Sewing projects but no progress

Thought I had better add a couple of lines to say that I am actually still patchworking, but haven't blogged any projects for some time. I have a lot of start-stop quilts going at present because I am between houses (shifting) and my stash is at house no.2 and my new projects are at house no.1!

I have the following on the go:


1.     1930's Farmers quilt-along
2.     Stag quilt with 24 crazy blocks

3.     Trellis fence with 10" blocks

4.     Diamond quilt

5.     Christmas tree applique

6.     Hearts/Nine-patch quilt

Being unfocussed at the moment is probably the reason why I am starting new projects even before the last one isn't even remotely finished. Once I settle into my new home things will turn around. My sewing room at house No.1 is empty of fabrics and looks very sad.

Pussycat minding

If you have a cat and you quilt, the two really go hand in hand.

For some reason, cats seem to be drawn to anything that is on the floor or new. When it comes to laying out your fabric blocks you have to be exceptionally careful so as dirty dukes or fluff doesn't go anywhere on your new creations.

Most of the time I work at my cutting table or on my design wall (cloth pinned to the hall wall!). For this particular quilt I needed to get the layout of how my Caring Hearts quilt would need to be sewn. I kept a beady eye on the door for any paw friends that might be approaching.

Half way through, one puss cat wandered in and thought, "Mmm, something interesting is partaking on the bed, I must jump up and see what it is all about". I was ready for his leap and scooped him up and put him in his sleeping bed. Luckily he decided to stay there whilst I continued with my Hearts.

Aztec content in his bed

Two projects on the go

Nothing like a little confusion on the chopping board! My Caring Hearts quilt is taking a back seat at present whilst I tackle the Farmers 1930's quilt-along.

The jumbo of projects

Deciding on what fabrics to use for my Farmers quilt was a mission at first, but once I decided that I would use a paisley fabric for my base the other fabrics slotted into place every time. I based my coordinating pieces from the Letters to the Editor in the book.

Once I got into the swing of things my chopping board became so more free of fabrics and got into the business and swing of making blocks.

Small calmness for setting out my blocks

I will have to check out the Quilt-along guidelines before I post any blocks here. Of the 99 blocks we are making I am up to number 17, and her name is Patience!

Happy sewing :)

Before you know it....

... it'll be Christmas!!

With that thought in mind, I knew I had better get back to blogging and adding to my patchwork journey. For me personally it is hard to write about exciting new projects and add shiny new photos because lately I have only been sewing two projects; one is the continuation of my Caring Hearts quilt and the other, joining my first Quilt-Along on Facebook for the Farmers Wife 1930's sampler. I didn't start the project till after the New Year and am slowly catching up to the other 6000 quilters!

Not a lot happens in between.

Whilst I find some pics on my latest projects here a few shots of my garden last Spring. Now, I'm no gardener so I can't name the plants/shrubs, but to me they look interesting and at the end of the day, if they don't need watering then that's fine with me!!

This begun flowering after a flood one year, I have no idea what it is.

My Lilac began flowering last year for the first time.

This is Scarlett O'Hara, it begins with "B" and does need water!

Caring Hearts

And so, here is 2016.

Thankfully I am so pleased that 2015 is over. Not that I'm ungrateful, but let's just say sometimes when life gives you lemons and you can't make lemonade, those lemons can become quite tart and distasteful.

On to patchwork. I thought yesterday as I was busy sewing making more hearts for my Caring Hearts quilt that I had better start blogging again otherwise I will forget what I'm up to when I go to look back at my progress... and if I haven't written anything there will be nothing to read!

I've been attending my Wednesday evening sessions at Quilting Quarters with my sewing buddies and haven't stitched anything more in between. No motivation or actually, no vroom was within me to sew at any other times of the week. Luckily Christmas came and I have spent the last week busy in my sewing room catching up on lost time and finally my sewing spirits have found me once again.

When I come to a hurdle, as I have at the moment, I momentarily go "darn it!", then think the process over in my head until I come to a solution. The quilt I am doing at present has been changed a bit and instead of going sewing straight blocks I have tossed it on its head and am sewing on-point instead. I have no pattern to go by so am figuring out how to put it together at the ends as I go along. It may not be the correct format, but I'm guessing in the end, it will work for me!

Back to my machine, until next time - happy sewing!

Blanket stitching a heart

The only time I get my ironing board out!

Still working in the wings

I have been patchworking, I just haven't been blogging... I haven't any updated pics of my Caring Hearts since I begun building them, but perhaps soon I shall take some and load them up. Basically I was going with the flow for a while making lots of nine-patches and then beginning my hearts. I put pen to paper just recently and will require about 70 odd of each block to complete a queen sized quilt. More progress to follow.

In the meantime here is a shot of something else. Little buddies in my sewing room whilst I was sewing some time ago.

Caring Hearts Quilts - Elaine Rose

One of my first quilt patterns was a Elaine Rose one, a cushion. This time I am tackling a 68" size quilt, but no doubt it will grow bigger to cover the length and width of a queen-sized bed. I basically wanted a new project to take along to my Wednesday class and came across this one in my magazine "wish list" pile! 

When I first started quilting and purchasing magazines I would put in bookmarks for all the beautiful quilts I would make one day!! Naturally I went through them again and then took a more realistic view of my bookmarks and narrowed down to the ones I would "actually" make or have the time to do it. So, this Caring Hearts quilt was in that narrowed down pile and looked to be pretty basic enough to use up some of my fabric I had started to buy over past five years.

The quilt consists of nine patches surrounded by, you guessed it, caring hearts.

The fabric I am using for the nine patches was brought through the Sew Pretty website (now the Make Cafe). The fabrics have a mixture of mushrooms, imaginary little people and ant trails! I basically went for it and cut long strips into 2.5" wide and then sewed them together. Then of course I cut and sewed them back together again! The things we do for making a quilt!!

Here is a piccie of some of my strips sewn together before I cut them up.