stash report Sunday on Monday. A finish at last

I am late making my report today because I have been trying very hard to get Sombrero Stars finished. I got it pinned on Wednesday but didn't get to start quilting it till Saturday afternoon. I then lost 4 hours on it as I had play rehearsals Sunday afternoon. Fangirl is directing a play and I agreed (or did I offer?) to be the prompt. Sunday was my first time at rehearsal as they aren't really scripts down yet so not so much work for the prompt to do. However one of the actors is away this week and next and in a 3 person play that is pretty significant absence so I am reading his lines 



Anyway - I finally got the quilting done this morning and the binding on as well. Had a few hold ups... ran out of the thread I was quilting with and had to substitute another; hadn't made the binding long enough, and had to add another strip; wanted to do machine binding but forgot and sewed the binding to the front as you do when you are going to hand stitch it down. Decided stuff it and did the machine binding from the back hoping it would be ok. I think it worked out alright. Ran out of the thread I was using to stitch the fancy binding on with so had to keep changing the top thread... interesting rainbow affect now. However I did manage to get it finished today. And photographed. Wooo Hooo. Have been very busy since I finished so the blog is even later.

Finished Sombrero Stars. Have to admit that I love it

Close up to show the chain of stars I did in the sashing

The back of Sombrero Stars

I echo quilted around the star and the 9 patch in the middle of each block

I have had one other finish this week. Last year I made a banner for use in our church. It features a vine or thin tree stem going the length of the quilt and has appliqued leaves on it, some three dimensional so they hang off the tree. Its in green and so can be hung for most of the year - for all the ordinary Sundays in the ecclesiastical year. Lent is purple though so I made a purple banner to hang out the front for Lent. The green banner doesn't get put away though... we hang it up the back of the church and after the first week or two of Lent I attach some grubs to the leaves. (I made some of the leaves with bite marks out of them) This year, to change it up a bit I made some chrysalis to go up when I take the grubs off. That is what I made this week. I couldn't think how to really make them and in the end I used some hessian (burlap) that was from an old camping stretcher. It was already stitched into cylinders down the sides where the bars fed through. I just cut along close to the stitching line, then cut the strip into 3 or 4 bits, sewed the bottom closed, stuffed it with wadding scraps and tied string around the top. 

Not the most successful attempt

They looked pretty bad so I removed the stuffing, rounded off the bottoms a bit, trimmed them up, restuffed them and decided that they would do. They just had to be symbolic, not be too scientifically accurate. I took the grubs down and replaced them with the chrysalis on Saturday ready for church Sunday. I didn't get any reaction to them so not sure if no one noticed or if they are being polite (If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all) Unfortunately I couldn't get decent photos of them because where the banner hangs there are lots of windows so the dark banner doesn't show up very well... and my camera isn't fancy enough to handle it

with the rounded bottoms they looked a bit better

So that's two finishes for the week.

We had a trip to Rockhampton this week and whilst there visited Spotlight. I bought 30 cm of 7 different black and white fabrics to add to my stash of fabrics I am gathering to use in a half square triangle black on white and white on black quilt I am planning.

7 more black and white fabrics for my planned quilt

I have checked over my figures and I think that I have made some mistakes in my earlier calculations

However as it stands by my reckoning

Used this week
              Sombrero Stars - 6.9m
              7 Chyrsalis           .51
 Total for week                 7.41m

Purchases
   Black and white fabric    2.1m

Net used for the week       5.31


Year to Date Used       60.47
Year to Date added      37.39
Net Used                     23.08m

Linking in with Patchwork Times Stash reports

WIP Wednesday

This week I have progressed two of my quilts.

Disappearing Into the Blue - my disappearing pinwheel quilt that I am making in blue fabrics for my spare bedroom. I only work on this on Wednesday at our quilt groups sewing day up at our sewing rooms. 

We got a new sign for our patchwork rooms today... cool eh?

Today despite having to reverse sew two full width of quilt seams, I eventually got all the rows of blocks put together. My first lot of reversing (unpicking) came when I realised that I had sewn one of the strips of sashing on the wrong way around. It is hard to tell with tone on tone white (especially when your eye sight isn't as sharp as it used to be) 

The white tone on tone of the sashing was a bit lighter than that in the blocks which made it easier to reverse. Grrr 1

No sooner had I reattached that correctly than I realised another mistake. In the whole quilt there are only two blocks made from the same fabric and you guessed it.... I had managed to get them side by side in adjoining rows. Not happy Jan (for non Aussie's reading this... that is a phrase from a television ad popular here a few years ago. The phrase has stuck even though the ad has long since moved on)

Mistake 2... identical blocks next to each other. Grrrr 2

By the time I was ready to leave I had all the rows put together and need only to attach the top and bottom sashing for the centre to be complete. I have pinwheels made for the first border and then plan on a piano key border as well so its still a way off being completed.

The quilt top centre... still missing the sashing off the sides

Sombrero Stars - SOMB Quilt 3. I worked on this over the week at home and am very pleased to be able to say that I got the top finished last night. Yay. Now to make the backing and get it quilted. I had a 2nd hand doona cover I was going to repurpose for this but have decided, in consultation with Fangirl (who came over this afternoon and helped me fix a few glitches in my blog set up) that the colour is not right. I have found some brown fabric that had been a mattress cover and some cream from a table cloth that was my mother in law's, which will be a better fit

Sombrero Stars top all done.

Tuesday Musing

Not sure what I will do on a Tuesday for my blog. I might not end up doing something every Tuesday but when I do... it'll be my Tuesday Museday!!

First Day of April. Time to set some goals for April. Trying not to set them too high so that I won't fall flat splat kerplop on my face. My goals for this month

Finish Sombrero Stars (quilt 3 of SOMB quilts... Shirt Off My Back)
Finish Not so Sombre Stars
Make an Easter Wall Hanging
Empty Scrap basket - cut into useful units and put away
Look for and hopefully find Tea Shop Applique Quilt pattern (I bought it in England in September but managed to lose it)

This is SOMBrero Stars. Finished putting the top together tonight. Now to make a back and quilt it!! You can see my shadow as I stood on a stool to take the photo

Not So SOMBre Stars. All the pieces are cut up and in their box.. Apart from the 5" 9 patches (which were part of the 350 or so I made from the shirt fabrics from the swap) no stitching has been done. But cutting all the pieces was a mamoth effort so it is well on the way

The fabrics and buttons purchased for my tea shop quilt. Finding the pattern is going to be a challenge. After I got back from the UK my husband and I went on a camping holiday in Southern and then Northern inland NSW. I bought fabric for it at several shops. I had the pattern then. Since we got home and I unpacked all my stuff... I haven't seen it. Oh dear.

Annie Dog

I took Annie to the vet today and they removed a heap of fluid from her lung by syringe. The vet is going to check some of the fluid under the microscope and will be able to tell if the fluid is from tumour or something else apparently. She came home after a couple of hours and is happy enough. She refused to come for a walk today (or a stroll... she rides in the stroller) She did come this morning and even walked for some of it. She seems a lot brighter in the mornings. If there are tumours then it will be just care and attention till we think her quality of life is too diminished. If it is treatable then we will treat her. The vet said to give her the diuretic tablets but she is becoming very wily and it was a battle to get them into her tonight... she puts her tongue up in the way to stop the tablet going down but we won in the end.

Annie on our morning walk. She is quite comfortable in the pram and seems to enjoy the outings

Annie and I

Our other dog Jack who is always looking for any extra attention that is going

Marchalong... final report

Marchalong is almost over... the month when people tried to quilt or do something quilting related for 15 minutes every day. Not sure I managed it this week as I was so busy but if I put my mind to it... I probably did. I wrote my last update on Tuesday of last week

Wednesday 26th was our groups sewing day so I was down at our patchwork room from about 9.30 till 1 PM. I made great progress on my Disappearing into the Blue quilt. (see my WIP Wednesday report for details) I forgot to take a photo of the quilt laid out so you get this

Thursday was my birthday (happy birthday to me) I visited my LQS and fabric was purchased (see Sunday Stash report for details. I also did some sewing at home as I was taking a break from my preparations for the afternoon tea I was hosting on Saturday. I started sewing together the blocks for my Sombrero Stars.

Friday I did some more sewing on the Sombrero Stars once I established that I had done all that could be done for the Afternoon Tea up to that point.

Saturday was "The Afternoon Tea" I ended up hosting 23 ladies and 4 children in my backyard. The morning was spent in lots of the on the day and last minute preparations stuff and the afternoon... well  Much yummy food was consumed. Fangirl and I took great delight in getting out and using lots of our lovely china that we both collect. (We both love English China and collect cup saucer and plates) We use real linen table cloths but do go for paper serviettes 

However after the guests had gone and the washing up was done and the stuff cleaned up as much as needs be... and the church had been cleaned (yeah... it was our weekend on for that... not good timing) well then I settled down and did some more block putting together on Sombrero Stars.

Sunday The morning was all taken up with The Rainbow Run - a colour run where people walk or run the course and every kilometre you get powder paint thrown at you so that at the end of the 5 km course your white clothes have all turned pretty colours. (and your skin.... and hair if you don't wear a hat...) 

Before

After Sorry... no full body pictures yet. I was running on my own and didn't have anyone but the official photographer to take photos. I pick those up tomorrow

And then a quick shower and turning up 30 mins late for church... then church and afterwards encouraging people to eat eat eat the leftovers from the afternoon tea. But in the afternoon ... I got to sit down and do some more sewing and by the end of the day I had completed the 30 blocks and they are now spread out on my floor.

Monday - today... nothing done yet as I write this. I have been looking at the blocks spread out over my floor and I have written this blog... I am working out what to sash it with (or indeed whether or not to sash it at all.) And the backing too. My aim is to use repurprosed fabric only in these quilts but it is getting harder to do. I have a table cloth that will go nicely for the backing. Actually it was originally an Indian sari my parents bought back from a visit there. Its very simple fabric and I used it mostly as a table cloth although it is very narrow. It must have been designed for a very short person.

So that is my Marchalong wrap for this year. Hopefully I will do it all again next year. More Marchalong madness and mayhem at 

WIP Wednesday

Have had a busy week but no finishes. Still have sewn and done lots of creative things so that is good. Guess my Marchalong report from yesterday would really cover today but....

I currently have 3 quilts in progress.

Not So Sombre Stars

The fabric is all cut for this and safely tucked into a clear plastic box waiting its turn to make it to the top of the working pile. I love using the plastic storage boxes for my WIPs. I haven't done it before this last month so its a new thing for me but I just love it. I can see easily where the projects are and if I need to add something to the project that is easily found and done. eg I bought some buttons on the weekend at the Craft Show I went to that were for my Tea Shop quilt that I am going to make one day (found some lovely buttons featuring little cakes. Perfect!) I was able to find the box that I have that project in and add the buttons.

My Project boxes. Top Tea Shop Quilt. 2nd box Sombrero Stars, 3rd Not So Sombre Stars and bottom Christmas Stockings. (I have to make my son's partner Earthy Yu)

Sombrero Stars

Not only is the fabric all cut but all the flying geese for it made (120 of them) AND I have put together the first block. I knew I wouldn't have time to sew this week so snuck in the time to make one last Friday before I flew to Brisbane. I left myself very little time to have my shower and finish getting ready to leave for the airport but we made it. AND I have a finished block as well!! The goodies for this quilt are all in their own little box as well

Disappearing into the Blue

As usual I worked on this at our Patchwork Group meeting today. I didn't spend as long up there as usual because of my busy week here at home (more about that later) but I was able to get the sashing for the blocks cut and the blocks sewn into rows. It was great to lay the quilt out and try to arrange the blocks in a pleasing way. It is hard to choose how to lay the blocks out. There are 30 of them - all different shades of blue (only one repeat) Trying to get a spread of the really dark blocks and the really light blocks plus some blocks are heavily patterned and there are few unusual blues. I am sure you quilters all face this dilemma too each time you have to lay out a scrappy quilt. I must admit I tend to give up and just go with whatever in the end. As soon as I move two dark ones away from each other I find that I have moved a heavily patterned one in next to another heavily patterned one etc etc. Then after spending ages agonising over the arrangement when I pick them up to sew the strips together I seem to get them mixed up and end up with two similar ones next to each other anyway!!

I nearly didn't stay at patchwork. I found that I had left my sewing box at home. I had my project in its box and my machine stays in the car all the time. The sewing box has my pins, thread, scissors, seam ripper, rotary cutter etc in it. I thought I might just cut the sashing fabric and then come home but decided to duck home (only 5 minutes away from our sewing room) and grab what I needed. I took time to put the washing into the dryer whilst I was there, check on the dog and grab my sewing box.



Why I am busy

On Saturday I am hosting an "English Afternoon Tea" here in my garden (or on my patio if the current rain we are experiencing keeps up) Not sure how many people are going to turn up. I've got about 15 definites and maybe another 15! Hopefully numbers will be clearer tomorrow when acceptances close (and even clearer as people respond late on Friday and Saturday morning) Its a fundraiser for School Chaplaincy which our church helps support. 2 of my friends are school chaplains here in our town so its a cause dear to my heart.

Fangirl and I have been cooking up a storm all week and I am supposed to be cleaning up the house and the garden... yeah... supposed to be.

And what else?

My dog Annie is very unwell. She's a 9 year old Australian Terrier cross who belongs officially to my youngest son. Whilst I was in Brisbane on the weekend Fixit Guy found that her belly was very swollen so took her to the vet who admitted her and ran some tests. Whilst x-raying her to check what was going on with the swelling in her belly they found that there is a large mass of some description in one lung. She has been very breathless for a few months. We had mentioned this to the vet at her check up but they couldn't find anything at the time (no x-ray then as we didn't push it ) and we all put it down to increased age, the heat etc. Anyway they aren't sure what is going on with the lung. It is is full of fluid which could be pus, but not likely since no other indications of infection. It could be blood but blood tests have indicated that unless it is a very slow leak into the lung that isn't it. The most likely thing is that it is a tumour and the fluid is associated with that. The vet is getting a second opinion on that. He could extract fluid with a syringe but didn't want to go ahead without advice. The x-rays showed that she is extremely constipated. He gave her a laxative but it had minimal affect. The next thing to try is an enema but that apparently would also require sedation and at the moment with her lungs so compromised he doesn't want to do that. The swelling did come down somewhat. I bought her home on Tuesday (yesterday) and spent a good bit of the day sitting with her and cuddling her. She was bright enough when I picked her up but then refused to eat (hadn't eaten at the vets much either) brought up what she did eat, and laid around the yard doing nothing all day.

She was brighter last night and was interested in food and trotted about a bit. This morning she even wanted to come on a walk with our other dog but the vet said not to exert her at all. She ate a bit from me when offered (had to get her tablets into her... antibiotics and diuretic) However has been very quiet and laying about the yard again not doing anything. Her belly is very swollen again this afternoon. Not sure when the vet is going to get back to us re the specialist. I will ring later this afternoon and check. She doesn't seem very distressed or in pain. We will play it by ear. I won't let her suffer but whilst she has some quality of life we will enjoy her company and say good bye when the time comes.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Marchalong - week 3 or is it 4

Have continued to find time to sew or do quilty/sewing related stuff every day.

Tuesday 18th continued cutting fabric for my next two SOMB quilts Not so Sombre Stars and Sombrero Stars. There were a lot of pieces needed from as many different recycled fabrics as I could find. I worked out that for the 2 quilts I needed 560 x 2.75" sqs, 440 2.75"x5", 200 5" sqs plus 55  of the 5" sq 9 patches which I had already made. No wonder I was cutting for so long!! I couldn't strip cut too much as I was working with bits and pieces plus I needed to keep a track of how many of each colour I had.

Wednesday was my patchwork day. Didn't get to sew the whole time as to start with we had a cleaning bee to get the rooms ready for a weekend workshop that the group had on. Did get to sew from about 11 AM though through till 3 PM (apart from lunch of course) I worked on the pinwheels for the border of my Disappearing into the Blue pinwheel quilt. I got them all sewn and pressed too.

Thursday I started to sew flying geese units for the Sombrero Stars quilt. Got them all made and the first of the blocks done before I left for the airport on Friday afternoon.

Friday in between packing to go away, preparing for and then teaching my Religion classes at the school (I teach 2 half hour lessons to Gd 3) and sewing the flying geese I also worked out the layout for the Disappearing in the Blue Quilt and what fabric I would need for the sashing and borders. On the flight to Brisbane (1.5 hours approx) I did a bit of hand stitching (and a lot of reading)

Saturday went to Stitches and Craft Show for 4 hours. Bought some fabric, ruler, mat and other bits and pieces. (See Stash Report for more details and photos)

Sunday went to Spotlight and bought the white tone on tone fabric I wanted for the sashing and borders for Disappearing into the Blue and also some stripey fabric for the binding. On the plane home I stitched some more on my hand project.

Yesterday, Monday I unpacked my fabric and photographed it for the blog. I read some blogs and I wrote a couple of blog posts. (stash report and Quilty Resolutions)

Today I have written this post and might get the fabric I bought put away and find a home for my other new bits and pieces. Not sure how much else I will get done. I am hosting an afternoon tea at my place on Saturday and since the end of my week is usually fairly busy I have been trying to get some preparation done for that.

More about Marchalong at Scientific Quilter

Quilty Resolutions Update

Sandy, at Quilting for the Rest of Us Podcast challenged us at the beginning of the year to come up with 3 quilty resolutions and now at the end of the first quarter she is calling for an update on how we have gone with them.

My resolutions were very concrete
1. Make a Quilt for my great nephew who was born in August
2. Sort my stash to get out all my little bits out of the stash and into my scrap bins cut into the sizes that I use
3 Sort through my 2nd hand fabrics or repurposed fabrics and get them into usable piles

So... how am I going.

1. My great nephew's quilt was made in January and I was able to give it to my sister to give to her grandson when I saw her at the family reunion at the end of January. 

Sorry its sideways... silly blogger stuffing me about again

2. I worked consistently through January sorting through my fabric, refolding it and getting out all the smaller pieces (under fat quarter size or 25cm width of fabric) and cutting them into the sizes I store 1.5", 2.5", 3.5", 4.5", 5.5", 6.5"  In strips, bricks and squares, I also added to this 5" and 10" squares. That was a very handy thing to do as not long after this I participated in the Disappearing Pinwheel sew along and I had my 10" squares all cut. I also used the 5" squares to make pinwheels for the border. For the first time ever I found a place I could put my folding cutting table up and leave it up. It has been great to have it.

Disappearing Pinwheel Quilt made entirely from my stash - all the 10" and 5" squares used in the pinwheel blocks came from my stash already cut to size. Such a time saver

the finished quilt showing the pieced binding as well

3. I sorted through the second had fabric, got it all ironed and stacked up near my cutting table ready for me to cut it into useful sizes. I hadn't gotten to it at all when last Sunday I started to cut fabric for another quilt project, one for which I only wanted to use recycled fabric in keeping with the focus unit of each block, a nine patch made up of fabric from shirts from a swap (part of a challenge from a retreat I went on last year) See WIP Wednesday I was so glad that I hadn't cut all the fabric up as I had planned. The star blocks I was making required some of the pieces to be 2.75" square or 2.75x5". 

The fabric being cut into units for my next 2 quilts. Its all repurposed fabric having been a doona cover, sheet, table cloth, shirt, banner in a previous life

The blocks for one of the quilts I am using the recycled fabric in... the other one has 5" squares in the corner instead of 2.75" ones and has an extra rectangle on the flying geese to make it a 14.5" block rather than a 9.5" block like this one

I am putting this post up now without some of the photos that I want to include because my Fixit Guy is asleep in the room the cord I need to upload the photos with is in. I will try to do it tomorrow and then I will remove this bit but in the meantime... if you want more pictures you will have to come back

WIP Wednesday

Last week I powered through the quilting of 3 quilts and got them finished up. It was so satisfying. There won't be any more finishes for a little while now I think. (see Stash Report)

Since I finished off the last of the quilts on Saturday night I have been busy

SOMB Quilt 3
I have cut fabric for my next quilt which again will feature the 5" 9-patches made from the shirts from the swap at Patch n Peace 2013 - another quilt in my Shirt off my Back series (SOMB) These ones will be 14" finished star blocks. I plan on having the quilt 5 x 5 so 25 blocks in all. I might call this one "Not so Sombre Stars"

cutting the squares and rectangles for the star blocks

SOMB Quilt 4
I have also cutting fabric for the last of the SOMB quilts which will also feature a star in the centre but these ones will only be 9" finished but they will have sashing and that will make it a decent sized quilt. I will make it 5x6 in order to use up the last of the blocks. I will have 4 left over... they can go on the back... unless I incorporate them into border some how. What to call this one though... Sombrero Stars. Working the SOMB theme to the last.

The centres of both Not so Sombre Stars and Sombrero Stars will feature the 5" 9-Patch surrounded by 4 flying geese. In the Not so Sombre Stars there will be a rectangle on behind the flying geese block and a 5"square piece in each  corner. The finished block will be 14".The Sombrero Star will be smaller. The corner blocks will be 2.75"square and the finished block will be 9" finished. In total I am going to be making 220 flying geese for the blocks. I must be crazy... and I was thinking about some in the borders. I might rethink that one!!

The block for Sombrero Stars. I haven't made the flying geese units... just folded the squares over to get the idea

The block for Not So Sombre Stars.

With all of the quilts in the SOMB group I have tried to only use recycled/re purposed/second hand fabric. I have used a lot of the fabric/linen that I bought home with me last October from my Aunty Doris's estate. She died aged 99 years and 9 months in Sept 2012. A year later her daughter-in-law was still making her way through all the stuff that Doris had collected up in the almost 70 years that she had lived in the house now occupied by her son and his wife. I helped with the sorting out for a week and was allowed to have any fabric that I thought might be useful. I came home with a suitcase of doilies, old sheets, new fabric etc. A lot of this has gone into these last two SOMB quilts.

Disappearing Into the Blue
Today at Patchwork group I worked on my "Disappearing into the Blue" Disappearing Pinwheel quilt. All of the 44 pinwheels needed for the border are completed and pressed. I finished the blocks for the centre of the quilt last week. Before I can put the blocks together I need to buy some more tone on tone white fabric as I haven't got enough of the fabric I used in the blocks left. No new photos this week but here is one I put on an earlier post

The finished off disappearing pinwheels.

Marchalong

The idea of March-along is to spend at least 15 minutes every day in March  doing something quilt related. Sewing, cutting, reading, sorting, watching a class online, browsing quilt related websites ... anything quilt related counts

It started on March 1st but I didn't hear about it till later in the first week. My first weekend of knowing about it got a bit sabotaged by life.  

Friday 7th I left home at 10.45 AM to drive 4 hours to Mackay for our church (Uniting Church of Australia) Presbytery (Central Queensland) meetings. They are held every 4 months (well 3 times a year) around our presbytery and the minister and a member of the congregation goes to  the meetings for each congregation. I am the journal secretary ie I take the minutes so don't represent our congregation. I traveled with our rep, his wife and our minister. No chance to sew before I went (Does a bit of tidying up of my sewing area count? Hope so) I flicked through a quilting magazine in the car. We had meetings that night 7.30-9 PM

Saturday Meetings started at 8 AM and ran through till 9 PM (we do get morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner breaks) I looked at another magazine when I got back to our unit and also read some blogs during the day when I didn't have to be paying attention

Sunday. Worship 9-10.15 was the closing activity of Presbytery. We stopped at Spotlight (big fabric/habbie/craft/homewares store) for about 20 minutes... not for me but our minister. I had a brief look at fabric but no purchases. Home 4.30. I got organised for some quilting ... don't think I started that night although I might have. I didn't actually sew

Monday. Got me my quilty on well and truly. I started quilting my "Pretty Pinwheels" Disappearing Pinwheels Quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company. Worked on it all day and eventually got it finished including binding

Tuesday. Worked on my "Sombre Blue" My Shirt Off My Back Recycling quilt. Its from a challenge that we had at our 2013 retreat where we swapped pieces of men's shirts and had to make a quilt using the fabric. Got it done including the sashing

Wednesday Our regular patchwork group get together (we have our own rooms and can go up there whenever we like but our regular sewing day is Wednesday) I was up there from 9-3. I worked on my other disappearing Pinwheel quilt which I am doing in blues. I've called it "Disappearing into the Blue". I got all the blocks assembled by the end of the day and had even started on some of the pinwheels for the border.

Thursday I ironed my disappearing pinwheel blocks.

Friday I started quilting my Brown SOMBrero (my other Shirt off My Back quilt which features some brown sashing instead of blue) after dinner. Ran out of the thread I was using so had to stop mid evening

Saturday Finished quilting Brown Sombrero including the sashing.

Sunday I have started cutting fabric for my hopefully last project using the fabric from the SOMB blocks. I had made 350 nine patches from the fabric. Have used 121 in Sombre Blue and 144 on the front of Brown Sombrero and another 20 or so on the back. Have just under 60 left to use up. My aim is to try to use just recycled fabric in all the projects. Currently cutting extra fabric for the block I am planning on using in the last one. Its going to have the nine patches in the centre of a star block. Cutting rectangles and squares to make flying geese units to go around that as well as corner blocks etc. Having fun trying to figure them out.

Monday Continued cutting the scraps for the block. I am using fabric from old curtains, sheets, doona covers, shirts.... its fun but time consuming. I will get there... eventually. Don't think I am going to have any finishes at this rate for a while though.

Pieces for the star blocks I am making

Any fabric not the right size for my next quilt I am cutting up to go in my scrap boxes

You can read more about Marchalong at Scientific Quilter

Stash Report - 3 finishes

So excited to report today. I have had 3 finishes this week. Yay! Go me! 

I have finished
 Pretty Pinwheels - This quilt is destined for my next great niece or nephew, due in April (I think... bad great aunty I am) Its bigger than the quilts I usually give to babies but since this bub is their 3rd I asked my nephew and his wife if they would prefer a bigger quilt this time and they said yes. They use the quilts I have made their son and daughter now aged almost 4 and 2 on their beds and they are a bit small for that purpose. Hence... the disappearing pinwheel quilt that grew considerably from my original plans for it... is perfect for them. I detailed my quilting and finishing of this in my Work In Progress Wednesday  last week but because it is so gorgeous here is another peak at it

Pretty Pinwheels from Missouri Star pattern Disappearing Pinwheels

My next finish, which was also detailed in my WIP report was Blue Shirt Off My Back (SOMB) which I have decided to call Sombre Blue... Shirt Off My Back Recycled.

Sombre Blue

My third finish for the week was the brown version of the SOMB quilt now called Brown Sombreoro (Shirt off my back recycled original oi .. the oi is very Aussie... there is a well known Australian Chant... Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi) I finished it last night about 10 PM... I was determined to have it done by today.

My husband, Fixit Guy, was tied up with meetings all weekend so I had a pretty clear run at the work. Started quilting in Friday afternoon and was really cranky with myself when I ran out of thread mid evening. Darn it. I didn't even have something close that I could fudge it. It felt like a really wasted opportunity.

I bought more thread and was able to get back to it Saturday afternoon. I had lots of fun with this one trying a few different things with my quilting. I used lots of general stilping but also incorporated some shapes - I did an abstract tree in the centre, It didn't show up well in the photo so I haven't included it. I did some clouds and a sun up the top and down the bottom a did a heap of flower shapes. I did a vine and flower motif around the border. 

The Sun and Clouds showed up well on the back

You can see the sun on the front as well

'

Once again I have machined stitched the binding. I am really enjoying using the different fancy stitches on my machine. This time the wiggley line echoed the wiggles of the stipple stitch I used which was a nice contrast to the super geometric design of the nine-patch and sashing blocks.

Quilt pieced back

My stash report for my three finishes is as follows

Pretty Pinwheels 6.69m fabric used

Somber Blue 7.39m  used 

Brown Sombrero 8.12m used for a total of 22.2 metres used this week (and this month)

Purchases - .7 m of little cake fabric (sorry refuse to say cup cake as that is very American. I would use patty cake which is what we called them when I was growing up and I continue to call them that but recognise that my international audience might struggle with that expression) I am collecting patty cake fabric for a quilt that I am making to celebrate my trip to the UK last year. Fangirl and I made morning/afternoon tea stops a feature of our trip. I loved visiting Brittish tea shops. I found an applique pattern featuring a teashop on my one and only visit to a quilt shop whilst overseas. I haven't made it yet but plan to ... as soon as I can find what I did with the pattern.

Oops digression there. Back to stash report

So totals for the year

Total used                              53.06

total purchased                       13.31

Net fabric used                       39.75         


Other stash reports can be found at Patchwork Times