Mid January plans

I hope to be more successful than last year with finishes, so to get off on a positive start I am linking up today with the 2017 Finish A  Long with Mrs Sew and Sow... more of that after some good news!

I was very pleased that P finally agreed to have aircon fitted, not only in my sewing room, but in the lounge as well.  I had to pull the frame away for the wall and cover everything with drop cloths.... but still the dust from drilling gets into places you least expect!  Upshot was after one day beforehand of moving things, two days of installation, and two days of scrubbing floors and cleaning dust (and accumulated fabric dust!) off all surfaces, rearranging... yay! a lovely cool tidy space!

And with a nice clean space in which to work I finished piecing this back for the Pat Sloan's 2016 block of the month quilt top.  I took all the leftover bits and added only three more fat quarters.

Lots of fun, and plenty of partial seams!

So last Thursday while I was waiting for the workmen to arrive, I made a list of my projects in progress and what needs to still be done or the next steps at least... somewhat more projects than I thought!   So from this long list I've picked a few that could/maybe/possibly get finished this quarter, and if life gets to busy, never mind, they will wait patiently for me!  I was pleased when looking for these photos to find I had finished four of the quilts listed this time last year.

No 1:  Colourwash - needs to be quilted and finished

No 2:  Allietare -  it's further along than this, needs borders, backing, quilting and finishing

No 3: En Provence:  every 3" unit is cut and sewn, and all these 841 units need to be put into blocks and sashing, then quilt etc

No 4: Old MacDonald Mystery Quilt - Put together the few blocks that are done and maybe add a few more:

 No 5:   The Birds - find a backing, quilt, finish:

No 6:  Split Triangles:   Play and sew blocks together, quilt,etc

No 7:  Lovely, Lonely Blocks:   add border, quilt etc  This is not one of my tops, but some of my fabrics were used to put the blocks together at a quilt group meeting - destined to be donated in June:

No 8:  One-patch Hexis:  I had a stack of these larger circles folded into hexagons from a demo I did at a Guild meeting.  They are stitched together - need quilting and finishing!

9.  Curvy Squares - from a class taken, needs quilting and finishing:

 

10. Orca Bay...yes, again quilt and finish!

If you've read this far, thank-you.  If you are part of the 2017FAL, good luck with your finishes this quarter.

Weekend playing and sewing

Yesterday was my monthly quilt group meeting.  Each of the committee members runs one or two meetings a year...it was my turn (it seems to come around very quickly!), and I asked everyone to bring lovely, lonely blocks to meet other lovely, lonely blocks, and we had a great time creating fun quilts from these.  There were lots of interesting blocks... plenty for another playtime.  Some ladies were sewing, others trimming and pressing.  But lots of serious discussions!  And a chance to talk,especially with newer members of the group.

These were two sets of blocks that the makers didn't like anymore, the sixteen-patch sashed on two sides to enlarge.

And today, because I didn't sew yesterday, I finished Block number 7 from Pat Sloan's Mystery Garden.  I had forgotten I'd already cut some strips and had made the centre star, so that made it easy!  There are 12 blocks (each 16" square) in total, but I'm aiming for 9 blocks so that it will be square.

Catch up...

It's been some time since I wrote anything....nothing really exciting to talk about, just busy I guess.  No pictures this time (see why at the end).... I did sew the May block for at Pat Sloan's 2016 My Secret Garden Mystery and made May Lotto Blocks, three pairs of 6" Leaf Blocks for the draw and more for me, and made three 6" quarter bull's-eye blocks for June Lotto sneak peak, and really liked the technique so made 16 more,  and had a weekend quilting retreat where I was catching up nicely with 365 Challenge,  making 12 of the 6"blocks - this is now waaaayyy behind!

I was lucky to win the Lotto again with the pairs of leaves and I plan to combine the Violet blocks with the Leaves.

We had some bad luck in the past couple of weeks, first my car was rear-ended, not much damage but car will be in the workshop for a week to sort out, and then last week we had a day-time burglary and my old and new, my husband's and my mother's laptops were taken as well as my tablet, and one quilt top (from a pile in a bag they emptied out to use the bag!).  My life was on my laptops - photos, quilt stuff, and lots more!  Have a new one, but have long weeks ahead to catch up on data and work lost (getting my daughter to do some data-capture for me).

The neighbours across the road captured the break-in and departure on one of their surveillance cameras, but don't think it will help our seriously over-worked/under-skilled police to find the perpetrators.   Eek, it took me three hours to clean the finger-print dust off the still-to-be used brand-new bathroom fittings and floor and off the electrical things not taken but packed by them and left in the bathroom.  Entry was made via the bathroom window, and we suspect that they were workers with one of the contractors we've had here over the past four months, as they seemed to know exactly where to go and not go in the house.  The alarm unfortunately didn't trigger immediately cause they left when it did and before the security guys arrived!  Oh! the Joy of South African Life!

Haven't had a moment since to sew or think about sewing!  But school holidays loom, and my work is quieter then, so should get some respite and time to sew. 

Pictures next time - maybe!

Secret Garden Mystery...with Butterflies

The first four 16-inch blocks done!  This is an online mystery designed and run by Pat Sloan, one block a month in 2016, each one based on a garden. I've been making it fun by figuring out the cutting without looking at her patterns!

My fabrics are a combination of a fat quarter bundle of Victoria Findlay Wolf's first range and a batik bundle that complement each other...keeping my fingers crossed that it will be enough fabric!   The fabrics have been maturing for a couple of years waiting for the right occasion to be opened ;)

At the top are four April's Block Lotto Butterflies and one, so far, butterfly for the Old Mcdonald Mystery, both run by Sophie.