Nine More FWQ Blocks and Monthly Round-Up

End of heatwave = more sewing.  Hurrah!  The cooler temperature, along with a couple of days of rain, has meant that I've been able to spend a couple of days at home just sewing.  As you can see from the title of this post I have completed nine more 6 1/2" blocks this week for my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  One of these small blocks has 64 pieces!  Can you see which one?  I'm just loving making these.

#38 - Four Winds

#41 - Friendship Star

#48 - Homeward Bound

#54 - Kitchen Woodbox

#55 - Linoleum

#56 - Maple Leaf

#61 - Northern Lights

#62 - Old Windmill

#64 - Peace and Plenty

All made using the scrumptious 'Marmalade' by Bonnie and Camille.  My heart goes topsy-turvy just working with these fabrics; I love them so much.

My July output has been mainly taken up with making these FMQ blocks.  Here's all 22 of them spread out on my living room carpet.  I'd like to take them outside to photograph as the light is so much better out there, but naughty puppy would only run off with them.

I've also made a teeny-tiny needle case with scraps,

 and started a leader/ender project to use up the Chambray Rose leftovers. (see last blog post for these)

And to finish, Molly is four months old now and has very definite views on how my garden should look.

She has decided that I need a flowerbed around my washing line post and has made a start on the digging.

Hole?  What hole?

Using those Scraps

I only started this patchwork lark last August, but I've been avidly saving my scraps.  I love the idea of making 'something for nothing', or getting as much value as I possibly can from my expensive fabrics.  A couple of friends have donated a few dressmaking scraps, and I have cut up, and used, old cotton garments, to make items, namely my Scrappy Trip Around the World (read about it here).

When I made my very first quilt Chambray Rose

 

I had a lot of fabric left over.  I've used some of  it to make the blocks for my Starry Sampler quilt

but I still had loads of scraps left, and so what to do with it?  I hate waste, so this must be used in some way.

Browsing around bogland I came across Mazed by Kristy Daum.  Eureka!

This quilt is made using a very simple 6" block.  The way it is placed in relation to the other blocks creates the pathways across the quilt.  I looked at my leftovers and realised that I had just enough to make this, using Kona Snow, which I already have, for the negative space. I've bought the pattern and cut most of it out.  I'm going to piece this as a Leaders/Enders project, something else I've been wanting to start.  It's amazing how much you can get pieced this way. Already I've sewn together over 100 pairs of squares whilst making a couple of  6" Farmer's Wife blocks.

So, I can really concentrate on my Farmer's Wife blocks with the added bonus that I'm making another quilt as well.

I now am left with a bag of really scappy bits.  Nothing is more than 2" wide, and some of it is really tiny, but I don't like to throw anything away.  It must be used!

Blogland to the rescue once again!  Amanda Jean over at crazy mom quilts is starting a personal challenge to make 101 scrap projects, and her first one is a dinky little needle case.  I actually need one of these to keep my quilting needles in, so out came the scraps and a couple of hours later I had made one, too.

This measures just 2 3/4" by 3 3/8" finished size.  I'd read about quilt-as-you-go where you sew strips directly onto batting and so gave it a try.  It was ideal for this.

The toggle is from my vast collection of old buttons and matches perfectly.

The lining isn't quilted, just held in place with the line of central stitching that holds the small piece of batting to take the needles.  I am so, so pleased with this little bit of scrap, and I've learnt a new technique that I'm sure I will use again.

What next?  Watch this space!