Strangely, Kathie and I had decided to work on sixteen patches at the same time, and so my design wall looks much like hers. There aren't as many on mine  because I was using them as leader-enders while finishing the album blocks, but I'd love to forge ahead and make a heap more, now that the blocks are Done! I love the photo of the sixteen patch in the book she shows, I think Keryn's got that so I might have to dig it out and study it.

It really was a struggle at the end, sewing the outside triangles onto these. I'd been handpiecing them, and had left a zigzag edge around them- not bad to fill in by hand, but very slow going. I bit the bullet and started setting them in by machine, with lots of pinning and back stitching. Ugh!!

I think if I had to do one more I'd be sick, but all twentyfive are now finished and trimmed, which was rather hard on my hands. Phew, these blocks had better go together nicely, they've been a hard slog so far.

 Such old old fabrics, little calicoes and sprigs, bits of sheeting from the Actil factory, cut up  clothing from the op-shop, good patchwork fabric from the time when it cost $5.99 a metre (shocking!) and my whole stash of it fitted in a couple of  boxes.I can remember saying that when it hit $7 I would never buy another piece, then $10, then $20... Now that most of it is $24-$26 a metre I know better than to say I won't buy fabric. But I've got so much I'm not as tempted these days either!

I'll probably set this with a solid fabric for the sashes and try to use up the last of the old fabric on the back. I didn't have much when I made the blocks, but I've picked up more at garage sales and sales and scrap bags, not to mention Keryn giving me her bits to get them out of her own stash. I think I'll have enough....

 They don't look too bad after all.

Read more...

 I don't know what book this picture is from, Keryn took a photo of it on one of her trips to a friend's place in Sydney.  I loved the shirtings in the setting squares and the random colours of the blocks, but somehow I ended up using very light shirtings and mid values in the blocks, and suddenly it wasn't the quilt in the book anymore. Oh well, it's done now, and if I make it again I'll know what fabrics to avoid. Or I could just tea dye the whole thing to make it look darker, I suppose.

The fabric I used for the top and bottom borders is darker than the book, but I liked it anyway.

 I thought the sides  looked a bit unfinished, so I made borders of 3" x 6" bricks, which I was happy with.

And I've chosen another old project to finish, these rather dingy album blocks from...dare I admit it.....1987. That's quite appalling, Matthew wasn't even born, and he's 25 now. I know Keryn would ditch these in a flash, because some of them are quite ugly, but it occurred to me that I could finish it and use it on my bed and not care if Pippi lay on it. The fabrics are so dull that it's not likely to show the dirt, and all my hard work hand piecing these needn't go to waste.

 I had to find some material for triangles around the edge on a few blocks, and I had no trouble dredging up some stuff  of the same vintage. I still have a drawer full of 80's and 90's bits, and I intend to set these blocks with pieces of it, and sew the backing for it too. It will be so good to cross this one off the list after so many years....

Read more...