WOYWW 720

 YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS!

Wow, that was one quick week! It was jam packed, I only blinked and it's Wednesday again....

I have been doing another string quilt on and off:

I'd kept four old shirts from my menfolk - they'd seen better days (the shirts that is, not my boys!) and I had a happy hour with my rotary cutter...

I added some spotty from the stash as well.

Whizzing the blocks through...

Binding like a boss! That was the name of the tutorial by MerryMabelMarket on Youtube, it really helped.

And finally...

Ta Daa! It has quite a different feel to this one but I like it just as much.

My friend Helen came over for a natter and craft session:

We were gussying up some tags...

Not high art but we had fun!

I had such a good time last week catching up with old friends from Wiltshire who were staying for the week at a holiday park not too far away. There weren't many awkward silences! The weather wasn't the kindest but we got onto 'my' beach and battled the wind and rain down the harbour too:

It was a bit more sheltered by the lighthouse but not much!

I think the look on River the dog's face says it all really! We soon saw sense and spent a happy hour in the Harbour Lights Cafe. It was so good to see Alex again, we share the same off the wall sense of humour and make each other laugh a lot - in the 25 years we've known one another that hasn't changed!!

Have a good week everyone, enjoy your crafting xxxxxx

WOYWW 719

 STILL GOT THE BLUES FOR YOU....

Today's lyric is from a song by the dear departed Gary Moore which is in my Top Five Favourite Songs.. You'll see why straight away!

I finished off the squares for the Blues string quilt and had a happy five minutes laying them out on the landing.

I didn't have enough bias binding left so made my own border from some navy and white spotty from the stash - the walking foot is earning its keep!

Ta-daaah! Though it looks a bit wonky in this pic, it's actually very regular in shape. I like it, very vintage looking.

On Monday LynneCrafts and I had a video catch-up:

Nice Twiddler Lynne, love the bright colours! I was starting a baby blanket with the variegated yarn in the basket - I didn't get very far tbh, too much chatting! How did you do Lynne? Needless to say 90 minutes whipped past covering everything from Lynne's upcoming book to how much dinner I cooked from the solar panels and battery (I'm a proper solar nerd now *grin*)

That's it today, short and sweet - I have friends staying so am pretty busy, my commenting may be late this week so apologies in advance. 

Enjoy your crafting and have a great week! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 718

 WHEN IT'S SPRING AGAIN I'LL BRING AGAIN

TULIPS FROM AMSTERDAM...

Ok, hands up - how many of you sang Hamster Jam from the lyrics above?! That song reminds me of the radio at the weekend in the 60s - it always seemed to be on together with 3 Wheels on my Wagon and many other 'hits' lol!!

There's a reason for my meanderings though and it's this:

I was having a sort out of the squares made so far and all the colours seemed to coordinate.  I've been knitting recently as crochet upset my thumb (arthritis) and I've quite enjoyed it. Using up odds and ends of yarn to get another blanket under way.

A big Thank You to our lovely Twiglet who sent me a sheet to cut up for quilting squares, it was much appreciated and didn't last long before facing the rotary cutter!!

I was passed on some odds and ends of fabric recently, there wasn't enough to make a few glasses cases etc so they were cut up into strips.

Sorted into lengths - the colour range is a lot softer than the brights I've been working with recently.

Production line going well...

..to the final iron and trimming up. It's a more vintage feel don't you think?

Just having a play with the layout, there's a few more squares to finish off first. I rather like the quieter tones, it makes for a different feel.

I might continue making a couple more of these quilts, it's mindless stuff really but I am really enjoying working with the colours! So my desk might be the same old same old for a few more weeks yet.

Hope you're having fun and enjoying the crafting! xxxxx

WOYWW 717

 FOR OUR LINES WILL ALWAYS CROSS

LIKE PATCHWORK ON A QUILT

I do like a palindrome number - 717 - that's an amazing total of desky snooping isn't it? And each and every one offers support, inspiration, sharing and friendship all for free *sending hugs*

More quilting this week, I've done two and have enough scraps for a third. I needed to cut out more white squares first:

I found an old white sheet at the bottom of the stash box and had just enough for 20 squares, all gone now though, I'll have to look for another one in a charity shop or something.

I also had a quick sort out of the strips before I started, OCD maybe but it saves a lot of grief and wasted time when selecting the correct length of fabric needed next!

I do ten squares at a time, I've chained them through the machine and snip them apart before ironing. I do the numbered strips technique and then the border. I had a walking foot as a Christmas present and it is just brilliant for sewing things neatly when there's a few layers!

Walking in action!! And I've used pins. blimey, who is this woman? Lol!

And before you know it:

The navy border....

And the red! I got 5cm wide bias binding from ebay just cos it's a quick cheat.

I have to say I enjoy making the squares a lot more than the quilting/border (a bit like enjoying knitting but not the sewing up!) but I definitely will have another go in the future.

Hope you all have a marvellous week, the weather has just been so uplifting, blue skies and spring flowers make me happy! 

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WOYWW 716

 WHO PUT THE COLOURS IN THE RAINBOW?

It has been a full week that's for sure - we've had solar panels installed on our house roof and so scaffolding and workers have meant a bit more upheaval. I've still managed to find time to craft though!

One top tip from MerryMabel was to label each row of the blocks with numbers and then you'd never have to remember what went where a gazillion times (been there, got the t-shirt!)

It saved a lot of time when making the rows up.

Labels in action, lol! I got some extra wide cotton in plain colours for the backing:

Purest green! (Little joke there for Blackadder fans!)  I decided I didn't want white for the backing as the quilts are probably going to a local hospice.

Two quilts folded to show you the backs as well as the fronts. I'm waiting for some extra wide bias binding to be delivered to do the borders. 

I also made a couple of peg bags to get ready for selling, they look so good but are the quickest thing to make - very satisfying!!

Love this fabric a lot xx

And I remembered why I prefer crocheting stripey blankets when sewing up squares....sigh

Some knitted squares were donated so I crocheted a few more to make up the numbers, luckily I had a good range of complementary colours in my stash and finished it off with a navy border. I sat at the kitchen table to do this as I had a slight accident with a leaf of the dining table - I was using a heart punch, pressed too hard and broke the planks!! I don't know my own strength *cough*  We need to find someone with good glue and lots of clamps lol!! Oops......

Hope your crafting isn't quite as dramatic as my attempts, enjoy whatever it is you're getting up to! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 715

 TRUE COLOURS ARE BEAUTIFUL LIKE A RAINBOW

The lyric sums up this week's offerings - I'd put on sunglasses if I were you, it's going to be a bright one!

My bro and sis in law came to stay for a couple of days and Jill and I managed to grab a couple of hours' crafting:

What is it about paper? When I'm dealing with fabric my desk is always relatively tidy but papercrafting seems to end in chaos! I think we got everything out of every box.

I'd bought some cheap tags and had fun prettifying them up. Those die cuts were from Shaz Silverwolf a few years back, so I thought of all the fun we had with her.

I did some stamping too, not high art exactly but I enjoyed myself! Jill made a lovely card but I can't show it cos someone might read my blog.

And then there was the string quilting! I have really enjoyed it as it requires no precision whatsoever, my sort of crafting *grin* Neet asked why it was called string quilting, I have no idea - maybe the strips are called strings in the US?

Anyway I watched a very useful tutorial by Merry Mabel which helped speed up the process:

Basically you do the first step on each of the blocks required so here I've ironed the first two strips on and am just chaining them through the machine. You snip them apart, open up the strip and iron it then put the next one on and repeat.

At first I'd sorted the strips into widths but that didn't work, so I resorted them into different lengths and that was much better. I do choose the next strip roughly on colour but don't stress about it too much. And before you know it, there's a square of backing fabric completely covered in strips:

This is about as random as I can get! You then trim it down to a 10" square:

Which instantly makes it look better! Then you put four together:

And this is when you see that precision doesn't matter - hooray! It's just a kaleidoscope of colour *happy dance*

I won't put batting in this, just a backing fabric with a border of something - it's going to be a big lap quilt I think. But it has been fantastic working with so much colour and has used up everything from my equivalent of Angela Radford's 'Exploding Box'!!

It would make a good jigsaw eh?!

Hope you all have a marvellous week, enjoy your crafting xxx

WOYWW 714

 RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY

(AH AH AH AH AH AH..)

I like that track by the Kaiser Chiefs very much and it was the first song that popped into my mind today for reasons that will become apparent...

My neighbour has a new grand daughter and so some bunting was called for! I've become quite adept at drawing out letters back to front over the years, I think I might be challenging Julia on the scissors front in this pic *grin*

I always enjoy picking out pretty trims and ribbons...

Just seeing what looks right and swapping if necessary....

Spots seem to be the theme for little Ruby, hope she and the family like it!

I also had a session of cutting out more strips of fabric leftovers ready to start a string quilt:

It really does please me that the little pile by the rotary cutter is all that's left of a couple of metres of fabric which has yielded a fair few items for sale. I've got an old white sheet to cut into squares as a base to sew the strips onto and we'll see whether this is a form of quilting that won't make me want to throw my machine out of the window........

Short and sweet this week - hope you're all keeping well and enjoying your crafting!

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