062 Oklahoma Backroads Update

I'm still plodding along with the Oklahoma Backroads quilt I've been working on.  

As with all Bonnie Hunter quilts, there's many seams to wrangle and they always seem to take longer than I hoped.  Which is fine, just makes my to do list grow and grow.

I've done all the blocks, and I placed them on the design wall to see if they work.

I think they do.  But some of my points are just abysmal.  I'm hoping they'll get lost in the quilting.

I do my very best at quilting, and yet I still can't sometimes get the points working.  Why is that?  I think it must just be trying to do too much, too fast.  Story of my life.

I have managed this weekend to get them into rows, and pressed them all (not showing in this photo!) so hopefully I will be able to do the final seams tomorrow.  This weekend has been a bust in the sewing room, but it's okay.  I spent it outside in the sun with nice company and nice food, and that's what life is all about.

I needed a whole metre of fabric for my borders, and I am determined to use the older stuff in my stash.  But I don't have whole metres of fabric, sadly.  I had to really dig to find something to use, and it's hard to know what to use with a scrappy quilt.  I've chosen a purple, so I am hoping that it will all look okay.

We shall wait and see.

I hope your weekend has been terrific, filled with all good things.  See you soon!

029 What I Am Working On - Oh My Stars Green Part One

I showed you a few days ago my ongoing Oh My Stars in purple.

Never one to rest on my laurels, I also cut out a green version.  

Not finished yet (obviously) but I'll show you more as I go.  It's such an easy quilt.  My plan is to make one a slight bit bigger, this one isn't just quite there as far as lap quilts go.  Great for kids, but then the design isn't very child friendly.  So I'm going to play a bit when I have a little free time, and see what I can come up with.  Shouldn't be too hard!

Have a lovely day, friends!

021 Purple Oh My Stars Part One

I've found a lovely quilt from Pat Sloan called Oh My Stars, and it's perfect for a scrap quilt.

Part of my problem is finding big enough yardage to make a quilt.  I've lots of pieces that I can use to make five inch squares or bigger, and these use those perfectly.

It's far from finished, and it needs a border but it doesn't take more than a day to get the top done.  And I think as a giveaway quilt, it's a lovely design.  I don't want to give away crappy stuff, I want the recipient to love it.  

Hopefully they will.  Just because it's a charity quilt doesn't mean we need to give away our crap stuff.  And while it's hard to do a 'generic' design that will suit everyone, I think this one works.

Anyway.  I'll show you the updated picture when I have finished!

013 Show and Tell - Scrappy Pinwheels

This is another one of those what was I thinking quilts?

It's all fine, really.  But it's far too small to be useful.  And it's another one in the cupboard, wondering what I shall do with it.  I suppose it's big enough for a dog blanket, and that's a sad statement when the best you can find to do with it is to give it as a dog blanket.

Sometimes it's hard to look back with today's eyes, isn't it?  But at the time, there was a need for a design in our shop that beginners could do, and this served its purposes.  

But I still don't have a place for it.

Hope your day is going well.  See you soon!

002 - What I Am Working On (Oklahoma Backroads)

Even though I haven't been blogging last year as I would have liked, I have been documenting what I've been working on.

As usual, it's been mostly scrap quilts.  I've had this brilliant idea to make every version of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilts that are on her blog.  Whilst I've done a couple, I'm no where near close to being on track with that.  

But I did start an Oklahoma Backroads a while ago, and I am slowly, slowly adding to it.  This is one of the bigger quilts I want to get finished this year.

Please ignore the crappy design wall.  I really miss not being able to crop photos in the blogger platform.  I always forget to do it on my phone, and it ends up being embarrassing like the photo above.

The quilt itself is lovely.  I've got so man scraps, and this quilt has always spoken to me.  For a little while I was doing a block a day, and it was getting along quite well, but as usual with me, it got put away in a box and I haven't worked on it for a while.  So it's now the current 'to be finished' quilt.  The one that is out on the table, looking at me.

I do love scrappy quilts.  This one needs a lot more pink/spring colours I think.  What do you think?

Anyway.  That's what I've been sewing.  Bit by bit, one block a day, I should get it done.

We shall see.

Happy sewing!

Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses

Whilst I haven't been blogging as much as I should, I've definitely been sewing.  I've spent more time than I'd like to admit stalking admiring Bonnie Hunter and the sheer volume of stuff she manages to get done in her day.  I know she has a system of stash management, but I was too scared to start hacking into the fabrics I have on the off chance I may use them later.  What if I need large bits?  What if I need borders?

So, mostly my stash has got bigger and not been used at all.  This has to change, I can't MOVE in the sewing room.

We had a bagful of fabrics left over from the shop (which closed five years ago) and I figured I have no emotional attachment to any of these fabrics, in fact I'm sick to death of tripping over them.  Yeah, I could sell them on Ebay but that's all too hard.  So I implemented Bonnie's system on a smaller scale with some of these fabrics just to see if it would work for me.  If it's a disaster, it is no big loss - I didn't love any of those fabrics anyway and I'd be glad to see the back of them.

So the result is this:

Whoo Hoo!  Apart from cutting up the strips, this is hands down the quickest scrap quilt I've ever made.  I'd sewn the whole 42 houses in a day, the outer border the day after.  None of this piecing for weeks on end stuff for me!

It's up on my design wall now, with a burgundy homespun behind it to see if I like that for the sashing.  I'll probably end up doing that - it's not too offensive a border and honestly, spending money on the border and sashing kinda defeats the purpose of using up fabrics.  

But I am totally thrilled to bits with it.  I hope that last photo isn't too blurry, it's taken with my new Ipod and I'm still learning how to take a good picture.  

Today I may get the sashings on, I may not.  I've just spent the morning decluttering a few of my clothes, so I feel all good and virtuous so a sewing afternoon may well be on my cards. It's wet and raining and cold here today which is AWESOME!  It's been too long since we've had rain.  That's a constant theme where I live.  I know you US girls are having the winter from hell but I'm so jealous of the snow and the fireplaces and the cosiness.  Snow would be cool.

I hope your day is filled with quilty goodness, and I shall see you another day!

Suzie