More progress

 Not quite as much progress as I'd hoped (half term will do that to anyone!) but I have managed to put my final 'bow tie' border on.

Keeping on with the 'randuko' (that's Avril's newly coined word for random / Suduko scattering of items - in this case the grey centres of my bow ties and the background creams and whites*)  I'm quite pleased with how it's coming along.

I'd be even more pleased if I hadn't made a mistake putting the borders on, resulting in an interruption to the alternate white and cream background squares - doh!  I did consider correcting it, but the prospect of so much stitch ripping didn't really appeal to me, so I'm just going to consider it 'one of those things' and learn to ignore it!

At 56" square it's hard to take a flat photo of it in my craft room as it currently is.

Still, what the photo does confirm is that I'd like to frame the quilt with a scrappy blue border.

Time to get cutting the rest of those scrap fabrics into little strips!

* I've also been randukoing couscous (scattered cucumber and cheese cubes in packed lunches) and rice salads.  I'll be using the art of randuko on my border strips too, I'm sure!

Serried Ranks

 More progress on my 'Heart It' quilt top - all the hearts and scallops added for me now.

I'm really pleased with how it looks so far.

On the opposite side of the room are the serried ranks of bowtie blocks ready to be chain pieced, now that I've put them into 'random' (we quilters really need a word to describe something that is closer to Suduko than random, where we organise so not too many 'sames' appear in the layout where we want 'scatters'!).

 Wish I hadn't spent so much time on other admin, though, as I wanted to have made more progress!

 I forgot to mention my purchase last week.

I've bought one of these cute shopping totes from Benta.

She is making them with a variety of fabrics on the birds - very pretty!  Let her know if you'd like to buy one too!

Sorry that the photos don't really do it justice, but it is lovely!

Scalloping Along

 This week I've been working on the longer scallop borders, and I thought that I'd share how I set them out.

I measured the 2 1/2" strips - this border is 36 1/2" long.

Using a water erasable pen (choose your favourite disappearing marker here!) I drew a line 1/2" from one of the long sides.

 Then I measured in 1/4" from the end, and marked every 2" on the long line that was drawn first.

Finally I lay out my scallops so that the top of the curve just touched my 2" apart marks and pinned them in place.  You will have a lovely line of scallops to applique round, properly spaced.  You may want to catch the flat edges of the scallops down with a line of machine stitching - I like to make sure that I'm within the 1/4" seam allowance when I do that.

The next thing for me to do is to make my corner blocks.  Again, a slight departure from Esther's pattern (sorry Esther, no disrespect intended, just fiddling because I can!).

I've made a tear drop shape in Word, and I'm planning to applique this shape into the four corners of the scallop border.  I'm expecting to finish these borders and the next ring of bowties this week.  Exciting times!

My other excitement this week was going to a talk by Ruth Singer, a textile artist based in Leicester, at the Richmond and Kew Quilters.

Lovely thought provoking work.  I bought a card and several post cards of her work to add to my pinboard.

Happy sewing everyone!

The Middle of the Middle

 I've started putting things together!

In truth, I haven't quite finished the bow tie blocks (nearly though!) - but I decided to start the layout on my 'design wall' (otherwise known as a bit of fleece hung on the wall!).

Of course, once I'd put the blocks up I wanted to start joining them together - so I did!

It's very exciting when you get to that stage, isn't it?

 Wobbly photos - but you can see a little more of the fabrics that I've been using here.

You can also see that I've made a slight variation to Esther's pattern and put a quarter circle in the corner instead of a straight triangle.  I think that a tear drop with the smallest part of the drop into the inner corner might work even better, but I didn't think of that early enough in the process!

I took this photo slantwise to try and show the dimension of the grey squares in my 3D bow tie blocks.

It's all very exciting, isn't it?  I'm looking forward to working on it again this week and perhaps getting the top (or at least, the part of the top that I'm planning on making - I'm not going to make the outer hearts and scallops) completed.

Hope that you have some happy stitching planned this week too!