Progress

 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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Ups and Downs ..............

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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Look What I Found!

 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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I Spy Quilt Squares Swap Anyone?

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.   

Another Bag!

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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More Bags .................. well kind of!

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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A New Addition to the Household!!

Since I started to find hand embroidery more stressful due to the eyesight, I've been thinking that a machine with a few more stitched patterns than my Bernina 1008 can offer might be useful. 

Bernina owners like Berninas don't they?  The 350PE beyond budget yet not unachievable looked the most likely machine for me.  However, a quick call to a dealership suggested that I probably wouldn't like it and would fare better with a Juki so off we went and tried out the Juki F300.  Purchase home, a few minutes play on home ground and I really didn't like it.  My eyes really weren't good enough to differentiate clearly between the clear feet and the fabric, I didn't like the quite flimsy clear bobbin cover, needle plate would need to be unscrewed for cleaning, the needle clamp screw protrudes quite a lot and knocks my hand when free machining or anything else that requires the hands to be very close to the work.  I packed it up, had a very restless night, got it back out again in the morning but didn't feel any different ............. I wanted the Bernina really didn't I?

Back we went, explained the problem (nothing wrong with the machine ........... it's just me!) tried out a Bernina 380 as it was the one on display ............ yes, fine .......... full metal feet, front loading bobbin, it's familiar.

Happy, happy, happy - the 350PE it is!

Got it home, felt a bit strange putting the bobbin in as though there was some play towards one side at the rear ................. a bit more rickety than the 1008.  Ok, a few straight stitches .......... fine.  Moving into patterns which is what I really wanted it for .......... the red stars on the right then a couple of other designs (the green stitching was done on the Juki) ............... doesn't look nice, the fabric feels like it's being sucked in and the needle is moving across before it's fully emerged from the fabric.  Check threading, bobbin ok, change to embroidery threads (on another sample) then before I had chance to review anything the mother of all jams!  I wasn't expecting miracles but, for the money paid, I was expecting a decent machine working nicely from the start.  Back in the box within 5 minutes of getting it out!

I now have the Juki back:

It's very early days and I'm still scared of it ............ the "computerised" bit meaning it's something more to go wrong but it's very user friendly.  Already I'm loving the automatic thread cutter (no wasted thread), the needle threader is saving me loads of time, it's much quieter than the front loading bobbin machines which will please the rest of the family, the box feed system is very good ........... barely need to touch the fabric to keep it on the straight and the man in the shop sorted me out with a couple of metal feet which should help with following seams for the decorative stitches until I've sorted out exactly what feet will suit me and the machine best.
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