Orphan block update.

Progress is going slowly but steadily on the orphan blocks. They have been sewn together with sashings and corner stones. However after three episodes of reverse stitching due to my quilting attempts I am on a road that I like in terms of the quilting on these.

I haven't quilted much in the last six years - heaps of piecing as time allowed but definitely not much quilting. I have to admit I was very hesitant about quilting this table runner for many reasons. The first was indecision as to what I wanted to do, secondly I had lost my confidence about quilting it and I kept over thinking it and talking myself out of doing anything. I even attempted hand quilting - and I seriously can not hand quilt.

Coincidentialy at our quilting club one of the ladies has recently given a class on free motion machine quilting and has been talking us through the processes as to how she works and what works for her. I already knew most of what she said, as you do, but it was a very powerful reminder and motivating experience for me. I decided one day without too much thinking to just pick up the table runner and start quilting in the ditch. When this was all done I knew what I wanted to do next and that has continued as I have worked through quilting each element.

This table runner is a good piece to practice on as it isn't precious to me in the same way that something which is intended as a gift would be. This table runner is to be a utilitarian piece to give some protection to the main part of the dining table on a daily basis when we don't have a full table cloth on there.

I am still working on this but you can see some of the quilting that has been done already.

Here is the back which probably shows the quilting a little better.

Well this quilting activity is very addictive. I am worried that I will get carried away and over quilt it, however because it will be table runner I am not too concerned about that and the resulting stiffness as that might be an advantage on the table. Still have some to do .... So hang around and check out the final product. Let me know what you think of what I have done so far, would love to hear your thoughts.

See you then, happy stitching everyone

Donna-Maree

Orphan blocks progress ...

Hi everyone

I thought that I would let you know how I got on sorting the orphan blocks. Well here is the progress to date.

I had a look in my scrap 2" strip drawer and found snap lock bags full of goodies, things that I had forgotten about. Then I saw some bonus blocks left over from another project that I had trimmed (before realising it was going to take forever to trim them all and stopped) and thanks to the Bonnie Hunter way of thinking - I decided to use what I have and that if my star block was going to be different from the rest, that it will be quite different at least when you look up close. 

On closer inspection there is a bag there with 300 x 4 patches - labelled and ready to go - clearly they are for a project, but I have no recollection which one. Will have to give it some thought.

I will put these aside until I can remember what they are destined for. But it is a reminder for me to label things with more details.

So here is a collection of block parts that I have chosen to use to create the block bearing in mind the colours and contrast that has been used in the original blocks. I think it is going to look okay. 

I love this tray and use it to lay out block pieces - it was going to the secondhand shop when my mother in law was moving recently - I immediately saw its potential.

I used Bonnie Hunters webbing method of joining the block. It has taken a bit of effort to break my original habit of joining blocks but it has been worth the effort - Bonnie's way does definitely makes it easier and more streamlined and a bonus is that the block pieces are always in the right place reducing the need for frogging or reverse sewing.

Here it is all sewn together - when sewing blocks together like this I don't press until the block is put together, as then I can work out which way I am going to press the seams after I have sewn everything together. This is dependent on which way the seams are going and that decision I make as I am sewing.

Here it is amongst the others - can you spot it? Bottom third from the left.

I am trying to sort out what size to make the tramming and the four patches and am leaning towards 2" strips. This is the smallest that I have pre cut stored ready to go, so would prefer to use these.

Right then I need to go and make some decisions - see you soon.

Donna-Maree

Orphan blocks getting sorted...

I do not know where I got these orphan blocks but when I was tidying up the other day I found them and instantly knew what I wanted to do with them. Five of them were joined together with the background blocks that you can see on the left hand side. I unpicked these last night watching tv and I didn't think of taking a photo to show you a before shot. 

However for some reason I thought that there were ten blocks so you can imagine my surprise this morning when I counted them out and there were only nine.

This is how I am wanting to set them with tramming and four patches in between - this is destined to be a central table runner for the dining table. They need the tramming as they are not all created equal and some fudging will be needing to happen. So I guess another square needs to be created - even though the fabrics will be totally different to the other blocks I think they will be okay and I will put the block in the middle so it doesn't stand out too much. Thank goodness for Bonnie Hunter and her sensible attitude about scraps that rubs off on many of us.

Come back soon to see how this project has got on...

Happy stitching everyone and please leave a comment if you have time.

Donna-Maree