Super Scrappy - its a finish!

Earlier in the week I finished hemming down the binding on my Super Scrappy Quilt and added a signature.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out.

And it is now in its new home - hiding an old chest!

In between other things I have been working on my Red Manor House flower blocks. I now have five of the eight complete.

I very much enjoyed browsing through the book I showed you last week.

The photography is lovely - they used an old railway depot for the photo shoot so lots of rust, machinery and old buildings. Brilliant.
Anyway I have decided on my new project and I am going to use the design from the front cover.

As I only need a lap sized quilt to use as a tablecloth I am just going to make four baskets and then add the applique border all the way around.

As I want to make this a truly scrappy quilt I shall hand piece the flowers. Which of course, just to make life complicated, meant me drawing up the pattern to get the right size for the diamonds as in the book they are cut from three strips machined together. However, I think I have it cracked and have diamonds ready for a trial run. Fingers crossed.

It's been a lovely week here and we have been busy in the garden but today it is grey and wet so I have been catching up around the house. Time now to sit down with some sewing. Have a good weekend.

FNSI for May

Having cut the binding and flange for my Super Scrappy quilt, my plan for Friday was to get the binding machined on and as much of the hand sewing done as possible. However, having added most of the flange on Thursday I discovered I had miscalculated the length of binding needed! So first thing Friday I made another flange strip to add to what I had, and finished machining that in place.

I went through my binding box earlier in the week and pulled out all the odd leftover lengths of binding I had been saving for a rainy day and was surprised to find that I had, what I thought was, just the right amount. Anyway, knowing I would not have enough I machined what I had in place so that I could work out how much more I needed to make.

It's about 40". Anyway, at this point the garden called. Does anyone else have a collection of plastic flower pots saved from purchased plants with the idea that they will 'come in handy one day'? I had a good clear out of my potting corner and filled three large compost bags to go to the tip - and I still have lots left. Seemd such a waste but what to do.

Anyway, when I sat down in the evening I started sewing down the binding that I had machined and managed to get two sides of the quilt done. Am pleased with how the flange is looking with the scrappiness either side.

We had a wet, cold start to the week but the weather is starting to pick up now and the sunshine is back. The garden is growing at a rapid rate!

More secret sewing this week and I made my swap hexies for the month.

We are back to six day a week postal deliveries and I was pleased to see this in the postbox this morning.

It was not due to be delivered until Tuesday! I am so looking forward to curling up with this for a good browse. I am planning a new lap quilt so am looking for inspiration.

Many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again this week - you can see who else joined in here.

Have a good week.

Friday Night with Friends

The first Friday of the month seems to have arrived very quickly! Thank you Cheryll for hosting us again - pop over to Cheryll's blog here to see who took part.

The first Friday was also the 1st of the month which meant Red Manor House BOM day! And this month we are making these flower blocks.

Eight blocks means 80 petals so my Friday was spent cutting out petals and starting to baste. Fortunately I had a charm pack in my stash of Red Manor fabrics so I didnt have to make any decisions about colours etc, I just got on and cut.

And this is where I was at the end of the evening.

Earlier in the week I finished quilting my Super Scrappy quilt - I ditch quilted the blocks and then went diagonally across the blocks.

Couldnt bring myself to quilt across these two windows though!

Now it is waiting for its binding.

Because the first of the month brings several projects - BOM, RSC and swap hexies I decided no to start working on any other projects in the evenigns but instead resurected the jumper I started knitting last summer. No pics but I have almost completed the back so just the front to do - it may be ready for next summer!

During a break in the rain yesterday afternoon we went for a walk around the garden and spotted this Giant Peacock moth on a grass path. It looked at first glance like part of  a large mushroom.

Isnt it gorgeous! Europes largest moth evidently. Philip rescued it from any passing cats and popped it onto our laurel hedge.

These were in our post box this morning.

After lockdown restrictions are eased we shall all be advised to wear masks when we go out and the Mairie (town hall) are distributing masks to everyone in the commune. I had already made us one each but it will be good to have spares as they need to be washed after every use. May 11th is the date for the first easing of restrictions - but only if our department gets a green flag so we shall have to wait until nearer the day to find out.

I hope everyone is keeping safe and well - see you all back at Cheryll's again next week.

Saturday Catchup

Is it just me or is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by all the online stuff out there at the moment? There I was thinking that this lockdown was going to be a nice quiet time to get on with ufo's and catch up with things around the house and what I find is that I could be spending all day on the computer!

However, I have managed some sewing - I finished my Basket Case wall hanging with some ditch quilting and it is now hanging in my 'studio'.

I do love it and am really pleased with how it has turned out. It hangs next to a selection of spring/summer flower postcards.

Not the best picture but it is narrow there and tricky to get the camera at the right angle.

Also this week I finished off last weeks stitch challenge which was to fill four shapes with different types of couching.

I enjoyed working on this and it has given me a few ideas of how I can use couching in the future.

I have several flimsys sitting in a pile waiting to be quilted and I thought it about time that I got at least one of them finished off. So out came my Super Scrappy quilt. I put it together in 2018 and you can read about it here -you will need to scroll down a bit.

So first I had to layer it up. Batting was not a problem as I always keep plenty on hand but backing fabric? What did I have. Then I remembered an old yellow cotton sheet that I had found after my Nana died and we were clearing out some of her stash! Nana was very good at stash. There were two sheets and two pillow cases still in their cellophane wrapping and were 'Made in England' which will give you some idea of their age. Anyway they have been well used and are now nice and soft. One of them I used to back my hexagon table cloth and the remains will be used on the back of some secret stitching that I am working on. The other one was sitting in the cupboard and looking at me so out it came!

The flimsy is full of memories - samples of embroidery and quilting from years back, long forgotten fabrics and recycled patchwork, gifted scraps and of course plenty of my own scraps. So nice to have a memory of Nana on the back.

At the moment I am ditch quilting around each block but I may also diagonally quilt it as well.

I will leave you with some pictures of a few of the wild orchids that we have in the garden at the moment.

Early Spider

Green Winged

Lady

Burnt

Pyramidal

Man

Fly

Have a lovely week.

Super Scrappy - it's a flimsy!

After the storm!

After yet more hot weather we finally had a storm in the early hours of Thursday morning followed by a damp drizzly morning. Bliss. It's a sunny but cooler day today which is very welcome and this morning was distinctly chilly, just 10 degrees!
Well now, since my last post I have managed a few finishes so here are some photos. First up my applique which is now a nice new cushion cover.

I have turned my two little stitched squares into tissue sachets.

I have a 'red with a hint of maroon' RSC block for July

and an orange one for August

As I am home alone for a few days I am making good use of my time. First up, and now out of the way, was decorating the kitchen. That done I was able to get down to a project that has been waiting in the wings for just such an opportunity!

In 2010 Popular Patchwork had an article about a Super Scrappy Crazy quilt which gave me an idea for using up various samples and unwanted projects. So since then I have been collecting 4.5" squares to put together to make a super scrappy lap quilt and yesterday I got them out and started to play.

There are 289 squares here (although I am still making them and collecting ready for another quilt!) which will give me 17 x 17.

Here are some of them laid out and ready to sew.

Lots of lovely memories in amongst them - an early hexie project I was never happy with

some City and Guilds samples

a Hundertwasser experiment

playing with clamshells

and lots of scraps left over from projects

I decided that I would put it together in three section and one 17 x 6 section is already complete - heading off now to get on with the next one!

Have a great weekend.