Design Wall Saturday

A quick glance at my design wall this morning gave me the inspiration for this post.

It's got a few bits and pieces on it —

First and foremost we see the Churn dash blocks.

I said I was going to sew up the 12" sized blocks next and I made a good start, with five of them made.

I got a little restless with those, wanting to see how the whole quilt was panning out (in other words, hoping that I was heading in the right direction!).

So I made one of the 18" blocks which incorporates one of the 6" blocks previously made) —

And then assembled them. This is the top left hand corner of the quilt. 

The photo below sort of shows the layout of the quilt; there are different sized blocks scattered all over the place!

I haven't really got a colour scheme going, just using fabrics as I find them. I'm using cream/yellow toned neutrals as my background fabrics...and as I run out of one, I have a hunt through my stash, or the shop, for another suitable one. Typical Raewyn-style which works for me.

I discovered, once I sewed these blocks together that this design also has some 8" blocks which form part of some huge 24" blocks...they have peculiar cutting sizes (16ths are mentioned) but not too many are needed so I am hoping they aren't too problematic to make (and get the size right) or I will be doing some improvising!!

The pattern I am using is Barn Dance by Denise Russart.

So the churn dashes have sort-of become my main project, rather than my  leader-ender project which is what they started as.

My leader-ender project is now sewing copious amounts of hourglass blocks. These will be used in the setting of the 36-patch blocks I made a couple of months ago when I was having a sort out of my scrap 'bins'.

I had made the 36-patch blocks and hadn't yet decided on which fabric to set them with. Now that the decision has been made, I will chip away at these blocks. They are all the same fabric and all the same block - not my ideal sewing but they go together quite quickly!

The hourglasses are joined, and frame the 36-patch blocks. The cornerstones will be a light coloured square.

I love to nest seams and it annoys me, when putting blocks together, when I cant! 

To explain (if it will make sense) - on the block below I have an 'uppy' seam and a 'downy' seam where the two blocks join at the top of the blue and two 'downies' where the blocks join at the bottom of the blue. Two downies (or uppies) together means the points don't always meet - even with careful pinning!

I've discovered if I make these blocks as pairs, twirling the centre of one, and not the other, that I can nest the seams nicely, and they sit a lot better - and those points match up a lot easier too.

So below I now have an 'uppie' and a 'downie' nesting nicely, both top and bottom of the blue join.

EDIT no, I don't need to clip any seams to achieve this; it's simply a matter of pressing the seam two different ways .... and it happens like magic! I do try to always press to the dark, but you don't have much choice when making the hourglass blocks (the way I make them!)

Which makes for less bulk in the seam and better points!

Sigh - the things that occupy my mind at times!! But they do say it's the little things that make a difference :-)

And this pattern is Smidgeon by Jessica Dayon.

There are two stitcheries up there on my design wall. The bigger one ("To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow") I have shared before but the small one is one I just completed recently. With idle hands one evening, I searched in the drawers next to my night time stitching chair and found it waiting for some attention. I'm not sure where it came from and what my idea with it was, but it's very cute. Being  just 2" x 3" it didn't take too long to stitch.

Well this missive is getting a little long so I will finish it here. My PC is also doing one of its anti-virus scans and everything is a bit slower than usual.

After very little sewing time this week, I hope to get a bit done now!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Old-ish things

I think I'm not the only one who has trouble coming up for titles for a blog post? 

Sometimes a title is obvious, other times it's a boring repeat (e.g. 'Time for a Catch up" - I've used that several times!)

Today's title stretches the imagination a bit with this grouping of subjects with a very loose connection!

An 'older' project pulled out recently was Foxley Village. I started this a few years ago. Last year (or before?) I diligently worked through all the (hand) applique blocks and then put it away. I realised though that I had missed a couple of applique blocks. They needed some piecing to get them started.

I thought of them, and pulled them out recently when I was wondering what to do in my evening stitching chair.

I joined these to the sheep block I had completed previously —

And then thought -hold this blogpost- I may as well finish the section! 

This apparently is called a Flock of Geese block —

And this completes Part 6 from the July 2016 edition of the Australian Homespun magazine!!

Memory Lane is an 'old-ish' project because the stitcheries in it are all from designs done over the years in The Country Yard's mystery stitchery projects. A bit of this one and a bit of that one. It's been nice to make as I didn't do all of these BOMs, although I was involved with cutting fabrics, layouts or mailouts of many of them!

It was my UFO project for the recent bloghop. Finally here it is all together, with all its borders on —

A little more detail; top —

and bottom —

So onto the quilting pile it goes!

I came across this very old little cutie the other day. Made by ED many moons ago. All completely by hand... I insisted my girls did their first bit of sewing by hand as Mum had insisted that I do my first bit of sewing by hand!

You can't really see the 'button holes' - just loops of thread for the buttons to slip into😀

This wasn't her first piece but definitely one of her earlier ones! I suspect I may have been at work at the time. There was a period when I would arrive home and my girls had made amazing bits and pieces - Harry Potter capes included, all by themselves with just my stash cupboard and their imagination at hand!

Another 'old' thing is this finish from last month - George's jersey. 

He was really excited about it, and ED recently reported that this, and Lily's cardi from last winter, were extremely cosy on their recent holiday to Mount Ruapehu, where it was a lot colder than it is here.

We don't need a lot of this sort of clothing here, but the odd item comes in handy!

'Old' plums found at the bottom of the freezer the other day became some yummy jam.

YD visited the next day and insisted on scones and cream to celebrate the new jam! 

(GF scones are never that flash but were well disguised with the jam and cream.)

Fuelled by his lunch, Odie had a great time out n the paddock with a bike and his dogs —

And there are plenty of photos to share about all my calves who are keeping me busy but I'll just share these two today. The two 7 year olds led their pet calves over for a walk the other day...a reasonable distance and they were all still smiling by the time they got here!

The adults chatted and the calves waited while the kids played —

Off home again —

One last photo; freesias courtesy of YD. Just lovely!

'til next time,

happy stitches,