Saturday 17 February 2024

Red Wonky Stars quilt

 I am steadily working through collections of blocks, mainly the result of RSC projects.

I had a lot of Wonky Stars in various colours and have been using them up in several little quilts.

Red is this month’s chosen colour so I picked out 13 blocks to make a hospital baby quilt. I chose two cream neutrals from my stash and cut 12 x 4.75” squares. When trimmed my Wonky Stars measured 4.75” square. A narrow neutral border brought the quilt up to the required size of 24” square.

I had a large piece if wavy red striped fabric which I used for the backing and binding.

I machine quilted it and I’m really pleased with the result.





Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

Saturday 3 February 2024

Another finish. A Wonky Quarter Log Cabin Quilt


 I made a great bright quilt based on one of Pola Quilting YouTube videos.

It’s Scrap Buster #10 Wonky Quarter Log Cabin #1

I love Pola’s style, using scraps, strips, recycled fabrics to create colourful quilts for charity, friends, family and so on. Pretty much what I do, although not so much recycled and I certainly don’t have the stash that Pola has. I enjoy seeing her hauls from the scrap store and how she deals with them. So efficiently too!

I watched the video and made a pile of quarter log quilt blocks using 2” lemon, bright yellow and vivid lime green squares. I so enjoyed the process. I watched how Pola tried out making a quilt by putting four blocks together in the middle and then going out from that centre.

 I had to do a lot of jiggling and measuring but it was such fun! 


Here’s my finished quilt, perhaps it should come with a warning to put sunglasses on before you view!


It measures 42” square. I quilted it with a design I saw on Pola’s Quilting. I have never have been brave enough to try before and I took Pola’s tip to go with the flow. I used a yellow thread - literally just had enough to finish the quilting and put the binding on.

Heres a view of the backing, a lovely bright jungle print.



No other quilting was done because I wasn’t very well and ended up in hospital on Friday. Hoping to go home tomorrow as the team has made great strides in sorting out my various problems.

Hope I manage to make a start on those Friendship Stars that I intended to do this week.

Joining up with Angela’s So scrappy RSC blog. Plenty of green in my quilt to qualify for RSC green theme.

Saturday 27 January 2024

Another Maternity Unit finish

 I decided to machine quilt this little String Quilt differently from the others in this series.

I used a decorative stitch which I was happy with.


After I made the previous String Quilt I had a length of pale blue binding left which I thought would JUST be enough to bind this quilt. Well, when I sewed it on I was about 1.5” short! So I rummaged around in my scraps and found a strip about that width so I “patched it in” and it worked perfectly.


Quite good I think!

I have also spent a lot of time on a very bright quilt of Quarter Log Cabins which I machine quilted and now waits for me to trim and bind. I hope to show you the finished quilt next week.

Not sure what to do next but I have lots of 2” and 2.5” strings that need processing so ‘I’m thinking of making some Friendship stars. We’ll see!

Linking with Angela’s  So Scrappy RSC blog.

Saturday 6 January 2024

3rd String Blocks flimsy

Having finished 2 baby String Blocks quilts at the end of December I discovered I still had a lot of strings leftover so I decided to start a 3rd one. For a little more variety I cut up some chunks from stash and made a flimsy.


That’s now waiting to be basted and machine quilted.

Still a lot of strings so I decided to make some quarter log cabins, using solid bright yellow, pale lemon and a lime green for the starter 2” blocks. I watched a youtube video by Pola quilting which gave me a starting idea for this next quilt which I’m aiming for around 40” square.

Joining up with Angela’s So scrappy blog.

Monday 1 January 2024

2 last finishes for 2023

 Happy New Year! Very best wishes for a healthy 2024, full of great sewing projects.

I finished two Maternity Unit quilts last night, hand sewing the binding down. Really pleased with them both. 

The first one used up more of the RSC Wonky stars. I have very few left, mainly red ones, so I think I will start making more as an RSC project this year. Whilst I was cutting binding for this quilt I also cut some 2” squares, ready for three yellow Wonky Stars kits.

It measures 25” square and I machine quilted it with a sort of spiky wave stitch across the block seams. On my machine it’s called G.
A couple of years ago I stocked up on backing when one of the quilt companies I favour had a sale. I decided to cut into it for the backing of this quilt.


I looked through my stash of novelty fabrics for the alternate blocks and managed to cut two squares from the last of my Winnie the Pooh fabric. I bought this fabric to make a Baby quilt for a friend’s newly born grandson Ben. He is now in his 3rd year at university! Time for that fabric to be completely used up I think! 

The second finished quilt was the second String Maternity Unit quilt. When I made the first I used a piece of leftover binding and added to it, using up all that particular blue solid. Enough for this quilt and also I think for another one.


Both quilts, side by side, don’t they look cute?


The trimmings from both of these quilts went into my String Basket along with some smaller chunks of scrap fabrics I cut into strings. I also cut the telephone directory papers for the foundations and also the central 1.5” white strips so I’m ready for another sewing session today.

I love making these small quilts, using up so many small scraps and strings as I make them.

Last year I made 16 quilts, many of them small Maternity Unit or Doll quilts. I gifted some straight away but others I have kept in my stash. I know a former pupil of mine is expecting a baby this month and I would love to gift her one of my quilts- I know baby will be a little girl and I have several to choose from! The rest will go to Project Linus.

Joining up with Angela’s SoScrappy RSC blog.

Saturday 23 December 2023

2 String Quilt finishes!


 FirstlyI finished my RSC String Quilt using only blue, green, pink and yellow blocks.

It measures 42”square and is machine quilted. I picked out leftover bindings using the four  colours of the blocks. I pretty much matched the colour of the blocks to the same coloured bindings. I’m really pleased with this quilt. 

This finish made me feel like making more string blocks, this time a little smaller and using a central white strip in every block. Again I used telephone directory paper for the foundation of the blocks. I trimmed the blocks to 4.5” and arranged them in four making a white diamond in the middle of the group.

I think it it really effective.


I found a good length of solid pale blue binding in my bag of leftover bindings and found a remnant of that same fabric to make more to add to the leftover piece. I had a piece of blue and lemon flowered fabric in my stash which was just big enough when pieced to make the backing.
Machine quilted, the quilt finished at 25” square.
I so enjoyed making these two quilts that I decided to make another straight away. My basket of strings was very depleted so I spent sometime cutting strings from larger scraps. I have made progress in sewing the 36 string blocks I need for my next quilt. I should have enough of the solid pale blue binding to bind this third little quilt. 
Joining up with Angela’s So scrappy blog for RSC 2023.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Sunday 17 December 2023

Finished the cushion covers

 I finished making the 36 string blocks for my next baby quilt for the local maternity unit. A real mixture of fabrics. Sometimes there was only one bit of a string scrap for me to use. I’m surprised how well the middle white strings stand out in the blocks.

Here they all are pinned into rows ready to sew later. The fabric next to them is the backing fabric.


The photo isn’t terribly good as the light is fading and I took it in the electric light.

We took my friend Margaret to the local pantomime yesterday evening. It was excellent - Beauty and the Beast. The script was written by a local chap who provides scripts every year for our Amateur Talisman Theatre. There are always jokes included which relate to our town of Kenilworth. We are very fortunate to have two Amateur theatres, the other one being the Priory Theatre. Our family and another family we know came too and a good time was had by all. I gave Margaret the finished cushion covers, wrapped up  for her to open on Christmas Day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they fit the special cushion pads she has and that she likes my colour choices. I have to say they were a real fiddle to finish so I hope they work.


The pattern is called Hidden Rails which I found in a Pola Quilting youtube tutorial.

I wrote and posted the Christmas cards earlier in the week and this morning I wrote and sent a whole list of Jacquie Lawson cards. I’ve decided to cut down on cards this year so actually sent email cards to many of the people I have previously sent real cards to. However that wasn’t straightforward as I managed to loose my work halfway through and had to start all over again! So frustrating. Another thing I cut out this year was my Annual Round Robin, replacing it with a short message instead.

Hoping to fit in a little sewing this coming week as I would like to finish machine quilting and binding the RSC String Quilt and also complete the baby String quilt. 

Joining up with Angela’s RSC So Scrappy blog.