Thursday 16 January 2014

Scrap Happy!


I bought this fabulous book last Thursday and ever since have been dreaming patchwork and scrappy fabric creations!


My sewing mojo had well and truly disappeared months and months, maybe even a year ago. I'll have to look back on the blog to see because I really can't think of the last thing I sewed on my machine. It didn't help that the sewing room was a tip and I couldn't find my sewing machine cable anywhere - it turned out it was in a drawer in the kitchen!


Anyway, a trip to a new local quilting shop last week found me buying Sunday Morning Quilts - and oh what a gorgeous book it is! I have read it cover to cover and just love the projects in it. I have also been obsessively reading Crazy Mom Quilts' blog archives on my kindle late into the night!

Dot and I spent last Saturday afternoon sorting the sewing room (again! it tends to be where all the furniture and "stuff" goes when we try to tidy the house)

And now my head is totally bursting with colour combinations and ideas that I want to try and projects that need revisiting.

This morning Mr Locket suggested I made a list as there was just too much going on in my head and I couldn't think where to start.

So here it is:

  • make a yellow and white log cabin quilt - I've been planning a yellow and white "some kind of quilt" for a while and have collected all the fabrics
  • sew some scrappy hexagons
  • finish my Spiderweb quilt - started in 2009 then abandoned.  I've actually been working on it this week and I love it all over again
  • make a ticker tape mini quilt or canvas from the book

  • make an up, up and away mini quilt - the pattern uses the tiny triangles you get when you trim the corners off binding strips! How fabulous is that?  I don't actually have any of those triangles but the concept is brilliant :o)

  • bind my most clever quilt that has just been professionally machine quilted (I'm picking it up on Saturday afternoon, binding it on Saturday night and giving it as a Golden Wedding Anniversary present on Sunday morning - 3 ½ years late!) More details and photos next week 
  • quilt and bind my seedling wall quilt

  • sew a cushion with yellow hexies on a grey background

  • quilt and bind my pinwheel quilt

  • finish my Lucie Summers pinwheel


Today I went back to the new quilt shop for a sit and sew session and asked lots of advice on the quilting for my pinwheel and seedling quilts and had my first play at free motion quilting - golly, it's hard when you are first starting out but I hope I will improve with practice.  I have ordered the right foot for my machine and plan to keep trying.  I would like to free motion the seedling quilt but I will probably hand quilt the pinwheel.

And I couldn't help but buy some more strips of fabric to add to my scrappy collections........

 
It would have been rude not to buy them, honestly!
 
But now I need to do a friend a favour and knit the borders for a blanket she has been making for her mum's 80th birthday next week.

So much crafting to do - what a nuisance that I have to go to work tomorrow! ;o)

11 comments:

Quinn said...

Lovely, lovely projects, Lucy! Will enjoy watching your progress. And you are very kind to delay your scrappy play in order to knit a border for a friend! :)

I bought fabric this week for the first time in ages, and when I asked if I needed a particular type needle for one of the fabrics, the lovely woman at the shop asked me what size needle I have in the machine now. I expect my face looked rather blank. She threw up her hands and said, "Ha! Not a quilter, I can always tell! Every quilters knows: you must put in a new needle for Each New Project!"
Ahem. No, not a quilter. Clearly! ;)

(P.S. I must say, the cover of that book gives me the willies...a child walking down a flight of stairs snuggly wrapped in a dragging quilt...yikes!)

BIG sister Ally said...

Looks like you are re-visiting an old obsession - enjoy 'til the next one! Tell Dotty it will be gardening next, big sis knows these things xx

loulee said...

I have that book too, it's fantastic. Lots of inspiration. I think my quilty mojo is also lost in an unhappy room.
You look all set for a year of creativity.

Plum Cox said...

Wow! What a great list! Really looking forward to seeing these projects popping up on your blog!

I must go and look for my left over triangles...I too like the look of that 'use it up' quilt, but have a horrible feeling that I've already used up my triangles.

Annie said...

One of my favourite books...I have tried a few.

Thimbleanna said...

Whoa there little Nellie!!! That's quite a list -- don't make it too big or you'll be deflated! I only say that as one working Mum to another -- having to go to work is a nuisance indeed. (Although it does buy more of that beautiful fabric LOL.) I can't wait to see those lucious pinwheels in action!

Thimbleanna said...

Oh, and I forgot to say -- don't you just love CrazyMom? I know you'll have fun with her book. Good luck on all your wonderful projects!!!

French Knots said...

That is some list! I hope you get lots done in your newly tidy sewing room, though a messy table is the sign of a creative mind ;)

sweetpea family said...

Wow what an amazing list of fab projects - I think I need a rest after only reading it - good luck x

driftwood said...

that book has been on my wish list for a long time.... I have a lot of unloved scraps.... love your list of projects and that you reclaimed your sewing space x

Unknown said...

So lovely to hear your re-found enthusiasm for quilting coming shining through - looking forward to seeing your work in progress - persevere with the free motion quilting, once you get your hand in it's such fun - just remember to keep in your head that you're just doodling with the fabric's the paper and the needle's the pen - all you have to do is keep moving the paper rather than the pen