Scrappy Triangles Update.

After a weekend of work and some fun on zoom with Chooky and the Chookshed Stitchers  I've had two days off work, which is nice. During the zoom session I prepared a whole bunch of papers for my Lucy Blue project and even managed to sew a few pieces together. It was good to sit and listen to all the chatter while my hands were busy.

Monday I put in several hours of study and even started to fill in the question pages for marking. But as always I had set a time limit and put everything away with just a short overrun so that I could sew. I had the papers printed for part three of the scrappy triangles. 

They were fun to make and end up looking a lot like a half log cabin.

Of course I had some fun playing with layouts.

Tuesday it rained all day. There was some flooding in town, but nowhere near us, perched up on our little hill. It was very dark all day and cold too, I had the heater on and was very glad that I had nowhere to go.  I spent a lot of time with more questions on my paper and preparing evidence of my work.  I take photographs of my notes at the end of the shift and must ensure that all identifying names etc are removed before I submit them as evidence. It took a while.

As it was cold as well as wet I opted to remain in the warm sitting room once I was done, so sat with some hand sewing and completed two more Christmas ornaments. 

Very happy with that.

Today I have given myself a day off studies. 

The rain has stopped and it is a little warmer. 

 I spent some time this morning in my sewing room playing with pretty scraps.

Block 4 of the scrappy triangles project.

While I was taking photos I pulled out the rest of the completed blocks, four of each and had a little play.

It's fun to see the different layouts that can be achieved with pieces.

I tried a few different layouts.

But I think my favourite has to be this setting.

I really do like the effect of the on point squares.

I have block 5 printed and ready to go next time I'm ready to play.

And finally for today, I have been trying to get on and crochet a little each evening but it's difficult with so many snuggle tests required. 

Last night she sat on my yarn, I couldn't even finish the row I was on!

So it really is only a little each evening. But at least I'm warm. 

 

Beehive Bedlam.

Beehive Bedlam is done, complete, finished.

Tadaa!

This little bundle of somebody else's left overs has become a happy little crib sized quilt.

The batting is yet another Franken Batt.

The backing is a reclaimed cotton sheet, in a very soft grey also rather appropriately looks like it has tiny white clover leaves all over it. 

The cute Busy Bee quilt design is from Urban Elementz, a chance find, that turned out perfectly.

Another lucky find was the fabric I purchased for the border and binding.

The cutest little bees. The golden yellow border draws out the tiny yellow bees in the beehive squares.

And here it is on my old rocking chair on the deck.

It's a very damp and grey day here, so no pictures in trees today, just a quick snap on the chair and another of the sodden grey sky and the bare trees, 

oh, and the bird feeder.

And then back indoors.

The birds have been very busy at the coconut, enjoying the fat balls I put out for them.

I only feed during the winter months.

Today it is sparrows who are visiting, what a quarrelsome bunch, so much noise, they take flight if I go near the window to try and snap a picture. 

*

I'm off to work again today, but before I go, I have some new to me software to play with.

I scored a Copy of Electric Quilt 7 on a NZ Quilters facebook page. 

I got an email from EQ this morning confirming that the license is now mine and I can install on to my computer, so I'm off to play.

Does anybody else have this software?

Got any tips?

Churn Dashing.

My days off this week have been quite productive. I got this months instalment of Chooky's Churn Dash Along all sewn up and the first side of the sashing is also on.

I'm loving the blues and yellow, but I'm still undecided on the corner stones.....

I'll figure it out.

This morning was all about the bees.

Beehive bedlam as Tony calls it is now three quarters quilted.  If I applied myself, I could probably get it finished today, but I've decided I want to sit down for a while, with my feet up. Maybe I'll make some more Christmas ornaments, or maybe I'll prepare some more Lucy papers.

Back to work tomorrow, and I promised myself that I will do some study in the morning, maybe after that I'll reward myself with something fun. 

 

Busy, busy bees.

As you know, the squirrel kept me busy with another one of those small projects on Sunday. I was busy with a bundle of someone else's scraps. When I blogged I had all of the squares sewn together, but needed to shop for border fabrics. I left you with the knowledge that I was going shopping with Debbie on Monday.  It wasn't one of our all day trips, just a quick drive up the road and inland a little to the Pin Tin in Geraldine. They really do have a great selection of fabrics. Sadly not the greatest website for online sales though.

Anyhoo! It was Debbie who found the bee fabrics, tucked away on a bottom shelf. I had taken along my top so far and we set about pulling fabric bolts from the shelf and trying them out.

I'm sure I tried nearly all of them before settling on these two. The cream for a border and a lovely honey gold for the binding.

After a quick rummage through a couple of op shops (No lucky finds this time). We had some lunch and it was almost time for me to head off to work.

So it was this morning before I was able to add some borders.

Those lovely golden bees look perfect.

And to continue the bee theme, I had already found the cutest bee pantograph/E2E pattern at Urban Elementz. (Not affiliated, just liked what I found on Pinterest and followed the link).

It's called busy bees. By printing it a little smaller than 100% I was able to make the pattern small enough to fit in to the throat of my machine.

It is a smaller tighter pattern that the previous two I have tried and some of my earlier bees are a little wobbly as I learned the pattern, but by the time I was on to my second and third rows, the muscle memory was helping and my cute bees were buzzing out of my needle and on to the fabric. 

As you can see, I've used a grey fabric for backing. It is not bee themed, but it was in my drawer and was big enough, so it was put in to use, along with a long thin batting off cut that I was able to cut in half and sew back together in to a franken batt that is just wide enough.

The bright sunlight pouring through the windows of my quilting room help to show the quilting beautifully. 

I've been busy, busy, busy since I hopped out of bed this morning, so now I'm going to rest with my feet up for an hour before heading off to work.

My machine is all turned off for now, I'll quilt some more tomorrow. 

Enjoy your day. 

Weekend round up.

Sunday evening always seems to come around too soon.

But I've had a good weekend, played some and rested some too.

Friday was a day of rest, I did very little I must confess. I read some blogs and surfed Pinterest and that was pretty much it, except for a little crochet.

I finally got around to getting a better image of my current project.

I made this one a few years ago, but decided that it needed to be bigger, so I've been adding more rounds in rainbow colours, with rounds of cream in between. 

It is a lovely cosy project to work on, especially on these cooler days and evenings.

On Saturday I zoomed with Chooky and the girls. I was late joining in, having gotten confused about times and time zones!

But once I finally joined in I made great progress. 

Preparing blocks for the outside edge of the Lucy Blue quilt. 

EPPers will know that although it sounds like I'm nearly done, in reality I am not. There is still a long way to go.

Sunday morning I pulled out my scrap bin and sorted more fabrics for the Scrappy Triangles.

(The squirrel pulled something else out too, more about that later).

I know it looks like I have missed corners here and there, but really I haven't.

I've trimmed the blocks a quarter inch beyond the cutting line.

I have four pages of block three printed and ready for next time.

Then Joe arrived with the children. It is Miss Charmaine's birthday tomorrow, she will be six.

Poor wee soul is not well though, she seems to be coming down with a cold or flu. She had a temperature and rosy red cheeks. (Not Covid, she had that just a few weeks ago).

Sadly they only really stayed long enough for her to open her gifts and for her cheeky little brother to impress Grandad with his knowledge of the word 'No' and his extensive knowledge of how to make dirty marks on clean windows.

LOL

Poor Grandad, he only washed the windows a couple of weeks ago.

After they had left I got busy with the latest squirrel project.

In one of my big bags of other peoples scraps there were some bundles of fabric that obviously belonged together, the recent Flutterby Bunnies was one such bundle. This time, it's bees.

Honey bees and their hives were bundled together with some cream and a natural coloured fabric.

All precut in to five inch squares.

A quick shuffle on the floor and it was time to sew them together.

In less then an hour I was hunting for a border fabric in my stash, but it looks like I'm going shopping.

And finally, no outdoor photography today, but old man tree gets a mention anyway.

The late afternoon sun shone through his branches and cast their shadows in to my room.

I loved the way the light and shade looked on the quilt top while I was pressing it. 

While I have been tapping away here, I've also been messaging with Debbie. We're going shopping tomorrow morning, I can look for a border fabric.

And just like that, the weekend is over. 

I hope yours was as good as mine.