Must try harder

I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogging recently (neither mine nor anyone else's), and comments have been made. 'Lynda must be very busy with 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', as she hasn't posted on her blog much recently.' Too true. Must try harder. So this is what I've done over the past few days.

I have finally bordered, layered up and bound this scrappy hearts quilt which I started ages and ages ago. I have just quilted it in the ditch and then done a freely quilted heart inside each blue heart. It will be perfect for Linus.

Another Linus is this Dutchman's Puzzle quilt, made from just five blocks. The blocks were made at our monthly Knit and Stitch sessions and I just put them together. Putting blocks on point always makes for a great quilt. I have a bit of the binding to sew down, then it's finished.

Then today, I have been fiddling about with leaves for, yes, you guessed it, a certain production! I made the banner for the scenes in the town hall, and we have decided to have leafy bunting for the wood scenes. Lots of leaves have been cut out from various green fabrics, including these gorgeous ones from upholstery fabric. They'll look great under the lights.

However, as you can see, they curl alarmingly, and aren't very attractive on the reverse.

So, I decided it would be the work of minutes to pair them (wrong sides together) and just sew a few veins on them to stiffen them up.

Hey presto! Nice shiney leaves ready to go on the 18 metres of bottle green twill tape DS and I bought last week. Thankfully, someone else has volunteered to do that job, so I can get on with a bit more real sewing!

A present

A friend of mine, decided that she wanted to learn about patchwork. Naturally, I offered to show her the basics, and we spent a lovely day constructing star blocks and making them up into a bag. (I thought that if when she starts piecing, she decides it's not for her, at least she'll have a bag to show for it, rather than a few oddd blocks!). Not surprisingly, she's hooked, and is now planning a sampler quilt, to get some techniques under her belt!

Which is why I was mystified when she came with a large squishy present for me. She had been busy sewing, but not her sampler blocks.

She had made me a beautiful bag as a thank you for the help I'd given her! She had chosen pink and green fabric (some of the green with writing on it - my all-time favourite kind of fabric!) She's already branching out, as she has added a diamond to the centre of one of the stars,

and on the other side, a scrappy heart block and a block of her own invention! (She said it went wrong, but I know the truth - she made it up specially for me!) Thank you so much, Pauline. I'll be looking forward to many happy hours of quilting together!

Attention span of a gnat!

I really admire those bloggers who work on one project at a time. They post photos of the fabrics they have chosen, photos of blocks, sashed blocks, tops and completed projects. then they move onto the next idea.

I'm not like that. I have a very low boredom threshold, and after a few days of working on a certain project, I'm ready for a change. I've been putting together these gorgeous blue scrappy hearts for a Linus quilt, and yesterday, just as I'd got them sashed and ready for borders, I just needed something different.

I have recently bought Carrie Nelson's new book, 'Schnibbles times two' and decided that now was the time to try one of the projects from it. I dived into the Linus green scraps, and not long after, there were two blocks for a new quilt!

The pattern is called 'Nice Day', and it certainly was!

Out of the mouths ....

We have lived in our house for nearly 25 years, and things are starting to need replacing. We need new soffits and gutters, a new drive, a new boiler and a new kitchen. I am supposed to be getting quotes for all these items, but haven't got very far yet. Yesterday, DH tackled me while I was emailing, and said that on my day off, I should be getting quotes rather than spending my time quilting. 'I'm not quilting now!' I replied indignantly. 'No, but you're thinking about it!' was his wise rejoinder. He knows me so well!

So what have I been thinking about recently? I'm still obsessed with the scrappy hearts, so I've been thinking about them.

And blue ones,

and red ones,

and pastel ones!

I need to go and think about hanging out washing, so I'll just wish the main man, Will, many happy returns of the day,

and a happy St George's Day to all!

A quilt and a UFO

The weather has been so awful here, that it's been no good thinking about going in the garden, so I've spent quite a lot of time happily quilting. This means that my scrappy hearts top is now a completed quilt!

I used pieces from Andrea's scrap bag for the binding too. I'm really happy with how it's turned out, and plan to make a scrappy red one, a scrappy pastel one, another multi-scrappy one... well, that's the plan!

I then felt motivated to rummage in my UFO box and find some twisted star blocks I made after being inspired by Jennie Rayment. She uses a lot of calico for manipulating, tucking and twisting, but I thought some striped fabric would look really good using her methods. Since I intend to send this to Linus, I have used invisible thread to secure the stars, just in case. It actually emphasises them beautifully. I'll bind it in red, and it'll look quite manly, I think.

Scraptastic!

I have managed to finish the scrappy top I made from a bag of Andrea's leftovers. (It's my Easter holiday, so I've had a bit more sewing time!)

I'm really pleased with it! Nearly all the fabric was what Andrea was going to throw away, except for the borders, where I had to add some calico from my stash. I still have plenty of fabric left for the binding, and another quilt! The pattern was from one shown on Jacquie's blog although hers is more controlled. She has a tutorial on her blog, but here are the instructions and measurments for mine.

First sew random strips together. You can join strips or add pieces of cut up blocks to make the length. Cut them into 4.5" squares.

Arrange the blocks into a four patch, with the stripes going in alternate directions. (I've mixed the patches up a bit, to get some variety.)

Cut two 4.5" squares from cream fabric, draw in (or iron) the diagonal. Put a pin on the bottom triangle, to mark the piece you will cut off. Sew along the marked line, and then again, about 0.5" away from the line on the pinned piece. Cut between the two sewing lines and press open. You will have two half square triangles. The bigger one is needed for the block, and the smaller one is a bonus! Cut four 2" triangles, mark the diagonal as before and place in the top corners of the two top blocks. Sew along the diagonal lines. Trim the outer corners. Open and press.

Sew the pieces together as a four patch. Hey presto!

And for every block, you get two free scrappy half square triangles! Now what shall I do with those?!