Tidying up April

Well here we are into another month and once again I have fallen behind on my reporting.

In my last post I was busy working on blocks for my Bear baby quilt. I've made it this far —

— and I feel like I am on the homeward straight now.

I have, however,  just realised that I need another fabric to use in the border. As my bears and paws blocks are basically just 'odds and sods' fat quarters this may slow me down. Hopefully not too much!

Also slowing me down a little is that I had a DrEAMi moment this past week. Suddenly my overflowing scrap bins started screaming at me. 

Drop Everything and Make It!!!

So I've started another scrap quilt project.

This one uses 2" squares. I hope these will chew more scraps up than my Omigosh blocks which only use 1" squares/strips. 

Anyway I'm making 36-patch blocks, using neutral coloured Moda solids as the alternative patches. I have a lot of these as well - trimmings from bigger stitchery blocks, etc, etc.

AND while I am at it, I'm trying really hard to cut up my scraps using Bonnie Hunter's scrap management ideas. I've always shied away from doing this ("What if I want fabric cut in other sizes!!") but feel ready to do this now. 

This DrEAMi moment has caused me to slow down on my bear blocks but it is extremely satisfying, and just a little bit addictive. I'm hoping that as I settle into this (long-term) sewing-of-my-scraps, it will become my leader-ender project.

Thank you to Sandra of mmm quilts for helping us celebrate these moments of madness when we just have to start something new.

Another wee distraction over the weekend was to sew a pillowcase for young Odie. 

There's a delightful story behind this. When I saw the fabric I just had to buy some for our tractor loving small boy Odie. It was still draped over a chair after I had showed it off to the MOML.

Nek minnit (apologies to the non kiwis) -okay- next minute, young George is visiting and asking if it was for him and can I please make something for him out of it. "Of course" I say, mentally adding another metre of it to my shopping list.

Next day, Odie is visiting, and that fabric is still waiting to be put away. He grabs it and spends quite some time carting it around the house while saying "Gandad tractor","tractor" and so on!

So I made him a pillowcase (he is using the ones I made his sisters long ago) —

I used the Burrito method but added an inside flap. I'm going to change how I do these as, no matter how much I fiddled, there was still a raw edge inside the pillowcase that needed neatening, and sewing down.  I love the burrito method but adding the flap just complicates it! Next time I want one like this I will give myself some time to play to work it out better. 

It's fair to say the pillowcase was a huge success. There was great excitement last night when he received it and he carried it around the house until bedtime exclaiming "Tractor! Tractor!" This morning he was still playing with it —

#whyImakethings

This pillowcase was my one and only finish for April.

I had a brilliant walk this morning, up the hills across the road —

You'd be forgiven for thinking we had another flood event happening! I am enjoying the misty starts to our autumn days.

I walked over 4 kms up these hills so am feeling pretty pleased with myself.

But the day has now turned a bit cooler and wet so I'm going to spend the afternoon sewing sashing and sorting scraps. Fun fun fun.

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Christmas sewing.....

After a very long drive home today (arrgghh holiday traffic!) I decided to relax with a small pile of fabric.
To my disappointment I haven't done any sewing for Christmas this year. The best of intentions and all that but I ran out of time early on :-(
But ED mentioned the other day that the Ouchie bags I made for the freezer a few months ago would make great little tossing bags for the kiddies.
So as I was driving I was working out how I could get them sewn in time for Christmas Day.
They're very quick and easy...there's a tutorial *here* on Lori Holt's Bee In my Bonnet blog.
So for the first sewing for a few days, here is my fabric pull -

I just need to cut some 5" squares, and I think I'll do the front and back different fabrics for a bit more interest. Then they just need sewing up and filling with some some rice or wheat. I'm toying with the idea of making inners and the novelty fabric could be removeable for cleaning..... or maybe there's enough fabric in my stash that they can just get replaced rather than washed if they get too yucky!!

Now all I need to do is hope that I can fit in some sewing tomorrow, as well as the 101 other things I want to do!!!

 'til next time,

happy stitches 

Tiny Tree catch up

I had a quick wee sew this morning and caught up on the latest small blocks for the Temecula Quilt Company
One small block a day —

Day Four - four-patch

I got so excited by it all, I went overboard and ended up making two of the Day Four blocks!!

These blocks all finish at 2 ¼" (ie are currently 2¾") and a lot of people shy away from blocks this size.
However there are a few tricks we can play to make sewing them up a little easier and more straight forward.
Most of us are familiar with making half square triangles a little bigger than necessary and trimming them down to size —

I often do this with other blocks as well. In the below photo, two x 1¼" squares called to be cut and sewn together. I sewed two slightly larger pieces together (these scraps were this size; I don't usually cut them at this stage) —

And then cut them to size —

The resulting Day five block - Log cabin.

I've been using this technique for a lot of my small Omigosh blocks too.

I've started making my pinwheels slightly differently too. I used to make the four HSTs needed, trim them to size and then sew them together.

Now I don't trim until the end —

(One HST was already trimmed for the third photo above!)

Trim

Day Six - Pinwheel block

Day Seven - Bowtie block
No shortcuts for this block!

Day Eight -  Lincoln Log

So I'm caught up and keeping up with these!

'til next time,

happy stitches, 

Friday Night with Friends and Family

I spent my Friday evening babysitting two wee toddlers. Once the house was quiet, I settled down to carry on with the afghan I've been working on lately. Although I thought I'd leave it for a while because of the summer heat, it's easy to pull out and put away when there are interruptions. 

Steve helped

And then he helped a little more

And even offered to help lay it out to check my progress.

I'm definitely getting somewhere with it!

I had one little squawk at about 9.30pm. Apart from that it was very peaceful. Thank you Cheryll for inviting us along to share in with Friday Night with Friends.

This morning there were more Ganma duties and I had a last minute birthday cake to make. No time for fussing with decorating. It was still a little warm when I spread the ganache but still looked quite edible!

While it was cooking and cooling I made the next two Temecula Quilt Company blocks for their Tiny Tree Sew Along. 

The first one was Broken Dishes

They had made the next one, called Homeward Bound, in brown so looked to be part of the trunk. While hunting out some brown scraps I came across a partial orphan block. 

I sometimes get laughed at for my extreme scrap collecting , but I was pleased with what I did with these bits.
We needed to make half square triangles and I realised I could cut some ready made ones.

A bit less sewing to do.

And a completed block —

The edges of these HSTs were bias because of the way I'd cut them so I'll need to be careful handling this in the future.
Momentarily I am up to date with this project and looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's block will be.
This afternoon I delivered the cake. The party (a 13th) was in full swing when I left and apparently the cake went down well :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Scrappy sewing Saturday at the Chookshed

Every year about this time Chooky celebrates her Chookshed's birthday by spending the weekend sewing with real and virtual friends.
They say every cloud has a silver lining - my niece and her family were coming to visit this weekend but a bad case of the flu has kept them at home. We were disappointed that they couldn't come and stay but it did mean I could sew along with Chooky and friends.
I had been going to make the 3 year old visitor a pillowcase to use while he was here (after deciding all the snuggly pillowcases in my cupboard were rather girly) so while the fabric I'd pulled was out, I decided to carry on with the plan.
I found some brushed cotton pieces leftover from a quilt backing and some Happy Pants for a son-in-law. Of course none of the pieces were the right shape, and I had to do some joins - the back is two coloured and the contrasting flap is made out of several pieces.

The front

The back, it's supposed to be all the feature print but you can see I didn't have enough!

I've seen these burrito style pillowcases called 15 minute ones (or similar). Because I was sewing with scraps and figuring it out with extra piecing to make it work, it took me a bit longer than that!
But it's done :-) It will go into the post this week sometime.

Last week I tested another pattern for Juliet of Tartankiwi.
Here is the gorgeous hedgehog I made. Isn't he cute?!

This was another gloriously scrappy affair —

All lined up ready to sew

Juliet's pattern was for a 16" square cushion. Here it is made up to that size —

I decided I really need to carry on with my hedgehog so he doesn't end up in my Pile Of Ufos - he's too cute for that.
I also decided he will join a couple of other cushions on the couch which are both a bit larger, so I've altered the outer borders to enlarge him a little.
I spent some fun time scrappy sewing; finding big enough pieces to make the back, fusing together bits of batting. I do enjoy the challenge of scrappy sewing but it does mean the job always takes longer while I fuss and trial and join and measure and trim!

Joins here there and everywhere!

This leaves me with a wee pile of quilting to do today :-)

Juliet has now released the pattern for the hedgehog cushion. Details of where to buy it are in her profile on her instagram page.

And in between it all, I've been leader and ending with some of my smaller scraps. I've been making more 9-patches for my Omigosh quilt using 1" scraps. Once again, quite messy and time consuming in a way as I try to use every last inch!! Usually I just sew the strips together until I get sick of the piles of them taking over and then I focus on pressing, trimming and joining.

One of the many of these I've assembled lately.

I haven't made any of the blocks below for a while so think I might start on some of these next. The HSTs take slightly bigger scraps!

Last night before I went to bed I put some soup in the crockpot - I woke this morning to the delicious smell of bacon and vegetable soup wafting through the house. The weather has suddenly changed and we are finally going to give in and light the fire this morning.
It feels like another perfect day for spending celebrating Chooky's Chookshed Birthday!

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

End of month scramble

At the end of last week I suddenly realised that we were racing towards the end of the month and that I had committments to meet! I was sure there was still another week left in April!
First up, my One Monthly Goal (kindly hosted by Patty D of Elm St Quilts each month).
My aim was to pull out my Friday's Garden quilt and make some progress on the quilting...... hmmmm...... after precisely 3½ weeks of procrastinating I have done a little more on it.  I wasn't really sure what I was wanting on it, a bit of something but nothing too intricate. To get my brain cells working, I cleaned and oiled up my machine and continued on with a wee fill I'd been doing when I left off many months ago. At the time I wasn't too fussed on it but I've decided to carry on and I'll see where it leads me.

I know if I hadn't signed up for OMG, this quilt wouldn't have been touched so I call it a bit of a minor success; at least it's out and under the needle now. It's likely to be next month's OMG too so hopefully a few more gaps will be filled next time I report on it!

Another commitment I've had this month is my 'List of 12 item'. Some friends and I have made up lists of projects we'd like to work on throughout the year, numbering them 1-12. Each month a number is drawn and we work on the corresponding project. This is our first month so we're all bright eyed and bushy tailed!
#6 for me was my Omigosh! quilt (designed by the late Sue Garman). Started in 2016 as a way to use up the smallest of my scraps, I haven't seriously thought about it for a while.
This was one of my last shares; I'd sewn a few bit together to see how it was going to look.

Since then I've sewn (many) strips together and thrown them in a box (!!). This has been one of my leader-ender activities.

A box full of bits!!

You can see that I prefer to sew and trim later. When you are making 1½" (finished) sized 9-patches that is definitely the easiest way to go, although it does look rather messy.
From time to time I've done a bit of pressing and made a few 9 or 4 patches. And trimmed. But really, it was a whole jumble of bits.

This month I've made an effort —

Wow look how tidy they are!

Fancy pic of the day.

This morning I realised that I hadn't seen the pattern while I was sorting these this month so I had a little hunt... I found it in another container with a few more finished 9-patches plus a few cut pieces! Too many hiding places. These were the ones I made right at the beginning when I was making the 9-patches from one colour only. I'm making them more 'jewel-like' now.

And I've sorted these out for my next leader-ender sewing. Sewing triangles to the 4-patches —

For April's OPAM (One project a month) I have two pairs of happy pants to put on the list. One for YD and one for her hubby. After mending cheap and nasty K-mart pants earlier this month (one ripped after the second wear) I decided they needed quality mummy-made pants.

And I have another flimsy to put on the quilting pile! (Oops, once I've embroidered some nostrils and a 'nose seam'.)

I have built Eeyore to a decent cot-size so the calculations can stop. 

I'm hoping these notes will make sense when I put another quilt like this together this month —

This past weekend the Whangarei Patchworkers and Quilters Club had their biennial show. It seemed to go really well with plenty of lovely quilts to look at. I spent much of my time there on The Country Yard's stall so, sadly,  really only had a rushed look around.

The Country Yard's stall

Luckily for us, Leeann of Quilt Whangarei has put up 3 posts (so far) of photos for us to drool over.

And so the month ends, thank you for reading along, and here's hoping you all have

happy stitches,