done some making ;-)

When Lisa transferred to senior school, age 11, she was the only one from her primary school to go to Herschel Grammer School, so she didn't know anyone.  She quickly made friends, and still sees a fair number of the girls.    Kelli was was of her first friends, and I've always had a soft spot for her, although we did years ago reckon she'd be the first of Lisa's friends to get pregnant....

Well the baby is due in June, and Lisa and I have both been invited to the baby shower in a few weeks time.  I'm really flattered to have been invited, and have dug out the Moda tea roses pinwheels and have made a little quilt for the baby (Kelli knows she's having a girl).  The pinwheels don't stand out from the paisley blocks much in the photo (which means you cant see how poor the seams are :-) but it's very soft and pretty, and I'm pleased with the echo quilting.

On the back I used a fat quarter of the larger roses, and added a strip of spare pinwheels to add some length to it, then a border of the pink gingham from the range to make it as big as the front, and finally the green gingham as a narrow binding.  I hope she likes it!

I just thought I'd also share .... we have become a family that drink tea from a teapot!  Get us!  Actually we'd run out of teabags and only had a packet of loose tea which had been bought by mistake ages ago.  Brian and Niki found this teapot in the back of a kitchen cupboard. 

This was a real blast from the past - my Great Aunt (Auntie Bet) had this as her every-day teapot before she moved into an old people's home, when she gave it to me.  By then there was only the teapot left from the set, but I have this painting that she painted for me in 1970 (!), that shows there must have been other items in the set.

Pinwheels (with no triangles!)

These pinwheel blocks are made of triangles - I love pinwheels, but I have an aversion to sewing with triangles ... and this method doesn't use triangles at all!!!

Take two squares, the same size, and line them up right sides together.  Stitch along all 4 sides using 1/4 inch seam

 Cut in half, then in half again making 4 folded triangles

 open the triangles and press (seam to dark fabric, or seams open)

Stitch the squares together first in pairs, then each pair to the other pair.  (Ooops forgot photo of that finished pinwheel)

Having checked that the instructions work, pair up 64 pink and green squares, stitch together on all 4 sides

 cut into 64 triangles

Discover what the 45 degree marking on the ruler is for, and use it to cut each triangle in half again

 You now have 128 little triangles

Iron them all open (seam to darker fabric, or seam open)

Carefully align each pair of these (called half square triangles, or hst for short) and stitch to make a 2 hst unit. Press, then join each 2 hst unit to another one to make a pinwheel

Now you (I) have 31 of these ... and cant quite decide what to do next LOL

Conventionally, they would get put together, but they aren't very well defined  (click on any photo to make it bigger)

I could alternate them with uncut fabric -

BUT should I use the big roses fabric ...

or the paisley fabric ...

or the small roses fabric?

Or I have some small pink gingham, or small green gingham?

Or I could sash them?





I have emailed Julia to ask if she has any plain pink or green in the range as that may be better for either alternate blocks or sashing, but for now they can go into a plastic bag while I wait for inspiration.

Productive weekend

After I mentioned that the Vanishing 9 Patch had to be put away for 2 weeks until I get to mum's, Teje was worried about me, would I be able to survive?  Amo also commented, 'accusing' me of having attacked the 9 patch fabrics - good call Amo!

Anyway, I've now gone on to distract myself from the 9 patches, by attacking another pile of fabric: these are some of the scrummy Aviary fabrics from Julia's shop that have been cut, stitched, cut, cut and ironed to make half square triangles.  They will become pinwheels, and I will show you how, but now I'm on my way out :-)

Hope your weekend went well