Circle progress

Well...... I have fallen way behind in making may daily circles as too many other projects are distracting me.

I'm still trying to avoid as little waste as possible by using the circle cut outs to make more circle blocks as in the next 2 below

 So to date I have 86 units/blocks or if you count the number of individual circles appliqued 138.............I think I'll stick with the latter number, it certainly sounds better :)

I'm also joining the blocks as I go & here they are all together so far, this isn't the final layout as it looks a bit messy, still needs a bit of tweaking as more blocks are added.

Whilst on the subject of circles, here's my 1st attempt at a Georgetown circle block by EPP. This is going to be the centre of a medallion quilt one day, when I get round to it!

Do go & visit Audrey's 365 circle link up, lots of lovely circles being stitched, grab a cuppa & enjoy all the lovely projects being shared

Playing with circles

Audrey over at Quilty Folk is sewing a circle a day for 365 days, loved this idea for using up some of my Kaffe Fassett scraps

The first 6 days worth of 4.5" blocks

Realizing I would end up with lots of neutral circle cut outs, I thought, what if I add these to the mix too?  (I hate wasting fabric)

So this 4.5" x 8.5" block was born

Then I thought what if I throw in some bigger circles using up bits of made fabric from scraps a la Victoria Findlay Wolfe 15 minutes play time?

No waste here either as I can get a 4.5" background for a smaller circle block from the cutout

A few sewn together..........and here we may have the beginnings of a pattern for a quilt? 

Not sure I'll be able to stick to making just one circle a day from now on though!

December 1st update:

Having started sewing circles on 5th November I'm now up to day 27. I'm counting each background piece of fabric (whether it contains one circle or three) as one day's work, so without further ado, here they are to date:

It's quite a nice process coming in from work each day & dipping into the Kaffe scraps to choose that evening's fabric for my daily circle & quite a relaxing bit of mindless stitching after a stressful day. I couldn't resist fussy cutting some of his bigger prints to throw in here & there as well. 

Linking up to Quilty 365, thank you Audrey for the inspiration :)

Scrappy Shirt Tails

I have a quilting angel......... a dear friend called Sandra who lives in Georgia & spoils me by sending me wonderful surprise  packages of recycled shirt fabric. 

Inspired by a quilt in one of Bonnie Hunter's books, I started making these star blocks, quilt as you go method. But........ you know me, after about 7 or 8 of them, I just got bored and  started playing with the fabric & making a mixture of different blocks, whatever took my fancy at the time.

Union Square

Sister's Choice

Ohio Star

Some are traditional & some just made up to fill the gaps where required. Not much maths has been involved in this process as I tend to get it wrong!

Beginnings of a layout

Planning another row to be added on the right

Of course, quality control has to be monitored at each and every stage!

Progress so far

For the "Quilt as You Go" sashing & backing, I'm recycling a cotton double size duvet cover that I picked up at a local charity shop for £2......good value or what?

The back

I'm trying to be as accurate as possible, but there are already and no doubt will be more missing points off stars, geese loosing the tips of their beaks etc, but I'm not too fussed about this as, after all, quilting is meant to be fun and not stressful. 

Whatever you're making, enjoy the process, 'till next time, happy stitching :)

PS. Apologies for the formatting on this post.....blogger's just not playing ball tonight!

Scraps & Strings

  

 

Do you follow Bonnie Hunter on Quiltcam? Recently I've been watching & learning how she paper pieces scraps & strings onto paper & finally gave in to try some myself as I have a fair size tub of scraps accumulating.

Of course Lucy was there right in the thick of it helping pick out some strings and quite a mess was created!

Having experimented with a few sizes, I finally chose to cut phone book paper to 3.5" wide x 10.5" long for my strip piecing. Once trimmed & paper removed I added 1.25" black strips to each side & cut the points with my Companion angle ruler. Neutral triangles were cut with the same ruler from 3.25" strips & added to each side, the block was then trimmed down to 7.5" square.

The blocks are then joined together, either in rows or units of 4, which ever way you prefer to work....

Initially I was starting to use just the repro scraps but then decided to follow Bonnie's advice & mix it all up, even using smaller crumbs joined together to form a strip and odd left over half sq triangle units, 4 patches, whatever, you name it, in it goes!

If you just fancy mindless sewing to use up those odds & ends, this is a great project. I'm really enjoying the process and the end result :)

Since starting this, I've discovered that Bonnie has a free pattern for this (minus the black) on her blog here

Hand Quilting

Where have I been you may wonder?

Well, remember these above? That became this below

I decided I wanted to have a go at hand quilting baptist fans on this scrappy repro log cabin in order to keep this quilt as traditional as possible.

I used these washable fine tipped markers and some circle templates to mark the rows of fans

...........as I didn't trust my skills at doing these freehand

Loving the look of these fans & the texture they create

Almost done......

Ta dah, all finished!

 and washed (the marker washed out perfectly)

 Look at all the texture, love it.

Here it is in all it's glory, this quilt finished at single bed/generous lap size, which was big enough for my first big hand quilting project.

Small Quilts

In between bouts of hand quilting I've managed to keep up with the Small Quilt Talk group monthly challenges set by Kathy Tracy:

April's challenge - Contrary wife block

May's challenge was a beautiful Sweet Pea pattern that Kathy designed and published the free pattern on her website here

..........and my interpretation of June's challenge, Flowerpot applique from her book, Remembering Adelia. A bit different to the original pattern, I admit I got just a little carried away doing my own thing here! lol

Here we have a possible layout of how I'm planning on joining these together "Quilt as You Go" method to make one large quilt. As I've mentioned before these little quilts are very good practice for improving my machine piecing and hand quilting. Odd orphan and play blocks are being used as fillers.

Hopefully it won't be so long before my next post, in the meantime, keep on stitching :)

March round up

As explained in my previous post here my 1st new project for March was cutting into the beautiful Oakshott cottons.....

Next up was the Small Quilt Challenge set by Kathy Tracy, to use our ugly fabrics to make a small quilt, I chose this drab repro fabric that I've never liked and added red, blue & yellow  to brighten things up

Still enjoying making these small quilts, especially the hand quilting part of it! Got carried away and made another one for fun.

This one is a gift for my Mum's birthday and is winging it's way to France, hope she likes it.......

March also saw the end of the log cabin blocks, I ended up making 80 in total and now have a completed top. I'm thinking about hand quilting this one with baptist fans, do you think that would look ok?

.........and finally, whilst i had all these repro scraps lying around, I just couldn't help myself and started making some scrappy stars, so this is my final new start for the New FO challenge for March, all in all, another busy month!

8.5" & 4.5" scrappy star blocks

Durrell News

We have a new arrival at work......

Meet Jantho, born on 1st April, the latest addition to our Sumatran Orang utang family.Baby & mum Annette are doing well :) To read all about it click here