Batiks

Karen at Quilts etc recently finished her lovely Rainbow Crossings quilt. I've been following her progress on it for some time, thinking, I have that Accuquilt star die. I could make those stars. Hmmmm.....

When I bought the die I immediately made a test block, and found it so easy to put together. NO set in seams here.

But I also wondered if I could change it and make a dark star on a light background, or a light star on a dark background. the answer is, yes you can!

I'm still obsessing about using up the batik stash, so one night I ironed many, many FQs and set about cutting pieces with this die.

I still think my batik stash is too limited, there's not a lot of variety, but I don't want to take the time to build it into a really comprehensive stash. It would be too expensive, and take too much time, and I don't love them enough. But some of them are lovely....

I know a lot of quilters don't care for ironing their seams as they go, or making all their seams intersections meet, but I don't fall into that category. I love it when  everything is just right, and if I take the time to make all the units correctly then the whole block, and quilt, goes together nicely as well. 

Of course, that depends on my mood too, so if I'm in a hurry, or I don't like what I'm doing, I can mash seams and fudge with the best of them. But I do love being precise.

I have absolutely no plans for these as yet. I'm just playing at making them and combining whatever colours I feel like. I don't need to know where it's going, I just want to have fun.

The Flying Geese leader-ender blocks are multiplying quickly. I already have 160, with hardly any effort. If I had to make 160 all at once I'd complain, but I've hardly noticed these accumulating one seam at a time.

I'm aiming for this arrangement, needing 245 geese, and it won't take long to get to that number. Then I'll have the fun of choosing the fabric for the bars between them. I'd better start cogitating about that one.

The mess in the sewing room is staggering, so I think I'll spend the Easter weekend getting these blocks finished and put together. Another two rows will be enough; I'll still have to faff around with borders, but I can clear away all the pieces and rediscover my cutting table.

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Progress Report

I'm starting to spend time in the sewing room more regularly, and there is progress on  a few fronts. I've cut many strips to use in this; I still haven't tracked down a name, or thought of one, so it's just the batik quilt for now.

It uses a lot of the same fabrics as the Plus quilt that I gave to my son a few years ago, and there are pieces left over from that quilt which have found a home here. There are also a heap of pieces cut for a brown Plus quilt, so I could probably move on to that once this is finished. My mind always drifts ahead to think about what is next, and I should just be enjoying the one I'm working on.

I have 16 of these blocks now, and they'll go into a project box for now. I wanted to fine tune the piecing process, so that those seam intersections met at all the important places, but it kept eluding me. Finally I think I've nailed it, but I've used up most of the scraps I was using for this, so it can wait a while till I generate more. A big consideration in pausing this was the realisation that many of these scraps were from fabric used in my Dear Jane top. I still haven't done the border triangles, and if I use up all the scraps from that then I'll have to hunt down new fabric to finish it.  So I printed out the triangle template, and I'll start putting material aside for that.

I have 14 of these Washington Sidewalk blocks made, and the triangles cut for another 9. I love making them, but I'm confusing myself with so many projects on the go, so these also will go away at least until I finish the batik quilt. (Millhouse, made of Perler beads, supervises my sewing. My eldest grand-daughter made him for me years ago, and he still makes me smile.)

As well as trying to work on three projects I was also working on three leader-enders, which definitely contributed to the overwhelm.

 I have piles of Flying Geese, 6" blocks made of squares and some rectangle blocks to use up already pieced strips. I need to simplify it all, so I'm just going to have the Flying Geese as my leader-ender for now, and keep amassing pieces for the others.

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Working on several projects lately

I've been trying to get projects completely finished, before I start a raft of new ones, but it's not been entirely successful. I spent a few days concentrating on bindings, which saw 2 little quilts finished.

 There are still 4 to bind, and another 2 have the binding attached, I just have to turn it to the back and machine it down. It won't take long, but I keep getting sidetracked.

I somehow started a new project, with these blocks. BlockBase calls them Good Fortune, so I guess I will too.

I love how graphic they are, and they don't use much fabric, so I'm chopping up some of my precious scraps. Pure fun.

Then I got a bee in my bonnet about my untouched batik stash, so I pulled out a heap of them and started cutting for this pattern, I don't know what it's called, but I love how it tessalates.

I'm piecing it in 8" blocks with a partial seam, and they are making me very happy too.

They need to take over the design wall, but I have many other things on it right now, so they'll have to wait until I can make space for them.

The UFO guilt got to me, so I pulled out a project box containing these blocks. 

I think they're called Washington Sidewalk, among other things. I love making this block, first started in 2016, then set aside since early 2020. Time to make some progress.

I have such a bad habit of not adding these tiny little corner triangles.  It seems such a trivial detail to work on, when all I want to do is finish more blocks, so I don't bother. Then I have a mountain of them to deal with. But I was good and did them all in one sitting, chain piecing one after another. I'm trying to be better about that from now on.

And how did our little baby turn 3 last month? He's such a character, very intense, opinionated, loving and impetuous. We call him Cyclone Finn, because he does everything at great speed, and sometimes with attendant destruction. Oh dear.

And, to stop me being maudlin about not having a little baby grandchild anymore, my son and daughter-in-law are expecting a little girl in August. I'm so looking forward to having another little girl in the family, what a blessing our grandchildren are.

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It's not that I haven't been doing anything in the sewing room; it's just that I haven't felt like blogging. I'm very much being in-the-moment, and that sort of precludes taking photos for future blog posts. I'm unapologetic.  My blogging mojo will return, and I'm not going to hurry it. What have I been up to in the sewing room?

I'm going through my boxes and drawers filled with spare parts, extra blocks, trial blocks, failed projects. What sparked this was the completion of the red Jacob's Ladder blocks. I HATED them. I mean, I loathed them and couldn't even bear to look at them. So I sold them on Facebook, along with a few other UFOs that I was never going to finish. The response was amazing, they were snapped up, and I felt good that they were going to new homes. So then I looked at my other bits and pieces to see what else could go.

It's been interesting, going back through decades of leftovers and false starts, and maybe-oneday pieces. My over-riding emotion was, I don't want to make quilts like this in the future. I don't want to make them Now. So the decision for most of it was easy, I've been sorting it into piles, photographing them, and they will go on Facebook too. I don't think I'll miss any of it.

Look at all this blue flotsam and jetsam. I have made an awful lot of blue quilts, and that led to an awful lot of extras and orphans.

2.5"strips. I really dislike 2.5"strips.

A box of2.5"squares. See comment above.

Ugly 3"HSTs.

Random blue 2.5"squares sewn together, plus many HSTs..

Even more of them. Why am I like this?

I took those bits and more, and sewed them into this little top. 

I had to make a few more of the little HSTs, but other than that it was all just sitting in boxes. And now it's not. Yay me. But I'm not quite ready to tackle the other bits that I decided to keep. They can mature in the dark a little longer. I've whittled them down to one underbed box, admittedly crammed full, but it's much better than it was. Once I clear the decks of all the clutter I think I'll do some something fun; I've had enough of sewing stuff just because I should.

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Slowly does it

I'm still not feeling the love in my sewing room. There are other things I want to be doing, like sorting and de-cluttering and re-organising the rest of the house. I feel guilty that I'm not making progress on any of the 30 projects I have underway, but it's not making me spring into action.

It took 2 sessions to sew the last 10 Jacob's Ladder blocks. I sewed all the parts into sets of three one night, then made the blocks the next night. I have never made so many mistakes, one after another. The seam ripper was smoking. The blocks have to be sewn in two different layouts, and pressed so that the seams all match. I just couldn't get it right, I couldn't keep it straight in my head. Even when I thought I'd nailed it, I'd go to press it and find a triangle was tipped the wrong way, or I'd sewn a row on upside down. So that might be another reason why I'm not particularly keen to work on this. But they're finished now, and they can spend some time back in the box because I've had enough of them for now.

I want to do a bit more on these blocks next. I have 16 made, and 30 kitted. I even have the sashing cut for them. They will be a whole lot less complicated than the Jacob's Ladder blocks. And it's my favourite colour combination, so I will be a lot more enthusiastic when I sit down to sew.

I think my philosophy for organising/decluttering is, Look in ALL the boxes. Especially the ones that haven't been opened in a decade.

These scraps were in a box with some templates from a Sunburst quilt that I finished in maybe 2002. I've always thought that I'd make more of those blocks, so I kept the scraps and templates together. 

These came from a drawer filled with miscellaneous bits and pieces, I have no idea why I put them in there.

Now they are 2.5" squares for my scrappy project, and I have zero regrets.

This was in another box, that I discovered shoved out of the way on the floor. I started collecting these weird landscape and foliage fabrics when I dreamed of making a Ruth McDowell inspired quilt, 2 decades ago.  I have absolutely no desire to do that any more, so these are going to be stripped up, probably for another Ladder quilt. It's time I introduced reality into my quilting decisions, and re-purpose the bits I've had squirreled away.

My squirrels are not new projects that divert me, they're the bits I've stashed away and never got back to. I've been hoarding these things unquestioned for far too long. Time to say goodbye, clean out and move on. 

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First Finish For 2023

The other day I cut the borders for the Scrappy Mountain Majesty top, and applied them. 

It seemed to take forever, my inner teenager was moaning and complaining, Do we HAVE to do this? And the answer was Yes, we do have to, so pipe down.  It must be because I haven't finished anything for a while, but it seemed to take longer than usual. But it's done now, and I even have a backing prepared.

I sewed all the 4-patches for the Jacobs Ladder, and I even made a few blocks, but again, my inner teenager is rolling her eyes and kicking rocks around and telling me how boring it is. I know the answer is to start something new and shiny, but that doesn't solve the UFO crisis in the sewing room. I need room in the project boxes so that I can get the current projects housed, and hopefully have room to start some new ones.

These leftover blocks from my Scrap Chain were going to become a new quilt, until I read the notes attached to the original quilt and saw that I had planned to use them to extend the backing.  Why didn't I remember that? The memory is failing rapidly.

I needed a few more units, so I went hunting through my boxes, and came up with this.

And this.

So that was simple, to put together some more blocks from these ready-to-use components.

I made 9 blocks, and I plan to space them across the back with strips of fabric between, to give me a strip 8" x 80". I have a rough idea of what I'm going to do, but I may need even more blocks; good thing there are plenty more parts available.

I liked this completely scrappy one so much that it's in the ideas file, for when I'm looking for something new to start.

I've done 4 jigsaws in January, and this one was awful. It's old, and the whole thing was so out of focus I had no idea what most of the pieces were. It's going straight to the op-shop, to torment some other unsuspecting person.I should put a warning label on it.

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A Slow Start In The Sewing Room

I've been busy since the start of the year, working on the computer, visiting family in Adelaide, bringing Isla home for a 5 day visit, and another stint in Adelaide, babysitting and catching up with everyone. Even if I had time to sew, I didn't really feel like it. I guess I just needed some recovery time.

I had no idea what I should do first, so I just sewed together the pieces for the red and cream Jacob's Ladder.  

Then they were pressed, and sat on my cutting table for days, waiting for me to cut the pieced strips into units for 4-patches

And now I've done that, so I suppose I should get busy and sew them together.  Soon....

I went through some boxes and sorted out things that had been untouched for more than 10 years. Actually, these boxes fell off a shelf, which was a drastic way to get my attention, but it worked. I threw out some ancient pieces that I didn't want to finish, tidied up a lot of papers, and made a few decisions about some old samples. I used this book to teach classes after the beginners had completed their basic class. It has some lovely patterns, and introduces new techniques in easy steps. But I never finished this demo block.

The quilt is one I still like, I should put it on my Someday list.

The block was fun to sew, but for now it's going in the orphan pile. I'm thinking it might be fun to do it completely scrappy.

Then I found this pile of blocks leftover from my Scrap Chain quilt. I'm going to sew then into blocks of 4, I bagged them up and they're next to my machine, waiting till I feel like tackling them. I need a few more, so I should cut pieces for that as well. Soon...

And then I saw these blocks.

I have a bad habit of not sewing the corner triangles on blocks, it just slows me down, so I leave it. Then I have dozens of blocks to catch up with, and I don't like that either. I cut a heap of the little triangles, and I've matched them up with each block. and I'll get them sewn on in between other tasks.  Then I have to trim them all.  I'll get to that, soon.

With all this other stuff to do, why did I pull out the 2" modern strips that I was working with in 2021? It's not as if I don't have enough to do anyway. But I wanted to work on reducing this section of my stash, and starting with the strips seems logical. I'm going to make little 9-patches, and decide on a pattern later.

When Isla was here she graduated to using the machine entirely by herself. Previously I've sat with her, controlling the foot pedal and giving her advice on what she's doing. This time, after some more pointers, I let her do it all. She was so good, keeping the machine at a steady pace, adjusting the fabric to sew a straight line, keeping her hands in the correct spot to control the fabric. This machine, that belonged to her great-grandmother, doesn't have a needle up/down button, and she was very careful to always turn the flywheel to position the needle in the up position. She never once unthreaded the needle by mistake; I've taught plenty of grown women who never mastered that little skill. 

I was so impressed with her; she can be headstrong and impulsive, but she can also concentrate  and work really hard at doing a good job. She made a laundry bag for her clothes when she visits, and several small bags for her pens and pencils. I think a pillowcase will be our next project, and maybe a patchwork cushion. I taught her mother to sew, but Seonaid was never really interested in doing much with it. I'm loving teaching Isla, she's so eager to learn, and I hope I can pass on my love of fabric and quilting. She's the only one that would be interested in my stash!

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2022 Finishes

I finished 11 tops in 2022.

Top left, clockwise: Maymont baby quilt, Ladder, Blue Ridge Beauty, Boxy Bowties, Big Dipper

Top left clockwise: Nearly Vintage Stars, Remnant, Double 4patch, Home Country, 

Then there was the British Frame quilt and the other commission quilt which I can't show you just yet.

I quilted 11 tops in 2022.

Top to bottom: Many Trips Around The World, Blue Bargello, Stairstep cot quilt, Teal scrap cot quilt

British Frame Quilt, Antique Cross, Shirt Rails, Double Ninepatch

Maymont cot quilt, Paintbox. 

Being as I can't show you the commission quilt, you'll just have to take my word for it that it was the 11th quilt. I did want to have 12 finishes for the year, and contemplated quickly quilting a runner, but I just didn't have time in the end.  I'll try and do better this year. 

I'm not going to make any grand plans for this year, but I intend to keep on working on the UFO list, which currently stands at 27 projects. I'm considering altering my plans for quite a few, and making them smaller so I have a better chance of finishing them. Once again, I'll aim for 12 finished quilts this year. I would have been able to quilt a lot more of my tops if I hadn't had so many interruptions, so I'm hoping that I can stay more focused. Onward!

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