The Colour Purple

I finally made a decision!

But it wasn't a scrapper. LOL

As I was looking through my pattern files and books yesterday I came across a Turning Twenty pattern. That got the old grey matter working. For those who don't know, Turning Twenty patterns, turn twenty Fat Quarters into fast and fun quilts.

I knew I had two bundles of Purple batik Fat Quarters, but did I have twenty and would they play nicely together? 

As we were on our way out to Debbie's for a pot luck dinner, I ran out of time to investigate.

It had to wait until this morning, after I had put the roast into the slow cooker.

(Sigh) Sorry about the sideways pic!  I'll get the hang of it eventually!

Here you have them, twenty FQs.

So the top bundle Tony bought for me some years ago as a Christmas gift.

The lower bundle came from Mum, I was supposed to make her 'something'.......

No other hints or clues were given and 'something' never eventuated.

Until today.

After some switching and swapping to ensure they would indeed all play nicely, I set about cutting.

Then played the switching and swapping game again on the sitting room floor.

Lunch was served toward the end of the cutting.

The sewing up was fun and fast.

BIG pieces mean BIG blocks and BIG blocks means BIG progress and here we are, before dinner time with a finished top.

And of course one block which managed to turn itself around!!

Well its staying that way now.

And I'm sure Mum would approve of the inclusion of her fabrics here, especially as this will be gifted to a little girl, she did love little girls. 

I'll need to shop for binding fabric as I don't have enough purple left, for even a scrappy binding and while I'm at it, I'll get some quilting thread.

This one is going on to the frame. 

What a nice way to spend a Sunday.

Pot roast has been in the slow cooker since 9.30 this morning, so I don't even have to think about dinner. I can relax, plan the quilting, think about what to sew next and do a little crochet. 

How did your Sunday go?

Two finishes!

Kaffetastic is at last, fully finished. Bound and hanging in our hallway.

This is the very colourful sight that greets you as you enter our home.

As you can see, it is a bit too wide to hang where it is, because of a combination of the placement for the pole supports and they way I have attached the hanging sleeve, but if I have a little rearrange of the sleeve, I should be able to get rd of the overhang on the left side. Problem then is, it will be off centre in the hallway. LOL  So maybe I'll just leave things as they are. 

The binding is more of the black with white spot fabric and looks really good.

I have to say I'm very pleased with this one.

And my second finish is just as colourful. The little crochet blanket is just as colourful as my quilt.

It has turned out rather nicely, even if it did make me swear. 

You see the hook still on the bottom corner as when I took this photo I was still debating adding a pretty border. I opted not to do so and what you see here is the finished thing.

'l just need to block it and add a Loulee label.

I'm busy with more colourful wee squares, making up another wee blanket. Both will go to Grand child #5 when he arrives later this year.

Grand child #4 is keeping her daddy waiting. She is 8 days overdue now. The midwife has knocked on the door twice, but she just isn't coming out.

This caveman is the Daddy waiting. My son 'Jiffy' Jonathan. 

He sent me this picture recently as he skippered the boat out to the fishing grounds around the Isle of Man.

On the scrappy quilt front......

I didn't make a decision yet.

LOL

I'm still spending a LOT of time, too much time on Pinterest researching.

LOL

It's Quilted

Kaffetastic is quilted.

It took me two days, thanks to many interruptions and an evening out.

It might have gone faster if the supervisor had stayed with me, but she went off bird watching!

In all reality it didn't actually take that long to sew the simple cross hatching lines.

Sometimes simple is best.

The binding is on and just needs me to have time to stitch it down.

maybe this evening.

 It would keep me warm, being tucked up under a lovely quilt while we watch a little TV this evening. 

How did your weekend go?

Kaffetastic Quilting.

So yesterday I decided it was the day to get on with layering and quilting kaffetastic.

I spread everything out on the floor and did a little trimming first. Belle was itching to help, can you see her?

Just moments after I put the camera down, she got stuck in and tried to burrow into the layers.

Once I had everything trimmed I had to move it to a table, as I have yet to discover the knack of pinning on the floor, without pinning the carpet too!

Then the cross hatching commenced.

I got about halfway through before the doorbell rang.

I didn't get back to it, but hopefully today I'll get the quilting finished and maybe even get the binding on. But not if I stay here on the couch!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend, I'm off to continue enjoying mine.

Slow progress

Not much to report at my place. I'm making very slow progress on my crochet project.

I think this is about as big as this one is going to get, with the addition of borders and a fancy edge.

The method I have chosen to join the squares is tedious and fiddly at best. I could add a more colourful description of the process, but we'll keep it polite. 

That of course means I'll have a whole bunch of extra mini squares all left over. But that's OK as I already came up with a new plan for those. LOL

I'll keep you posted once some progress has been made!

Today after work I took myself off to buy fabric for backing kaffetastic. I found a lovely plain grey 100% cotton flat sheet. That will do just fine. Very happy with that.

So maybe I'll make a start on quilting that this weekend.

No progress has been made on my next scrapper. I thought I had settled on a design, but keep on changing my mind! LOL

I saw some scrappy mile a minute blocks the other day, with a lovely sashing and border fabric...It was done Dancing Nine Patch style....Speaking of dancing nines, that would be a good scrapper too!!

See what I mean? LOL

I think I need to spend a little more time on research and development. LOL

Sadly the new tube for my lamp has not yet arrived, so no cross stitch or I stitch progress to report. I did think about making up the I stitch blocks and stitching the designs later. But that's all I did, the thinking. 

*

My boy back on the Isle of Man was up early the other day to catch the tide.

His Grand dad had beat him to it!

What a lovely picture of Dads boat in the sun rise.

I'm told he could now sail from the island, to the UK. But he hasn't.

The Isle of Man, like NZ is pretty much clear of COVID, with the only new cases being those coming in from elsewhere and hopefully being properly managed and cared for. There was some talk of opening an air corridor with one of the channel islands, so that people could have a bit of a holiday, a sort of we go there they come here thing, but people are nervous, as healthy people who moved to the mainland UK try to get home to the islands, sadly a few of them unknowingly are already ill and everyone departs and arrives through the same airports, so for many a holiday away from their home island is just too risky. The ferry between England and the Isle of Man is operating again, but anyone who leaves the island and returns must spend 14 days in quarantine. Which makes for a long break. May as well stay at home and relax, take some day trips locally or work around the house. My dad was always sailing away to England, Scotland, Ireland, (the Isle of Man is very conveniently situated right in the middle) but right now, he is settling for sailing around the island or cruising up and down the coast. 

We're never going back, but I wish we could all find a new normal.