...falling off the wagon...into a pile of scraps.

Almost as soon as I started the Craftsy BOM with my scraps it became abundantly clear that I was going to go nowhere near far enough into making a dent in my scrap stash. So I started a new quilt, even though I was trying to focus in finishing the ones I had started. 

I'm working though the My Favorite Block QAL and making a number of blocks from each post with the aim of ending up with a top 7x7 blocks in the 12" size - big enough for our bed.

This one is four 12.5" blocks - I wish I hadn't used the brown!

The Road to Oklahoma especially needed to be repeated I think.

So far I have made at least 4 of all the blocks (I am finding many of them are better repeated to show a secondary pattern) and am well on the way. I'm using 'low volume' fabrics as the link between all the blocks and so far the block are linking OK I think though I am finding the whole things very busy and a departure of my usual style.

Blocks come out twice a week so I hopefully in another week or two I will have a better idea if it is going to work or I with end up with a really scrappy mess!

...a happenstance and a plan

While I don't think I am in the league of the people that are featured in hoarders my fabric scraps are out of control. 

The 'problem' I have is that while I can still think of something I could do with them, and there are no shortage of ideas in that department, I have no real desire to re-house them. 

That said, I am happy to use them - and really enjoy putting them to use in the do. Good Stitches blocks for the Cherish circle (in fact the chance to use these small gems was one of he reason I joined this bee). But still the boxes keep bulging and the scraps keep spilling out. 

And I refuse to solve the issue by buying more boxes. 

And them comes the happenstance. I was mindlessly wandering around the Fresh Modern Quilts group on Flickr recently and came across this quilt, described in more detail here. And then I wandered over to Craftsy and looked in on the free 2013 block of the month. And I signed up. 

My plan is to use stash for this quilt. with a focus on all the little bits and pieces in the scrap boxes. With bits and pieces of my text fabrics as the background. 

Tonight, after I finished the second of a couple of quilt tops to be revealed later in the week I sewed up the first four blocks. I'm looking forward to the next 11 installments!

...finally finished... something

This is not my longest standing work in project - I haven't even really been working on it officially of much more than a week but I have been planning it for almost exactly a year. And it feels like absolutely ages since I have actually finished anything so this is incredibly satisfying.

That isn't even all of them!

This cushion cover is made from 14x14 1.5" finished half square triangles that were the trimmings from the star corners that I had made saved from when I made this quilt over the same long weekend last year. That is 196 HST units and 392 tiny squares of fabric. Why did I think that this would be a quick project when that is more seams than some bed sized quilts have?!?

I trimmed them all to 2" - which in most cases was very little fabric indeed but I ended with with quite a pile of sneeze inducing scraps!

I quilted some zig zags into the white areas - the cushion front is simply the panel on a batting scrap - there is no backing.

I made the cushion back using about 1/2 yard of the central park trees I had and  used this tutorial for a concealed zip back - a slight error means the zipper flap faces the right way or the trees do. I chose the trees.

I love the look of cushions with a piped edge but don't think I do it well enough so this time I tried binding the pillow as I would a quilt and I quite like how it has turned out - with the frame. I might be a convert to this method.

The binding is the leftover quilt binding, the backing some fabric bought for the quilt and never used and the story of the blocks is already told! So in the end I have a 21" square cushion completely from scraps!

...notes and pictures from the weekend

A busy weekend full of baking, sewing, cooking and all the normal weekend chores. 

After my post on Friday looking for some new bread recipes I got one from Becky. I tried it out and the finished texture is great. The quantities didn't quite yield the dough weight I need for it to prove to the lid in the pan but I think a 1.5 mix might work. For now I took the lid off and made a domed loaf that we are already a lot of the way though. 

I also started a scrap project that I kept the bit for for the last 51 weeks - these are the off cuts from the star points from this quilt. I had already sewn them into half square triangle units, the job now is just to trim them all to 2" and sew them together. 

It will end up 14x14 units - 1.5" finished units for a 21" cushion. 

'

I also finally got pictures of my finished Giant 'Valentines' Swoon. The top is 80" square, I'm just considering quilting now. 

An afternoon movie yielded the latest Dessert of the Month stitchery. 

My tip for keeping track of where you are up to - use a highlighter to mark the stitches executed

A few more seams on the scrappy stars too - I hope to have this one finished by the end of the month.

...Valentine's Swoon

* I'm posting this today, the day before Valentine's Day, because N and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We believe that everyday should be a day for 'I love you'. So I've made a Valentine's Quilt that isn't really a Valentine's quilt. 

On Sunday I went to the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild's Sit and Sew day, weighed down by three projects I am really enjoying, the Giant Grandmother's Flower Garden, the Scrap Attack Quilt and my slow and steady Munki Munki EPP quilt.

But I couldn't get into it. You see that morning I had found a panel in the sewing room cupboard that I never would have found if I hadn't started the big clean out. I had bought it a few years ago at one of the open studio mornings at Prints Charming in Sydney. It gelled in my mind as needing to becoming the centre of the Swoon quilt I had decided to make. One block, 80" square. A quick look in the cupboard yielded the second fabric and what I thought was enough Kona White for the background.

So, sitting at the sewing day I decided to duck home a little early, swing by Spotlight for the red solid to match the panel print and do some washing while I got sewing.

Three hours later I almost had a quilt top. I am two 11.25" squares short of the Kona white and 6 squares short of the red.

A quick trip to Spotlight later in the week should yield the red and an OK white substitute.

In the meantime I have knocked up a quick baby quilt (35" square) with the flying geese unit off-cuts. Feeling very virtuous using these up right away!

...the pirate quilt

I finished this last weekend...finally. 


I say finally because this was cut out about the time I made my first two deliberate quilts almost two years ago. An earlier version of this quilt was the first I cut out and the first top I finished but the second quilt I finished. 

The fabric is a collection from Spotlight, the find that was featured in the catalogue and had a pattern sheet that went with it. The solids are all the Homespun range. It really is just a twin size square within square design. 

I made the original as a practice quilt before I started a baby quilt to give to a friend for her unborn child. The second, this one was made with the scraps (plus a few centimetres extra of one or two of the fabrics). That is right I had almost enough scraps to make another quilt. 

I machine quilted Mark II .25" each side of the seam lines of the larger block and the Xs in the smaller squares and rectangles. The original was quilted in much the same way, but by hand. 

The backing is one of the wide backings in a mottled grey, also from Spotlight. 

Now I just have to work out what to do with it. We don't need two the same in this house and I don't know any pirate mad little boys at the moment. Ideas?

A blocky weekend!

A bee block weekend was had by me last weekend



The end of the month was fast approaching and I had some bee blocks to make before they were late!


First up were two sets of blocks for Bee Seam Piecing Downunder with the February blocks for Erin being delayed after it took a whole month for an envelope to arrive in the mail from Adelaide. Continuing frustration from Australia Post is becoming the norm for me lately!


Erin had previously asked us for our favourite colour and sent us some fabric in that colour as well as other fabric and set us a free choice block. With the flying geese kick I had been on recently this was the first block I made.

Originally it was to be three rows of flying geese until I (thankfully checked) the instructions and noted Erin had asked for 10.5” blocks.

More triangles for block two seemed fitting and a pinwheel emerged from the machine.


Next up was two of these blocks for Nicole in the same bee but for March. Based on this quilt by Red Pepper Quilts that was apparently originally based on another seen on flickr she asked us to create these, full of squares and half square triangles. Unfortunately we were all a little short of the yellow as the bolt appears to have been narrower but this and the almost finished second was sent on the way.

This will be a wonderful quilt but with so many small pieces in each block is it one that is helpful to have some assistance in piecing!

Also on the list was the this scrappy stashbuster block for Crystal in Bee (a little bit) Japanese.

Thankfully she had precut all the tiny little squares for us and these came together surprisingly quickly.

A lovely detail that she requested was that we sub in two squares of our own and then raw edge applique another scrap of this same fabric to a label/siggy block to help her identify and remember everyone's contribution in the final quilt.

She also asked for our favourite quote to be included on the label - I went with the one I consider most fun.

The final bee blocks for the weekend were two for the Faith circle do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}. Kathy Dougherty of Material Obsession fame (both the store and the books) had given permission for us to use the stashbuster quilt pattern so long as it was not published publicly.

As this quilt will be going to a little baby girl I included some fun prints and a little pink.

I really love this quilt (it is on the long, long list for things I might get to one day) and was pleased to be able to have a small hand in one in the meantime.

To round out the weekend I finished the final two blocks I still had to go for the Quilt Bloggers Blockapalooza

and fixed an earlier one when I found some more orange stripe.

Sewing the top together is the next step!

This weekend it is all about the double wedding ring quilt top (and back hopefully!)

Scrappy Mug Rug Swap - Sent and Recieved

The Scrappy Mug Rug Swap round one was a smallish affair but obviously struck a cord with a whole bunch of people because the flickr group is now huge. And I can completely understand it because the finished mug rugs are
1. cute
2. useful
3. can be finished in a night or an afternoon.

A satisfaction guarnteed, reasonbly quick project.

The current round of the swap, the third, was my second. I made the tops of these two mug rugs and couldn't decide which to send so I made both (rather than a top and a bottom because they had come out different sizes) and sent both with a little extra surprise.

Sent:

and on the very day I posted mine off to it's new owner and home I came home to find this one waiting for me in the letterbox.

Recieved:

Thanks to Lethargic Lass, for this one!