Orphans no more!

I have had a busy week on the sewing front, including 2 Patchwork group meetings ( one with each of the groups I belong to here in NZ).

I put into practice my idea to use the 5 "mistake" orphan string blocks, trimmed them down to 4.5" and turned them into QAYG star blocks, finishing at 12.5".

These are for Adrienne's Block Drive ( On the windy side blog), so she can make Children's Quilts which will be sent to Kaikoura for children affected by the November earthquake.

Not a great photo, doesn't really show up the colours and the Perle stitching.

My favourite block is this one:

 

I was also pleased with how the yellow string square showed up in the star block.  It hadn't worked as I had intended - hence being relegated to "Orphan block" status.

But as the centre of a star I think it works well.

Thanks to Jo's contribution of extra 2.5" squares I was able to make another 16 Twinkler blocks:

That takes my total of Twinklers to 61.  These will go home to the UK with me and then I'll probably need to sew more of them so I can eventually make a quilt for the Siblings Together charity.
Haven't worked out the maths yet as the quilt size requested is a minimum of 50" square.

I have also made a Premature baby quilt for our NZ local hospital but that will be in another post when I have finished hand sewing the binding,

So I feel I have had a productive week and enjoyed the company of fellow quilters too.

Off the Back Burner

I recently sewed up a pile of QAYG blocks for Nicky's Block Drive (mrssewandsow.blogspot.co.uk) The Siblings Together Quilt Block Drive!for Siblings Together.
I ran out of batting so had to put two of the blocks to one side.

I recently had some batting delivered to my house as I am now ready to sandwich the Wee Bees April quilt and needed more batting urgently.
Before I start that big quilt I decided to get some smaller things finished so the QAYG blocks came off the Back Burner and here they are:

 

Nice and bright - just how I like it.

 

Of course I have now got the bug for making more so there are 4 more in progress.

 

I am not really procrastinating about sandwiching the bigger quilt but I haven't been well again ( this time a balance issue connected to the virus I caught 8 weeks ago!) so kneeling on the floor battling to get the quilt sandwich smooth is not for me at the moment.

 

So, in the meantime I am cleaning out a few more scraps for a useful project.

 

Happy sewing!

On a roll! Turning out the blocks

It's the start of May already. Here in the UK it is May Bank Holiday and it's wet and horrid.
I feel sorry for the folk who work and this is the day they were hoping to go out for the day, spend time gardening etc. As my husband and I are retired we don't usually make plans for Bank Holidays.

However, I have been very busy over the weekend churning out blocks to make into QAYG blocks for Nicky's Block Drive for Siblings Together. (Siblings Together Quilt Group post from Thursday 28 April 2016).

Here they are, spread on my bedroom carpet:

 

 

All bright and colourful - they are so much fun to make and it is good to see partly used FQs and scraps being used up for a good reason.

 

I have definitely got the bug for making these blocks and whilst I was on a roll I made 10 blocks! 

Then I had to ferret through my stash looking for low volume fabrics for the backings and also batting scraps.  It's surprising how much fabric and batting pieces I have used up in order to create 22" squares. Nicky said we could piece batting and also backing scraps which I have done for several of the blocks.

But I am now completely out of batting  apart from one large piece I am keeping on one side to use on the April Wee Bees Quilt I will be putting together later this week. A shame because I just have 2 more QAYG blocks to assemble.  Never mind, these two will have to wait until my next visit to a Quilt Shop. Not sure when that might be, perhaps mid June when my Patchwork Group usually has an outing.  Otherwise I hope there might be a little left over from the Wee Bees April Quilt so they can be finished sooner.

I have started to machine quilt the other 8, two finished and this one had its ends sewn in whilst I was watching television yesterday evening.

 

The blue & lilac flowered fabric which looks like 1970's bed sheets is  actually from a pack of (very) roughly cut 10" squares of fabrics I have had in my stash for several years. I picked them up at my NZ Patchwork Group when one of the members was getting rid of unwanted scraps and stash.

These QAYG blocks seemed as good a project as any to start to use them up.  I have used quite a few: pink & lilac and yellow & pale orange ones too.

 

Off to machine quilt the rest of the blocks.

 

Happy sewing!