Donation finish

 I agreed to my daughter’s request to make some baby quilts that a local Charity Shop could sell.

I make Crumb blocks as Leaders and Enders so I had a tin full ready to use. I have made several baby quilts using these blocks and I’m always happy with the result - bright quilts with lots of I Spy opportunities.

I finished hand sewing the binding on this today and I love it!

When I recently sorted out my leftover pieces of batting I pinned a label onto the larger pieces, stating the size. When I came to layer up my flimsy yesterday I checked the bag of pieces and lo and behold there was a piece exactly the right size. 

Then I checked a piece of backing fabric I had acquired when a friend was downsizing her stash several years ago. I’ve never found the right quilt for this piece but I think it’s great for this one. A little too small in the width so I added a piece of the border and binding fabric and I’m so pleased with it. Two more oddments out of my cupboard!

I always liked this piece of fabric, it’s actually a Christmas fabric according to the selvedge but I would never have guessed that. Wish I had more of it - I could use it for more backings for these I Spy quilts.

See what I mean about the fabric not being an obviously Christmas one?

Happy day for me today as I had my 1st Covid 19 vaccine this morning.

Pink Production Line

 RSC 2021’s colour for this month is Pink.  I had a plan for the blocks I wanted to make but then our daughter suggested I make some baby quilts for a local Charity Shop in aid of The Samaritans.

So I’ve made three flimsies, one almost a finished quilt ( hand sewing the binding now) and two flimsies which I think I can say are Pink - definitely girl colours anyway!

These aren’t great photos. I can assure you they are brighter, more interesting colours than these photos show!

The top one has now been basted and I hope to start the machine quilting tomorrow.

One of the blocks I chose for RSC 2021 was small Wonky Stars, finishing at 4”.

I’ve made 6. Happy with them but my favourite with the little pink elephant fabric nearly drove me crazy. It’s the bottom left block in the photo above. I have great problems with spacial  awareness so getting the elephants in each square oriented the correct way was a nightmare! The seam ripper was used so many times, it was ridiculous.

Linking with Angela’s So scrappy RSC 2021 blog.

A Granny blanket for Granny

 Last year several friends in my Patchwork Group decided to make “Covid blankets”, either knitted or crocheted, using up yarn we had stashed away.

I love making crocheted Granny squares and started to use yarn I had tucked away, not a huge amount, which soon ran out. I made each square using two colours, alternating them to make squares 4 rounds big. 

I got so carried away, having to order extra brightly coloured yarn online from the Wool Warehouse.  I never counted the squares, just pushing them into a couple of large shopping bags. Then I ordered a pale cream coloured yarn to make a final crochet round for each Granny square and for joining them into a blanket. When I started to pull all the squares out of the shopping bags I was astonished at how many I had......FAR too many for one blanket! I made one lot of squares into a cuddly blanket which I gifted to our 10 years old granddaughter for Christmas. She really loves it, permanently on the sofa for when she snuggles under it to watch television.

The other squares were then turned into a blanket for me...  Granny blanket for Granny. I finished it a few days ago and it’s already had lots of use. We had some snow and very cold weather a few days ago and I’ve loved putting it over me in the evenings when we were watching television.

And here it is! Just counted the squares, a total of 143 squares. I think Annalise’s blanket  had an extra row, so that used 156. 

And here it is, all rolled up ready for use!

Coming Full Circle

 I wrote my last post a week ago about the UFO I had just finished. I showed it to my Patchwork Group on a Zoom meeting we had last Thursday. Friend Sue asked me who the Baby Quilt was for and I said I didn’t know, had no one in mind to gift it to and I would just be putting it in the cupboard to gift at some date in the future.

Well, it hasn’t stayed in the cupboard for long! On Sunday evening we received a Skype call from good friends, Miriam and Frank who live in New Zealand. We have known them for 21 years and we have been on so many adventures with them, mostly in NZ but also here in the UK. Over the years we have met their family too. The call was to tell us that their younger daughter Amy had just had a baby girl, Aleesha Miriam Jean. I had gifted baby quilts to her two boys so of course baby Aleesha would have a quilt too. And, as if by magic, I had the very one sitting in the cupboard. I embroidered a label and wrapped the quilt up for posting. So yesterday off it went on the long journey to North Island, NZ.

This quilt was sewn whilst we were in NZ in 2019, includes several fabrics I bought at the local quilt shop in Mapua, came back to the UK with me, finished last week and now it’s winging its way back to NZ.

Definitely a case of Closing the Circle!

First finish for 2021

 Yesterday I finished a UFO which I listed as a UFO to be finished in 2020. I think I put it together into a flimsy whilst I was in New Zealand in 2019 because I recognise the fabrics: some were new fabrics, leftovers from a Happy Blocks quilt I made for a young friend Morgan who was expecting a baby. I left the quilt with her before we returned to the UK at the end of April 2019 and baby Izzy was born in August of that year. Other fabrics in the flimsy I know were sent to me at our New Zealand rental address by dear Blog friend Jo B in Victoria, Australia.

When I put the UFO away I added a piece of fabric for the backing and also batting cut to size. That made it an easy one to finish. I machine quilted either side of the seams down the columns and along the rows of the quilt. I love the backing fabric but have no memories of buying it or the piece being gifted to me. However I wish I had yards of this fabrics stashed away because it’s ideal for backing scrap quilts.

The choice of a binding fabric proved a real challenge: I didn’t have enough of the backing fabric left, I didn’t have anymore of the two border fabrics and every fabric I auditioned was just wrong! 

Then I had a lightbulb moment - why not pick out some of the pink and green leftover binding strips I keep and rarely use? And that worked. I’m happy with the result which just adds to the scrappy mishmash of the baby quilt. Here it is, measures 40” square which is ideal for a play mat and then can be used on the cot once baby is old enough for that to be safe.

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.