Frustrating week

Where did last week go?!  My only finish was six face masks - made for friends.  At least, for this lot, I had elastic.  And it was easy to find appropriate fabric in my stash for each friend.

I did spend about four hours on almost completing something and then realised that I had sewn part of it upside down, so had to spend too much time unsewing and undoing all my work.  Very frustrating!  I will finish it this week and post a photo.

Spent a reasonable amount of time on my hand quilting last week, while watching TV.  It is coming along nicely, but will be a long term project.  I will probably take a rest from hand quilting occasionally and do other hand work while watching TV.  I should set myself a deadline though, otherwise it will hang around forever.  So the deadline is Christmas! for my hand quilted bright colours quilt.  

Plodding along

One finish but not an exciting one. An older friend was packing up her house and gifted a few crafty things to me. Among them was a pile of crocheted blocks, some joined up into sections. I have finished sewing them all together and will donate it somewhere when I'm able to. The main thing is that its now complete and (almost) out of my way.

What it probably needs is an edging crocheted on but that's beyond my limited crocheting capabilities. Never mind.

I finished a name block for the I Spy quilt, and printed some photos onto fabric for inclusion in the blocks.  And have started piecing blocks.  

A friend collects fabric selvedges, which she makes into great quilts, place mats and coasters.  I'm happy to send all mine to her in Brisbane because I know they're not going to waste.  Some of the selvedges are really pretty.  

I decided to hand quilt the bright quilt, with perle cotton in big stitches.  It will likely take a while to do, but I'm not stressing about the quilting.  Just choosing lots of different colours and meandering along with them. 

And just for something funny - I read about this some time during the pandemic, and finally tried it myself.  A mask made from a sock!  Easy to do and probably better than nothing, if you're stuck.  Mine is from an old sport sock I had lying around (always wondered where its mate disappeared to.)  It isn't a good look, is it? 😂

Finishes = nil but have accomplished a fair bit

 Although I haven’t actually finished anything this week, I have progressed a few projects. 

I’ve done much cutting for a new I Spy quilt for a young family member.  Love the wombat block.  Hopefully this will come together quickly once all the cutting is done. 

I did have a partial finish - I completed the sashiko embroidery on a panel I have had hanging around for years.  I actually took it away with me in January to do while I was working overseas this year but Covid changed that! so I’ve finished it off watching TV at home in lockdown.  Eventually I will border it with Japanese fabrics and turn it into a quilt. 

And I’ve spent most of today sandwiching a quilt.  The top was finished more years ago than I care to admit!, so I have finally made a pieced backing and pin-basted it.  On the floor, which is ruinous for the knees. Finished size will be about 1.6 x 1.9m.  Just a taste of the quilt in the photo.  I’m tossing up whether to hand quilt it with big stitches in perle cotton or a quick machine quilt.  

Easy to do while watching TV is sewing together a bag of crochet blocks given to me by a local friend. I’ve finished joining the cream blocks and will pick up a ball of yarn tomorrow that matches the blue blocks. This is the layout I decided on after much consideration.  

And to finish off this post - a photo of my sewing room helper, kindly keeping my sewing seat warm while I do other jobs.  

My first blog post

 My first blog post!  Scary in a way, because it is public but I think it could be fun to record what happens in my patchwork life. I read lots of different quilters’ blogs and enjoy them all.  It is great that people share their ups and downs with others.  One blogger I follow said she found it great to look back on her years of blog posts and remember the events of the past. So I’ll try it. 

First quilt finish for my blog.  A few months ago, I saw a quilt somewhere that I liked and thought I’d try it out.  Most photos I’ve seen have called the block design - Swoon.  Simple block based on squares and triangles (aren’t they almost all?) and easy to work out the design. So I made four blocks using scraps. They went together quickly and then sat for a time, as I couldn’t work out how I wanted to quilt it. Eventually bit the bullet and quilted three different designs - vermicelli in the background, pebbles on the centre stars and wavy lines along the patches in the outer stars.  Presume I will use it as a gift for a new baby?  

38” square. 16” block, plus 2” sashing and 2” borders. Finished August 2020.