The Sun Has Got His Hat On.......

Today I awoke to a strange phenomenon.

High in a bright blue, not grey, sky was a fiery ball.

It was giving a lot of light.

It was giving out warmth.

It was making me feel good.

Rumour has it that it is called SUN, and it could be here to stay for a few days.

Which is quite a good thing really as I need to do some things outdoors whilst the opportunity arises.

Actually, I wanted to finish some machine quilting, but I am without sewing machine at the moment.  Yesterday  I broke a needle.  Now, I have a new machine and I absolutely love it.  Love, love, love it.  Except for one thing.  Inserting a new needle.  I just find it so, so fiddly.  There just isn't enough room around the doings to hold the needle and tighten the screw.  I haven't got particularly large hands, but there just doesn't seem to be any room.  Well,  I was fiddling about trying to insert the new needle when I dropped it and it fell right down the hole, through the bobbin case and into the innermost workings where you can't get at it.  As it's all electronic and computerised I don't dare try to fiddle with it, which means I have to take it in to my local dealer to fix, and he won't be open until Tuesday.

Still,  I've learnt one thing.  Next time I change a needle I'll make sure I leave some fabric on the needle plate to catch any falling needles.

My First Commission

I have been asked to make a quilt by a friend in my Reading Group.  Her granddaughter is expecting a baby (of the pink variety) in July, so this will be her first Great-grandchild.  She saw the baby quilt I made for my Great-great-niece and wanted something similar.  That quilt (see here)  was made from a Moda Scrap Bag and I still had half the strips left, so I thought I would use those.  I thought a simple Rail Fence would be a good way to use the strips effectively, and I worked out that if I combined the strips with an equal amount of Kona Snow I could make 30 blocks, each 6 1/2 inches square.  I laid them out on my living room floor and came up with this configuration.

I didn't like it.  It just didn't seem to flow.  No matter how often I changed the blocks round I couldn't build up any enthusiasm for it.  It lacked movement.  So I thought I'd leave it for a bit and come back to it with a fresh mind.  I got on with some hand quilting on Five Star (see last post) and caught up on a few blogs I read.  One blog I love to read is Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville's Quips & Snips.  She had been teaching a class in Pennsylvania using her Strip Twist free pattern and as soon as I saw her photos I realised that the block started off with a four strip Rail Fence block., which I already had.  It is then paired up with another block, cut in half diagonally and then sewn back together again.  There is a lot of movement in the pattern which is what I was looking for.  It didn't take too long to cut them up and sew them back together, and then came the fun part of deciding which block goes where.   This step took me a couple of days as I kept changing my mind, but it's all sewn together now and looks like this:

I'm going to machine quilt and bind this over the week-end, and then I have to decide how much to charge for it.  I've never made anything for sale before, so I don't really know where to start.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at. Crazy Mom Quilts.

" I've Started, so I'll Finish"

A bit of a misnomer actually, as it's more like I've finished, so I'll start something else, finish it, and start another something else.

I finished the Scrappy Trip (see this post) and gave it my daughter for her birthday.  She was absolutely delighted with it, and immediately posted it on Facebook for all her friends to see, who answered with comments saying that they remembered her wearing some of the garments that I'd cut up to make it with "way back when".
My daughter has recently taken up cycling as a way of keeping fit.  When I saw this fabric I knew I had to make her something with it.  A bag seemed to be the quickest and most useful thing I could think of and so whipped this up the other afternoon as an extra gift.

I used Jeni's tutorial from In Color Order, the one I used here to make a lined drawstring bag, for the basic construction of it, just adapting it to make a tote bag.  I used one length of outer fabric, cut it in half so that the bikes wouldn't be upside down on the back of the bag, spray-basted some batting onto each piece and then quilted it with straight lines about 1" apart before stitching it together along the bottom.  The lining was cut from an olive green sheet and I made some handles which I lined and quilted also.  I sewed the handles to the turnings at the top of the bag before sandwiching them between the outer and the lining.  I obviously didn't need to make the channel for a drawstring so missed out that bit, and finished the bag with a line of stitching around the top edge.  I love Jeni's construction method and shall be using it again to make more bags.

I've also finished piecing a mini quilt this week.

The pattern is from Miss Rosie's Quillt Co. and is called Three Barns, but I've re-sized it to be 20" square and have called it Five Star, which I think suits it a lot better.  I shall be hand quilting this one.

March Round-up

March has been a busy old month for me.  Trying to keep warm, an outing to London, endless times waiting in with Dad for people to come and survey and give estimates for work to be carried out on his house, a few WI meetings, U3A, Walking group, Book club, Craft club, Darts practice to get ready for the new season, grandchildren needing cuddling, oh, and I managed a bit of sewing, too.

Here's the list for March.

1. Scrappy Trip Around the World - blocks sewn together, batted and backed, quilted and bound.  Waiting to be gifted to eldest daughter for her birthday at the end of this week.  Ta-Daah! post here.
2. Swoon 12" block drafted and completed. 
3. Starbright 12" block drafted and completed.  
4. Two drawstring bags from two Ikea tea-towels.  Blogged here.
5. Five Star mini quilt drafted and flimsy completed.  Now waiting to be hand-quilted.  Not blogged yet.
6. Quilted Tote bag made yesterday as an extra gift for eldest Daughter's birthday.  Not blogged yet.

I still haven't started my Farmer's Wife blocks, and I don't think they will get done in April either.  I want to do a bit of dressmaking to get ready for the summer.  A few dresses for my granddaughter, and a dress for me from a length of Liberty Tana Lawn that I've had in my stash for years, but  I've just found the perfect pattern for.  I need a couple more 12" blocks in the red,white and blue colourway and then I can complete the top of my Combined 2013 BOM quilt. (I must re-name that project as I've used blocks from all over the place, not just BOM's).

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet

Ta-Daah!!!! - "Happy Days"

My Scrappy Trip Around the World is no longer a Work-in-Progress. It is Finished.  Completed. Photographed.  Ready to be wrapped up and gifted.  Re-named.   And ahead of schedule.  My daughter's birthday isn't until the end of next week.

The story of this trip started way back in the eighties, I suppose.  Having two teenage daughters and a limited budget meant that I made most of their clothes.  They were quite happy to wear home-made as I was able to adapt patterns for latest styles and fashion trends, and they always had something that nobody else would be wearing.  I sourced fabric in the sales, especially at Laura Ashley as they always had really cheap offers, and their fabric was extra wide, too.  When my husband was posted overseas for short tours with the Army he would go to the local markets and send me back lengths of fabric, too.

Fast forward to last Christmas when I was in the attic putting away the decorations.  I stumbled across a bag full of my eldest daughter's old clothes.  She lived with me for a year recently when she was between house sales and stored  some stuff in my attic.  I thought she had taken everything with her to her new home, but this bag was still up there.  I had a nosey and saw that the clothes were all cotton, mostly the ones I had made for her, and way too small for her now, so I brought them downstairs and asked her if I could cut them up for patchwork.  After inspecting them and having a few reminiscences about wearing them at university she agreed.  I took my scissors to a pile of skirts, trousers, shirts, tops and shorts and cut them up into usable pieces.

I then used my rotary cutter and managed to get just enough usable strips of the right length to make a large size lap quilt.

The dark navy didn't come from an old garment but from an old sheet, but I thought I needed something in each block that would tie the whole lot together.  Looking at other quilts on the internet I found that I was drawn to the ones that showed the pattern a bit more distinctly so used the navy across the mid diagonal as a constant in each block to show the structure more.

I wanted it to be a surprise for my daughter's birthday, and it has been difficult keeping this away from her eyes.  She comes to me most days for her dinner after work, so I've had to be so careful about putting it away before she comes in, even to the extent of emptying my scrap and thread bins into bags and putting them in the dustbin so that she wouldn't recognise anything.  I've been putting other bits and pieces out by the sewing machine so that she didn't think I was slacking on the quilting front.

I bought some fabric in Ikea for backing.  It's called Julita, and was only £4.00 a metre.  The batting is 100% cotton.

I quilted it in diagonal wavy lines across every other block and bound it in the plain navy.

The finished size is 73" x 49".

I've given it a new name:  "Happy Days".  We used to love watching the programme on TV way back when the girls were younger, and I think the name goes with the thoughts of the fabrics used.

I hope my daughter likes it.

Starbright

I have been so busy with non-sewing stuff this week, but if you just want to see what I did achieve in the sewing line skip through this lot to the end of the post.  I won't be offended :)

On Saturday I had a trip to London with my eldest daughter to see Judy Dench in a new play, Peter and Alice.  We bought the tickets about nine months ago and so it's been a long time waiting, but well worth the wait.  Judy does not disappoint.  I love walking around London looking at the fabulous buildings, so instead of using the Tube we walked from Waterloo over Hungerford Bridge, past Charing Cross and up to Covent Garden for a quick browse and some lunch.  Then on to the theatre near Leicester Square.  After the play we walked down to Trafalgar Square and went in the National Gallery because we love to look at Van Gogh's Sunflowers and his Chair, took in a few Monet's and Renoir's and marvelled at one of my favourites, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.  Back to Waterloo via the South Bank food market, where we had oysters and bought some gorgeous Polish pastries to eat on the train going home.  A great day.

On Tuesday I went to Portsmouth for the day to the Spring Meeting of Hampshire Women's Institute.  The key speaker in the afternoon was Clarissa Dickson-Wright, a celebrity cook and TV personality.  Another enjoyable day.

I've been trying to make life easier for Dad now he is getting old.  He is extremely hard of hearing now, even with his deaf aids, so I arranged for the Sensory and Occupational Assessors to come and see what help he needs.  I was amazed at what is available.  I spent most of today installing two new amplified telephones, one in the living room and one in his bedroom, with an extra loud extension bell in the kitchen.  He also needs two new extra loud smoke alarms, with a vibrating alarm to go under his pillow for when he's in bed and not wearing his hearing aids.. He's also going to get a portable Loop system for the TV so he doesn't have to have it turned up so loud and annoy the neighbours.  I've also been seeing about getting the bathroom made into a Wet Room as he finds getting in and out of the bath a bit of a job.  His stair lift needs replacing as the present one doesn't meet the newer regulations.  He's getting a motorised scooter to help him get around easier, so he needs a ramp to get over the step into the house, and a hoist to get it in the back of the car.  He's also going to have a Rollator for places he can't use the scooter.  All of this has required surveys, measuring, estimates, phone calls, form-filling, ordering, trips to various retailers to try out things, and waiting for people who say they are coming, and then don't.  The Wet room is going to take about 10 days to install so I shall have to keep Dad busy and out of the way whilst that takes place.

I was really getting serious sewing withdrawal symptoms after all these goings-on.  I just had to do some sewing, so when I saw this square on  Heartspun Quilts this evening I quickly drafted it out on squared paper, cut it out and pieced it.  About an hour and a half from start to finish.  Pam doesn't say what this square is called so I've named it Starbright.

Ooops, that looks a bit blurry to me.  Might try to take a better picture tomorrow in daylight.

This will fit in so nicely with all of the other starry blocks.  Fabric is from the Shabby Chic's Chambray Rose collection, Clermont Farm by Moda, and Kona Snow.

A Trip to Ikea

Today's finish started with a trip to Ikea.  Whilst viewing quilting blogs I've noticed that several people have used Ikea fabric for the backs of their quilts, so I thought I would check it out.  The fabric in Ikea is cheap, and comes in wider than normal widths, so makes a good, cheap backing.  I had seen the Numbers one used before

                                BRITTEN NUMMER

                                                        Fabric, white/black

£3  / metre

but I fell in love with this one

JULITA

Fabric, white/black

£4  / metre

I bought 3 metres of each because I couldn't decide which one I like best.  I will probably use the Julita for my Scrappy Trip quilt.

Of course, a few other things dropped into my trolley as I went round the store.  I'm not sure how that happened, but when I got home I found this lovely pair of  Tea Towels in the shopping bag.

EVALILL

Tea towel, rose

£4.75  / 2 pack

As soon as I saw them in my kitchen, I knew I would never use them.  They are far too pretty.  I would be mortified if they got stained or burnt by using them as an oven cloth.  but I didn't want them languishing in a drawer never to be seen.  I needed to ponder so went and had a shower.   I washed my hair, and after I spent five minutes untangling the cord of my hair dryer from other cords and bits and bobs I realised what I could do with the tea towels.  A neat, storage bag just for my hair dryer.

I used a super tutorial by Jeni from In Color Order, just adjusting the sizing to make it bigger.  Jeni uses a very easy method of lining the bag, sewing the outer pieces and the lining all in one long strip and then turning it right side out through an opening in the bottom of the lining.  I didn't square off the bottom as I don't think my bag needs it. It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.  I used a piece cut from a pink tablecloth for the lining, and I'm really pleased with the final result.




My daughter saw it and immediately said "Can you make one for me?"

There were a few little bits of tea towel left over, so rather than them going to waste I quickly made another little bag for my granddaughter to put her hairbrush in.

Aren't they just the sweetest little bags.   I see a few more drawstring bags in my future.

The only other thing I've managed this week is another block for my 2013 Combined BOM quilt.  I drafted out the Swoon block by Thimble Blossoms on squared paper and re-sized it to 12".

A Finish and a Thank You

I admit that this doesn't look any different to last week's post.  Last week I had finished making the squares, but this week I have finished sewing them together.  A subtle difference.  Yes, I now have a top, just waiting to be batted, backed, basted, quilted and bound.  So, here it is, a sewn together Scrappy Trip Around the World flimsy.

I must now quickly put it away before daughter comes in for her tea because she still doesn't know anything about it.  I'll lay something else over the sewing machine so she doesn't think I've been slacking.

Actually, I haven't done much sewing this week.  Dad is a lot better, thanks to the glorious sunshine we had earlier this week, and has been getting out and about again, so I've taken the opportunity to start a bit of Spring Cleaning.  Well, a bit more like Spring De-cluttering.  I want to move all my sewing stuff out of my dining room and create a sewing room upstairs in one of the bedrooms, but that means I need to get rid of a whole load of other stuff that is currently in the bedrooms.  I've already taken four sacks of stuff to the Charity shop and sorted some more for a Car Boot Sale or eBay.  I've bought a load of stackable storage boxes to house my knitting supplies and for fabric storage.  Hope to have it completed by Easter so I can host a Family Lunch in my dining room.  Wish me Luck!

And now for the Thank You.  A couple of weeks ago I entered a Valentine's Day blog giveaway over at This Year's Dozen for a lovely hand crafted necklace, and I won!

It arrived today, and it is just the sweetest little necklace ever and I can't wait to wear it.  It fits my neck perfectly.  This picture is from Donna's blog as it is so dark here at the moment that my photo didn't do it justice at all.  I will get my daughter to take a photo of me wearing it later if it brightens up.

 Thank you so much Donna.  You are a really talented lady.

February Round -Up

I can't believe it's the end of the month already.  It feels like only a few days ago I was writing up the January Round-Up, but no, here we are, about to enter March.

It's been a funny old month sewing wise.  I haven't had as much time to sew as I would have liked, due mainly to my aged father being unwell and having to take him to doctor and hospital appointments and generally keeping an eye on him.

Here's what I've done this month:

1. One mini quilt started and completed  (blogged here).
2. One 12" block to complete the blocks for my 2012 BOM quilt (blogged here).
3. Six 12"  blocks for my 2013 Combined BOM quilt (blogged througout the month)
4. Ten 12" blocks to complete the blocks for my Scrappy Trip Around the World.

So, that's one mini quilt and 17 quilt blocks for this month.  I had wanted to make a start on some Farmer's Wife blocks but never got round to it.  Hopefully this month I will.  Hmm, I think I said that last month!

Linking to:

Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts

Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts

Road to Oklahoma

This is a traditional block, usually made in multiple amounts to make a large quilt, which I have altered in the way it is cut and put together to make a stand-alone 12" block.

The traditional block is only one quarter of this, so you would need to make four - 6" blocks to get a square this size.  I only wanted one 12" stand-alone block so I pieced it all-in-one to eliminate the centre seams.  The red pieces in the middle of each edge now become rectangles instead of 2 small squares, the star points become stitch and flip triangles on a large square instead of 2 squares and 2 half square triangles, and the centre becomes a single large square instead of 4 small squares.  I much prefer the look of it without the centre seams, and it lays flat nicely.  I think if I was making a large quilt I would make the blocks like this.

I love working from a picture, drafting it out on squared paper and working out the best way to cut the pieces.  So satisfying!

Abundance

I found this block, called Abundance, on Humble Quilts blog.  It is actually taken from a little pattern for a doll's quilt, but it is perfect at 12" as a block to go in my Combined 2013 BOM quilt.  There is a tutorial too, which is very easy to follow.

I love the star within a star effect on this one.

What shall I do with the leftovers - Part 2

Back at the beginning of this month I made the final block for last year's BOM quilt and I had 32 teeny-tiny half square triangles left over from making stitch and flip corners (blogged here).  I played around with these for a time wondering what to do with them.  I thought maybe just sewing them together for a little mug rug for my computer table.  I tried out different arrangements and liked pinwheels, but then I thought that with a bit of added fabric they could be the points of a star. I could make the stars into 4" blocks, add sashing and bring it up to 12".  Plenty big enough for a mini quilt.  I played a bit more, and then saw this book lying on the table.  I'd been reading it the day before looking for inspiration for February's mini quilt.

My stars looked just like the ones on the front cover, but these were set en-point.  Could I do that?  I'd never tried en-point but thought I'd give it a go.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained as the saying goes. I could manage the stars, and the other square I could make using stitch and flip, so that was OK, but then I realised I'd need setting triangles.  I've never done those.  How to get the right size?  I thought about using Pythagurus' Theorum, you know the one that goes "the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the two adjacent sides" but then all that kept going round in my head was Danny Kaye singing a song about it, so that didn't help.  So I made up the star blocks, measured them and then cut out some paper squares the same size and played around with paper triangles until I came up with something that fit.  I sewed it altogether and ended up with an 11" square.  Three borders and a binding later I've ended up with a quilt measuring 19" square.

I used cotton fabric from a couple of old shirts and a bit of an old sheet for the borders and backing, and hand quilted it in navy thread.  When I saw this photo I thought that the centre looked a little bare, it needed something to draw the eye in, so I did this.

Yes, that's right, I added a button. Just the finishing touch that it needed.  I made hanging triangles so that I can insert dowelling for hanging, and the final finishing touch is the label.

Oops!  Can you see what I've just seen?  I haven't finished the last line of quilting,  Better do that before I go to bed.

One of my aims for 2013 is to make a mini quilt each month, so this fulfils my quota for February.  So far, so good.