Round up of 2020

 I have had a quick look back at my Round up at the end of last year to see what listed UFOs were finished in 2020. Don’t think I did too well.

One of the projects I set myself for 2020 was to tackle a Hexagon quilt passed on to me by my friend Irene when she moved house. Very pretty but faded in parts. My idea was to ask my Patchwork friend Sue to come round and help me start it. She had done something similar with an old Hexagon quilt which was badly in need of repair. Well, that never happened because Sue went on holiday during February and the early part of March, fortunately returning to the UK just before we were into Covid 19 Lockdown. We haven’t had much opportunity  to meet up and work together because of lots of restrictions, a second Lockdown and now even more restrictions with a possibility of worse to come which will be announced tomorrow. So this is definitely on the back burner for the foreseeable future. 

I had been tidying up and decided I would take out one of the UFOs I mentioned last year. I had put it away with batting and backing so thought that would be a good quilt to move forward. It’s a Crumb blocks quilt.

I also created two more flimsies this year:

                                                     The second Tall Ships flimsy

                                             A UFO that I was able to add two borders to so that I could send it as a flimsy to the Australian Quilt Drive for Bush Fire Victims.

And a Coin Quilt flimsy. I bought backing for this one so hopefully this could become a finished quilt during 2020.

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And of course I must turn my RSC string blocks into at least flimsies if not finished quilts!

And two Baby Quilts. One I’ve decided will be a Sheep Quilt from a kit I bought several years ago. Mum to Be lives in New Zealand so I think that’s appropriate. 

Looking back over RSC 2020

 I have just looked back at my end of 2019 Stocktake of ongoing RSC blocks and my intentions for 2020.

I did add to Twinkler blocks, 49 Patch blocks and Roman Stripe blocks but no Crumby Candy blocks made. 

My RSC String blocks haven’t been touched - don’t know why because I could easily make them into quilts, a couple at least. I like how Cathy K turned hers into lovely quilts and that’s what I hope to do in 2021 with mine. And I could make a quilt from my Twinkler blocks and I think the 49 Patch ones too.

However, my decision to make Ship blocks for my new RSC project for 2020 was a great success. I really persevered with these and made so many blocks I was able to make 2 flimsies from them. One was finished and gifted and I’m delighted with them both.

I

                                      Finished and gifted. Called Ships Ahoy!

                                                        Still a flimsy.

As always Cathy (Sane Crazy Crumby blog) temps me with her RSC projects and this year  I’ve made quite a lot of Ticky Tacky houses which I need to look at and decide which colours need to be added in 2021.

3 more ideas for RSC 2021 blocks: small Wonky stars, Zipper blocks ( a Cathy K idea) and Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Peesy blocks.

All looks rather a tall order but I’ll give it a go.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

                      

Finally going to gift these quilts!

 Periodically I make Baby quilts for my local hospital and when I have collected a few I drop them into the Maternity Ward. In April this year I made three Angel quilts to add to two teddy bear quilts I made in May 2019. One of our Patchwork Group members had given me another one at the end of last year and I was all set to take them to the hospital. But of course in March Covid 19 struck and we were in Lockdown, followed by hospitals not allowing visitors, second Lockdown, still no visitors so my little pile of quilts languished in the cupboard. When I noticed them again last week I had a brainwave as to how I could get them to the hospital. One of my Patchwork Group group is a nurse there so I emailed her to ask if the Maternity Ward would welcome the quilts. Yes, they would but I would have to leave them at the Hospital Switchboard Office. So, that’s what I will do, perhaps on Friday. A little more space in my cupboard - great!  It’s also motivated me to make a few more.

Here’s my 5 quilts:

And Sue’s:

Rainbow strings

 Making rather a slow start on cleaning and decluttering and organising my sewing room. Although we are in Lockdown here in the UK and from next Wednesday our area is going even tougher into the top tier of restrictions, Tier 3, we are allowed to exercise so my husband and I walk each day (3,4,or 5 miles) and the days just seem to disappear.

However, this week I have sorted, used up and thrown away very narrow strings, making 12 QAYG string blocks which were mailed to Australia yesterday for Jan Mac  to make up into a Play mat for a baby in need. I love making these blocks, enjoying pulling out strings of every hue and design and just sewing them together. Was a bit taken aback at the cost of postage though!

So, here they are: My Rainbow finish for this week.

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

 

Sunshine Guild blocks

 During the past few years I have made blocks for the Sunshine Guild in the USA. I send them to Tammy in Texas.

This year I sent some for January and February but I’m afraid I haven’t made more since. 

When I finished putting together my two Sailing Ships flimsies I had three leftover blocks. I didn’t want to put them away as Orphan blocks so I decided to increase the sizes to the 12.5” that is required. I’m pleased with the result.

I recently discovered a packet of 17 x 6” Crumb blocks which I used to make 4 more Sunshine Guild blocks.

As December’s request is for Potluck blocks I thought these fitted that description.

A few more odds and ends cleared up. Win win!

Ships Ahoy! Has sailed and berthed.

 I finished the first if my two Sailing Ships quilts. It’s the larger one and I’ve called it Ships Ahoy!

It measures 57” x 44” and I machine quilted it, in the ditch along the seams going down the columns and along the top and bottom of the blocks. Then I machined in the ditch around the boats.

I made a pieced backing from fabrics I had in my stash.

I decided to gift it to one of my local friends for her grandson George who is 6 years old. George thoroughly enjoyed a few days sailing with his Grandad during the summer so I though he would like this quilt. I took it round to my friend yesterday and told her to keep it for when George is able to come and stay with them again once our Lockdown restrictions allow so he can have it on his bed at Grandma and Grandad’s house. My friend was so amazed and overcome that she almost burst into tears! This morning when we woke up we discovered that she had written a beautiful Thank you card and told us to look out for a special Nature Book which was going to be delivered today. It came and it’s lovely, every day of the year has something in nature to look out for when we out walking. Perfect for us as we walk pretty much every day.

It’s so rewarding when a gifted quilt is so well received and that all the work involved in making it is so understood and appreciated. I’m really pleased I made those Sailing Ship blocks and I still have another flimsy made from them to turn into a finished quilt.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

A new baby, so new quilts

 My best friend Barbara and her husband had another grandson born last Friday night. He is going to be called Seth. Unusual name, keen to know the background to their choice.

I had already made the quilt as they knew the baby was going to be a boy. I wanted to make a completely  different quilt quilt from the one I made for his big sister which was Bonnie Hunter’s Wonky Wishes. So I went back to a design I have used several times before. It’s from a book called Scrap Republic  by Emily Ciers. The pattern finishes at 30” square but I wanted the quilt to be larger so I added a double border which brings it up to 42” square, the size I prefer for a baby quilt. It’s useful to use as a play mat and then when baby is older and it’s safe to use as a cot quilt it can then be used that way too,

I needed to buy new fabric for this gift and found some lovely fabric online. I fell in love with the frog fabric so this became the outer border and backing too. The inner border and binding were made from a lovely green bubble fabric.

I have called it “Playing I Spy in Frog Pond”

A close up of some of the I Spy circles, all echo quilted with two rows of Perle thread stitches.

I like to make a Dolly quilt for baby’s older sister so I made this little quilt for three years old Georgie who is very dolly oriented. As I had made her Wonky Wishes when she was born ( and recently reminded of these blocks by Cathy in her recent post about using waste triangles), I made this little quilt, measuring 22” x 17.5”.

The green bubbles fabric was used in baby Seth’s quilt and I had some turquoise solid fabric similar to the background of the I Spy circles, so I thought that was a nice link. The white and dark blue tips of the stars were all waste triangles from a bag gifted to me by one of my Patchwork Group about 18 months ago. I had real fun making this quilt and I’m glad I decided to go with just two background colours. The star centres were all from my box of 2” squares.

Posted yesterday so hopefully the parcel with arrive today.

Two RSC flimsies

 When we came to the end of the RSC 2020 colours I had made a sizeable collection of Ship blocks which I was determined were not going to be put away and forgotten about.

I don’t make huge quilts: I’m not very tall and wrestling with large quilts is difficult for me. The basting is so hard to do as I use the floor in our bedroom where there is the largest space and scrabbling about on hands and knees really isn’t pleasant. I knew I had plenty of Ship blocks to make two of my preferred size of quilts.

I have made two flimsies. The larger one is 58” x 44” and the smaller is 47” x 42”.

Here they are:

Not very clear photos I’m afraid. It’s a horrid dark, wet November day and I had to put on the lights to get enough light for the photographs.

I pieced a backing for the larger quilt before I went out for my daily walk and this afternoon I intend to baste it. 

Linking up with Angela’s So scrappy blog.

RSC 2020 Yellow Round up

 Yesterday was the last day of October, so time for a Round up of the Yellow RSC blocks.

Not so many blocks this month as I have been busy with two baby quilts.

One 49 Patch block and 4 Roman Stripe blocks:

I also made 6 Sailing Ship blocks which I showed earlier in the month:

 

I hoped to put together all the Sailing boats I have made this year  and I have made a good start on that. I knew there would be far too many for one quilt so I am making two. The first flimsy is completed and I still have 20 blocks for another flimsy.    

 

When I’ve made both flimsiest I’ll show them in a new post.

Teaming up with Angela’s So scrappy blog.

Chickens in the Pumpkin Patch quilt

 I have just embroidered the label for the quilt I have made for our new Great Niece Seren ( Welsh for Star) born on Wednesday last week. I had finished the quilt well before the baby was born but wasn’t able to make the label until the parents had decided on all the baby’s names.

So, here’s Chickens in the Pumpkin Patch. Measures 40” x 46”, hand quilted with Perle thread.

I bought the backing online and I’m really pleased with how well the colours reflect the colours in the quilt blocks. I made another Chickens quilt about 9 years ago for our next door neighbours’ granddaughter. That quilt is now in Australia as the family moved there about three years ago. Also the two quilts I made the other two older granddaughters.

I knitted a little basket weave style blanket which measures 24” x 24”, a nice size for the car seat, Moses basket or pushchair.

A few weeks ago I was passing the Sewing and Knitting shop in town and noticed a pattern and yarn display in the window which included the matinee jacket knitted up to show off the pattern. It uses my favourite variegated yarn and I’m so pleased with the result. I haven’t made  one like this pattern before - the front and back are knitted in one piece which I really like. No side seams which makes a really neat finish. I popped into the shop a few days ago to show the owner my finished jacket - she was as delighted as I was. I shall certainly use this pattern again.

Wrapping it up and taking the parcel to the Post Office later this afternoon.

Crazy about Llamas

 Our 10 year old Granddaughter is crazy about llamas! She has a couple of llama soft toys, a hoodie with a slogan across the front declaring how she loves llamas and at Christmas I made her a pillow case with a llama print I managed to find. Yesterday my daughter asked that if I had some of that fabric left, could I please make her a mask. In fact I have loads, no idea why I bought so much!

I’ve cut out another one which I’ll sew up tomorrow.

Yellow sails this month

 I’ve done my six blocks for Yellow October RSC 2020.

I have finished making all the different coloured sails now so my next job is to lay them out and see what I can make with them. I don’t make huge quilts so I think I’ll probably get two quilts from these blocks. 

My ships will be sailing on a Voyage if Discovery!

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

More face masks for the family

 My daughter asked if I could make some more face masks for her, her husband and our granddaughter. Well, of course I could! I did my walk this morning and called in at the Sewing and Knitting Shop to see if they had any suitable FQs. You can see them above.

I used the tartan for SIL and the sheep for GD.

Dreadful  photo, sorry.  My original I can’t get to load on my post so this is a mobile photo of that one on my iPad! You get the idea....... I even used two of my new yellow fabrics.

Just delivered the masks, DD was delighted! Not bad: request, made and delivered in a few hours.

Well, I knew I was short of red scraps but.......

 I knew I would have to root around to find some red scraps for RSC 2020 September chosen colour of red.

However, I hadn’t realised that Yellow was even worse. I have used a lot this year in a couple of Chinese Coin quilts I made and in the baby quilt I have just finished for our niece’s baby due in about three weeks time.

But when I came to find yellow scraps for my October Sailing Ship blocks I found it really hard to find anything at all, so I even resorted to cut into a piece of yellow with strawberry motif to make a bit more  variety in the sails of my Tall Ships.

This photo shows what I had left at the end of cutting scraps for my 6 Sailing Ships:

The pile of small squares measure 1.5” . I have a lot of those as a result of cutting up bits of sashing left over from the baby quilt so I’ll be able to use them to make some Roman Stripes and a 49patch block.

I immediately ordered various bundles of FQs and squares online and the first one arrived today.

So now I have a few more fabrics to choose from.

Red Round up for September

 I never have many red fabrics in my stash and at present I have virtually none because I used most of what I had making the baby quilt I am currently working on.

So I literally used pretty much all of my Red scraps using 3.5” squares gifted to me by Wendy early this year and bits left over from the baby quilt.

So, here are my Ship blocks, only 5 because I didn’t have any different scraps to make a second Tall Ship.

Then I made One 49 x 1.5” squares block, a Crumb block and 8 Ticky Tacky houses. Happy with them all.

Joining  up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC 2020 blog.

My crochet Covid 19 Blanket

 At the beginning of Lockdown, back in March, I heard of people who were making crochet Covid blankets. As I was also trying to declutter  and use up everything in the house including my stashes of fabric and yarn I decided to make some Granny squares using two colours, alternate rows, two of each colour.  Once I had used up anything that was suitable in my yarn stash I knew I hadn’t got enough squares to make a blanket so I ordered lots of balls of different coloured yarn from Wool Warehouse. I also decided I would use off white/pale cream for joining the squares and rows and ordered those too.

Whenever I had a moment I made the Granny squares, popping them into two large bags until I had used up all my colours. Then I did an extra row of crochet with the off white yarn. I had no idea how many squares I had, except there were A LOT!

I randomly pulled blocks out of the bags, initially joining rows of 10 Granny squares. At that point I had 21 rows and still loads of squares left over. I counted those and worked out I could add three more squares to each row. FAR to many rows for one blanket so I am going to make two. Of course I had to order loads more off white yarn from the Wool Warehouse.

Today I completed the First Blanket. I made a narrow border all around from 5 rows of Double Crochet.

And here it is. Measures 66” x 52”. And I’m thrilled with it.

I shall now start joining rows for the second blanket. One for us and one for my granddaughter.

Total Purple 2020RSC blocks

 Last Saturday in August - where has this month gone?

I never have many purple fabrics or scraps in my stash so I am surprised how many blocks I have been able to make.

From top to bottom: 1.5” 49 patch block with a Roman Stripe block either side,

                                  13 x Ticky Tacky houses 

                                   2 of each my the three sizes of Sailing Boats.

Linking up with Angela’s So scrappy blog

    

How scraps multiply!

 I’ve been making more of my Chicken blocks and now - I think - cut all of them out.

And of course, what happens? I have created another pile of scrap strings and some 1.5” squares for my stash.

Oh dear, I’d better sort them and put them away before I start sewing any more blocks.

More RSC Purple blocks and a new quilt begun

 First of all, a few more Purple blocks for RSC 2020.

A 49 Patch from 1.5” squares

And 10 Ticky Tacky Houses featuring purple somewhere! Sky, roof, door or garden.

And then I started a new quilt - for our niece’s baby girl expected in October.

Back in 2011 I made a baby quilt called “There’s nobody here but us chickens” using a variety of chicken-themed fabrics. I loved it and all the leftover fabrics went into a labelled plastic bag.

I looked at the photos I had on Flickr (koshka2 photostream) and tried to make the blocks. I knew the chicken centres were 2.5” but couldn’t remember what size I cut for the strips for the two borders which frame the chickens. I went with 1.75” and made up 9 blocks yesterday but wasn’t happy with them, the ratios looked all wrong so I tried using 1.5” Border strips. MUCH better. So this afternoon I took apart the 9 blocks, taking off the second border strips and trimming them to 1.5” and trimming around the first border, leaving a 1.25” frame. That all took a lot of time. I hate seam ripping! But I now have a few finished blocks, and a few partially sewn ones so hopefully I can continue the process tomorrow.

Three of the blocks happen to have purple in them so I’ve included those for a Sneak Peek!

Linking up with Angela’s So scrappy blog.

3 More masks

 

Just made 3 more Face masks. One extra each for my daughter and granddaughter and another for myself.

Definitely getting quicker to make now I’ve done a few before!

I like this pattern the best of the three I’ve tried. This mask fits your face well, and now I managed to get the proper face mask elastic they’re even better.

Finished baby cardigan

 I’ve finished the baby cardigan requested by our niece Cat for baby Maggie.

I made the largest size, 20” chest.

Popping it in the post today.

RSC 2020 Purple sails in the Sunset

Four Sailing Ships made this afternoon using the RSC 2020 colour of the month- Purple. 

Two Tiny ones and 2 Small ones.

Linking up with Angela’s SoScrappy blog.

Birthday gifts

A lovely compliment

 About a year ago I knitted this baby cardigan along with another one using the same yarn and a baby blanket in an effort to use up leftover yarns. When our baby Great niece Maggie arrived in October I added this cardigan and the blanket to the quilt especially made for this much longed-for baby.

Our niece Cat was so thrilled with all the gifts and we have had regular photos of Maggie snuggled in the blanket, lying on the quilt and then, when she grew into the cardigan, ones of her wearing it. Cat had been really pleased with the cardigan because it has seemed to “grow” as Maggie has grown. I think it’s probably because the yarn is acrylic and stretches more easily than wool or cotton would have. Well, whatever the reason, Maggie is still wearing it!

I had a lovely text from Cat yesterday saying that the cardigan had been such a great success, would I please be able to make another in a larger size, blues or greens this time. Well, I was so pleased to be asked, and even more pleased to be able to pop to the  Local Wool Shop this morning and buy a couple of balls of yarn. I like these variegated yarns and bought blue as there weren’t any greens. The pattern has 4 sizes: the original cardigan was Size 2, I’m making this one Size 4 so I hope Maggie will get as much use out of this one as she did the original one.

A hot day today, overcast now but great to sit outside in the garden knitting.The style I’m knitting is the one in blue on the pattern.