Today's upside .......... finished all the green blocks. Downside ............... dropped my square quilting ruler onto the tiled floor. It was a birthday present, only a few weeks old, and now missing a corner. I think the superglue beckons!
Only 47 4" pink blocks to go. Only ........... at the rate I'm working that's about 7 days work! In keeping with the "pink and green" theme, a photo I took at the Imperial War Museum last autumn. It's very "strawberry ice cream", I actually prefer raspberry in both colour and taste, but pink nonetheless.
I saw these wartime toys there ............. aren't they delightful? Inspiration for an interesting use of leather ............ or patchwork!
And dolls ..............
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My first ever fabric swap. Tahlia in the US sent me some amazing prints for my I Spy quilt. I love them all but here's a few .................
Cherry sent me some beautiful pieces left over from the I Spy quilt she made for her grandson. Am starting to sort all of them into colour groupings but I really must resist fiddling about with them too much as the edges will be so frayed before it's time to stitch them all together!
Ali of Very Berry Handmade organised a fabric scrap swap. I love scraps and, as much so, the challenge of bringing them together for an actual item. I had a beautiful package from Helen of Find a Happy Place. As well as some pieces that are just perfect for the I Spy quilt there were a few squares that just had to stay together. Very "Heritage" colours that I probably wouldn't buy myself ................
With a bit of jiggling, 4 x 5" squares were just enough for a "Heritage" elephant (maybe destined as a scissor keeper) with just a little bit of machine stitching in keeping with the Heritage theme and not detracting from the fabric too much ...................
Part of my personal challenge with the fabric scrap swap complete, I really must press on with the log cabin patchwork blind before it starts to become a chore more than fun .............
So a special thankyou to everybody who has swapped fabrics, it has been great fun receiving the surprise packages (all of which will be put to good use) and I hope everybody enjoys the fabrics sent in return.
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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.
