Rounding up the RSC Pink scraps

I haven’t made as many RSC blocks this month - I have plenty of Pink scraps but I have had less time to sew. I have been concentrating on making the Pink Baby girl quilt, which I am now hand quilting.
We have had very hot weather this week so it seemed silly to sit inside sewing when I could be enjoying the shade of the garden and meeting friends in the garden. We still can’t meet in each other’s houses but it was nice to share coffee and cake in the garden with two groups of friends, two friends I hadn’t seen since early February, and most of the rest I hadn’t seen since Lockdown on 23rd March. All are local friends, some of whom I would normally meet every week at Patchwork.

So, here’s all my Pink blocks:
One Roman Stripe and 6 Ticky Tacky houses

And the 6 Sailing boat blocks I showed last week.

I have experienced the Blogger adding photos problems that other people have mentioned.
I take the photos on my IPad, then access them from there when writing my blog post. I couldn’t get that to work today, only if I took another photo and added that immediately. Very frustrating.

Joining up with Angela’s RSC 2020 project on her Soscrappy blog

All Pink Sailing

I have made the 6 RSC Pink Sailing Boat blocks for June, 2 of each of my 3 sizes.

I bought a few new fabrics for the sea and sky backgrounds earlier in the year but I definitely need a few more to throw into the mix. I don’t want the blocks to look too “samey” ( if that’s a word?)

A nice change from all the blues and greens of the previous months.

Linking up with RSC 2020 on Angela’s blog So Scrappy.

A completed flimsy and lots of memories

Well, I did it! I finally finished my Chinese Coin flimsy. It only needed 2 seams sewn to finish it.

I love it, so bright and cheerful, to my eyes it is a real Patchwork Quilt.

It reminds me of the wonderful story book I had as a child (I still have it, tattered from so much use).
The book was called “Grey Rabbit and the Wandering Hedgehog”  by Alison Uttley, one of a series about Grey Rabbit, Hare and Squirrel, all delightful books.
In this book Grey Rabbit meets the Wandering Hedgehog and wants to make him a coat. Wise Owl gives her a book called “ The Cutter and Tailor. How to make a coat out of bits and pieces.”
Hare visits all the neighbours for bits and pieces of cloth and comes home with strips of fabric over his arms and dangling round his neck and Grey Rabbit, always so clever in her quiet understated way, makes a wonderful coat of many colours.

And here’s The Wandering Hedgehog, delighted with his gift, holding up the sides of the coat and  dancing a “clumsy dance”.

The book was published in 1948, a year after I was born, and reminds me of my childhood.
I think this must have been where my love of colour and bits of fabric began but it took until 1997 before I “discovered” Patchwork and Quilting. The rest, as they say, is history.

One step forward, two steps back

Well it felt like that this week.
Ages ago I was partway through sewing together columns for my latest Chinese Coin Quilt when I started to make masks, so the Coin columns were set aside (I’d been going great guns until then).
Masks finished and delivered. About to make a start on the Coin columns when my niece mentioned she didn’t have any masks. She’s a Primary teacher (like I was, we share the same birthday, so it’s a rather special relationship) and at present masks don’t have to be worn in the classroom. However, ideas keep changing very fast so we could see that masks may soon be a priority, so I made her a couple and posted them to her.
Then I realised my daughter’s friend’s baby is due in about a month and may possibly arrive sooner so I thought I had better make a start on a baby quilt and that it should be in a similar style to her 2 year old’s that I made when he was born. It had appliquéd his name on a band of fabric towards the top of the quilt. I decided to use Happy Blocks for the main part of the quilt so looked in my box of Happy Blocks.

Some time ago I had asked my daughter whether baby was a boy or girl and at that time the parents weren’t saying so I started to pull out some finished Cat blocks and more cat centres and neutral fabrics for borders. Decided on the idea then a casual conversation with Caroline led to the news that the baby was going to be a girl, so back to the drawing board.

Keeping the Happy Blocks design only lots of pink. I had a bundle of pink FQs that I’ve never used  (always seemed the wrong shade etc) so out they came  plus a few Chunks of scrap fabrics and I made 36 Happy Blocks which I was pleased with.

Set them in 6 rows of 6 blocks , all laid out on the floor. Finally happy with the layout, no two similar blocks next each other etc and sewed them together. I laid them out again before I pressed the rows and found several instances where there were similar blocks next to each other - how did that happen? So quite a bit of seam ripping, repositioning and sewing together again.

On to the ironing board and I discovered several blocks didn’t have straight seams, so more seam ripping and re sewing.

Between the First row of blocks and the other block of 5 rows sewn together there will be a band of fabric where the appliquéd name will go. As we have been in Lockdown for three months I have been using stash, and have worked my way through a lot of fabric. I only had two possible pieces of fabric and neither was right at all. So, I went to the computer and spent ages looking through various quilt shops online to find the fabric I needed. The pinks in the blocks are quite an unusual pink, more salmon and that was really hard to match buying on line. 

I finally chose one and have ordered 3 metres: enough for the name panel, a border, the backing and binding. I hope the colour looks OK when it arrives, if not back to the drawing board again!

Here’s the main part of the quilt, the 5 rows sewn together.

Even this photo isn’t good as it was late evening and we had the electric light on. But I wasn’t going to take another photo!

So now I’m waiting for the parcel of fabric to arrive and because of the extra precautions being taken by the shop to follow the Covid 19 regulations on packing ( I suppose wearing masks and gloves etc) the delivery will be delayed.
See what I mean about 1 step forward and 2 back?
Perhaps today I’ll finally finish sewing together those Chinese Coin columns? I’m not holding my breath.

RSC 2020 May = Dark green

At the beginning of the year I listed ongoing RSC projects and UFOs I wanted to continue this year.
I had quite a bundle of  Twinkler blocks, not too many green ones, so today I added 4 more using Dark Green fabrics.

 
This is one of the blocks that inspired me on Cathy’s Sane, Crazy, Crumby quilt blog. I have already made one quilt from this design and am now busy making blocks for another quilt.

Another of Cathy’s blocks which tempted me was Ticky Tacky  houses and sometime last year (year before?) I made quite a few. Mine finished at 3.5” square, Cathy’s at 3” square. Fast forward to a few days ago and Cathy showed her finished quilt! Wow! I found my stash of little houses and couldn’t remember how I made them ( mainly the sizes of the pieces). With Cathy’s help and my measuring the parts of the completed houses I made a few more this afternoon. Firstly a few with green in them:

And then 4 more:

Scrubs bags

I know a few people making Scrubs bags for the NHS, bags that can be used to put uniform in when nurses or other NHS staff come off duty. Once home they put the whole lot, still inside the bag, in the washing machine. Safer way to keep germs confined.

I’ve made two for two nurses on the same ward as my nursing friend.

I used the video by Six-Penny Memories on YouTube. Easy and quick to make.

I’ve had this piece of fabric in my stash for several years and it was just right for the purpose, the exact size to make two bags. And, best of all, NO SCRAPS left!

A sign of the times

Wearing masks is not yet compulsory here in the UK. Scientists seem divided on the matter although it is recommended to wear a mask in shops or on public transport.
My husband and I fall into the Self Isolating group so we are not going into shops or travelling on public transport. Whilst we are out having our daily walk everyone we meet is complying with the Social distancing rule of being 2 metres apart. Makes walking quite entertaining as people dodge and dive into driveways, suddenly  cross the road to the opposite pavement, walk in the middle of the road and so on. We passed one elderly couple in the park the other day and the lady said she didn’t think anyone would be able to walk in straight lines anymore!
However, our family does do some food shopping and, in anticipation of things changing in the next few months I decided to make some masks.

This was a pattern recommended by a neighbour, a retired GP, who thought it was a good design. The mask has a pocket for a piece of kitchen paper filter. She is wearing hers and says it works well because the kitchen paper stops the mask getting damp.
One each for my husband and I, and two each for our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
I also made 5 two layer pleated ones based on Mary’s blog: Making scrap quilts from stash. So we have one each of this design.