Out of Africa...sort of

After meeting up with my friend Sewkalico in London yesterday, I was inspired to dig out the African blocks we swapped several years ago and (gasp!) stitch them together!  I've debated at points in the past, sashing them, but in the end I decided that I kind of like them all melding together. Plus, if I had to wait until I got around to sashing them, who knows how many more years it would be.  Now I just have to work out what to do about a border...

More things found

Neither of these sets of blocks were lost, precisely, but they were put away because they were part of ongoing swaps - both swaps have pretty much stalled, which is fine as I have 9 or 10 of the Lady of the Lake blocks, which will make a decent size small quilt (I think they are 12" blocks) and 20 of the 12" African blocks, and a handful of small ones - again -plenty for a quilt...  So much for my basket with blocks sets in it, which was nearly empty!

African blocks

No sewing today as Alex and I went up to town to go to the zoo and hunt for some more Wenlocks and Mandevilles on the Mayor of London trails.  But the other day I was thinking about my African blocks and wondering how many I had and what they looked like, so I've laid them all out and had a look. I have 20 - which is a good number. I'll have to play with the arrangement, I think, to balance the ones which are less black. But still, they'll make a nice quilt...

Fabric-y treats

I didn't do any actual sewing when up in Yorkshire visiting Karol-Ann, but she did manage to make a couple of stars  for our African block swap...

And together we sorted out a large amount of fabric castoffs she'd been given recently. Some of the pieces are larger and in lovely colours - she's kept those for various projects. Some wasn't really to either of our taste, so some of that has gone in the pile for charity quilts. Some was fabric which doesn't jump up and say "love me love me" but is fine - with that, we sorted, ironed, cut into charms and strips and she kindly gave me a big pile of it - this is a large pile of charms (she has an identical pile - whether we will both make things with them, well, let's not go there), some strips, and a few larger pieces. The piece at the back right is a challenge piece for me to make something with. The fabric says it's Hampton Court Maze - quite fitting for me to give it a go, I think.  I know I'm supposed to be reducing scraps, but this is different. How, I'm not quite sure, but trust me, it is!

I also brought home this selection of fabric, which is what remains of a quilt swap package Karol-Ann had put together for a swap a while ago. The quilt which came back from the swap is sweet, but unfortunately, doesn't really suit the space where she'd hoped to put it, so I offered to try to make something more suitable.  Luckily, there's no time deadline on this...

And finally, the black and white and orange fabric is a package of FQs I bought in a small quilt & fabric shop in one of the local villages - I really liked the colour combination and the price was very reasonable. The black fabric on the side which says "Edwin" is another from Karol-Ann's stash which I thought would be fun to try to use - so she gave it to me. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut!

Thoughts for 2012

I've talked a bit about some of the plans I have for 2012, but I thought I'd solidify them a bit here. I've mentioned wanting to continue if not precisely reducing my stash, at least rationalising it - that is, using up some of the fabrics I've accumulated which just sit around to no purpose, and so forth.

Last year, I did a pretty good job of reducing my scraps, and while I'd certainly not say I was scrap free, it's all a lot more manageable than it was. I will continue to use them up in projects, but let's face it, you can never be truly scrap free unless you stop sewing!

So the plan is to focus on reducing the larger pieces of stash - especially those in these two photos - the shelf of pieces which are 1/2 metre or larger. The first step was to sort, refold and in some cases, label those fabrics, which I have done. I now have a stack of largish pieces (2-4 metres)

A few two metre pieces

 and a large stack of one metre pieces.

Then, there's a pile of odd sized pieces and some 1/2 metre pieces, which I think will grow quite a bit when I sort out my "smaller bits" boxes.

These shelves (below) are full of Ikea CD storage boxes. There are 22 of them, three or four of which have very specifically themed fabrics in them (Christmas, Civil War Repros, African fabrics, maybe something else), but the rest of are sorted by colour (more or less - also stripes, metallics, etc).  In theory, nothing in these boxes is more than 1/2 metre of fabric, but of course, sometimes I slip. So I want to go through each box and tidy it up and take out any larger pieces (or any very small pieces) and put them somewhere more appropriate.

This also gives me the chance to refold some of the pieces (ironing where necessary) that have got squished, etc and also, just to see what's there. Sometimes you forget about stuff. Especially if it's stuff which was given you, you picked up in a sale or which was part of a packet of fabric, so you might not have paid as much attention to it as you would have otherwise. Some of these pieces might get used in the process, but that's not really the main aim, just a bit of organisation.  It's the larger pieces I want to do a few things with.

I also mentioned wanting to reduce my batik stash a bit - that's still true, but I'm not sure precisely what I'm going to do there. I was considering doing a circular flying geese block each month with the batiks, but I think I'm going to use that block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge instead - I don't need to do a lot of stuff with scraps, but this will be something fun to do each month to carry on with the scrap reduction.  So, I'm still thinking about batiks. 

I also plan to start anew with the Farmer's Wife Quilt, this time in Japanese taupes (and similar fabrics), which will use the fabrics in this drawer - not that I mind having these, mind you.

A couple of other plans for 2012 include carrying on with the two private swaps I am in theory participating in - we are in a bit of a slowdown at the moment - a taupe Lady of the Lake swap with Cathi and an African block swap with Karol-Ann. Luckily, Cathi is busy doing excellent scrapbooking at the moment and Karol-Ann has a 10 week old baby, so neither of them is putting too much pressure on me to produce blocks for these swaps.

And finally, I have promised my mother to get back to this quilt, which I abandoned some time ago - it only (and here I use only in a somewhat ironic sense) needs a sawtooth border all the way around it and tiny sawtooth, appliqued tails for all the cats.  I may not finish it in 2012, but there will be progress, at the very least!

A few pieces

Luckily for me, I got something in the post today which I can share, as we have been quite busy and not much sewing has been done in the past few days. Although I did spend a large part of one day clearing out my sewing room, which was useful, as it had got to the point where I could hardly work on the table for the junk therein - plus it was feeling dusty and cluttered.

Anyway, today, I got these goodies in the post from Karol-Ann - an African block for our swap (so now it's my turn - but it will be a few weeks before I get to it, I know), plus some other goodies, for use in making ATCs, etc. I particularly have my eye on that spotty fabric (which has a great texture) - I think it may well feature in something very soon...

Fabric & blocks

Well, this morning I went down to the big annual fabric sale at Farnham Maltings - it was a crush, as usual, but I managed to snap up a few bargains anyway. I bought some batting, which I needed, plus a few fabrics to use as backings (the purple and blue batik - £2/metre - I bought 5 metres; the brown with white dots, also £2/metre, but it's 58" wide - 3 metres of that), and then some stuff I just liked - a metre of a batik toner (the fabric which the other stuff is laid out on), a metre of white on white, a metre of the blue and brown retro fabric and I think about a metre and a half of the blue Moda Marble (it was a bolt end). And three half metre pieces - one with trees, one with words, one with gorillas (I have a friend who is really into gorillas). None of those were more than £4/metre, which is pretty good.



And then, this afternoon, I actually made some more quilt blocks (astonishing, I know) - two more as promised for my African exchange and also, two Lady of the Lake blocks in calico and Japanese taupe fabrics for a new swap I am doing with Cathi - we were exchanging Dear Jane blocks for a while, but I think we both have enough now to stop exchanging and do something with them! So anyway, we decided to keep swapping but do something else. We had a nice star-themed swap all planned out and then got to talking about Lady of the Lake blocks, and well, you can guess what happened...

African half

...half because I want to do another two blocks with black and a different contrast before I send them off to Karol-Ann, with whom I am (in theory) doing a private block exchange. Neither of us has been great about blocks lately, what with long holidays to South Africa (her), more work than previously (me), leg injuries (her, thank goodness!), house renovations (both), kids (both), other sewing projects (both)... Anyway. I thought it was about time I did some more blocks, so I did this one, but I really liked the effect so I want to do another. I made these on Wednesday while waiting for the washing machine repair person, but have been waiting to show them until I did the other set. I think that was perhaps not a wise decision, so have decided to show them on their own, otherwise they might never get shown... They are 6" blocks. We swapped quite a few at 12", and then decided to do some smaller ones to perhaps form a border or something. Who knows.

Items received...

...nothing worked on, though. This has been a particularly busy week at school (first week always is) in terms of uniform and other things I help with - next week, there is far less on the schedule and I hope to actually sew a bit more!

Still, I had these lovelies in the post a few days back - an African block from Karol Ann as part of our private block swap - we are now making 6" blocks with the aim of actually getting the right number and sort of blocks to be assembled into a quilt... And the blue fabrics from my monthly club from eQuilter - always fun to have fabric in the post! On tomorrow's agenda is a block for the Around the World Quilt Swap, and then perhaps some more work on the log cabin Christmas trees, which are coming on fairly well.

Sunday in the country

A couple of pairs of blocks today - both 6" blocks - the first pair is for my African block exchange with Karol-Ann - if you are thinking you haven't seen any of those in ages, that's because we stopped when she went to South Africa for several months. We agreed on a slow start back to the swap as we are both really busy. We were previously making 12" blocks, but both of us have quite a few of those now, so we decided to change to 6" for a while, to give ourselves some setting options for making actual quilts from the blocks.

The second pair are Dear Jane blocks - this is J2, Picture Perfect. For those who are new here, this is another private one-on-one swap - this one with Cathi. We are swapping DJ blocks in certain fabrics (we both have the basic fabrics) at 6". Eventually I will make a small quilt or wallhanging from them. We are NOT going to do all the blocks in the DJ quilt, LOL. At the moment, she does mostly the curved ones which she pieces with a freezer paper technique and I am doing the ones which can be easily rotary cut or (as in this case) paper pieced.

That was the extent of my work today, as we decided to take a trip out in the lovely summery day to Parham House in West Sussex - I had a family ticket from the school fair. It's a lovely Elizabethan House with a nice garden, and in another instance of serendipity, they have a huge collection of needlework and tapestries. No photos allowed in the house, but I did buy a few postcards (most of the needlework I liked best, they didn't have cards of, of course) - if you live nearby and enjoy needlework, it's definitely worth a visit as there is all sorts, including some impressive stumpwork, some of the smallest petit point embroidery I've ever seen, some amazing 16th century tapestries which look like they could have been designed in the (19)70's and an absolutely beautiful 18th century embroidered Mexican shawl.

Here are a couple of the postcards - on the left a late 18th century silkwork rabbit, on the right a Tudor christening cushion - the petit point here is tiny - the guide in the room said 32 stitches to the inch - I believe it. It was rather astonishing.

Bunch of stuff

Another productive day today - nice to have a weekend with a little downtime in it so that I can sew. Especially in light of how busy October seemed to be. The next few days look fairly busy, but later in the week I hope to have a bit more time to work - hoorah!

Anyway, here's what I did - I made two African blocks (more or less both like this - the fussy cut animals are slightly different) for my block swap with Karol Ann. I recently counted the blocks, and though I can't remember how many there are, I decided I could keep going for a little while before it got to the point where I really had to do something with the blocks. Whew! I'll send this to her later in the week and then it will be her turn again. I won't rush, though, as I know she's just as busy as I am!



The other things I did were some paper pieced blocks - the start of the November birthday block for Margaret - the second arc isn't joined to the purple arc yet, so it might look a little off. Beyond the visible edge is another purple arc, and the block finished in red - the same red that's in the points in the centre - the two reds are actually different, though it may not look it from this photo. And I also did four more blocks for the block lotto - now I just have to take the paper off, and they'll be ready to go when the lotto finishes at the end of November. I reckon I can manage it by then. Probably.

African lady

Well, it's a good thing that people keep sending me so much nice stuff in the post, otherwise I'd have a very boring blog this week - today's offering is from Karol-Ann as part of our African block swap - it's a fabulous block and I love it, but the bad news is that this means now it's my turn to make a block to send. I think it's going to be a month or two before my next offering is made!

African themed day

Well, I promised I would drag out my African blocks and show them to you all - here they are. I think there is one more somewhere, but can't find it (an odd shadow applique thing) at the moment. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them - obviously they would need to be sashed or something. I'm not ready to do anything with them, so I reckon I need at least 4 more (in addition to finding the missing one). The main thing will be finding a way to balance the ones which are largely black with the ones which aren't, but I'm sure there's a way around that.




Here's one I finished today - the one on the left is not quite as wrinkly as it appears, but it is a bit puffy. I'll keep that one for myself and either fiddle with it, steam it a lot or possible just quilt the hell out of it later.

Also finished my journal quilt from last week - an African snails trail. Not quite enough contrast in the block, I think. I might do a snail's trail for one of my African swap blocks, but if I do, I will probably make one arm black and one some other solid colour or shwe shwe or something which isn't too busy, and then the two busy fabrics won't touch.

I also did get my "S" postcards mostly done, including quilting them and then deciding I didn't like it and ripping the quilting out again. Tomorrow I will back them and do the edges and get them in the post.

African geese

A little something to show today - only a little, but I know that at least one person will be glad to see this! This is the curving flying geese portion of an African block for Karol-Ann - all that remains is the black background, which i hope to add tomorrow. The second one is for myself - I will finish it later - maybe tomorrow night - I am doing the curved strips by hand...

That's all I have to show for today - tomorrow the forecast is for pouring rain and I intend to stay indoors and sew for as much of it as possible!

Thursday things

Some nice things in the post today - first, an African block from Karol-Ann - a liberated star, or whatever it may officially be called. Also, a beaded pen. And from Ati, a red & gold postcard for the colour challenge on Textile Challenges - my colours (two random colours drawn for each participant) were purple and plum - not going to be a high contrast card, I feel... Anyway, Ati is ahead of me - I haven't made mine yet...

...but I did make these today - these are my "Q is for" postcards - and in this case, Q is for both quote, which this is, and "quietude" which is the subject of the quote and whichi s a word I've been fond of since first encountering it in the mentioned novel. Which was a long time ago, back when I had lots of spare time for reading.




I also finished off the binding and label for the Miniature Booty Swap Quilt, which I am not going to show you until it reaches its new home in the US - hopefully that won't take too long!

Block bonanza

Well, Olivia was still not completely well today (though she is better, thanks), so once again, plans I had to go out (today was just some errand running) were shelved, and I spent the day sewing, mostly. She spent most of the day watching DVDs. Luckily, because it's just a bad cold, sore throat, temperature, she doesn't really want me to do anything much, which leaves me free to just check on her periodically, sit and watch for a little while, and otherwise, just get on with what I wanted to do. So I decided to get ahead of the game and do some (or all, as it happens) of the February blocks for the block lotto. I started with a purple & yellow star for Sherry - this is the same star from last month as I liked it so much then. Then I saw these baskets in the same book the star is from (Judy Martin's block book) and decided to try them out in African fabrics, as I still owed Karol Ann another block (not anymore, ha ha - your turn now KA). I'm really pleased with them - wasn't sure how well they would work as African fabrics are all very bright and busy, but I think they've come out well.






Then, more birthday block swap blocks - on the left is a block for Sophie - the bear claw points are green, not black, the light isn't great. And on the right, a block (where I have just noticed I put the top panel on the wrong way around - I'll change it tomorrow) for Angelina, who wanted us to do a block using the colours of our local NFL team or fabric with the team logo, etc. As I have no local NFL team, she said a local Premiership soccer team was fine, so I have picked Fulham, which doesn't play particularly near me, but the training ground is just down the road - less than half a mile. They sponsor football training at our school, too, and anyway, I like the colours, which are black, red and white. I have used t-shirt transfer paper to put the logo in the centre of the block.



What a productive day, even for me!



Oh, just remembered I had a postcard in the post - forgot to take a photo, so I will show it tomorrow...

Swaps & cards

These two star blocks are both for the birthday block swap - both people this month wanted batiks, with cream background, so it made sense to do them at the same time. The purple one doesn't work quite as well, as there's not enough contrast on the inner star, but it' s ok. She wanted purple batiks, so I am a little more limited in what I could use. I'm still considering making it again with one of the fabrics different (the fabric which is in the place of the yellow fabric in the left block) - or even just trying another combination of purples - I do have one or two I didn't use. I also made the larger stars overlap slightly differently on the purple block, and I'm not sure it works as well. Anyway, it's not bad, I'm just nitpicking, I think.



When those were done, I worked on a pair of blocks for my African block swap with Karol Ann (who is actually IN Africa at the moment, so I have a chance to get ahead. Although I think I have to make one more before I'm technically ahead. Who can keep track.) This was a useful block for using up lots of smaller scraps - it's a bit wild, but fun too. I won't be able to make another one for a little while, as I am totally out of black fabric (plain black, I mean - I have lots of tonals, etc). Must have a quick check in my local haberdashery department on Monday - they don't have much selection of fabric (though are quite good on other things) but they might stretch to black cotton. Frankly, I don't need to be tempted by a trip to a quilt shop!



And loads of post today - M is for Modigliani from Brigitte in France (I love this card - it will probably stay up for quite a while); 1970's from Maureen; an orange block from Lynn; N is for necktie from Barbara. I do like getting fun things in the post. Must take my metallic cards to the PO - forgot to do that today!