Finish Wednesday? Plaidish

It counts when it's a completed top, right?

So, the Plaidish quilt. It's a bit of a stunner, isn't it? You can see why it's so popular!

I still have plenty of pieces leftover, so there'll be at least one more, possibly a couple. I also have a better idea of the way that the colours/values work (or don't) together, so I'll try to keep that in mind when putting the blocks together for the next one.

It's also a little smaller than the actual size - more lap/throw size than single bed size.

I gave my quilter five quilts to do - all fairly small - but she did them in 10 days, easy! So I have a pile of quilts in need of binding!

I hate binding.

I trimmed the edges down a little last night - just to make them manageable - so this is now the neatening/binding queue. Not in any particular order, mind you. On the top is the 3:10 to Mendocino and at the bottom is the Friendship Supernova. Three of the five Penny Patch On The Roof, and the Split Square Pair (two quilts, matching).

Did I mention that I hate binding?

WIP Wednesday: laid-back plaidish

I've been planning to make a Plaidish Quilt for a while. Nice large blocks, easy sizes, just keep making the blocks and it's all good.

Over on instagram, @jessicaquilter started up a Laid-back Plaidish QAL with the following timeline:

Monday 6th - choose fabrics
Friday 10th - cut fabrics
Monday 13th - dark blocks
Friday 17th - medium blocks
Monday 20th - light blocks
Friday 24th - assemble and finish

I guess her idea of laid-back is not my idea of laid-back since I am way way way way WAY behind! Still cutting pieces, in fact. Mind, you, I'm planning to make several plaidish quilt tops all at once, and then get them quilted all at once. (My quilter has already finished the four or five quilts I gave her 10 days ago. YEESH.)

Anyway, I thought I'd cut into my Cotton + Steel/Ruby Star Society prints - I also had a lovely charm square swap that really needs to be used up, so I added that to my collection of basics and prints:

So far I've only managed to get through some of the dark blocks:

Although there's a lot more stuff cut out - just hasn't yet been sewn together yet.

I'm going to try to sew for at least 10 minutes a day. More would be good, but at least 10 minutes will move me along quite nicely, I think...

WIPS-B-GONE

Devoted Quilter is hosting a finishing challenge: WIPS-B-GONE! A 100 Day Challenge

I have WIPS all over the place in boxes, and I'd like to get a few done and out the door.

1. Mum's handbag (for Christmas)

2. Stepbro's wedding quilt (only the binding needed)

3. The Laidback Plaidish

4. 3:10 to Mendocino (only the binding)

5. Rainbow Swerve (rainbow batiks in the 'placid curves' pattern from Modern Neutrals

6. Scrappy Bard of Avon

7. Rainbow Selvages

8. The Quilt Is Lava

9. Dark Drunkards Block

10. Scrappy Postage Stamp

11. Kitchen Curtains

12. Log Cabin:

...golly, that's a lot of WIPs...

Guess I'd better get started!

WIP Wednesday (late): Everything And The Kitchen Curtains

Still on the kitchen curtains, although the piecing is pretty much done, just got to measure it into size, back it, and make the roman blinds.

EASY!

(ahahahahaha)

One side of the window:

Other side of the window:

I want to back them with a white fabric, in part to keep the sun from fading them from the back, in part because it'll help keep the loose threads under control, particularly for when one of the cats decides she wants to nibble at the thread. Sure, it's cotton, but it's still not good for her!

I need 1x rectangular rod (2m total), 4 thin dowel rods (4m total), 2 larger dowel rods (2m total) , 4-6m of curtain cording, little plastic rings that I can sew into the curtain to run the cording through, 2 cleats for tying the blinds up. I already have the velcro strips for attaching the curtains to the rectangular rod, although I should probably check if it's long enough - at least 2m will be required.

--

The Power of Three design is pretty spectacular, espcially with a solid background colour that allows some of the blocks to 'float', but it's just so fiddly with the small blocks! It might be okay as a cohesive scrap quilt idea, done bit by bit, building up the number of blocks over a year, before all being laid out and sewn together.

Takes more organisation than I can manage!

--

Next project: Plaid-ish quilts. Just keep sewing, just keep sewing, just keep sewing...

Of course, spring is coming, and with it my garden will take up a lot of time, so...may not be all that much happening for a while.

--

For my next occasional project I've been thinking of doing something like the tinypricksproject on instagram: sewing the words of politicians onto fabric as catharsis. They're mostly the stupidest and worst quotes; the ones that later fill you with frustration because if they meant it (and none of these guys ever back down) then it betrays a particularly awful way of looking at the world from where they are.

I'd be doing it for Scott Morrison's "I don't hold a hose, mate" and "It's not my job" and "that's a matter for the states" and "It's not a race". And other politicians who say dodgy shit. And then IDK, maybe I'd hang them up in the boughs of my trees and my chook pen and let them age. Because they won't age well.

It's a thought.