Let's go round again

 I'm still ticking over.  The sewing, for various practical reasons, isn't proving too hard to fit in, though my laptop is in use for school almost all day, so the blogging is more of a challenge.  But look, I'm here and blogging so it's all good.

Actually I have spent more of my time in the last week reading the New York Times and the Washington Post than sewing, but that's another kettle of fish entirely.  Back here in the rural backwaters of the UK, I have indulged in a couple of partial seams, and added one vertical column on the left, one horizontal strip across the bottom.

Since I want this to be rectangular rather than square I am going to go again across the bottom before I head up the right-hand side.  Probably these triangles, though I'm not firmly decided yet. 

As an aside, I have also pieced a back and dug out enough wadding to start quilting the next top.  I'm just waiting for some threads.  Usually I work with what I have, but since I don't have any pastel shades I have had to order. Once they're there, I'm good to go.

Oops, we're locked down again...

No sooner do I get started than life conspires to make things tricky again. We are locked down and home schooling again.  I shall try very hard not to get derailed this time, though I guess, realistically, this will slow me down somewhat.  On the bright side, today I concentrated on quilting, since it is easy to pick up and put down repeatedly.  Also, I can talk/help with lessons and quilt at the same time.  Maybe this will be the year I finish all my WIPS.  Or even just a couple. That would be a pretty good outcome, I think.

I'm not giving up on the piecing just yet though.  On Monday, when it was still considered 'absolutely safe' for my kids to be at school, I added one column on the right hand side.

I have a pile of little houses, which I thought might go across the top, but I don't like them as much next to each other as I do in vertical strips, so now I'm playing with other options.

If I still like this next time, I'll sew the bits together.  

I'm also starting to ponder my scraps, in preparation for Ann's AHIQ QAL.  I have never (no, never) participated in one of these before, since doing what I am told isn't really my quilty thing. But I do love a nice string block and I know it will be okay to veer off piste if that's what I want, so I'm looking forward to it.

Even if I can't find opportunities to piece, I can definitely sneak in a moment or two to root around in the scrap boxes.

Starting as I mean to go on

I sneaked this out of the box for just a couple of hours, but long enough to add a column down the left-hand side and a wee strip across the bottom.

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...