2020 Wk 14 - Finishes!

Some projects have moved from the UFO pile to the Finished pile - yippee!

This jelly roll race was bound, finished, gained a label, and went in the post to Australia

 This lush Kaffe Fassett creation had been bound and finished

And this has made it to flimsy stage, and fleece has been ordered for the backing

 In other news - the garden table has had another coat of varnish and is looking amazing

 And I *LOVE* getting pics of little people using the quilts that I made for them!!!!

2020 Wk 12 - Jelly Roll Race

I finally braved the state in the sewing room, unearthed the started jelly roll race, and finished piecing and quilting it.

I love the total randomness of the blocks!

My lovely niece, Indi, and I recently had an Instagram chat during which she said yes please she would like a quilt for her bed

Music to my ears of course!  What to make?  - Mum brought an Australian Jelly Roll home from Australia for me, from her recent visit to my brother and his family.  It was displayed in the shop made up to  Jelly Roll Race, and that's what caught mum's eye. So that was a good idea, but could I add more to it?. . .Indi has lived all her life in Oz, her mum is quarter Spanish, and her dad is half English and half Norwegian.

They used to have an Akita dog, she did a tandem parachute jump for her 12th (!) birthday and she is a great little driver, accompanying my brother to race tracks when he races.

So a quick shopping trip to Spoonflower added some other relevant (but eclectic)  fabrics:  Hopefully she will see it as a grown up version of an i-spy quilt

Trimming and binding still to be done, then get it sent off to Oz!

2020 Wk 8 - customer, fabric and crochet

Crochet fun - the blanket I started at Jackie’s has grown - I'm on at least the 4th colour (the jury is undecided whether the first few rows are a different colour)

And Lisa’s first Persian tile has been done - isn’t this lush!

Mum has just got back from visiting my brother in Oz.  She picked up a jelly roll of Australian Fabrics . . . I need to clear the decks so I can get stitching!

I was asked to embroider a logo and company name onto some tabbards.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I quoted for one small logo for each one.  That covered the girl, but the writing was bigger, and more annoyingly on a wide pocket stitched down the middle.  I had to unpick the sewing, embroider, and then re-sew the pocket!  Dope!!!  Anyway it’s done , delivered and paid for now!

I went on line shopping for green (grass and trees) fabric for a project , somehow these other colours fell into the basket🤦🏼‍♀️

2017 Wk 40 Bits and Pieces

A lovely afternoon at Chertsey Museum - making Autumn Wraps! We all started with an Ikea fleece blanket. We looked at two different design ideas

Ann made a poncho, the rest made a wrap

Take an Ikea fleece and fold in half lengthwise. Then fold in half width wise to mark the centre. Cut along the long fold from one end to the middle - about 1.5 inches from the fold, so you are cutting out a piece about 3" wide. Arrange so the solid section is at your back and the two thins section hang over each shoulder - you can throw one front jauntily over the other shoulder, and look as fab as the ladies!

Some then went on to decorate their wrap with embroidery, other salvaged the fleece scraps and made flowers

Next I went to Portsmouth to see mum. I gifted her the wrap I'd made - and that was very well received! Look at the fab view from her flat!

I just love when one of the girls comes home and asks "muuuummmmm..."! She was about to meet her boyfriend's baby nephew for the first time - and needed a quilt finished. Luckily it had been largely constructed but needed name embroidering and binding finishing

First problem was quickly solved

And then she got a quick lesson on sewing binding and off she went!

Me? I did some making too - some more of these porthole blocks. I'll take them to Richmond and Kew quilters tomorrow and see if I can work out the best arrangement - should all 4 patch blocks be made with with coloured portholes, or just some? Should the colours arranged randomly (randoku! Thanks Avril - it's a fab word) or in a pattern? Either way I'm loving the blocks

Posted with Blogsy

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!!!

Informative, Interesting and Inspirational

Have you been following the Deciphering Your Quilt posts that Leanne (She can Quilt) and Jess (Elven Garden) have been posting?  

Jess and Leanne live in different hemispheres but have joined forces to teach us about making quilt blocks.  Both are excellent writers and know a lot about their subject - and their posts can be summed up in the three words in this post's title: Informative, Interesting and Inspirational.  If you aren't already following them I suggest you take a look!

So as part of this series Jess posted an example of a two block design: a zigzag quilt and I had a great idea!  

I took one rainbow coloured jelly roll, some pink and some blue Kona solids, and the knowledge that the twins that are due to nephew and his wife this summer will be one of each flavour. . . 

And started the sewing / pressing / cutting / arranging (and repeat) that is our hobby

Hope you had a lovely and sunny weekend

Rural Jardin Jelly Roll

Jackie and I both got a free Moda Rural Jardin jelly roll when we signed up for a year's subscription for Popular Patchwork at the festival of quilts in August.

Mine has been sat on a shelf while I drooled over it, and waited for inspiration. As I surfed around blogland I saw a number of designs that would work, but this morning, with some help from an inspirational email (thank you Victoria) decided on a sort of rail fence design.

I joined the strips into pairs: a light with darker, keeping reds with reds and blues with blues.



And then ironed them



I then cut the selvedge to selvedge units into 9 inch units















and started to play around with them

I tried using 'twins' in a mirror image,
















and tried dissimilar pairs so it looks woven, and finally decided this was the way I wanted to go.
















I am going to be brave, and have my first go at setting these blocks on point (diagonally).















I was just about to start cutting some squares into triangles for the corners, when I realised they weren't actually square - they had ended up 8.5 x 9 inches. (grrrrr)

So I have put them aside for today, and will get back to them tomorrow night.

By the way, I am L-O-V-I-N-G the Moda fabric - it's the first time I have used it, and it's lovely to work with and so soft.

END NOTES:
Mum, if you prefer the first layout, don't tell me, it's too late.
Jackie: Jardin is French for garden ... I reckon working with this fabric counts as horticultural homework?