ET and his intergalactic phone call

When Lynne blogged about her ET phone home block a couple of weeks I knew I wanted to make lots of them into a quilt using my Terrain charm packs (plus extras) and, inspired by Susan's Terrain quilt, a navy solid for the background and I waited patiently to see if she would be making her pattern available for us to buy.

Last week Lynne (who is one of the most generous and talented quilters I know) published the (free) foundation piecing templates for the block and, after a request from me, she set to on her ipad and created some hand piecing templates for me to try.  (Honestly, I think I gave her a headache...or an ache somewhere lower...trust me to be awkward!)

After printing out the templates on freezer paper I spent quite a while sorting through my scraps to find fabric that would work with the navy background.  I didn't want to use any of the fabrics I'd set aside for the 'real' project so I searched my scraps for four colours that would work together and, after a bit of a marathon session ironing templates and marking sewing lines, I got on with the sewing - it was as much fun as I'd hoped!

Want to see what I made?

ET phone home - designed by Lynne@Lily's Quilts

I wanted to see what the block would look like if I made the colours radiate out in lines rather than making each round of triangles the same/similar colours and now I know!  I don't think I'll be doing this version in the 'real' blocks as I want a scrappier look for my quilt but this block will work fine as a cushion.  Unfortunately I don't have enough of any of the fabrics left to make a back but I'm sure I have a piece of blue velvet in the loft  that will work perfectly on the back!

The back isn't quite as pretty (the seams were better pressed out from the centre rather than swirled at the intersections) but I love seeing the back of other quilters' blocks so I thought I'd best reciprocate!

The back

I'll be making a couple of changes when I start making the Terrain et al quilt.   The first change is that I won't be using a dark solid for the background.  Partly because it's hard to see the stitches on such a dark fabric (which makes the inset seams harder to get accurate), partly because solids are much harder to hand sew than blenders, etc. (just one block has made my fingers sore) and partly because I don't want a solid background - I fancy a change!

The other change I'm going to make (apart from making it scrappier!) is the way I construct the block.  For the first two rounds I stitched the triangles on first and then added in the quadrilateral background pieces but getting the accuracy I wanted was difficult (partly because the stitches were so hard to see on the dark background) and it felt clunky so for the final round I attached each triangle to a background piece and then stitched them onto the block.  You can see some of the pieces ready to be attached in the photo

This turned out to be a much better method and although there is no difference in how the rounds look now they've been pressed I'll definitely be adding all the rounds like this when I make my ET quilt.  All I need to to do now is finish piecing all my hexies (which should take another three months or so) and I hope to be startingt ET in November - if I can resist him for that long!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Lynne for being so patient with me and my endless 'the templates still aren't printing the right size' emails (honestly, I drove myself batty with it so goodness knows what I did to her!), I hope it was worth it!   I think it was but then I wasn't tied to the ipad fiddling with triangles, etc. on Touchdraw!

If you make an ET block please add it to Lynne's Flickr group - there are a few wonderful ET blocks in there already and it would be great to see more!  If you don't fancy making one yourself you could always just pop over to Lynne's blog and tell her how marvellous she is!

I've had a couple of lovely parcels in the post this week (I know, I'm really blessed with lovely friends!)

The first was from Nicky and contained all manner of wonderful things...

...including a frame so I can make myself a purse, some Liberty silks, some lilac fabrics for my hexies, some Oakshott and some Aurifil!  Thank you, Nicky, I'm going to have fun!

My second parcel came from Trudi and was equally wonderful.  Thanks to her kindness I've finally got a case for my sunglasses - for the past two/three years they've been living in a little plastic bag in my handbag and now look at them!  Very posh!

Trudi also included some of her favourite batiks (they're gorgeous, I can see why they're her favourites!) as well as a lovely quilted postcard

and...

...my very own Liberty bag (blagged from the Liberty team during the FQR weekend just for me!) - I love it!!!  Thank you, Trudi!

A few weekends ago Archie and I (and Alfie but he isn't on any of these photos!) went a few miles down the coast to see the 'Jubilee knitting' (and have an ice cream!) at Saltburn.  This seaside town has a group of secret knitters who make the most wonderful figures, etc. and then yarn-bomb various locations round the town.  The most recent addition was a tribute to the Diamond Jubilee (they've also done some Olympic knitting but I'll share that another time)

The Secret Knitters of Saltburn

I've heard that the graffiti art that Archie is posing in front of has since been removed by the council...I hope that's not true but I suspect it is.  (It took at least five attempts to get Archie to sit and stay in front of the artwork - he was more interested in looking for chips!)

Turning to more serious matters...

...I've had a complaint about my blog...

Someone feels he isn't getting enough attention so he decided to make himself look appealing in the hope I would pick up the camera - I did!

Aren't I handsome?  Maybe I should start a petition to campaign for more blog appearances...

Meanwhile Archie looked distinctly unimpressed...

I don't know who he thinks he's kidding...this is MY blog and I'm not budging!

I'm afraid I'm way behind with my blog reading/commenting - I've been having problems with Blogger not responding and on a couple of occasions have just given up.   I'm not sure I'm going to be able to catch up but I'll see what I can do!  I also owe quite a few of you a reply to an email (or two!) - I will reply but it may not be in the next couple of days...

If you don't hear from me it'll be because I've succumbed to the charms of ET!

Edited to add: I think (and it's only think, rather than know!) that Lynne is going to share the hand piecing/EPP templates for 'ET phone home' but as I only told her yesterday that the templates worked I would think she'd need a few days (at least) to sort them out, ready for her blog...