Rounding up the Blues

 I have had a productive Blue month. Just made a total of everything I’ve sewn this month.

First of all, those already written about this month:

Blue Patches Cat Quilt 

Cool Strings Quilt

15 Wonky Stars 

12 Easy Breezy blocks

24 Ticky Tacky Houses (17 shown last week, 7 more made yesterday)

Underneath the latest Ticky Tacky houses are 2 piles of Pink and Green Easy Breezy blocks.

I discovered 8 cut out and kitted up Pink ones when I was looking for something else in my stash and then decided to cut out and make some green ones. Before I knew it I had 14 Green ones too.

Laid out all 34 blocks to see what they looked like together:

I can see the blocks will need some careful laying out eventually, those with strong deep coloured diagonal blocks will need to be placed in the same direction for a good effect.

And I also knitted another little cardigan for Seren, my 6 months old Great Niece.

The buttons came from my stash and were ones I inherited from either my Mother in law or her sister in law, Aunty Gertrude. Both were relatives on the same side of the family as Seren’s Mum, my niece Philippa, so it’s nice to keep the buttons“in the family”.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC 2021 blog.

Cool Strings Quilt - a finish

 I finished my Cool Strings Quilt this week. Measures 42” square, machine quilted either side of the rows and columns seams.

A close up of some of the string blocks:

And the backing, using one of the new backing fabrics I recently bought online, increasingly the width with a band of fabric which came from  quilting friend Helen after she downsized her stash.

This has gone into my cupboard until the right recipient comes along.

I added to my Ticky Tacky houses for the RSC 2021 Blue month :

17 blocks, all have some blue fabric,  some blocks more blue pieces than others.

Then a 49 patch block and 5 x 4.5” Crumb blocks, made from mostly blue fabric scraps.

Then I made a start on the Bonnie Hunter Easy Breezy blocks I had chosen as one of my blocks for this year’s RSC project. Quite a few pieces in these blocks but they went together extremely quickly. They take longer to cut than piece - for me anyway. 12 blocks in total.

But of course for my country this week has been all about HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who sadly died  on 9th April, just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. What an amazing man he was, a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather but most of all a great husband for our Queen. A love match which lasted 73 years. He was a very clever and talented man, having expertise in so many different fields which have formed the basis for many, many ideas that will outlive him.

One of his creations was the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, for young people of any class, creed or colour. Both of our children took part and learned so many new things. Our son, Christopher was a Scout, attending the Jamboree in Seoul, South Korea when he was 16 years old. Christopher completed his Gold Award not long before he tragically died in a car accident at the age of 21, in February 1996. The local 

D of E organiser asked if we would like the Award to be made posthumously and we agreed. We were invited to St. James’s Palace in London a little while later and we had the honour of being presented with Christopher’s Gold Award by Prince Philip. We were taken to an anti room, away from all the other recipients and their families and had a private time with the Duke. He was so kind and thoughtful and made a point of speaking especially to our daughter who was just 19 at the time. We will never forget his kindness and hope he is now at peace and at rest after all his labours. God bless you, Prince Philip.

Adding to Angela’s Soscrappy RSC 2021 project.

Blue Patches

My lovely granddaughter took delivery of a rescue cat today. He’s called Timmy and is one year old. Mostly black with white paws and looks a long cat in the photo I’ve seen. Annalise has wanted a cat for years and now she has one to love.

A couple of days ago I decided to make him a quilt. I hope Timmy likes it and Annalise approves!

I decided to use 3.5” squares from my collection and a lot of them are blue so I’m linking with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog.

The backing was part of a curtain from a child’s bedroom. No idea how I acquired it! I’ve had it in my stash for many years and have never used it because it’s such bright colours. But I think it’s perfect for this little quilt.

The binding was made from three leftover bits of blue binding.

The quilt measures  24” square and was machine quilted.

Bringing on the Blues

 Blue is my favourite colour so I always enjoy Blue Month on RSC. This year April is for making Blue blocks.

I love these little Wonky stars. I had fun pairing stars to blue backgrounds and I managed to make 15.

This week l also put together the “Cool” String Blocks and created this flimsy.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and we were blessed with sunny weather which had not been forecast. At present we are still under lots of Covid restrictions and two households are now allowed to meet outdoors. Our daughter, SIL and granddaughter only live around the corner and they came round for an Easter Egg hunt. I had hidden the chocolate eggs and the four of them hunted round the garden looking for the little eggs I had hidden. The adults enjoyed it just as much as Annalise. Then we had sandwiches and a chocolate cake I had made. 

Considering how cold it had been for the previous few days it was wonderful to be able to sit outside. I had a Plan B in case it was freezing. The family would come round, we would exchange Easter eggs on the doorstep and I would send them home with a parcel of sandwiches and slices of cake. So much nicer to be able to have a proper picnic!

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC 2021.