October 2026 - a few things tidied up

Do I continue to feel virtuous after October?  Wait and see.  😂

We were overseas most of August and September, so it has been a while since I've been in the sewing room, or posted on this blog.  Have you missed me?  And since we returned home in early October, we've been away several times - not far away - but it does cut into sewing (and blogging) time.  

Days for Girls has lots of leftover smaller and narrower pieces of flannel fabric from the menstrual health kits we make. In early August, I finished a number of small baby quilts, which will go to babies born to mothers in the rural area of the Philippines that our DfG group supports.  The battings were cobbled together from various offcuts and smaller pieces.  Backings were mainly made from a queen sized doona cover I picked up at the op shop; in good condition.  Bindings are all from my bindings basket or the stash (about 1.5m fabric in total.)  I never took photos of the finished quilts so these photos were taken during the quiltmaking process.  

I must say that I am over the flannel fabrics I've been using in these quilts, and hope that future baby quilts I might make for Days for Girls are from different flannel fabrics.  

There was an Unfinished Projects Weekend at the beginning of August, so I took along a few things to work on.  I cut out a dress last year that I was keen to make, but the thought of doing pintucks prevented me from starting on the sewing.  I overcame the fears and took the dress along and made a good start on it.  No photos of work done but the tucks weren't as bad as I feared.  I do wish I'd chosen a less flowy fabric for my first attempt at them though.  

I also grabbed a layer cake (D is for Dream by Paper and Cloth, for Moda) from my stash, one that has been in there forever (it feels like it!), so I could do something quick and easy at the Unfinished Projects weekend.  I do remember purchasing the layer cake with the idea of making a quick and easy baby quilt.  Using a Missouri Star quilt pattern, Double Slice Layer Cake, I cut and pieced forty blocks from the fabrics, and decided two quilts would be good.  I finished the top for one of them from twenty blocks, about 54" x 45".  And turned that into a finished quilt this month, so I could take it to Brisbane as a gift for a new great-nephew. There was a piece of grey/lemon cat shape fabric that was almost enough for the backing.  As the nephew and his wife love cats, I thought it appropriate.  

Happy with it.  Now to make up the other twenty blocks into a finished quilt, ready to gift when required. 

         

Another finish this month is the strip pieced quilt.  All the blocks finished in April, quilt sandwiched in July, and quilted this month!  Not too bad.  Not sure if the piecing over paper is the way to go with strips.  But I'm pleased it is done.  About 4.25m of fabric used, mostly strips and all from stash. Finished size 44" x 56" - a good lap quilt size.  It will be donated somewhere eventually.  (I'll probably mention this quilt for Scrap Happy Day in November, since I missed it this month.)  The backing was a bigger piece of the fabric I used for the strips in the middle of the blocks, with the remainder of a wideback in the middle.  

      

From my projects boxes, I grabbed some more quick hand sewing projects to do while travelling.  None of which I'm remotely close to finishing.   Which reminds me that I must turn the embroideries I did on our last big holiday into finished objects.  One day.....

We are home for short periods between now and Christmas but I'm not sure how much sewing will get done.  But...... there's always hope!

October 2026 fabric tally

Finishes this last few months:   Days for Girls baby quilts = 1.5 m (just the bindings); baby quilt = 3.25 m; strip quilt = 4.25m

Purchases this month:  0 m.  Still no fabric shopping done this year.  I am amazing myself!  

Fabric used:  - 9 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2026:  - 29.35 m   

Warm and cosy in the sewing room - July 2026

Am I still feeling virtuous this month?  Wait and see.  😂

We head away on holidays towards the end of August so I've been trying to clear things in the sewing room.  

Days for Girls has lots of leftover smaller and narrower pieces of flannel fabric from the menstrual health kits we make.  With a pile of these fabrics, I made eight baby quilts a few months ago and finished eight more tops this month. I spent some time sandwiching them and rolled them all around a pool noodle, one on top of the next.  Hopefully I will get them all quilted before I go away.  

With small offcuts of cotton fabric from Days for Girls, I made a couple of 10" x 15" placemats for their trading table.  I used 1/3 metre of my fabric for backing and binding.  

While I was busy sandwiching quilts, I also sandwiched the strip quilt started earlier this year.  When it will be quilted, I have no idea.  

A lot of my sewing time this month has been for Days for Girls.  A pile of shields was finished, as well as snaps added on another large pile of them.  And 42 drawstring bags was finished.  The fabric is overlocked by someone else and then I had to mark sewing lines, sew side seams, and create the channels for the drawstrings.  It all takes time so not a lot of sewing for me has been done recently.  

Now off to take up the hems of some trousers for my next door neighbour - three pairs!  They look out for our place when we go away, so it is the least I can do for them.  

July 2026 fabric tally

Finishes this month:   placemats =  0.35 m (binding and backing) 

Purchases this month:  0 m   (I'm even more virtuous than last month😇😂; I can't believe it!)

Fabric used:  - 0.35 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2026:  - 20.35 m   

More quilts finished - halfway through 2026

This is my 94th blog post!  So I will likely write my 100th before the end of the year.  Amazing.  Something I started mainly as a record of my sewing and patchwork has become a "thing"!  I know not many people read my blog but that doesn't worry me.  It is for me, mainly.  My first blog post was in September 2020, so I've been blogging for almost six years.  

I've finished a couple of quilt tops this month and have progressed others.  I just keep pegging away at them and, like magic, they get finished.  😄 Not really.  When I cleaned up the sewing room during the month, the number of half finished tops, finished tops, patterns and fabric pulled together for a project, boxes of bits, etc. made me realise that I am never going to finish all the quilts I want to make.  Just not enough hours in the day.  But I will do my darnedest to get as many done as possible.  My thought is that at my wake after I die there will be a pile of quilts I've made, and people can take one home with them as a memory of me.  What do others think of that idea?  I have read of others doing that and it makes sense to me.

                 

One completed quilt sewn from scraps from two of the baby quilts I recently made.  You may remember the quilts, both in pinks with a + pattern.   Here and here are the posts about those quilts.  I will likely donate this one somewhere, or maybe keep it in case I need to give a new baby girl a gift.  Finished size:  32" x 38".  Very simply pieced and quilted as you can see.  I love the backing fabric, which I acquired somewhere and am glad it was exactly the right size for this quilt.  The binding is made from scrap bindings from my basket.  

        

I laid out my Quatro quilt again this month and worked out the order of the flower blocks for this round.  I will be starting to join the blocks to each other, into a long section, and then each section on to one of the sides of the main quilt in the next month or so.  As you can see, there are four cross blocks missing on the right hand side of the quilt.  I've run out of the paper pieces needed for these blocks.  Once I've attached one of the sides and enclosed the blocks inside the quilt, I can remove the papers to use for those missing cross blocks.  In this quilt, only the outside blocks have papers in them.  

I am really happy with how this quilt is looking but the time and effort it has taken, makes me realise I don't want to hand piece a quilt this size again.  Or possibly any paper pieced quilt! 

I've worked on a couple of quilts for Days for Girls also this month.  These next two quilts were tops when I got them (made long ago by someone else and donated to our group) and needed tidying up, backing and binding, and quilting.  One is 40" square, the other 65".  So I've used up about 4.5 metres of my fabric for the backings and bindings.  The teacup quilt received minimal quilting but I did quilt more heavily on the Thimbleberries fabric quilt.  

   

Another quilt top done and dusted is my string scraps quilt.  I added just one border (to enclose the multiple seam ends) and it will make a nice lap quilt for someone.  With so many seams in the top, it is quite heavy.  I have to work out how to deal with the bias edges distorting this style of quilt, next time I paper piece the scrap strings.  My plans to get this and another quilt actually finished and bound went by the wayside.  I'm easily distracted!  

Would you believe that I visited a local patchwork shop while away this month (in Townsville in Queensland) and didn't buy any fabric?!  I did buy some threads, but I'm still feeling virtuous.

June 2026 fabric tally

Finishes this month:   baby quilt = 2 m; Days for Girls quilts = 4.5 m

Purchases this month:  0 m   (I'm so virtuous 😇😂; I can't believe it!)

Fabric used:  - 6.5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2026:  - 20 m   

Scrap Happy Day - June 2026

Lots of scrap sewing done in this last month.  When I have the urge to sew but don't want to think too hard, I go to my scrap drawers and make up some blocks for one of the scrap quilts I have in mind to make.  

        

In one drawer were a number of solid colour squares, so some of these were turned into these blocks. Not sure what I will do with these yet.

   

There were quite a few plain white/cream squares cut so I turned a few into a couple of chequerboard blocks, with some of the squares that weren't a specific colour.  I might make these into teapot rugs, bigger than a mug rug, for my teapot to sit on.  

As I prepared this post early for posting while I’m away from home, I realise now that I haven’t recorded the sizes of the blocks/squares.  Let’s say they’re 1 1/2” or 2” squares!  

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Contact Kate on katechiconi@gmail.com and she'll add you to the list.  We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie

Cooling down in May?

The weather may be cooler in May but my sewing machine has been running hot.  

There's nothing like a deadline to get things done!  I finished another baby quilt before the baby turns one.  I knew I'd be seeing the parents, and the baby, at my granddaughter's birthday party on the 31st May, so pushed to finish off Norah's quilt.  Happy enough with how it turned out.  

I had debated adding a narrower stop border between the top and the green but, after looking at photos of similar quilts on Pinterest, thought that wasn't needed.  The quilt is still a decent enough size.  Some free motion quilting around the flower and the name but otherwise a serpentine stitch across each section of the jelly rolls.  

Finished size: 58" x 71”.  All fabric from my stash, using a Moda jelly roll and adding a few 2.5" strips from my strip box.  Backing is a nice piece of wideback, also used for the border.  The binding is made from strips not used from the jelly roll. 

While I was on a roll, sandwiching Norah's quilt on my sandwich table (aka folding table tennis table), I sandwiched several other quilts.  I'll show these as I finish quilting them - hopefully in the next month. 

I'm still plugging away at the Quatro quilt.  I completed these flowers (as I call them) while on holiday earlier in May.

I will lay out the quilt this week and work out where each of the flowers go in the current round, and sew that round down before going on to complete any more flowers.  

 

May 2026 fabric tally

Finishes this month:   Norah's quilt = 6.5 m

Purchases this month:  0 m   (I'm continuing to feel virtuous 😇😂)

Fabric used:  - 6.5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2026:  - 13.5 m   

  

Scrap Happy Day - May 2026

Scrap Happy days come around so quickly!  But at least this month I have some scrap work to show.  Thank you Kate, for the regular reminders. 

Several years ago, I made a quilt as a birthday gift for a friend.  Sadly she told me last month that one of her dogs had chewed it.  Thankfully the chunk taken out was not a big one.  It isn't a big dog!

As I had used a whole jelly roll to make the quilt, I only had scraps of those strips left, most of which I had cut up into 2.5" squares.  I rummaged through the boxes and found pieces of the three fabrics needed - front, back and binding.  The black and white fabric was three separate 2.5" squares, now joined together.  

It was a pretty rough repair job but not noticeable unless you're looking for it.  There wasn't much of the binding fabric so I had to join the fabrics straight across the binding rather than at an angle.  

And now you can hardly tell it has been repaired!  I'll drop it off to my friend in Melbourne in a couple of weeks' time when I'm down there.

I've mentioned the making of the quilt in blog posts here and here and here

Although I've mentioned it in my monthly report, I'll include photos of the string quilt I've been working on - all scraps - as well as the scrap squares 12" blocks I've worked on in the last month.  I must count the ones I've got in the box to see if I have enough for a quilt.  It is a great feeling to be using up scraps to make these quilts.  

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Contact Kate on katechiconi@gmail.com and she'll add you to the list.  We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie

Almost a whole month of sewing - finally!

No finishes this month despite being home for most of the time.  There has been lots happening other than sewing though. I did have enough hours in the sewing room working on a few ongoing projects.  Time in the sewing room keeps me sane-ish. 

Photo of one of my quilts in use. Isn’t she so cute?

Scrap sewing has taken lots of time but no finishes yet.  My string scraps tub was overflowing so I used the paper base method of making 6 1/2" blocks, utilising an old phone book for the paper (as per Bonnie Hunter's method.)  I made 60 plus blocks and the strings tub doesn't seem to be diminished at all.  Scraps do seem to accumulate when they're not being watched. Sewing these blocks was very therapeutic and relaxing.  

I started on a quilt for another new-ish baby.  This one is based on some Pinterest posts and uses a jelly roll.  The baby's first birthday is in June so I plan to hand it over by then.  There will be borders added but I haven't worked them out yet.

There will be a large flower appliquéd at the intersection of the sashing, as per the Pinterest posts.  The sashing is supposed to be pale yellow but looks white/cream in most lights.

My plan is that May will be a month of quilting, clearing out some of the quilt tops hanging around the sewing room.  Fingers crossed that happens!  

April 2026 fabric tally

Finishes this month:   =   nothing!

Purchases this month:  0 m   (I'm still feeling virtuous)

Fabric used:  - 0 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2026:  - 7 m   (no change from last month)