More sewing fun!

 I'm happy that I've managed to make more 365 challenge blocks than there are days of the week - first time for ages that I've had the energy to do that!

All these blocks are 6 1/2" square and made of lights / brights from my batik stash.

Of course, I didn't manage to get everything right first time.  The block on the right has the top right hand corner sewn on wrong, so I'll need to unpick that and re-sew it.

I've put it next to this other block - Flower Garden Path - that I am pleased with.  Partly it reminds me that I can sew things right the first time (!) and partly because I was interested to see the differences in the blocks that are both nine patches with chevrons in the middle outer four squares.

Apart from this there is a little bit of cross stitching going on, but not much else...... Hope that you too are enjoying something creative this week!

Bags more potential!

 Everyone who's been sewing for a while will be nodding along now - we are lucky enough to become magnets for bags of fabric.

These bags, passed on via the mother of a friend, are from some one else who is downsizing.

Oh the excitement!  One is never quite sure what the bags will hold.  What colours? What textures? What will the fabric be made of?

 Un furling the twisted tops of the bags is just the start of the journey of exploration that lies ahead.

I'm not sure that much of these bags will be quilting fabric - it looks to me as though the lady passing this on was a garment maker.  This is rather nicely timed with the start of 'The Great British Sewing Bee' on television, and my younger daughter wondering out loud if she should make another skirt.

I think that I need to look out (or even buy!) some patterns and get busy sewing with her. 

There might also be something suitable for school production costumes too.  We're going to be busy!

My other sewing has been on the 365 challenge.  I've accepted that I'm woefully (albeit cheerfully!) behind - but proud that I've almost finished the April blocks!

These are 6 1/2" square, but some of them seem to be four times the work of the 3 1/2" square blocks that we've working on up until now - so taking a bit longer to complete than they used to!

All good fun - and I'm enjoying the brighter, lighter colours too.

Oh, the potential!

 Oh, indeed, what potential these little blocks have!

I have reached 'April 22nd' on the 365 Challenge - which is significant because I have now, I am told, make enough 3 1/2" 'dark' blocks to be able to make the border to surround the centre medallion!!!

It's going to be a fun game trying to balance the different flashes of colour as well as shapes within the blocks - wish me luck!  I'm not sure whether to drop everything and concentrate on that, or whether to just keep pressing ahead with making the next series of blocks in an effort to get a bit more up to date!

Of course, the range of untrimmed blocks here will need to be seen by a rotary cutter and ruler square before that happens!


My only other quilting news this week is that I attended a very entertaining talk by Janet Clare about her textile business and how it has developed.  I went to one of her workshops several years ago, but she's been awfully busy since then!  Several books (you might remember that I won one of them, 'Quilt Home Quilt' a couple of years ago) and lots of other lovely projects.  Plenty to enjoy!

Off to bind the edge of some oven gloves (I don't have small hands, but still haven't managed to find oven gloves small enough for me, so I'm compromising by 'hacking' some Ikea ones) whilst I decide whether to join blocks or make more new ones!

In a Whirl!

Put together, these Little Hazel blocks look like an op art experiment - big and bold!  Thank you, Esther!

My only sewing this week.  Are they perfect? No!  Am I going to do anything else to try and perfect them?  No!

I shall make sure that I either (in time honoured tradition!) put a button over the centres of these blocks, or gift the resulting quilt to a non-quilter who will never be troubled by the 'not quite matching well enough' centres!

Happy sewing, everyone!