Failed (and succeeded!)

At the beginning of October, I challenged myself to finish four UFOs. Well, I've failed. I managed to get three done (which is a start, I suppose) but as ever, am easily distracted by quilting ideas, and 'just had to' do all kinds of things instead of layering up. I could have easily layered up a Linus cot quilt over the last couple of days, but no, I've made a new top!


It's all Linda in Melton Mowbray's fault, as she was making one of these Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Bargello quilts, and I just wanted to try it out. I would say it has turned out fabulously, especialy since it's all made from donated fabrics, some of which are pretty ugly. I made it from 2.5" strips, and had twenty two 16" strips in each set (to make it 44" long, which is a good size even without borders) and with four sets, that makes it 48" wide. Have a look on Quiltville for the pattern and lots more scrappy inspiration from Bonnie. Now I really must do a bit of layering up. Well, maybe!

October finish number 1!

I have challenged myself to finish at least four quilts this month - I've got to reduce that pile of tops somehow - and here is the first one.

It's my Bonnie Hunter 'Kiss in the Corner' which I have renamed 'Nobody's Perfect' due to the number of Friendship Splats in the quilt, where there should be Friendship Stars! (I think there are three - can you find them?) Some people I know would have undone the mistakes and made the quilt perfect, but not me. I've got too many ideas in my head to worry about a few odd pieces which have jumped about while waiting to be sewn! Anyway, I think it just adds to the charm of the quilt. Love it!


And here is an example of what else I have to do. Some people will recognise this, but for the rest, you'll have to wait until it's quilted. DH has just gone off on a boy's weekend, so I'm aiming to get it done today!

Mistakes

Have I finished my Carolina Lilies? What do you think? I've been seduced into getting on with some more of Bonnie Hunter's 'Kiss in the corner'. I found the blocks easy enough to do (a churn dash and a three-patch with triangle corners) but had great difficulty putting the components together.

There should be little Friendship Stars with bright yellow centres appearing, and they're not. No matter how I turned the blocks, they wouldn't play nicely together. (This could be why it's been in its box for a month or two!) Then, light dawned. The little triangles on the three-patches have to go one way, and of course, some were going the right way and some the wrong.

Here are the wrong ones. But why, oh why is it that there are eleven (and a half) going the wrong way, and only nine going the right? I suppose there's a subclause somewhere in Sod's Law which decrees that any sets of incorrectly orientated blocks will exceed the sum of the sets of correctly aligned blocks!

So a bit of undoing and resewing later and you can just see the stars beginning to twinkle! That's better!

Another start

On Monday, I had no quilts to finish, no housework to do, no Christmas shopping or baking to do, so I decided to start another quilt. (My nose has just grown about 15 inches, by the way, after all those lies!) Anyway, I looked on Bonnie Hunter's website, as I so much enjoyed making her 'Christmas Lights' design last year, and she has another new quilt! It's called 'Roll, roll, Cotton boll' and what really appeals to me is Bonnie's instructions that you shop in your stash first, and then, if you can't find what you want, get your purse out! Here is the first set of blocks.

I only made half as many, as I didn't want a huge quilt - or can decide that later! I was pleased to find that all the greens came from my 2" strip box!

I skipped the second set, as I was so excited at using strings and strips. I've never used telephone book paper as a foundation before, and enjoyed not only the thriftiness of it, but also the ease of tearing away! (I usually really hate taking out foundation paper!) Hope we don't need to find the number of anyone whose name begins with 'A' before we get a new phone book!

And here are some of the finished string blocks. Bonnie encourages you to use anything with a white/cream background, which gave me the chance to use this strange black/white/red fabric which I bought from a vintage shop some while ago. This is definitely my kind of patchwork!

A finish (and a start!)

I have been quilting and sewing the binding on my Gwen Marston free pieced stars quilt, and now it is finished!

I will take it round to my friend's soon. I love the cream binding, and the way it throws the focus into the centre of the quilt. I also love the fact that I have used up all the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I bought, even the charm pack!

While I was finishing off, I needed a bit of piecing to keep me going, so I had a rummage in the Linus box. I found these lovely scraps of Moda fabric in dusty pinks, burgundy and cream. They look like pieces left over from a kit or layer cake or something. There was also a reasonably sized piece of floral fabric from the same (or a similar) range. What to do?

Most of the scraps were small, so I though fourpatches was a good idea. I decided to make a Bonnie Hunter design, 'I spy a 4 patch' which I have made before and been very pleased with. I started by having the dark squares in a scrappy arrangement, but soon decided that wasn't right.

Here is my final arrangement. Much better! Now I'll audition border fabric.

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?

Mystery quilt

Recently, things have been very busy on the Project Linus front - I have had several visitors bringing quilts and generally helping out, and have made visits to collect quilts etc. This has resulted in me spending time sorting, labelling, sewing bindings etc, and if you would like to see some of the results, look here.

Meanwhile, I have been getting on with the mystery quilt blocks in 'Quiltmaker' magazine. Here they are, all ready for the grand reveal.

How will Bonnie Hunter put them together? I can see how the star blocks might go,

and how the red blocks might go,

but can't begin to see how they will go together to make a top! Luckily, I don't have to worry about this, as I think I'm in very safe hands!

Finished (and started!)

Hooray! I have finished quilting the Baltimore 9-patch! Tonight I am seeing the lovely friends who advised me that I needed an appliqued border, so I hope they approve of me completely ignoring their opinions!

I must admit, I'm pleased with it, and I think the plain borders throw the eye into the central busy part quite successfully. In any event, it's finished! (What a lovely word that is!)

Here are a couple of close-ups of the feathers round the border. Maybe it was a mistake to make them curve round the corner and meet in the middle (the other option was to go all along each side) but it's too late to worry about that now!

Naturally, I've started another project. After the success of the mystery quilt I completed at Rocheberie Quilters earlier this year, I decided to try another. This time it is a pattern of Bonnie Hunter, which is being published in 'Quiltmaker' magazine. The first instructions were in the July/August edition, and I've not yet completed them despite the fact that the current instructions are now out! This is my progress so far.

Black print and neutral half square triangles.

Gold and neutral half square triangles.
Black, green and neutral triangles waiting to be assembled. I still have a million four-patches to make too. I need to get a move on, as it's a Christmas quilt, and Bonnie suggests that it can be finished by Christmas. Well, I suppose it can if you keep up with the instructions!