Almost the end of the month

 I think I have spent a lot of time this month pondering which snippets of life to blog about... and in the end blogged about nothing.  So a bit of a round up post of all that's happened so far... and lots of photos so a cuppa might be needed to get to the end of this 😆

If you remember last time, Nadia had broken her collarbone... she is almost fully back to her normal self and has an appointment on Tuesday which will hopefully confirm she can resume normal activities.

My main goal for this month was to get my Granny Squares quilt fully stitched... a rainy day has meant that it's too wet to take full length photos while I have quilt holderuppers home.

My second big challenge was to finish the FMQ on Theres a Square In There.  This has been incredibly time consuming and although there are a few spots where the bobbin thread has peeked through on the front... I just don't care!

Yay... and the binding...

I'm now stitching this to the back by hand little bit by little bit.  The backing is the wonderful koi print.

As soon as it was out from under the sewing machine I had my Avalon quilt zooming through for a much quicker linear design.

I am now working on the 2nd quarter.

My other monthly goals have fallen to the wayside.  I did manage to choose fabrics for the next Line Dried section.

I discovered some more plus blocks so unpicked the side sashing, added another row... replaced the sashing and decided this rainbow stripe just finished things off perfectly.  It has since had the top border added 😆

Some new fabrics...

Some new patterns...

A basic shift for woven fabrics...

A basic top for wovens...

A basic dress for knits... 

Look at all these variations!

I finally have the background for the Libs Elliott Orbiter Quilt!

A few more Crossroads blocks to add to the collection.

I love the blues in this print that's in my Avalon quilt.  When I saw this organic solid I thought it was as close a match as i would find.  Although you'll need to watch this space to see what happens to it. 

Some other solid fat quarters made their way home with me...

And a couple of cute prints... because you know... bunnies!

Hop Skip

 My new baby quilt is progressing nicely.  Hop Skip by Cluck Cluck Sew came out last year I think and I put it on my "looks like a good one" list.  I even managed to buy a hard copy of the pattern, and finally decided this would be the best pattern for these fabrics.

This finishes as 39" wide by 50" long so a generous cot size.

A few mixed fat quarters, background for sashing and some yardage for the top and bottom border... all from stash.  Well, or stolen from other current projects.... I'm looking at you white quilters muslin.  I have come to the conclusion you can never have enough white solid fabric 😂

A terribly lit photo and unattractive wrinkling but you get the idea...

Just imagine all the colour variations you could make... fussy cutting images for the centre squares or even substituting some simple piecing.  I think there will be more Hop Skips in my future.

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 😆😆.

Charm Squares

 Charm squares... those little 5" rays of sunshine made from a coordinating range or grouping of fabrics.  I had bought a few as part of a Pulse nightclub shooting fundraiser... and also the odd one here and there when they have proved too tempting.  But the real question is... what do you do with them?  They dont really have enough yardage to achieve much... and sometimes the charms just dont all go together.

Well, I decided to use two of them in two different sew alongs happening at the moment.

#sewcialitesQAL  (which is one block per week) is using my Blue Carolina charm pack, and this plus a white background are the only fabrics.  I am using the charm squares with the intention of utilising the size of the squares to the fullest... so blocks are being resized to whatever the measurement turns out to... based on those original 5" squares and doing little to no trimming.  It's a challenge!

The 3rd block:

And the three blocks together.  The charm pack has a nice range from very light to very dark prints... so it creates a soft yet dynamic look.

The #stitchpink QAL has new blocks every day for the month of October to raise breast cancer awareness.  For these blocks I have a Basic Grey Stiletto charm pack and have added some neutrals from my stash to fatten up the project.  I am trying to use the charm squares strategically but this time I am keeping to the instructions size of 12" blocks and using the stash fabrics when the pieces need to be larger.  There are some blocks I don't like, so I'm allowing myself to pass on those ones, and also some blocks that don't really suit the 5" square... and it's OK to pass on those too.

Block one used one charm square for the centre cut to 4.5" and the small triangles in the corner squares used a second one.

Block 2 was a bit more tricky.  Again the centre is a charm square, and I cut a second into the inner star points.  Then two more charms were used for the tan in net star background.  For a change... this charm pack actually has few doubleups.

For the 3rd block, I cut two charms in half to create the large triangles.  A third charm was cut into 4 small squares to form the plus shape.

This process is turning out such different results!  It really is very exciting.