Blocks, quilting and building

Little bits of progress on various projects. 

Four violet blocks for Block Lotto (black and white backgrounds) and eleven for the Old MacDonald Mystery (green backgrounds) for March.  

Up to date with 365Challenge (except the Birthday block which I'm keeping for later this month), all but one are 3.5 inch square unfinished, the one being 18.5 inch square.   NOT doing white/cream as light but medium and slightly lighter brights.

Got this on the quilt frame last week and quilted - I still need plenty of practice, but there are one or two areas I like - it is a quilt top done as a (own) Liberated Round Robin, a blogging group, long ago! 

 

 

 A bazillion one inch and three-quarter inch strips cut for an upcoming class on Saturday.

The rest of the pictures are of our bathrooms - nearly four weeks from the start and no clear view of the end date!!!!   It has taken us more than five years to start this renovation, so mustn't complain too much, except about the dust, and the grit, and the noise, and the dust....  and the plaster off the adjoinging bedroom wall - looks like maps of Australia and South Africa (artistic licence here!), and the builders tools in the main bedroom... new carpets at the end of this!

  

Keeping up to date, and loving this project!  Not all are perfect, but I'm not redoing them.  I have unpicked one or two seams when I wasn't paying enough attention.  I think there is another extra block, but will have to go look for the instructions to make it.  These are 6 to 17 Feb plus the bonus Valentine's heart and, I think, 23 Feb, which was published a little out of order.  Still all 3 inch finished, 3.5 inch unfinished.  The most pieces so far in one block has been 37!

365challenge update

With a late start on 365Challenge (a block a day for 2016), I have caught up....and, because this is an Australian website and they release the pattern midnight there, when it is still 4 pm the day before here, I've actually done tomorrow's block!!!  These blocks are all 3.5" square, and so far has been an amazing progression from absolute basic through to more complex , starting with strips, four-patches, nine-patches, then half-square triangles and now quarter-square triangles.  These are mine from 1 Jan to 7 Feb, and I have sewed them in date order. 

Backing for old project and a new start

To get a quilt finished one has to have all the layers ready to go....so got out this top yesterday and played a bit with piecing the wonky back, and even found the right size batting.

And then tonight thought I would just look at the link for Pagan Quilters new project, the first blocks seemed easy enough, and yes they were... if I can catch up,  this might be doable. Must improve the contrasts though!  These are 3.5" squares, will finish at 3".  I'll share the links next time, trying to edit this on a tablet, and it's not quite the same as the laptop! paganqquilter.blogspot.com and  365challenge.com.au

Happy Blues

Finished sewing up almost all of my blue strings into nine slabs.  Took about a third of the box of crumbs (it was too daunting to tackle the whole box!), starting with the smallest pieces, just adding pieces randomly or joining units to each other, trying to match sizes until all scraps used, then added the solids from strips I had reserved from the strings - it worked out just perfectly.  Will look at them for a few days before putting them in the box with the other rainbow colour blocks until I have a concrete idea for them.

Monday Blues....

... or is that January blues!   This was the hall being set-up for a whole day sewing at my monthly quilt group on Saturday... we had a nice turn out of ladies using the time to sew and chat!  It seems that I spent too much time on the latter, as I managed to sew only one seam!  But that was after sorting all the blue strings into nine piles of similar lengths, and there were a lot!   Tonight I started by sewing the shortest length piles from light to dark, and then although I like them, got bored/tired... next pile is randomly sewn in pairs...to be  continued, as well as the last longest strings, when I next have time to sew. The slabs of blue are between 9  and 19 inches, and they remind me of the song from The Little Mermaid. .."....Under the sea, under the sea..."

Allietare centre together...

Yay!   Took less time than I expected, and I am happy with it!  I absolutely love the way the secondary patterns emerge, especially the neutral blunt-cornered squares around the on-point neutral squares with the black cornerstones.  At a distance, some of my neutrals look grey so the contrast is a bit muted.

UPDATE:  Bonnie has a blogpost with a final link-up for Allietare participants - CLICK HERE to get to the post and scroll down to see links to the other blogs and instagrams and pinterests!   I haven't yet added the borders.

Steady Progress ....

More Allietare blocks complete and the rest all need just two more seams!

Blue Bird Blocks ....

On Thursday, for Sophie's Old Macdonald Quilt Along, and using January's blue scraps.

Planned Finishes.....

I had seen references to Finish-A-Long in the past, and had thought it might be just the thing to encourage some finishes, but my timing was always a bit off, until today!  I am joining in with the 2016 Finish-A-Long.  In the first week of each quarter participants need to list already started projects that they think they might finish, hopefully by the end of the quarter (no penalties if you don't!).  Then write a post when a quilt (or other hand-work) is quilted and bound - ie, fully finished!  Link up at the start and the end, for a chance to win some amazing sponsored goodies.  More information can be found at one of the volunteer organisers, Mrs Sew and Sow.

In my blog I have an draft page listing unfinished projects, dated 2012 - and, oh goodness me,  I can almost copy and paste the entire thing, problem is I don't even recognise one or two of them!  So, I ignored that, and instead trawled through the photos in my blog, and here goes, my incomplete UFO list, of which I would like at least the first three done and dusted:

1.  Kaffe Fasset's class "Sunlight in the Forest" - needs a back, batting, quilting and binding.


 
2.  Little Houses - my attempt at making a facing for this was unsatisfactory:  remove facing, trim the awkward shapes and finish (either new facing or binding).

3.  Top complete from Liberated Round Robin 2012.  Quilt,etc

4. Teddy Bears.  Quilt.etc

5.   I have an incomplete Colourwash wall-hanging, think it is ready to quilt, but I don't have a photo - this is a finished smaller quilt made from the left-over squares as a reminder!

 

6.  Split Triangles, was a leader/ender project - some blocks made, maybe enough for a small quilt.

  7.  Birds made for myself made from a Block Lotto block, think it needs another border, then quilt, etc.

8. to  15.  All tops need quilting, etc:   16+.  can't seem to get the pictures to be where I want them!!!

 

My lifetime project - deadline March 2018:

Tuesday evening...

Two more Allietare are blocks almost done, and some cutting for more Birds in the Air blocks.

Allietare Mystery Progress

Eight out of 32 blocks and all the setting triangles pieced yesterday.   The rest are in sets just waiting for some sewing time.  I sat last evening and made a list of things to work on in January, carrying over what wasn't done in December, and starting with what to do today..... and I have not even looked at the lists today!  I knew that once back at work I would fade a bit - maybe tomorrow will be better!  (And I'm being distracted by Duolingo - learning some more beginner French, again!)

Please go and see all the other link-ups on Bonnie's page for this revealed mystery - in only three days there are totally finished quilts!!

Sophie's Block Lotto this month is a lovely Birds in the Air block, and these are my four.  I do hope to make some more, as Sophie's plan this year is to use Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of each month.  January is blue with purple as a side, and I am overwhelmed by the quantity of scraps I have in blue!  Sophie also has two year-long mystery quilts happening, and I think I will join her in one of them.

A plus tard!   (See you later!)   Probably much later, as no sewing today.

 

Kaffe class top done

Last July I took a design class with Kaffe Fasset based on his quilt Sunlight in the Forest.  The centre section was done almost immediately, and the borders were finally added  this weekend.  My intention going into the class was to have all greens, but that didn't work and it morphed into this.  I do like it, and so does my daughter who has just moved from home - and that's where it will be going as soon as it is quilted.  It was very windy yesterday, and it is large, and P is holding it up the best he could.

New Year Day sewing

With the reveal of the finished mystery quilt very early on new years day, I had the whole day to work out how many more units I needed, only a few, so cut and made those, before making the two test blocks. Very happy with the result.