A finish, a start and a long pause

 Over two weeks ago I finished one of my outstanding pink RSC Crumb quilts. I used 4.5” Crumb blocks I had stashed away and combined into 4 patches with pink fabrics, interspersing the coin columns with pink Snail fabric.

I used a jagged stitch on my machine to quilt it and I’m really pleased with the result.

I backed and bound it with the snail fabric and it measures 40” square. I’m intending to donate it to the Linus Project when I have a few to pass on.

A few close ups:

And a couple of artistic “drop” pictures!

I’ve decided to call this quilt “Coin Crumbs”.

I am very behind with the RSC monthly colours and had got out a lot of blue scraps so I decided to use one of the larger novelty prints as a centre for a medallion style child’s quilt.

I used the idea I made a little while ago and did a narrow stop border with a blue plaid and used some of my Wonky Stars to make the next round. I managed to sew on the side borders and lay out the top and bottom ones( but hadn’t sewn them together].

Then I had my 4th booster Covid vaccination and reacted very badly indeed, after two days I ended up in A & E and then admitted to hospital. After four days I was discharged on Wednesday evening. Extremely tired and still taking antibiotics and getting used to a change of regular medication so no sewing has happened. I am resting and sleeping and watching tennis from Wimbledon.

I did start some purple Sawtooth stars but they’re on hold too!

Linking with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog.

And finally, some blue RSC sewing.

 Yesterday I finally sewed 5 blue String blocks as a start for my Blue blocks for June’s RSC colour. I chose this block because my blue strings were handy and I had 5 phone book papers already cut to size.

Earlier in the week I continued with my green scraps- Twinkler blocks, Bear Paws and Wonky Star blocks.

Sorry this photo has turned itself upside down!

Along the way I’m sewing up my bonus triangles as Leaders and Enders: this week’s haul.

I’m hoping to sort out my blue scraps tomorrow and then make a few of my regular blocks.

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog  

At last, some sewing time!

 My last actual sewing took place on 30th April. Since then we have had two short breaks away, celebrating John’s 80th birthday at the beginning of May and my 75th birthday at the end of May, and fitted in two large sections of decorating, the first between the two holidays and secondly, after the second. We are pleased with everything we had done but of course that meant a lot of moving things from room to room and then afterwards cleaning everything and putting it back. Almost back to rights now but still a few odds and ends to put back. I have taken the opportunity to look at everything very carefully, deciding whether we really love that vase, book etc enough to keep it. As a result I have made a couple of trips to the Charity shop with donations. My Word for the year is “Consider”, so I have Considered everything I have been sorting out. Pleased with the amount of things I have let go.

At the beginning of May I went through my stash, pulling out green scraps for RSC’s Green month. Well, they just sat in my sewing room until yesterday when I eventually found time and space  (my sewing room became one of our dumping grounds during the decorations) to sit at my machine and sew. I cut out a few Bear Paw blocks in the 2 chosen sizes and then started sewing the smaller ones. As I have said many times on my blog, I have a Spacial Awareness problem, and I find Bear Paws difficult to orientate. Well, yesterday was even worse, because I was so out of practice. A lot of mistakes, a lot of seam ripping went on but I eventually made 4 blocks. 

By that time  I had had enough of Bear Paws so I made some strippy blocks as I had a few ready cut newspaper  foundations ready to use. I made 10 and I’m pleased with them. Mindless sewing, what a therapy!

In between, as Leaders and Enders, I stitched together Bonus triangles from my RSC Pink month and a few green ones I created yesterday and today. On the top, trimmed to 1.75”, on the bottom, trimmed to 1.5”.

Today I didn’t have much time to sew and I got off to a bad start, finding I hadn’t cut enough 2.5” squares for some of the larger Bear Paw blocks I had prepped, so time wasted whilst I rectified that. In the end I only completed 2 of the 4 blocks I had kitted out. Then I ran out of time and steam and patience!

I hope you have all had a productive week on the RSC front and I hope to do better next week!

Linking up with Angela, So Scrappy Blog’s RSC Group.

Thank you, Lucy!

I have followed Lucy’s blog, Attic24, for several years. I love reading about her lovely crochet, her life and looking at the wonderful photos she takes. Lucy loves walking in the countryside and one of her favourite spots is Bolton Abbey. All her photos of this area, whatever the season, are beautiful and I’ve always thought I would love to visit one day. That happened last Friday. We had spent a few days in the Lake District and stopped off here for a walk. I had previously contacted Lucy to ask if she could suggest a walk on the flat as I can’t manage hills anymore. She kindly replied with a suggestion which we followed.

What a wonderful walk we had. A perfect gentle stroll alongside the River Wharfe, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the river was rippling along, the water glinting in the sunlight.

I’ll share a few photos to show you how lovely it was:

The river here was shallow and underneath quite brown so we guessed there was a lot of iron in the soil.

 

We came across this memory bench, carved out of a tree trunk where hundreds of 1p and 2p coins had been hammered in.

A close up:

We hope father and son are resting peacefully together beside the river in the midst of the beautiful trees and wild plants.

So, thank you, Lucy, for introducing us to such a magical place, a day we will always remember.

Julbilee decorations

 Here in the UK we are gearing up for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, her Diamond Jubilee. What an amazing achievement. Queen Elizabeth II is our longest living monarch and has been present for most of my life.

Our town is beginning to look jolly with shops decorating their windows with red, white and blue merchandise, bunting and flags and now bollards are having red, white and blue flowers and 4 bollards have been completely covered to become Grenadier Guards! Very impressive!

Not a wonderful photo but you get the idea.

I am sure everyone I passed was enjoying the decorations too. People seemed more smiley and chatty, everyone passing the time of day as you passed. I’m calling it the Jubilee Effect!

Hunting out the Green scraps for May

 I didn’t think I would find many green scraps as it doesn’t seem that long since I was making Green  RSC blocks last year. How time flies!

But this is what I found:

 

Front right loads of 2” squares. Only a few 2.5” squares, quite a few strips. Then chunks, larger strips and Fat quarters. Quite a hoard.

I will start with Bear Paw blocks in my three chosen sizes. I have so many 2” squares but one of my RSC blocks is the Easy Peasy one but I already have 14 green ones from last year. So I may cut up some of the scraps into 2.5” squares and make some more green Twinkler blocks ( I have 9 in my stash at the moment). Then some green String blocks. As I have some larger pieces of green fabrics I think I may make a Crumb quilt, using “Boy” Crumb blocks with green fabric squares and make a similar quilt to the Pink one I did in April. After that we’ll see!!

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

RSC Child’s Medallion Quilt

 I am always trying to use up odd bits of fabric that have been in my stash for far too long. I had a piece of fabric about 10” square that reminds me of quaint churches and silos in the American countryside. No idea how I acquired it but it’s cute and when I found it again on one of my sorting out sessions I decided this was now the time for it to be used in a quilt.

I have been making Wonky Stars as RSC blocks so I picked out ones that would work with the centre piece and some of the many Pinwheels I made from waste triangles gifted to me over the last few years. 

I think I’ve only made one other Medallion quilt and I really enjoyed making this one. I finished hand sewing the binding a couple of days ago and I love it. It measures 40” square and combines machine quilting, hand quilting with Perle thread and I tied the centres of the Pinwheels with Perle thread.

Centre piece. Do you agree with my feeling of American countryside churches and silos?

Close up of some of the Wonky Stars.

More Wonky Stars. I so enjoyed picking these out of my Wonky Stars stash.

The tied Pinwheel round.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog for RSC2022.