SEWING ON SUNDAY - LATE MAY.

Well I know I've not done one of these for a while, so thought I'd do a quick post of a few things I've been trying to do on the sewing front.  With hands red raw from chilblains & having to use sanitiser whenever we venture out to grocery shop etc., its been slow going as everything takes much longer & I get so clumsy with swollen & itchy fingers.
I've quilted my QAL that I'm doing with Sandra over at MMMQuilts, have the binding attached & will hand sew it slowly & have it ready for the linkup on 15th June.
This is my new project.

I pulled these fabrics from my stash after I started crocheting my dahlia rug (here) from Attic 24, as I loved the fun bright colours & then designed something for them.  They have been sitting waiting for motivation & it has finally come today.

These are a few of my flying geese & actually I've got the bottom row pieced, but the light wasn't good enough to take another photo.

This is what our gloomy sky looked like from the sewingroom window.

As I was looking for something else last week, I found these blocks lurking in a container.  I'd not been able to get them to quite be the same size, but have decided 4 will be enough with a couple of borders.  I'll pretend I'm doing a round robin quilt by myself, so watch this space.

Yesterday we had to pop into Aldi to get a few things we always buy from them & lo & behold, they had a British product sale & I came away with a few naughty goodies.😊

OK, as I said, just a quick post & still not being able to do much my next post may be another UK trip catchup.  Off to serve up our evening meal.
Take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.
Susan.

SEWING ON SUNDAYS 4 & CHAT.

Another Sunday is here and the anxiety levels are high.  I've tried not reveal how I'm feeling, but hearing people talk about this being the new normal for our future is slightly scary.  I can't imagine never venturing further than our own suburb, not being able to talk to or even give someone a hug, let alone shopping by being counted into stores or on-line, only allowed out to get groceries or an important necessity, not having coffee & cake occasionally and maybe never seeing our children & grandchildren.  Maybe one day a type of normal will again come...................

LET'S SEW...... even though I don't only do this on Sundays.  It's just the day I post about it.

Last week we worked on getting the rows sewn together ready for borders.  I forgot to take photos, until I'd added the borders.  That was because I had a problem finding fabric to do 2 borders, so we've ended up with one in fabric that sort of goes, though not what I had in mind.  Photos following are of both the quilts I've done to show how I work with borders.

1. MEASURING.

Now that all the rows are sewn, I measure through the centre of the quilt both ways & each side & hopefully as this quilt is square, they are all the same.  Very close with 35" in length from the 2.5" strips, to be cut for the 4 borders, and we have cornerstones to add on 2 of them. 

2.  PINNING.

I folded both the border piece & quilt in half & placed a pin, then pinned together to each end & sewed to top & bottom.

3.  SEWING.

Then I sewed a cornerstone to each end of the other 2 borders & used the same method to pin and sew those to each side.

                                                                            Ready to go.

4.  DONE.

Here are the two quilts waiting to be quilted.  Notice they have both only one border & that was such a pa-lava finding something that suited as I can't go anywhere to purchase fabric. As they are both for fairly new babies, they don't need to be extra large.  I do suppose I'm lucky to have a "BIG" stash.😉
Sorry if I'm a bit out of whack today & the top photo is not good  with a bright light in the corner when I was trying to take photos yesterday  & didn't realise how bad it was.

OTHER BITS OF SEWING.
Over the last week I've quilted 2 quilts from the tub of shame.  One is bound & the other having it's binding hand stitched now.

Made in 1996 in a workshop at the local quilt shop in Nowra, N.S.W.

And what I used for the back, which is partly a spare block from leftover bits or maybe I'd made it wrong.
The other pieces are  leftover backing & pieces from the stash.

Made in 2001 from a book, but I can't remember which one.

The back, again leftover from other quilt backs.

Today, apart from a bit of housework, filling my slowcooker with tonight's dinner and generally faffing around, I put some time into starting the QAL, I'm participating in with Sandra from MMMquilts.
My first four blocks are shown below.

It's called Centered & I've decided to go a bit wacky with my fabric choice, again raiding the stash.  We get our next instalment on Friday, 1st May.  I'm enjoying & as it's not huge, it will come together quickly.
OK, that's my funny old lot from today & I'll try and get my next UK trip post done either Monday or Tuesday.  No walkies today as the weather has been quite foul, but the next two days look promising before we are hit with a severe cold front that will possibly bring snow to our alpine areas.  BRRR!!
Take care all, stay safe & huggles from Susan.

SEWING ON SUNDAY 3 + OTHER BITS.

First up is the SEWING.
I'm just a bit all over the place, so once we sewed the sashing to the larger squares & the smaller ones, it was time to sew them into rows.

 I forgot to take photos before I started sewing some of the rows together.  As you can see from above, they are sewn as separate rows, and the I've joined a sashing row to the larger block row.  I did this with each one, then started joining more together as below.  They are then joined together as a whole.

We'll leave it there for this week before we start on the border.
That threw up another problem, as I've been using from my stash and have had to compromise with only one small border due to trialing many fabrics and not liking anything.  I have a solution and that will have to do, as I want these 2 baby quilts finished shortly & hope to hand them over as soon as the restrictions are eased.
I have taken a snap of the other colour way I've come up with and am in the process of getting it together now.

                                                                                No. 2.

OTHER BITS 'N' BOBS.
Over the weekend, which has been very overcast with a few showers has seen us pottering around, doing this, that and the other.
Baking......

 I made a Coffee Streusel Slice & some Butter Biscuits in 2 shapes.

I also made some frozen citrus yoghurt from some plain that I found very bitey.  I've not tried it yet, but may have a little tonight.

RAKING.

 Lots of leaves keep falling and as it wasn't windy this afternoon, I raked the leaves out the front.

 I also found lots of these in our lawn.  We saw many on our walk this afternoon & that's when you realise Autumn is really here.

                                                                      That window again. 
Enough from me.  I'm struggling knowing what day it is, hence the strange post about all sorts.
I'm sorry if my sewing bit is out of context with last Sunday, but I think only one person has said they might follow along.  I'm always available by email for any questions.
Take care all, stay safe and virtual hugs.
Susan.
Oh, and BTW.   We are supposedly in for plenty of rain this week, so walking might be on the light side.

SEWING ON SUNDAY - 2.

A week has passed since I decided to do this and not much has happened and a lot has happened.  It all depends how you view it in this time of crisis..
I've made headway on the quilt, but 'alas', now I am stumped for fabric for the 2 borders, all because I thought that I was being clever using a pretty charm pack given by my friend.  And, it's not as if I haven't a wonderful choice in my stash.  I'll contemplate during the week, auditioning & see what I finally figure out.  This little quilt is destined for the little one over the road.  3 months old & I can't even have a nurse till the world tries to be normal.
OK, here is a little more of how I went about it.  Remember, this is just me doing, not a tutorial or quiltalong, thinking it may be interesting in these tough times.

Cutting the ingredients - ha, ha.

From the charm pack, take 25 5"  squares
From sashing fabric, cut 8 2.5" strips from width of fabric, then cut into 60 2.5" x 5" rectangles.
From the cornerstone fabric,  cut 3 2.5" strips from width of fabric, then cut into 40 2.5" squares.

1.  Sew a sashing piece to one side of each of the 5" charm squares. (25 in all).

                                                I then pressed them towards the square.

I actually chain sewed 5 at once, snipped them apart, then pressed.  I need to keep moving a lot, because of my back.  Probably not how most people work & I took photos as I went, uh, when I                                                                                        remembered.
2.  Sew a cornerstone to one side of each, of 30 sashing pieces.

I did exactly the same with the sashing strips, pressing again towards the square, so that once we sew all the rows together, the seams nest neatly.
Before I sewed the rows, I played with placement of the colour on my design wall, until I found a combination that looked OK to me.

                                                                  The mock up so far.

We'll leave it there for this week, so anyone even attempting this with me can have a week to play.

I have decided to try this in another colourway too from fabric in my stash.  This one will also be a baby quilt for someone who we know through picking up our car club newsletters printed locally.  She gave birth to a little girl in mid March, amid this pandemic.  Not the best time for babies, but they will be so precious. 
Time for a cuppa, so that's all for today & hope you are all doing well.
Take care, stay safe & hugggles.
Susan.

SEWING ON SUNDAY - 1.

Just a quick post, wondering if anyone would like to sew along with me on Sundays to make a small, very easy quilt.  It's just a thought.  I do believe there are lots of sewalongs on social media at the moment, but I've been going to do this for a long time.
I'll give a little glimpse of what I'm talking about.

I designed this on my Quilt Wizard program when I got it back in 2008 & it was the second I'd tried on it, which was a lot of trial & error.  I've never made this quilt myself, though I did pass the pattern on to someone and gave away a kit & pattern to a friend. 
I am using a Charm Pack my friend Joy gave me when I admired it.  Lovely to have quilty friends who are generous.😊

I've picked the lighter fabric for the sashing & lime green for the cornerstones.  The inner border & outer border will be chosen once I'm satisfied with the middle after it is sewn.  I am using all of this from my stash, especially as we can't go anywhere.
The charm pack had 48 5" squares of which I'll be using 25.
The sashing fabric uses 60cm.
The cornerstones uses 40cm.
The inner border needs 30cm & the outer border approximately 50cm.

OK, I'll be back next Sunday with another small post on how to start cutting & sewing the first installment.
Take care all, stay safe & huggles from Susan.