Eleanor's Quilt - Cutting, pt1

I've made a start on cutting my brand new fabric for Eleanor's Quilt.  It is just the most exciting thing - but scary too!  I've checked and double checked the cutting list, and these are the strips ready for cross cutting.

But I'm stopping here.

However much fun it would be to carry on with the next bit, I know that it is MUCH MORE SENSIBLE to do this in stages, so that the ol' grey matter is in tip top order.

I'm much likely to make a good job of not just cutting, but piecing too when I'm fresh, and the 'oh, that'll do' shoddy bits are always when I'm impatient and tired at the end of a session.

Well, no more!

Half an hour cutting, and that's enough for the time being.  Cross cutting will be later after I've gone to visit Grumpy George at the allotment.  He'll point out courgettes (zucchini), runner beans, french beans and raspberries for picking, I'm sure.

Oh - and Oliver cat says that in the meantime, he'll make sure that no one steals the fabric.  Well done, Oliver, thank you.

A Bit of Housekeeping

Just a couple of items to clear the decks before I embark on Eleanor's Quilt!

I have neglected to thank Donna for sending me some cat fabric scraps - she's made such a lovely quilt to make you smile with these, and offered to send me the rest though the post!  How lovely was that!  She asked for a postcard in return 'of something English'.

I live in a suburb of the second city, Birmingham, so sent her one from there - it's not very touristy, so the postcard showed some of our finest Victorian civic buildings, and our modern Symphony Hall which is very well thought of and is host to many fine acts.

I think I know who got the better end of the deal in that particular exchange!  Thank you again, Donna!

Oh - talking of posting things, the Secret Garden fabric went off to Reenie in NY state after she won the July QAL draw, so I hope that's winging it's way to her safely.

Now although I have a shiny new project to work on, I didn't feel that I could have fun with my new fabrics without having finished off the camera case for the Next-Doors, which I started this just ages ago.


Blooming funny shape, cameras!

The only thing I had to do was attach a Velcro strip to, yet this one thing took me longer than the entire rest of the project - no idea why I kept putting it off, it was only a half hour job, and it's now out the way!

Hurrah! Now where's that cutter...

Aren't Quilters Nice?

Having decided on the pattern for Godmother's Niece's quilt from QuiltSue's excellent book 'Pick Four', and the fabrics I want to use, all I have to do is make sure I can re-size the pattern in order to ensure that the quilt will sit nicely on a single bed.

Here's where it pays to be in with the Author!  I need the blocks to be a finished size of 10" and not 12", and QuiltSue has kindly done all the tricky re-jigging and emailed me the cutting list for the revised block size.  How brilliant it that!

She suggested I make a trial block using the revised instructions just to make sure that the heat hadn't fried her brain (her words not mine!), and so this evening I grabbed some scraps and gave it a whirl.  She's done one too - if you ask her nicely, she might show it to you.

Here we have it - this is a finished 10" as requested.  The fabrics jar like mad, but I'm only making sure the sizing/cutting/instructions are good, so that's ok.

And before anyone calls the Points Police, I am aware that the last seam putting the two block halves together is well out of kilter, but I'd exceeded my concentration limit!

This all works though, so thank you, Sue, I can get cutting with confidence!

Starstruck - Fabric Bought!

Firstly, thank you for your help and advise on fabrics on my last post, girls - I've taken it all on board and been to our LQS to compare to what I found last night at Hobbycraft (I only looked, and didn't buy last night).

I've ended up with these, and hope that I've done the right thing!

I think that this is why I am scrappy quilter by instinct - if I find I have a block that doesn't work, it's not a big deal - if I find that I've just made an epic howler on yardage for a whole quilt, that's £45 up the swannee, by today's shopping bill.

If this had been my quilt, I would have gone for green with the peach, but should the quilt's new home be a peach/blue room, the green would not be a great move (and vice versa, I guess), so hopefully my choices will go with whatever it has to go with!

The plan is to use the strong peach as the main fabric (it's come out a more orange in the pic than it is in real life), the patterned mid tone for the 'accent', and the cream with beige small markings for the background.

QuiltSue has very kindly offered to work out a revised cutting list for my plan of using 10" not 12" blocks; which will bring the width in a bit; then I'll insert a row of flying geese top & bottom before the border goes on to get the proportions right for this single bed quilt.

So that's the difficult bit done, finding the fabric; now for the exciting bit - don't you just love starting a new quilt!

A Commission - but Second Guessing!

Remember the 2012 Festive Mystery quilt?

I gave mine, called 'Festive Holly' to my under-the-weather Godmother, who showed it to her niece, who would now like me to make a quilt for her.

Wow!

My Godmother wants to gift the this quilt, and this week dropped me a note to commission me for the piece. She asks me to produce a single-bed size quilt, to co-ordinate with the (enclosed) peach tie back.  Request: peach (to match, or darker); cream.

Of course, although that gives me a pretty free rein, it doesn't give me a lot to go on, either! I do want to turn something round pretty quickly on this one - let's just say that Godmother is not in the best health and it would be best to crack on with the project.

I don't know the room for which this quilt is heading - so with the vague brief, I'm having to second guess what Godmother Merris' niece Eleanor would like.

I had a brainstorming session with my colleague Rita this lunchtime, and we worked out the QuiltSue's 'Starstuck' design is perfect (from her book 'Pick Four') - albeit with the odd tweak.

As we're working to a single bed size, there's been a bit of maths going on here to resize Sue's blocks from 12" to 10" - which I am still not sure about - then I'm going to add a flying geese border top 'n' bottom to rejig the size to suit. Headache's all round!!

I'd love to make as a scrappy quilt, but find that my limited stash is short of enough peaches to suit. So I've had a recce at Hobbycraft - a craft chain which includes a limited fabric range - this evening.  The darker fabric isn't a 100% tonal match, but has the advantage of being cut price £14/m to £6/m.  The lighter fabric is spot on - but £14/m.

So, the jury is still out - and I need a mid tone too.  I guess that I'd get what I need from the big (by our standards) quilt shop across the city, but hope that I can pull what I need from the smaller wool and craft shop just a few miles away, which I will pay a visit to tomorrow.

 Any thoughts that you might have, girls, I would appreciate.

Christmas QAL - July - PS.

I cannot believe that I didn't credit Grumpy George the Scarecrow in my wrap up post last night! D'oh!

To make amends to his hurt feelings, when I went to the Hill allotments tonight to do some planting out, I let him pick a winner for the yard of Secret Garden fabric.

I had twelve sweetcorn (maize) plants to plant out, and three cucumbers - so I labelled each pot with a number jigged them about, then put them back in the seed tray & picked out a random one.

Kim missed the cut, being a bit late to the party - although I do hope you'll come by and join in at Joanna's next month, Kim?

I had fifteen seedlings and fifteen on the Mr Linky - and as you can see George has the winning pot - it's number 4, which is Reenie!

Reenie's made a wonky log cabin as a start for her QAL Challenge - I can't wait to see what she has lined up for next month's session!

Well done, m'dear - let me have your address, and I'll get the fabric off to you.

So it's goodnight from George, and it's goodnight from me. Goodnight!

Christmas QAL - July - final part

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend over here with me - I've had a smashing time!

I've finished my candle block (bar the applique flame) and cut the pieces for my two star blocks for the Challenge - and I'm where I want to be on this project at this point.

I've done some baking, stretched the ol' grey matter a bit and been around the world admiring what everyone has been up to - the best bit of the Quiltalong!

Just before I go off to bed with my hot chocolate and Christmas biscuits, I have to say thank you to QuiltSue for coming up with the mad no-red-or-green Challenge for a small Christmas project, and to Joanna who's sharing hosting with me.

Thank you to everyone who signed up on the Mr Linky which allowed us to have a good ol' nose round; and to everyone who came and had a look but didn't take part.  Will you join us next month?

And as a thank you, I'd like to offer out this yard of 'Secret Garden' fabric.  Our local dept store which has a small haberdashery/wool/fabric section had selected yard packs on sale (75% off!) the other day - and I had a bit of a rush to the head and ended up with *ahem* rather more than I can sensibly use.

Anyone who's participated today will go in the hat, and I'll pick a winner tomorrow.

For next month - 10th/11th August - we're back to Joanna's for more fun and fabrics.  You coming?