What I found in my boxes

I'm sitting here waiting to hear if our schools are going to be closed and wondering whether this blooming virus is going to result in extra sewing time or less.  I guess I'll know fairly soon.  

I have been rooting about and found quite a lot of fabrics that I think might go with my three shirts.  In a perfect world I would probably go out and look for another shirt, but this time I'm going to go with what I have. Probably one or two of these won't make it into the final quilt and probably I'll have to go away at some point and find something extra.  But for now, this will do.

I don't have any clear ideas, beyond hourglasses, so I'm going to make a few blocks to get myself started and wait for something to occur to me.  

Moving swiftly on

Actually, it's more like moving on after another week of procrastinating about my hand quilting, but that's another story.  

Back to the beginning I go and this time rooting around in my shirt box turned up these three.

The nice plaid on the left means that as well as yellow, purple, white and that lovely petrol blue I could search out greens, blue, grey/black, pink-y red.  That seems like enough possibilities to send me off to see what there is in my stash.

I know this will be an hourglass quilt of some variety (since that's the current AHIQ theme) but more than that I can't yet guess. 

And just like that...

This one is done (if only my quilting was progressing in a similar fashion).  I ran out of virtually all my original fabrics and the, to continue the theme, of most of my replacements, though to be fair they were only very small scraps.  If I had more I might have made this just a tiny bit bigger, but I haven't, so I'm calling it a finish.  And I'm fine with that, because I like this a lot.

Sadly I still can't get a really good photo that shows the fabrics off, but this is the best I could manage.  Maybe once it's quilted I'll do some close-ups.  

The hourglasses in this are a nod to the latest AHIQ challenge, though I am going to do something more hourglass-y next, or that's the plan.  In the meantime, though, on with the quilting.

Not even scraps now

This is officially the closest I've ever come to running out of fabric completely.  Of the fabrics I started with I am out of all but three (the light brown with a white spot, the grey/brown with the animals and flower design and the cream background with different coloured spots).  I am also down to the very last scraps of the black and white stripe.  Not even scraps left to piece of anything else, though I have a handful of strip sets still to use.

As you can see from this photo, I still have a way to go (I'm aiming to cover that last tile on the right).

Luckily all the times when I have run short before have provided good practice and I am not panicking. 

I had already added one floral into the mix and though I am reluctant to cut into any more yardage I have had a good rummage through my scraps and come up with these.

At the moment the yellow and the smaller check have not been pressed into use but the other three have.

This is the one area I've worked on that includes all the new additions.

It won't be a seamless transition, but I feel happy that the new bits sit happily enough with the feel of what I have already and should, just, be enough to see me home.  I am piecing much more carefully now, so thinking about what I need next and making for a specific space rather than putting together strip sets in advance and then playing around with them.  

Slightly optimistically I had set myself the aim of finishing this before the end of the month, but it will be done not too far into March.

A brief update on the hand quilting seems overdue too.  I am still quilting (or not) my second lighthouses.  I'm not sure why I'm not feeling the love for this as I work on it - I still like the piecing but am so not into quilting it.  However, and in my own defence, I did quilt a whole lego quilt in two months over December and January, so progress is being made one way or another.

Two more columns and bad weather

It seems like this quilt is being made two columns at a time.  That seems to be the most I have managed before running out of a) time or b) fabric.  Here's the current progress.

To get to a width I am happy with I need to cover one more floor tile, which I reckon will probably take four, possibly five, more columns.  In the normal scheme of things this would mean a finished top by the end of next week, since this week is fully occupied, but we shall see.

Currently we are more preoccupied with the weather than anything else.  We live about as close to a river as is possible - I've left the blurry edge of the window in so that you can get an idea.

We are in no danger of flooding, thankfully, so watching the river do its thing is fascinating but not scary.  To give you an idea of how high the water has been, the picture below is of the weir.  There should be seven steps but only the sill is visible, to the right.  Beyond our river is a canal, and then everything else that is under water is field.  This is the highest it has been in years.

Of course it's much worse elsewhere, but it is a reminder of how extreme weather is becoming.  

Bringing on the substitute

My fabric boxes and my ongoing project are currently not in the same place so I rooted through the boxes, pulled out what felt like they might be good options and then crossed my fingers that they would still look good when I put them with the top.

I have gone with the lower fabric, partly because I like the little touches of red and the way they echo the red already in the quilt.

 I am easing my way from the previous floral to this one by using my last scraps to piece coins that contain both fabrics - you can see a couple in the bottom right corner.  

It's entirely possible that I will need to find one more new fabric for this, though I'm hoping I might just scrape a finish without that bother.  I'll know next time.

Considering my options.

Slowly this gets bigger.  Rather more quickly my pile of fabrics is getting smaller, which is causing me a few dilemmas.

When I started today, this is what was laid out on the floor:

Currently it's only about 30" wide, so I've got a fair way to go.  I finished off the next strips on the right and then pressed on.

I don't know if you can see all the tiny little pink bits, straightening me up, but they are pleasing me greatly.  

The layout below is not at all under consideration, but when I was packing up I laid out all the strip sets I have made, to see how far short they fall of what I will need.  Quite a way is the answer.  

Initially I thought I would eke out the floral bits - sprinkle them here and there in such a way that they got me all the way over the the far side.  Unfortunately trying to do that left me mired down in a world of brown and grey, which wasn't where I wanted to be at all.  So I am going to use them as if there were an infinite supply until they are gone and then think about next steps.

I might try and find something similar.: a light floral or pink/yellow print of some kind.  Alternatively I can use the fabrics I do still have plenty of and let things get darker and moodier.  In the meantime, while I wait for inspiration,  I'll keep piecing together every last tiny bit I've got.