Sewing, but not blogging

I suppose I should have predicted that three posts in six days would result in a blogging blackout but I didn't.  I bet some of you did though, didn't you?!


Here's what I've been up to:


I'm going to intending to finish off the lovely cushion from Katy (I think this project is a veteran of the FAL list!), make my first ever foundation pieced block into a block keeper/stitching book (using Cathi's examples as inspiration) and, just for laughs, see how far I can get with a double bed-sized blue and white nine patch and snowball quilt.  (Not as far as a finish, I don't think, but miracles do happen!)


I've already got a finish! (No, not the quilt!)

The front.
You can see a photo of the back here.

Inside

Rolled and tied.

I'm about to start a new hand piecing project (no, I haven't finished joining my hexies together yet!) and I'm going to need somewhere to keep all the pieces because there's no way I'm going to manage to stitch a whole block in one sitting which is why this FAL project suddenly shot to the top of my list.  I wasn't intending/hadn't planned to do quite as much quilting as I ended up doing so it has shrunk quite a lot.  It was going to be square but isn't now(!) and the star isn't quite in the middle of the front because one side needed trimming to square it up - there wasn't anything I could do was willing to do to even it up so it's staying like that.  I've added a length of twill tape to the back so that it can be rolled up if necessary but I wanted to make something that could be shoved in a bag in a hurry, etc.  All I need to do now is prepare some pieces for the new project from this lovely lot and I'll be set!

Fabrics for my new hand piecing project, mostly charm squares.  More photos here.

The other thing I've made progress on is the blue and white quilt.  I think the last time I blogged about this I'd cut all the 2.5" blue squares I'd need.  In February I started to piece the (128) nine patches and at the beginning of this month I started to prepare the (127) snowballs and, after a mammoth block arranging and labelling session last weekend (there were 255 6" blocks to arrange - it took ages!), I've started to join the blocks.  This is what I have so far:

I'm pleased with how they look, thank goodness!

Actually, I've made another set of ten but that's part of a set of 25.  (Confused?  See my map, below!)  I'm not joining them in rows, I'm making nine sets of 25 and three sets of ten and then joining them so that I have as few really long seams as possible - I find it a much easier way of working but it does require, for me at least, a map:

A quilt block map.

There are more photos of the blocks and how they're going to be arranged, etc., here.

I've also added some more hexies but I'll save that for another day because I think that's quite enough to be getting on with!

Finally, you may wonder what Archie's been up to while all this stitching has been going on.  Well, it's a dog's life:

What, more sewing?!

It's hard work being cute all the time, I think I'll just have a snooze...