Four more blocks completed and on the line – not far behind the rest of the group considering I started in August and not January. It was quite breezy but I managed to get a few shots in between gusts
I returned to the Whirling Geese block and used darker blues, as my mid-blue version was a bit too light. I used the inner block from the orange month to do a second mid-blue block too which is a Twirling Four Patch. It’s more like a pinwheel than the block that is called a pinwheel!
I finished the yellows too. Monkey Wrench is in the original list, however, the second paler block should have been Air Castle but I substituted this block whose name escapes me.
As you can see it is another lovely sunny day which is a welcome return after the last few days which have been cold and grey
Next job on the list was chain piecing the squares I had prepared earlier in the week for the alternate blocks
All the indigo, pink, red, yellow and orange are now in little four or two patches. The good thing about all this piecing is the amount of tumblers that were sewn together too. All are at the very least paired up and about half of those are now in fours. It’s surprising how quickly this Leaders and Enders project is going. It may even be finished at the same time as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! Now all I need to do is keep up with the Quilting From Little Things and they will all be wrapped up by the end of the year – nearly forgot the Global Quilting Project! Just waiting for one more block and then assembly can begin. Perhaps I will have three full-sized quilts for New Year
What does; Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain and Every hunter Wishes To Know Where The Pheasant Sits have in common?
Answer;
They are both mnemonics to remember the order of the colours of the rainbow using the capital letter of each word. For English speakers this is; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet (ROY GB IV is another way to remember)
For Russian speakers this is; red, orange, yellow, green, SKY BLUE, BLUE, violet
In Russian sky blue or light blue is perceived as a separate colour from blue, which seems odd to us but then we have a colour pink – which is really a tint of red. A tint is made when you add white to a colour (light blue is a tint too) A shade is made by adding black
Just to shake up the rainbow even more, when Sir Isaac Newton used a prism to break up white light he added indigo for occult reasons and it is a shade of blue. That is why modern renditions of the rainbow – including the Gay Pride Banner and Dark Side of the Moon album cover for Pink Floyd – have only six colours.
I am very honoured to accept this award – don’t worry no long speeches!
I was recently kindly nominated for a Leibster Blog Award by Eleonora from Coastal Crochet. It’s a lovely idea to nominate blogs you enjoy that have a small readership as they may have only been blogging a short time (me!) or have a niche topic.
The idea is to answer between 5 and 10 questions about yourself so others can get to know you and to nominate 5 or more other blogs that you enjoy
My questions
1 What is you favourite crafting tool?
I was tempted to say my brain ha ha but I think it is my sewing machine although I do love to sew by hand too. I have two machines; a Pfaff Ambition 1.0 and a Britannia Instyle16
2 What is your favourite craft book?
Difficult to answer but Quilting From Little Things by Sarah Fielke inspired me to challenge myself to make a quilt or a dolly quilt from each chapter in her book, which is why this blog started – to chart my progress and keep a record. It’s a lovely book and teaches a different technique each chapter. I only have three left to make
3 Do you have a project you have made time and time again?
No as I have too many ideas in my head to repeat things, although lap quilts are probably the size I make most. I like to crochet which I learnt about a year ago; knit which I learnt from my Mum about 40+ years ago, she also taught me embroidery. Plus I paint and draw too. In the past I have made jewellery and I would like to learn etching or lino print making but not in this room as they are too messy!
4 Where do you get your best ideas?
Anywhere really, which is why I always try to remember to take a notebook out with me. I should keep one next to the bed as I often wake up at night with ideas – which can be a bit inconvenient to say the least!
5 Where do you sit to do your creating? Is it possible to share a photo?
I have a sewing cupboard room upstairs. It is about a eighth of the size I had in Australia but at least I still have one. I have taken over an Ikea bookcase in the hall to use as a cutting table as there isn’t enough room in here and the light is better too. I am thinking of getting locking castors to make it a bit higher.
The three dolly quilts on the wall are all from Sarah’s book, the cats are a present from my youngest from a school trip to China, the dog and purple pot are from charity shops, the wizard and dragon bookends are a present from my best friend Julie who sadly passed away from a brain tumour last year (I still think about her everyday as she was such a big part of my life for more than thirty years)
I have squeezed in various drawers and little shelves to keep track of the many WIPS I have
Two projects for Quilting From Little Things; Star and Fanfare
On the left; RSC15 and a partially finished purse
I have actually finished the star and the purse – it pays to be organised! That partly answers the next question
6 How do you store your WIPs and what do you take projects out in?
I also have a bigger set of plastic drawers for bigger projects in my (mainly) sewing room and I take EPP projects out in an old iPad cover in zip lock bags. My crochet and knitting live downstairs in a free bag that came with a magazine and an old wicker picnic basket from a bootsale.
Don’t forget to visit Coastal Crochet too! Thank you for nominating me and happy blog hopping to you all.
Questions and instructions for nominees
What is your favourite crafting tool?
What is your favourite craft book
What is your all time favourite yarn, thread or silks.
Do you have a project that you have made time and time again?
Are you hoping to make gifts for Christmas this year and if so approximately how many?
What is your favourite handmade gift that you have received from somebody else?
Where do you get your best ideas?
Where do you sit to do your creating? If possible could you share a photo?
Have your creative hobbies changed over the years or do you stick to the same ones?
How do you store your WIPs and what do you take out projects in?
As an award winner you must:
Acknowledge and accept the Liebster Award by leaving a comment on the blog where you were nominated.
Copy and paste the Liebster Award medal (logo) onto your own blog.
Link back to the blogger who awarded you and give thanks.
Answer the questions put to you by the person who nominated you. This is a great way to get to know the people behind the blogs. The number of questions have vary from 5 to 11 depending on who is asking.
On your blog nominate and link to your 5 favourite blogs(or more) that you enjoy but have a small readership (the rules have varied from less than 200 to less than 3000 readers). It could be that they have only been blogging for a short time or have a niche interest but are worthy of gaining more attention in the wider blogging world. That means the blogs of large, commercial enterprises are not eligible for nomination; nor are blogs that are well publicised in a variety of media and established with tens of thousands of followers.
List your questions for your Liebster Award nominees on your blog.
Inform your nominees by leaving a comment on their blogs.
These two flowers have travelled round a bit – in and out of a zip lock bag getting a bit wrinkled on the way but now they are finished
They are larger than the previously completed flowers; adding the diamonds gives more design possibilities the idea for which came from ‘Quilting on the Go!’ by Jessica Alexandrakis. This is a very good book for people new to EPP (English paper piecing) or if you have experience, full of good ideas and design projects big and small.
I particularly like the leaves. The stripy material is one that I had doubts about when I bought it; was the colour too acidic? But I love it as the leaves because they set the pink off so well
What are you up to this Sunday? Pop over to Kathy’s quilts if you need some inspiration http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/ and see what everyone else is up to
A very busy day on Friday. Finished four more blocks for the RSC15 and cut squares for the alternate blocks in yellow, orange and red. Posted my two tulip blocks for the Block Lotto and tidied the sewing room. Got a phone call to say that I am through to the second round of interviews for a job at Little Havens charity shop – fingers crossed!
My sewing room is too small so I am spreading out into the hall. It should be a bit more thread free as I made another fabric pot on Friday too, for all those little threads and clippings – my other one lives in the hall on an Ikea bookcase which has become my cutting table. It’s a bit low but I think adding castors (the locking kind) will raise it up high enough to save my back.
It might be October but the weather has been wonderful; warm and sunny with a slight mist this morning just to remind you that it is Autumn.
I made two blocks for my first lotto – purple and mauve tulips that are now on their way to America, I hope that the recipient of my blocks likes them
The mauve block isn’t wonky – I just took the photo at an angle!
The block for October is a monochromatic Twinkle Star. I have seen this block recently as one of the participants in the RSC15 is making them. I thought it was a lovely block and one for the future – didn’t think I would be making one so soon but it seems the future is here now!
This time the blocks are on black which will make for a striking quilt and one I would love to win. So I must get on with making new blocks – got to be in it, to win it
I am trying to finish off all the UFOs that are languishing in bags or boxes and this little dolly is one of them. Instead of making the dolly quilt ‘Peaks and Troughs’ I decided to make a section of the larger quilt that is paired with it – ‘Stars in Your Eyes’
The purpose of both quilts is to teach you how to do ‘L’ and ‘Y’ seams and I should have read the beginning of the chapter where it says ‘L’s are easier then ‘Y’s but I was entranced by the lovely stars on the full size quilt so bypassed the dolly to make a star – intending that it could become a cushion cover. The first lot of photos are over two years old which tells you something.
The first part was easy enough – strip piece five fabrics, fold in half and cut out triangles with the widest part of the triangle ruler on the fold line. When opened out you have diamond shapes to play around with, which I did
The next part involved making a diamond-shaped template for the inset piecing, cutting the fabric and then attaching using Y seams and that is where it started going wrong. I found it in a bag with only one piece set in, rather badly, and a second piece attached by one seam and the inner corner slightly chewed…..It was obvious why I had set it to one side for so long.
Still I had to finish it and it wasn’t so bad this time round. It definitely helped having a better machine and after one false start it was done. No great dramas; the key was ignoring the dots that marked a quarter inch seam and feeling where it was and then marking it. Also I left the needle down the whole time when repositioning the fabric contrary to Sarah’s instructions
Stars in Your Eyes
On reflection it was on the large side for a cushion cover once squared off so I bound it as it is. A certain furry someone certainly appreciates it!
Now, where are those little fans for ‘Fanfare’ hiding…..
We have confirmation that another member has pulled out of The Global Quilting Project and that another is definitely staying in so I am busy making a second block. I have nearly finished and just need to complete two more yellow applique ‘suns’ to mirror the applique blue/green ‘earths’. Other members of the Balkan Puzzle group have also made an extra block to boost numbers so I am doing my bit too
I may even get to post them tomorrow but I have an interview so they might have to wait for Tuesday – we’ll see!
I thought drawing the spiral on the fabric in pen could go horribly wrong – even if it does have 2 sides! An easier and less fraught way is to iron it into place and reposition as needed. After that I put it on the glass table top and tacked it on with very large stitches; simple.
The second difficulty I had was doing the needle turn applique partly because the fabric glue I bought was useless so I used a quilting pin to hold the leaves in place. This didn’t really work as it didn’t hold it flat enough to the fabric. The ends of the leaves, I found particularly fiddly and I did not want to use the freezer paper method. The precision of this method doesn’t go with the naïve style of this quilt.
In the end I tacked the edges under and once the end of the leaf was attached to the spiral there was no need to glue it in place, I just held it with my thumb which allowed for some manoeuvring if need be. In the end I made too many leaves but I squeezed them on anyway!
When it came to quilting, I had lots of embroidery thread but only a couple of spools of perle cotton. I am following Sarah on Facebook so I emailed her to ask if embroidery thread was ok. She kindly replied the same day and said that the stranded embroidery thread would split and to stick with perle. An order on EBay sorted that out.
I enjoyed the handwork for this project and remembered how much I used to like embroidery – I got grade A for ‘O’ level embroidery – don’t know anyone else who has it. Most people don’t know it exists!
This is a very enjoyable project for hand sewers just right for Slow Sunday Stitching, but not if you love your machine.
And the title? Originally this was on a page but I tidied up the page to change this to a link
This is the title for Bonnie K. Hunter’s Leader and Ender Challenge 2015 and I am now ready having calculated and cut nearly 300 tumblers using my Dear Jane triangle ruler. I didn’t want to buy a new ruler and it works just fine
I love the look of the tumblers all stacked up ready to use, almost like a treble sized layer cake. The striped material came in fat quarter bundle and I didn’t know what to do with it but now it is perfect for this project as it unites the colours in the rest of the tumblers. Many of the fabrics in this quilt will be orphans from bundles I thought were out of place, or others that I bought when I first started quilting and really bought because they were cheap to get my stash started – not because I loved them! Some are the last pieces of fabrics I did like and all of them are more muted than I usually go for now, but…. I am on a mission to use up any fabrics that have been languishing in the stash otherwise it is a waste of resources. The once tidy stack is now jumbled up ready for piecing
Bonnie’s Leader and Ender Challenge is also about cutting down on waste and she clearly explains her motives in this post. She is also re-purposing a ruler – using a Dresden plate ruler to make tiny tumblers from a 2.5 inch strip! Mine are cut from a 4.5 inch strip so I will finish fairly quickly.
The idea, in brief, is to use the tumblers as bridging pieces of material between your projects when you are chain-piecing instead of a thread bunny and to avoid leaving long tails of thread that can clog up your machine. I have been making blocks for the RSC15 Challenge, The Block Lotto and improvised log cabin blocks for my second entry for The Global quilting Project 2015 so I have already put together nearly half of my tumblers.
It is going to be a large lap quilt for the settee as the one on there at the moment is a lightweight summer quilt in bright colours and I want a heavier warmer one in more muted shades, I have bought an old but good condition wool blanket from a charity shop for the wadding.
So I am using up neglected fabric, saving thread by using the tumblers as leaders and enders, re-using an old blanket, re-purposing a ruler, having a warmer quilt so I don’t put on the heating unnecessarily and making more than one quilt at the same time. If only I hadn’t given away my Nan’s treadle Singer sewing machine I could have saved electricity too! I think that covers ‘Reduce, Re-use and Recycle’ pretty well, don’t you?
thecraftyyak 