Rainbow Bow-ties

My project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at Soscrappy, this year has been bow-ties. I read yesterday that the colours for October are black, grey, and brown, so I decided to call it a day (or perhaps that should be year) and have started putting the quilt together.

webbing in progress

the last two columns waiting their turn

I first sewed all the blocks in column 2 to those in column 1. Then I added the blocks in column 3, and so on. On the table are all the blocks up to and including column 7 joined with vertical seams.

On the design wall are columns 8 and 9, here still waiting for the last two blocks but otherwise ready to be added to the rows on the table.

The next step will be to sew the horizontal seams which should go easily as the blocks are already attached to one another.

Ha,ha, look what I just found:

The last three blocks in each of the last two rows have somehow got twisted! Unpicking in progress! I hadn't noticed until I got to that point with the next column. One block I can understand, but six!

I'm joining:

                                      

Click the buttons to see more patchwork.

Happy sewing 

Marly

"Circles" is finished!

Circles is finished?

Well, it's labelled, quilted and bound, which usually means finished, right?

I made these blocks several years ago in the Quilty 365 project, hosted by Audrey at Quilty Folk: one circle each day,  appliquéd onto one square. I chose to do needle turn appliqué, which I'd never done before. Finally I've got 180 circles together in a quilt. I stopped making the blocks in the middle of August that year, and have got a box full of appliquéd circles waiting for another project.

But now, every time I look at this quilt I think it needs quilting inside the circles. I started quilting it that way last year, but it was impossible to get through the "made fabric" with all it's seams.

This circle, for instance, has twenty one different pieces of fabric in it. Twenty one in a 3" circle! What was I thinking?!

I've thought that tying those circles that are too thick to quilt might be a solution. I'll give it a try. If that works I'll quilt the flatter circles by hand.

The blocks might look rather strange: some tied, some quilted. Too bad!
Not just yet, however, I have to wait for the inflammation in my right shoulder to subside.

Meanwhile, it's a finish!

At the end of the week I'll be linking to

 Click on the button to see more finishes.

 Happy Sewing 

Marly

October's goal

September left without my realising it and without achieving my goal to quilt my "Overlapping Octagons" for the UandU QAL.

All was going well until inflammation in my right shoulder put pay to machine quilting two weeks ago. Although the shoulder is less painful now and I'm sewing again, I haven't dared to try quilting. It was probably heaving the quilt through my machine that caused the injury in the first place.

So far I have quilted about two thirds of the vertical blue sections. I've been using a quilting ruler and foot for the first time and there are lots of imperfections. I can live with them; you have to start somewhere! Once the vertical sections are finished I can start on the horizontal and then the red squares; let's hope I get this finished this month!

My goal for October is to finish my Overlapping Octagons.

I'm linking up to

 

Click on the button to see more October goals.

Happy sewing

Marly.

The last purple bow ties

September's rainbow scrap colour is purple. I showed a few blocks earlier in the month, but made these three this afternoon, at the eleventh hour, as it were. These were three of my haul from the "uglies" table at a quilt bee a few months ago.

I think the top right will have to be on the border between pale blue and purple in the final layout; it hasn't yet decided what colour it really is! I haven't seen October's colour yet, but I think I have enough bow ties, and I'm starting on the layout.

Have a good week!

I'm linking to
 
Click on the button to see more purple scrappiness.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Some purple bow ties

Angela posts a colour every month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this month's colour is purple. I thought last month's colour would be purple, so while I was waiting for Angela's post I jumped the gun and made one at the beginning of August. It may even have crept into one of last month's posts, but here are all my purple bow ties so far; both for August and September!

I wasn't planning on doing brown or black, but I do need to make a few more blocks to get a satisfactory layout, so maybe grey will creep in next month too, as well as some of the colours I've already used.

I have another scrappy project on my design wall at the moment:

No planned colour scheme here!
4.5" shoo fly blocks for the 2019 Leaders and Enders challenge organised by Bonnie Hunter. If you're interested in the challenge, or just in the concept of leaders and enders click here.

Another scrappy project that's just come off the wall:

Overlapping Octagons is ready to be layered and quilted.

I'm linking up to 

      and  

Click on the buttons to see more scrappy delights.

Happy sewing

Marly.

One Monthy Goal for September

September is a short month, so here's a short post with my goal.

inspired by a quilt (In Dialogue with an Anonymous Quilt, p.18) in Roderick Kiracofe's book "Unconventional and Unexpected, American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000"

Overlapping Octagons should become a quilt. This is my first make at the Unconventional and Unexpected QAL hosted by Sujata Shah.

Quite a few other things are in progress, so here's hoping!

I'm linking to:

Click on the button to see more September goals.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Circles quilt

  My goal for August was to make progress in hand quilting my circles quilt.

 I've made progress in quilting round about 160 of the 180 circles. 

Ready to quilt on the lavender coloured background yesterday evening.

Most of the circles left to quilt are along the edge, where there isn't enough fabric to use the frame.
I've discovered that I can quilt without the frame if I stabilise the the outside edge of the quilt with big machine stitches first. That's enough to ensure I don't pull the fabric sideways while sewing.

Still to do before this is finished:Add the label

1. Quilt the last approx. 20 circles
2. Bind.

I should manage that in the next week or so. Now to choose a WIP or UFO for next month's goal!

I'm linking to

 Click on the button to see more goals achieved.

Happy sewing

Marly.