Monday, February 11, 2013

A big pat on the back

Ok so on Sunday I blogged that I was going to complete the January and February Lucky Star BOM Blocks and that I was going to pick from my stash instead of buying more fabric! 
Anyway I found this wonderful pile of fabric that I was saving for who knows what.  Its Pat Bravo's Dreaming in French collection and I thought well there's no point leaving it in a box in a cupboard - let's use it!  I am just hoping I have enough for the whole project.

So after a slightly delayed start (we went fishing and the only thing we caught were pippies which got the kids (and me) quite excited) I finished the January block last night and managed to finish the February block today, while my 3 year old had a much needed nap.  The colours are much truer in the picture at right rather than the blocks.  Not sure what happened there.  And yes I do need to iron better.

I do have a rather large pile of largeish offcuts from the blocks.  Maybe I should cut the starting strips smaller so there is not as much wastage.  Any ideas peeps?



I am quite pleased with myself and I am thinking this method of blog your goal for the day may work in the future.  A bit like writing a list for lots of people to see and shaming yourself into doing it so you don't look like a big wally :)

Linking up to Lets Get Acquainted Blog Hop.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Sew Your Stash Thin 2013

So I'm feeling way more motivated since posting yesterday.  Thanks to everyone who has visited and taken the time to comment.  Your lovely comments mean a lot.  So my advice to fellow bloggers who are on a bit of a downer - BLOG!!  It is amazing what a bit of encouragement can do for the soul.

So I thought I would take advantage of my returning motivation and post this morning what I hopefully plan to WILL accomplish today.

I joined in the Lucky Star BOM at Don't Call me Betsy and today I am going to sew the first 2 blocks!  I was originally going to make it an all solids quilt but I've decided to join in AJ's Sew Your Stash Thin 2013
sew your stash thin 5
 
So with that in mind I am going to use fabrics from my stash.  So my Lucky Stars won't be exactly what I wanted but I'm sure I will be able to find something I like from the stash, right??
 


Saturday, February 9, 2013

That (insert expletive here) Tablerunner!!

It's been a slow start to the year in Red Raspberry land.  One thing I haven't shared is the one handmade gift I did actually finish before Christmas.  This tablerunner that I made for hubby's Mum.
 I don't know how something so relatively simple became such a pain in the butt!  It started out ok. Came up with the design, made some half square triangles using some of my favourite Amy Butler fabric, sewed it all together and then it just went downhill from there.
 For the small pinwheel blocks I had used a very similar colour fabric as in the large blocks so the pattern just seemed to get lost and just looked a right old mess.  Anyway instead of just making 4 new small blocks I decided to sew some sashing strips between the blocks.  A whole lot of unpicking and resewing later and I had blocks that didn't line up and something that was starting to resemble more o a tablecloth than a runner.  So I unpicked all that bloody sashing, made 4 more small pinwheel blocks and sewed it all back together.
 And now this is the part where I get to quilt it right??  Wrong! One of the triangle pieces along the outside didn't meet the edge and not just by a tincy wincy bit but by about a quarter inch, my seam allowance!  Many, many swear words later I though what if I unpick one side and then try to stretch it to fit.  Guess what??  Didn't work so I unpicked the whole triangle and sewed it back in and the bloody thing still didn't meet up.  Would anyone else have ripped it to shreds by now?!  When my sanity returned, I cut out a new ( extra large) triangle piece, sewed it in and thank goodness it worked.
It has a pieced back and I quilted using straight lines and then used a pieced binding with the scraps of fabric that were left over.  I love the pieced binding.  I am going to do this more often!

I think it looks ok.  I have never ever unpicked this much in my life and will never ever do so again.  The whole project probably took twice as long as it should have but I am quite impressed with myself for not chopping it into small pieces and throwing it in the bin!  And best of all is my husband's mum likes it and it is now on her dining room table.  (unless of course she whips it out just before we visit and throws it in the cupboard as soon as we leave!)

Lessons learned: 
1.  Spend more time planning and cutting accurately instead of going guns blazing into a project.
2.  If you are unpicking a lot, make sure you have bandaids handy so when you stab yourself multiple times with the pointy bit of the unpicker you don't bleed all over your fabric.
3.  Buy new quick unpick as the old one is now worn out.

Oh and I must share these.  My little peeps are huge Peppa Pig fans so I appliqued some T-shirts for them.  The sewing is absolutely atrocious as I was having a 'not in the mood for sewing day' and it usually looks crap then.  Most of the time I would match my thread colour to the fabric and if you are doing raw edge applique and can't sew straight this is what you would do, but I was trying to be clever, for as anyone whose kids watch Peppa Pig will know all the characters have a kind of darker outline around them.  I would lone to do a whole quilt af all the little characters.  I think it would look fantastic.

Linking up to Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts
Lily's Quilts