Frankenbatts

As anyone who has read more than a couple of my blog postings knows I hate throwing usable fabric away. This includes batting (wadding in the UK where batting is what cricketers do!), especially now I have nearly used up my big roll of Soft and Bright by the Warm Company and need to splurge on a new one.  I started using this batting in my quilts in the UK because it behaves nicely and washes and dries easily, if line drying a quilt it doesn't hold too much water (weight) and in the tumble dryer it dries very quickly.  Anyway, I am down to my last couple of square yards in big pieces and didn't want to cut into them for my cushion covers. I dug in my bag of trimmings from the edges of quilts and came up with this:

My cushion covers measured up at 21" square, so I cut the long strips into 23" lengths and zig-zagged them together:

I just butt the edges together.

I use the longest stitch length and the widest width.

This seam will be invisible once the quilt is finished.

After a little time spent sewing I ended up with these:

Which are just the right size for my Dresden plate cushion covers, inspired by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

And my pile of batting trimmings is much reduced, though still enough to make another small Frankenbatt:

The cushion covers are now finished and in place on our sofa, much more in keeping with the weather than the Christmas ones which can have a few months rest.  Completing these was my stated One Monthly Goal for July and I achieved it by the 5th!

The zips/zippers (another word that gets change just a little bit crossing the Atlantic) were inserted by following this excellent tutorial from DIY Home Decor.

Today I am linking up with:

Busy Hands Quilts: Finished or not Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Quilting is More Fun Than Housework: Oh Scrap!

Quilting plans for July

Wow July is here already! With the warm weather and more time in the garden my quilting mojo usually takes a back seat over the summer, so to prevent that happening too much this year I am setting myself some moderate goals for July.  For my One Monthly Goal I want to finish a pair of cushion covers that I started only last month.  They need the centre circles for the Dresden plates adding, then quilting, making the backs and final assembly.

To help me get nice round centre circles I bought this set of pressing tools in San Antonio last week:

The heat resistant circles range from 2.25" to 4.5" diameter in quarter inch increments and there are two of each size.

The next project is not my stated OMG but I still want to get it done in July, this is my sunflower wall hanging that now needs sandwiching, quilting and binding.

If I get those done I'll probably move on to quilting Christa's Colors which is a UFO from last year and is already sandwiched and pin basted.

June OMG achieved

I have cut it fine, but my June One Monthly Goal is done! All things being equal it would have been finished early this week, but a trip out of town to Texas put paid to that plan and I spent last weekend frantically quilting the last part of the border and getting the machine sewing of the binding completed. Then with a push and a shove I squeezed the quilt into my suitcase on top of my tools, toiletries and work boots. A few quiet evenings in my hotel saw most of the hand sewing done, but I still had about 18" left when I checked out this morning in Austin TX. A quick Google found the Honey Bee Quilt Store so I headed there and was able to sit at their project tables and put in my last few stitches.

On my hotel bed, nearly done

At the Honey Bee, all finished

The Honey Bee Quilt Store

Photos added 1st July 2017 after I got home as the blogger mobile app was not co-operating with me at all as I tried to use it while away.

Back on Etsy at last!

Over last weekend I spent some time getting various ducks in a row and I am now back on Etsy as AhasakiDesign.  So far I have relisted some of my pre-existing items and will be adding new things over the next few weeks.  This is our company logo - a raven, which has meaning to my husband and myself.

This week has seen my sunflowers fully appliqued onto the background, next steps are sandwiching and quilting.

Having been infected by the Dresden plate bug I decided to make some new summery cushion covers for some of my throw pillows so I can wash and store the Christmas ones that are still being used.  The green plate will also have a yellow border and the centre circles and the backs will be yellow too.  So I'm still using up scraps and left over binding strips in colours for three different months of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Today I am linking up with:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017

Quilting is more fun than Housework: Oh Scrap!

Busy Hands Quilts: Finished or not Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Sunflowers!

On the wall over our dining table there is a space where I display a "seasonal" quilted wall hanging.  So far I have one each for Christmas, Spring/Easter and Hallowe'en. Three of my scrappy yellow sunflower Dresdens from last week are now well on their way to becoming a Summer wall hanging.


The border fabrics feature bees and musical symbols as this is partially a tribute to Manchester, where I lived for twenty five years, and which was visited by such tragedy in May 2017.


Today I am linking up with:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017

Quilting is more fun than Housework: Oh Scrap!

Busy Hands Quilts: Finished or not Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Yellow is the colour.....

... for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for June, and I have already been digging through my yellow scraps.  So far I have made 3 Dresden plates to go with my other colours:

As I worked on those they made me think of sunflowers and I remembered that I wanted to make a summery sunflower wall hanging so I made three more in different sizes:

 Now I need to find some suitable background fabrics and I'll be able to start putting it all together.

Of course after cutting all these petals/wedges I now have more yellow crumbs than before so a batch of crumb blocks will be forthcoming later in the month.

Green for my rainbow

I skipped April in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, multicoloured fabric, not because I didn't have any, but because I wasn't sure how I would fit it in with my imaginary quilt.  However, I have just caught up with my RSC creations for May and don't seem to have even made a dent in my green scraps, strings and crumbs despite making six Dresden plates and nine 4.5" square crumb blocks.

I have already started cutting into my yellows for June :)

Catching up! Part Three - Travel

In May I travelled on business for the first time in nearly a year, an almost unheard of length of time for me to stay in once country! This trip had been in prospect for some time but but finally came to fruition last month.  Firstly I visited Beirut in the Lebanon and found it to be a lively, vibrant and welcoming Mediterranean city.  I did have a slight hiccup getting through customs/immigration, spending a worrying hour sat in a side office until my passport was stamped and I was finally waved through to baggage collection and meeting up with my contact from Dubai.  The food was superb, the weather warm and sunny and the people friendly.


My second destination was Lyon in France, a city I had driven through and visited my client on the outskirts before, but this was my first opportunity to enjoy the looking around city itself.  Here I visited the Roman amphitheatres and the basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere both a very hot steep walk up above the river Saone partially through the welcome shade of Le Jardin du Rosaire (Rosary Gardens).  There were beautiful mosaic floors in the basilica that really appealed to my quilting side.  I took the funicular railway back down to the city and then the metro and tram back to my hotel. The public transport was fast, clean and convenient.



In this city of silk and weaving I managed some textile related tourism too, a visit to a tiny silk shop where they sell only locally produced items and have silk looms and a gold braid making machine that you are invited to turn the handle of to make a few more inches of intricate beauty. I also spent a pleasant few hours at the The Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs which had an excellent exhibition of silk weaving from Lyon for over 300 years as well as furniture and rooms covering a similar time period.  Well worth the 8 euro entry, but closed on Sundays and Mondays and no photography allowed.


After this I returned to Beirut for a few more days to complete my work there before heading back home to the USA.

Catching up! Part Two - Knitting

When I travel I knit and I had two projects for my grandchildren that desperately needed finishing off.  So while I was away for just over 2 weeks in May I finally faced the challenge of picking up and knitting the collar on my grandson's sweater and then the final assembly.  I hope he hasn't grown out of it before he gets it.....


I thought I only had to do the neck and front bands on my granddaughter's cute little cardigan, but then discovered I had made the back a whole inch too short! My trip gave me enough time to knit a new back (after several false starts with the lace pattern) and to get this all done too. 



So I now have another package heading across the Atlantic!

My socks have reached the almost finished stage, next I need to make them the same length and cast off.  Warm woolly socks all ready for the summer!