Happy New Year

 Well 2022 was definitely not the year of the Blog that's for sure.  I'm thinking that I want to be more bloggish next year - and the purchase of a new computer should help that along.  I must admit that I miss the freedom of typing on a keyboard instead of pecking at a screen... I enjoy the flow of typing thoughts, having learnt touch typing in the 1980's has never lead me astray although I also type a whole heap more rubbish... more like how my brain works so there's that :0).  Anyway I digress... what's been happening in the sewing shed/life.

The most exciting occurrence has been the birth of my first grandchild on Xmas Day!!  We welcome Amarni-Jade to our family.  She was a healthy 8pd 4oz at birth and has grown during her first week of life.  Woohoo... another baby to create quilts for.

After much discussion and analysis of various quilt patterns and fabrics with my daughter Nadia, we both agreed on the Cabin Nights pattern using a lovely animal print at the feature fabric.  Blues, greens, greys and browns and a bit of pink also.

I though a nine-block layout would be a great size - but of course it is enormous so I have spent the last few days finishing up the four block version which will be a better size for bassinettes and car seats etc... and one day would make an excellent doll quilt.  I just have the binding to hand stitch on and unlike my own children, I will actually finish this before using the quilt.  Dylan's baby quilt never had the binding sewn down until after Nadia was on the scene so this Nana has learnt something over the past 19 odd years - basically that binding is my arch nemesis.

Anyway... isn't she a cute wee dot?

The other major news is the addition of a new sewing shed!  After much looking and comparing sizes and prices we bought a flat pack shed 6 x 4m and hubby is well on the way to getting it erected.  It does have the doors installed now... and he is working on the floor, before the roof is started.  To say that I cannot wait until the shed is completed is somewhat of an understatement - I CANNOT WAIT!!  The whole back wall is going to be covered in cotton batting for a design wall (come on Spotlight, give me a batting sale of at least 40% off) and cupboards are going to cover the left-hand short wall.  My sewing desk will sit under the window at the front, and a mobile (yet to be built) cutting/worktable will probably act like an island bench in the middle and be moved to the side for activities such as basting and floor layouts.

Having a new space will allow my old space to be utilised as family storage - excess linens, clothes and all the other things that families seem to collect can be stored safely and neatly.  This is something that I also can't wait to happen.

I managed to get most of my sample BOM project completed - just a border treatment to design and it will be ready for quilting.  I am really happy with the way it turned out with a creative sashing giving a lot of movement to the basic nine patch block layout.  I know that I need to repeat the little triangles and plus blocks in the outer sashing but this resulted in the mojo indicator moving to zero so no progress has been made on this in recent history.

Another short and simple but unfinished project was this jelly roll quilt...

Some blocks done but I found this was one of those things I needed to layout and distribute the colours evenly as I was making blocks - and once my previous design wall became unusable and Dylan took over my design floor when he moved into the sleepout, well... this project also hit the wall.

Did I mention how much I can't wait until my new shed is finished?

I feel like this was the year of not getting much done, I completed a baby quilt right at the beginning of the year, the Tiger Plant quilt which is a free pattern.  While the recipient was extra happy to receive it - and I receive semi regular photos of the little person it was for on it - I can't help but notice that the quilt is always upside down.  Oh well, at least it is being used.

Using the #apqresolution challenge I worked on many of my WIPs throughout the first half of the year, and although there weren't many finished I did manage to get something achieved.  My Patchwork City quilt (started as part of a sew along in 2018) finally had it's binding sewn down.

I finished piecing my scrappy Brightly Quilt.  I absolutely love this pattern and all those scraps.  Note, it is not written as a scrappy pattern but easy enough to adjust.

A second baby quilt was finished for my husbands 5th grandchild in Australia.  I don't seem to have a photo of the finished item.

Hmmm... and that seems to be it in the finishing department.  I have lots of plans for 2023 - just need to work out how to get more time to sew.

All the best for New Years wherever you might be... and we'll catch you in 2023. 

 

Stuff going on in the shed

 The March #apqresolution project was to finish piecing the Brightly quilt.

When I last worked on this, I had several sections pieced into chunks, and had started laying out some pieces to fill the gaps - but then someone needed the pull out bed and I labelled all the bits and tucked it away.

Turns out I needed to sew eight more blocks which didn't take all that long to piece.

This was where the fabric selection started getting tricky - I had run out of many of the scraps used previously and the ones I did have left were already used in critical places - time to bring in some new fabrics while still trying to make them look like they fit.  Good luck with that one 🙄

Progress...

Then the last few seams to put it all together.

Scraps in all their sparkly scrappiness 🤩

As always, getting to this stage of the process leads to thinking about quilting strategies.  There are some nice negative spaces which would lead themselves to some interesting FMQ opportunities but I'm undecided whether I want to invest that much effort.

There is always some time to choose new fabrics for a block.  The rainbow block colour for this month is pink - even though technically it's not in the rainbow 🌈.  I'm always surprised by the volume of pink fabric I have - I absolutely hate pink but as the mother of a previously pink loving daughter it had become a necessary evil.

I also purchased some fabrics from Rainbow Stash - look, they have prints too!  A bundle and some randoms, I am slowly building up my love volume stash but who can go past a luscious floral.  I have seen the Cluck Cluck Sew Diagonal Seam tape before, and took the opportunity to buy some from a NZ business.  It has made all the difference in keeping my seam allowance constant with my new sewing machine so I heartily recommend it.

On Instagram I am keeping up with the creative prompts with Amy's creative side... The prompt for your first quilt meaning a little photo session with this cot quilt.

Not bad for a first time of everything 😘.

Finishing my March challenge means I can now jump into all the other March projects.

Lockdown... Again

 It's been ages since my last post.  I have been plugging away at my Sweet Escape log cabins and finally finished the last block on Saturday, and pieced the rest of the top on Sunday.  Patchwork takes time but persistence and patience do pay off in the end.  This is 80" of lusciousness.

I have a Spotlight wide back in Charcoal ready to back this but am stumped for quilting ideas.  I think it would be stunning hand quilted but not sure if I'm up to the challenge.

As I often do, I have used this scrappy version of the Brightly quilt as my leader/ ender.  The blocks have a similar number of seams as the log cabin so for every log cabin block there is another Brightly block to add to the collection.  I've ended up sewing more of the square blocks, and now just have two of these to make before getting back to the star ones.  Then only 10 more stars and it will be time to put this one together.  It is a 7x7 layout with 12" blocks.  So huge 😂.

Also on the finished pile is this scrappy Transire Quilt which had the last few stitches of binding sewn down last weekend... This has been dragging on so I need to be more disciplined in setting goals and getting the binding finished in future.

A cute cot size the squares for the plus sign nine patches are cut 2".  Quilted with an allover stipple and some designs in the border using the fabric pattern as inspiration.

Rainbows... Orange binding... Label... Done!!

As we have now gone back into lockdown in Northland (until Tuesday but you know, could be anytime), it is time to have another look at my WIP list and see what takes my fancy.  Although I have a couple of new projects that are primed and rearing to go.  Moda Lissa is running a sewalong from her scrappy book... I am not interested... I am not interested.... (As she opens her stash cupboard to see if there is anything that looks promising 🙈)

Rounding off October

 I seemed to spend most of the last week of October cutting scraps... finding and auditioning more scraps and then cutting more scraps!

It's really starting to take shape now and I think I have a handle on how the colours need to be placed without laying out the entire quilt... so I've started piecing a few blocks and will lay it out again when there are a few more completed units.  It is quite the process!

In Granny Square news... I've laid out my 14 blocks to see if I could find a pleasing arrangement.  I added some plain floral squares to make 16 blocks... a 4 x 4 layout.

But then couldn't decide if I liked the florals in the corners or the centre?

Having them in the centre helps to spread the blocks around a bit more... and I don't know if my head can cope with another round of block sudoku but I'm also thinking that putting them in the middle is quite disruptive to the flow... so might go back to the original layout.

My husband keeps reminding me that there are new grandbabies due next year and that I had better get cracking...

I chose some soft purples but he wasn't so keen on these for a baby quilt.  The pile grew into this beautiful bundle so I think I'm going to HAVE to make myself something from it.  I'm thinking big moody Ohio Stars... next year...

And last up, the fabrics that met the approved baby quilt list... some lovely bright but not too bright primary colours and a simple baby quilt layout (pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew).  There are twelve log cabin-style  blocks so not too much more to sew.

The October Curve Ball

 My To Do List had been roaring along... I ticked off my initial items and started some additional tasks... and still had a couple of weeks left of October to go... wow... what to do with all that time??

I started a declutter challenge...

Repurposing and reinventing... sorting and cleaning.

I did the next #sewcialitesQAL block

I started planting some vege seeds.... this cupcake packaging is the perfect size to act as a mini starter environment.

I did some new #modastitchpink2020 blocks... 

And I decided to pull some new project collections by raiding my stash containers.  I started by choosing some fun, colourful prints...

Then trawled through my colour sorted scraps to see what blended.

I really liked the bono vibe of this collection...

Surprisingly this group never really jelled even though the feature fabric had some great colours.

This mix was bright and cheerful.

I really liked how this mix was shaping up.

I had made a list of possible scrap projects, and jotted down the measurements of the key scrap units.  Not surprisingly, I really struggled to match fabric piles with projects!  Eventually I decided to cut the bright and cheerful pile above into the Brightly Quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew.  The pieces are all cut to 2.5 and 4.5" measurements so while some scraps were too small (in particular the bright oranges), there were still plenty of others.

The first placement of fabrics was a bit flat... it was actually even worse than this!

I wasn't sure whether I liked it... but started adding in some black and white prints and it started to zing again.

The start of the star unit and a bigger area and the pattern is starting to reveal itself... I can see I need some more variety but it also looks like it's going to work.

In amongst all this my daughter broke her collar bone... those spare two weeks disappeared with plenty of days of no sewing... and my dreams of finishing multiple projects disappeared in a puff of smoke.  The perfect time to start a whole heap more.  I think this is called Stress Sewing 😆😆.