Scraps and blocks

I've had great fun in the past few weeks - we have a quilt retreat planned for this coming weekend, so after putting aside all I want to take, I was itching to sew "something". After a very long break from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I made some fabric with this month's colour- brown.  Brown is probably my least favourite colour, so had only a few scraps and strips.  Made some strata (which will be cut into triangles later) and some crazy pieced chunks of fabric.  Both boxes of brown are empty!!!  Yay!

These were done about 10 days ago:

And then on the weekend added more strips and they ended up like this:

 

These are Twinkle blocks for this month's Block Lotto:

 And these are cute little blocks made from the trimmed triangle scraps - wasn't thinking when I did the red ones, the other three have some form:

 

At our Group meeting weekend before last, we were shown a fun technique of constructing an on-point quilt - by sewing 5 x 8 blocks and making two diagonal cuts, and rearranging the three pieces.  This one was made using 1-1/2" squares.  The person showing us had made about 10 with different size blocks and alternate pieced blocks - and they were stunning!

...and one more finish!

I delayed publishing a post about this quilt until (I hope by now) my sister C has been to visit Mum, and Mum has remembered to give it to her!

My Mum made the blocks, and she finished the top for C for her birthday last September.  C absolutely loves anything BLUE.  But my Mum survived a stroke before she could finish it.  I had bundled this one up, together with all the bits of fabric and it also patiently sat waiting for me to. do. something.  This HAD to be the one I finished next for her, and it WAS done ahead of C's birthday this year!

There were some extra blocks that went on the back with as much of the extra fabric that were used on the top.

...and another finish!

In the middle of packing up my mother's house earlier this year, my sister C asked if I could finish a quilt for a friend of hers.  The friend's mother had started it but had sadly died.  I said yes, took the shoe-box containing the sewn quarter and all the fabrics home, put it in my sewing room and with all the busy-ness forgot all about it.   One day a few months later I saw the shoe-box and had no recollection of it's origins!  Had to ask both of my nearby sisters to remind me!

Took all the bits away to a quilt retreat in May, and cut and stitched, and then finished the top at home.  And then took all the scraps to make fabric for the centre of the back.

Finally quilted and bound it on Sunday this week - delivered it to my sister C to give to her friend.  I do hope that she likes it, and it gives her happy memories.

More finishes!

It feels good to have some finishes to share.  All these quilts were tops just waiting patiently to be finished.

Whilst these Tulip Blocks are not quite finishes, they are the four I've made for the September Block Lotto.  The theme was Tulips for Spring for the Southern Hemisphere participants!

This quilt top was pieced by my Mother at a quilt retreat last year.  I used it to get my hand/eye in with the quilting before doing the two big ones last month.  Made with 2.5" strips from saved scraps.

 

This one was started when I stumbled upon Victoria Findlay Wolfe's creative blog, 15-Minutes Play, so long ago I can't remember when!  It is destined for a new baby girl for a teacher that was at my sister's school

 

I have two more to show...but I think I am going to keep these for later in the week!

Love from Cape Town!

Finished Quilts and Lotto Blocks

Just pictures - Finished Easy Street and Just Takes 2 - Red triangle blocks for the Block Lotto - daughter Terri's cute green blocks -

 

A Marathon Sewing Week !

So, three weeks ago, my youngest sister's dear aged and frail mother-in-law died, and my sister, her husband and 10-year-old daughter (my youngest niece) came to stay from Brisbane for 16 days to be with Grandpa/father-in-law.   And before they left to come, their older two married children asked that they return with the promised wedding quilts (only nearly three years overdue!)  Problem was the finished quilt tops needed quilting and binding.   And I couldn't start straight away, and I needed to do some practice first on a charity quilt (nearly two years since the frame was used!)   I don't have a computerised machine or stitch regulator, just the frame with a Pfaff Grand Quilter.   Soooo, OK, last Thursday started on quilt no 1 and finished on Sunday - Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street - quilted with an all-over orange peel pattern.  No 2 started on Monday evening, and finished on Thursday at 9:45 pm - just in time to go into the packed suitcases for their Friday morning departure.  No 2 was the Just Takes 2 quilt in purples and creams - started as a Mystery in January 2012.  And although some seriously shaky quilting in places, did manage go around all the cream pieces in all the 100 blocks!  I'm sorry that the 4.5" purple border didn't get any quilting, but have promised to add some when I next get to Australia!   So glad Jo pressed all the over 20 metres of bindings for me!  You will have to wait until I get sent photos of them to see the finished quilts - (Jo!?) 


Whilst this was all happening, my youngest niece wanted to sew with my scraps as well - and she did amazingly.  She has taken a bunch of orange scraps home and my sister will be setting up her sewing machine for her to continue with these:

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I think I've recovered and, after tidying up the sewing room, I am energized to sew again.  Made two blocks of these red and cream triangles (and cut out a stack more reds) for the August Block Lotto.

Busy week on leave

Having a week off work with time for a knitting and a design workshop and a lecture with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably is good for the soul.   These classes were a concentration on colour and I am still on a high from them.

The knitting class was on Monday, first picture was at lunch time - mine is the one at the bottom in the middle.  I was using a lovely soft bamboo 4-ply yarn that unfortunately kept splitting and slowed me up a bit.

But by the end of the day the samples had all grown somewhat, mine second from bottom on the left.  I really enjoyed the process and the result, just need to find a project in which to incorporate it!  Am leaning towards a more mixed-up creative outcome!

And Brandon offering lots of encouragement to take it to the next level! Isn't his pullover gorgeous!

On Thursday we pushed even further in exploring colour with Brandon and Kaffe.  What my design piece looked like at the end of the day.  My plan to concentrate on greens with some turquoise went out the window as most of the biggest prints I had were not so green!  Again loved the process. 

Some of the other 28 participants and their results, all so different!

 

The highlight of the day, having each composition critiqued by Kaffe and Brandon - their comments were really fabulous:

  

We were able to buy the polystyrene boards on which we had pinned our flannel design surface - and as some ladies were unable to transport them I scored four, so I have finally graduated from the floor to the wall, and what a pleasure it was to pin up and play, and sew.  (Damn, back at work tomorrow!)  Centre all sewn, two borders to be added.  It's about 2m x 1,7m so far.  Brilliant to sew up as very few seams to match.

 And one more (very blurry) block for the Farmers Wife Yahoo Group - Pine Tree:

 

Catching up...

It's been a while since I've had the time or inclination to write.  I've been sewing a little bit ( a whole weekend at the end of May did help to get the mojo awakened).  Here are the few photos that I've managed to snap in the last couple of months.

I managed to make one or two blocks for the Block Lotto - in June we had to make pairs of 9.5 inch blocks in the same fabrics - mailed these off yesterday to the winners.

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For July we had to choose our own Pet-themed design.  I used the quilt-design software (EQ7) to modify one of their stock blocks, then paper-based pieced it.  Doesn't really look like either of my Siamese babies.  Maybe I'll get lucky and win this month!

My mother, admiring the wonderful Mother's Day flowers sent by my sister Jo in Australia:

With the impending move of last child from home, starting on a slow de-clutter.  This is furniture removal Cape Town style!  Sold the lounge suite that we had been "storing" for five years - the chair is inside the canopied back, but no space for the 2-seater and 3-seater, so tied down on top.  The buyers were taking it to Strand, about 50km on a major highway - do hope they arrived incident-free.  Does that blue leather look familiar Jo? 

 Took these photos whilst sitting in traffic on the way home from visiting Mum a couple of weeks ago - the start of a storm coming in - with amazing cloud formations.

We have Kaffe Fasset teaching a design class here in a couple of weeks for which I've signed up, so pulled out a pile of fabrics that I hope will work.  I don't have the big florals that he focuses on so had to go and buy a few (in the wash right now) based on this colour combination.  Most of these are fat quarters.

And last week I stumbled upon a Yahoo Group "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Along" - one six-inch block a week, very do-able.  I've had the book "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt" by Laurie Aaron Hird for at least two years (unused), and needing to have some hand-work for the Thursday evening group, this seemed serendipitous.  My intention is to hand-piece using plain fabrics.  This is Block number 100 - Weathervane, modified slightly to eliminate 4 seams.  Started it on Thurday and finished last night - I think I could have machine pieced a whole quilt in the time it took to hand-piece this one block, but then couldn't have curled up on the couch with the cats and the TV!  (Aagh! watched Dredd - was nice to see daughter T's name in the credits!)

Four Blocks for May Lotto

Four fairly simple to piece blocks, but had to keep my wits about the assembly order - only had to partly unsew one. The top photo doesn't show true colour, but the individual ones below are closer to the truth.  I cut more strips than needed and ended up with a whole bunch of four-patch and nine-patch blocks from the leftovers - fun for future quilts, plus some wonky piecing.