Pastel baby quilt

This is the last finish from the sewing room for a while, I'm off to Adelaide on Wednesday, and I'm staying until the new baby arrives and the family is settled into a routine.  Thomas is going to have a big adjustment to make, seeing HIS mum with another baby.  I think he'll love the new baby, and I'm hoping that his dad and I can lesson the shock by being there for him whenever he needs cuddles, but he's only 20 months old.  He's still a baby himself in lots of ways, and he's always been a mummy's boy.  I've looked after him ever since he was born, sometimes for months on end, and yet he was nearly a year old before he would come to me for a cuddle when he was upset.  It was Mum or nothing.  I was so relieved when he finally accepted me as a substitute mum.

The Spinning Rectangles block is so quick and easy, it's our go-to block for donation quilts.  I started making these 4.5" x 2.5" ones, and thought the pieces were too large for the fabrics I wanted to use.  Now I'm making the other quilts with the smaller 3.5" x 2" rectangles, but I had to make enough of the bigger ones to complete a top.  I decided it would be too much white in the setting triangles, so I used a white fabric with a pink design.

The lilac border fabric is 30 years old, I'd already owned it for several years before I used it for Shonny's kindy clothes, and she's 33 now.  It's a nice pale border for this delicately coloured quilt.

I'm cutting more of these blocks, I think some site called them a Japanese Cross, so that's what I"ll call them.

I'm using up charm squares for the diagonal cross, but I may have to find some yardage to use soon.  I've really been using up the charm squares lately, which is a good thing.

And I cut all the scraps from the other quilts into 2.5" strips and I'm making a low volume baby quilt from 2.5" squares and 2.5" x 4.5" bricks.

I've started 7 new quilts this year, but already finished four. What a strange start to the year.

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Floral Stars

My fourth finish for the year! My Floral Stars were inspired by Mereth's quilt.

The fabrics in this are mostly very old, some dating back 15-18 years. Lots of pale green and yellows, pale pinks and lilacs.  Some of them are really pretty, and I love them, but they've spent at least a decade in my stash, and it's time to move them on.  The photo looks a bit hectic, but it's pretty in real life, and I imagine some little girl will enjoy it.

I still have a few of those black florals left, so I'm continuing to make the flying geese units.  I have a whole drawer of pretty blue fabric, and I'd like to make another one like this but with blue or green sashes.  It hardly took any time to make the 20 blocks, so they can be my leader-enders while I work on a boy quilt.

I'm really enjoying working on these donation quilts, but I need to go back to some of my own quilts that have deadlines. It's nice to be so enthusiastic, and to be having such fun with my stash.

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Ohio Star progress

Before I covered my sewing room in pastel fabric I knew that I had to try and clean up the mess from the quilts I  was currently working on.  So I sewed like a maniac and got the Ohio Stars in one piece, just to get it out of the way.  While I was searching through my stash for material for the donation quilts I came across a piece of shirting that I thought would be perfect for the sashing.  It was, so I cut the whole lot up and sewed the blocks together in a few nights.

It wasn't without incident.  I often cut the sashing fabric into strips the width of the blocks, and then crosscut them into the sashing width.  This usually makes better use of the fabric, and I like it better than cutting 40 or so 1.5" strips.  I didn't have any to spare, so I couldn't use the GO Cutter.  Anyway, I was congratulating myself that I had cut the 6.5" strips I needed, and had just enough fabric leftover to make a spare 1.5" strip.

Alas, I'd cut one strip at 6" instead.  So that was 28 sashing pieces that were too short!!  That was a fun moment.  Don't cut things late at night, I told myself. I'd already googled the fabric and knew that it was from a Jo Morton range about 5 years ago, so no chance of getting any more.  I did  the only thing I could, which was sew those pieces into a big long strip, and recut at 6.5".  It didn't look too bad, and I spread the pieced sashes throughout the quilt to help disguise them.

It was hanging on the workroom wall and Mereth took over the border scraps from my Charm Square 9patch and said, "You have to use this as the border". And I agree.  I'm not trying to mitre that print though, it gave me fits last time, so I'll put a block in the corner. And there will be a mid blue spacer border all round.

I will definitely make more Ohio Stars, maybe in different colours, because I just love putting the blocks together.  There are so many antique examples for inspiration, I'm sure I'll have another one under way before too long.

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Pastel Spinning Rectangle

I really love the simplicity of these blocks, they go together in no time flat.

I went through my stash of brighter pastels and cut one or two 3.5" strips from all of them.  The white is a bolt I discovered in the workroom and I'd totally forgotten I even bought it, so I don't know where it came from.  It's been great in this, because I can just reel off metres of it, knowing there is plenty more to finish these quilts any way I want.

The first donation quilt is in one piece, and I'm still cutting these blocks.  

I have 60 kitted to take down to Adelaide as my sewing.  I have piles of strips all over the cutting table, and I just work my way through them all, cutting the 2" slices.  I stack the strips 4 at a time, and every slice is another block, it's so quick.  I don't think it would be any quicker with the Go Cutter, so no need to buy a die. I'll save that money for more fabric.

The block is easy to construct without using an iron, just finger pressing the seams, so it's ideal for me to sew a few of them in any spare moment. It would be nice to come home with all the blocks for the next quilt made. That will depend on how hectic it is with the new baby.

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A very scrappy quilt

I've spent quite a lot of time in the workroom, quilting, tidying, sorting, making decisions about storage and workflows and such.  It's been a lovely time, just putting things in their places and setting the room to rights.  That sort of thing really helps settle things in your mind, and often really good ideas occur after hours of just pootling around.  It feels a bit aimless at the time, but it's relaxing, and then you're in a state where the ideas can pop up and be noticed.

The strips I made from the leftover scraps of my Tumbler quilt have been hanging around, and I put off getting them into one piece.  After a couple of hours in the workroom I told myself to just get on and finish them, with some leftovers from the backing of the Spinning Rectangles quilt.  I had the idea of varying the width of the turquoise strips, to give the quilt a bit more interest, and I think it worked.

The centre 2 strips are cut 4" wide and the other strips are cut 3.5".  It's subtle, but it adds to the interest. The whole thing is 45" x 59", just a nice size for the top of a single bed.

 I'm glad this is in one piece, and ready to be quilted, with that ancient cat fabric as the backing. It will have to be extended with some blue backing scraps from other quilts, and I think I will join several strips of batting together for the filling. It's a good feeling to clear out so many scraps and pieces all at once.

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Where do I start...?  Nearly three weeks since my last post, and I've been busy.  Circumstances conspired against me making a blog post; the cord to my laptop died and refused to charge.  Luckily Shonny's laptop had a similar cord, so I was able to limp along with that while I was at her place, and I ordered a replacement cord.  That took over a week to arrive, and by then I'd used up most of my data for the month, and had to severely ration my net time to make it last the month.  According to the figures I've doubled the amount of data I use, which is odd because my browsing habits haven't changed.  I blame all these ads and videos that pop up where you least expect them, and run in the background endlessly.

While I couldn't get online I stayed in my sewing room and cut up a mountain of material.  I've been on a cutting spree, and stripped up a whole heap of FQs and scraps to make some happy, modern quilts. It's been so much fun, but I don't have finishes yet because I keep starting new things whenever I get an idea. It's been a tremendous amount of fun, so I"m not going to change what I"m doing.  Very soon I'll be down in Adelaide with the new grandbaby, and I'll have to leave all my projects behind, so I"m having fun while I can.

I quilted a quilt last week, and that was a good feeling.  It's off to a magazine, so no photos just yet.  It was so helpful to have the backing all ready, all I had to do was cut the batting and load the backing.  I'm inspired to get a whole line-up of quilts ready for the machine, so I can quilt one whenever I have a day or two to spare.

Here's a quick view of my design wall.  There are so many things that I want to work on, I just want to race from one thing to another and make progress on them all.

I started a quilt from 6" Spinning Rectangles, and that just needs the borders cut and attached.

I started Tulips cut from bright pastels.

I started a Sawtooth Star like Mereth's, because I have a heap of those black floral scraps too.

I made a Cross and Plus block, and I really love it, but I haven't had time to make any more.  I have a heap of pieces cut, but I haven't got round to them yet.

So many things to do!! I've really enjoyed myself.

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We are having the most disgusting weather, it's blisteringly hot, blowing a gale, a thunderstorm threatening. It's just horrible. I'm confined to the workroom in the Ac, waiting for the promised cool change. I've read enough books this year, and surfed enough websites, and now I just want to sew.

I don't want to sew my main projects on the workroom machine, too scared of different seam allowances wrecking my blocks. I pulled out a big tub of scraps from my blue and green tops, and I've been sorting them with an eye to making donation quilts. 

It will be interesting to see how many quilts I can conjure out of this lot.

I'm sewing all these off cuts from my tumbler quilt first, and I'll put them together in strips like a Chinese Coin. 

It probably won't be very big, but I think it would be a cheerful baby or boy quilt. I have a piece of cat material that can be the backing, and it will be good to get rid of that: I've had it for 20 years!

I'm feeling quite obsessed with bright scraps, thinking about donation quilts that could bring a smile to some child's face. After all the bleak black and grey of the bushfire scenes a colorful quilt is just what's needed. 

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Oh dear, I seem to have started a new project.  That list is not going to get shorter anytime soon.  I don't call it a UFO list, it's called Ongoing Projects.  That sounds a lot more positive.

I saw an antique quilt in a book and thought it would make a good leader-ender for this year.  So I cut a heap of 3" Quarter Square Triangles with the Go Cutter, and started making blocks.

They are really nice to sew, easy to press, and because they are going to be set with alternate plain squares I don't have to worry about how the seams fall.  One of my goals this year is to use up more of the yardage I have.  There are some really beautiful pieces in my stash cupboard, and I've hoarded them for years because they are so Precious.  I want a lot of my quilts this year to have wide sashing, alternate plain squares, or wide borders.  Time to put the Precious fabric into quilts.

I hated the white setting squares when I put the blocks up on the wall, so I substituted a pale pink.  It looks just like I want it to, antique and like a scrappy farm quilt.  So now I can cut a lot more pieces, and kit a lot more blocks, and at least I know how I want it set together and with what fabric.  I really need to know where I"m going with a project to feel happy with it.

What to call it?  Blockbase calls it Big Dipper or Electric Fan.  I don't like either of those names, so I'll have to come up with something of my own.  It's made up of Hour Glass blocks, so maybe I can come up with a name that plays off that.  I'll think about that while I 'm making another dozen blocks.

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One day when it was very hot I was in the workroom, wishing I felt energetic enough to actually do something.Then my eye fell upon my Dear Jane quilt, languishing on a laundry rack.

Hmmm, I thought, that's a nice block

I grabbed a couple of scraps and whipped up a single block, to see if it was fun to piece and press.  I reversed the placement of the light and dark pieces, but I still like the DJ block, so there may be another one of these later on.  I was so happy to be sewing, and enthusiastic, that I cut out a lot more blocks, and sewed a few of them up.

Blue and green is much more my style; looks like the original block will go in the orphan box for now.

Lying on the table was this piece of fabric that I bought on spec last year, thinking that it would make a good backing for one of my quilts. I think it will be perfect for this one.

So one off the list, a new one to replace it.  Never mind, it still feels like progress to me.

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One down

25 to go.

This set of blocks had been put away with their sashing, and I just needed to set them together. I built the whole top plus borders in two sewing sessions.

It was a good idea to take a rest from the Ohio Stars, because this top went together really quickly and gave me an easy finish. Now I feel enthusiastic about tackling another UFO on the list. 

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Ohio Star progress

This has been my main project for months.

I love it, but I'm stuck. I just can't decide on the right sashing fabric, and I don't want to work on it until I have that figured out.  I need to cut out more pieces soon, and I feel like I need to know the fabric I'll use for the sashing before I do that.  There's a few pieces of a likely candidate on the design wall already, but it seems too yellow, and the print on it makes me think of men's pajamas, and it's just not right.

I'm annoyed with myself because I can't overlook that and move on, keep making blocks, choose  a fabric from the stash or buy something.  Surely I'd be able to solve the problem later on, even if it means rejecting a few blocks.  But I'm not going to ignore the voices on this, so it's off the design wall.  We're on a break.

There's 40 completed blocks, and 18 kitted ready to assemble.  I'll use them as leader-enders while I work on something else.

I'm not jumping into a new project just yet.  There are UFOs that need to be dealt with, not out of duty but because I'm eager to see them in one piece.  So I'm spending a bit of time reviewing the projects in my stack of boxes, and I'll choose one soon to work on. It's actually really enjoyable, to go through things I haven't seen in months (or years) and decide what will become of them.  Some of them will be finished in a much smaller version, because I don't need them as a full size quilt; others will be reworked into something quite different, and some will even be abandoned.  I was quite surprised to discover that several were just a single block and a collection of FQs.  I'm not sure that even qualifies as a UFO.

I only have 26 things on my list, and I'm determined to keep that number dwindling.  Several only need to be assembled, the blocks are done and just waiting.  My plan is to put together an easy UFO, and then work on something more challenging, and then go back to an easy finish UFO.  That should keep me interested and the list will keep shrinking.

How long till I start something new? That's the big question, but my aim is for there to be a whole lot of different things on the UFO list at the end of the year, not the same old ones that have been there for 5 years. Not as many stalled quilts, and a lot more Works In Progress.

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The year is picking up speed already, we're half way through January and it's happened in the blink of an eye. I've really enjoyed my time at home, working in the sewing room and the workroom, but I don't have much to show for it.  It's been a lot of leisurely sorting and rediscovery and thinking about how I could rearrange things a bit better.  Once the year gathers momentum I rarely have time to potter about like that, so I'm enjoying it.

I've just returned from 5 days in Adelaide.  Shonny and Hayden went off with the adults from his family on a no-kids weekend, and I baby-sat Isla and Thomas.  It was fun, no dramas, and we did a few things that Mum and Dad would have frowned on, like getting out ALL the colours of Playdough instead of just 2 at a time.  Thomas had to kick things up a notch by eating the pink playdough with a fork, despite me telling him not to. It was obvious from his face that it tasted dreadful, but he kept doing it, until he was banished to observer status.  The next day he ate a handful of sand from the sandpit, and that was mayhem when it reappeared in his nappy.  Kids!

Perhaps you recognise this scenario if you have a bossy child in your life. We were drawing, and Isla wanted me to draw a circle on her page.
" Please draw me a circle all round there." All sweetness and light.
" No, not like that, a Circle.  Not there, I didn't want that. I need a circle. It doesn't match up, you need to make it join up!. No, it's not a circle anymore, it's not right!!!" And much sobbing ensued. I know I'm not much of an artist, but I did think that I could manage a circle.  Apparently not.  We patched things up, and I drew a flower and a butterfly that mollified her, and Thomas chewed the end off a crayon, and life went on.

She starts kindy in two weeks time, and then the world starts having a say in her life.  I love having her all to myself, and being such a big part of her life.  Soon she will be full of tales of her teachers and friends and new exploits; it's all a part of growing up, but I'll miss the little girl she was.

However, there's always Thomas, who is a juggernaut of risk and danger and daredevil adventure.  Which is bad, because he's also extremely clumsy and accident prone and doesn't seem to learn from each disaster. And soon a new baby to add to the family. I don't think there will be much quiet time in the coming year, but that's OK. Being a good Nan to my babies is the important thing right now.

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Simple 4 patches

This pile of 4patches is leftover from a quilt I made at least 13 years ago.

It's one of my favourite quilts, I just love the soft colours.

I don't know what I planned to do with these bits, but I got sick of seeing them in the spare parts drawer, so I just sewed them all into one piece. 

I still don't know what I'll do with it, but it needs some borders and then it can be quilted and maybe donated. It's too soon to be thinking about quilts for survivors of bushfires, but later in the year when people are resettled, I will be sending some off.

I'm not making much progress on my major projects, but I am getting some things dealt with.  Not a bad start to the year so far.

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An empty container

I found a container with a few random pieces in it (the one on the right), and decided that I needed to whip them up into blocks, or just get rid of them.

I combined them with some 9-patches made from the basket of 1.5" squares, and created these blocks.

I didn't love them enough to want to go on making them, especially as the original pieces weren't the right size.  My seam allowance was way off, which meant matching them to the accurate 9-patches was a chore. these will go into the Orphan Box.

I sewed the wonky pieces together and mashed the resulting piece flat with the iron.  Then I decided it needed a little border, so I hunted out the container of Half Square Triangles and added some Flying Geese.

It looks pretty cute, and took all of an hour to finish.  I'll see if I can quilt it as quickly in the next few days.  I'm so glad I didn't go off on a tangent and start a big quilt to use up these pieces; it's lovely to just deal with them and move on.

This is a good start to the year; Mereth is always telling me I should be making small quilts, and this proves I can. May there be many more.

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A new year

After the busy end to 2019 I've been taking it easy, and not pressuring myself to jump back into sewing, or cleaning, or fixing up the garden.  Things need doing, but I'm going to take my time and make a plan about how I'll spend my time.  My friend Helen is like an Energiser Bunny; if she has 15 minutes to spare she will jump right into a project; I'm more likely to have a cup of coffee. But in some cases it's better to sit and have a coffee and a think, rather than race off and not know where you're actually going!

Several times I sat in the sewing room and tried to create some momentum; each time I didn't feel any affinity with what I was doing.  The whole time I was away, I missed my quilting; now that I"m home, I just can't get started.

Every year at this time I become convinced that I need to clean up, use up or throw out all my scraps.  Last year that derailed the first quarter of the year, as I made endless 9-patches and rail fence blocks for this quilt;

and string blocks for this quilt.

I'm not going to do that this year.  I'm going to ignore the scraps, and I won't start any projects just to use them up. I'm going to sew on my existing projects, or start things that I'm really enthusiastic about.  I'm going to make a huge effort to deal with scraps as I create them, and try to visit the scrap drawers first when I need strips, but I'm not going to focus on them.  I love cutting yardage, so that's what I plan to do.

In 2019 I finished 13 quilt tops, and quilted 8 quilts.  That was a splendid result, seeing I spent half my time in Adelaide, instead of home.  This year should be a bit more relaxed, so I'm confident that I could actually achieve a goal of 20 tops in 2020.  I have 26 UFOs in the spreadsheet, and I'd like to cut that down to around 15 or 16. 

I finished these two very old UFOs last year,

and that felt wonderful, so I"ll try and get that list whittled down before I start too many new things.

It's stinking hot today, so I'm off to the air-conditioned workroom.  I'm going to put the finishing touches to my 4th jigsaw for these holidays, and I'm going to trawl through Pinterest looking for my next quilt project. That's a pretty good way to spend the day.

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Home again

What a whirlwind end to the year! Our trip to visit family went off so well, I can't quite believe it.  Isla and Thomas were on their best behaviour, people complimented us on them at every gathering.

At Grandma's party all her friends approached me throughout the day and told me what a delight the children were.  One lady said darkly, 'We get some real little monsters in here." Oh dear....

We stayed at a lovely Air B&B just around the corner from the house Grandma and Grandad lived in while my kids were growing up, so it was a very nostalgic visit to our old haunts.  Thomas blotted his copybook by locking himself in one of the bedrooms, but luckily the lock could be turned from outside with a butter knife.  Shonny came flying into the kitchen to get one, and I gave a sigh of relief that it was one of those locks; there were hefty grills on all the windows, so we would have had to call a locksmith to get him out.  Kids!

At the end of the week Shonny and the kids flew home without incident, and I went back to Rhys's apartment to stay until after Christmas.  We visited the dog park every day with Daisy, who is just the sweetest puppy ever; 

we went to farmers markets, to the movies, and to some of the best brunches I've ever had.  We had some wonderful meals out.  

At home we played trivia and did two jigsaws and watched Netflix, and it was so relaxed.  I cooked corned beef with all the trimmings on Christmas Eve, and made sure Rhys paid attention to how to do it, so he can make it for himself in future. On Christmas day we had a spread of cold meat and salads, just like our old Christmases. We had a wonderful time.

I came back home much refreshed, and stayed with Shonny and family for two days.  Unfortunately Isla is sick,hopefully just a tummy bug, but it sort of ruined Christmas for her.  I was going to bring her back home with me, but she's too ill to travel, and we're in the middle of a heat wave, so I'm home on my own.  I don't know what to tackle first, the sewing room is too hot to work in, so I'll have to hope the AC in the workroom can cope with the 45(113) ° temperature tomorrow. I think another jigsaw would be a good idea.

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I've been spending my nights kitting up Ohio Star blocks, and thought I'd show you how I do it.

I cut the triangles out with my Go die; it cuts 8 of each fabric at a time, which is enough for the star points of a block, or the background bits for 2 blocks, or the inner triangles for 2 blocks. The squares are cut 2.5", and I already have a big stash of those from previous projects.

I cut out heaps of triangles and then sit down and sort out what I want to put together.  Each little set of pieces gets put in a snack sized baggie, and 10 of them go into a sandwich size bag.  It makes counting kits easy, I can see at a glance I have 22 in this tray.

When I have time to sew, I will concentrate on sewing the Hour Glass units first.

I make Hour Glass units for up to 10 blocks at a time.  I have to be in the mood for precision sewing to do this, so that they are accurate and measure 2.5" exactly.

Here they're all laid out with their matching pieces, waiting to go back into their snack bags.

When I don't feel like precision sewing, or I only have a few minutes between other chores, I grab a block or two and put them together.

It's just as easy as sewing a nine-patch now, and if I've sewn the Hour Glasses properly then everything matches perfectly.

By doing it in stages like this I make the best use of my time and I match the sewing to how I feel.  The good thing is that some nights I suddenly have 10 blocks finished, without much effort, and that's like magic.

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