More pictures in place of actual crafting...

Another day, another night spent not really feeling like crafting. It may be the crotchet's fault, since I can do that while watching youtube and BBC news guilt free. You can't tell for looking at it, but I'm totally making something there...


Fortunately, earlier today I decided to get out and take a few more photos out at the woodshed. For some reason my camera was absolutely refusing to flash, so the ones in the actual shed all came out dark at the top. So I shifted out to the big bits of wood outside.

And discovered the fundamental flaw in making quilts that feature a lot of white. Curiously, the really white side (above - remember, this is all the one quilt) was fairly clean, which meant I could spread it out nicely...

..but this shot isn't so much "trying to be artistic" as it is "positioning it so the two big stains don't show."

I've re-washed it, so it's good again for now, and I chucked the green quiltlet in with it, to see how the poly batting washed up. Honestly? You can hardly tell the difference between washed and unwashed. It looks fine, but I like the way a cotton quilt suddenly becomes super massively crinkly when you take it out of the dryer.

And no, I didn't get any binding done...

Everybody, feel free to ignore this post. It's just the math for the Lattice quilt, in a place where I won't lose it, and can access it from my phone.

To make smaller quilt (as per blue and green) Approx 145cm square.

In prints:
cut rectangles 20cm x 10cm. Total of 36 (18 prints cut 2, 12 prints cut 3, 9 prints cut 4)

From 2 yards (1.8m) of solid:
cut 25 squares 20cm x 20cm (5 across width of fabric)
cut 6 squares 30cm x 30cm (3 across width of fabric) then into 12 HST
cut 2 squares 16cm x 16cm, then into 4 HST
cut 12 squares 10cm x 10cm (from rest of previous strip, and offcuts of 30cm squares)

Sew diagonal rows of squares and rectangles in pairs, except for centre row, which stays on it's own. Add large HSTs to ends of paired rows. Join all rows into top. Add small HSTs to corners. Wallah.

Oh, and for future reference, to calculate the length of a side when all you know is the hypotenuse of a HST; √(c²÷2)

Everything's a thing...

Today I did both a lot, and nothing very much at all. I washed and dried the new quilt.

The front, unwashed

The back, unwashed

The front, washed and dried

The back, washed and dried

I got a package from Thea in the mail, including some uber-cute flannelette, and I need to buy some more thermal interfacing to make this into a new stubby holder.

And in case she was wondering, this was the watch she forwarded to me, saving me $30 in stupid, OTT ebay postage.

And when I got home I finally worked out how to sync firefox across my two computers, I made a little pouch to check I still remembered how to do it, I packed some clothes, I found some car chargers, and I ate half a box of breakfast cereal. As I said, a lot, but not very much, and tomorrow will be more of the same, what with lunch for my dad's birthday, and going off to Adelaide to sew some zips and spend a whole lotta money.

First Finish of the Finishathon!

It's been a pretty good day. I got some good packages in the mail: vintage flannels and peeled cows from etsy, and a massive stack from Hancocks, which also included this:

After spending an hour or so cooing over it and making imaginary bundles in my head, I got to finally quilting the Green Pavement quilt. I wont lie, it was dull, slow and unfun. But 2.5 hours of quilting, 45 minutes of pinning, 30 minutes of handsewing the corners and 30 minutes machining the binding down and it's all done.

I did a foldover for this one, since the backing was not only on point, but I like it better than the front. I'd cut the wadding to an inch bigger around than the top was because I wanted a wide border, and just folded and pinned it to the width that covered the edge of the top. I was telling myself that I was being artistic and organic, but better adjectives probably would have been haphazard and lazy. Still, I really like it, especially from the back. The lack of an edge, both of the design and of the binding, is something I've decided I am a big fan of.

Hopefully I comes out of the washing machine still looking nice.

Question:

When the back of your quilt has more pieces than the front of your quilt, are you doing it all wrong?

Apart from the solid (Prima Natural Unseeded - I stocked up on 10metres today because it was 40% off) there's only one fabric in there that's not from a DS line - the one in the bottom right corner of the back and also near the top middle is from the Flourish line I made Kelsey's quilt from.

This back is for the Green Pavement quilt, and I'm hoping I can manage a fold over bindng for this one, because it's starting to dawn on me how very, very many bindings I need to do.

Pavement Maths

Well, after dying occasionally for the last few weeks, I think my laptop is doing it for good tonight, which means I'll be taking it for a visit to it's Uncle Steven tomorrow. My money's on it either being the wiring in the swivel or the graphics card. But I've never been that good with hardware, so I'll leve it for the expert to pull it apart and have a look.

In the meantime I have stolen mum's netbook. My fingernails are too long for the little keys, and I keep making typos.

Because I didn't want to deal with the trauma I finished off the green pavement quilt.

This one, like the pink one, is about 140cm square. It's couch blanket sized, a size I really like. It's quick, and it fits easily under my machine.

But having had a request for a slightly larger one, tonight I did some maths. Imperial maths too, and math that comes with pre-cut options. I'm not going to give assembly instructions for this quilt, just shopping and cutting instructions.

First up, you'll need two large print fabrics, at a useable 20.5" - this means about 55cm. One of these, cut into two 20.5" squares, the other, cut across two rectangles 20.5x9.5, and then cut in the other direction two rectangles the same size. This way your prints will all face the same direction.

Next up you'll need 5 fabrics measuring a useable 9.5" - about 25cm. From each of these cut four 9.5" squares, and cut any leftover fabric (from your large prints too) into 2.5" squares for your corner stones. Alternatively, two charm packs sewn into four-patch blocks should give you about the same thing (you'll need 20 squares) and you can use any leftover charm squares cut into quarters for your corner stones.

Finally, for the boring old sashing, you'll need twelve strips 2.5" wide - either use a jelly roll or cut up about 80cm of fabric. You'll get four pieces of sashing 9.5" long from each strip, for a total of 48 bits. 

You'll need 23 corner stones: if you haven't got enough from your leftovers (it depends on if your fabric is a useable 44" wide - I find a lot aren't) then you might need to ferret about in your scrap box - it's a good chance to get rid of some really little bits.

Use the picture above for an idea on the layout of your 9.5" squares or put them wherever you find aesthetically pleasing. My only rule with the corner stones was to not have any of the same fabrics touching, other than that I went with what I thought looked nice.

This should end up about 65" square - if you want a bit bigger then add sashing or just a border to the outside.

Green Pavement Quilt

The great thing about doing the pavement quilt a second time is that now I have one that I can use as a map to put my pieces on.

Only the bottom half is actually sewn, indeed, I haven't even put the sashing bits into the top half - it just looks like they're there becasue of the sashing bits in the pink quilt underneath.

I would have gotten more done had my brain not decided to spend the night being a complete and utter moron:

Point 1), 5 times 5 is 25, so I only needed to cut 4 small squares from each fabric. I forgot this, and had a minor freak out when I had 5 squares left over.

Point 2) 5 times 6 is 30, and I need 48 pieces of sashing, but I was quite certain that 6 strips sould be enough. I seem to recall I made this mistake last time. The number of times that 5 goes into 48 must be my kryptonite.

Point 3) you know how sometimes you'll put two bits together and take them to sew them but sew the wrong side, then you have to unpick it and sew the right side? I did this, then realised after I'd sewn 3 more bits to it that actually, I had done it right to begin with.

On the upside, it was very easy to put the half sewn quilt away - I just rolled it up inside the pink one.