Yay - it's finished!

Whew! A Galaxy of Scraps is entirely finished! I'm so relieved! I'm just loving working through my scraps, but there is still a long way to go. It's kind of funny - the more quilts I make - the more seems to go into the scrap containers - all part of the process I guess :-)

This evening, I plan to make up a couple of placemats with my strippy scraps. In the same vein as the Christmas one I made the other day, but without the piping, and with all different fabrics. Carole asked if it was a 'quilt as you go' project, and yes, it was. This is the first thing I've done that way. Susan Murphy is a wonderful teacher, and I love the ideas she comes up with. I've done her Christmas workshop for the past two years and loved it each time.

I was also thinking I may try and make a journal cover if I get the chance. There is one in the Thimbleberries club newsletter this year. Maureen had hers with her today, and it's super cute. Let's see how far I get before bed time.

I also thought I'd share a quick shot of my fabric closet - just so you know it's not quite so anorexic as it was. I know it's far from impressive (and my picture is very dark - sorry 'bout that) but I know you'll all be happy to know that slowly but surely I'm rebuilding my yardage stash. Kim has been desperately worried about the health of my stash - but be assured, I should be able to quilt for a good little while yet *vbs*.

Last of all, I wanted to share that today while I was working at the quilt store, the lady came to collect the Sunbonnet Sue quilt that we finished for her. She was just overwhelmed, and had tiny little weep, and lots of hugs for us all. What a dear sweet lady, and how wonderful to be involved in something which brought so much joy. Gosh it's great to be a quilter!

x o x

Galaxy's Quilted

My scrap quilt 'A Galaxy of Scraps' is quilted! Whew - it seemed to go forever! I started quilting on it at 11.30pm Saturday night, and I finished up around half an hour ago. (4.15 Monday afternoon)

This quilt ended up being bigger than I had envisioned. It's 216cm or 85" square. That's the size I drew it up at, but I didn't really make the size connection until I made the back up. I did the usual thing of joining two pieces of yardage together, selvedge to selvedge, and when I sandwiched the quilt, there was literally 1/4" of backing fabric to spare on each side of the quilt. Normally I would add more, but this time I decided to just go with it and see what happened. Luckily, the quilt didn't 'take up' too much, and I'm find to apply the binding. If I'm a really good girl, I'll get the binding sewn on tonight, ready for hand sewing over the next few evenings.

One of my favourite parts of piecing scrap quilts is using up all my leftover bobbin threads, and odd reels of leftover cotton. I used up a lot with this quilt! I used up six leftover reels, and almost all the bobbin bits and pieces. It always makes me feel very thrifty *vbs*.

Unfortunately over the weekend I didn't get an opportunity to get back to the quilt show - we had too many visitors yesterday to get out for any length of time. Disappointing, because I wanted to get back and look at the quilt show - and I also wanted to meet Mereth and Kerryn - they were going to be there on the weekend. I consoled myself with a flying visit to Spotlight. I needed some more taupe thread for the back of the quilt, and while I was there I found some actual reproduction fabrics packaged up as fat quarters. I treated myself to a couple, and Cameron found a cute fabric with Soccer balls on it that he just had to have. I forgot to take a picture of the fabric - so I'll share it with my next post.

I better run - I need to get dinner on the go. Talk to you soon! x o x

Setting Triangles

I've completely finished making up all the blocks for 'A Galaxy of Scraps'. All the blocks are sashed and it's now decision time.

This is another quilt that I don't plan to put a border on, and I had planned to use the biscuit coloured fabric in the foreground of the picture for the setting triangles around the edge of the quilt. I'm now thinking it may be a little boring.

I found the pictured Sturbridge II fabric in my stash, and I'm thinking I may use it for the setting triangles instead. What do you think?

Decisions, decisions ... I hope I don't lose sleep over it! :-)

The fabric that just won't quit ...

Yay! I've finished making all the middle parts of the blocks for the new scrap quilt. you can see them all piled up there in the background. Now I just need to finish framing the blocks with the biscuit and purple fabrics. I think I've framed about half of them. See how I'm using purple AGAIN! I think it's my new favourite colour.

I made 25 of the star blocks, and 16 of the sixteen patch blocks, and of course, it seemed to make very little difference to my box of 2.5" scraps. Clearly I have a lot of scrap quilts left in me yet. One thing I did was make an effort to use the ugliest of the fabrics in the box. Amazing what fabrics make their way into the stash!

And see the light blue fabric in this block (I know it's hard to see clearly - I really do not take good pictures) but anyways ... that fabric was in the first ever quilt I made. Back in 1992! I don't know how much of that fabric I purchased - but we were newlyweds with a new house and not much money, so it can't have been too much. But this stuff is like a bad penny - I just can't get rid of it. It's popping back up all the time in my scrap boxes. I tried to use it all in this quilt, but I think there is a little more. And who knows what is in the other size scrap boxes ... I'm just never going to be rid of it! Thank goodness fabric is so much more interesting these days - it's not an attractive fabric!

And speaking of unattractive fabrics - get a load of some of the bad boys in these blocks! Ewwwww ... I have no idea where that yellow fabric came from - I know I never would have bought that one ... and the black and orange plaid ... and the little calicoes ... Ohhh and of course, there's a little more of the blue in there too *sigh*.

I hope I don't look upon my current stash this way in ten years time. I love my repro fabric ... I hope I never fall out of love with it!

Back on track

I'm back on the scrap wagon again now that I'm happy with my seam allowance. Thank you to those of you who gave some great tips for accuracy. My issue was that my needle had stepped one to the left and I didn't notice. Well, I did notice when I needed to add a new shape to the mix, but all is well now.

Good thing I didn't keep using the block border fabric from the previous post, I don't think it would have gone well with the purple fabric I had settled on for the star blocks. It's the same purple I used in the borders from the last quilt. I really love it!

I'll just keep plugging away now, I expect you'll see more of the same for a little while as the blocks come together. The thing I find super fun is that I can hide some of the most extraordinary scrap fabrics in here and they still look great.

For this project, I picked up most of my already cut 2 1/2" scraps from my scrap boxes - added the bits and pieces from a couple of recent projects and cut a few more 2 1/2" strips up. The squares about quarter filled one of my project boxes, and as I'm making up these blocks, it's amazing to me that the amount of fabric in the box has hardly diminished. I have to try not to think about it too much - I really don't want to be making only scrap quilts forever, but I can't see my two big tubs of scrap fabrics ever diminishing to the point where they won't bug me. Gosh, I almost get breathless thinking about it ...

On another note - we're off to a party this afternoon. For me it will be the first outing for my new hairdo. I had my hair cut and coloured somewhere different just for a change, and I really love it. I had foils for the first time people! My hair feels like it has about eleventy-four different colours in it. I've got blonde, silver blonde, a little auburn, and a teeny bit of medium brown. I love it! The cut is different too, a couple inches shorter and requires less maintenance. Maybe I should pop out and get me a new outfit too ...

Quarter inch ... and unpicking

Late last night I thought I'd do some fabric auditioning. The quilt I've been working on will have two different blocks, and each will be framed with a different colour. In my design I thought the sixteen patches would be framed with a natural colour - but last night while looking in my fabric closet, I thought I'd try the fabric you see at left.

I'm not going to use it after trying it. I don't mind it, but I don't think it will go well with the other purple colour I've selected. I think I'll audition the biscuit coloured fabric you see there next, and see how that goes.

The fabric selection is not what's bugging me though, I'm thinking there is something up with my quarter inch seams right now. I don't usually have any problems, but my sixteen patches are finishing up just over 1/4" smaller than they should be. I'm using my #57 Bernie foot which I've never had a problem with before, I'm wondering if my needle has moved a scootch over while I was machine quilting. Possibly while moving the quilt around under there? This is something that's never bothered me before, and it was highly annoying when my border pieces wouldn't fit the block nicely. I'll measure my seams when I get back to the sewing room and make any adjustments necessary. Fortunately I've only made 3 blocks so far.

Today is looking like a great day for stitching - I cleaned the house yesterday - so I just need to hang out a load of laundry, and then there will be no distractions. Let's see how far I get :-)

Another start

Yesterday afternoon I sent my 'Sisters Choice Medallion' quilt off to the publisher. It doesn't matter how many times I've done it, I always wonder if it will get there okay, and have a little pang at saying goodbye for the time being. Regardless of that, it's another deadline met, and I'm now marching to a new drum

This morning I received a commissioning letter for a quilt I designed yesterday, so I have a new deadline of 21 November. This will be another scrap quilt, and I'm putting scraps from the last couple of projects to use immediately. I'm using the 'project box' from the last quilt, so I just tipped out the leftovers and cut them up for this quilt. It doesn't look all that interesting so far, but hopefully it'll be more inspiring as I go along.

I have also got about one hour of machine quilting left to do on the second of a customer's quilts. I will then apply the binding for her - ready for her to hand sew down. I know I've got a couple more machine quilting projects lined up for me, but they're not in my hands yet, so I can take a little break from it.

The house is very quiet this morning - Amy is still away with my parents at the beach house, and Cam is spending the day with our day care lady - she's taking a little group of five kids to visit the library. They're sure to have a lovely time. I'm going to sew until about lunchtime, and then I'm going to set to cleaning Cameron's room. It's a much easier task when he's not around. When he helps (which is so sweet) he always finds things he's forgotten about and wants to play.

So that's my day - what are you up to today? :-)