Maple and Eucalyptus 1 to 90

Our Maple & Eucalyptus journey with Gnome Angel and Karen of Just Get it Done started on 1 July 2023 and day by day we made and shared a daily block. It's difficult to believe that our journey will end on 8 October.

There are only blocks with yellows left in my plan, no more pinks, reds and oranges as we move into the greens, turquoises and blues.

Whilst all of the blocks for row 9 are mostly sewn together, block 82 definitely needs some cosmetic surgery with an unpicker. I will leave that job until all of the blocks are complete but I am pleased to have pieced the other 8 rows together already. This project is definitely too big for my home-made design wall. It will be good to have a blank wall to put up other projects to work on.

 

Buttoned up week 2

I cut all of my pieces in week 1, except for some small squares for button B as I ran out of fabric and the borders and sashing haven't been cut, as suggested in the pattern.

I was excited to start so I started by stitching up the bonus heart button block first. These blocks work best with small scale prints and I love the floral and strawberries combined. I will substitute this block for one of the other button blocks. The spare block can then be made into another mini quilt for SCBU.

Then I made the four A blocks. This is the simplest block to get us started. I am making the lap quilt and you make four of each block for that size.

Keeping to schedule so far. I'd like to finish my Maple & eucalyptus quilt soon so as to free up my design wall.

Monday make - mini charm cushion

Durig our recent Scottish tour, we visited Banchory on the way back from Ballater, near Balmoral. We had a lovely lunch and strolled down the High Street, found a great hardware store where we purchased a toilet brush as a joke gift for our daughter. I then spied Deeside Stitches on the opposite side of the road. I had to visit and sent my hubby back to the car park, so he didn't have to lurk. I had a lovely chat with the owner and bought a mini charm pack of Astra by Janet Clare.

I had an idea for a cushion for my son's new home and shades of blue are in his comfort zone. I paired the mini charm pack with some leftover denim blue fabric from a Stevie dress that I recently made. I should have starched this fabric within an inch of its life as it shifted and distorted no matter how carefully I handled it.

A clever friend once told me that she only makes cushion outers the size of a standard Ikea cushion inner. I'm hoping I've converted from centimetres to inches correctly!!

I quilted the cushion front with a pattern called fast feathers but should probably have chosen a blue of darker grey thread as the medium grey dominates.

I used some Cam snaps to close the cushion at the back.  I hope Matt likes it and that the cushion inner fits nicely. I have to make some wrist straps for Matt too, at his request, which will probably be a last-minute make before my hubby goes to visit him on 9 October. I also need to buy him some decent pillows as his are very thin. My hubby will take the car on the ferry so I can load it up with all manner of things.

 

Maple and eucalyptus blocks 1 to 80

Maple and eucalyptus is a collaboration between Gnomeangel and Karen of Get It Done Quilts. There are 100 blocks to sew over 100 days. The sewalong hasn't had the joy of Angie' previous sewalongs as she has been ill and hasn't posted daily on Instagram or interacted with participants.  However I'm still sewing along and we have now finished 80 blocks. The finish line is in sight.

My quilt is moving from the warm colours into the cool colours and I particularly liked this block bridging yellow to green through to turquoise. I am starting to sort through the warm scraps and get them ready to give to a friend at a retreat in October - only three weeks to go.

I have stitched the first five rows together and rows 5 to 8 are also pieced. This means it should be quick to finish one we get to block 100. I am still trying to stitch two blocks a day during the week and none at the weekend which is working for me.

WIP Wednesday - Buttoned up QAL

 

I couldn't resist the latest pattern from Pen and Paper Patterns. It's called Button Up. Like the typography quilt I made last year, I'm going to be using a mix of Ruby Star Society fabrics on a navy background. My background has been ordered and despatched. Saira of Olive & Flo Handcraft is so prompt to despatch and refunds the UK sales tax.

We are now in week 1 and need to start cutting out our fabric. I am going to make the small throw size with one heart button which is a pattern bonus. I think I need to be very organised for this QAL as there are six blocks to keep separate. Looking at the timetable, I would hope to be able to piece the quilt blocks together at the Modern Quilt Club retreat in October, ready to quilt on my return home.

Monday make - scrap mini quilt

I had a much overdue tidy up of my Alison Glass fabrics on Saturday. The large pieces were sort of stored by colour with scraps sorted by colour too. I sorted all of the large pieces of fabric, folded them nicely and they are now stored by colour. I then went through the scraps and pulled out any pieced blocks which were from the maple and eucalyptus sewalong. Several of the blocks produce two half square triangles when only one is needed. These were then trimmed to either 4.5" or 2.5" square. I then worked from the middle, vaguely in rainbow order, filling with squares cut from the scrap bags. I didn't need to get any of the larger pieces out at all.

This was pieced into an 18" square mini quilt for donation to our local SCBU by our guild. I used backing and binding to hand. No effort there!! The neutral thread that I used for piecing also worked for the cross hatch quilting. A quick finish from scraps that will be contributed to the Guild efforts tonight.

 

I am pleased with how the piece turned out given that it was all scraps. Once I have finished the Maple & Eucalyptus quilt, I am going to give all my scraps to a friend who loves scraps.

Friday finish - Stevie 2

 

We returned from our trip to Scotland on Monday and we did so much walking in the eleven days, that I am absolutely shattered. we also did a lot of eating!! Whilst in Glasgow we attended the Big Sew Off session at Sew Confident. 

I was very bold and decided to sew another Stevie dress. I prepped all of the pieces before we left and even applied the interfacing. I had a button packed and a bias strip for the button loop. Of course, I put it in a safe place (inside the pattern envelope) and only discovered it as I was packing up.

Lizzie managed to not only sew a shark block (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman) but she also zig zagged together some strips of waste to make scarves for refugees for winter. Fortunately, I had taken scissors, thread pins etc. as Lizzie had travelled very light.

And yes, I did finish the dress. I was so chuffed and wore it that same evening. The weather was unseasonably hot in Scotland, and I had packed only one summer dress which appears in most of the photos of our trip!! I am not sharing a suitcase with my husband again as he packed a road atlas weighing .75kg and I pared down my packing and left a second summer dress.