WIP Wednesday. Progress on a few fronts

Sunburnt Zebras is finished... apart from the label. I really have to get a few of them made and stitched on. I got it finished off on Sunday so I could count it in my stash report. And then I forgot to actually link up with the Linkup even though I said I was on my blog. When I wrote it Patchwork Times didn't have their link up set up yet and I forgot to go back later and add it in.

Denim Quilt
My new project at home is the blue jeans quilt using circles of denim and squares of fabric. I worked out the size of the circles I needed to cut in order to use the 5" squares I have cut. I was trying to do it the mathematical way... working out what the length of the diagonal of the square would measure which was also going to be the diameter of the circle by using the mathematical equation ie the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. (reminds me of a joke - will tell it to you all one day) I was discussing this with my Fixit Guy who is an engineer (oops retired engineer) expecting him to help me with the maths. He said "Do you have the 5" squares? and I said yes I did and he very simply said "Why don't you just measure it if you have the square?" Doh... so simple. There was I tackling the maths and formulas and really it was that simple.

Anyway drew a circle using a compass I just happened to have and KNOW where it was courtesy of my desk clean up. I cut it out of the thickest cardboard I had on hand and used it to draw circles on the denim jeans I had on hand. I had some off cuts from jeans of Fixit Guy's that I had made into shorts. I had also bought 5 pair of jeans at a denim sale at the 2nd hand shop a few weeks ago.

The blocks are going to end up 5". If I make the quilt 12x12 rows that made it 60". If I made it 14 rows square it will be 70" and 16 rows squares will make it 80". I am thinking that this will be a good quilt for our camper trailer. The one I have on our queen mattress in that at the moment is a bit skimpy. I would like one that is a bit wider and longer so think 80" square will be good. That means I need 256 blocks. That is 256 denim circles. I was able to cut 101 from the jeans that I had on hand. I asked on facebook if any of my local friends had denim jeans that I could have to cut up for the quilt. As a result I now have 190 circles cut for the quilt. A few other friends have jeans for me and hopefully that will be enough but if not on Tuesday I have the opportunity to go to the Salvation Army shop that has good sales on and hopefully that will be enough.

Tonight I drew the 5" squares on about half of the circles that I had cut so making a good start. This is the stitching line. Despite carefully measuring to make sure the circle would fit the 5" square in some how the square template that I have is a little big for the denim circles I have cut. Its a bit annoying but hopefully I can fudge it enough that it will fit. I can trim down the 5" fabric squares that I use a bit to make them fit. That is going to be really annoying to have to do that but might be what I have to do. Will see what it looks like when I sew them up. I do have a stack of 4.5" squares which  might work ok. Stay tuned!!

I am still debating with myself as to whether I will include a piece of wadding as well or if I will leave it with just the denim and the fabric. Denim is so heavy on its own it may not need extra. I will think about it some more. I have used up lots of my scraps of wadding in frankenbatting which I have used in recent quilts so don't have so many scrap pieces. It will be rather ironic if I now have to cut up large pieces of wadding to make these 5" squares. I used up the last of the roll of batting I had so will have to buy another roll shortly for my next quilts. I do have some thinner flannelette which I could use instead which would give a bit of body but not be as heavy or as warm as batting. Will have to think about it some more

Disappearing Hour Glass
Today at patchwork I made all my half square triangles. I did the four at a time method sewing two 10" squares right sides together and slicing it on the diagonal. I know  a lot of people don't like this method as it results in lots of biased edges but I am quite happy with it. I wasn't so happy with my slicing as a couple of times I strayed off line whilst chatting to the other ladies. I will see how badly they turn out when I trim them up. I would have stayed on longer at patchwork and trimmed them up but I didn't take my Quilt in a Day ruler with me to the rooms so called it a day when I had cut all my squares into triangles. I gave them a thorough spray with Crisp before I cut them up to help persuade them to stay in shape.

So that is my quilty progress for this week.

I have been working on cutting up my scraps into useful units and got my scrap basket emptied. But ... with cutting up the denim jeans the basket is filling up fast with the scraps from that. I will cut them into useful units shortly but think I will keep them separate to use on another project. I initially sort the cut scraps into shallow boxes labelled with the size scrap going into them. I then carry the boxes over to the plastic drawers I keep the scraps in to put them away.

Decluttering.

I have fallen off the wagon rather thoroughly this week as far as the daily challenges go. I should have done challenges 13-20
13 Skinny clothes - yeah well currently losing weight so not convinced I will do this yet but then again I might anyway.  14 Tea towels - didn't look at them although I did go through the drawer a year or two ago. Need to do that. 15 Kids clothes... none live at home. They can do their own. 16 Inside handbag - do this every time I go away. Going away on Friday so should sort through  17 Stationery - did the desk a week or two ago so yes. I have done this. 18 Bath towels. Sorted through them when we redid our bathrooms. I have a box of towels that my Massage Man son has indicated could be useful and Kombi Boy said they need more towels so they will go to family shortly.  19 Handbags. I only have one that I use all the time and a few clutches 20 Email Box. yes I have been going through these this week and deleting hugely and also setting up message rules so things go into separate folders.

 I have also cleaned up our office. All the surfaces have been tidied off, and one lot of shelves tidied. Fixit Guy was able to vacuum it thoroughly on Monday. (you heard it right. Fixit Guy does the vacuuming now he is retired. Mondays is our housework day. He vacuums and dusts. I clean the bathrooms and mop the hard floors. This week he cleaned the front of the kitchen cupboards as well.) We have started cleaning out the filing cabinet drawers as well which has been a good to do. We are working through them atm. 4 drawer cabinet almost done. The 3 drawer one will be quick to do as two drawers are relatively empty. I am going to move my family history stuff into them and then Fangirl can have her filing cabinet back

Run 60Km Outback Challenge.
Fixit Guy and I have continued to walk every day. Most days we walk twice but occasionally (like today) it was only once. I went in the morning with  my gf and he took the dogs this afternoon as Fangirl dropped in right on walk time and I stayed home to chat to her. Our walks are usually at least 4kms each so we have well and truly covered the 60kms already.

Yesterday morning there must have been a school of fish in the river. The Pelicans and native ducks were all swimming in a group and lots of duck diving going on.

Linking up with 

 WOW - Wip on Wednesday