Using up scraps and stash

 I have been busy in my sewing room this week, trying to use up scraps and stash.

I used my newly invented ironing board method to sandwich the playmat I am working on. It worked brilliantly! Completely flat at the first smoothing and pinning so this is a winner. As I’ve decided I’m only making small quilts from now on I will continue with this method,

I worked hard on the playmat and yesterday I sewed on the binding, using new fabric I bought online. I thought a red and white stripe would show off all the different novelty squares and I’m pleased with the result. I watched TV last night and hand sewed a lot of the binding which I should finish today.

I hand quilted around a few more stars on the Pink Scrappy quilt and I love how it’s coming along. A neighbour popped in and saw it and loved it! I think I’ll ask her if she knows of a new new baby girl she could gift it to.

As it’s green for RSC this month I got out all my green scraps - hardly any. I cut a few more strips to make some Strippy blocks, then saw Cathy’s post yesterday (Crazy by Design) which gave me an idea for a centre section for a Green Scrappy quilt.

Here’s my start:

I’ll be adding some yellow to mine to bulk out the green scraps and use some more of my stash of Wonky stars. I’m loosing count of how many quilts I’ve added those to! Probably make some 4 patches with green and yellow and see if I can work those in. It will be like a puzzle to work out as I go along.

I’ve also been leader and ender sewing some 8 patch rectangles I had put in piles by my machine ( an idea of Cathy’s, Sane Crazy Crumby Patchwork blog ). Hope to show a few finishes next week.

Joining with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog.

Busy with RSC Projects

 I finished the Roman Stripes Coin Quilt. What a performance that was - I made so many mistakes putting it together. I had cut the backing and batting to the right size - or so I thought! Gaily trimmed the edges and started to machine the binding onto the quilt. When I got to the third side I realised the binding would nowhere near cover the binding and batting on quite a long stretch on that side, so I had to undo all the binding and trim the wonky border and its opposite side which meant those two side were reduced by 1”.

Then I sewed the binding all round the quilt and hand stitched the back. It means the quilt is 40” wide and 38” long but I don’t think it’s obvious. I’ve put it in the Project Linus pile anyway.  It’s nice and colourful and has a lovely Rose and Hubble white spots on a pretty blue background for the backing.

Since I have not been well I am finding sandwiching my quilts very difficult. I used to lay them on the floor in my sewing room and scrabble about on my hands and knees doing the job which always took ages and many times I found wrinkles I had to deal with. One of the Patchwork Groups I belonged to didn’t reopen after Covid lockdowns and that was useful for the sandwiching quilts job. We used to meet in a Village Hall and had big tables to lay out the quilts. Other members would help with the job. I don’t have a table large enough at home to lay out the quilt tops to sandwich. I’ve decided not to make quilts larger than baby sized ones. A couple of Patchwork friends sandwich theirs by hanging them over the bannisters. I’ve tried this method but can’t get it to work. During the week I had an idea - why not do the job on my ironing board? I started at the top of last week’s pink flimsy, gradually flattening and pinning as I worked my way down the quilt. It worked really well and I’m going to try that method again in a minute as I have a colourful playmat to sandwich.

I machine quilted the pink quilt using a new method (for me) on the rabbit centre of the Medallion Quilt. I looked up how to cross hatch on YouTube and found an excellent video which was easy to follow. I am pleased with the result.

  

I am now hand quilting round each star in the border, using a pink variegated Perle thread. It’s looking good.

I have said several times that I am going to take some Project Linus quilts to the new coordinator but something has cropped up, I’ve been poorly, another appointment has occurred, etc so they are still in the cupboard. There is always a reason these things happen because a couple of days ago I had a watsap message from our relative Helen, who asked if I had a finished quilt that she could gift to a friend’s baby boy for his First birthday which he could use as a playmat. I think I have a couple in that Project Linus pile but I’ve also put together a colourful top using novelty fabrics, cutting them at 6.5”. I love it!

A quick photo of some of the blocks:

Off to cut batting for the playmat and see if my new ironing board method of sandwiching a quilt works again!🤞

Pain stopped play

 In the UK cricket is very popular, played in the summer when there can be stoppages for rain showers.

The phrase for that is “Rain stopped play”. Well in my case of trying to sew the phrase should be “Pain stopped play”. I have been suffering since early December with terrible pain in my neck, right shoulder and the ball of my shoulder. I have very strong pain killers from my GP and have had an MRI and X-rays of the area which have shown some age degeneration and rotor cuff problems. As a result I have not been able to do much sewing, all far too painful. So my pink RSC didn’t do too well and there’s hardly any green except 2 string blocks.

I took a photo of the remains of my pink scraps:

I had hoped to sandwich the little baby quilt I made from pink scraps and Wonky stars blocks which I really enjoyed putting together. I had to make 8 more Wonky stars as I didn’t have enough finished pink ones in my stash from last year.

It finishes at 34” wide by 36” long., the most I could get out of my pink scraps. I had a look at some of the other RSC block stashes but didn’t think any would make a suitable extra border but thought they would spoil what I have so far, so a small baby quilt it will be be - eventually.  My shoulder is far too painful to sandwich  this one ready to quilt although that was what I had hoped to do this morning.

I did manage to machine quilt and add the binding on the Coin style quilt I made from RSC Roman striped blocks and am in the process of hand sewing the binding down. Again my shoulder is too painful for that too.

When I went into town to have some blood tests at the surgery I managed to go to our Sewing and Knitting shop to spend a voucher and bought some FQs, most of them pink because my pink stash is so depleted. A few green too because I don’t have much green left either.

So not too much to report on the sewing front.