2017 Wk 13 - Mostly Mono

I've finally had a bit of time to spend in the sewing room - mostly tidying up!!! I haven't even unpacked the linens, but thought I just might cut unto the black and whites!
So this . . .

. . . has become this!

180 black & white and white & black charm squares!

At some stage they will become 45 four patches, which will then have a shot of colour added to each one. (Some are spare as I have no idea whether my cunning plan will *actually* work!)
Fed up with the monotonous monotone I also had a quick play with the flag fabric I picked up - and made two zippy pouches, one for each set of travel plugs we have!

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2017 Wk 7 - Mostly Selvedges

I have been collecting selvedge edges for a very long time (the first post about them was August 2011, and I already had a good collection.

I have been working on a kind of giant rectangular log cabin but whilst I had enough selvedges (thanks to all the kind donors, Plum especially) but I had run out of the 'lotus' fabric used with them.

I finally found the website, (not live but at least an email address) and then had to wait patiently for ages until it was back in stock . . .  but at last I have been able to finish the top for the Lotus Selvedge

Meanwhile the embroidery machine has been earning its keep stitching logos onto school uniform (43 so far this week) 

There is plenty more of the lotus fabric, and it looks perfect with these charm squares from Amo

I think I have a cunning plan

Quiet? Or Quite a Lot?

I haven't blogged for the last week or so as I didn't feel as if there was much to blog about, but that really isn't the case!

First let me introduce you to my new babies:

Possibly to be christened Lemon and Sorbet, these were an early birthday pressie from the family, aren't they gorgeous!

Next I can show you two exciting postal packages:  Not exciting on the outside . . .

But awesome on the inside

A free sample from Spoonflower (thank you Kathyfor giving me the head's up) and a fab goodie bag from Just Jude as I won a giveaway on her blog - I'm really looking forward to some therapy colouring with this fabric.

I have done some sewing too. Renee (Wren) gifted me some unwanted charm squares and they included some sock monkey fabric.  Inspired by Fiona's recent quilt I bordered the charms with two sides of 2" and two of 1.5" strips. There were 23 blocks which didn't quite make a top, so I also embroidered a sock monkey to fit a double block, so it will look something like this

Last Monday, at Richmond and Kew quilters, we played with some thermofax screens, and I came home with these blocks.

I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I have made up some zippy pouches.

One has gone to a friend, but the others will go back to R&K group to be sold or our craft stall at next month's exhibition.

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Sunday and Stars

I had a lovely day on Sunday: No pics but I went to Sandown Racecourse - to the National Quilt Championships.  Lots of inspiration,  lots of vendors and lots of fun.

I managed to meet a fellow blogger  - Kate North from Kate's Quilting.  We have followed each other for many years, and my children are only a few years older than hers.  She kindly sent me some unwanted wool a year or so ago - it was great to meet up over a coffee.

I managed to do my bit for the quilting economy and bought a few bits and pieces:

All *Mostly* for projects already on the go, or at least at planning stage!

The white is for the top I've recently been working on

 

It needed a border of white, so as soon as I got home I set to chopping up the fabric and adding squares around the outside.

Next it needs to be chopped up again.  I'm making a Whirly Gig / Lil Twister quilt,  I first knew this as a Square Dance design.  I've made a few in the past

 

I love the end result, but haven't made one for quite a while.

I wrote a tutorial at my last attempt, and approached that from the "I have a template, what size blocks do I need to cut", angle - whereas this quilt is approached from the "I have charm squares, what size template do I need?" angle.

So, I started with charm squares (5") and joined them with 1/4" seams, leaving me with, give or take a smidgen, 4.5" finished blocks.

A bit of trial and error showed me I needed 3.75" templates, with the diagonal starting 3/4" from the corner.  You can see I made paper templates to start with to ensure they almost met but didn't overlap. 

When I was sure I had the right size I made myself a plastic one

And started drawing on my quilt

Some lines are separated by a small amount

Others are on top of each other - luckily none actually overlapped so my template is the right size, its just some of my piecing that's a bit off

Once I'd drawn all over my top, I started to cut out the new squares

Each of these new squares just then needs to be twisted slightly anti-clockwise and pinned to its neighbour.  Its easiest (well I think it is) to start by cutting  and pinning one square at a time

But after a while I started cutting a whole strip's worth.

The white in the second and third columns don't look like stars, but are actually two stars wide.  My plan is to quilt just inside each star with a suitable thread so the white stars stand out

I'm now about half way through the cutting and pinning stage.  There is a far bit of waste, as there is an unused square between each pair of star blocks, but I plan to use them in the border, like in this one

Back to cutting and pinning :-)

Amy's Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2015 (part 2)

I think I've just got time to submit a second entry to the 2015 Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  If you seriously don't know anything about it, just click here

My Second entry is this bright and fun Rainbow Quilt. 

 

I was involved in a rainbow charm swap a few years ago and waited until I knew the right project for them!

Amy has called this category ROYGBIV for the seven classic colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), but as quilters we know that a colour wheel has SIX colours and its only a short leap to understand that a rainbow has the same.  I was told that in the 15th century (or so) the church felt that as 6 was associated with the devil (the number of the anti-Christ being 666) it was a bit dodgy having six colours in the rainbow so they kind of added indigo!

Anyhow, I blogged about making it here, and my "rainbow" quit goes under the far less romantic name of "LJ 7R"  This is due to the conversation I have with myself as I'm joining the blocks together: "L, J, L, J, L, J" followed by "7, R, 7, R, 7, R". 

Look at this photo and you'll maybe see why:

Some people call it floating squares, I call it LJ 7R, but I hope you'll all call it bright and beautiful!!!

A Few Finishes

Its been cold here for a while so I've spent more time than usual watching TV with a quilt on my lap - no, not slacking, but finishing the binding by hand.

That means I actually have a few finishes to show:

My Rainbow floating charms (or LJR7 ) quilt

And the first of three quilts from shirt fabric

 I've also finished another dozen named fleece jackets

 

And I've finally done the Magna Carta 1215 2015 embridery panel

In other news I've had three creative classes this week.  Hopefully you can see photos if you click on the SLIKstitches Facebook page, please let me know if the link doesn't work for you.

In short we have a nearly finished baby changing bag from Monday, a cushion made from our transfer paints fun in January, a proggy owl and some faux cathedral windows from Chertsey and a great two hour session with kids dipping in and out of all the craft resources boxes at church yesterday

Blitzing the Binding

I had a whole load of quilts needing binding: I bought the bindi g last weekend (and went back in the week to buy the rest after my previous miscalculation!)
So this weekend I have added binding and more binding and more binding:
One shirt quilt

Another shirt quilt

The rainbow 'floating squares' (LJ 7R) quilt

A boy's ISpy quilt for a friend

And another boy's ISpy quilt for the same friend

A "just in case" ISpy bricks quilt

And an enormous Lone Star quilt

That'll keep me busy for a while!

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Tone Trials

Last year my mum brought me this charm pack from Australia

I've ummed and arred for a while but have (I think) finally settled on this design (pic from Pinterest)

Mum and I started arranging the squares, but it was difficult to decide what was light, medium or dark.

I arranged them into what I thought were the three groups then took a pic in grey tones - some were seriously wrong in their placement !

Lots of rearranging later, I'm now close to being happy with the tonal value, 

now I need to subdivide by colour - this is much harder than I thought !