WIP Wednesday - progress in all sorts of directions

Its been another bits and pieces week.

"Pink Pizzazz" (the quilt I am working on for our quilting group) was pinned today after our monthly meeting. No one rushed me for it and so I will quilt it myself. Its pretty small so won't take long. We decided that we would give it to our Neighbourhood Centre who run fundraising events for Breast Cancer research. We don't mind if it is used as a raffle prize or given to someone in need. They can choose.

"Going Green"  I also got pin basted today at the rooms assisted by 3 of the women there. I sure did appreciate their help. Pinning can take ages! I didn't stop to take a photo of the process. You will have to trust me on this

Hexies - have been beavering away making more of these. I now have 18 flowers made plus another little bag of basted hexies not sewn into flowers plus a heap more pinned. I found a website during the week that had a calculator on it for working out how many hexies you need for quilts.  Its here on CDDesigns.com You can select the dimension of the hexies and the dimensions of the quilt. Tells you how many half hexies you need too. Problem with it was that it told me if I want a queen bed quilt I am going to need 1523 hexies. ATM once I have put together all the hexies I have pinned, basted and sewn together that comes to about 300 hexies.... so I have a long way to go!! Last night a cut out a pile of hexie papers. I used a free pdf download from here on Love Patchwork and Quilting I have saved the PDF and only print out the page I wanted (1.5" sides) I printed out 10 pages. There are 8 hexies on each page I would use one page as the pattern and load up 5 pieces of scrap paper behind and cut them out together. I wish that there were more than just 8 hexies per page as it wastes a lot of paper but feel that they are more accurate than me tracking around my plastic hexie template. I have quite a pile of hexies cut out ready to pin to fabric.

Scrap Basket
This was probably my biggest achievement for the week. As per Pam, from Hip To Be a Square Podcast, I took before and after photos to document my progress. Here are my scraps both in and out of the basket

 It took me a day and a half to get it all done and one of those days was pretty solid going. It was good to get it all cut up and organised!  You can see how I organise myself in the photo below where my daughter's 2 cats who are visiting this week are Helpingering (that's another Pam phrase) I have my ironing board set up close to the cutting table (usually its over next to my sewing machine and set to a seated level so I can just swing around from my sewing machine to press the seams as required) I iron a pile of scraps and then cut them up to size. I have a number of shoe boxes, one for each of the sizes I cut to, set up along the back of the cutting table (resting on the back of the couch) I can watch tv whilst I cut although to be honest I listened to a number of podcasts and radio plays (lots on the bbc website if you are wanting to listen to good stuff) and also an audio book.

I cut my scraps into units from 1.5 - 5" (going up in .5" increments), 6.5"  squares and strips and 10" squares. I also make bricks in some sizes (rectangles where the length is 2 x width - .5" Good for making flying geese units)

See an empty basket. I put all the scraps back into it after I tipped them out for the earlier photo - 

In resorting some of my boxes of scraps and other bits and pieces as part of this scrap cutting I found some left over hexies from my QAYG hexie quilt I made 9 years ago. I had cut them out but not used them and was very pleased to to find that they were the right size... that's saved me some cutting (and is using up some scraps. Bonus)

What have you  been working on this week?

  

WIP Wednesday

Its been another busy week with a variety of projects on the go. And too many is never enough...

I have started work on the 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month quilt. I watched all the shows in 2013 after I joined Craftsty. At the time I was sick in bed with Barmah Forrest Virus. Thats a mosquito born disease found only in Australia. It is not all that well known but is becoming so. Symptoms are aches and pains in joints, swelling of joints, rash, fatigue. I had the aches and pains and the fatigue but no rash or swelling. It left me feeling wiped out.

Anyway I was spending a lot of time lying down and I enjoyed watching the whole Craftsy class right through but didn't have the energy or inclination to actually get up and do any sewing. Its been on my To Do list for a while now and I put making at least one block from the class on my goals for March and am delighted to say that I have completed both of the blocks for January and have cut the fabric for February's blocks. Go me

I was able to go to Spotlight whilst in Rockhampton earlier on in the week and take advantage of their 30% off everything. I got the navy blue fabric I wanted to finish off the Pinwheel quilt I have been working on for our Patchwork Group. I should have enough to do the back and binding as well. At Patchwork today I was able to get the narrow borders on the front to finish the top off. It looks great.

 I also got to back pieced. I was able to work into it the 3 12" blocks that were made for other BOM's we had but in the wrong colour way. Originally we had been going to do all the BOM's for the year in blue and white but then they decided no, each one would be a different colour. However not all of us got to message and a few of us made subsequent blocks in blue and white too. So.... we had these spare blocks. 3 x 12" blocks and an 8" pinwheel. I am really pleased with how the back worked out - not to mention pleased to have the quilt ready to be basted and quilted.

The Tea Shop quilt has been sitting pinned and ready to go near my machine all week but haven't started on it yet. I really need to get a move on because I would like it finished to hang at the Our Rainbow House afternoon tea at the end of the month.

I was able to complete the last 2 blocks in the Elephant Parade quilt. They were two flowers. I have only made one of each of the blocks (apart from the flowers which I made 2 of the blue flowers as per instructions) I am not sure what I am going to do with the finished blocks. To make the whole quilt I will need to make more of all the blocks but I am not convinced I want to do that. I might make them into a bag or a wall hanging... not sure yet so have packed them up and put them away till I decide.

I made the next block in the Harry Potter POD QAL. That means that  I have enough blocks to complete 2 rows of the bookshelf. I started to sew  names on the books but that is a slow process. I don;t want to sew the blocks together as that will make it hard to embroider the blocks... but I am not sure now if I want to sew names on all the books. But perhaps it will look stupid if only some of the books have names on them... I can't decide. I could probably sew the blocks into long strips and still work on the blocks... but then.. I don't know. I can't decide so at the moment I haven't sewn them together.

The next clue in Scrapitude was released last week and I got the steps all completed. I had to cut more squares cause I misinterpreted an earlier clue but it was ok. It was a little bit tricky this time but managed it ok. Apparently there are only two more sets of clues to go and the last lot includes putting it all together. I am intrigued at how it is going to come out. All of it has come out of my stash and most of it has come out of my scrap stash. Funny thing is that the drawers with my cut scraps in still seem to be jam packed. Considering all the scraps that have come out of them......

And that brings me to my last WIP. I am once again working my way through my basket of scraps cutting them into useful units ready to be utilised in future projects. I really love having my scraps dealt with in this way. My choice of useful units are 1.5"through to 5" going up in half inch increments in squares or strips of that width, then 6.5" squares and strips and 10" squares. Having my units already cut has made preparation for various mystery quilts much quicker than it otherwise might have been. Yes sometimes I have to cut my units down (or cut units from my stash) if they are a bit more unusual eg 5.5" or 1/4" units but on the whole it has saved me so much time. Recently I was preparing for a mystery quilt to be held at a retreat I am off to in June. It called for about 300 1.5" squares. Would you believe I didn't have to cut any of them? They were all in my scrap stash already. 

Anyway - this week I have once again started to work on emptying my scrap basket. It was overflowing and then some.... I didn't think to take a photo initially. The photo is from today when I have already been working on it for a day or 2.

I have shallow boxes labelled with the various sized cuts to sort into. The tv set up means that I can watch shows whilst trimming my scraps. Today though I listened to a Craftsy class

I 

I used to try to keep the squares and the strips separated in the boxes but now I realise its much simpler to sort them at the end when putting them into the plastic drawers I keep them in. The drawers have shoe boxes fitted into them into, one for strips and one for squares usually. 

That's been my week. Pretty busy all in all. 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday,WOW- WIPs on Wednesday and Lets Bee Social

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

Sunday Stash Report. I got a finish

Whoot I got a finish. I have already blogged about it. My curtains were finished and hung and if you want to know the truth of their finishing then you can go read about it here where I bare my soul about the net result. Confession might be good for the soul but repetition can be boring.

The curtains were 4.5 m of fabric and that was it for the week. It was the only sewing I got done. The virus I have (Barmah Forrest Virus. Read about it here) has sapped me of my energy and inclination to do much else. 

My stash report for the week

Fabric added this week             0
Fabric used this week               4.5m

Year to Date Used                     64.97
Year to Date added                   38.31
Net Used                                    26.66m

When I have been in my sewing room and have had the energy I have been cutting my way through my scrap basket. I am very pleased to being close to the bottom of it again.

You might think there is a lot in there but  the blue is lightly packed in so it doesn't crease (I've ironed it) Below is a photo of what it looked like at the start of last week

The boxes on my cutting table are now quite full of cut scraps. Gotta try to get them into the scrap drawers

I have been planning the backing of the Not So Sombre Stars for Derek using the signature blocks that are slowly coming in. I collected a few blocks from friends at church today and handed out a few more squares of fabric. I reminded a few people who have squares to get them back to me so that was a job well done. 

I saw a pattern on a Facebook group I am part of during the week which I thought would look good. Its scrappy so right up my alley. My scrap drawers are bulging 

These are my 1.5" drawers - strips in the top one squares and bricks below. I still have to fit what I have cut in the last week in there

so I really have to get sewing some scrap projects. This block consisted of a large centre square in a light fabric with a narrow coloured piece on each side and corner stones in a light fabric. The blocks were all then joined together with colourful sashing sashing with a plain light corner stone at each block. The end result is 5 squares which are arranged same as the dots on a dice are for the number 5. This would be all much clearer if I posted a picture of it but the photo wasn't mine so can't just filch it. Also... can't remember which Facebook group it was on (I am a member of several) and finding older photos and things on Facebook pages is hard!! Here's the sketch I did of it

I sketched it on a docket and shoved it back in my bag afterwards hence its all scrunched up. Must get back to carrying a notebook with me. At least I had a pen!

 So I Sketched out the design and figured it would be an 8.5" block. That is giving it a 6.5" centre , 1.5" wide strips around it and sashing and 1.5" sq corner stones. I haven't handed out that many signature blocks but figured that I can leave some blank for other friends to sign when they visit him - people I am not in contact with. I will have to go measure the quilt top to work out exactly how many blocks I will need for the back.


I drew it up today during the sermon in church. Um ahh you say... naughty naughty BUT my OT daughter (aka Fangirl) was talking about it on her blog the other day (see here for the whole thing) Its called getting tactile (touch) and proprioceptive (joint movement) feedback which can help some people sit longer and concentrate more. I usually  crotchet or embroider during meetings and helps me focus on what is being said. Otherwise I tend to go off in my own little world and daydream or fidget and wonder how long I have to sit there. I used to crotchet a lot in church as a teenager until someone chipped me about it. Instead I then counted bricks in the wall, or the letters in the text that was painted on the wall, or planned my shopping list. I paid a lot less attention. Now a days I find that quilt patterns pop into my head, or designs for church banners. I find that if I sketch them out then and there I can still tune into the message.(otherwise I find I keep dwelling on the design and trying to remember it and make calculations in my head and completely tune out from what is going on)

Linking up with Stash Report at Patchwork Times

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

.

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