Night Birds: done and dusted

Despite my best intentions the current piecing has gone back into its box for a day or two, but to my utter astonishment I find I have a finish to share.  This is my second finish of the year but we won't dwell on that for too long. Instead I shall just be feeling mighty pleased with myself for getting all the way to the end of something.  

So, in that spirit of self-congratulation,  here is the front of Night Birds,

the back,

And a tiny bit of the binding (a very old Kaffe Fassett stripe from stash)

I started this on 12th December 2018 (oh my goodness, so long ago!) and finished the piecing on 27th February 2019.  I don't actually know exactly when I started the quilting but I'm guessing maybe July this year.  Whenever it was started, I finished on Boxing Day, December 26th.  

As usual there are lots of shirts in this, some fabrics from stash, some bits from the scrap boxes.  I realise that the stamped words aren't visible in the photo above, due to the lovely sun, but they are there - a collection of words that mean evening/dusk. 

I used organic cotton wadding, quilted with a selection of perle no. 8.  As is my habit I didn't buy threads specially but used what I had that seemed to go.  

I am super happy with everything about this quilt, right down to the fact that the sun was shining on it when I took the photos. Most of all I am happy to end the year with a finish.

Kitchen sink

I know it's Christmas Eve and blog-land is pretty much closed down, but I don't want to take another couple of weeks/months off so I am blogging into the void.

I was still tinkering around with coins and medallions and I couldn't get something I liked.  Being in a "throw the kitchen sink at it" kind of mood I made some little house blocks and mixed them in.

On the right,

or maybe on the left?

Or make a few more and use them on both sides.  

It turns out I'm also adding in blunt sawtooth bits and pieces.  At least with all these bits and pieces I won't get bored!

Rusty and indecisive

I am soooo rusty.  No one to blame but myself, of course, but this is going to be a quilt of stops and starts.  

I kicked off thinking that maybe I would head towards, if not an actual medallion then something in that neighbourhood. Though this start looks more like Chinese Coins.  

So maybe this is a Coin Medallion, if that is a thing.

Maybe this?  I don't have many birds though, so maybe I won't use them all this early in a quilt.   Decisions, decisions.  Medallion?  Coins? Maybe I want another element.  Maybe it's too early to tell.  I shall try very hard to get on with it and not fuss too much.  

Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but mountains of spam to delete

I'm not going to waste anyone's time with excuses, or vows to do better.  I haven't been sewing, so haven't been blogging and the whole things makes me fed up!  Then I sign back in (that's right, I haven't even been into my email account for months) and what do I find? That's right, hundreds of spam messages.  So if what you are after is cleaning services in Dubai, or fishnet stockings, or baby clothes then clearly this has been the place to be.  If you were after quilting, then not so much.

Whilst not blogging or sewing I have continued to homeschool, though thankfully for all concerned that stopped in September when normal schooling returned.  I have also sold a house and bought a house, with only a month between these two events. 

So now here I am, working my way into a new place and trying to rebuild old routines. To which end, here's a pile of fabrics which might become a quilt.  

With reference to an AHIQ challenge which I set many moons ago, I decided that what makes me happy right now is bird fabric and that particularly mucky yellow-green colour,so that's where I have started.  It might be a bit of a bumpy start, since I am out of practice, but fingers crossed...