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Monday 29 May 2017

Two at once

Having completed quilting one quilt, having 2 that are ready sandwiched and pinned up, I really ought to get on and quilt them next, but....
Sometimes piecing is just fun. I like to see what fabrics will look like alongside others and which colours will play nicely.
So I've ended up doing two things at the same time. I began with these churn dash blocks:

I'd seen a pattern quite a while ago from Denise Russart Barn Dance 2016. It looked like fun, different sized blocks and scrappy colours - just my thing. So I began some of those. Here's one with a small one inside it - appeals to me.


But as people have commented, sometimes those squirrels just distract us and take us off on another tangent. So I also saw a simplified log cabin type block that also looked great from Tanya's blog (thanks Tanya). And I really want to use up some scraps, so they looked like a great pattern with some 2 and half inch strips and some narrower cream pieces around the edge. I know I have bits of cream around the place, so off I went.
These are quite low volume so I'll have to be careful as I go to make sure I select similar. Some of those greens and one of the mauve already look louder than the rest but I'm hoping when all the blocks get together they'll be Ok. As you can see from this single block, it has the quadrants to make it up but the 2 and half inch colour pieces mean that it goes together really quickly. 
So that's how my week is beginning. We'll see what I get to by the end of it. 
We have a long weekend coming up here towards the end of the week though so we're doing our 4 and half hour drive to our holiday place. That takes up a chunk of time, but hopefully once we're there I can make use of my quilting table down there. 
For all of you in the U.S. Happy Memorial Day. 

Until next time,
Lynn



Friday 26 May 2017

Sailing along

What a difference a couple of days can make. Having had a cold that left me lacking in energy, I didn't look after my 16 month old niece mid week as usual. That did give me a day where I was able to do some marking up of a quilt though. And then on the next day, I was able to quilt it! What fun. Waves everywhere, thanks to a small piece of templastic cut into a wave and my trusty wash out in water, marker.
This is a view of the back, but you can see the template here and the pen - very useful tools!

Then the front, which reminds me of sail boats. Its wall hanging size and I plan to put it up in our holiday place which is near the ocean - so that's quite appropriate.
This is the front and I haven't quite finished the binding as you can see on the right hand side, but the shadows were coming in and so to get a daylight shot, I raced outside with it. 
This is a closer up of the quilting on the cream:
It was fun because I'd been quilting something else (hope to finish next week) that has more formal sections to it and this was just so free and easy. Its good to do something like that every now and again at least.
Our small quilting group (about a dozen of us) had fun at our local (city) craft fair. After walking up the half dozen aisles full of displays of fabric, notions, machines, new techniques etc and then viewing the 100+ quilts from the quilting association, we were exhausted. Some of the women were both inspired and excited, though, to have a go on a long arm machine. They cost about $10K (AUD) and so we will need to do some research to see whether, if we make community quilts, we can source a grant or fund-raise in some other way to purchase one in a year or so. It would certainly increase our quilt production to say nothing of the fun to be had along the way!
Meanwhile, we happily continue on our domestics. One last shot of my recent one, from indoors this time:

Size: 42" x 46"
Thread used: Bottom line for bobbin, Rasant for top

Now onto the next of my waiting in line quilts, so that I get that list down from around 10!
Until next time,
Lynn







Wednesday 3 May 2017

Friends and stars

When I looked at my last post I was rather surprised to see it was March - and here we are in May. I haven't been inactive, however, one project has needed to be a secret until it was given away. I have a friend who had a special '0' birthday (not saying what number goes in front of the '0', I'm in awe of her).
I enlisted her family and colleagues as well as women who share our patchworking enthusiasm. Many people contributed their lovely words, some the blocks and one wonderful friend helped me to piece the quilt.
I then quilted a loopy flower in the sashings and into the border. She seemed to like it. 

The square within a square, or exploding square blocks were 4" for the centre, then the first square placed right side together on top of the centre, also 4", sewn around the edge with a quarter inch seam (then cut diagonally).The third square 5", again sewn right sides together with the newly created 5" square, which then once cut diagonally, opens up to around 6 and 1/2". 
While I had originally suggested to people that our friend might like greens and browns, some contributors understandably wanted to put their own personality into their blocks. For the assembly though, this led to some challenges of how to best place the orange and pink blocks! At least the whole seems to work. The final border which is a green based batik fabric, seems to help all the blocks play together nicely. 
This indoor shot shows the blocks a little more clearly, as well as the quilting. 

My second project is one where I now have the flimsy together: 
This will be a fund-raiser quilt for my mother-in-law. She asked whether I could make a quilt that her Weightwatchers group might raffle. She gave me several months notice which was good of her - I still have 5 months to quilt it, so that's plenty of time. 

This design was one I saw on Pinterest and made my own measurements, based on the thought that the centre square would be 2 and 1/2". 

The best part is, I had all this fabric in my stash. Most of the centres or stars, I think I've had those bits of fabric for years. The navy I bought sometime earlier this year and it looked so versatile I bought quite a chunk of it at the time. And its proven to be useful at least twice so far - a real win. 

I really enjoy making half square triangles from 7" squares right sides together, sewn around the edge, then cut diagonally to create 4 half square triangles. I trim the squares back to 4 and 1/2" and then the blocks go together quite easily. 

So, another project to add to the list of those not yet completed. Something must happen as we approach the middle of the year that makes these UFOs multiply it seems to me. 
The challenge is NOT to begin new projects - how hard that is!
I do hope to post a completed project soon, but with family visiting from overseas for such a short time, sewing has not had much of a look in recently. 

Until next time,
Lynn