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.

Finished: play mat

                


This is my second finish for Finish Along 4th quarter .

Play mat finished: washed, bound ....

... labelled and delivered to the parents. Backing is Ikea heavy-weight furnishing fabric (looks a bit like duck cloth)

On both my OMG November and FAL list for the 4th quarter I had this play mat:

play mat freshly washed and dried, but not yet bound.

I asked on 1 August if anyone knew by what percentage a quilt shrinks and Sandy kindly pointed me towards quiltingboard.com  There I found one useful answer: 10%. Remember that folks: if it's absolutely imperative that your quilt is not too small, and not excessively too big, add 10% (ie one-tenth) to the length and width,or a bit more to be on the safe side! There were other answers too, mainly relating to how intense your quilting is which is also a factor of course. I wasn't going to quilt intensely because the request was for something soft so went for 10% extra.

I added 10% to length and width by adding more generous borders than the play pen measurements would suggest.

not bound but provisionally finished with a wide zig-zag stitch.

However, I thought it might well shrink even more than 10% so rather than have to take off the binding to add some extra quilt by QAYG, I zig-zagged around the edge, and washed the mat together with the binding fabric. It has shrunk, and by slightly more than 10%, but has finished within the margins I'd set, just!

Fabric:
Top: Assorted fat quarters, some from stash
Backing: Ikea furnishing fabric with a black/white/pale green design of barns
Thread: Aurifil 50 wt in pale grey (2615)
Statistics:
base of play pen:                      28" x 48"               71  x 122cm
mat before washing at 40°C:   33" x 53"               84.4 x 135cm
mat after washing at 40°C:      29.75"x 48.75"      76 x 126cm

I'm linking up to TGIFF on Friday,
to Patty at Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal at the end of November ,
and at the beginning of January to Sandra at Studio Sew of Course for Finish Along 2018, 4th Quarter.


             

Click on the buttons in due time, to see more progress and finishes.

Happy sewing

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.

OMG October goal: play mat

My goal is to finish the play-mat for my twin grandchildren expected in December. Since yesterday it looks like this:

These are all six inch squares; some plain fabric but also HSTs and hourglass blocks. I'm going to use a double layer of wadding and back it with a sturdy curtain fabric from Ikea. (Fingers crossed the fabrics all shrink at the same rate!)

I shall be keeping the quilting simple on this one: straight lines following a quarter of an inch away from the seams, and continuing the diagonal seams across the plain squares. When it's finished and handed over to the parents I'll show the whole thing! I hope before the end of October!

I'm linking up to

 

so pop in over there to see more October goals from around the world.

Happy sewing

Marly.

August goal reached

 

My goal for August was to start cutting and sewing the pieces for a play mat for twins due in December.

I started the month with this:

 In the meantime I took out this:

Green, even though it looks grey here! The top photo is a better colour.

and replaced it with this:

A much brighter pale green.

And have so far sewn about two-thirds of the pieces:

"Sewn" isn't right in all cases, as some of them are staying as 6" squares! I just sewed the HSTs and an hour-glass block.

I showed the parents what I had on the design wall and they were happy with how it's going. Now I just have to finish the blocks and decide on the layout. The top might even be finished this month.

I'm sorry I can't show more: it has to remain something of a surprise!

I'm linking with

 

Click on the link to see more August goals met.

Happy sewing

Marly.

One monthly goal August

 
 
My goal for August is firstly to find some yellow & white or mint green & white striped fabric to match these:

fabric choice made by the parents

and then to start cutting and sewing the blocks for a play-mat for twins expected by a family member in December. A play-pen for twins is longer and narrower than usual, approximately 1.5m x 0.8m., I think, but don't worry, I have the measurements somewhere!

I don’t wash my fabric before sewing, but wash the finished quilts so that the wadding can shrink and become puffy. I’ve never bothered to measure a quilt before and after washing, but now I need to know what sort of percentage shrinkage I can expect. Do you know? I’d be grateful if you could share your knowledge.

I'm looking forward to reading about the amount of shrinkage occurring in quilts made of quilting cotton with a 100% cotton wadding and to reading about other goals for August.

I'm linking to 

 

If you click on the button you'll find more August goals.

Happy sewing

Marly

Finish Along list 2018 Q3

I didn't finish anything in the second quarter, mainly because my sewing machine was out of commission from the beginning of May until the middle of June.

So here is my list for the third quarter:

1.  En Provence (Quiltville mystery 2016-2017)
   
   The quilting was just a little more than half done when my machine malfunctioned, now I have it back and hope to have a quilting day tomorrow.
2. Play Pen mat. I went with the parents to buy the fabric on Saturday. They have settled on the colours and the type of design. D-day is in December but I would be happy to have it finished by the beginning of October. 
3. Knitting Memory Keeper's Shawl: pattern by Paulina Karru (Linaknits.com, Ravelry). I started last week and it's a great project to do while listening to the television or sitting outside on my balcony. This is scrappy knitting! At the current rate it will be finished well before October.

Only three proposed finishes; all my other projects are BOMs etc, and not scheduled to be finished before the end of the year.

I wish everyone a productive quarter. Mine can't be any worse than the last!

 I'm linking up to:

 Click on the button above to see more proposed finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly.