Sunday, August 14, 2011

New Fabric, New Blocks but Problems Ahead

I bought this beautiful fabric from Amitie
Lucky me, it was on sale!


And started to make some blocks.



I had bought a roll of linen from Spotlight months ago and used it for all sorts of projects. Unfortunately I have run out of it with half my blocks unfinished. A dash to Spotlight was unsuccessful as they had run out of the plain colour. I now have to wait for a new shipment and of course the dye lot is bound to be different.
Meanwhile I started hand quilting my Snowball Quilt. I had meant to machine it but the machine has been playing up big time. I think it needs a major service but I have no idea where to get one. Last time I found a wonderful man who comes to your house, has a cuppa and lovingly cleans and revitalises your machine. Alas he is nowhere to be found.
I am quilting Snowball with perle 12 as it has a thin batting and I wanted it to be a bit more delicate. I got out the trusty freezer paper, traced some plates to make circles, ironed my stencils on the snowball and sewed around it. Freezer paper makes great templates. I would never draw on the quilt in pencil, which is what I saw a lady do in a store. She said that she washes the quilt afterwards and the pencil comes out. My templates can be reused lots of times. The only pain is that I have to keep getting up to iron another few on.


The granny squares have been progressing too. They are so portable and easy to pick up for a few minutes that they are my school day time filler (not that I have much spare time).

I'm just going to keep going with these till I run out of wool. Actually they are more bamboo than wool. Really soft. I bought 8 balls for about $25. They had a great sale on and as this was a first time project I didn't want to spend too much. Wool is so expensive these days. 
My issue with these squares is that you have to sew in all the loose ends (boring) and also my tension is terrible. Sometimes it's nice and tight and sometimes really loose so the final sizes of the squares are all different.



3 comments:

  1. Great projects, you've been busy! I'll keep my fingers crossed that you'll get your linen soon, so you can proceed with those blocks, which are looking lovely, by the way. What's it going to be, a bed quilt?

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  2. Running out of fabric brings on great new creative possibilities. If you can't find more of what you want, then "making do" with something else might not be so bad. I love your freezer paper template idea. I will try it! And your crocheted squares are lovely. I prefer them finishing at slightly different sizes. Another creative possibility!

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  3. Cute fabric! Suggestion- can you pick a similar linen in a different color to finish the rest of the blocks? Might be interesting! I love the granny squares.

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