A few months back Quilting Arts were asking for submissions for "Quick and Easy" patchwork projects (not their usual stuff at all). I had ideas for a few items but only got to get a couple of baby bibs ready - one of them in "Toy Poodle" by Clothworks ............
I saw recently that they've been photographing items for publication so assume mine weren't chosen. I don't mind at all as I've yet to find a patchwork or quilting book where I like everything so know that I'll like these more than some of the stuff they've chosen.
Anyway, on with the log cabin patchwork for the blind ............
............. in green this time. Only 4 large blocks completed today yet it seemed like hard work. Too many mistakes (my mind was elsewhere)! In fact one block has the middle square wrong side up and I didn't even realise until I'd completed the whole thing. I really can't be bothered to try and put it right at the moment so we'll see ...............
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All 8.5" blocks now complete (inluding extending the ones that were too small) ...........
All 15 6.5" blocks now finished ............
Am having doubts as to whether it will all gel together ................ time will tell.
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Weeded the fabrics ................
Started cutting a few strips and decided to ditch a few of the pinks that were actually dress fabrics (poplin) thus short on plain mid and pale pink in particular. A few months back, helping mum to change the beds she said just as well to throw one of the sheets away as it had worn in the middle. Asking whether it was cotton or polycotton the reply was "Egyptian cotton" (in a tone that shouted how dare I ask such a thing)! I remembered that sheet today so out with the Fuschia dye ..................
Watered down for the paler colours and left for just a few minutes before rinsing out. The 30 minute washing machine cycle does come in handy sometimes. Pressed and ready to use (on the right) ............
Starting to stitch ............
Already I've run into problems. These large blocks (I've completed 5) should measure 8.5" but they are only 8.25 ............. in fact one is only 8 - it's not the strips but squaring up! A disadvantage of not using a foundation I suppose. Oh well, thought it all looked too easy!!
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I now have enough pink and green fabric to make another patchwork window blind ...........
I loved making the "Jewel Squares" blind last year but want this one to be my own design now I know what to do. I want to use log cabin patchwork again but two colours (pink and green). The blue blind used 1.5", 3", 4.5", 6", 7.5", and 9" blocks but I want to simplify it a bit so it grows a bit quicker, a few less seams thus less fabric wastage too and I wondered about using 2", 4". 6" and 8" blocks. After some googling I found a nifty little patchwork design tool, Quilt Assistant. Something of a Eureka moment I've spent today playing around. Much quicker than drawing it all out by hand and moving everything about ....................
It's a rough plan to see how the pink and green will work together and give some idea of the number and size of the blocks I need. Am off to have another little play - a bit of shifting about to ensure that the blocks will stitch together in a sensible fashion! Things are looking up (at least for the moment).
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Needing something "easy" to distract my mind from everday life for a bit I'm collecting fabrics for an I Spy quilt having been inspired by others I've seen recently on the web. Deciding on 3.5" cut squares (finished size 3") to accomodate some Makower farm labels, I started to sort out my fabrics. About 30 different novelty and kids fabrics doesn't make much of a whole in the 250+ different ones that I'd need ..............
Attempting to decorate some myself ...................
Stamping with Dye-na-flo onto cotton squares didn't make much of an impact so out with the fabric pens ...............
A couple are ok but the half inch images are making it very fiddly and time consuming so I'll probably stop there with those. Purchasing some larger ones or print blocks is out of the question at present and defeating the object really but I might have a go at painting some larger pictures.
Would anybody like to swap some fussy cut squares of childrens and/or novelty 100% cotton fabrics? The top picture gives some indication of the type of thing I am currently using for this project.
Ever critical, not sure I like this one. The fabric's quite heavily printed so has a lovely weight to it but there's an awful lot of white (and yellow).
Still a lot of white but maybe the lime on the outside would have been better?
These fabrics were from a recent trip to Goldhawk Road. 10 or so fabric shops with an hour on the parking meter = kid in a sweetshop syndrome! I needed more time .......... time to look in all of them and then make purchase decisions but I didn't have time so it was rushing from one to the other, making a few purchases along the way. One of the first ones we came to was closed until 1.30 for prayers so I had just a couple of minutes in there last ........... they had stuff that I'd just paid more for over the road say no more and ever conscious that we were now, sadly, out of parking time. Needless to say we shall be going back.
Thankyou for the comments on the last few posts (I shall catch up on blog reading .......... there is just so much out there now I keep getting distracted!!). Luckily I had some spare fabric so the black rose bag has now been fixed by hand applying a panel over the offending area and I'll probably keep that one for myself.
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Having really enjoyed designing and making the bag for my daughter before Christmas, I thought I'd try some more in different fabrics. Romantic roses ...................
Victorian Roses ...................
Then disaster strikes ....................
All done, I was removing the remaining gathering and basting stitches when I noticed a sizable brown patch (rather like gravy browning). Puzzled, I tentatively rubbed the fabric with a damp towel and it disintegrated before my eyes .............. it was burnt! I can only imagine that it was during pressing at some stage but when and how I do not know .............. it's odd! Beyond tears I think ...................
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