More cabins

I have added the borders to my dark pineapple blocks and joined up the wonky log cabins they look much better than I expected, and I've added a narrow border on them too. Also got a couple more Farmer's Wife blocks made but have not yet found out how to add pictures here!
I have had a good time making some modern blocks with tiny inserts... Pictures to follow!

Pineapple blocks and home cooked food

Having a great time with three meals a day cooked for me and homemade biscuits for morning coffee and cake for afternoon tea!
My random pineapple blocks are joined together and fabric bought for the borders.

Exciting day!

I bought myself a present today - an iPad! I now have to get to grips with it and work out how to do what I want. Hopefully I can check email while I am away but I can't find my blogger password!

This is Whirlpool and is clearly the same as yesterday's block except for the arrangement of colours.

I did manage to get the turnings all going in the right direction this time but the dark fabric is a slightly heavier weight and was tricky to press. I should choose lighter weight fabric next time for a block with so many seams.
This is probably the last one for a while as I need to go and pack up my projects for tomorrow. And have a bath... showers only where I am going!

The Stair where I sit...

Here is Lucy in stair-guarding mode. Should anyone venture near the kitchen she's at the ready!

Today I had a look at the collection of blocks that use 16 half square triangles. I was surprised to find that there are five of them, and another five that use 6,7 or 8 half square triangles in the same size so I will mass- produce some on grids while I am away at quilt retreat this week. 





This one is called "Windblown Square" and it's the first time I've made it. You have to watch out for which direction the turnings need to go. I thought I was on top of it, but still got a couple out of position.

Dilapidated

Misty, moisty morning turned into a damp and dismal day. I had a round trip to visit all three Christmas fairs, starting with lunch at Lessingham where they were raising funds for the Methodist Chapel. 

I drove across country through coastal communities that hide from the North sea behind the tall sand dunes, past Sea Palling and Waxham with it's ancient manor house and huge and famous thatched barn, through Somerton to Winterton where the girls from the friendly quilt group were raising money for the Air Ambulance and local Hospice. 

On the way I saw another barn...

not so cared for this one! Ripe for a bit of tarting up I'd say.


Then back to the village for the Catfield Christmas fair. I'd sold quite a lot of raffle tickets for their hamper raffle and 3 of them won prizes so now I have a bit of delivering to do.

On a Roll.

Lovely sunny day today so I was able to get outside for a while when the lunch was cooking and plant up some new autumn and spring flowering wall-flowers and a couple of Penstemon that I got in a sale at the Garden Centre. I also gathered up the huge pile of dead leaves that wind eddying round had left by the front door.

It was good to get out into the sun after 5 injections at the dentist to fix a tooth which has been bothering me. I am off on quilt retreat next Tuesday and didn't want to be feeling too poorly to sew!

Here is yesterday's Farmer's Wife Block, Periwinkle, and today's Jack Knife - an interesting one - and a couple of unnamed blocks that I made with the bits left over from it.

I also had an excited phone call from my daughter who had opened the box of Roman outfits in front of her class and tried a few on. Fortunately M&S size charts were right and they fit well!

My own version - again

Here are a couple more small blocks:
Ribbons and Honeycomb. 
 


I used little squares on the corners for the stitch and flip technique and cheerfully threw away the small triangles!

The second is not quite as in the Farmer's Wife book... but I didn't mind as I wanted more hexagons. Not too difficult to machine piece, you just have to remember to stitch to the junction point and then reverse, not stitch right to the end through the turnings.

Romans and Buzzards

Had to drive into the city to the wonderful Anglia Fabrics. There are two shops on opposite sides of the road. The dress fabrics on one side and the furnishing store on the other. I have been asked for help with costumes for the school play. 20 Roman soldiers skirts! For about £20 I have leatherette, velcro, elastic and tape. I was going to paint up vilene or brown paper and add several coats of PVA which would have worked fine but would take much longer... this will be quick. 

Except I now find they need 23 soldiers... in my day we told them what they were doing, now they get to choose!

Here is Buzzard's Roost:

How I thought it was the same as the Empire Star I can't imagine!
For many of these small blocks I find it easier to draw it out to size and cut out the parts to use as templates. This one I worked out  by thinking in terms of squares cut in half, or quartered.

Boxed Cat (and a new Block).

Here is Lucy in a box. Usually she is more of a stair cat, stretched out so that no-one can go anywhere in the house, especially the kitchen where her food is, without her knowing..

and here is another little block:         Empire Star which I found here               

At first I had thought it was Buzzards Roost, but it's not the same at all, so it isn't one from the book.    

But it can go in my quilt!

A Good Day

 


Last Saturday I finally received my Quilt that some of my students have made for me, using the techniques that we have covered in the first four of my Patchwork Without Pins classes. 

It was exhibited in The Norfolk Quilters show recently and was a lovely surprise. It is called "The Fruits of our Labour".

And here is the next of my Farmer Wife blocks, Spider's Web.
I was initially stumped as to how to do this one as the segments are not even.
Eventually I drew the block out on paper to size and cut out the two parts to use as patterns. I pieced a couple of strips together and cut out the larger parts then added more dark fabric and cut out the corner segments. Quite wasteful of fabric but an easy way to achieve it.

Stacking Fabrics

I am teaching a log cabin class tomorrow and have been experimenting with stacking squares and cutting lots of blocks at once using wedge shapes. It should make a pattern of rather wobbly zigzags when I put it together.

 Waste to be trimmed...

Might be interesting coloured as a Target or Bulls Eye maybe.

Of course I forgot that when you stitch all the bits back together you have quite a lot of waste to trim off, so my 10" squares trimmed down to a finished 6" size!

Trying a New Tack.

Looking at the Hill and Valley Block no.49, I had a problem finding where to start. In the end I drew out half the block to size and measured what size pieces I needed to cut. After that it was very easy, I cut the squares and sliced 'em up and stitched up the block while my cup of tea was cooling!!

The light fabric is a Moda, Coraline, reproduction of one current between 1850 to 1880.

Temperance Tree Block

Here is another tiny block from the Farmer's Wife Sampler book:
Number 95, Temperance Tree.
There are 18 half square triangles that finish to an inch so I began with two 6" squares and divided them into a 9-patch and then drew the diagonals. Stitched each side of these lines and cut on all the pencil lines to give me 18 - which then were trimmed to one and a half inches.
I made up the other part without a pattern and trimmed to size.

Didn't take as long as I expected and it's reasonably accurate.

Catching up.

Quilt show over and grandmothering achieved till next school holiday.
 Here is my little stall with toys, cards, brooches
and bookwraps. The quilt behind to draw in the visitors
and one on the table to help sell patterns.

How Hill is a beautiful house with amazing views out
over the river.
 The drainage wind pump.















The gardens are famous locally with
clipped hedges that are huge and wide
and there is a walk down through woods to a wonderful water garden.

The Autumn colours were just coming through, glowing in the sun.

And I had a good day and sold quite a fair amount!