Block Lotto: January winnings - progress at last!

Well, I've finally found some time actually at home to start putting together my Block Lotto winnings.  All I can say is that it's fortunate that this is liberated patchwork, as it didn't occur to me to check that the blocks were all the same size before I started adding the sashing, and to be honest, some of the sashing probably isn't quite right, and also, my seam allowances aren't always spot on.  So, the cornerstones, well the best that can be said is they're in the corners!

Still, it's my first attempt at a quilt, and will be used to protect my bed from cat hair, so doesn't need to be perfect.  And I don't believe in the existence of the quilt police, or at least, I care not what they think.  That said, I think I'll pay a bit more attention next time!

The quilt is arranged 7 blocks across, 9 down in the spectrum, with cornerstones in the appropriate complementary colours with white sashing all around, or thereabouts as with it being a Block Lotto winnings, I've got more of one colour than others and some prints don't really fit anywhere particular, and I don't necessarily have quite the right shades of complementary colours.  The pic below shows I've actually got quite a few more to sash before I can even get excited about sewing blocks of blocks together....

I also have no idea whether it will be too big or too small for my kingsize bed, so haven't considered borders yet.  Other than maybe pianokeys or scrappy or depending on how many borders are needed and where, maybe some liberated lettering like Lazy Gal Tonya's (or rather a poor attempt at it to be more accurate) maybe saying 'Block Lotto January 2010' or similar might be good fun.

I made some dog beds for my sister's dogs (up in Northumberland) out of an old loose cover for my Ikea Beddinge sofa - those dogs will just chew it to bits so the fact it was worn out is irrelevant!  This is my dining room come workroom, with an huge pile of stuff to be stuck on eBay under the window.

Where have I been the last month? Up in Northumberland helping my parents move house and then recovering down here by trying to declutter a bit and jobhunt and get the jungle under control.  My computer got a virus and died, it's sort of resurrected, but there's lots missing and new stuff I don't know how to use.  Grumble grumble.  I've also been harvesting strawberries and cherries.  The picture below is the view from their garden room out across the National Trust Estate Cragside - we went on the rhodedendron filled estate drive when I was there - stunning colours as the azeleas/ rhodedendrons were out, but didn't take my camera.  Doh!  Bizarrely it was at Christmas whilst we were staying in a National Trust holiday cottage on the other side of the valley that they decided to move to Northumberland - it feels strange that we were sitting talking about the move back then whilst looking across at the house they're now living in! Who would have thought it?

I'm hoping to be a bit more active online in July - but the good weather's arrived (I believe it's going to hit the mid 80s today which will be nice) and I want to be out there lolling in the shade of my cherry tree.  The night's are a bit sultry so I've had my window open, and have to be slathered with mozzie repellent to survive.  The cat's struggling a bit again, he's not a very well boy, so off to the vet we go tomorrow.  Typically this is in the week my car insurance falls due, and now my washing machine appears to be breaking.  Sigh.  Still, I'll soon be poor enough to claim social security benefits - always a silver lining!

Talking of surviving, the foxcubs - I think there are now only 3.  And I think they're struggling for food as they make the most awful racket every night - I keep thinking they're killing something slowly but only appear to be arguing...  The biggest one's legs are beginning to go black and all have white tips to their tails.  I've been throwing water towards them as they were getting a bit bold and coming into the house, so they run if they see me, so no more pics sadly.  Can't have it both ways, they need to be wary of humans and if piccies is the price, then that's fine.

I am thrilled to finally have something to show on my Design Wall - other people are far more consistent than me, check them out at Judy's blog here.  Judy's blog is worth looking at every day - she and her husband have quite an eventful domestic life and I love hearing about it.  She also has great links to other quilters and is generally something of an inspiration all round!

And finally, here's my cherry crop from my garden - this is the second picking (and last as the birds have stripped the top third, I've stripped the bottom third and the middle third still has cherries, but I don't have ladders long enough and even if I did, the dizziness would cause some difficulties: they can be for the birds and windfalls for the foxcubs.  I've given most of the first picking away, but I want to keep most of these for me.  The bowl is about 25cm across - that's a LOT of cherries for one person with virtually no freezer space.  I need to do a recipie search for how to preserve them without using sugar (I'm cutting down).  Any suggestions?

Design Wall Monday

Not much progress yet on the Block Lotto TicTacToe blocks January win.  I've cut out the bottom white sashing to size and also cut out some doubledyed/batik solids for the four missing blocks (which will have white cut into them, so opposite of the other blocks), and I'm playing with cornerstones.

Apologies for the appalling light quality, the table is in the way and I don't want to move it by myself as it's a bit wobbly.  Antiques huh, who'd have them!

Anyway, the blocks are laid out vertically as red, orange, yellow, greeny-yellow, green, greeny-blue, blue, bluey-purple and purple (9 down) and 7 across.

The cornerstones have been tried out in various permutations of solids/patterns in the same colours as the main blocks are ordered, ordered backtofront ie the other way round, but I've sort of settled on complementary to the main blocks.

So green, blue, purple, reddy-purple, red, reddy-orange, orange, orangey-yellow, and yellow.  BUT I've not got the right solids cut with the right tonal values/colours yet, so the cornerstones that are up there are indicative and not going to be used in the main.

I'm also thinking  I'll use my double-dyed/ self dyed batik type fabrics, but don't have the right colours/tonal values for some, so will need to dye some more.

I'm also really keen on doing this month's block lotto which is curved free-piecing like reeds - in lime green and black/white or white/white or black or white.  Except I don't have any lime green other than some with pink on it which is the leftover bottom bit of my living room curtains and I'm kindof thinking I might need it someday.... So being unemployed and a bit poor, I don't want to go out & buy any more fabric, cos I've got lots (albeit not in the required colours).  The only solution I can see is to dye some - as I have white fabric and procion dyes.  So that'll have to wait too.

Which means the whole crafting thing is shelved until after my exam on the 19th, as I really need to get learning those cases - I'm now on my fourth pack of index cards - there's about 40 used for topic notes, and erm 200 for court cases.  I am so hopeless at remembering case names!! No hope!

The foxcubs are out & about and more wary so no new pics.  Ivor cat got a bit excited last night as one was nosing around the back door/cat flap.  I got a bit excited this morning as I retrieved various items from around the garden that normally live at the back door that the cubs had been investigating.  Sigh.  How one forgets the inconvenience of baby animals in one's life!

Check out what everyone else is doing at Judy's Design Wall Monday here

Design Floor Monday - Block Lotto TicTacToe progress

Well, well, well, it's amazing how much time you can spend with so little to show for it!

I've made another 9 blocks to even up the colourways and reordered the blocks I won into an arrangement I like - although I need 4 more - and sewn white sashing on the right of each block.  I've also cut a pile of sashing for the bottom of half the blocks.

The pic is me standing on a chair with natural daylight with the blocks spread out on a duvet cover on the floor - not a great pic as a result, as the colours look a bit washed out.  Still, I managed to do it and get them back on the design wall in their correct placesyesterday  BEFORE the cat wandered in for a whinge about being bullied by the fox cubs (at least I assume that's what he was bitching about, it was a bit early to be bitching for his dinner).

Talking of foxcubs - I saw six last week, the guy in the flat upstairs next door nearly fell out of the window telling me he'd seen 4 at the weekend, and I saw two today - they've gone from charcoal black to a soft sandy red, they're bright eyed, bushy tailed and, finally, have stopped falling into the pond. Phew!  They have also developed awareness - so whilst last week I had to move otherwise they'd walk into me; this week, they're running away into their den if I come too close.  Quite right too, don't want them too habituated, although I'd like to get close enough for a pic....  to do that I'd have to do some gardening, and I don't quite have time. Sigh.  If only my garden was as tidy and organised as Judy's - check out her garden and the other design walls here.

This is what they looked like last week:

Bias binding difficulties - Design Wall Monday

Sheesh! The trouble I've had.... It's all looking good now, but it took a month!  How hard can it be to bind 3 pieces of cloth?  This week it's the design ironing board as the handsewn paper pieced stars from last week are still up on the wall being looked at, and everything else is still in the In Progress Box, still at least I've got somewhere on this one!

It all started in early March when I went to see friends living in a converted barn and a gorgeous Jack Russell in deepest darkest rural Kent.  They've spent a lot of money on furniture & refurbishment, including recovering a chesterfield sofa in cream fabric woven with poppies that cost £40 per metre (how much!!!).  They'd been using the 3 leftover pieces to protect the sofa from the dog who likes running along the back, but these had got very grubby as boys being boys, they don't sew, the fabric frays horribly and so they'd not been able to wash them.  Being a firm believer in my ability to do anything I set my mind to (eventually) I offered to do some sort of hem.  I thought it would be good practice ahead of putting together my Block Lotto winnings and scary liberated log cabin (see previous posts) into quilts and my prototype textile products into production and selling them online/ at craft fairs.

A stright turned over hem, of course, would look really nasty on fabric that thick, so I decided to bind it.  I've got lots of bias binding at home, but went to look in a few shops and finally settled on the 1/2" wide chocolate brown commercial bias binding I already possessed as I couldn't find a cream one that matched the background.  The boys approved the colour choice. 

So I did the binding using the usual method of ironing out one edge, sewing it to the front right sides together, then turning over and carefully pinning the back, then sewing on the front not in the ditch as the fabric's quite thick and there wasn't space, but on the front of the binding itself to ensure it all caught.  Checked it, washed it, and howled in frustration as there were about 10 areas that had come adrift because the fabric really really frays ridiculously easy.

Sigh.  I cut it all off, stay stitched the edges this time and rebound it again using same method as before, checked it had all caught and washed it.  And howled louder and longer, as each of the three pieces had come adrift in at least one area.

Double sigh.  I had a look on the net, and decided to go foraging for a binding foot.  Bernina sell two sorts, one an industrial quality one that they make to order for around £200 (huh!) and another domestic funnel type one they sell with an adapter shank for around £30.  So I walked down the High Street to my local sewing machine shop.  Who confirmed that it's not a good idea to buy an industrial foot off the net that claims to work with my machine, but sold me a domestic funnely type one with adapter shank for £19.  Marvellous.

I had a little play on scrap fabric to make sure I understood how to use it, and failed, so went on the net to find out because it wasn't as easy as I hoped (I found this site by a guy who makes kites with all sorts of useful info on Seams of different sorts), and eventually worked out that you

• don't need to iron your commercially ready folded binding out flat, in fact if you do, for some reason it won't always fold it down nicely and you'll have missed bits.  So first question - how do I get the funnel foot to operate well with unfolded tape?  Does it have to never have been folded in the first place?
• need to hold the top edge of the tape right up at the highest point of the funnel, but even then with the foot/funnel angle adjusted as far as it can go one way or the other or in the middle, I didn't seem to be able to get the sewing line as close to the inner edge of the binding as I'd hoped.  Second question - do I need to hold the tape a bit lower down the funnel?
• can't do a neat folded over finish using the binding foot, you have to finish using a normal foot. Third question - how on earth does one get a neat finish?  Pics of my finishes below - not neat but best I could do....

This one is a bit parlous, the staystitching is showing underneath, but seems to be holding...  If it doesn't last, I'll handstitch an extra bit of binding over it later for them.

This one's better, but a bit lumpy.

And my binding foot looks like this...

All help and tips gratefully received!

I've bought two job lots of 1" bias binding, one ready folded, one not, and whilst I anticipate being able to successfully bind those sizes without using the foot, I'll need to use the foot for thinner binding, and I really need to know how as I'm not getting very far with just practising!

Check out what everyone else is doing (hopefully with fewer difficulties than me) at Judy's Patchwork Times

Design Wall Monday - Another unfinished project...

I've temporarily taken down the scarily liberated log cabin stuff, as I want to think a bit more about the various suggestions.  Also, the table has been full of non-sewing equipment and I had to put the machine away, so I picked up a handsewing unfinished project for this week...

I started this one in the 1990s!  It's paper pieced and handsewn diamonds using sample book fabrics kindly donated to me by my then secretary (a lovely lady called Anne) whose husband was involved with the Swiss firm Joseph Offeln - the patterns are flowers, vegetables and stripes (you might need to click to enlarge to see this).  Unfortunately, I don't have much more of it in my stash, just oddments diamonds ready papered, and a 3/4" pile of the dark green ready cut out.  So, what now I ask myself?

I remember I was pieceing them to see how many variations you could get with one patterned one plain, and that's by no means exhausted.  I've just spent the last few evenings sewing the various components I'd already done together and finishing others.

Should I keep them all together, find some more similar vintage fabrics from my stash (or mum's I must remember to ask her if she has any of this stuff left...) and make a king size quilt and use them as medallions?  Split them into 3 flower medallions, two vegetable and one stripes and make 3 separate items? Or separate them all and make something a lot smaller in multiples?

All suggestions welcome.  Again I'll probably end up taking it down and thinking about it for a while.

I've got lots of other stuff I should be doing - maybe working on the liberated log cabin instead, or maybe the sewing 'favours' I said I'd do for friends (I've just been & bought a binding attachment for my Bernina as the fabric pieces/ sofa protectors I've been binding for a friend frayed so much and I'm fed up of washing it and finding it's not caught and it doesn't look good if you oversew it), or maybe the trust law studying I should be doing, or maybe more clearing out and decluttering of my house.  Or even the prototype products I'm thinking of making and selling (more of that in future weeks blogging). 

Adding to the list of things I'm getting bored of, is listing stuff on ebay.  Have done some of mine, and most of my parents (they're moving soon).  One joyous moment was finding these chairs in the cellar again.  Having thought I didn't want them, I'm now wondering if I really want to sell them after all....  so they've not been listed yet.

They're 1960s originals, I've got 4, but only 2 original covers. They're huge but gorgeous, called Krokus Easy Chairs by some long gone Swedish firm called Ulferts Fabriker in Tibro.  One weird thing is you can usually find a picture of anything and everything on the net - but not of these! It appears they are unique, but if anyone has ever seen anything like them before, I'd love to hear!  The same with a 1960s egg shaped table lamp I have listed - I could only find one pic on the net. Just one! Bizarre!!

If I keep them, I'll be making new covers which is going to involve some pattern-making and brain-strain! and those will be up on the wall for a while...

Check out what others are doing on  Judy's Patchwork Times blog. 

PS Yikes, I've just read Judy's Design Wall post - she wants us to post something that's been up since last week and had progress on!  I don't work that fast, it can take me weeks of looking at it and thinking to move on and have 3 or 4 that I take turns to pin up...  Oh well, I suppose as long as I stick to those 3 or 4 I'll be ok...

Design Wall Monday - March Block Lotto's leftovers

Judy at Patchwork Times hosts a Design Wall Monday, I've been lurking for a month or so looking at the many and varied Design Walls posted, and have been inspired to make myself a Design Wall (by covering the shelving I use for craftstorage with some polycotton sheeting), and for the first time actually have something in progress that isn't a Block Lotto entry.  Just inspired by it.  So I thought it might be fun to join in.

Sophie of Block Lotto set us Liberated Log Cabin with Attitude this month in cool, bold & scrappy.  Being inexperienced I had a lot of bits left over, including the trimming triangles, so I made 9 blocks of bits and then a really big log cabin block for the middle, which isn't finished.  I need more blocks for the edges, at least 3 maybe 7, I have enough bits, the difficulty will be getting them scrappy as I won't have the trimmed triangles to start me off (unless I make some).

I am wondering whether I should make 3 scrappy for the bottom and 4 liberated log cabin for the corners (which will tie into the middle).  And for sashing maybe the bright turquoise batik rather than black or white - but first I'll need my calculator back, I left it at a friend's by accident at UK tax return time and haven't seen her since...