Must try harder

I have been sewing recently but it's all been bits and bobs, Linus stuff and teaching samples.  I've also been teaching rather a lot (well, 4 days this month has seemed a lot to me!) and haven't been blogging either.  So I've decided to try harder (both with quilting and blogging) so here is what I did yesterday.  Liz decided to try and reduce her collection of shirts by making a quilt for Injured Servicemen, and cleverly asked members of Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters to help her.  She provided the fabric and pattern, and is expecting completed blocks in return.  Here are mine. 

 

 

Easy, right?  Well, not as easy as I thought.  The fabrics are nice soft shirtings, and while Liz warned in the instructions that they might need starching to stabilise, Leap-before-you-look-Lynda just dived straight in, and found out the hard way that starch would have been a good idea!  One thing that Liz didn't mention was that the fabrics weren't all 100% cotton (why should she? wasn't it obvious?) so the first pressing resulted in melted fabric and a messy iron.  Should have thought of that too!  Never mind, at least the blocks are done, and they're such an effective design.  The measurements are 2.5" strips cut into 2.5" squares, then 6.5" strips and 10.5" strips, to make a 10" finished block.  Lovely.

 

So then I got out a little bag of HSTs which someone at Rocheberie had given to me.

 

 I joined them into flying geese and then into Dutchman's Puzzle blocks.

  These will be an 8.5" finish and there are enough for five blocks.  That'll make a nice Linus quilt for a baby.  I'll try and get on with it and post some pictures for a change!

Can't believe it!

I haven't posted for a while, as life here has been very hectic.  When we came back from our holiday, we went straight into our drama group's production of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible', for which I had done the costumes.  Then no sooner had the hired costumes been returned and our own costumes washed and put away, than we were busy with DH's 60th birthday!  Family lunch on Sunday, a stay in London for DH and myself and then a party last Saturday.  We all had a fabulous time, but there wasn't much sewing going on!  The only piece of sewing I did, was ........... wait for it ..........
hexagons!

 

I saw an article in 'Quilter's Newsletter' by Micky Depre about her wanting some hand work, and Bonnie Hunter suggesting hexagons.  (The mention of Bonnie's name immediately perked my interest!)  Micky played about with some fabrics and has made seven new designs for hexagons, and this, Spike pieced hexies, took my fancy.

 

Micky simply pieced a strip in the middle of her fabric, and aligned it with marks on the paper.  I'm not working on it furiously, but think it will be a good portable project.  I must say, I never thought I'd be starting a hexagon project, which just goes to show that you should never say never!

Holiday

DH and I have just been on holiday to the Holy Land (or Israel, if you're not sure where that is!).  Not being religious, I was a little trepidacious about the trip, but I needn't have worried, as it was fabulous!  We went on an organised tour which visited all the Christian sites plus a lot of historical ones, and since I love history, I was in my element!  I won't bore you with all my snaps, but just tantalise you with some artistic inspiration!  Here is a possible applique idea from the Church of the Beatitudes.

 

 

 A quilting motif on the top of a pillar in Caesarea.

 

 Celtic applique designs plus quilt blocks from a mosaic in Bethlehem.

 

Islamic motifs of flowers and flowing shapes from Jerusalem (although I think I'll need a magnifying glass to see them properly!)

 

More quilt blocks from Jerusalem.

 

And just a little sample of the gorgeous eye candy - all the colours of the rainbow!- in the souk in Jerusalem.  (Can you see the little boy minding the shop?  So cute!)

 

And finally, just thought you might be amused by this picture of myself bobbing in the Dead Sea.

 

                                                                            Look, no hands!

Organisation

People (both quilters and non-quilters) sometimes ask me how I find the time to make so many quilts.  I'm usually at a loss to answer this question, and say something like, I use the time they use for doing other things, like watching the television, playing or watching sport, gardening or even doing housework to do some sewing.  But recently my friend Jane asked me the same question, and I started thinking.

 

One of my main advantages is the fact that I am able to leave my sewing machine up all the time.  This means I can sew for a few minutes and don't have all the bother of getting things out and putting them away.  But I think the thing which is really time-saving, is having storage which works for you, and being organised.

 

Most of my fabric is organised by colour, and here is red, pink, yellow and batik in an IKEA basket storage unit.  Sometimes I have too much fabric of one colour for one container, so separate them into lights, mediums and darks.  Blues are like this, but for reasons that will be obvious to those who know my favourite colour, greens are divided into light and lime green in one box, and other greens in the other!  I have a lot of lime green!

 

But the main time saver is my adoption of Bonnie Hunter's scrap user system.  All my scraps have been cut up into useable sizes.  Here I have 1.5" strips and squares and 2" dark and light strips and squares. 

 

Here are dark and light 2.5" strips and squares, 3.5" pieces and charm squares.

 

I even have a container for selvedges and triangles - I just can't bear waste!  When I have finished any project, I spend a few minutes cutting up any scraps into the biggest strips I can and putting them in (or on, if I'm feeling lazy) the relevent container.  Then when I need, say, 2" squares, I don't have to spend time choosing and cutting yardage, just look into the box and see what's ready to go! 

 

If you don't already sort your scraps (as Jane didn't) and you feel a bit overwhelmed by the bag of scraps you have and at the idea of all that cutting, just remember how to eat an elephant.  A bite at a time!  Buy yourself a couple of plastic food containers from your local hardwear shop and put aside just 10 or 15 minutes to cut some scraps from your bag.  If you do that every day, you'll soon empty thebag, and have made yourself loads of extra quilting time!

Shocking!

If you are of a nervous disposition, I advise you to read no further!  (Don't worry - it's not spiders, it's something MUCH worse!)  Today I had to pop into Rugby on an errand, and while I was there I decided to see if I could buy some red fabric.  Recently I noticed that my red drawer was a bit depleted, so thought I'd see if I could add to it.  I successfully bought a couple of fat quarters and a half metre for a good price, and returned home in a happy mood.  (This is where it gets really shocking!)

I always wash my fabrics (usually in the washing machine with everything else) but since I didn't have any washing to do, I decided to wash them quickly in the sink.  When I put the first piece into the water, this is what I saw!

 

Just look at the colour of that water!  I've had fabrics bleed a bit of colour before, but never as badly as this!  Thank goodness I washed it before it ended up in a quilt!  Now it's had several rinses and is on the line with its fellows, ready to behave perfectly in the future.  What a cautionary tale!

September UFO Challenge - failed!

I was doing so well with my UFO Challenge quilts - so far, 8 tops out of the cupboard and completed.  But this month I haven't even managed to finish the top!  However, I'm not too despondent, as at the beginning of September, I had this:

 

 

 and at the end, I have this.

 

It's certainly a stunning design!  Now I have to decide on borders.  Bonnie had put a white one with black half square triangles as the border, but I'm not sure I can face that!  Maybe a narrow black border than piano keys in red or blue?  What do you think?

Too many projects

I'm usually quite happy to have lots of projects on the go - variety being the spice of life - but this time it led to my undoing (or more correctly, my unpicking!)  I had really enjoyed making my version of Bonnie Hunter's Tulip Fields, but felt I wanted to get back to Orca Bay. 

 

I had originally only made half the components, and now felt I needed just another row of blocks to finish it off.  Orca Bay has string blocks, so I merrily made the required number of red ones and sliced them in half, as per instructions.  But not actaully as per instructions, as I had sliced them horizontally,

 

as was required for Tulip Fields, not vertically, as was required for Orca Bay!  Naturally I didn't realise my mistake until after I'd cut and trimmed them all, and sewn the triangles onto both sides of most. 

 

This is how they should look, and they will, after I've had a session with my unpicker!  Happy days!