Squared Away finished!

Finally I've finished my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt from 2018. This is my third finish for my 2019 FAL Q1 list.

I expected to have it finished months ago, but with one thing and another it got passed by. Now however it's finished: labelled, quilted and bound, and as I write, in the washing machine.

The blocks were chosen by Mari (the academic quilter) and the monthly colours chosen by Angela (Soscrappy) and posted each month from January to October last year. I made two ten-inch blocks each month. I'm not making the RSC sampler this year, but am making bow tie blocks in the monthly colours, although I haven't posted about them yet.

I quilted most with free motion swirls, and added a single line of scallop stitch with my walking foot in the border. I recently bought Wendy Sheppard's book, "Stitching Pathways"  (click to read about the book - I'm not endorsing this supplier!) and found it very helpful. I'd stitched swirls before, but Wendy's breakdown of the process really helped me to stay ahead and relaxed.

Here are two more photos after washing:

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Click on the buttons to see more quilters' work.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Sewing Room relocation: complete and RSC 2018 progress

To move my handwork (principally sewing) tools and fabric stash to another room was my goal for March.

At the beginning of the month I showed a photo of my "sewing room/spare bedroom", although by then the bed had been given away and the quilting frame had taken its place.

My sewing space was here confined to about 3.5 square metres: too small to open the cabinet completely, and with my stash in various cupboards around the flat.

This room now looks like this:

with my husband's desk in the place previously occupied by my sewing cabinet. (Notice the tiny window facing NE!)

Here's my new room, facing SW,

BIG window!

which used to be our study, and where the shelves were largely filled on the right hand side by computer related stuff, and on the left by books and files related to my work. Having worked from home for most of the last 44 years I had accumulated a lot! Sorting through it all and throwing away took most of March.

I now have most of my fabric stash here behind me when I'm at the sewing machine, along with my Bernina tool box and my scrap buckets made from scrap fabric a few years ago:

from the right of the window, next to the quilting hoop in the previous picture.

I have a good position for my cutting mat to the right of the machine, and can extend the left hand side with an extra leaf which is collapsed at present as I am not quilting at the moment. That gives me a working surface of 1.81 x 1m: luxury!

From the other side of the window (from the left in the first photo) with two shelves of handwork books - mainly patchwork and quilting, but also knitting, dressmaking and lace-making - more fabric stash, WIP boxes next to the printer, and an old metal cabinet (far left above) salvaged about five years ago from the office I was then working in, and is perfect for storing strips by size. There are still boxes and books that don't belong here, so I haven't finished sorting (and throwing away!) but it's a great improvement.

Never before has my sewing gear been so close together and visually present. I'm so happy here!

Sewing has been restricted to the last week, but I have finally made progress on quilting my RSC 2018 quilt, which was my goal for February:

and am approaching the last corner of the binding.

I'm now going to take it outside to finish the sewing on the balcony in the beautiful sunshine (back to winter tomorrow is the forecast!)

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and

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Happy sewing

Marly.

Finish Along 2019 Q1

I'm glad Sandra has published a form on which we can track our progress on the FAL projects. I completely forgot to post about one of the projects on my Q4 list in 2018; not one single post, even though I had a finish. I think Sandra's list will prevent such an oversight in future.

RSC 2018 Squares Away

My list for the next three months:

1. RSC18 quilt (Squared Away), ie layer, quilt, bind and label
2. Beekeeper cardigan: one sleeve to go!
3. On Ringo Lake: Quiltville Mystery 2017
4. Not so wee "Wee braw bag": large enough to hold a top-down sweater in the make
5. bento bag

Number 3 still needs lot of work, so maybe I'll not get it finished this quarter. We'll see! The rest should be achievable.

I'm linking up to:

Click on the button to see more projected finishes this quarter.

Happy sewing

Marly.

One Monthly Goal in December: to move my 2018 RSC quilt forward.

Patty at Elm Street Quilts invites us all to link up our goal for each month. Just one project to work on and reach a point in the process, or a finish.

Before I go any further I'd just like to return to my November goal which was a play mat for my twin grandchildren, expected in December.
 

They didn't wait for December but were born on 29 November: Roos and Kick - both old Dutch names. It will be some time before they will be playing in their play pen; for the moment they are staying in hospital; they are so tiny!

This month my goal is not to finish anything, although that would be very satisfying. My goal is to prepare my 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge top for quilting and maybe even start quilting.

This year I made the blocks for the "Squared Away" sampler devised by Mari (the patterns) and Angela (the colours). It's a long time since I made a quilt with sashing and cornerstones and didn't intend to include them here. The first two blocks I sewed together just didn't want to play nicely and the points certainly didn't match. Those bulky seams had to be separated! Hence the sashing.

And now ... to border or not to border? What do you think? I'm not a great fan of borders unless for expediency - creating extra width. But somehow the sashing seems to need to be balanced by a border. I find it hard to decide because I don't need the extra width.

Top statistics:

• 10" squares: fabric from stash
• sashing 1" wide.
• backing within the blocks and the sashing fabric: Contempo's "Color Weave" in light grey for Benartex 

I'm linking up to:

  

Click on the buttons to see other quilting progress.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC September blue and October green

We've come to the end of the blocks for the RSC 18's Squared Away sampler. Mari at the Academic Quilter has posted block instructions each month and Angela at Soscrappy has hosted the link-up. This is the last block:

Dewey Dream

As I was rather busy in September with other projects I didn't get my Squared Away blocks made, but thank goodness I've caught up now. Here are my blue blocks, only 12 days late!

Queen Charlotte's Crown

Now it's time to start thinking about the layout. I rather like the idea of an on point setting for this, but 20 is not a very useful number to work with; a 4 x 5 block rectangle would work better. I'm still thinking about this!

I shall be linking to

Click on the button above sometime on Saturday afternoon (CET)

 to see more green goodness made this month.

From a brilliantly sunny, and at least 10°C warmer than the seasonal average, Netherlands, I wish you happy sewing this weekend,

Marly.

Finish Along 2018 Q4 list

 With some degree of optimism, here is my list:

1. Play mat - already a top, but needs decision on final size, then adding borders and quilting.

   

   Play mat top, folded: it's almost all there, but for now a secret.

2. Knitting fingerless gloves from the pattern "Secret Grove" by Linaknits on Ravelry. 
   
3. Lap quilt from RSC sampler blocks, "Squared Away". The last block pattern has just been released so I need to get cutting to make it, and then put the lot together. I'm thinking of making it on point, something like this,
   
   but with two dark blue, two dark green added, and another purple, to make up the numbers!
4. Baby beanies from discarded T-shirts, from a pattern to be found at www.thelittleststudio.com.
   
   
   I'm making them for a pair of yet-to-be-born family members, but they're so simple I shall probably continue sewing them for the local maternity unit. We have enough T-shirts waiting to be cut up and repurposed.

 I'm linking to 

 

Click on the button to see more projected finishes in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange August

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge for August is orange. Mari posted new block for the Squared Away Sampler, and Angela decided on the colour.

Here are my two 10" blocks in orange and brown.

Speaking of rainbows:

This heralded the end of the heatwave yesterday. This rainbow was a complete semicircle, continuing round to fade into another block of flats about 1km. away to my right. I've never seen a complete rainbow before; they usually fade away before they get to a quarter circle.

On the weather front: the heatwave is over! Hooray! The daytime temperatures above 30°C (normal body temp is 36) are in the past. Yesterday's rain didn't amount to much so it didn't make any difference to the yellow crunchy grass.

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more orange scraps being put to good use!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Teal and aqua Squared Away.

June's colours in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are teal and aqua. These are two colours that give me problems: I have difficulty deciding if they aren't really blue, or really green. Hoping for the best I made two blocks for the Squared Away Sampler:

 This block, chosen by Mari, is called Country Lanes.

 

Further this week I added two sides to the Round Robin for the Kingfisher Quilt Bee which meets in The Hague. I took fabric with me when I was on holiday and hand-appliquéd solid circles onto a print background. When I got home I added the strip with circles to the centre block made by another bee member. More rainbow bear paws, but not mine this time!

And now I can't think how to go on! I've had lots of ideas and rejected them all. I added a 1.75" off-white strip around the other two sides, intending to add two chessboard rows. Now, however, I've gone off that idea and think I should continue the circles theme. Do you have any brilliant ideas for me? Asymmetrical is OK as the Kingfisher is part of the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild. I have another ten days before I have to pass it on. I would really appreciate some help here!

30 June: Update on the bear paws

I've decided on more circles but with a change of scale.

I'm linking up on Saturday to

so click on the button above from about midday Saturday 

[Central European S.T. (U.T.C. +2)]

to see more rainbow delights. 

Happy sewing

Marly.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018 halfway summary

Each month, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela chooses a colour and Mari chooses a block and gives the instructions for the Squared Away sampler. This month's block is Baton Rouge Square  in pink; I posted about my pink blocks here. As the RSC is running for 10 and not 12 months this year, May marks the half way point. It's time for a summary so here are my blocks so far.

 And here are my squares with wonky stars:

I just finished the yellow star, and the green one I made a couple of months ago. The others I made last year. These started as leaders and enders with 2" squares, and when I have enough of one colour I make them into a big square with the wonky star. Last year I had cut a lot of red squares apparently! Some months I just haven't accumulated enough 2" squares to make a square.

I'm liking up to:

Click on the button to view the display of RSC pinkness.

Happy sewing

Marly.

May pinks

Each month, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Angela chooses a colour and Mari chooses a block and gives the instructions for the Squared Away sampler. This month's block is Baton Rouge Square  in pink (with that name it sounds as if it should be red!).

I have done more pink sewing in the last month:

My starting block for the Dutch MQG (district West) bee round robin. I really made it at the end of April, and it's due to be passed on this Tuesday. I posted more about it here.

Soon I shall have more time for sewing as I have now finally retired. My first task, however, is to sort through, and largely throw away, my teaching materials accumulated over the last 43 years! It really doesn't seem that long. For most of that time I was working from home and visiting client companies which is why my materials occupy 4.5 metres of shelf space. Just imagine how much fabric and how many project boxes I can stash there! Even so, it feels like I'm taking my life to the paper recycling bin; so much effort went into those 4.5 metres!

Sewing has always been my hobby, and quilting since I officially retired 6 years ago. Everyone needs a retirement challenge: mine was to be patchwork and quilting. Unfortunately a few days after my "retirement" my boss asked me to return. It's nice to be thought indispensable, but I was finding the pressure increasingly difficult to deal with. Hopefully now I can pick up where I thought I would be six years ago.

I'm linking up to  

Click on the button to see more pink delights.

Happy sewing

Marly.