Six of the Best

It feels like only last week that I uploaded the last batch of squares, but I've got six to load today.

SS2 - Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Nicole Vos Van Avezathe.

The designer designed this block with a sleeping cat and called it Cat Nap but you're most likely to find a dog sleeping on mine.  My daughter's dog, Molly, is a frequent visitor and spends a couple of nights most weeks with me.  She loves spreading out on my bed for her afternoon nap, so I found an image on the internet, resized it, and sewed it into my block.  This block went together very easily, with choosing and sewing the dog taking up most of the time.

Time to make: 4 hours  No. of pieces: 4

SS2 - Betty's Bloom by Carl Hentsch

I've changed this block up a little from the original as I found the fabric placement  too busy and the shapes were lost.  By using plain colours instead of floral and only one strong pattern, the spots, I've defined the shapes a lot more.  This block was foundation pieced and so was fairly quick to put together and made matching up seams very precise.  However, I've changed out the original square in the centre for a circle so it's neater and less bulky.

Time to make: 3 hours  No. of pieces: 33

SS2 - Fruit Bowl by Jo Avery

This was a pleasant block to put together.  Once I'd made the circles using my Perfect Circles by Karen Kay Buckley the applique didn't take too much time.  Instead of my usual machine blanket stitch I hand stitched the fruit using invisble thread.  I felt that the edges of the bowl needed a bit more definition to them as it seemed to merge into the background so I did lines of backstitch around it in a deeper colour.  I added the ric-rac braid to take away the hard lines on the top of the bowl.

Time to make: 3 1/2 hours  No. of pieces: 7

SS2 - Cathedral Windows by Jenny Doan

It was purely a coincidence that this block came out the week that I visited Winchester Cathedral's most fantastic Flower Festival. using the inspiration of the 12th century Winchester Bible.  Jenny designed this block using five different patterned farbrics, which is at least three too many for me, so I simplified it by using only one.  Through my window you can see an embroidered display of flowers, using the colours that were the theme of  a lot of the displays in Winchester.  This simplified folded and machined method of construction makes for a much more bulky middle than the traditional hand pieced block.

Time to make : 3 hours  No. of pieces - 9

SS2 - Flower Child by Carolee McMullin

I have done this block almost as the designer intended.  I did change out the four-block construction for just one whole square and I've used less colours, keeping to a pink pallette for cohesion.  Just to make it my own I've added a few touches of hand embroidery.

Time to make: 3 1/2 hours  No. of pieces - 16

SS2 - Radio Waves by Pat Sloan

A neat little pieced block with simple shapes made for a quick block to construct. The original had just a plain centre so, of course, I had to add soemthing in there.  I like to sit and drink tea when I'm listening to a radio play in the afternoon so a little cup of lemon tea managed to find it's way onto my block.

Time to make: 3 hours  No. of pieces - 21

Splendid Sampler 2 - Fun Times

I'm still plodding on with these blocks each week.  I've got a bit of catching up to do but I'm getting there.

Splendid Sampler 2 - Tulip in Bloom by Nadra Ridgeway

This one looked a fairly easy block to complete.  However, looks can be deceptive.  It took me for ever to decide on the fabrics, as usual.  I went with yellow for th flower head as I used to have lovely large yellow tulips in the border at the front of the house.  They always put on such a show in the late spring after the daffodils had died down..  the flower head on this went together very easily and quickly, nothing difficult there.  Then I got to the leaves.  I don't know how I got so confused with how to line up those diagonal joins.  Must be my poor spatial awareness kicking in.  The seam ripper came in very handy.  I sewed it again and had to rip it out again.  Third time lucky! I finished it off with a bit of big yellow stitching around the inside of the flower, but it doesn't show up very well. 

Time to make:  3 hours  No. of pieces: 16

Splendid Sampler 2 - Free as a Bird by Irene Black

I decided to make my bird a yellow canary.  I used fusible applique, sewn with machine buttonhoe stitch.  The branch in the pattern was made from  a bias strip but I used a bit of ric-rac for a bit of texture and added a flower to the end cut out from a scrap of fabric. the yellow fabric didn't stand oout so well from the grey stripe so I edged the bird in back stitch with yellow thread to give a bit more definition.

Time to make 3 hours No of pieces: 9

Being laid up has it's benefits

Not being able to walk around and being forced to rest my fractured foot really does have it's benefits.  It means I can sit and sew, or knit, or crochet without the guilt feeling that I really should be doing something else. So this week I've been catching up on all three.

Firstly, here's this week's block for the sampler quilt SAL.

Splendid Sampler 2 - Around Four Corners by Rachaeldaisy.

This one was easier to execute than it first looks.  

The first hurdle I have to jump over is choosing the right combination of fabrics. As I'm going all out scrappy with this one I haven't got a dedicated matching set of designer fabrics to fall back on.  But being scrappy doesn't mean I can just use the first thing I pull out of the scrap basket.  They have to go together.  I decided I wanted a dark background for this block and then chose four different spotty fabrics for the circles.  I actually cut them out and made up one circle, but when I put it on the background block it just looked too busy, and the circle was indistinct.  I knew it wasn't going to work with four differenet patterns.  The background was already patterned so it needed plains to stand out.  I chose the four colours that are in the flower motif, and luckily, I happened to have pieces of each of the colours.

 I used my Kay Buckby Perfect Circles to make the circles and am very pleased at how smooth and round they are.  I appliqued them onto the backing square with invisible thread.

Time to make: 4 hours  No. of pieces: 17

I've now made nine blocks for ths quilt.  This last block really stands out from the others as it has a dark backgound.  I shall have to make sure that I include others with darker colours in them so that they blend in with all the others.

I've also finished the embroidery part of a bag I want to make.  It is the Blue Butterfly Bag by Gail Pan.  I took it away on holiday with me and made a start on it but didn't get as much done as I thought I might.  This panel will make three of the blocks in the patchwork design.

I've sent away for a few supplies that I need to make the bag so will get on with other projects while I'm waiting for them.

  

Change of Plan

I was putting my new block away with the ones I'd made previously and came across a drawer full of multi-coloured scraps that I've been saving.  Wow, have I saved a lot. I then remembered what I was collecting and saving them for. I thought that when I had enough variety and colours I would use them to make a sampler quilt when a QAL came along that I like the look of. Well, Splendid Sampler 2 has come along and I know I thought I would just carry on making them in French General and mix them in with the already made blocks from SS1.  I've got 48 blocks made so far.  I never intended to make all 100 blocks as I don't want a huge quilt, so I'll carry on and make a few more in FG from the SS1 book and start anew on SS2 in my scrappy, happy colours.  So here's the first one again.

Splendid Sampler 2 - Quilt Market by Alex Veronelli

 I liked doing the embroidered blocks in SS1 so I'm hoping there will be some more in SS2.  I'm thinking I will try to incorporate a bit of stitchery in more of these blocks, if the design allows for it. I didn't want to overload on this one so just added  a few straight lines.

 Time to make: 1 1/4 hours  No. of pieces: 21

Pretty in Pink

After finishing the scrap sorting last week I was eager to start a new project, so I decided to make a start on using up some scraps..  Do you remember the pile of 5" squares I had cut?

There were 80 squares in that pink pile on the left and were calling me to make something for my granddaughter whose favourite colour just happens to be pink.  I wanted something that would be scrappy, but still have a unified look to it.  I hunted around the internet, and my Pinterest boards and decided on the Disappearing Nine-Patch block.  I already had two charm packs of Kona white so they could be used, and I found some pink and red spot fabric in my stash I'd bought in Ikea earlier this year.  The white and the spot would be in every block.  I made each block using four scrap squares for the corners, one pink spot square for each centre, and four white squares for the outer middle squares.  That sounds complicated but as a picture paints a thousand words here's one to show you what I mean.

I made twenty blocks like this. Chain-piecing them meant they came together so quickly.  I really surprised myself how quick it was.  Then came the fun part.  I cut through the middle of the block, both vertically and horizontally like this.

Then I rotated the top left and the bottom right squares through 180 degrees, leaving the other two squares alone.  They now looked like this.

This was then sewn together to make the completed block.

The block measured 13 1/2" square, which when set in a 4x5 formation and sewn together would be just a bit too big for the fleece throw I want to use for the backing, so I trimmed the blocks down to 12 1/2", making sure I measured 6 1/4" from the centre line on all four sides so that I kept the pattern equal.

 The completed top. I love the way the cut white blocks form that cross pattern.  I'm thinking I'll hand quilt around the inside of those crosses to emphasise them a bit more.

 Although not completely made from scraps, I'm putting this down as another item for the Scrap Challenge.

September Round-up.

My round up of finished items for the month of September is really easy.  Absolutely nothing!  I haven't machined a single stitch, but I have been busy.  My sewing room was getting crowded out with bags full of donated scraps.  My sister and several of my friends have given me bags full of unwanted fabric and scraps.  They were taking up a lot of space and I really needed to see what was suitable and usable for patchwork, and what I could pass on for other usage.  I started on the 1st September, and finally finished yesterday!  Yes, it took me a whole month!

First, I emptied each bag and sorted out all the cottons.  I had to do the burn test on some bits to make sure they didn't contain any polyester.  As most of the stuff had been stored for a long time I then washed, dried and ironed all of it to freshen it up, and also to pre-shrink it.  I then had to decide how I wanted to store it.  There were some big pieces left over from dressmaking and smaller scraps and it had mostly been cut with scissors and was all in rather odd shapes.  I've read a lot of blogs about sorting and cutting scraps and everybody seems to have their own method, so I designed this method to suit me.

Everything was squared up so that each piece had a right-angle on each of the four corners.  Anything over 6" was treated as yardage. From the rest I cut strips at 3 1/2" and 2 1/2" wide.  They had to be at least 12 1/2" long.  Other long strips that were narrower were put in a separate pile and labelled 'strings'.  I then cut squares at 5", 3 1/2" and 2 1/2". The final sort was anything larger than 1" was saved for 'crumb' blocks, anything smaller was thrown away.  Here is my haul.

This is my 'yardage' drawer.

All the squares.  At least 100 5" squares, about the same 31/2" squares and about 200 2 1/2" squares.

The pink pile on the left is going to become a scrappy Disappearing Nine-Patch quilt for my granddaughter, hopefully for Christmas.

These are the strips and strings.  Not sure what these will become but I'm sure they'll speak to me one day.

I'm so pleased all the scraps are now sorted and put away in just two drawers.  They take up so much less space now, and I do like to keep things tidy.

As I mentioned at the start, I have done no machine sewing this month, but I have been spending my evenings in front of the TV hand-quilting my Starry Blocks quilt.  I've completed three so far.

It's now October and I've made one Farmer's Wife quilt block today.

# 103 - Whirlwind

I want to get started on the scrappy quilt for my granddaughter this month so I doubt if I'll get any more FWQ blocks done until I've finished that.

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

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.

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!