Mini Archie’s September Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something

This month has been a bit of a rollercoaster for my new quilt project so this might be a long post. Or a short one, depending on what my fingers decide to type and whether the brain fog rolls out a bit. Let’s see, shall we?

First, some terrific news: there’s a UK shop selling (and making!) quilt stamps! Head to ZiggyWigglesStamps to see their stock - they even do custom stamps so if you don’t see what you need, maybe send a message and see if they can help? I’ve ordered some hexagons and am thrilled to say that they’re excellent quality and will definitely be ordering more stamps at some point. (Some have 3/8 “ seam allowance and some 1/4” so be sure to notice that if it will affect your plans.)

Last month the project looked like this:

And I was merrily going along and enjoying both the process and the progress when I got this far:

Can you spot the bit which made me stop?

It’s those two side-by-side scallop/clamshell squares

As I’m stamping the squares I need, fussy cutting isn’t quite as exact as when you’re cutting with a board and ruler nor when using freezer paper templates (or EPP) and I hadn’t really considered how it would impact my use of the panda clamshell fabric until I saw those two squares side by side and instantly hated how it looked. Fortunately, it was the big mismatch in levels I hated rather than the fabric and as I loved the fabric (and couldn’t find anything else I liked even half as much), my friend and I set about working out how to tackle it. In the end we decided that the best way was to alter the prepping method for these squares (not something I’d usually do, I like to stick to one prep method for the whole top) and to use freezer paper templates rather than the stamp. I stamped a couple of squares onto freezer paper (and cut them out along the sewing line), traced the clamshell and lower arc onto them, and discovered that my elderly (must be about 20 years old) iron was about the give up the ghost:

Didn’t even do anything! I bent down to plug it in and when I stood up, there
was a rusty bit of metal next to the iron

I crossed my fingers that it would last long enough for me to make two test squares (it did!) and cut them out so I could pin them together to check:

Much happier with that

I then ordered a new iron (I wasn’t risking it becoming temperamental and scorching the fabric, I was already in enough peril!) and while I waited for it to arrive, I stamped and cut out a few more squares. When the iron arrived I started placing them on the fabric and got 35 done before I became absolutely convinced that not only did I not have quite enough fabric (despite carefully working out when choosing the fabrics in the first place) but I didn’t have anywhere near enough as I was ‘losing’ more than I’d expected. Unfortunately, it turned out that the fabric was released in 2016 so finding some in the U.K. was tricky. My friend Cath put her amazing search skills to use and found some people with fat quarters they were willing to part with (including herself!) and I decided that probably the sensible thing to do was to make enough freezer paper squares for all the pieces I needed (192 total, minus the 35 I had) and roughly lay them out on the fabric I had. It turned out that I did just have enough after all (I wasn’t convinced even by the time I got down to about 20 left to place) as long as I was careful, and thanked my lucky stars for having back up if I needed it, not needing metres of back up after all, and that I had only stamped a few at the start. This is how it looked with them all pinned on:

Gosh, that’s both tighter than I’d like but also more leeway than I was expecting

I started to iron them all on (using the wool felt pressing mat a friend gave me as sitting at the ironing board to do it proved difficult for a variety of reasons), doing just a few at a time when I realised that just tracing the clamshell onto them wasn’t enough to place them properly (no, I don’t know why either) so I had to unpin each one, trace the lower arc off the master square and pin it back on. I did this a few at a time and then later went back to iron those few on and trace round them twice (once for the sewing line and once for the cutting line):

One of those jobs which is actually nicer to do than you think, especially
with a favourite podcast to listen to while you work

A few squares had to be moved to the spare bit due to issues with seam allowance at the corners (it looked enough when they were pinned but wasn’t when you ironed them on) and by the end of it, this is how much I had left:

Blimey, that’s tight

Thing is, that’s also the selvedge running down the right-hand side, so here’s how much useable fabric I have left:

And here’s how many ‘spares’ I have in house, as it were:

Thank goodness for Cath - she has two FQs and a mutual friend has
almost a full one so, barring disaster- no, I’m not going to complete that statement!

I’ve now got them all drawn round and the fabric cut apart but have not yet cut the squares out properly (my hands/wrists/forearms/elbows won’t let me) so this is the current state:

Is you planning on doing somefing wif these sometime soon?

My mini objectives for September were to:

Add more squares to the top - done (let’s not mention the six I'm going to remove and replace, eh?)
Stamp and cut out more squares - done (just not quite as anticipated)
Maybe sort out remaining destash stuff and see how much I can send to new homes - not even thought about it

My mini objectives for October:

Cut out at least four of the new clamshell squares to give me six new ones in total
Unpick some of six old clamshells in the top and sew new ones in their place
Maybe destash?

Linking up to the September Furtle

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share. This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up. Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome. If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Please add the Furtling button to your blog post: copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email. This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 10th October; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the September Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

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Archie The Wonder Dog

Mini Archie’s September Furtle Around The Blogosphere

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