I've said before that Keryn gives me a lot of scraps and her binge of blue tops from a few years ago left me with piles of blue oddments and leftover cut pieces. It was getting too much, even for me!

I sewed up the cut pieces into hourglass blocks or squares, and then decided I was going to make another Blue Chain quilt using ALL the rest of the scraps. Just to make things interesting I changed the block size from 12" to 8" which meant I could use a heap more of the smaller bits. 

I can't remember when I started this but it's been ongoing for at least a year. I've done my best to cut everything into 1 1/2" squares or 2 1/2" triangles and I have decimated the drawers full of blue scraps. However I'd accumulated so many blocks that I had to call a halt to production- at last count it was nearly 300 4" blocks. Are you getting an idea of how much Keryn passes on to me?

I've set them into three panels and now comes the big job of putting it all together and deciding on borders. A finish is in sight....

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 When Bonnie made her Jewel Box Star I liked it, but wasn't tempted to start one of my own. Then I saw Jo's version and decided I could start using some of the white based neutrals I'd been collecting. And use brighter, more modern fabrics.

The 2" squares were my leader-enders for a long time, and the four patches built up in a satisfying manner. Then I binge sewed a heap of the 3 1/2 hst and put together the small blocks in another session. For some reason I moved on to other things, and they've been sitting in a drawer ever since.

Determined to move the project along I got an old magazine and laid out the blocks in groups of four to get the star effect, one lot to each page. (you have to start at the back and move forward) This container with the magazine inside has 14 blocks laid out ready to sew. The bits on top were spares that had too many repeating fabrics to go together, and don't think I didn't try shuffling things around! There's only so much faffing around I can tolerate with a project I'm not really wedded to in the first place. I have to make more of everything anyway, and these leftovers will be absorbed into the new blocks.

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Sometimes I think I'm just not meant to blog anymore. I had been taking photos of my sewing, intending to do a series of posts to get up to date. Then the SD card in my camera malfunctioned and dumped the lot. Not just my quilting photos but videos of the girls and all sorts of priceless memories. Sigh. I had backed everything up a few months ago but kept forgetting to do it again. Kicking myself now...

Then my laptop charger died and it's so old that I can't replace it. My DIL is trying to find a way round that and has set up google photos so that I don't lose any more photos, but REALLY?  I never ask myself "What else can go wrong because I don't want to invite trouble, but it all makes trying to blog rather difficult. Not to mention new blogger that everyone is complaining about!

So I've tried to document my projects as best I can (all the progress shots are lost) and hopefully do a series of posts to get up to date. Fingers crossed...

A while ago I found some leftovers at the op-shop, wedges that were sewn across the tip and ready to be set into a dresden sunflower sort of circle. I unpicked and pressed them  and was left with some skinny tumbler shapes. They were sewn into rows and a skinny border added. Now I'll add a pretty floral border and have a little cot quilt or wall hanging for my 50 cents. And I got to play with some pretty fabrics that I don't have in my stash.

 

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