More blocks together

Another set of blocks off my list of blocks waiting to be assembled. Not sure whether these will get a border or not - guess it will depend on the usual caveat of whether I have anything suitable to use as a border!

Flying Jetsons...

Yet another in the series of tops I am bordering and (eventually) sending off to Project Linus. These flying geese blocks were once again inspired by the block lotto (they are in groups of 3, grading from light to dark in each group - more or less). The border fabric is some of the Jetson fabric I bought on sale in the US this summer, with the express purpose of bordering.  I have enough to do another quilt with it as well (as long as it's small), though I might use it for a double four patch or something instead of a border. You never know!

Rectangles...

Once again, a set of blocks which were inspired by the block lotto. So often, the blocks there are quick, easy, and useful  for using up scraps. I made these a while back, but of course they sat as blocks for a few months before I joined them, and found a suitable border for them.  But now they are together, which is nice.  Nearly through with my pile of blocks waiting to be sewn together and my subsequent pile of tops waiting to be bordered.  Of course, then I will just start generating new blocks!

Batik leaves

Well, despite my good intentions, I missed the deadline for making some batik leaf blocks for the block lotto in October. But still, I wanted to give the pattern a try, so I made a few today. I didn't, however, want to make loads of them, so I just made 5, and turned them into a 9-patch with some batik fabric. 

And then used another pink and blue (and lavender) batik for the border. This should make a sweet quilt for a small girl, I think.

Hawaiian, with border

And here's the little Hawaiian shirt top, with the border fabric added. I still have quite a bit of the border fabric left - at least enough for another small quilt, so I guess I'll have to dig those shirts out again and think of something else to do with them!

Another Quilt Bordered

I had this little Christmas top waiting for a border and didn't think I'd be able to do anything with it, as I don't have much of a stash of Christmas fabric, but then I found this brown and gold fabric (which is actually kind of Australian aboriginal when you get close to it) which works very well with the centre. Another one ticked off the list - only a few more made up tops which need to be bordered in order to be sent off.  Of course, I do keep accumulating tops by making more scrap blocks. So that doesn't help!

Hawaiian - next step!

So, here are all those new Hawaiian blocks put together in a (long, thin) top - next step will be to add the border fabric - perhaps tomorrow, but if not, I have a week off, so I imagine it will get done at some point. I hope so, anyway!

Still Hawaiian after all these years...

Ever since a friend sent me this fabric below, over the summer, I have been planned to do something (or a couple of somethings) with some more of the fabric left from my dad's shirts. I've made a number of quilts from these shirts, for various people, including myself (though that one hasn't been quilted yet - it's with the longarmer, though - progress is being made!). This time I decided on a nice small scrappy one, with the Hawaiian shirt fabric as borders.  So I just cut squares from the shirt fabric and bordered them with neutrals. 

While I was at it, I cut lots of pieces into 3.5x4.5" rectangles (I also trimmed a number of scraps to this size, hence the rather oriental looking fabric on the left of the photo).

I did this so they can be further trimmed into tumbler shapes, for a scrappy tumbler quilt, at some point.

This is all I have left of the shirt fabric - this may look like a lot, but remember that it all began life as about 25 x-large or xx-large Hawaiian shirts, which was a LOT of fabric. You can see some of the shirts, way back when, here. 

I was looking back through my blog to see what I'd done with the shirts, and it's quite a lot. Apparently, I've made 5 lap/small bed sized quilts (the original four - one for my step-mom, one for her mom, one for my brother & SIL, one for myself - and another scrappy one, several years later than the others, given to my friend Barbara). I've made two baby quilts - one for charity and one for my baby quilt stash. I've made a journal quilt  (two, actually) and a little box. I've given away a set of spare blocks and a bag of scraps. And then there's this current project, which will be another charity quilt. 

Another little quilt bordered

Here's another top, with a border. It may well be the last for a while, though, unless I can find some more fabric to use as borders.  Might see what they have inexpensively at the local haberdashery department...

Polka dot border

I am still making my way through the stack of tops for charity which I want to add borders to before sending on. I think there are about 4 more to go, including one with Christmassy fabrics, which I might not have anything suitable for.  Anyway, I found I had just enough of this brown and white polka dot fabric for a nice more border on this strippy quilt. I used this polka dot as a backing fabric for something a while back, and didn't have enough left for much of anything, but it worked well for this.

Braids with border

No doubt there's at least one person out there waiting to see what happened with the braids and the challenging fabric I was hoping to pair with them. In the end, it was all very simple - the fabric worked very well as a border for the four braided sections. Ta da!

Scrappy stars, bordered

Found a nice fabric which I only had half a metre of, so wasn't useful for much, to add a border to the little scrappy star piece - think it works very well, and provides a use for that half metre of fabric - usually not enough for a border, but this is quite a small piece...

Scrappy Stars

In keeping with my sorting out bits and pieces mode, I decided to do something with these scrappy stars, as I've got a bit bored of making them as leaders and enders. So I fussy cut some of the \ugly challenging fabric I have knocking about, and used those blocks as alternating blocks with the stars. The darker blocks work better, but I'm fairly happy with the overall look - ultra-scrappy. At any rate, it will do.  Though I will find something to use as a border on this one, for sure.

Catching up

After weeks of not being able to get near a sewing machine to do much (I did attach some binding to a couple of quilts and mended a couple of things) I finally had a chance today to catch up on some bits and pieces. One thing I did was to finish stitching together the rows in this tumbler quilt. Now I just have to figure out if I have any fabric for a border, or whether I'm going to leave it the way it is.  I've promised a baby quilt to the Scouts for an auction in the new year, so this might be the one - haven't decided yet, but it's nice and modern and cheerful...

Butterflies

Ever since I saw this on Jane's blog, I've been wanting to try out some of these butterflies, but until my trip to the US this summer, I didn't have a 60 degree ruler.  But now, armed with my ruler. I decided to give it a go. The tutorial  is actually from Red Pepper Quilts, and is pretty easy to follow, though as my ruler is slightly different to hers, I had to guess a little about how the background is cut. But it seems to have worked ok. 

I chose this stripy neutral with hearts for the bodies of the butterflies and am using a blue for the background - the wings are just whatever I have in the right size scraps. So far so good!

Tumbler progress

All the tumblers are assembled into rows - now it's just a matter of putting the rows together. Then I guess, I have to trim and border - if I have anything suitable for a border, that is...

Distracted by tumblers

Since I bought a 60 degree ruler while in the US this summer, I had planned at some point to make a butterfly quilt - I've been wanting to since I saw this one on Jane's blog. It was more or less next on my list. and then, well, then I saw these tumblers on Sandie's blog and decided that really, what I needed to do next was some tumblers. 

Rather than make them entirely scrappy, I decided to use a coordinated set of FQs I've had for some time (left pile of fabric) with a few other pieces which went ok with them thrown in.

I cut lots of tumblers and began to stitch them together - I haven't got any more than 4 sewn together - I will have to decide soon how long I want the rows to be, but definitely longer than 4, so I have a little way to go, no matter what...

Here's a pile of rectangles waiting to be marked and cut into tumbler shapes. I don't have a template; I'm just doing it by hand, which is simple enough.

More blocks assembled

Here's another top I put together in my recent push to get my block sets into tops - this was scrappy centres bordered in neutral fabrics. Again, fairly quick to put together and creates a nice, scrappy quilt. I still have a few more to show - which is good, as I don't seem to be doing much sewing at the moment!

All four quarters together...

I've showed two quarters of this quilt as I assembled it in pieces, and I do have a photo of the third quarter, but as it's been fully assembled now, it seemed silly to post that. There have been a lot of positive comments on the layout, and although I hadn't necessarily planned to keep this one, I actually find myself inclined to do so- at least until someone is in need of a gift!

Rail fence assembled

Now here's a bank holiday for you - a morning spent sewing, followed by an afternoon sitting in the garden reading in the sunshine. What could be better?

I put together the taupe blocks for the rail fence (yes, I do need a design wall, but as I'm unlikely to get one in this current house, my design floor will have to do (and sometimes, my design bed)). I also put together a number of other tops - 6 more, I think - which means that my rather full basket of block sets now looks like this: 

OK, yes, there are still some blocks there, but it's a lot better than yesterday morning, when I started!