Roses for Roxie

Some readers may remember that this little quilt started off in March as an exercise prompted by a chapter in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's book '15 Minutes of Play'. (See Playing with Scraps )

The challenge was to make something useful from scraps and recycled fabric......I pulled out bits of furnishing chintz and scraps of flannel and made improv squares which I then trimmed to approximately equal sizes and joined together in rows.

The borders were made with some larger strips of flannel leftover from other projects.

In the spirit of re-purposing I pulled an old mattress protector out of the linen cupboard to use as the wadding......

......and a length of cloth (polyester I think) which likewise had been in a cupboard for years to use as the backing.......These were (somewhat roughly) pin basted together,

I had decided I wanted to try a circular design using a walking foot (or in my case Dual Feed) so it was back to my Craftsy class with Jacqui Gering. (Creative Quilting using your Walking Foot - I can highly recommend this class. Jacqui has just released a new class taking this concept further and I will be joining that one soon, too).

Jacqui stresses a couple of things (note to self - pay closer attention next time) such as careful basting to avoid puckers and taking your time - going SLOWLY! I was in a bit of a hurry by this point and felt Roxie wouldn't be too critical of the quilting......the whole project was after all an exercise to make something useful out of scrap and to keep me occupied until I was able to get back to normal programming........

I stopped the quilting 1" from the edge so that I could use the front border as my binding. I turned to YouTube for this and found (among many videos on self binding) this one by Lorena's Quilting  called Quilt Binding Without Binding. What?

Usually this is done using the backing as the binding but I wanted mine to be the flannel rather than the poly print on the back. The flannel is a bit bulky, especially as I had random seams in odd places but for my purposes that didn't matter. (I don't pretend to be a perfectionist - sometimes I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler so why give myself unnecessary stress?)

I think the next pics are pretty self explanatory but a quick look at the video will clarify any niggling questions.

All that was left to do was machine stitch the binding down. I did 2 rows to try and make sure it would stand up to wear.

Final thing to do was product test.......

Did it pass the test?

I think so.

Was it worth the effort? Yes, for a number of reasons.

• It kept me occupied through a difficult time.
• I made something useful from scraps that most normal people probably would have tossed out years ago.
• I learned how to quilt a circular design using my walking foot.
• I learned how to make a self binding.
• I picked up tips on what I need to improve when I use these skills on a 'proper' project.
• The dog has a new quilt........(which hopefully will help to keep a bit of dog hair off the furniture.)

This is the first of a planned series - for other dogs in the family - which so far consist of bundles of scraps and titles. ('Lollipops for Lily', 'Balls for Breitling' and 'Bones for Bo'). It might be a while as it seems like a winter sort of project - we'll see what eventuates.......

Sue xxxx

A Couple of Treats

This post is so long overdue that both Christmas and New Year celebrations have come and gone so belated greetings on both counts. (In the middle of the renovations life had to make a necessary deviation  from the projected course which has required ongoing medical treatment and changed the order of things for a while longer.....)

So, even though I have been throughly spoilt with a wonderful new living space and kitchen, I felt a few more treats were in order to complete the renovation on the one hand and to bolster the soul a little on the other........

Since I wasn't able to shop in person I turned to online shopping - a potentially dangerous occupation when still in bed.

We have talked about pink bags before in an earlier post, so imagine how thrilled I was to discover that my order from my favourite kitchen supplier came in a pink box instead......it seemed entirely appropriate.

One overly large, pink box......

Fortunately the packaging material is fully biodegradeable and can be hosed away on the garden or in the compost.......

Inside, some new champagne glasses and tumblers to toast the future, some commercial quality cooking pans for the cakes I intend to bake and a silicone mat to drain said glasses and more to use as heat pads........

And to feed the mind, a couple of treats from my other favourite online shopping destination.........

A couple of sample pages......

A very interesting take on Art Quilt making - also involving the use of Haiku poetry and will hopefully lead to a piece  of work someday.......

And another idea to fill the gaps when a little new inspiration or a restful interlude is needed.......and the scraps around the house are threatening to overtake every nook and cranny.........

Making fabric from scraps.........

Another decision needing to be made - what to do when a faithful friend, after 39 years of hard labour, packs it it when mixing the dough for this walnut foccacia?

Back to the 'shops' to seek another bargain - and what a beauty. With a model runout the bonuses kept coming and seemed way too good to pass up - even though spending should have long ceased by this point.........

And just to round off this post so it doesn't drag out to the next New Year, meet Roxie, adopted a month ago and settling in nicely. More about her soon.

If there is still anyone out there reading this, thanks, hopefully not so long til next time,
Sue xxxx