Some quick show and tell

I do love getting emails from people out there who take the time to read my blog.  One email I received overnight was from Carol (hi Carol!) asking if I’d ever done a Double Wedding Ring from Aunt Grace fabrics.

Of course I have.  I have 3039049658 flimsies in the cupboard, why wouldn’t there be a double wedding ring?  And you know me and thirties prints!

I realised when I was thinking about this quilt that I had no photos of all of it.  It’s probably THE quilt I’m most proud of, the one that I would rescue if the house was on fire, and yet there would be no photographic proof of it if something did happen.

So I’ve fixed that problem.

Bear in mind it’s been folded in a cupboard for years and years, and I didn’t press it yet.  But I think it comes up fairly well.  It needs a really good press, I think.  But I don’t have time for that today.

I always surprise myself when I dig out the old quilts.  I did a really good job on this one.  And then I start thinking about the quilts I make now, and I don’t think I am getting better.  You’re supposed to get better as you get older, but I feel my skills are worse now than they have ever been.  I’m trying to sort that out in my head – trying to work out what it is that is making me be a crappier quilter technically now than I was before.  I think it’s the same old thing I’ve mentioned before – I start too many things and I rush them when I do it.  I need to slow down and enjoy the moment, the process rather than race through them when I have a minute here or there spare to sew.

Something I need to work at,  I think.

Anyway.  I’ll take a better photo later on, but for now, at least there’s proof I made the thing!

Finishing the flimsies

Hi lovely readers.

I’ve been sorting through the photo files on my laptop and found a flimsy that I hadn’t showed you.

You know how one thing leads to another?  I had a clean out of my UFO’s, trying to sort the ‘already started’ from the ‘Kits ready to go but not yet begun’.  I figure if I get all the ‘already started’ things finished, I could always sell the ‘Kits ready to go but not yet begun’ on Ebay or something if the need arose. 

By the way, have you seen this meme?

So….back to the story.

While I was sorting my UFO’s into two piles, I came across a stack of two inch squares.  Some had been pieced into pairs – perhaps I was doing leaders and enders?  I don’t know, I can’t recall.  So right there and then, I stitched those suckers into groups of five, and before I knew it, I had another flimsy!

I would have thrown those bits out, but instead I have now got another flimsy.  And I don’t mind it at all.  It’ll be on the pile of ‘quilts to be donated’ or something, but I that’s okay.  It might brighten someone’s day.

How’s your day been?  Bright and scrappy? 

Talk soon!

Bright Shiny Stars–A Flimsy!

Hello lovely readers.

I had the glorious luxury on Tuesday of spending the whole day at our quilting group, and I managed to put a great big full stop at the end of this quilt:

I came home and yesterday, while the kids were playing minecraft all day happily playing outside in the fresh air all day, I managed to finish it!

Oh my points don’t line up too well there.

Do you want to see a big picture?

Not big enough?  Have I teased you enough?

Here you go.

I’m very pleased with it, and the little person who will end up with the quilt is also very pleased with it.  You can’t ask for more than that.

Now I have to wait for my long arm quilter to return from her jaunting around the planet so she can stitch it for me.

The weather is marginally (bee’s whisker) warmer today, and the children are at their grandparent’s house, and the housework is done enough (it’s never totally done) so I will slip away back into my sewing room and push on with it.

I hope your day is going well!

Bright Shiny Stars

Hello lovely readers, I'm back again.

It's been so cold here, and it's school holidays also, and it's the perfect time to snuggle up and crochet on the lounge, which is exactly what I've been doing.  But I'm no Lucy from Attic24, and my crocheting isn't really worthy of a blog post, so I have little in the quilty area to show you.  I have also been knitting socks and I see a new favourite hobby coming up in my future.

I've been productive in my sewing room though.  You know how one little job leads to another not so big job and then that leads to a massive one?  Yeah, that's happening here at the moment.

I have a lovely pile of brights that I'm thoroughly enjoying right now, and I thought I'd try a bright, starry quilt.  So I made this block:

which looked really lovely.  My two daughters both hovered over it, both keen to have a new quilt that isn't pastelly and little girl like.  I've decided to give this one to the baby of the family, and she decided that it needed a border.  She's all of eight and knows her mind very much.

So I sashed around a block and had a look at it, and decided that yes, I did like that.  I decided that I would grab my homespun box (es) and find enough different fabrics to use.  

Well, the really big job that I mentioned?  I have three boxes of homespuns, and they are in such a mess I bit the bullet and have been ironing them all flat, and trying to sort them into the colours.  I have so many small offcuts that aren't any good for anything too big, so percolating in the back of my mind is an Amish scrap quilt (why is it that one good job always leads to more quilt designing in my head?)  Consequently the sewing room table is covered in homespuns and not much actual cutting has been going on.

I'm hopeful that I can reduce the whole three boxes into maybe two - that would be excellent!

I'm committed to put the borders on these blocks, which is what Madam wants, but when I laid all the blocks together on the design board, I really liked them in this way.  Much less work too.

However, being the good mother I am, I will make the quilt the way she likes it (which is really very nice anyway).

And that is my update for you, my lovely readers.  School holidays have just started and already we are complaining that 'we are boreddddd' - it's going to be a long two weeks!