Sewing at Scrub Stitching

Since I've been home, there's not been a lot of sewing done.

After the first few weeks I had - 

A. Sewn a side seam for my DIL which was damaged by label removal

B. Sewn an air filter for a motorbike for the MOML

C. Re-hemmed some jeans for ED.

Better to focus on the sewing I achieved at Scrub Stitching - 

I took two 'new' projects to work on....totally allowable in my eyes as they were both scrappy ones, cut/prepared from scraps and stash.

As well as making the pouches shown in my previous post, I made good starts on the two projects - 

The first was a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt. I did spend some time prior to Scrub Stitching cutting the strips for this and sorting them into piles. Once at SS and sewing, I just had to hope that I'd made the right decisions and that I was heading in the right direction with the prep work.

Hopefully once I've sewn them altogether and rearranged them, this quilt will make sense!

Nicely organised baggies. I impressed myself with my organisation prior to SS —

I also wanted to make a start on another impulse project. I started with a vague plan and a whole lot of strips thrown in a bag. I sewed until I decided I needed more space to lay this out and think. 

What is fun about this is the random sized strips that are used for the log cabin. When I have decided on a size for each quarter block I will just trim them all to the same size. 

I have a lot of strips hanging around which I've been saving for a 'rainy day' and this was a great way to start using them.

Looking at it now, I think I'll sew a couple more dark rounds and then decide on a size. 

I'm calling this Starry Log Cabin for now (haha original name!).

It was nice to have a couple of fancy new pouches to bring my projects home in.

I really had the urge to sew the other day so spent some happy time just sewing my current leader-ender project, 4-patch fun.. It's nice to sew up a bunch and then spend some more happy time rummaging for more reds to cut up!

Can you spy who is in the photo below, who was entertaining me while I took my photos this morning?

Yes, baby Olive (and her family) are here!! They were here when I arrived home from Australia so it's no wonder I haven't got a lot of extra stuff done!!

It's been wonderful to spend the time with them —

Yesterday she carried on the family tradition and helped Ganma feed the chooks —

Okay, time to go,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Leaders and Enders

Today I pieced a couple of flags for a bunting sample for work......

I didn't quite follow the instructions which called for hand piecing and hand embroidery. Instead  I foundation pieced the flags and then used my machine to do some decorative stitching, crazy pieced style.

In spite of going rogue, they finished up quite well. I'll take these into the shop tomorrow and we will make them into a bunting, interspersing them with some more flags which have been hand embroidered.

The design we are making is Must be Christmas by Marg Low.

Sewing these gave me a good excuse to do some Leader-Ender sewing. I'm following along, again, with Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Leader-Ender Challenge. This year's block is Four Patch Fun. I'm always looking for an excuse to sew up my scraps and this block is a nice straight forward one.

Bonnie is making her blocks in two colours (plus the background fabric) but because I couldn't make a decision I am using any and all shades of red and I hope that it will look just as effective!

There are several different setting suggestions; I haven't yet decided which I will choose.

(This block comes with very precise pressing instructions - if you follow them, all seams nest and make for a nicely finished block.)

A previous Leader-Ender Challenge I did was Bonnie's 2022 Triple Treat.

I actually finished that one - 

And blogged about it *here*.

In between these two, I made another scrappy Leader-ender quilt which I realise I have not yet blogged about. 

This is a leftover block I found on my cutting bench; from memory, I am going to incorporate it into the label —

It's still unquilted - but it's on the pile!!!

I've just found this photo - I had mentioned it here once, last November!

The pattern is called Bonnie Lass from the book quilt lovely by Jen Kingwell.

Thank you for all your lovely thoughts when I mentioned Mum and her health in my last post. For now I am calling her my Miracle Mum. Less than 3 weeks after she initially collapsed, we broke her out of hospital for the day and celebrated her 88th birthday with a family gathering.

My two girls were able to get down to it and we got this lovely photo —

See you next time,

Raewyn

Triple Treat

Last December I completed a scrap quilt flimsy - I blogged about it *here*. 

It was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Triple treat leader-ender challenge. Every year she shares a scrap friendly block pattern and invites followers to sew along with her in creating lots of blocks, using lots of scraps and maybe even making a quilt from them.
These blocks started with four-patches which were then sewn together with larger pieces. 

I used 2" squares rather than 1½" as suggested by Bonnie. I found that they were fun blocks to make - it was very satisfying sewing them all up.

I basted the quilt quite soon after finishing the flimsy (which is quite unusual for me) but it had sat waiting for attention ever since.

Until recently. To be honest, I realised that all my basting pins were tied up in quilts and I had none left for anything else!

I chose to quilt it with a basic meander/large stipple. I haven't quilted a big quilt with meandering before but I decided it would be perfect for a scrap quilt. The fact that I wouldn't have to think much, and that it wouldn't take long to clock up the miles also helped!

I got so excited to finish it that I even started sewing the binding on before I had finished quilting it!

Here it is when I'd first finished it; woohoo, loving it! —

And today I took it out into the wild for its official photo shoot —

A pieced backing —

I couldn't resist taking this photo in amongst the Loquat tree 😃

I have started another Scrappy Leader-Ender quilt. Not one of Bonnie Hunter's challenges, but one I saw at our Scrub Stitching retreat earlier in the year.

It is Bonnie Lass by Jen Kingwell —

Another easy and addictive leader-ender project that doesn't use up nearly enough scraps!!

'til next time,
Happy stitches,

Raewyn

PS Is anyone else having issues (again) with Blogger? All comments are coming through with no-reply email addresses. I tested by commenting on myself and even though it looked like I was properly signed in, my email came up as no-reply. OR is it a setting I've inadvertently changed?

December Day Six

At the start of the year I started a new scrappy, leader-ender project. Bonnie Hunter (of Quiltville) offers a scrap friendly block pattern and challenge each year and I decided to hop on board with the 2022-2023 one called Triple Treat.

(This challenge has expired and she's on to another scrappy block but that's ok!)

The blocks sewed together quickly and well. I liked that as well as using a bunch of smaller squares, it also used larger pieces, so it was a good scrap buster.

These were my first blocks —

(Bonnie wrote the pattern using 1½" squares, I used 2".)

On and off, I sewed and sewed. It was a good project to spend an afternoon sorting and cutting scraps, and then prep for sewing. The blocks didn't take very long to put together and so they were very more-ish and at times deviated from being a leader-ender project!!

Enough was enough though and I finally decided to stop sewing them.

This was my first attempt —

I loved the effect but I wasn't entirely happy with it - too long and skinny. I decided to add one more strip which balanced it a bit better.

Ready to Roll —

I raided a pile of fat quarters for the backing — 

Ready to baste —

And now it's ready for quilting. I'm not sure when that will happen but I'm ready to go the moment I find the time!

I quickly took this photo of the basted top tonight so please excuse the shadowy-ness. It sits on top of our king bed nicely, which means it will be perfect for the queen bed in the spare room. Or a quilt with lots of overhang on one of the single sized beds!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

This week

Progress has been made on my Smidgeon Quilt. Rows were joined —

And borders added —

I waited for a fine day for the photo but still had to fight with the breeze. I didn't dare wait until the sun had moved across the sky to avoid the dappling in case it was cloudy, or raining, by then!

I'm really pleased with it. It will fit the Queen sized bed in the spare room ("Granny's Room"). It used a lot of small scraps but as you can see it also used a fair bit of yardage. So a sort of scrappy quilt but not totally! The pattern is Smidgeon by Jessican Dayon.

In other news, I started a pullover/vest for Odie to knit while in Australia but didn't do much and didn't finish it until I was at Mum's last weekend. 

And I went through my downstairs (non-quilty) stash and found enough polar fleece to make this, also for Odie.

They both look huge but fit ok. This is the child who will wake up having grown nearly an inch overnight.

Here he is giving the sweatshirt its first wearing —

Big but quite wearable —

Always running and on the move —

It's that time of the year when winter sports rule Saturdays for many families. Five of our grandies and three of our adults are all playing various sports (Rugby, football and hockey).

On Saturday our local club, Mangakahia Rugby Club, had a home day so it wasn't far to travel to watch. This was the first chance I've had to watch the kids play. Luckily the three x four year olds are in the same team, playing Rippa Rugby —

They were given club hoodies this week. Very cool —

And later in the day our big boy played; against another local team. That was a good game to watch. I must confess to not enjoying watching him play in the past. As a very strong and effective player he was always targeted by the other team. But he does hold his own very well and I think I have got over my fear of him being harmed!

And just to go overkill on the photos, the other night I moved the cows as the MOML had an appointment in town. We're getting to the end of the farm season now. The cows are now milked once a day, in the mornings, but in the afternoons they get a fresh paddock and some silage.

It had been a nice day and they were pretty content and just looked at me when I got to the paddock —

Finally Emma dog and I managed to get them moving —

Even more content now —

Emma resting on her laurels after a successful bit of stockwork!!

'til next time,

happy stitches,