How many tulips make a bunch?

I have been plugging away making tulips - boy are they fiddly!  I have a nice little pile of them now, though, plus a handful that are half-made.  I decided today that I will finish the ones I have started and then maybe think about starting to sew  some of them into bigger chunks.

Mostly when I lay them out on the floor I have been thinking about using the tulips singly, mixed in with the string blocks but I also like them in little rows

and in fours.

If I kept making them for long enough this might turn into a tulip quilt with strings, rather than a string quilt with tulips.  More likely I will run out of beige fabric and that will be what decides how many flowers I end up with.

Actually, I realise that's a bit misleading.  I have two beige fabrics.  Mostly I am using shirt, but there is also a biggish scrap of what might be an Oakshott cotton.  Today I have also used the light, almost white shirt with a tiny, probably red, design (yellow flower in the top right above), plus a very, very pale yellow-y scrap and another left-over piece which is white with a little beige design.  I'm just mixing all these extras in here and there for now, but by the end they may well be all I've got.  

I reckon this is the most I've made for a quilt without sewing anything other than the basic building blocks.  It means that this still feels like a project full of potential, but I also know that if I don't move on to the next stage fairly soon I may end up making bits that are not what I need.  Not enough fabric for that, so decision time is looming.

Butterflies two ways

I had hoped to take some photos for Ann and Cathy's Kaleidoscope of Butterflies link up this month, but despite chasing around the lake yesterday afternoon I have failed to get a single butterfly picture this month.  There are plenty of them, mostly Common Blues, as well as loads of damselflies, but nothing that was prepared to sit still and look pretty for me.

However, I have been disembowelling a lot of shirts these past few months and the more I do, the more I find myself noticing and appreciating the little details. It's a subject to which I may return,  I thought I'd share this little snippet from one of the shirts I'm currently using in the two-block quilt.

It was a large man's shirt and, I think, this was a detail on the short sleeve.

I am still slowly accumulating these butterfly blocks as well.  They look different every time I lay them out,  but this is how they came out of the box today. I like them.

Looking back, looking forwards

2016 was the first time I ever set down even vague quilting aims for the year ahead but it has proved to be an interesting exercise and since Yvonne is encouraging us to share our plans for 2017 I thought I'd use the opportunity to reflect and maybe lay out some tentative goals.

It has been a bizarrely productive year for me: I have completed 5 quilts, which I know doesn't sound like much to many people but is a lot for me, and made another 5 tops which are now waiting their turn in the quilting queue.  

Some of my resolutions fell by the wayside pretty quickly but the one I stuck with best was my resolve to 'green' my stash as much as I could.  I had a brief moment of panic about what the implications of Brexit would be (prices have gone up and my favourite fair trade fabric source is closing down) but apart from that I have concentrated on organic lines.  This has its disadvantages (lack of choice, especially if you don't want lots of 'look at me' prints or cute stuff) but also an unexpected upside, which is that I have definitely bought much less fabric.  I looked a lot, to start with, and then talked myself out of things, but after a bit I didn't even look.  It has also pushed me to use the bag of old shirts I had accumulated.  

The other aim I expressed that has worked for me was to keep looking for opportunities to interact with other quilters.  Last year I tried Stash Bee; this year I had a go at joining in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but gave up after about three months. I love the idea, but the reality was that my scraps just didn't seem to work - not enough of them for a start, so I acknowledged defeat.  Quilty 365 on the other hand really sparked something. I didn't imagine at the start of this year that I would spend an entire 12 months making circles, but look at the tops completed this year - there's definitely a bit of a theme going on.

So, aims for 2017:

• Work on finding rhythm.  I've been productive this year but somehow it has often felt scrappy and haphazard and sometimes downright unsatisfactory.  It's down to me to work out how to juggle things (time and space)so that this feels better.
• I will try to keep up my approach to fabric buying.  I can't bring myself to completely give up on non-organic lines, but will keep up the focus on organic, fair trade, and recycled stuff. 
• There are a couple of things I've done this year that I would like to revisit or rework.  I've thought this before and not followed up the idea, but maybe writing it here will encourage me. 
• I still like the idea of finding ways to collaborate/link up with others. If anyone out there has the inclination to play around this idea with me, do feel free to get in touch.   I wish I could find a satisfactory real life option, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. 
• Finally, I just aim to keep going, keep trying, keep recording what I do, keep learning through my interactions on this blog and by seeing what other quilters are doing.

A final note - the AHIQ linkup will happen next week, just in case some of you are still sewing.  I'm secretly hoping I might sneak a bit of time in between now and then!

A scrappy finish

So here's a quilt that I've been making but not blogging, apart from a couple of peeps at the quilting.  It was a present for a friend, who really wanted something scrappy and loved the version of this that I have on the spare bed.  

I can't remember where I first saw one of these, but I think it might have been quiltdivajulie's  Dumpster Diving.  (Update: Julie reminds me that her quilt was 'part of the "lego" craze started by Tonya Ricucci (author of Word Play Quilts and former blogger at Lazy Gal Quilts'.)

This one is 70" square.  Strips were mostly cut 1.5" but sometimes I left them at 2" rather than waste fabric.  All scrap, including the binding.

It was pieced around other projects: I tried hard to be organised and used it as a leaders and enders project,  which I've never done before.  As long as I remembered I was doing it, I found it quite an efficient way to keep these blocks ticking over.  

I started quilting it at the end of July, finished it on 14th October, handed it over on 26th.

Finally, a reminder that it's not too late to link up any improv/modern utility quilting you've been doing with AHIQ, here or on Ann's blog.

Linking up with TGIFF this week at Busy Hands Quilts, 

and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Not sure how this happened...

...but I'm binding again.

Actually I do know: smaller quilts get finished in less time.  The next one up is a whopper, though, so this may well be my final finish for the year.  

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching today.

Take a break, take a breath

I rather like the rhythm that Slow Sunday Stitching gives to my week, and this week the break from machine stitching is particularly welcome, as recent incidents mean I have temporarily fallen out of love with the latest project.  So I am focusing on quilting today.  I  am still working on the scrappy strips.  Originally I thought I would start quilting my circle quilt and just do this one on a more ad hoc basis, but I've made really good progress so have decided just to press on.  

I also finished my skirt.  Actually I finished it two weeks ago but it's taken me all this time to accept that there's never anyone around when I need a photo taken. I've resorted to photographing myself in the mirror.  The first attempt, standing on the bed, was blurry, the second, sort of squashed in beside a wardrobe door is maybe a bit better.

Without me in, it looks like this.

This is the third time I've tried this, and I still can't get over how totally satisfying I find it to know I can make an entire garment with just a needle and thread.

Slow but steady

I have finally made a back for the circles and stripes quilt, so one of my slow Sunday tasks, I hope, is to sandwich it ready for quilting.  In the meantime I have continued to quilt the scrappy quilt top. One of the funny things (for me, at least) about a quilt made of discernible blocks is that you can tell exactly how far you have got with the quilting, so this is block 12 of 70.   I will keep this ticking over once I start the circles, just trying to do a square to two each week.

I'm also expecting to finish my hand-sewn skirt today; this is the waistband going on, so very nearly there.

Bordering on a finish

I'm working hard now: both on the piecing of these circles and on my quilting.  Today I pieced another run of squares for the top, bottom and left hand side, so just the right side to go.  I'm pretty sure that will be it. 

Having said which, I laid it out with a little gap between the existing section and the new bits, so that you could see what I was adding and I kind of like that little gap.  Now I'm wondering about finding a fabric to add in there to retain in. This may be too much fiddling about for me - depends entirely when I do it - or may not look that great when I come back to it, but I am pondering.

Need to make that last strip first though.

Less square, more long

I'm still adding to my circles quilt.  I thought I was going to do the medallion thing, but after I added a row to the bottom and laid out the next column on the left hand side I wasn't so sure...

In the end I added an extra row to the bottom and am now getting ready to add one at the top.  I like this shape better.  As I add each row I am slowing moving the emphasis from mostly denim towards the blue 9 patches and the shirt fabrics.  

I'm probably still a little way off the sort of size I was aiming at, so am wondering about a border of some sort, though at the moment I don't have something specific in mind.  I'm hoping that if I have a play I might feel inspired.  Having said that, looking at the photo now I might also stop here.

Circles, crosses, squares

Making some progress on the denim.  I have spent some time unpicking (and I hate unpicking) and replacing just a few of my circles with little 9 patches.  I've also had a go at a couple of sort of X blocks.  

Now that the original chunks have been reworked and sewn together, into a piece 16 x 6, I am thinking about what next.  I have quite a lot of plain denim squares laid out, and a few more 9 patches.  Some of the plain bits might get circles, or Xs; I might add some more strips of shirt bits or some squares cut from the same shirts.  Who knows?

Finally a reminder for anyone who's making it up as they go along this month: the AHIQ link up goes live tomorrow.  Do join in and show us what you've been doing.

As well as Patchwork Times, I'm linking up today with Love, Laugh, Quilt for Monday Making.

Rethinking my circles

This is fun - I'm suddenly all excited about the denim circles again.   There's been something liberating about deciding I could start working on this now and I have been happily moving blocks around and cutting more shirt strips.  

So far I haven't made many firm decisions, except that I have sewn one or two strips in where my 9 patches are very different sizes.  Of course once you start actually sewing the seam allowances kick in, so some have ended up much smaller than they looked when I laid them out, but I like them still.  

I've also made a couple of extra little blue 9 patches and in a couple of places have taken out a circle and added one of these.  I'm thinking I will do more of this, once I can get to my stash tomorrow and dig out some blues. Looking at the photo now I don't know if this is all that clear - when everything is blue it can be a bit hard to spot the details, but not much I can do about that!

I'm also thinking about Ann's suggestion of adding some X blocks or lattice blocks (I'm afraid I don't own Cultural Fusion Quilts so I had to google these). 

Something is definitely working itself out in my head.  Hopefully I'll be able to make some more units of various sorts in the next few days and get on with things.

No scraps

At the beginning of the year I was already two months into the Quilty 365 project and, full of post Christmas enthusiasm decided I would also join in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Only one problem with that: turns out I have hardly any scraps.  I thought there was a lot sitting around, but  I use my leftover fabrics on my quilt backs so my scrap box contains mostly teeny tiny little snippets, quite a lot of which is only good for the compost/mulching the garden.  Oh well, I thought to myself, when for the second month in a row I couldn't even find enough of a colour to make some tiny 9 patch blocks, this clearly isn't meant to be.

At the same time I have to admit that much as I like my circles, I don't want to make any more, at least not of this particular version.  So maybe I can combine what I have from the two projects?

I have started playing around with the strip sets I had cut from old shirts, using them as fillers. 

I'm also playing around with the idea of having some 'blocks' that are not denim: I'm not sure if the strips are quite what I want, so I'll keep playing with that.  Maybe more little squares (though I think I would make plain ones, not use the one that I've put down here).  I did tiny 9 patches for the days that I was ill in February, (bottom left of the photo) so maybe that's the way to go.

Actually I realise I may well end up making more of the blue on denim circles to get where I want with this, and that's fine; it gives me time to think about what else I might want to do.

In the meantime I'm linking up for the first time with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

A little bit of brown

Well, the idea of the RSC may be to use up your scraps, but this month I have been scraping around trying to find enough brown bits to make even a few little blocks.  In the end I managed 3, but only by pinching a couple of bits from as yet unused yardage to make up the numbers.

Here are two:

As is my usual habit I am not using a ruler to make my squares, just eyeballing the lines on my cutting mat and hoping for the best.

Interestingly I had four brown shirts, so my strip sets were not a problem.

And I have one block combining the shirts and the squares.

At the moment I envisage that all these diverse bits will end up in the one quilt, but I don't want to put anything else together right now - let's just see how it goes as I add all the other colours.

Since I have finally done some brown bits I'm linking up with the RSC today at So Scrappy.  

And a reminder, this months AHIQ link up will go live on Tuesday, so if you are making it up as you go along, come and share!

AHIQ - getting scrappy

Last time I wrote a 'why don't you try this' post I think I scared a few people by suggesting they cut into treasured yardage, so this month, to redress the balance, I've been thinking about scraps.  We've all got them and the popularity of RSC and Oh Scrap suggests that we all want to reduce them, yet we go on hoarding the tiniest of pieces then worrying about how we should use them. So why not use them for your improv?

Now,  I know the idea of scrappy improv is not a new one: flick around the web and you can find plenty of examples of crumb blocks and 'made' fabric, sometimes used to give a modern twist in traditional designs, sometimes put together in a less structured way.  

You can sew together your scraps into strip sets and use those as the basis for something, grab a handful of scraps every time you start a quilt and work them in as you go along, use them for specific scrappy elements in a design, work small or sort through what you have and employ your bits in a clearly defined colour scheme.  The possibilities are virtually limitless.

The blue and yellow strips in the borders here were leftovers from Eden's Birds

However you go about it, a mix of fabrics can make a quilt interesting to look at, drawing the eye from one detail to the next,  creating moments of surprise for us to discover and enjoy. What's more, the challenge of making something coherent from a mishmash of bits, instead of using a well planned selection of yardage, teaches us a lot about the use of colour, placement, value, all that technical quilty stuff that makes such a difference to a successful piece.

Alternatively you could just make a dog.

Still scrappy, but a bit bigger

This week I've made another set of blue shirt stripes, but it looks pretty much exactly like the first one, so I didn't bother with a photo.  I'm saving it until I've got several months worth, then I'm thinking I might do some slicing.  I''m also saving some of my little blue squares, but I took one set and had a go at combining them with the shirts.  Looks like this:

There's lots more blue on display at ScrapHappy Saturday.  

Slow blue scraps

I have just been checking out some of the awesome projects on the ScrapHappy Saturday link up and have concluded that I definitely need to put my back into this now.  So far I have sewn my tiniest bits into little square-ish blocks and added some strips cut from my shirt stash (given my resolution to use these this year this seemed the obvious place to start).  I think I know what next, but for now I haven't got much to show for my time.

On the bright side, I love the shirt strips!

Also, I've come up with a title for the blog post that I can use for months: just substitute the appropriate colour and bob's your uncle.

Starting on the scraps

I have decided that my 'try something new' for this year will be the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so I am slowly getting my head around this idea.  For now this means digging out every last little bit of blue and discovering that I have less scrap than the overflowing carrier bags would lead you to think.  This is probably because I usually piece my backs using leftovers from the front of a quilt.  However I've got enough blues to be getting on with (even though I've been hacking into them for my Quilty 365 circles).  

I want to use up my smaller bits, so for now have been cutting wee squares and pairing them up.  I think I know what next, but need to try it out.  

I'm clearly a bit slow off the mark here, but if you check out the linky party at So Scrappy there are plenty of people already up and running!

AHIQ - square play

Since I have challenged other people to have a play, I thought I would try it too, so here's a quick gallop through what I've been up to.  I wanted to stick with squares, since they've been a bit of a theme for me in the last couple of projects, but decided to go small, mostly because there were lots of little bits sitting on the table anyway. Sometimes it pays to be a messy worker!

I started off cutting some squares, about 1.5 inches in size (you can always take it as read with me that they were squarish rather than precise and that the measurement was taken retrospectively) and sewing them into strips.  After a bit I got twitchy doing the same thing over and over, so the squares got a bit bigger and every so often I added a tiny insert.  

After a bit I had a load of little strings, like these:

I tried out various backgrounds

but ended up stitching them together into bigger pieces

then looking at some other possibilities.

I liked the pink, but went with the grey, but rotated so that the pattern ran horizontally.

Then I just threw caution to the wind (that's the beauty of play) and did some slicing and dicing:

And now it's sitting on the grey again, which I like.

This may go no further, but it's good clean fun and keeps me off the streets. 

Don't forget, this time next week is the first AHIQ linky party - you can post any thing improv; it doesn't have to be linked to the 'why don't you try this?' posts. I'm really excited to see what people have been up to.

Fiddling about

I'm still waiting for the post, but while I wait I've started sorting out some strips, with a couple of projects in mind.

If you want something a bit more interesting, head over to Ann's blog Fret Not Yourself and read her AHIQ post.