Friday Night With Friends and Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Last night was Friday Night With Friends, hosted by Cheryll.

I finally did some stitching after the big rearrange of my sewing room.  It works rather well.  The position of the sewing machine, cutting mat and ironing board are actually more efficient than previously.  The only down side is that the cutting mat isn't very well lit. No worries, Mick is already on the case, looking at various under shelf LED lighting options.  I'm sure this will be a very short lived issue.

So, what did I play with?

Firstly, I pulled out the box with all the left overs from Block Heads 3 (which I need to add back into my main stash) and found my teal and aqua fabrics for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

This is what I ended up with.  Not 30s prints, like the reds, but teal and aqua don't really feature in 30s fabrics.  The bottom butterfly isn't stitched down as yet, as I was having issues with the blanket stitch on my machine.  It was randomly creating a little loop on the top of the block.  I could pull the loops through to the back, but it just isn't stitching nicely.  I thought it would be the needle and when I went to get a new one, I had run out of my usual Universal 80/12.  I put in a Microtex 80, but that didn't seem to help.  I'll get some new needles today and see if that helps.  I do hope it can be sorted, as I like doing machine applique.

Next I started working on my Swoon block.  This has a fabric with a diagonal print.  It isn't quite 45 degrees and I thought this would really annoy me with things looking crooked. However, when I see it together it isn't too noticeable.  I think I can live with it.  Everything went together so well this time.  One point needed a little rework, but the rest were spot on............Having said that, I still have to finish it off and there are quite a few nasty intersections I still have to work with.

By then it was bed time.

This morning I was keen to finish off my Swoon block.  Fortunately, it continued to play nicely, with only a couple more reworkings of points.

One down, two more to got his month.

We popped in to Bunnings this morning and now I have some task lighting for my cutting table.

Before.... this doesn't look too bad in the photo, but in reality is quite dark.

After...... so much better.

While I think of it, there has been another little tweak of my sewing room.

This is the photo I shared the other day.  There is a big gap on the wall above my cutting table, where the timber cabinet used to be.  My thoughts were that it would eventually be filled up with mini quilts, but Mick came up with another idea.

I have a nice little collection of dressmaker's rulers.  The second bottom one  and second top ones are Mum's.  The others I have collected along the way.  They tie in nicely with the cutting table (and also cover a couple of holes where the previous cabinet was attached to the wall).

 

The gap beside the cutting table also created a space for hanging rulers.  I've had the yardstick on the back wall since I was in my mid teens.  We went on a school excursion to the Orange Field Days and they were giving them away there.  It has seen so much use over the years.

The curved rulers on the side of the bookcase are also from Mum's dressmaking days.  These were used when drafting patterns.  No perspex french curves back in the 1950s.  The minis were both gifts from Loulee and it is nice have my vintage pinking shears hanging up on display.

Things are really starting to come together now.