Three FWQ blocks and the August Round-Up

I've spent most of this week doing things other than sewing.  My garage has been cleared of so much rubbish and junk that I can now get to the back of it.  A job that has been long overdue.  Not finished completely, but nearly there.  I've managed a little bit of sewing, just three blocks for my FWQ.

#98 - Waterwheel

# 102 - Whirlpool

# 107 Windblown Square

# 112 - Thrift

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that the last block here is #112, but the book only has 111 blocks in it.  I'm getting a bit low on fabric as I'm using a Layer Cake, with a bit of extra yardage, for these FWQ blocks so I was searching through the scraps and noticed I had some HST's that had been trimmed off when I made  some stitch and flip corners, so I've designed my own block to use them up and called it Thrift.   

August does seem to have flown by.  The lovely weather we have had has been so welcome after what seemed to have been such a long winter.  I've tried to spend as much time as I could out in the fresh air so my round-up for the month might seem a bit sparse, but I have enjoyed using up the scraps and crumbs from the Chambray Rose collection for my Scrap Challenge.  I'm still working on my Leader & Ender project, and I've managed a bit of hand quilting on a few cooler evenings.  So here's the short list:

16 Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks

2 small scrappy coasters for my computer table

1 runner made from crumb blocks for my bedroom chest

1 bag for daughter's birthday

Wellies & Watering Cans

Last April I made a bag for my eldest daughter's birthday and my youngest daughter really liked it, so as it's her birthday this week I've made her one, too.  Catherine's was made in a lovely bicycle print as she loves cycling, but I've made Sarah's in this gorgeous Wellies & Watering Can print as she is always gardening.

The lining is just plain olive green.   It measures 13" tall x 19" wide.

On the FWQ front I've managed 3 blocks this week.

#1  Attic Windows

#88 Star of Hope

#92 Streak of Lightning

My tally so far is 34 blocks.  I'm only making a lap quilt size so need 16 more.  Should be able to manage that by the end of next month, I think.

And now especially for Molly's Fan Club

Five months old, and feeling oh so very sorry for herself.  She follows my daughter everywhere and tried to sneek into the bathroom with her, but the wind caught the door and slammed it shut, catching Molly's tail in it.  I didn't see the carnage as it was at her house, but she said that her bathroom resembled a murder scene and she half expected police to arrive and cordon off the area with yellow tape!  The vet's is quite close so she whisked Molly down there straight away.  They had to shave off her newly grown feathering before they could clean and glue the wound and gave her a painkilling injection and a course of antibiotics.  Molly is not entirely happy with having to wear her new fashion accessory.

Scrap Challenge Project #3

Do you remember the crumb block I made last week?

Well, I liked it so much that I made three more, joined them together, added borders and binding, and now have a rather nice runner.

And the super thing about it is that it is all made with scraps.  In the centre piece the scraps ranged from 1" to 2 1/2" wide.  I stitched the scraps onto pieces of paper, cut from the telephone directory, 2 1/2 x 6 1/2".  Three of these strips were then sewn together to make a 6 1/2" block.

The borders and binding were longer scraps but they still needed to be joined to get the length I needed.

I pieced some scraps of batting together, backed it in a piece of the leftover Toile de Joue duvet cover (from Ikea) that I used to back my Starry Sampler quilt and did some simple straight line quilting.

It measures 31 1/2" x 13 1/2".  All of the scraps are from the Chambray Rose collection by Shabby Chic, mixed with some Kona Snow scraps.

It's new home is in the bedroom on the chest of drawers.  

More Scrap-Busting and FWQ blocks

Continuing the challenge to use all of the scraps from my Chambray Rose quilt I've made a couple of coasters this week.  These are for my computer desk in my dining room, so I will use them every day.  I sewed the scraps directly onto a piece of batting, backed them with a scrap of the  Toile de Joue  duvet cover I used on the Starry Sampler quilt, and bound with some really old spotty dressmaking cotton.  They measure 4 1/2 inches square.

I had such a lovely time making these that I thought I would do a bit more crazy piecing and made this block.

I pieced this on paper torn out of the telephone directory.  I cut 3 paper strips 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" and stitched directly onto the paper, using stitch length 1.5.  I made all 3 at once, using the leader/ender method of feeding in and cutting off at the back to save keep on cutting (and wasting) thread.  The paper tore away really easily.   I then sewed the 3 strips together to make a 6 1/2" square block.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm going to make a few more as they're such fun to make.

I've made another 9 blocks for my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt using the gorgeous "Marmalade" by Bonnie and Camille.  I am just so loving making these.

# 69  Practical Orchard

#70 Prairie Queen

#71 Puss in the Corner

#72  Railroad

#73 Rainbow Flowers

#74  Ribbons

#81 Snowball

#84 Spool

#87 Star Gardener

Here are the nine all together.