LTP = long term project

Over the last few Christmases, Santa kindly gave me these Quilt Builder Card Deck boxes. They are sets of cards each with a quilt block on them in various sizes and the sizes and shapes you need to cut out to be able to make the blocks. I decided it was time to use the decks so I made a start. I've completed the first box and am about a third of the way through the second one. I'm not doing them with any goal in mind other than having a collection of blocks ready for when I get the urge to make a quilt - or 6!

Here's what I've made so far:

I plan to just keep going until I've finished at least the 3 "ordinary" boxes. I will get around to the Christmas blocks too but I might be more picky with those. We'll see.

May - the month of the skirt ... and other things!

I started off May by making another Rivi blouse from Chalk and Notch. This is made with the other side of the downie cover I talked about in last month's post. Don't you just love the way those stripes make the blouse so fun? I do!

Next I made a poo bag holder for Jo - or is it for Tilly?? The one she was using was looking the worse for wear so it was an easy job to make another one.

Talking of things looking the worse for wear, my two main pincushions were definitely looking tatty. I dug back through my blog and found I'd made them in 2017 so, considering they are used every single time I sew, there was definitely no shame to them! Here's what they look like now. I used some sewing fabrics and made a 4 patch for both of the tops. They are already in use!

I decided I wanted to make myself a tiered skirt but didn't have a pattern and didn't want to pay for one. Have you seen the price of sewing patterns these days? Goodness me, they're so expensive!

Anyway, I had a tiered skirt in my wardrobe that I'd bought a couple of years ago and I liked the length of it - 30" approximately. So, I decided I'd make mine with 3 tiers of 10". I did some measuring of my waist and calculated what I'd need for each tier by doing some sums. (Once a mathematician, always a mathematician!)

After a lot of gathering and stitching and elasticating of the waist, this was the result. Oh my goodness, I LOVE it!

In fact, I loved it so much, I made another one.

And then I made another one. The colour of this one is more accurate in the photo of me wearing it!

The skirts are really comfy to wear and I'm really happy with all of them. The first and the third one are made using fabrics I bought in Canada last summer and the black floral one is fabric Jo gave me for my birthday.

A month of fun sewing again for me. 😊

2 quilts and 4 turtles!

I made 2 quilts and 4 turtles in March. Weird, I know, but let me explain!

First I had quite a few 12½" squares in my odd blocks box so I got them out, worked out how many more I'd need to make a quilt and got to it. I used a green sheet for the sashings and binding and some yellow squares for the cornerstones. This is the resulting quilt. A real hodge podge but that makes it more interesting to me!

I didn't have enough of one fleece for the back so just joined 2 pieces of different fleeces together. It used up odd bits and is just as cosy, if not more so, than if it had only been one piece! More scraps used up - of fleece and of fabric! Yay!

Now, the story of the turtles. Jo asked me if I could make her a floor turtle. "A what", says I? Apparently, it's a circle of towelling on the bottom with either plain fabric or patchwork on the top with legs, a head and a tail. You put it on the fllor, stand on it (with one foot) and wipe up any spills or wet doggy paw prints without having to bend down. I looked at the photo of the one she showed me and decided that I could most definitely make her one. So I did! My hand is their for size reference!

Of course, one is never enough so I made another ...

... and another ...

... and another. I decided that 4 would do for now. Thankfully, Jo likes them - and uses them regularly! Yay! More scraps used up - this time of fabrics and old towels! Yay!!

Next, I decided I wanted to make another scrap quilt like the one I showed in this post. This time I used a rust sheet for the centre strip of each block and the sashings and binding. I quilted it using the QAYG (quilt as you go) method which allegedly takes less time than quilting the "normal" way but, you know, I am not convinced that's true. Anyway, no matter, the quilt turned out very well, in my humble opinion!

On the back, I used up some 8" squares I had in my stash. I didn't have enough of the rust sheet left so I used the rest of the green sheet I'd used in the first quilt for the back sashings. I love the back too!

So that's even more scraps used up and the 2 sheets I used for the sashings and lots of little bits of bump for each block's quilt sandwich. Yay!

I am delighted with all the makes most especially because I used a LOT of scraps! Still plenty more to go but that's part of the fun of my hobby! 😊

February's makes

I started the month with a quilt finish. This is the "square in a square" block which is one of my favourites to make. The centre squares of each block are 4½" squares and each finished block in the quilt measures 9½" which means it came together quite quickly.

For the backing, I joined 2 navy starry fleeces together which makes the quilt lovely and soft and cosy.

As it was coming up to Emily's 9th birthday (!!) and there would be a box winging its way to Canada, I thought I'd better get my act together and sew the mini quilts which the girls had drawn when we were visiting last July. This is Emily's drawing:

I added another row to the top and bottom to make it a square and then made it up using 2½" squares. OMG, I LOVE it!

I wrote a simple label on the back using a laundry marker.

Isla's drawing was slightly different. It started off (in the centre) as a trip around the world but I think she got bored at the idea of colouring all the squares and deviated from that plan.

I used strips instead of lots of tiny square - I would have had to use 1½" squares to get it to be the right size and that was just not going to happen. OMG, I LOVE this one too!

And the label on Isla's.

The girls have the quilts now and they love them too. Yay! There was talk that they might do some more designing. Bring it on!