Wip Wednesday. Some progress made at last

I finally made some progress on the backing for Not So Sombre Stars.

As outlined on Sunday I saw  a quilt on a Facebook group that inspired my design. On Monday I started to cut the strips and squares I needed for the block.. I decided to make the quilt 7 x 7 8.5" blocks with a border to make it big enough.

I calculated that I was going to need
210 cream or white 1.5" squares as cornerstones for each block and the sashing.
196 6.5" x 1.5"of varying colours
64 blue 8.5" x 1.5" strips for the sashing

I cut the blue strips for the sashing from some of fabric I had to be repurposed but the rest of the units I needed came from my 1.5" scraps.I had about 30 cream and white 1.5" squares already in my stash. The rest of it I cut to size from the strips in my stash. I chose strips in reds, greens, yellows and purple. Some of the yellows were more orange.

Top right the cornerstones in a mixture of whites and creams. In the box the 6.5" x 1.5" strips and below the box the 8.5" x 1.5"blue strips for the sashing. This was cut from what had been a banner in our church

Tuesday I finished cutting the coloured strips and started sewing the strips to the signature blocks I had collected. 

I only had 10 and they are all done now. Just have to chase up the rest of them. I told people to use permanent marker but one person has used pencil and another has just given me some that I think are non permanent marker. I will have to label the quilt dry clean only. I don't want to leave them out of the quilt or to ask them to redo. I guess its the thought that counts.

The finished signature squares. 10 down 39 more to go!!

Disappearing Into the Blue
Finally had a sewing time up at the patchwork rooms so have made some progress on the Disappearing Into the Blue quilt, my disappearing pinwheel quilt done in blue and white. It was great to get some work on it has been a few weeks. I got the pinwheel borders on.. Next I am going to put on a narrow white border and then a piano key border. Will have to check it out on the bed again to work out how much larger it needs to be. Then to work out the backing. I was going to buy some wide backing fabric for it but I do have a lot of the blue fabrics I used on the front left so it won't be hard to piece the back.

Sewing Room
Not sure if I have mentioned it or not but I did get my scrap basket emptied.- almost. I still have a little bit of cream fabric to cut up and now bits of 1.5" stuff is going in there. Small stuff that I need to cut into squares or bricks leftover from the strips I have cut into 6,5" strips for the signature blocks. 

I asked Fixit Guy for a design wall for my Mothers' Day gift. He has suggested that we put in on the wall where the bookshelf currently is. He's suggested we transfer the contents of the bookshelf to the kitchen dresser we got from my Aunty's home which we intend to do up one day. Fangirl said she would like the bookshelf! This would probably work except for the old sewing notions that are stored on the bookshelf which are more for display. Might have to get Fixit Guy to make me a small set of display shelves for those things. 

Fixit Guy's idea is to use the wall behind the bookshelf as my design wall.  It is the obvious choice.

Some of the random bits and pieces on the bookshelf including the dust.

Some more sewing stuff that was my mother in laws and model sewing machines. And more antique dust

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday

My Disappearing into the Blue quilt is at a standstill.  Its my patchwork group project. I went to Patchwork today but it was our meeting and unfortunately afterwards I felt exhausted so came home. The meeting itself was fine its just this Virus I am fighting.  Hope I can make sense of the minutes I took... I'm the secretary. I'm up to the pinwheel borders on 

Still collecting signature squares to make the backing for Not So Sombre Stars for Derek. I got a few more in over the week so will get onto them as soon as my brain can concentrate. Still have a heap more to collect.

I started to sew the curtains for the spare room on Saturday. I have them hanging at the moment to let them drop before I hem them.  I seem to have underestimated the length so the hems are going to be a bit smaller than I usually make them but that's okay. The bed goes under the window and the bedhead is fairly high so you can't actually see the hemline so not a problem if it isn't perfect.

My main work in progress this week has been tidying up my sewing area. I pulled everything out of two cupboards I store fabric and craft stuff in. I had already been through some of the fabric in the storage boxes so could ignore some of those but others I went through again and got rid of some of it (local op shop will benefit) I went through notions and sorted them up, rearranged a few of the cupboards. I made a really good mess for a start

I had boxes and stuff everywhere

my cutting table was covered in stuff

no ironing could be done

no room to sit on the couch

The main aim of my clean up and change around was to make the 3 sets of plastic drawers that I have exclusively for my scrap units. Beforehand one of the units held some projects, non cotton fabric and orphan blocks. These I moved either into project boxes (clear plastic boxes) or put into my scrap basket 

As a result of my sorting my scrap basket is once again overflowing. I have been working on getting it cut up into usable units. As I am cutting up if I find a fabric that I know isn't suitable to go into my scrap quilts then I have relegated it mostly to the "donation" pile to go to the school for craft or recycling

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My cutting table is permanently set up behind the couch, facing the tv. I have a kitchen stool stationed  behind the table so I can sit and cut fabric whilst watching tv. I have my new large A2 cutting mat and the holder with all my rulers on it as well as a container for my rotary cutter, large scissors, snips, etc. I also have my small pressing mat and travel iron. When I am cutting scraps I have a collection of shoe boxes and their lids which I have labelled with the different sizes on them arranged along the top of the table (and pushed out onto the back of the couch so as to give me a bit more room) and a bin for scraps.

This way I can sit or stand behind the table, watch tv and cut my scraps. I try to cut them into the largest unit I can, starting with 10" and working down. I must admit though I will cut 5" over 6.5" since so many patterns are being written for 5" charm squares these days. 

I have drawers for strings (under 1.5" wide) 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3",3.5",4", 4.5'. 5", 6.5" and 10". I cut squares and strips in each size. Some sizes have more than one drawer

Tidy at last. It didn't last long

This cupboard, closest to my machine has project boxes and my threads in it. also my ironing basket. The big pink box is repurposed fabric mostly for use in church banners

The cupboard behind my cutting table. As well as larger pieces of fabric for backing it has my gadgets and after crafting projects eg a box of wool etc. The book shelf has magazine patterns (torn out and put into folders according to type of pattern) plus antique sewing things such as my grandmother's sewing basket and sewing notions from my aunty and mother in law

My scrap drawers are becoming very full. This year I have had a couple of big sort outs resulting in lots of fabric going into the scrap basket to be cut which ultimate end up in the drawers. Once I finish off the projects I am working on I think I will go to my scrap drawers and make a few projects. This will fit in very well with my Fabric Diet that I am trying hard to stick to.

Linking up with Wip Wednesday at Freshly Pieced