Fabric Fun on Friday (part 2)

After my last post I had a bit of time before I needed to set off to teach the covered journals, so I made a few more - they really are doable in 20 minutes or so!

Here are a reporter's notebook (spiral bound at the top), a small hardback notebook, and a travel pass (that'll be the one with a London bus on the front!)

I also had a piece that I made about 3.5 years ago: Kate North was hosting a Stay At Home Round Robin : she gave us monthly instructions as to size and location of a piece and we added or created what we wanted.  I made three and I have no idea what happened to the pink or the blue, but I loved the black/white/red piece but had no idea what to do with it - until today!  It was the perfect size to become a ring binder cover

After I'd had loads of fun making these I let the Chertsey ladies have a go too!

From the same samples, the same set of instructions and the same resources box I was amazed how very different their covers turned out:

Sewing and postal lovliness

I have finished and delivered Jessie's quilt, and mum is very happy.  Jessie's birthday is on Thursday, so I should hear then whether she is happy !

I worked on the three Round Robin flimsies: not all to Kate's instructed sizes, but I don't think she'll banish me from the group!

The pink version uses up more orphan blocks, and adds (at the top in this photo) the big liberated star, and the skinny inset together with a bit of extra pinkness to bulk it out.  I think I might prefer it on the bottom, enclosing the very pink piano keys, but that puts the stars close together, so I'm not sure

 For the blue I made three log cabin blocks, and these are pretty much the right size.  However I think they need to be moved too from the right side to the left, distributing the cream sections more evenly.  It's strange that it is easier to see this in the photo than looking at the flimsy itself!

The black and white piece level 7 addition didn't work at the top or the bottom of the piece, so I have changed it from a squarish finished top to a rectangular one, adding the new block to the left.  However with this photo too I am thinking maybe it would be better on the right.  Deep sigh, almost a productive day!!!

I received more trees, this time from Kathie  in Pennsylvania who sent a lovely chatty letter (which I will reply to Kathie, thank you) and a half yard of fab turquoise fabric...

and Belinda in Texas who sent these great wonky trees and some really sweet strips of valentine's fabrics, which I 'm sure I can use!

Thank you ladies :-)

Stay At Home Robin Round 6

Just had a bit of fun today: Round Six of Kate's Stay At Home Robin, (see the blog here, for some amazing quilts, all to the same (ish) spec, but all very different).
















This black & white version started with an orphan log cabin block, but I had its two twins waiting to be used, so for round 6 I have added them on the left. This does make the quilt wider than it should be, but I'm sure I can compensate in future rounds.

I was a bit more obedient in the pink version, and added a narrow strip of pinwheels (also added on the left). I had to force myself to do these as I'm not a great fan of triangles.

I'm glad I've finished but wont be doing such small pinwheels again. I have seen instructions where the clumpy bit in the centre of each (where all 8 triangles meet) is arranged differently so it is less clumpy, so having been inspired by Plum's blue and white pinwheels I might try bigger ones, once I've found the instructions I want
















There is a pale blue SAH Robin too, but that will have to wait until another time.

I think tomorrow may be time for either the log cabin Christmas tree or the raw edge trees and cottages. I shall see how I feel - both feature snow, and I might need to work on something without snow!!!

Just checking in

Just checking in to say that I have been sewing today - I've done round 5 on the Stay At Home Robins, and I've done some stitching on the denim weave blanket. I HAVE taken photos - but the card reader has died, so no photos to post!

Sorry, I'll get them loaded as soon as poss

Edited 11 Nov

NOW I have photos ...

These are the three Stay At Home Robins I am doing with Kate at Stay At Home Robin, I had so many orphan blocks with plenty of extra fabric that I couldn't choose, so went for three!

Click on the link to see the lovely blocks that others have come up with

This, black and white, (with red for a robin) was the first one I started, and I have added some stripes, and some folded flying geese: I enjoyed making these more than I expected (but I did get muddled up with remembering to iron away from the folds, not into them!)
















For the baby blue one I added some stripes again, and some slashed stripes
















For the pink one I added some stripes (*) and had a go at some of the liberated stars I've been seeing in blogland. I obviously have a problem with spacial awareness as the number of time I had to re-do the 4 pointy blocks is nobody's business! however I like the result, so i might be trying these again.

















Next month I am going to force myself to do some half square triangles - either I'll get over my dislike of them, or I'll enforce it, either way, I'll know!

two more Robins!!!

I love a day off - I can get so much achieved without having to rush back to school!!!

Lisa has come home for the weekend, so I've been to to Terminal 5 to pick her up, and I did stop sewing to have a chat with her, but she's gone out now, so I did a bit of tidying in the sewing room - and I came across two orphan blocks ... one from Henry's tessellated quilt,














and one from Lisa's pink Skinny Insert quilt. Waste not, want not... so I have started two additional Robins using the orphans as the starting blocks

Day off = Sewing Day!!!

I did nearly three hours work at Breakfast club this morning (invoices & accounts after the kids had gone) but now I'm free until tomorrow morning - yippee!!!

I got stage 4 done on the Stay At Home Robin I'm doing with Kate (click here to see others', and the instructions)














and I've nearly finished a felt castle for India. Can you recognise which castle it's meant to be?











Once it has some windows on the castle walls, and a flag pole to support the flag, it can go in the post to Australia. She might be old enough to appreciate it!

I'm going to make a blue car felt postcard for Marley, but he's just a likely to eat it as appreciate it!

Post cards and Stay At Home Robin

I have NOTHING in the diary today, so after taking Niki and Polly to work I have been sewing - yippee!!

I have done month 3 on the black and white SAHR that I am doing through Kate's blog,














and then carried on with the black and white fabric to make 6 postcards ready for the November (!) BQL postcard swap using the same idea. I've also played with making a mug rug, but that was from leftovers, and I think its too scrappy.

Kate's SAH Robin

Last year at Festival Of Quilts I bought LOADS of whites with black, and blacks with white.

The mostly whites went with some pale greens into a quilt for Niki's friend Kay:

The mostly blacks went, with some pale blues, into a quilt for Niki's friend Becca


Both types, plus a bit of red, went into log cabins which became cushion covers for Niki herself:
and the remaining fabrics plus a few orphan log cabins went into a plastic bag awaiting inspiration.

One of the blogs I've been following is Kates's Quilting Blogspot where she is hosting a Stay At Home Round Robin. We'll I've finally plucked up the courage, and I've used an orphan and some scraps to catch up with the first two stages, and now I'm off to ask Kate, Pretty Please, can I be in your gang?