Christmas Quiltalong - June pt1

Well here it is! Ding Dong Merrily on High! It's the second Saturday of the month and it is the Christmas Quiltalong! Hurrah!

 Today we are all travelling West nearly to the end of the map to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada where Paulette will be hosting - it's a long trip for us here in the UK, so I hope she has those pancakes and maple syrup ready for breakfast?

We've reached a very exciting stage in our Mystery Quilt that QuiltSue has kindly put together for us to make - we'll be assembling the different elements into blocks, and so we will finally see what we've been working towards!

If you haven't had a play with your block layouts and posting what you THINK that the blocks will look like, you've just got time to nip over Sue's to enter - there are rumours of a small prize too, so hurry up!

And whilst you're doing that, I have to run the vac round and do some cleaning - but I have some Christmas music on to get me in the mood - so let's get ready to paaaaarty!

Oh, B*gger!

You know that I'm taking part in the 13km Great Midlands Fun Run on Sunday?

And you know that I sewed my name on to the front of my vest...






...and the back, thoughtfully remembering to leave a gap for my competitor number?






Well I've just read through all the rules and regs in the leaflet that they sent, and buried deep in the small print is that the competitor number has to be worn on your front.

So, I either wear my vest back to front, or I wield Percy Unpicker tomorrow and move my diagonal 'Hazel' to read flat across the front of the vest at the bottom, to leave room for the competitor number.

Why didn't I check this before??

Mystery Quilt Layout? pt2

Because I clearly have too much time on my hands, I have been contemplating further the conundrum of what the QuiltSue's Christmas Quiltalong Mystery Quilt blocks will look like.

As there are different quantities of each unit type, there's more to the layout of the block than just choosing nine squares and bunging them together - you have to select the units in proportion to how many there are in total or you are going to have a load of one sort left over.

Of course that would give you an interesting layout nonetheless, or as Joanna said 'I'm wondering if we should have done a version of '52 pick up' ... and see what design that made.' which gave me the absolutely best laugh out loud moment of the day.

So I went back to a bit of head scratching and I now think that there will be two block types - because it just wont work to use - say - four unit B and four unit D in each block as that's only one unit A background, and you'll have loads of backgrounds left.

Similarly, if you use - say two unit B and tow unit D in each block, and five unit A backgrounds, then the block will be terribly unbalanced.




So, I'm guessing on two block types which each use four or five unit A backgrounds then a combination of B and D.  Then any leftover unit A backgrounds are used as corner posts.

Maybe!

So if you want a good giggle, do head over to Paulette's on Saturday to see how many miles away I am from what the blocks really look like!

Mystery Quilt Layout?

Well this is a fine game!

For the Christmas Quiltalong this year (every second Saturday of the month), QuiltSue has designed a mystery quilt for us to make, and she has been dishing out the instructions in instalments via the monthly hostesses since February (Lesley has all the instalments to date on her blog, should you want to play catch up).

This Saturday (when Paulette will be hosting, welcoming us all to British Columbia, Canada), we will be putting the block elements that we have made up until now together into blocks, and Sue has challenged us all to see if we can guess the layout!

I had a play with the block elements this evening.

Easy, I thought, this is how it will be...







...or this...








...or this...








But actually, this is very difficult, because we have fairly even numbers of the 'unit B 4-squares' and of the 'unit D half square triangles' BUT same and half again of the 'unit A background pieces', so we need to use more of them than the others....

Then there are the 'unit C hourglass strips' - now surely they have to be sashing?  but still I have plenty of unit A backgrounds left to play with....

I know that the blocks will be 9" finished, and the overall quilt size, but not how many blocks that includes, or what in the way of borders are planned.

I have a headache now - thank you for this glimpse into quilt block design, Sue, but I think that I will leave it to the experts in future!

See what everyone else has guessed by coming to the Mr Linky party at Sue's, and to see what the real deal is, be sure to drop by to see Paulette on Saturday!  There's a rumour of pancakes and maple syrup a giveaway, which if I know Paulette, you are not going to want miss - see you there!

Not Just Quilting Pt2

You know that I said it was too hot to do any quilting last Sunday, and I knocked up that little green skirt instead?  Well today it has been very cold and very, very rainy.  I'll be quilting later, but first I did a bit of non-quilting sewing.

I wanted to customise a vest top to put my name on front and back - I will be running in the Great Midlands Fun Run next Sunday (will it be 28 degrees and blazing sunshine like last week?  or will it be 9 degrees and belting down with rain all day long like today?) and I hope people will cheer me on.  I need all the help I can get - the 13km course will be quite a struggle.

I didn't let the fact that I've never done any appliqué before put me off, but in hindsight, spending a little time on researching the technique would have been a wise move, rather than bombing ahead doing what I thought made sense.

Round one was the small name on the back, so I printed out my name to the right size - leaving room above for my competitor number - and made a sandwich of the vest, appliqué material and the paper, zigzag sewed around the letters then ripped the paper off and carefully cut round the letters.

What a faff.  Not a great result either - with the inevitable occasional snipped thread where I got too close, and frayed fabric where it didn't get close enough.

Round two was the larger name on the front.  I learned my lesson and cut the letters out first then pinned in position and zigzag stitched round them.

Much better.

Just got to get round the course now.

Not Just Quilting

However much I might moan about a minimum order for Creative Grids, I can't fault their service.  I phoned on the Monday and they fished out my un-paid for order which I'd tried to place on-line, took my payment details, and I had the rulers delivered in the post on Thursday.

I must say that it is MUCH EASIER using a small ruler to trim the half-square triangles, and I have just ten left to trim, and them I am done this step.

It's been extremely warm for the past few days - and certainly too hot for my other hobby, or going for a run, or house cleaning, pushing the vac round etc etc, , and I really didn't fancy quilt-wrestling with the concentric triangles on Mum's Quilt.

So on Sunday I dug out a very old skirt pattern and knocked this little number up from what used to be a curtain.  It is the easiest pattern in the world (three pieces!), but I've never been an avid clothes maker, and it is probably twenty years since I last made anything, so I am pleased that it (a) fits and (b) looks ok.

Next challenge - turning a long sleeve T-shirt with a bleach-mark on the sleeve into a short sleeve T-shirt...

Frustration!

Despite being very cross with Creative Grids for selling so much of their stock under £10, but having a £10 minimum spend, I decided that I would invest in a 6 1/2 " ruler to make my HST block trimming easier.  Honestly, if it is too much of a faff for them to deal with lower value orders, why don't they just add a handling fee to smaller orders, rather than lose a sale, or have resentful customers having to order something as a makeweight to get the value of £10?

But SewAli had suggested that I add a 6" by 1" ruler to the shopping cart (in the sale section) as this would be really useful which neatly took me just over the £10 spend.  The alternative, of course, would be to wait until I go to the FoQ in August, or try to find a stockist who has or can order the ruler I would like.

So I tried to place the order, but there was something up with the payment system, and the transaction would not go through, so I will have to get on the phone to them tomorrow instead.

Abandoning the HSTs for the time being, I quilted a few more of the triangles on Mum's Quilt.  It's slow going with having to turn the quilt round so, but I do like how it is starting to look.

I still don't like the doodled daisies in the middle of the blocks, though - I don't think that they will make the cut, but I do have an alternative plan in mind...