I’m On a Roll - Chookshed Challenge Done

I didn’t have anything on today, so it was the perfect chance to play with my new Number 10 from the Chookshed Challenge.

My Number 10 (as switched out) is to MAKE A SEA GLASS MINI QUILT.  I had popped this little collection of crumbs in a container to play with.  Unlike most of my chosen projects, this wasn’t something that had been hanging around in the sewing room, rather something that I had just recently thought of doing.  It would be so nice to get it made while fresh in my mind.

I’ve taken lots of photos along the way, so be prepared, as I talk through the process.

I do love sea glass and have a nice collection that we amassed mainly on the Isle of Man in 2018.  It fits nicely in its pretty jar.

Well, I made a glorious mess.

The plan was to make a mini to fit on my little stand that Santa is displayed on each Christmas.

I figured that the best way to work this out would be to mark out the dimensions on my cutting mat, fiddle around to make a heart template and then fill it up.

Not only do I keep all crazy little crumbs of fabric, I also keep crazy little scraps of appliqué paper. You never know when you can use them for small appliqué shapes.  Well, I made good use of both in this project.  So many of the little pieces had their shape determined by the shapes of those scraps.  Did it make a dent in the scraps?  Yes, for the appliqué paper, as they are all used up.  Definitely not for the fabric crumbs, but that was to be expected.

Lou and I have been having chats about overthinking quilt layouts etc., and I was determined not to overthink this. Having said that, I cut out what I thought would be good colours and laid them out and then decided that there needed to be more contrast and rearranged, and replaced fabrics and generally fiddled around with the placement quite a few times before finally settling on a layout.

Next question was what background fabric to use.  I didn’t want to use white, it would be too stark.  I chose one fabric that I thought looked like sand, but when I placed a few pieces on it, it just looked dull and dirty.  Another looked good, but there wasn’t quite enough.  In the end I settled on a piece of seeded homespun that I had in a box.

Then I taped the heart templates to the fabric and filled it in, and yes, I tweaked it a bit more.

All ready to quilt.  But how? Most sea glass quilts that I have seen have the patches raw edge appliquéd.  But, I had seen one version where there were wavy horizontal lines quilts across it and I really liked that look.  A bit like ripples in the sand.  Besides, that would be much easier and this piece doesn’t exactly have to be durable.

I had great fun doing this and it didn’t take long.  Don’t you love the texture on the back. 

And the front.

Now, how to bind it?  With my Santa mini, I just bagged it out and added triangles to the back corners as I went to clip over the corners of the frame.  That was not going to work on this one, as the quilting goes right to the edge,  However, I didn’t want a normal binding, so it was time to learn how to do a faced binding. 

It wasn’t that bad, and a little different to how I expected.  I love to learn a new techinque when I work on a project.

And, here it is, all done.  A nice neat finish.  I probably don’t need the triangles on the bottom, but I can add a dowel if I choose.

Now for the front.

Ta da!  On my little shelf in the kitchen, together with my jar of sea glass and a framed picture, which is minuscule shells.

Perfect for summer and Valentine’s Day.  I love it.

This was such a fun little make.  Not my normal style of work, but something quick and a bit improv.  There was no stress or pressure to have it made for any purpose, or time frame, or to get a kit or UFO worked on.  So refreshing.

Oh, and it is primarily blue, so also ticks the RSC box.  Bonus.

Off to a Flying Start

After I added my post here yesterday, it was time to make those Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blocks.  

Ta da!  Nice and simple.  Pop over to So Scrappy to see what else has been achieved.

Then, it was time to start making a beautiful mess.  I’m having a lovely time playing with these scraps.

When the weather cooled down in the evening we ventured into the garden.

It was time to dig the potatoes we planted in the tyres back in September.  This was the first time we have grown potatoes, although my Dad always grew them, so I had been involved as a kid.

We filled a bucket with 6.5kgs of potatoes from five seed potatoes.  A lot of them are quite small.  Was it an economical project?  We probably broke even.  I think I paid about $7 for the seed potatoes.  However, we didn’t plant them all and gave some to out neighbour.  It would have been profitable if we had planted them all.  Will we do it again?  Yes, probably, as they are easy to grow and fairly maintenance free.  And of course, it is always nice to have home grown anything.  Now to enjoy eating them.

OK, back to the sewing room to play.

My Plans for February

Remember, in January, how I said I was going to wind back my goals?   Well, I seem to have quite a few this month.  That’s a bit silly, as the Wedding and Baptism display that I am organising is this month as well.  But, I do need something as a distraction.

So, what do I hope to achieve.

The first simple goal is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in blue.  

Two more Split Nine Patch blocks will be made and I’ve already pulled the fabrics.

Deana has announced the Chookshed Challenge number, which is NUMBER 10.  

Mmmmm. For me that is the QUEENSLAND HEXY TABLE RUNNER. Now, there is a bit of work in that one.  I have to do the stitchery on the middle hexies, then the EPP, then piece it, quilt and bind it.  OK, not really a great deal of work and very achievable in a month, but not this month.  I want something that I don’t have to think too much about.

Therefore, I am going to switch it out with NUMBER 7, which is the SEA GLASS MINI QUILT.   That works on a few levels.  Firstly, it is should be fairly simple.  Secondly, the colours are blues to greens, so kind of fits in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour and thirdly, I intend to place the sea glass pieces in a heart shape.  That works for Valentine’s Day, and also will suit my summer display on my little shelf in the kitchen.  I’ll have to try to have it completed before the 14th.

Of course, I need hand work to take to my stitching days.  I hope to have my autumnal knitted scarf finished in the next week or so.

I’ll see if I can get started again on the pouch for Scrub Stitchin’.

My final wish, which is the lowest priority, but I would really like to do, is to remove the two offending borders off my Blue/Hope Quilt and make them fit properly and then add the final border, which is all ready to go.  The ones I need to remove are the postage stamp one and a narrow one that I added after it.  They are rather wavy.  Wouldn’t it be good if I was to get that done in the “Blue” month.

It will be fun to see how many thread spools I can manage to empty in the process of all of these.

Although I’m not joining in officially, I still hope to achieve 15 minutes of crafting most days. I forgot to mention that I managed 27 days out of 31 in January, which is 87%.  Let’s hope I can get it up over 90% by the end of the year.

Time to get stitching.

Saving the Best Till Last

How good is this? One completed Hexy Flower Quilt top.  I’m so pleased to have it all done.

My wish was to have all the blocks appliquéd in January, and then once that was achieved, it was amended to have all the blocks joined together. I had that done the day after I laid them all out on the design curtain.  Next, I wanted to add a narrow border, just to keep all those seam ends secure.  That happened late this afternoon.  Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, but I really wanted to have the top completed this month.  I have even prepped the binding, ready for whenever I am up to that stage.

While stitching away on my blocks, I was considering how to lay them out. I looked at various similar appliqué hexy quilts on Pinterest and some had all the blocks with the lump of the hexy flower at the top, some had the vee at the top and some were totally random.  Totally random isn’t me.  I also had to take into consideration that several of my background fabrics are directional and I hadn’t taken that into consideration at all when basting the hexy flowers to their blocks.  In the end I decided to alternate each block.  That worked for the backgrounds and also give the quilt a bit of movement, or so I think.  Anyway, I’m happy with what I chose to do.

The next decision is what backing to use.  Everything is from stash up to now, so I have to see what I can find that will be suitable. 

Then to decide how to quilt it.  An all over pantograph is just not going to cut it, considering all the hand work that I have done on it.  I could custom quilt it, but I don’t have the skills yet.  Then, I thought I could hand quilt it, but it is big and hard enough to lug around as a flimsy, let alone as a basted quilt.  Oh, and this would be my first hand quilted quilt.  Mick reckons to do straight lines to outline the blocks.  I may follow Mick’s suggestion and then do big stitch hand quilting around the hexies.  I’m not going to rush into anything at this stage.  It will come to me when it is ready.

Anyway, I am absolutely delighted to have it as a flimsy, as a quilt like this is something that I never thought I would make.

New Starts

Having completed the hand stitching on the hexy flower quilt, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to work on at our patchwork days.  I don’t take my machine, as it is too much hassle.

After a bit of a think, last week, I decided it was time to make the kit that we received at Scrub Stitchin’ last year, as I would like to take the finished project for show and tell in April.

It was all packaged up so nicely that it nearly seemed to be a shame to open it up….but of course I did.

I had everything prepped in time to take along and went to start stitching the pouch and really didn’t like the way my stitches were looking.  I think I want to add some Weaveline interfacing to the back to give it just a little bit of body.  

Now what?

I decided to duck home (fortunately, I only live five minutes away, if that) and get my pretty wool and start to knit the scarf that I would like to have ready to wear once the weather cools down, and let’s face it, that time will be here before we know it.  I had bought the skein of sock wool from the beautiful little wool shop in Rylstone, when we were on our way to Queensland last July.  I have a fabric scarf in similar colours and I wanted to have a warm one.  I had planned to start back then, but those hexies had me hooked.

Well, I just couldn’t get going on it at patchwork.  I dropped stitches, didn’t seem to be able to count and generally made a balls up of it.  That was really frustrating, as I have knitted the pattern twice before, rather successfully.  When I got home I ripped it all out and started again the following day.  You know what?  It really helps if you read the pattern properly.  Who’d have thought.

I have being enjoying knitting a few rows most nights, except when it has been far too hot and sticky and then took it along to my patchwork day on Wednesday this week and got loads done.

I’m now well over halfway there.  You just keep increasing on each row at one end of the scarf and decrease every second row on the other end, with the simple pattern row every few rows.  You keep going until you run out of wool. 

I’m loving the way it is looking and hope to have it completed fairly soon.

Meanwhile, the Scrub Stitchin’ project is waiting patiently for me to get back to it.  That will be the next job after the scarf is finished.

Oh, totally unrelated, but I must report that I have emptied three thread spools this month.

Chookshed Challenge for January

The number selected by Deana for the Chookshed Challenge for January was Number 6.  For me this was:

MAKE SOME CRUMB BLOCKS - No goal as to how many to make.  Just have fun.

That suited me just fine, as I don’t have the headspace for too much just at the moment, and besides, I was having too much fun with my Hexy Flower Quilt.

Looking at the blocks I had already made, I decided that red would be a good colour to work with and I have plenty of scraps in my tub.  It is easier to work on two at a time, as you can chain piece.

A bit later on I decided to get down the blue scrap tub, as it is overflowing.  This is such a fun, messy process.  Not at all quick, as you fiddle around finding the best sized piece to add.

This is what I ended up with.  They all are six and a half inches square.

And that’s all I did.  I had fun, as instructed and there is no project planned for these at the moment, so they will just live in their tin until I feel like having another play.  I may do some as a part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, now that I have belatedly decided to join in.  I just didn’t need any more pink ones at this stage.

I’m linking up with Deana.  Pop over to see what the other girls managed to achieve.

Famous Last Words

Remember back when I wrote my “Looking Forward to 2025” post?

Well, one paragraph read:

“I’m also forgoing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge after several years, as I have lots of blocks made, but no completed projects. This year I would like to focus more on getting those older projects finished.”

That rings true in most parts, but having looked at my Split Nine Patch quilt, that I have also listed as Number 8 in the Chookshed Challenge, I reckon it would benefit from another twenty blocks.  The easiest way to do that is to join in on RSC again this year and make a couple of blocks each month.

The colour for January is Pink.

The only downside, is that unless Number 8 comes up at the very end of the year, I will have to switch it out of the Chookshed Challenge.  Now, that is not exactly a problem, as I have plenty of other projects that I can slot in to replace it.  We will just have to see how things pan out.

Anyway, in the meantime, here are my two pink blocks for January.

I will now also add the RSC logo to my side bar.

Rosie Goes Blackberrying

Remember that Mick bought a little Suzuki Sierra about eighteen months ago and named her Rosie?   Well, he had been having a lot of fun getting her up to scratch, but she hasn’t travelled very far as yet.  One of our good mates has a property out of town with a section that can only be described as “goat country”.  It has been the perfect testing ground for Rosie.  

Mick has been out several times, but I went out last week for the first time.  You see, four wheel driving is not really my thing.  However, as there was the prospect of picking blackberries, I went along.

The spot where we picked was rather pretty, beside a small dam.  It is surprisingly green for this time of year.  Once it cools down a bit Mick and my brother hope to go camping here.

We were probably a couple of weeks early to get a good harvest of blackberries, but we were able to fill a small ice cream container.  Just enough to eat some and freeze some for later pancake breakfasts.  Yum.

Well, That Wasn’t Expected

This morning, at breakfast I was reading the comments on my blog post about my hexy quilt.  

One comment suggested that I could make a design wall using flannelette on a rod, suspended over a door using hooks.  Well, my first reaction was, I wish, but I haven’t got a flat surface suitable.  It’s not as though I haven’t thought of every possibility already.

A design wall is something I’ve coveted for some time, but there is no flat surface in my sewing room and all our wardrobes have sliding doors. It is just something that is not possible.

Well, while sitting at the breakfast table, my eyes fell on our large glass display cabinet in the sitting room, just beside my sewing room and the cogs started ticking over.  It wasn’t long and Mick and I had the tape measure out and decided that it could possibly work.  

A trip was then made to Spotlight. We bought a lightweight curtain rod, some flannelette and some plastic over door hooks.

The start.

The curtain rod was 2 metres long, so two widths of fabric would be perfect, with just a seam up the middle and no need for side hems………..except, when I got it home I discovered the fabric was 60 inches wide, not 42.  Blast!  Now there were side hems to sew, as I still wanted a centre seam for lining things up.

After a bit of work it was ready to hang.  

Ta da!  One design curtain.  It only seemed fitting that the last hexy flower that I appliquéd should be the first placed on it.

Then it was time to play.

All done.

This quilt is a biggie, so one row still ended up on the floor.  I love it.

I don’t think I will have a chance to start sewing the blocks together tomorrow, but now that they aren’t on the floor, I doesn’t matter if they stay there for a couple of days.  The best thing is that my sewing room is right next door to this cabinet.

Once the blocks are all together, I can pack everything up.  There is the minor matter that we can’t open the cabinet doors while curtain rod is hanging there.  Mick joked that he can bring a motorcycle into the sitting room and put it on the coffee table to work on, now that I have encroached on the space.  I know that is the last thing he would want to do.  Also, despite what I said in my last post, he would not mind me having the blocks on the floor, as long as he could get around them.

I’m so grateful for the comment that had me thinking again, as now I have a really useful addition to my toolbox.