Wednesday Weaving

I have a love of quilts that appear to be woven or are woven:

I made this 4 years ago

And this 2 years ago

and two of these 2 1/2 years ago

And started this 4 1/2 years ago (but still not finished it)

and for the last six months I have been pondering this block from Block lotto (October 2014)

I've finally given in, and yesterday I was sewing black strips to either side of strips from a black and red and white jelly roll

 - I've even done a plan

I'm loving it already!!!

Done the Diamonds

OK, not finished sort of 'done' but based and quilted sort of 'done' and I'm still in an alliterative mood, so this was the best post title I could think of!

It still needs binding, but at least it can move to the  blue  area of the UFO list, and I know I can add the machine part of the binding fairly quickly once I run out of hand sewing

Thank you Block Lotto girls :-)

Diamond Quilt

These blocks were the ones I won from the Block Lotto  at the end of November,

And in my quest to reduce the UFO list (although I prefer the PHD list as it sounds so much more intelligent) I decided to make something with these blocks.  This is them stitched into rows, then auditioned for the best arrangement

and later I hope to do the cheat joining rows / basting / basic quilting that I do, so it is then ready to be quilted through the diamonds

More Block Lotto Blocks and two finishes

The blocks from my Block Lotto win, keep tumbling through the letter box:

I am so looking forward to making this quilt.   There is one more package to arrive, so I am going to plod through some UFOs and then I'll allow myself to start when the final blocks arrive

I have cleared a few more UFOs - they really didn't need much, just the binding being attached by hand, but they have now made in from the UFO list to the Finished Quilts list - yippee!

Pure Blue London Bricks #2

Orphan Vanishing 9 Patch in creams 

Less of a zombie now!

After a 24 hour flight, and fighting sleep until as long as I could, I finally gave in at 5:30 last night and went to bed. Ah, what bliss to sleep, and in my own bed :-)

I woke at 6:30 which is ridiculously early, but I had had 13 hours sleep, so I feel much more with it!

There was some very exciting post waiting for me.  a pressie from Jackie, and one from the BQL Secret Santa, both of which have been put under the tree (albeit with a bit of squishing on the way!)

Also . . .

[Hold on while we travel back in time.  One of the blogs that I follow is Block Lotto - each month, the list Mom, Sophie, introduces us to a block, usually with a colour scheme.  We can make as many or as few of these as we like, and each one that we submit a photo of counts as a ticket for the month's lotto.  I actually remembered the let Sophie know that I would be in the air when she drew the names, so if I won I wouldn't be able to acknowledge for a few days - just as well I did as I was one of the winners {VBG}]

. . . now back to the present . . . there were four squishies, each with three Scrappy Round The World blocks.

Thank you so much to Cathy Ann, Celine, Debra and Kate - lovely blocks, and I'm really looking forward to playing with the blocks and deciding how to arrange them

Block Lotto entries

I L.O.V.E the blocks being made for this month's Block Lotto.  I have managed to make 6, so that gives me six chances to win.  Have a look at the site to see some more

 

The block is from Bonnie Hunter's site: its a sort of technicolour yawn with a black Irish Chain  running through it.  Even if I don't win any blocks, I think I'd like to make one of these with my scraps

The Door Stop is under way, but is too long and thin to photograph well.  I have made the tube, and need to acquire something to give it the weight it needs to be able to hold a heavy door open . . . next door have pea shingle on their drive, do you think they would notice if I 'borrowed' a few cup fulls?

SLIK and Quick Christmas Sack

I have spent the day making Christmas sacks, and found I had forgotten how I made them last year.  I seem to remember having the same problem 12 months ago, so this time I am recording the method, so that hopefully next year I'll be able to get started without having to think it through!

I cut the sack fabric to be able to make a sack appx 14" by 19", and I cut Christmassy fabric 14" by 7"

I attached the Christmassy fabric to the top of the bag about 3 inches down from the top (right sides together) then flip up and press. (On back as well as front)

I attached the back and front of bag together, leaving 2" unstitched at the top (either one seam or both seams depending on whether one or two drawer strings will be required)

I stitch open the opening(s) at the top of the bag, slightly tapering them open.  (Reinforce the top of the side seam several times.)

(I have written this for me, anyone else is welcome to use the instructions, but please feel free to ask me if there is anything unclear)
 

Then the Christmassy fabric can be brought down on the inside of the bag, and stitched with a small hem.  Finally I stitched about 2cm from the top to create a channel for the ribbon

Finally I am going to make a small two sided patch that says 'good' on one side, and 'naughty' on the other, so it can be left as a message for Santa on Christmas Eve!

I have obviously been good, as I received a package from Katy.  It doesn't look very exciting, but it is insubrite (I may have spelt it wrong) which is insulating heat resistant fabric that can be used for making oven gloves or table mats.  Thank you thank you thank you Katy!

My other sewing to day has been sewing some strips from my two-and-a-half-inch-strips-of-washed-fabrics drawer (!) for the block lotto this month.  The block is a sort of technicolour yawn with a black Irish chain thing going on.  Have a look [here] to see some of the others that have been entered.  Each block counts as a ticket to win 35 blocks.  I really love this block, and think I will make one for myself from my scraps if I don't win.  I have started to sew the blocks, but don't have any washed black fabric, so these 'fives' will have to wait to be come 'sixes' then I can cross cut and make the 36 patch blocks

9 patches and Block Lotto

I have done ten blocks for the July Block Lotto.  I loved doing the blocks (each pair is done together, and one is the opposite of the other) but the ironing was a pain.

 

Having not done enough squares for the day (!) I then made up a whole load of nine patches.  Lots more summery fabrics waiting to be used as soon as I get a chance to go the the shops

something pretty

Lisa suggested I sew something pretty, just because!

I picked up this jelly roll from Fabric Freedom (Aunt Grace, Circle of Friends, SOOOO pretty! It reminds me of summer dresses from childhood) and pulled out some white to go with it.

Did I want to do nine patch blocks?

Or scatter the patterned squares randomly amongst the white?

I started stitching each strip to white, and then had a brain wave.  I cut 8" off each pair, then stitched the remainder together.  At one end I added the patterned to the white to make an 8" strip of patterned / white  /patterned which I cut off, then I added the white to the other end (making white / patterned / white) so i made enough for two nine patches and left enough for 6 or 7  white / patterned pairs. (Makes sense to me anyway!)

 

Yes Mum, I know I'm supposed to do Hilary's textures first, but I needed some therapy!  I've had to stop with the circle of friends because I ran out of white fabric, so I did this one for Hilary: woven strips.

I think it's just a few more to go, so I think log cabin (maybe uneven log cabin? and maybe ticker tape (raw edge applique)

I'm also doing some liberated sizteen patch for Block Lotto, so I'll show those when they are done.

shopping and sewing

So what shall I show you first?  Shopping? Or sewing?

Alphabetically, sewing comes first, so let's start with that. It's quite a time on the ferry over to Holland: about 7 hours, so I took plenty of hand sewing

This is beaded lace stitched onto a plain backing as another block for the textured quilt

 

This block was created a while ago, using fusible bias binding (the sort that is often used in black for stained glass windows) but hadn't been stitched, and now it has

Mother-in-law has a little table in the hall where she puts her milk (she still gets milk delivered daily from a milkman, so do we) as she closes the front door.  She puts it onto a cardboard beer mat that she brought home from a pub about 100 years ago, and it's fading.  She did ask me to bring over some crayons or colouring pencils to brighten up the colours a bit, but I thought maybe she needed a Milk Mat:

and finally I made six blocks for the June Block Lotto, I hope they are OK being hand stitched

Baby blanket (nightmare)

We've lived in our house for 24 years, and there are a few families still in the road who were here before us.  The first friends we made were Pat and Paul, and their daughter Samantha, who later became big sister to Danielle.  Sam is mum to 4, and Danielle had just had her first baby.  When Sam asked if I could embroider the baby's name onto a blanket, of course I said yes ... then I saw the blanket

I really didn't want to embroider direct onto the blanket, as the stitches would just become straight lines every time they hit those holes.

So I stitched his name onto fleece

and stitched the fleece onto the blanket - phew!

Now I can get on with the patchwork for him from us!

(and another two block lotto blocks :-)

Decisions, decisions

I've had a busy week, and in the odd free time I've had to chose between sewing, or blogging - I chose sewing!  But now I have a free day, so I'm catching up with the blogging before I switch the machine on :-)

The Lower Juniors at school put on a production of Cinderella in the week, and last week they were having problems with their backdrop.  I suggested they stitch tape along the top so they could pull it tighter without ripping ... and somehow I brought home 2 backdrops, about 5m x 3m, each one thickly painted.  The sewing room is about 2.2m x 2.5m, and the worktable is just 18 inches wide, and this fabric was very unwieldy!  A tip posted on the BQL group  had me bringing the ironing board into the sewing room - I lowered it to the same height as the workbench, and put the sewing machine on it, which gave me more space to push and pull the backdrop around

Even so, it was hard work

 and the paint came off as a dust, so goodness knows how much is inside the machine!

I did get a bottle of 'thank you' and a card, and the production went well, so it was worth it - and the tip about the ironing board will be remembered!

I also managed another block for the March block lotto

and a trapunto block for Hilary's textured block