I'm still having fun with my little square in square units. I must admit I have several quilts in the planning stages that will use truckloads of these, so there's method in my madness.

I forgot to point out that when I trim the 'ears' off the triangles the length is not exactly that of the square. I just make sure there is the same amount of the square material showing on either end, and that means it's centred. I did try to trim them the exact size, but having them smaller actually seems to work better for me.

Sheila made a comment about a special tool to trim the triangles, but no matter what the size I just muck around with the little square ruler until I find the perfect mark to use.


The units with light backgrounds are finding their way into these blocks. I have enough for 16 already, but I think I want 20. So I might just make some extra now, rather than waiting for the scraps to mount up again. I'm all enthused about this design, which is taken from a picture of an antique quilt I saved about 4 years ago. Time to get me a finished top.

But.... there are still 128 units with dark backgrounds, so I have to thnk about the design I wanted to put those into. I can't believe there were so many in the drawer, but it's certainly a painless way to acquire them, just sewing on a few scraps every now and then.

My son Matthew is 18 and has been helping me a lot in the garden. He and Mum were great mates, and when he was tiny he could be found next to her, companionably chatting and pulling up weeds. (he's the only male around here I'd trust to actually recognise a weed from a petunia!) Yesterday he wandered around with the camera and took lots of shots of the flowers, he must feel proud to have had a hand in creating the garden. I think a love of growing things is a valuable interest, there's always something to look out for and watch and tend, and I hope he keeps it. Neither of my other sons has any affinity with plants, but Mum taught Matt well.

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When I cut my scraps into pieces one of the things
I do are the shapes for 3 1/2" square in square units.

The centre squares are 2 5/8"and the corner triangles are 2 3/8". I cut these in squares too and then cut in half diagonally. I always have the back of the fabric facing up, because you can usually see the markings on the ruler better.

Then I trim the corners using the 2" mark on my ruler.


These shapes are cut from the small scraps I can't get strips from and I keep them all in a small plastic drawer.

Recently I noticed that the drawer wasn't shutting very well and the pieces had begun to invade the drawer above- time to do some sewing.



So when I worked at the local quilt shop this week I took the little drawer and it's neighbour and in the quiet times I made these - 52 square in sqare units.You'd think this would make a difference in the fullness or otherwise of the drawer, but look! It still looks full. Not bursting at the seams as it was before, but heck, I thought I would have had some space for the next lot of cut pieces. Keryn says they all just breathe out and go "Phew! Now we've got some room!"

So I'll have to sew some more before I can see the bottom of the container, but first I need to cut more centre squares, which will ADD to the fullness of said drawer before I can start emptying it....again.







And in another drawer, far far away.......

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When Keryn was working out her colour sampler class I made a set of blocks too. Initially we tried to make it all totally random, with numbers for each shape in the block and a sort of lucky dip process of finding out which fabric to use where. Rather complicated, and it also resulted in some wishy washy blocks, as you can see.

Now it's easier to play with the fabric pieces and put them wherever you like, which is much more fun. I must make another set, with a slightly more complicated block like Keryn's, because you get a more varied effect. But I still quite like these.

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More rose pictures were requested, so here they are. (Keryn has been begging, not to say whingeing about the lack of them). I live in the mid north of South Australia, and the climate is classed as semi-arid. It seems to be perfect for roses, as long as you keep the water up to them, and fungal diseases are rarely a problem. Unlike Keryn 's garden in the tropics.
Yes these are the roses Keryn and I pruned back to stumps in June or July, and now I can barely squeeze between them and some are almost over my head. Some of the David Austen's are heartbreakingly beautiful, I keep coming back to gaze at the clusters of heavy blooms and sometimes I have to tell them out loud how gorgeous they are. (Yes, I talk to my plants!)

The dark rose is a Burgandy Iceburg, the yellow one is Charles Austin(I think), the yellow and peach one is Reknown's Samaritan and I don't know the name of the little pink-tinged cream one as it was in the garden when we came.

What a pity Mum didn't get to enjoy the first spring here with all these glorious flowers, but the roses and gerberas and ferns we brought from her garden are flourishing and remind me of her constantly. Which is a fitting tribute to be sure.

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Spring has come here and the roses have been beautiful. I've been working in the garden a lot and so no sewing or blogging has been achieved either. I want to get everything well mulched before it gets any hotter, and that means I end up pretty tired and dirty and without much urge to sew or knit.

I know this won't last and once the garden chores are done I'll get back into my other persuits and have something to blog about.

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No one can accuse these socks of being boring to knit! This was from ebay too, and I was a bit dubious because the skein looked a real hodgepodge of colours, but it's really good fun to knit. Love that red stripe.


I decided I had to get a new leader ender project because I've amassed 44 of these blocks and I didn't want it to be a particularly big quilt. ( the blocks are 6" finished) So I'm interviewing candidates for the next L-E position and trying to chose a setting material for these blocks. As they are made from a selection of dregs from my 2" drawer ( no strips, just the pieces less than 8" long) I kinda want to use some material for the setting that I'll be glad to see the back of.Nothing too precious because the blocks are sooo scrappy and jumbled. I'm sure I've got a piece of 80's calico that will fit the bill- somewhere- all I have to do is look for it. And as we got rain for the first time in months last night, and the day has dawned cool and grey, I think it would be a perfect time to pull out boxes and containers and look through all my stash.


Keryn and I used to love rainy winter days when we were young. Mum would let us go through her material drawers and ransack her wool stash and we'd get all her old knitting magazines from the 40's to look through. We had a slow combustion fire in the kitchen and we'd settle down in front of that, sipping tea and looking at our pile of books while we decided what we were going to cast on for next. Even this morning, as soon as I saw the wet ground and the deep grey-blue clouds outside I thought "Oh, it would be a good day to go through my wool!"

I've been collecting these fabrics for a few months, and something's stewing in my mind. Don't quite know what yet...... There are some rusty bricky reds that go with this pile and a few more of those strange blues. I'm leaving them out so they can speak to me, but I think this will be my next project, if I can stop the leader-enders from taking over.

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My completed blocks are growing in number, in fact I think I'm going to have enough for more than one quilt if I make all the pieces I've cut out. Never mind,it's a nice block to make, but I should have made it 9" instead of 12". This quilt is going to be BIG if I do what I originally intended.

I may use a lightning streak setting like this instead of a plain alternate block like the antique quilt I'm copying. There's still plenty of room for some vines or feathers to wind around, and it will use up a few more blocks. Bad thing is I'll have to make half blocks to fill out the edge, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Keryn's photo on her blog of all the little half square triangles laid out so neatly made me smile. This is a batch of triangle units, finger pressed open and waiting next to the iron to be pressed properly. They look like a tray of little sandwiches ready to go to a party! I quite often leave a project at a stage like this so that when I can work at my sewing again I've got a nice easy job to do first up.

Here are the latest pair of socks, ready to be cast off. These were really quite boring to knit because the stripe was so predictable. It took some discipline to do the second one, but finally I can cast on something more exciting. I always do a toe-up sock with a short-row heel when I'm using self patterning wool, but I love the traditional sock that starts at the cuff and has a french flap heel. I could knit them in my sleep I've made so many over the years. But the self striping wool looks much better in a short row heel and it's easier to judge the amount of wool you have for each sock.

It's suddenly turned quite hot here, and I'm hoping my knitting days aren't numbered. I shall have to knit regularly throughout the summer, even if it's only a few rows at a time, just to keeep my hands in training. This winter when I started to knit after a break of several years I found my hands ached quite badly until they got used to it. I'll have to do ten minutes knitting training in the cool of the morning this summer!

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Lookee what I got at the local antique shop! A pair of 40's shoes in perfect condition. The flash makes them look a bit greyed out but they're jet black suede and sooo comfortable I will definitely wear them.

I've always loved shoes from that era, and indeed others pairs have come to my attention before. But Keryn and I have little feet and nothing ever fitted, so I couldn't justify buying them just to look at. These will be worn to special occasions, but definitely not for walking very much. I don't want to be the one that ruins them after they've been looked after for 50 odd years.

Excuse the picture of my fat leg, it's just the angle of the camera, I swear!












And some irresponsible person put sock wool on ebay and look what they made me do! How dare they tempt me like that! There's enough here for another 7 pairs of socks at least! And because Keryn and I have the aforementioned little hooves I don't use up the whole 100g ball. Already I'm getting a collection of oddments that I might combine to make truly lairy socks. I've noticed on some knitting blogs that people are making blankets out of leftover sock wool, but my patchwork is for making lap quilts and throws and crib quilts and such. I refuse to knit them as well. It's getting hot early this year, but I will endeavour to knit as many pairs as I can before it truly swelters and my sock drawer will be stuffed ready for next winter.

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Life goes on and I have to do the things that make me feel better. And of course that involves sewing...My good blocks are slowly coming together, but it's hard to get back to feeling enthusiastic somehow. Part of me wants to hack up huge swathes of material and chainsew like mad, for hours on end- what strange sort of therapy is that? I don't know, but I feel as if I need to see some really quick progress on something after months of devoting my time to others.

I plan to rearrange my quilting tables and make my space more efficient, that always makes me feel better too. Sometimes even if I can't sew, I sit and refold fabric, or shuffle it from one drawer to the next, and the feeling of the fabric, the mechanical movements of my hands sorting it out are soothing and help me sort my thoughts out too. And the best thing about tidying my sewing space is that it inspires me to get in and mess it up again with some new project! Even more therapeutic.....

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Sowing

It was a perfect day.......
Nothing undone
Remained; the early seeds
All safely sown.

And now, hark at the rain,
Windless and light,
Half a kiss, half a tear,
Saying goodnight.

Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917)

Keryn's blog

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Thanks for the comments on the pink quilt. I don't know the name of the pattern, it was a doodle on graph paper, along with about four variations that didn't make it past the trial block stage. I did the quilting myself on a Janome 4000, and the pattern was from one of Keryn's pattern packs which I'm too lazy to go and look up. Care to tell us Keryn?

This is a quilt my local patchwork group made as a fundraiser recently. Everyone joined in the piecing and I quilted the finished top. It's reversible, and I can't decide which side I like more. I did it very simply, a wavy crosshatch in the main part and a very easy leaf shape in the little border.

I'm still plugging away at my blocks and they're looking very nice, but the leader -ender blocks are so simple they're enticing me away from the matter in hand. Didn't I want to put time and effort into something worthwhile and soul satisfying? Somehow the heap of bias seams in the 'nice' block have none of the appeal of the hundreds of little 2" seams that just zip through the machine like no-one's business. Concentrate! Focus! This is going to be a 'good' quilt, remember?


It makes me realise how much I love the 'process' of what I do. I rarely think of the finished product, nor do I have a specific purpose for it. I don't NEED more quilts, or handmade socks but that doesn't even give me pause to think when I'm deciding what to do next. I've had some people say to me that they've got a quilt on every bed, so they don't need to do any more. It makes me go cold all over to think I'd have to justify my sewing like that!

Keryn and I were saying the other day that if we end up in a nursing home together we'd be fine as long as they let us have some pointy objects to keep our hands busy- knitting needles, sewing needles, pins.....whatever.


My auntie was the last of ten children during the depression and money was very scarce. At school she did sewing and craft and they had to learn to knit. She duly got her ball of wool and needles and made a scarf, a hat and a pair of socks, one after the other. At the end of term the teacher wanted all the objects bought in to be marked, and Gwenda had to explain that her parents couldn't afford more wool, so she'd unpulled the scarf to make the hat and unpulled the hat to make the socks..... I think if I had just one ball of wool I'd do that too, the making is more important than the result!

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Here's the picture of the pink and white quilt as requested. I was making blocks to try out a few of my ideas and decided to use up some pinks on this design. It turned out alright, and the big white spaces left plenty of room for some of Keryn's quilting designs. I love getting a free copy of everything she does, one of the perks of being family!

I've heard of shoe fetishes, but I think I have a hand-knitted sock fetish. I can't stop making the things! They're just so portable and mindless, I can sit next to Mum's bed in the hospital and click away without disturbing her or needing much light. I can take them to a friends house and do a few rows, I even took the blue and yellow faux fair isle to a committee meeting and knitted in between voting on issues.

The worrying thing is I'll probably make them through all but the hottest days of summer, so next winter I may have drawers full of them. Oh well, I'll have to start a shawl or go back to knitting cotton lace like I did in my teens, if my hands will stand it. Somehow handpiecing isn't as convenient; I have to have a lot more equipment and I need my glasses for handsewing now, whereas I mostly knit by feel. I love keeping my hands busy, even winding wool into balls from the skein is therapeutic and soothing.

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One of my little mantras that run through my head is "When things get back to normal......" and you'd think by now that I would have realised there IS no 'normal'. There just seems to be a succession of upheavals and events and my mythical 'normal' existance retreats into the distance. Oh well, what am I gonna do, cry about it?

As Keryn mentioned on her blog Mum is in hospital, and will be there for some time. She's comfortable and seems happy enough, and it's a lovely little place. The nurses are kind and familiar and the kitchen staff remember she doesn't like chicken so they've got to have something else for Marj. I go up at five every evening to help her with tea, and we watch the sunset over the trees at the

end of the drive. A comforting little ritual.

But in protest at my disrupted existence I decided to start a "good" quilt, one that I've had drawn up in my ideas book for some time. I had a picture of an antique one , and I wanted nothing but gorgeous reproductions for this. The loot I got from Keryn's trip finally made me realise that (a), they are going to keep on making ever more beautiful fabric and (b), I'm going to keep on owning at least some of it. Therefore I have to start using my most precious bits or risk being inundated with these pristine fat quarters, some of which have not even been nibbled at in 5 or 6 years.

So I've started the process I really like the best, working out the trial block, deciding the pressing order (remember I'm a bit obsessive about pressing seams?), cutting strips and stacking them with military precision. I love the organising part of a new project, and the control of my fabric makes up for the things in my life I can't change. The world can be falling apart but at least my seams are pressed the right way!

Yes, a 'good' quilt. A 'nice' quilt. Not the usual scraps and castoffs thing I've been doing , but one that I can take care over. I want to make sure that each block is a creation I've thought about and not just slapped together.

Not that I haven't enjoyed my 'slung together' quilts, I have. But like my heroine Talula, I sometimes feel the need to put a bit more effort into what I'm doing, be a bit more precise about the final result. And I daresay if this ends up as a pile of blocks in a drawer I'll at least have made a dent in the gorgeous reproductions that I have so many of.

And there are always socks to be knitted.....

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This is a little wholecloth that I made from some of Keryn's patterns in her Treasured Forever pattern pack. I like doing these small quilts, the width of a piece of homespun, and able to be finished quickly. Sometimes I think it takes longer to mark the design than it does to actually sew it!

This has received a lot of admiration, but all I can see is a dirty big wiggle in one line of the basket. I wasn't that experienced when I did this, and I sailed on, content in the knowledge that I'd go back later and unpick it. Hmmm, four years later, and now I've convinced myself that I should leave it there to show that something can be not quite perfect and still nice to have around.

I have to be really careful not to be too critical of my own work. I don't judge others harshly, in fact when I teach, everyone says I'm very encouraging. I love to see that dawning realisation "Perhaps I can do this after all"

But if I'm faced with my own imperfections I have to struggle not to pick things to pieces. In fact just looking at these close-ups has me muttering "My Godfather, the rim of that basket is really blobby and the area around the flowers is too poofy and...."

And so what? Who really cares? It's a nice little quilt and is living happily as a topper on my spare bed and I say good morning to it when I see the sunlight catching it as I walk by.

And I guess my quest against perfectionism is helped by the fact that I'm really, REALLY lazy about unpicking and the discovery that if you wait four years you can probably live with those mistakes forever.

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I don't know why I want to do a Wheel of Fortune like Keryn's when I've already got 22 blocks like this made up. This was called an "Aster" in the book I got it from, but I'm not sure what the traditional name is.

Piecing the middle section (by hand) is an absolute doddle, very pleasant to do, even those little rounded triangles. And the ring of points is hypnotically simple too, I kept making more amd more. But joining the two together is a right royal pain in the ...neck. I don't like curved piecing at all, even though I usually manage to get it looking nice, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like anything I have to concentrate on. I like mechanical, repetitive movements that I don't have to bother my brain about. Basically lazy I suppose.

Another thing I hate about these blocks is pressing them afterwards. I'm the teeniest bit obsessive about this stage in any project, and even more so when it's hand piecing. Sometimes seams just have to go a certain way when you're working on the machine, and I can live with that. But with hand piecing you can make those little allowances go anywhere you decide, and I was determined to make these beggars behave, or else!

I finally worked out a system which minimised bulk and didn't distort the intersections on the front of the block, but it involved a bit of cussing and heated manipulation. I like pressing seams to one side, but some of these worked out better if they were pressed open, so there's a mixture in this block. Which is another thing that annoys me...

And pressing this block takes about 15 minutes and results in singed fingers every time.

Did I say I was a bit obsessive? I trim each seam to a scant quarter inch as soon as I've sewn it (it's just a habit now, and makes for a pleasingly neat wrong side, and dark material won't peek out). I also finger press as I go, so that makes life easier too.

When Keryn and I were poring over the few magazines around in1978 we couldn't work out what stitch to use when hand piecing, so we decided on backstitch for durability. I still do all my seams backstitch, and I'm so used to it that it's just as quick as running stitch. In fact, contrary to popular belief, I think handpiecing is pretty quick and my usual complaint is that I've run out of cut pieces. I can't seem to keep up with how quickly the blocks go together if you sew every night.

So why do I want to piece a Wheel of Fortune, when this is pretty similar? I dunno, but I like making the same pattern in different colourways so repeating myself is not a big deal. I liked reading about Tallula Bottoms who sometimes made eight quilts of the same design for grand-daughters or other rellies. As I said, I like repetition.

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Keryn sent me a wonderful parcel full of material and yarn and gadgets, so I've been as happy as a pig in mud sorting through it all. I like to play with new fabric for several days, sort of imprinting it on my mind, so this pile has been left out for me to fondle.
However, I didn't let the needles cool down from the pair of red socks before I was casting on some stripey ones with the wool Keryn sent-Regia Crazy Colour. I've already turned the heel, (in one day, I'm obsessed with seeing how the colour knits up) in fact I turned it twice because I didn't like the effect the first time and pulled it out. This is my sixth pair of socks this winter, and I keep telling everyone my goal is to have 14 pairs so I only have to wash them once a fortnight!

And I don't have stinky feet, so I can't see why this isn't feasible!
And Look, Peoples!!! There has been some sewing, at last.~ Just boring old blocks that I was making from the leader-ender 4-patches back in march I think. But they represent the first project that I've sewn in my new sewing room, which is almost sorted out, except for my fluro light. So this is a huge thing for me, finally being organised enough to sit down with all my equipment around and just stitch my little bits of fabric.
If you aren't a sewer I suppose it's hard to understand just how comforting this obsession can be. I, on the the other hand can't understand what 'normal' people do to make themselves feel better when under stress. Smoke? Drink? Meditate on their navels? Give me fabric and a machine any day.

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I'm Back! Finally I have internet access again, I was going mad after nearly three weeks without it. I like living in a small country town, but services are pretty erratic, to say the least. Musn't grumble, and patience is a virtue apparently...

We've been having a cold spell, the coldest June nights in 20 years according to the weather reports. I left my car out of the shed one night, and this is what it looked like next morning. I know it gets a lot colder in a lot of other places, but we're not used to this.

Years ago I made a big quilted jacket out of two layers of fleecy with flannelette for filling. I used to wear it when we lived on the farm and I was never cold, but the boys hated it. One of them dubbed it my "hobo coat" and forbade me to be seen wearing it.It's so cold I got it out again, I figure they'll never know that I shamelessly walk to the letterbox in it and even wave to friends going past instead of diving behind the fence. It's too tatty for a photo here, and I think next year I might lay it to rest in the wheelie bin. If the weather's not too cold....

We've got a new concrete path by the front rose bed, instead of the old rustic pavers that were there before. They looked nicer, but Mum couldn't use her walker on them safely. I have room for more roses now, I think it's a disease. I've bought three new ones this year, we dug up some of Mum's from her old place, and I had 30 or so in pots.... so even after planting 19 along the front path there are still twenty to go in the ground. EEK!! By spring it should all look stunning.

I promise that one day there will be quilting related stuff happening again, this is the longest I've been without my 'habit' for decades......

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