I've made more progress on these blocks, I'm up to 36 now, I've sewn more since I took this photo.  They go together really quickly once the HST are made.  I've been making the triangles in sets of two, and making lots of these units.  The block is just four of these, rotated so that the lights and darks alternate.

To make sure the seam allowances all nest nest together, in the blocks themselves and in adjoining blocks, I always lay out the pieces for each unit the same way, with the dark square in the top left corner.  When I press the seam allowances I press the first seams towards the squares, and twirl the centre insection once the two halves are sewn together.

 It doesn't mattern which way these units are rotated, the seam intersections will nest together, so long as you make them all identically.

Four units make a block.

You can see how the seam allowances swirl at all the intersections.

The final block looks like this on the back; I like to press the seams on my HSTs open, but this pressing scheme works even if they are ironed to one side.  I love it when  blocks go together nicely, I hate having to mash seam allowances together in a big lump.

Once I put the blocks together I will be dealing with pinwheels formed by the intersections of all those triangles.  I'm not going to worry too much about making them meet exactly; I don't have time to be unpicking things on a scrap quilt like this.

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I had a productive weekend, certainly dealt with that pesky drawer of strips!

There's a few strips left, that I know I want to use in other projects, but all the rest was chopped up and will become leader-enders for the forseeable future. It's a good feeling to know those bits that have lingered on for years are finally going to be used for something.

I sorted them into colours first, making a pile of all the dingy and muted ones that I seem to pass over every time;

I cut them into 8.5" rectangles, and they will be sewn into Roman Stripe blocks; there aren't enough to make a quilt, but they can bide their time in the block drawer.  I'm sure I will collect more dull fabrics to add to them.

There was a bunch of red and cream strips, and I decided to cut them into 6.5" rectangles;

they can be part of these sort of blocks, framing a ninepatch,

or they can be sashing for small blocks; if I wanted to I could make Rail Fence blocks with them.  I'll decide later, but for now, they are out of the drawer.

I consulted Mereth's Tutorial for cutting 9 patches, and then cut up all my dark blue, dark green and shirting scraps into 9 patches. 

I know I will find a setting for these blocks later, I can use them as simple nine-patches, or build a more complex block around them.  They will make great leader-enders while I decide what to do next.

The bulk of the strips were cut into 4.5" rectangles,

and I have plans for a quilt that Mereth designed, Doors and Windows.   (Instrutions here)  It's a lovely simple block, I'm looking forward to combining the colours.

Now I just have to tackle the 1.5" strip drawer!

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I've had a little blogging holiday; in truth I think I was sulking a little bit because my internet connection is so unreliable, and it was so infuriating trying to update the blog when a photo took two hours to load. If it loaded at all.   However, things have been a little better lately, so I will give it another go.

I've been busy with the usual round of postie work and quilting and designing.  I haven't even been in my sewing room much, too distracted by piles of fleece. One was 30 years old, bought for me by my mum before I moved to Queensland in 1981.  All these years I have treasured it; I didn't have a wheel in Queensland, so I couldn't spin it there, and anyway, it was too hot and humid to even think of working with fleece.  It's been bundled up all those years, and I didn't once unpack it completely, knowing I would tangle it up.  But I finally decided the time had come to deal with it, so I dumped it all out on the floor and started to sort it.

It's terribly 'crispy'; the lanolin has hardened, and the locks feel quite dry and brittle; I wasn't even sure that it was worth spinning, but I had to give it a try.  I've been handwashing the locks a little at a time, then combing them and spinning them into a sockweight yarn. 

 Amazingly, the fibre is still so strong that almost none of it breaks in the combing process, and the resulting yarn is lovely.  All these years I thought it was just dark grey, and it turns out there was a beautiful light grey patch hiding inside.  The yarn is still a bit uneven, but I choose to see that as 'charming', rather than a fault.

I've also been spinning up some blue roving I purchased a couple of years ago.  It's so nice to be able to spin it without any preparation, and I do love the colours. 

 But somehow I love raw fleece so much more, even with the lengthy sorting, washing and combing time.  I just love taking something so basic and turning it into useable yarn.  It satisfies the peasant in me.


 I think I've been spinning ,because my sewing room is in such a state;  I just stand in the doorway, shaking my head over the piles of scraps, and a bit paralysed by the amount of them.  Yesterday I got stuck into sewing HSTs for this scrap quilt,

and today I want to sew more blocks, and then tackle this drawer full of 2.5" strips. 

I need to see the back of this lot, I can't even get it back in the cabinet it's so full.  So it will be a major cutting day today, and we'll see if there's any progress to report tomorrow.

It only took 35 minutes to load these pictures, things are improving.....

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I think I've decided on the sashing for the blocks, so I'll get started on putting them together soon, and make some trial blocks for the borders and setting triangles.  I don't normally make quilts that require quite so much piecing, but it's a nice change to take some time and trouble over a project.

I'm actually quilting something of my own at last, the Honeycomb quilt from last year.  It's so satisfying to see it getting finished; it's off to be photographed after this, I'll have to say good bye to it for a while.

My home internet is still non-existent, so there won't be much blogging in my future; it has to wait till I go to work at the Hall, and then I'm busy doing 5 or 6 other things.  Oh well, I don't have time to be bored.

The crysanthemums just keep getting better and better, those colours are amazing. It makes me happy just to look at them.

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 I'm at that annoying stage of needing to choose the sashing for these blocks, and not knowing exactly what I want.  I must have tried  20 different fabrics, and none of them jump out and say 'I'm the ONE!'  I'll just have to be patient and keep trying, because somewhere along the line I'll find the perfect colour and print, and the quilt will be the better for it.  It's just irritating not to be able to wrap it all up right now.

For a bit of easy sewing I've been making these scrap blocks from my mountains of 2.5" scraps.  They are fun and easy, and good leader enders.  I'm getting sick of the same scraps showing up again and again though, so I think I'll empty them all into a bag and sell them on Ebay.  Then I can start again with new fabric.  Is that a weird way to think?

It's my favourite time of year, nearly Mother's Day!  That means crysanthemums in the shops, and I've already added 7 to my collection.  I have about 12 blooming from the ones I bought last year, so it's Flower City here.  I love them so much, I can't resist the new ones.  Next on my agenda is to build a garden bed so I can plant them all out, and they can grow as big as they like instead of being confined to pots.

The last customer quilt was so pale, the one on the frame now is exactly the opposite.  What an explosion of colour in this poppy quilt, it's gorgeous. 

 I'm just glad the owner didn't want custom, I have no idea what I'd do on this.  I'm still awfully busy, so it's great to be able to set a panto stitching and then get back to work on the computer.  I do like being able to multi-task like that, but my idea of luxury right now is being able to concentrate on one thing only, until it's done.
Actually, there is one thing I can do on it's own, Dolly reminds me; "Take me for a Walk!"

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I've been working very hard lately, and decided that today is a day off. I'm going to potter in my sewing room and do whatever I fancy.  I'll put something on the TV this afternoon, and stay in my sewing room doing whatever I want. I've earnt a little time to play.

I don't think I showed a picture of the inspiration for my current quilt; I know I photographed it from one of my books, but I can't remember which one, so I'll have to track that down. 

Those multiple borders intruiged me, and I think I will add them to my quilt.  It will take a lot of work, but it will be amazing when finished.  I'm leaning towards a dull brown sashing instead of the grey I originally had in mind, but I don't have to make a decision any time soon.  There are still 20 blocks to make, and then those setting triangles around the edge.  I'll be working on this for a while yet.


I spent my spare moments this week quilting customer quilts, when I wasn't working on the computer; I desperately want to quilt something of my own, so that's what I'll be doing next week.

This cream Disappearing Ninepatch was made for the customer's elderly mother; it's so subtle and sophisticated, it was fun to quilt, and watch the pattern coming to life on the pale fabrics.

It's a panto of mine called Avon Rose, I'm so happy with how it stitched out. Terribly hard to photograph, but lovely in real life.

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I can't believe it's nearly 3 weeks since my last post, life sure got in the way of blogging.  I still have a few deadlines to deal with, but I've cleared a lot of things off my to-do list; hopefully I will be able to get back in the sewing room soon.

Every year I leave my taxes till the last possible minute, and every year I swear I won't do it again.

I really mean it this year.  No, Really!  I think I would have enjoyed being an accountant, once I'm in the swing of it I love it.  It's just that I don't keep the bookwork up to date all through the year, and that's because I'm a hopeless procrastinator.  Actually I'm very good at procrastinating, that's the problem.

DD Seonaid came down with a horrible flu, so I drove to Adelaide and rescued her, bringing her back for 4 days of pampering.  Dolly loved that, sitting in Seonaids's bed helping to eat her toast each morning, and snuggling under the covers with her.  I'm sure she helped the patient with her recovery.  It was so lovely to have my girl home, even if she was sick; I made her some of her favourite childhood meals and tried to make life a bit easier for her.  It's no fun being sick and on your own.

We had a mini family gathering a couple of weeks ago, with Mereth's sister and brother in law and neice arriving at our brothers place to give a Thermomix demo to us and John and Liz.  That was a very interesting night, I've heard about these machines and wanted to see one in action.  The bread-making in 1.5 minutes was something I couldn't quite believe, but it was true. The buckwheat rolls were every bit as good as ones that have been kneaded for 10 minutes and had two rises.

The machine is a considerable investment, but it's on my wishlist for the future.  We had a lovely meal,with lots of good conversation; it's lovely to catch up with family members who live far away.

Yesterday I received a large envelope in the post, and it contained this magazine;

there on the cover, peeking out of the cupboard, is my Jacob's ladder quilt.  The magazine did a great job of photographing it, it looks fabulous. I'm thrilled with the photos and article, it's wonderful to see your own quilt in print.

This issue should be in the shops now, and it's full of interesting things, including some lovely knitting and an article on something dear to my heart; coloured sheep.  I ask everyone I know with farm connections to keep a lookout for coloured fleeces for me, and that resulted in the 7 fleeces I had stored.  I've started spinning two of them, and two regretfully had to be disposed of, as whoever did the shearing made such a mess of it the fleece was useless.  I still have plenty to work with though. 

These two skeins are just the beginning of a gorgeous dark brown merino,very soft and lovely to spin.  I think these first efforts at spinning (after a 30 year break) will be made into a tabard, sort of a cross between a vest and a tunic. 

It's very satisfying to make finished yarn from raw materials, even if it is time-consuming.  My tabard will be a labour of love.

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It's been wonderful having four days in a row off: it's such a luxury knowing that I have extra time to get things done. I spent one day sewing and tidying the house, and on Saturday I worked with my DB Doug, building a pad for a garden shed at the Hall. Yesterday we built the actual shed, which was like a giant Meccano project. I truly hate working with metal, it bites and pinches and I don't feel any affinity for it, not like wood.  But it's up now, and I only have a few chunks out of my hands, and I'll appreciate being able to store my garden tools out of the weather this winter.

Doesn't look like much, but it took hours and hours and hours!

We finally have a winner for the sashing of this set of blocks; the fabric we liked, from Thimbleberries 3's Company range, wasn't right after all, but I'd picked some 1 yard cuts of other pinks to pad out the envelope.  One of them, another Thimbleberries print from House & Garden, was Juuuuust Right!  I immediately ordered another 3 yards, and now I'm waiting anxiously to see if they have enough to send me.  I would have a tantrum if there wasn't enough, after the rigmarole we've been through selecting this fabric.

 It's so pretty!

 I have one day left of my holiday, and I plan to potter in the garden and sewing room.  I've already baked some goodies as Doug's payment for all his help, so I will have to deliver those, plus I have to drop some quilts off to a friend.  But apart from that, the day is all mine.

Best not to think of Tuesday,when we get to deliver  3 days mail all at once.

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Thanks to all who helped identify the fabrics in the last post, I ordered some and it arrived last week. I've been too busy to see if it looks good with the blocks; if it's the wrong colour it will go into the drawer with the mountain of other pink fabric that wasn't quite right either.  At times like this I really need a good patchwork shop in the vicinity, so I can see the material for real.

My internet connection is so frustrating, I've spent a week putting the modem in different locations and trying to find a spot where it will actually pick up the mobile signal for more than 5 minutes.  I've got it balanced on a high shelf in the sewing room now, and that seems to be the best spot, it only drops out once or twice an hour now.  Irritating thing!  And even more irritating to finally get my email and find an invitation from Telstra, to enjoy the fantastic mobile internet service they offer.  Cue hysterical laughter.  Telstra thinks the edge of the capital cities is where the world ends, and us country folk just aren't part of the equation.

However, I have used my non-internet time wisely, so all is not lost.  I've been piecing more of the grey blocks (must come up with a name for them) and I'm up to 40, with another 15 kitted.  Iwill need about 72 I think, so there's plenty of work left to do.

 I use polar fleece lap rugs on my design wall, they cost $5 from the cheap shop and I have several different colours.  I wanted to see what the blocks look like with a dark sashing, so I used a dark brown rug, which instantly let me see that I like the effect and will probably use a dark to mid brown as the sashing.  The blocks would look really cute with a light sashing as well, but I can't make two quilts, can I?  I'll just have to make a decision and stick with it.

My over-cutting problem is still with me, I have all these strips cut for the large side triangles in the blocks, and there will be way too many.  I'm thinking of using them to make Flying Geese units, they are the right size to work with a 1.5" triangle.  I could make a mini quilt out of the leftover bits.

Instead of changing the way I operate when I'm in the mood for cutting lots of fabric, I tend to have a Plan B; I make units out of the spare pieces, then choose to make another quilt that uses those units.  That way I have no guilt, and hopefully there aren't piles of strips to put away and forget about.

I spent this morning rearranging my sewing room so I have room to leave the Go cutter set up all the time.  I use it a lot, and it will be more convenient to have it at the end of my sewing table now.  It takes ages to shuffle all the furniture around and get things set up again, but hopefully it will be more efficient now.  I'm looking forward to some serious sewing time tonight.

I will set all the dies in a stand so I can find them quickly.  Whenever I buy one I like to measure it to see what size fabric I need for it; then I label it so that I don't have to work it out each time I use the die.  I love my labeller that Mereth gave me for Christmas!

I hope to get a fair bit of gardening done this weekend; I had topsoil delivered, so I can make some garden beds and get my plants out of their pots.  I made a little posy out of what I could find this afternoon, and the perfume of the carnations is amazing.  They were my Dad's favourite flower, so everytime I see them I think of him.

This stunning rose is called Pink Peace, and it will have to go in the ground soon, it's so vigorous that it won't be happy in a pot, no matter how big. 

I have no idea how to choose a favourite rose, I love so many.  Good thing I can have more than just one.

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I'm having trouble with my internet dropping out all the time, so while it's functioning I will quickly add this post.

We are trying to track down the names of the ranges that these fabrics belong to; I received them as part of a shop-made charm pack, but I can't recall where I got them.  If I have the names of the ranges I can have a shot at tracking them down.

The first one is most preferred for sashing a set of blocks that are made, just patiently waiting for the right setting fabric to materialise.


Both the swatches below are nice pinks that would fit into the stash, even if they won't work with the set of blocks.

Any ideas?
and by the way, I have removed that rediculous verification thingy on the comments, couldn't be doing with that.

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For such a big box, there wasn't much actually in there!  More packing than product.
I like the new dies, with the two tone foam; you can see immediately what they are, and where to position the fabric.

I've been wanting this 1" die for ages, I have two quilt projects that require 1" HSTs, and I wasn't keen on having to cut the hundreds needed.

It's really hard on my eyes sometimes, and knowing how important accuracy is with these tiny pieces I kept putting it off.  There won't be an excuse now, this die will make short work of them.  I can even cut them from spare strips in the 2" scrap drawers, which will help whittle that fabric down to a manageable level.

I also bought a 3.25" square die; it works with 2.5" HSTs to form a square-in-square block that measures 4" finished.

Nice, but I actually wanted it so I could cross-cut the squares diagonally and make these little Hourglass units.  That worked perfectly as well, so I'm super happy about that. I managed to use a square in that Ohio Star block that wasn't square at all, I don't know whether to unpick it and replace it, or just chuck the thing in the orphan box the way it is.  Work of seconds to fix it, but do I really care?  I'll probably fix it, just not now.

I haven't had time to play with this die yet, but I have plans. 

This will work with the 2" finished HST die, and there are a lot of block patterns that can use this shape.I just don't have time to experiment right now.

I really like that fact that these dies work so well with each other, I can have a pile of pieces just waiting to be built into blocks any way I choose.

I like these Bird In Air blocks, they can be built into so many patterns, and now I can cut the pieces for them and stockpile them.  I have the 1, 1.5,  2, 3 & 4" HST dies, so I can make units that measure 2, 3 or 4" finished.  I can't wait to tackle my strip drawers and get busy on these blocks.  That won't be any time soon though, I have way too many other things on the go......

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It was a hot day yesterday, summer's last hurrah, I guess.  I know true autumn weather isn't far away, I just have to be patient a few more days.  It will be fun to start knitting again, and I finally managed to win an Ebay auction for a drum carder, so I can prepare my fleece for spinning more easily.  I need a lot more hours in the day.

This morning I picked up a huge package from Accuquilt, containing new dies, so I will be playing with those for the rest of the day.  I can't even remember what I ordered, so it will be interesting when I unpack it.

Yesterday was frantically busy, but I managed to get another of these little blocks sewn. 

I'm trying to get the darker grey triangles to stand out, I don't want that light star effect to be prominent, but it seems like that's all I see when I look at it. 

I will have to experiment with lower contrast fabrics in the four large triangles, and that will mean going through the stash and adding some more fabrics into the mix.  That's one of my favourite parts of making a quilt, and I've recently tidied up the stash, so I shouldn't have any problems finding what I want.  Unless I've tidied everything so ruthlessly that I can't find anything anymore, which has happened in the past.

These blocks finish 5.5" square, not very big at all, but I want to make a heap of them, and set them on point, with sashing, and multiple borders, but I don't want it to be a huge quilt.  So I have to start with a small block, to keep the final measurements under control.  Again, I've had trouble with that in the past, when I've been completely surprised  at the size of a finished quilt.  I'm trying to be aware, and EQ7 certainly helps in that regard.  The quilt as I originally drew it, with 8.5" blocks, ended up as 120" wide; good thing I hadn't already started cutting. 

Like Judy, I'm a great fan of Electric Quilt, it's wonderful for planning, and so easy to keep track of final measurements, and all those 'what-if' variations. 

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