Magic cubes and works in progress.

My magic cubes is now a top. I really didn't think at the beginning of February that this would ever happen, but working on it was my goal for February, and see here!

This wall hanging is approximately 24 inches square. The fabric is hand-dyed poplin and Moda Bella anthracite. Now it is on the pile to be quilted. 

Also finished is my contribution to the Do Good Stitches Comfort Circle; this month's queen is Charlotte . The assignment was three navy blocks with stars in two of them; difficult, when you don't have much navy, to create the necessary contrast in the patchwork. I hope these meet the requirements.

Meanwhile I will be seriously working on this fabric collage, which is my one monthly goal for March (I've already done some fabric trials),

 

and a table runner prompted by the table scraps challenge. No photos as yet, but it will be green.

 

I'm linking to:

 

 

 Click on the buttons above to see more patchwork progress.

Stay safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

 

One Monthly Goal for March

At the beginning of January I assigned a colour to twelve of my UFOs, with the intention on working on each project during the month of that colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Yesterday Angela announced the colour for March: GREEN. So while all the rainbow challengers are sewing green fabric I'll be making a background for:

my project with the green label, a collage which I started in February last year during a workshop with Elly Prins. I used a design by Laura Heine as the inspiration.

photo: Laura Heine (from pattern booklet)

I have been thinking of creating some sort of landscape as background/frame, but now will have to make a decision. The background is my goal this month.

I also plan on adding embellishments once I have quilted the piece; I have more ideas about how to do that! The real challenge will be her face: not too silly, too mean or too angry; we read so much into faces. But I probably won't get that far this month.

My goal in February has been progressing so well that I really want to continue while I'm on a roll. It requires relatively little work to make it into a top, so I shall probably be working on that too for the next couple of days.

I'm linking to

Click on the button above to see more sewing goals

Keep safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Table scraps challenge

Almost at the eleventh hour here is my yellow scrappy mug rug for the table scraps challenge.

 

I've been making a lot of pieced hexagons lately, but this is by far the simplest design, and in all senses scrappy. I made it in record time, and that shows! Nevertheless it will function very well as a mug rug. Surprisingly I had very few yellow scraps long enough to make this from.

In March I shall start thinking about the challenge sooner, and hopefully won't resort to a hasty mug rug.

I'm linking to the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter,

Patchwork & Quilts no. 41 at  Patchwork Quilting Appliqué

and

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Socrappy.

Stay safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Monthly goal for February

 My goal for February was to work on my "Magic Cubes" which had looked like this for 5 years:

 

I have worked on it and finished the FPP.

Now it looks like this:

and, although it's not finished, I have achieved my goal. In fact I got a lot more done than I had expected and I just need to sew the blocks together. Although the pattern includes setting triangles to make the piece square, I think I may leave it as a hexagon, and use it as a table topper.

This was not as difficult as I remembered from the workshop, although the correct placement of the colours in the 12 linked triangles was quite a puzzle. I'm pleased I only needed to unpick one of them! I will probably make it again, and this time go for cubes! I seem to have beaten the FPP phobia, thanks to Leila Gardunia's "Year of Scrappy Triangles" QAL, a few years ago.

Now the question remains whether or not I will make finishing this my goal for March,  or stick to my plan to work on a different UFO each month.

I'm linking this to:

     

Click on the buttons above to see more on-going projects.

Stay safe and healthy!

Happy sewing

Marly.

One Monthly Goal February

My goal for February is to work on my Magic Cubes wall hanging. 

Photo from the pattern

At the beginning of January I made a list of UFOs and gave 12 of them each a colour code. The plan is that when the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is announced each month I will work on the UFO with that colour code on my list. This month's colour appears to be is yellow, and my yellow UFO is Magic Cubes.

I started this in a workshop five or six years ago. Unfortunately the organiser of the workshop failed to mention that it was foundation paper piecing or I would never have joined. FPP makes me nervous; I've had so many bad experiences, especially cutting pieces back to front! I chose to make it from fabric I'd dyed myself, which I consider precious and was really afraid to cut, especially considering my record on cutting for FPP. That, of course, I see now was a totally unfounded fear as in home-dyed fabric the dye is equally distributed on both sides of the fabric: there is no right or wrong side.

My colour plan

At the workshop the first action was to make Paterno templates of all the pieces as preparation for cutting.

The next stage was to colour all the pieces on a layout plan, according to my own idea, and available fabrics. Then cut them out and stick them onto another sheet of paper. I chose this colour scheme, based on the left hand photo on the pattern sheet, because I thought it gave the most 3D effect.

Now I'm not so sure!

 

That day I made pieces 1, 2, 4 and 5, and cut all the large background triangles. There is a lot to be done, and it's making me tired just writing about it!

This remains, however, my goal for this month: to work on Magic Cubes (which, in this colour formation, look more like hexagons!) whether I have to unpick or not. Whether I finish this month or not, I have to beat it somehow!

I'm linking to 

Click on the button to see more goals for February.

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly

One bead top finished!

At the beginning of January I posted about my bead blocks that I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge during 2020. My goal for January has been to work on turning the blocks into a top. I had to make a few more blocks to get the on-point layout I wanted (an odd number of rows ensures small corner triangles). 

At the beginning of the month I wrote "with any luck I'll get the blocks sewn into a top, with setting triangles". Luck was on my side: I have just finished putting the top together!

Rainbow beads

I didn't have a pattern but a memory of a block I'd seen somewhere on the Internet. The large squares were cut at 4.5", the small at 2.5" and the background strips also at 2.5", giving 8" square finished blocks. 

• Total measurement of the top = 143.5cm x 173.5cm (approx. 57.4" x 69.4")
• Coloured fabrics from stash, 
• background fabric: Kona Charcoal
• thread: both Aurifil and Mettler 50 weight pale grey

Finishing this will have to wait as my maths didn't run to calculating the final measurements of the on point setting! I can only now order backing fabric.

For the moment I can start making my January blocks for Do Good Stitches Comfort Circle. They're foundation pieced - not my favourite technique - but "in for a penny, in for a pound!"

 

I'm linking this weekend to:

           

       

 Click on the buttons to see more works in progress.

Stay healthy and safe

Happy sewing

Marly.

Shoo Fly Blue is finished, ... and a goal for January

 Happy New Year everyone!

I hope we will soon have shooed the covid pandemic into submission, and that the world has become a safer place.

My one monthly goal for December at Elm Street Quilts was to finish my Shoo Fly Blue quilt. Unfortunately I didn't finish completely, but stopped at 23:50 h. on New Years Eve.

The situation at 23:50 h on 31/12/2020! So near and yet so far!

Yesterday another 30 minutes had the last yard of binding sewn down, and finished. It is now labelled, quilted and bound! And even washed!

 

It measures 49" square, and is made from scraps in response to Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders Challenge 2019-2020. The sashing, triangles and binding fabric is Stof, basic in blue.

For the Quilting I was greatly helped by the tips given in two books I bought recently: 

• Stitching Pathways by Wendy Sheppard and 
• 25 Days to Better Machine Quilting by Lori Kennedy

From the first I learnt the importance of stopping frequently to look round and decide which direction to go next, and from the second good hand positions, and why.  I'd seen how to position the fingers on the quilt before, but no-one had ever given a reason, so I never fixed it in my memory. There is much more in both books; I still have to work through them thoroughly, and am looking forward to more improvement.     

For January my goal is to sort through my boxes of UFO's and make a plan of action for them. Some pieces will be destined to be finished as originally planned, and some to be repurposed. I am still resolved to start nothing new this year, until I've had UFO -> WIP -> FINISHED + empty boxes!

In addition, as my quilting goal for January, I hope to finish making the blocks of the bead curtain throw I was making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge last year. I have to go back to some of the colours as my scrap bins didn't have enough to make more blocks in the relevant months. With any luck I'll get them sewn into a top, complete with setting triangles. 

I'm linking to:

           

    

Click on the buttons to see more works in progress.

Stay healthy and safe.

Happy sewing 

Marly.