A little distraction

I'm not getting on with my challenge quilt, but it's all Muriel's fault. She bought this panel on a whim (probably in a sale, I expect) and then wondered why on earth she'd been struck by a whim when she got it home, so kindly donated it to Project Linus! It's lovely and bright, so perfect for teenage Linus quilts, but why, oh why do they make panels with 8 blocks? And the border strips (there was one on each side) are never enough to do anything with, either. Then I had an idea. Maybe the border strips would be enough for a central block, bringing the total to a very useable nine.

I dug out my Dresden Plate ruler, and cut wedges from the border. There wasn't enough fabric for my purpose, but I managed to find some fabric in my stash which fitted the bill.

Here is a Dresden Plate which turned out pretty well - the yellow circle in the centre hides a multitude of sins, thank goodness!

And here is the layout for the quilt! It's not a prize-winner, but at least it's solved the 'panel problem'. I hope Muriel approves!

Dresden plate (and snow)

Since I finished my Seductive Curves quilt, I've felt in the need of some sewing that doesn't need a lot of brain power. (No rude comments, please!) I decided to get some of my UFOs finished and have started with the Dresden plate top I made recently.

Since it's only 40" square, it layered up and quilted really quickly. I didn't do much quilting on the 'plates', just round the centres to hold them down and then some echo quilting round the edges to emphasise the pattern. The borders were quilted with my favourite meander with hearts, and I put a little pink heart in the centre of each pink square.

Not quite my usual style, but very suitable for the colour scheme!

I couldn't believe it when I got up this morning to find more snow! We had a few inches on Tuesday, which resulted in a 'working from home' day for me. Wednesdays I don't work, so I was up ready for work on Thursday, to find about 6" of snow had fallen overnight. All my schools were closed, and I hadn't got any more work with me, so I had a snow day! I was planning to do some food shopping etc. today, but will wait till it stops snowing at least. This is the view from my front door.

(The thing on the right hand side which looks a bit like a cow's ear, is in fact a leaf on my bay tree!) And this is the view out of my bedroom window, over next door's garden and the fields.

For Middle England, this is serious snow! If you want to look at some decent photos of the snow (definitely no cow's ears etc) then Jane has some really lovely ones on her blog. Meanwhile, since I'm warm and snug, both DD and DS are safe and well, DH has a large heavy car and lots of common sense and I don't have any travel plans till Monday, I'm enjoying the view!

Success and failure

You win some, and you lose some, generally. I have been putting my Dresden plates together to make a Linus quilt, and am quite pleased with the result. I wanted to put corner squares of pink, to link it all together, but didn't have enough. I had the bright idea of making a four-patch for each corner instead, which saves fabric and gives a similar effect. When it's been quilted I'll probably bind it with the yellow.

Then at our Flutterwheels meeting, I was inspired by Chris's gorgeous January wall-hanging. She had made it by following some instructions by Kandy Newton on the British Quilt List. Kandy has posted a challenge for the last few years, and this one is to make a perpetual calendar. I decided that for me, January was a dull, grey month, with some frost and silvery sparlke, and a bit of sitting by the fireside.

I have embellished it with beads and sequins to get a frosty look, although they aren't too evident in this photo. If anyone fancies a go, you have to join Yahoo Groups, and BQL, but the instructions are freely available. There are going to be different projects for each month's calendar page.

So far, so good. Then I tackled a charity bag which Nik has designed for our local Leukemia shop to sell. She gave out free kits and patterns at the last meeting of Rocheberie Quilters. Here is my finished bag.

Looks OK, until you look on the other side

which is inside out! This is what you get for leaving things to the last minute! Luckily DD has unpicked it for me, so it'll only take a few minutes to resew. Never mind - you can't be perfect all the time!

Fiddling about

I should really have been getting on with my curves quilt for DD (she could do with an extra cuddle just about now) but need a piece of time when I'm fresh and ready to measure accurately, be creative and make decisions, which hasn't materialised yet. the time I've had has been short, end-of-the-day time, which is better for mindless sewing than doing something important.

So, I've finished the top which Tina had donated to project Linus. She can't remember what the pattern was, and looking at it, no offence Tina, but I think you've made a mistake somewhere when you sewed the blocks together! No problems though, it makes an excellent Linus quilt.

Then I finally made up November's block for our challenge group, Flutterwheels. Last year's theme was stars, and the last block was Jennie Rayment's 'Star Flower'. Jennie is famous for her fabric manipulation, and very clear instructions, although that didn't make me less apprehensive about tackling this block.

The brief was to use analogous clours (colours next to each other on the colour wheel) and I chose red (in this case, pink) and red/purple. I still need to sew the ends of the petals down, but it's looking OK so far.

Then I had a bit of a rumage through my UFO box and found some Dresden plate kits I had made up for a demonstration table I did ages ago. The pieces were all cut out, so it seemed a shame not to make them up, while I was up for chain piecing.

This one lacks its centre, but is complete. These pointed rays are really easy to do.

First you cut your rays out.

Then you fold them in half, right sides together and iron a crease down the top couple of inches.

Then you sew along the top by machine. (This is where the chain-piecing comes in.) Clip the folded edge of the ray.Turn the ray right sides out, poking the point out well with a pencil or something which is not a scissor point or you'll make a hole, like I did!Now press! Join them together matching the sides of the rays, until you have made a circle. It depends on the size of the ray as to how many you need. (Mine were quite small and needed 24 rays for a circle.) Lay the plate onto a square of backing fabric and applique down by hand or machine. Applique a circle in the middle to hide all the mess in the centre. Easy! Now I just need to join up 72 more and I'm in business!