Work in progress

I have decided to share the things I'm currently working on - no, not my UFOs, they're still safely in their box! - just the things which I have been stitching on in the last week or so. I like to have different kinds of quilting on the go, in case I fancy something challenging, something mindless or a bit of hand sewing for in front of the tv.

Firstly, of course is the purple stars quilt which isn't any further forward despite my having the border fabrics ready. I need to concentrate to do this, and haven't felt like it!

Sometimes I'm just in the mood for some mindless chain piecing, and since I am such a cheapskate, always have plenty of strips and scraps to use up. These blocks have been enhanced by a LOVE block of free pieced letters in the middle, and are ready for a border.

Here is a Linus mile a minute with Snoopy images for the centres of the blocks, which just needs its binding sewing down and a label. This will be finished today while I'm watching the tv later on.

A few years ago, a lady gave me a lot of hexagons and rosettes her mum had made in the 60s or 70s, and while clearing out, I came across them. Since there were plent of rosettes, I decided to sew them together, and make a pretty Linus quilt. I'm still sewing.

The old quilt which I have decided to finish only needs one more hexagon (which I have made) to be ready for a border. What a lazy girl I am!

Another replica quilt I am unquilting. I machine quilted wineglass shapes without marking them, and they look awful! I am gradually unpicking them, but it's taking a while.

And finally, the lovely house I made at a workshop, which will be made into a 'Welcome' banner.

I really need to finish some of these projects before I start any more. I will challenge myself to finish at least five of them before the end of the month! Too ambitious? We'll see!

Nearly a top

I have had chance this weekend to do some more work on my purple stars quilt. I had an idea on how to make a double bed sized quilt out of nine 12" stars.

I need to add borders (probably green then purple) but I'm quite pleased on how it's turned out. I wish the green cornerstones had been darker to show up the Irish Chain a bit better, but maybe once it's quilted the diagonals will be stronger. What do you think?

Lovely day

Last Friday we went on a family trip to the seaside. Can you guess where it was?

No, not the Orient, but sunny Brighton! It was DD's graduation ceremony for her master's degree, which was being presented in the Brighton Pavilion. This rather fancy building was built as a little love nest/seaside cottage by Prince George in the early 19th century and is absolutely fabulous to visit. If you like the exterior, the interior is even more sumptuous, and decorated in an exotic oriental style. The presentation though, unfortunately wasn't in the main palace, but in the Brighton Dome.

This building was originally the stable block to the palace, but is still decorated inside with beautiful wall and floor tiles, wonderful carvings, doors and pillars. It was converted to a performance space and corn market in the mid nineteenth century, and now is a prestigious performance venue.

Here is the graduand (someone who's finished their course of study but not been presented with their certificate yet) checking that her name's in the programme, and she's come on the right day! This is the graduate with proud Mum and Dad.

And here is a silly family doing jazz hands - maybe it was the effect of the bubbly we'd all drunk!

Stars

I was lucky enough to 'win' some lovely Lemoyne Stars at our challenge group. They are all in different purples and look amazing! There are nine of them, which is a good number for a lap quilt but I wanted to be a little more adventurous. I didn't want to just join them together, so found some fabric which would make a good contrast for setting squares.

Then I decided to push it all a little further, and make some Irish Chain blocks to add a little more interest to the quilt.

This is my mock up. Looking good!

And here are several blocks on my design wall. I only have nine star blocks, so have agonised over how to use them effectively as I really don't want to make any more. I think I've solved it, but will have to get sewing before the big reveal.

Scraps and strips

Since Christmas is over, I have been trying to rationalise my fabric stores. I have a lot of my own fabric, and also lots of fabric donated to Project Linus. The problem with the Linus fabric is that it is fabric which people don't want - often because it's horrible! But I am grateful for the donations, and such a cheapskate that I like to use as much of it as possible. I am always looking out for good patterns which use scraps, and this lead me (of course) to look at the lovely designs which Bonnie Hunter has on her site.

There are so many great designs that it's hard to choose, but I settled on 'I spy a 4 Patch' as a good one to use up fabric.

First I chose lots of novelty squares which I thought would appeal to boys, football, fishing, boats, animals, tomatoes - well, they were bright and colourful, so in they went!

Then I found a reasonably sized piece of fabric with footballs on it, and cut all the novelty squares out of the same fabric. This meant that I could use lots of different fabrics for the four patches. Which do you like best?

Pieclique

I have been trying to get on track with all the things I have to do, and since the meeting of my challenge group, Flutterwheels is next week, felt I had to make a start on the blocks I need to take! Last year's theme was curves, and the challenge this time was to make a block using Sharon Schamber's method of piecing curves.

First of all you make a template for the main shape out of two pieces of freezer paper ironed together.

Then you use the starch method of creating the curves on the template. I must admit that I am a big fan of the starch method, but it had never occurred to me to use two pieces of freezer paper, despite the frustrations of the sogginess of only using one! Next you use water soluble glue (Pritt in my case) to glue the quarter circles onto the wrong side of the template, and this enables you to open out the seam and sew along the fold line created by the starch! Easy!


It was easy too, and although the preparation was a bit fiddly, the results were worth it, as you can see. I haven't put the method in detail as if you click on the link to Sharon's site, and look at 'free stuff' she has an excellent tutorial on how to make a Pieclique circle!

Resolutions

This time of year is for looking forward, and I like to make resolutions, even if I don't keep them. Last year I made some un-resolutions (things that I wasn't going to do) and did amazingly well! No Sunbonnet Sue quilts, no Suffolk Puffs, no kits and no cat fabrics entered this house. None of my quilts have been hand quilted, and I haven't started throwing away scraps (although I do draw the line at anything less than 1.5 inches!). I'm still buying too many books (Amazon's one-click facility has a lot to answer for!) and I've certainly not resigned from my three quilt groups, Project Linus or stopped blogging!

So what of this year? It was certainly a shock to see exactly how much fabric I had in my stash when we decorated DS's room (aka my old sewing room), so I have decided to go on a fabric diet! Instead of buying what I want,

(Michael Miller fabrics are the best!) I'll only buy what I need.

Since I'm a committed scrap quilter, it shouldn't be too difficult - should it?