forever and I would never get it done. 

Once I put the histrionics to one side it actually took less than half an hour, and I could then sew them into the required blocks and get them on the design wall.

It took a whole evening to sew the blocks into a top. There was much nesting of seams and pinning, but I really enjoyed it.

Because the unit and then the block seams were twirled, every seam nested perfectly, and it was a pleasure to pin and sew. Even if one piece was a little long or short, I could contain that within a 2" area, so the whole thing is flat as a tack. It was very satisfying. As far as choosing borders for it, that wasn't so pleasant; it was a struggle to find something acceptable, but I won that little battle after a few hours.

What have I been doing since then? Sewing on this bright project. I had a mild memory problem calling it Arkansas Traveller, which of course is an applique sampler quilt from the 1800s.  It's actually an Arkansas Crossroads, which I suddenly remembered while I was cooking dinner one night. It's very strange how minds work sometimes.

This will only be a single bed quilt, because I just want to use the leftovers from those bright strips; I don't want to cut a whole heap for this and then have to plan another quilt to use up the excess. What is on the design wall is half of what I need; I think another few nights will see this done and the box of squares emptied out.

I've been playing with another scrap design from Americana Quilting.  I have a box of blue and green scraps from a Bargello quilt and a Many Trips Around The World that I made probably a decade ago.

I knew I had more, and then Mereth unearthed another box of them from the scrap containers.

 Yep, that's a lot. They've been cluttering up the place since 2015, and I was close to putting them all in the bin, but I saw this video first. 

I made sample blocks, and I think it will be a wonderful way to get rid of these entirely. The blocks are a lot of fun to make, and I'm keen to get sewing on them.  I love how the internet can supply all these inspirations that are a solution at last to long term scrap problems. But it would have been a lot quicker to bin the lot of them......

A Bit of This and That

I'm stalled on this Fox and Geese top.  First up, I sewed a row in the middle backwards, so my carefully arrangement of fabrics and colours went out the window. I did contemplate un-pulling 2 long seams, but I was too miffed to do it. I was so cranky that I hung it on a rack and didn't look at it for two weeks. I guess I shouldn't concentrate on speed above accuracy, but it was late at night and I was determined to get it in one piece.  Well I did, but I wasn't happy.

I've decided that it doesn't really matter, and that I should just put borders on it and call it done. But now the top is being bolshie, and refuses to tell me exactly what it wants.  A big sprigged  cream floral such as the left strip, or a warmer, denser floral like the right strip. I've tried everything I can think of in my stash, and it won't give me a yes or no. It can go back on the rack and think about it's attitude.

When I started to feel better in the early days of this cold I decided I just needed something easy and mindless to sew, and the kitted This and That blocks fit the bill.  

I sewed like a machine, 48 quadrants in one night, and the final count the next afternoon was 72, That's enough for 18 blocks, which is most of what I need. I'm aiming for 56 blocks, and later today I will do a count of what I have and finish the remaining kitted pieces. This is yet another example of a leader-ender fail; I always get to a certain point with them and then it becomes the primary project. But at least it will mean a free project box, which is very welcome.

Incidentally, I found this unit in Blockbase.

No 1326, Cotton Reels. Not seeing it myself, but that's what it says.

My prolonged cutting extravaganza of 2.5 and 4.5" strips produced a flurry of blocks, 50 Square Within a Square blocks, 48 Happy blocks and the blue top in the last post.  This is all that's left of that huge pile of strips.

Not very much. I ended up with a lot of 2.5" squares from the ends of strips, and I'm toying with the idea of an Arkansas Traveller in those brighter colours.

Of course I modified it a bit, and working out the changes kept me interested, and it will definitely become a project. I feel like I need to cut a heap more strips though, so that might happen in the next few days.

It's trying to become Autumn here, but our days are still very warm. I decided it was time to harvest some jalopenos and capsicums.

There are loads more jalopenos on the bushes, but I think the capsicums are over. Considering the bushes are 3 years old I think they've done well. I plan to pull them out and plant anew next year.  My tomatoes struggle on, with about 35 small fruits, but their days are numbered.  Then I can think of planting a few winter things like spinach and snap peas.  It's only a few pots, but it keeps me interested.

Plague Edition

 Ach, I have a doozy of a cold, flat out misery making.  The last 2 days have been horrible, I slept for long stretches and tried to give myself time to recover. I feel marginally better today, all dosed up with cold medication and stuff for my headache. This is the first time since 2020 that I have a cold that wasn't passed on from my family. I'm always so careful when I go out, but I attended a lot of appointments last week, without a mask, and some germ moved in.  I will get a batch of chicken soup in the IntantPot and that will help I'm sure.

What were some of these appointments? For a start there was a sale at a sewing shop featuring $5 a metre fabric.  Most of the cheap fabrics were panels, and even at that price not a lot of people were interested. Mereth and I certainly weren't, so most of what we bought was $9 a metre.

You can't ever have too many blues or greens.

These are cheerful colours, very welcome, but I wish I'd bought more of that map fabric. Sometimes being sensible is regrettable. 

 I kept within my budget, buying mostly half metres of useful blenders, but there were 2 Martha Negley fabrics that I grabbed. 

Such beautiful colours and patterns.

 I really want to make a Mathemagical quilt, using my Kaffes and other splashy bright fabrics. but I don't have very many now. I need 12 FQs, and I would be scratching to come up with that many, so these gorgeous fabrics will fill the gaps.  I absolutely do not want to walk into a quilt shop and buy more Kaffe FQs, after working to get them out of my stash.

There was also a trip back to the closing sale of a craft shop, because he's now offering a 40% discount.  He's a bit pricey, so such a big discount still leaves some things not cheap enough, We went for widebacks, scissors, some magnifying aids and some spinning supplies.  

Next month, the discount goes to 50% off, so I will have a look at more spinning stuff and some cross stitch supplies. 

What else have I been doing? I got the borders on the blue Square within A Square top, and it looks very nice.

 Snowballing all those corners took so much time, but I do like the look of it. I got the idea from a picture on Jo's Country Junction, one of Ray's charity quilts. It's the 4th photo. There are so many ideas out there, and it was a great idea to make a quilt a bit special.

I think that's only my 3rd finish this year, I've been sewing, but not completing much. I made dozens of blocks from my 2.5" strips, but I don't feel compelled to sew them into tops. I need to have a big shake up when I feel better, and decide what to work on next.

A Use For Those Samples

 I did get busy and cut those samples up into 8.5" squares and made Scrappy Mountain Majesty blocks.

These really aren't my cup of tea, but they will make a nice quilt.

It will be mainly green and brown, with a bit of rusty orange here and there. I'm not using anything floral or girly, hoping it will appeal to someone wanting a quilt for a guy. My son was very anti-floral when it came to his quilt😄

When it comes time to trim the pieced triangles into 2" strips I use two rulers to make sure that I'm able to get 4 equal strips. Often I make the initial cuts just a tad too wide, and when I get to the last one it's not 2" at all.  So I only make the cut when I can see I'm trimming off 2", and there is enough left for more 2" strips.  I can't tell you how long it took me to figure that out. Sigh.

When I'm in the workroom I've been working on these long neglected Triple Treat blocks.  I started them last winter, and they've been languishing ever since, for a silly reason.  When I made those little 4patches I didn't square them up, or take any care to make them accurate, so the blocks don't fit together as nicely as I would like. Just deal with it, I told myself. It's too late to go back and fix them all, and I'm having to mash them together any way I can.  That is not how I like to work, so I'm finishing them with a very bad grace.  Some of the 4patches are 20 years old, before I had decent glasses, or a decent quarter inch seam allowance. Yes I'm using them up, but they're making me miserable. I need to be done with them and move on.

Luckily I have lovely little flowers to sweeten my mood, and I won't make any more slapdash units just to use them up. It's not worth it.

Seems I can't resist

A craft shop in a neighbouring town is closing down, and we have visited several times to see if there are things that we really need.  Or want.  And while I have done a great job of using up a lot of my samples, it seems I cannot resist the lure of even more, especially when they are discounted.

Pretty batiks.

Older reds and greens. I just love the variety that they add to my stash, and I usually have no hesitation to cut them up and include them in a project. Some of these were from 2011, and that's getting to be old these days.

But to prove how useful they are, I've nearly finished my blue Square Within Square top, made almost entirely from my samples.

I snowballed the corners of the blocks, which added a considerable amount of time and angst, because I kept doing it wrong, but I really like the effect of those tipsy little Hourglass shapes that occur. I'm deciding whether it needs a border or not; I like it just as it is, but I think a border would finish it off, hold the edges of the blocks more securely, and increase the size. It's 50" x 60" at the moment, which is OK, but a little extra in both directions wouldn't hurt.

And as well as shopping and sewing and debating my choices, I've been quilting. I'm doing a series of heart quilts for a long time customer. She makes these quilts to give away to friends and family, and they are so pretty. When this one comes off the machine I'll take a full photo. This one was just to admire the effect of the quilting after a long day.

And my small garden is giving me flowers to appreciate; zinneas, gerberas and geraniums. So pretty and uncomplicated, which is needed in these complicated times.

Lots of Sewing

 I've been snowed under with appointments and commitments and chores, and I've been spending every free moment glued to my sewing machine or rotary cutter, trying to make up for the lost time. Every now and then I think, I should take some photos for the blog, but I get distracted and it doesn't happen. So what have I been sewing?

Before the sewing there was the cutting, and a lot of remnants and scraps were sliced into strips,.  That doesn't sound like much, but it was quite a stack. I also cut up a pile of sales samples of fabrics that have been languishing in drawers, forgotten. Nearly all of them were modern, guy type patterns, not what I would choose, so it was no hardship to piece them into a lot of Square Within Square blocks and use up every bit.  

The blocks aren't finished yet, but I only need a few dark ones and then I can start putting those blocks into a top.

I made even more Square Within Square blocks from the 2.5" strips, 50 in fact, and there are more waiting to be assembled. 

They are easy to cut and easy to sew, very therapeutic to do at night when I want to make sure the day doesn't end without some sort of achievement. I stayed up past midnight several nights, and I try not to do that because it makes me too tired the next day, but I couldn't resist the lure of 'just one more block'.

I have still more of those samples. 

Most of them are bigger than a Layer Cake square, so there's a lot of fabric here. 

Maybe I'll make Scrappy Mountain Majesties blocks from them, for a masculine top. 

Sad to say, my sewing room is a bit trashed with fabric strips everywhere. so I think tomorrow will have to be dedicated to cleaning up. I don't know what I will work on next, but I'm really drawn to those patterns that promise a quilt from 12. or 16, or 20 FQs.  

Stack of 12 on the left, 16 on the right. That would clear about 7" from my FQ drawers. It's very tempting. I need to see some room in the modern FQ drawers, and I imagine pulling out a stack all at once would feel pretty good. I'll have to do some research on that.

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.

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.

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.