WIP learning how to.....

So, I'm home alone today, the other half and the dogs have gone fishing for the day, and I decided I would get started on basting my raw circles quilt and working out how to quilt it.

As any regular readers will know I had surgery a week ago.... I'm supposed to be taking it easy.... I'm also a stubborn, independent and today unsupervised individual, who has just discovered the batting piece she had put aside for the raw circles is short in one corner by a 12 x 6" strip.....

Bother, I thought.... well actually it was another word beginning with B but am trying to keep this civil....

so today I am mostly learning a) how to be a good girl, ignore the screaming car keys and possibility of a short drive to my nearest LQS for a replacement piece of batting which will fit nicely and b) how to best join the batting - whether to add a small strip in the corner, or cut the piece down the middle and rejoin it with one piece turned through 90 degrees so it fits better.  

Anyone..... ??? 



Linking up with Freshly Pieced.

Coming along nicely...

My raw edge circles quilt is gradually getting there.... The quilt top is all sewn together and now I just need to work on what backing to use and how to quilt it.  

It's not good enough weather here today for photos outside, so here's the quilt top artfully draped over one of the sofas!  It's such lovely colours, I can't wait till it's finished, and I think it'll be a great splash of cheerful warmth through the winter.

I'm considering plain red with a small section of red magic beans on the back.  There's quite a bit of my beloved pezzy and some teal magic beans on the front, so I think it would be a shame if the back were completely plain.  I'm thinking this multi-coloured Aurifil thread in Laura's giveaway over on Needles, Pins and Baking Tins today would be just the thread to quilt this.

I've also got quite a list of other WIP's at the moment - two bee blocks for Plan Bee 2012, a maison de garance quilt for the in-laws for Christmas, and I want to try and make a start on my niece's birthday quilt too.  

I'm linking up with Lee over on Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Is it just me....

...or has this now become a quilt of two halves?  I made this little beauty a bit bigger, which meant adding in some new blocks made with fabrics I didn't have when I made the first lot.  


So of course that meant weaving them into those already laid out and doing some significant rearranging. then I decided I didn't actually like some of the new 'filler' fabrics, so I took those out.... 


then I decided I'd made it a row too long, so I took that off.....


then I decided I'd tried to make it too matchy when the first part went out of it's way to have every quarter block different colours and patterns. So I did some more rearranging.  


And this is what I have now, along with an absolutely stonking headache!

probably should have moved the ironing from behind the door BEFORE taking the photo!

It just feels to me that the top part which is laid out on a piece of wadding and so lying nicely with no gaps, looks like it has stronger warmer colours than the bottom part, which isn't on wadding and so not sitting so well together.  Could it just be because the bottom is nearer the window and so in brighter light which makes the colours look lighter?

I've put some of the stronger reds back in before taking this photo which did make the balance better, but does it look balanced to you, much more experienced quilters?

Let me know, 'cos I really want to start stitching it together!

and now for some Nina Simone...

'.... and I'm feeling gooooood!  Dummmm, de-dummmmm, de-dummm, de-dum, de-dum-di-de dummmmm.....'


On Wednesday, my machine and I went for a little trip, coffee, chat, sewing, and I was somewhat stunned to realise when I went to get my machine for this sojourn that it was still in it's carry bag where it had been since retreat!  A whole month without using my sewing machine.  I knew I'd been off my game, but that shocked me, even so.  


This weekend has seen me battling to finish a project I was doing for someone else, and then late last night, after singing along to 'Mamma Mia', in an effort to avoid the second half of the football, I decided it was time to get on with some fun sewing.

So out came this, a project I last worked on back in March on our Cornish holiday.  It's taken from this tutorial and I had completely forgotten how much I love it and the colours are so cheerful.  Last night I managed to get all the pieces laid out, and realised that I needed at least another 14 'blocks' made up, so I'm now going through all my fabrics trying to find about 20 more that I can make up into squares and circles, and then start rearranging the main part of the quilt I've already done to incorporate the new pieces so they're properly spread out.
Then I just have to keep them in the right order while I start sewing them altogether - think many photos will be necessary!  But hey, it feels great to be back!