Shoo fly blocks multiple!

I have ordered fabric for a special quilt, but in the meantime I started making Shoo Fly blocks because that used up the HST and 2.5" squares I have in the scrap box.  I found them addictive!

 

Sew I kept on sewing until I had used all the red and lime green!

I was trying to use up all the sea gull fabric, but I found more!  These blocks are only 6" big, so this needs a border to make it toddler size, but I ran out of red scraps, so figured that's good enough.  Just need to piece it together, already have the border fabrics sourced from my stash - amazing what you find in the back of the cupboard!

Heron on my early morning walk around the "block".  We live on the outskirts of town. 

The undeveloped end of south bank of Wimmera River in town.  The Council have made a new bike path, so the kids and I had a big (12 km) ride into town and a loop along the river and around the small weir.

View from our front door  watching the sun set.

Just a few photos from the second week we spent self isolating ...we are allowed out to exercise and because the weather has been so warm, I am trying to do so every day.  The kids are on school holidays, so trying to get them to be active also v sitting on the couch playing games.  

Stay safe, stay sane, keep sewing! 

happy quilting Sue.

Little bit of orange

Having five weeks off without sewing was unusual for me.  But once I was ready I needed something easy and mindless to piece.  So I made Rainbow scrappy challenge blocks, July was red and there was a nice stash of pieces ready to sew in my box.

.  I love these 8" Ohio star blocks.  The pieces are cut with my Go cutter and really helps to use up my scraps.  I am just about out of neutrals though, so time to cut some more!

When I have no motivation  for sewing I sit around drinking coffee and reading old magazines, looking for a project to fall in love with.  This is Scatted Leaves by Pam Buda, the pattern appeared in issue October 2009 of American Patchwork and Quilting and because it encompases leaves  and log cabins its my kinda quilt!  I love a country, murky palette and I am trying to use up my non reproduction stash.  It is hard to tie the fabric left together now that I have whittled it down. However pulling out a autumn theme of reds, orange, brown and a bit of green was easily achieved. I would like a fat quarter of purple or yellow, but will have to go on a serious hunt to find these colours in another box (brights got added into kids/novelty)...not having a sewing room is a pill when it comes to storing your fabric!

And guess what,  lots of the fabrics I found are leaf prints!  LOL!

Since I started this project we kicked over to August and the RSC colour is orange.  I have made leaves in three different red prints and one in orange.  The cutting instructions from a fat quarter means you get 6-7 blocks, the leaves are 5" in size.  I used my Go cutter as much as possible and I was sewing my first leaf in no time at all.  I now need to do some more cutting for the log cabin part of the block.

Happy quilting Sue.

Chooky Blue Chook shed party

I am linking up to Chooky Blue's chook shed party and Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.   I spent half of my day and then some of night (while DH was watching Aussie rules footy) sewing up some yellow 2.5" squares for June.  Mind you this was after I cut a bazillion more neutral triangles to make more HST.  I seem to only have white neutral scraps left.  I have plenty of cream/beige yardage but not scrap.  Perhaps I have made a dent in my scrap stash!

 Then I realised if I didnt go back and sew some more of green and red left over squares I was never ever going to get this box of scraps under control...so I cut loose!

 Happy quilting Sue.

Rainbow Scrappy Challenge updated - Red for March

I am really behind in my Rainbow Scrappy Challenge reporting.  I have been slowly sewing in the background.

 Making four patches should be easy but I had to do a bit of unpicking.  I had made two scrappy checkerboard (four patch) borders for another quilt last year, then decided they looked odd and made the quilt the wrong size.  So I am now repurposing the pieces for RSC.

I had made one star, but no nine patches. so had to forage a bit more for some variety of fabrics.

I really want more red stars, but I have run out of cut neutral triangles and variety in the red triangles, so two will sufficience until I have more scraps to cut up.

Hence a new block ;) Well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Happy quilting Sue.

LIttle red houses

My friend Ann helped me pick out some fabrics to get these house blocks together.  They have been orphaned for quite some time and I could not get them to look right in different settings. I don't think the contrast between the red houses and red star is ideal, but I am happy. 

I like the fact that it makes a nice wall hanging at this size.  There is a small temptation to make a pieced border.  I am still contemplating that.  With my "new" enlarged reproduction stash I could certainly find some nice reds to make a half square triangle border.  

There are still four houses to deal with - they are in the "negative" colour combination.  I think they will make a nice pillow.
Happy quilting, Sue. 

  

August is Indigo

There are no indigo scraps left in my scrap basket or in my stash.  There is a tiny bit of black and grey in the scrap basket, and a reasonable amount of each colour in my reproduction stash.  However this is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so the stash is stay intact for now!

In the meantime I sewed up the colours I did have excess scrap of. Which when I got down to it included more dark purple...so that sort of counts!  These are "new" scraps that came from the recently finished scrappy bargello in red/purple...they are perfect scraps as they were already cut the right size!

There is still oodles of green scrap in my collection, not sure where it is coming from!  But I want lots of green leaves, so I just kept sewing!

Because I tackled the left over purple from the scrappy bargello, I then had to deal with the red scraps.  There were way more then I realised, and I have the red scraps from the dresden plate quilt (WIP) still to come!

Happy quilting, Sue.