Henrietta asked in the comments about the plant in my last post. This pot actually contains dozens of bulbs called lachenalia, and they were from my mum's garden. They reproduce readily. and every year there were more and more of them, which she faithfully dug up when the season was over, and then planted again next year. She had thousands of them, but she couldn't bring herself to throw any away, so it took weeks to get them in the ground. Every path and flower bed was lined with their cheerful ranks, and a self seeded tiny white chrysanthemum grew all through them. The effect was dazzling, and I want to try and replicate it in my garden too.

These were fertilised and grew much larger this year than when they were in the garden. When they die down I'll split them up and store them, they are so crowded in this pot there isn't room for any more. Their spotted leaves are quite handsome too.

I have some red ones from my MIL's garden, but they aren't as prolific and easy to grow. I've never seen them available in shops- I think they must be an old type and not as popular as some of the more flashy bulbs. I'll continue to spread them through the flower beds, but I'm not going to dig them up every year as Mum did. They seem to fend for themselves if left in situ, and it's one less gardening job for me.

It's been very spring-like here, and I had a sudden mad urge to stop sewing the brown brown brown Duck's Foot blocks I've been making and delve into my pastel fabrics.

 It wasn't until I viewed the photos that I realised this must be a reaction to the change of the season, all those pretty blossomy, flowery shades together.

I chose a pretty turquoise for the main colour, and cut up a heap of strips and squares for Bonnie's Pineapple Blossom block.

 

I've made the centres for twelve blocks to see if I like the process, and to use the smaller pieces from the scrap drawers. Next I'll have to cut  strips to get some longer lengths, and cut a heap more of the background squares. I'm having so much fun I don't think I'll stop at twelve though, these colours are making me very happy.....

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 I think I underestimated how much sewing there was in these multiple borders, it took hours and hours to cut and sew the strip sets. Then I had to attatch them and mitre the corners, quite an undertaking. The antique quilt I based this on had the blocks sort of 'floating' on the background, and I think mine have the same effect.

Keryn has a tutorial on how we do mitred corners here. I will say that I hand tack the fold in place without moving it from the ironing board instead of sewing it at the machine.( I slip a small cutting mat underneath so the pins and the needle don't catch the ironing board cover) And I will change thread colours as I applique this seam down, I'm a bit picky about things like that. I love this method of doing mitres, I've never had one that didn't work out perfectly.

Oh dear, Spring Fever has struck and I'm elbow deep in potting mix and seed sowing and garden clearing. I have a happy knack of being able to ignore the weeds and mess in the garden and just concentrate on the flowers, the colours, the joy of seeing things grow. I don't have time to maintain a spick and span garden, so I just enjoy what I've got.

But I think I might have gone a bit overboard on the roses this year. My brother dug up all his old ones and I rescued five of them and then I bought about ten new ones over the last two months. I'm crazy, but I can't seem to resist them. Now they're all shooting happily and a few have little buds appearing- I can hardly wait until the new ones flower and I can see whether they are as beautiful as the labels say.

When I'm watering this many pots in January I won't be quite so delirious, but that's months away....

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 I managed to put together this set of blocks, which have been maturing in their box for quite a few years. I just love sq in sq units and these blocks used heaps of them, so I really enjoyed sewing this. (I have another set of thirty in just blue and cream, but I won't mention them now...)

 I've lost the photo of the antique quilt I based them on, and couldn't remember what the border looked like.

I tried a sort of sq on point border, but it didn't do anything for me, and the top has been sitting on the design wall while I tried out different combinations. I think I've finally decided what to do, and I'll start sewing strips tonight with any luck. Stay tuned...

The other night at John's place he was making us a cup of 'proper' coffee, and when he put the cups on the table we discovered... a line drawing of a bottom

and a sort of mythical creature. He swore he did nothing to make these happen- must be his artistic talent coming out in strange ways.

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 My Bargain Basement top is quilted and bound and ready to put on the bed. I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and it should hide the pawprints and dog hair very well. I've never made a quilt for quite  those reasons before, but I imagine it won't be the last.

I ended up making it 7 x 8 blocks, and then I found a stash of 9 1/2" squares that I cut in half and used as an edge. I really liked the border in Bonnies book, but I'll only go so far for Pippi, much as I love her. If I'm going to put that much sewing into a border, it's not going to be a dog bed!

I thought using the cut down squares for the border was really nifty, because I didn't have to measure anything, just count the corresponding blocks, and I put a square in each corner to even things out. I didn't have to bother finding yardage big enough for the whole thing and the scrappiness suited this particular top. It's an idea I'll definitely use again.

 I used a new panto of Keryn's to test it out and it made a lovely texture over all the scrappy bits and pieces. I sewed three or four old bits of fabric together for the back- no photo- and got rid of about ten pieces of scrap batting from the workshop. I could probably still make four quilts from the pile of batting offcuts, but at least it's a start. All in all, I used a shedload of scraps of every kind, blocks, strips, backing squares, yardage and batting. Very satisfying.Thanks Pippi!

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 I put my other projects aside and began another quilt out of necessity. (That's what I'm telling myself anyway.)

I've been using my 4-4 Time quilt on my bed, but it's showing some wear because Pippi sleeps at the bottom of the bed. She has her own purple  quilt, but she spends a bit of time every night scratching around getting herself in juuust the right position before she settles down and I decided I needed another quilt to share the wear and tear. Preferably one that had minimal light fabric in it.

Surprisingly nothing already made seemed to fit that bill, so I had a quick scrounge around in my scrap bins and orphan units and made a start on Bonnie's Bargain Basement pattern, from 'Scraps and Shirttails'. I'd been thinking about this design, all I needed was an excuse to start!

It was blindingly quick, because I had a large amount of 3 1/2" strips and some squ in sq units as well as 4 patches in the right size.

 I tried this on the bed, but I want it larger all round, so I'm pulling more medium and dark strips  out to play with.

 It's been terrific fun, and there really is no right or wrong way to lay the blocks out, which I love. I may even make a pastel one to use up all the lighter strips I couldn't put in this.

So it's Pippi's fault I've made another top, and if this one wears out I'll just make another.

 This little face is worth it.

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 The first time I made these blocks I used 2 1/2" strips, cut at 6 1/2" widths, and a 2 1/2" square as a flippy corner. I still have all the trimmed triangles in a  box and haven't got around to using them.

 These shapes are easy to cut with the Easy Angle ruler. Just square up the end of the strip and then align the bottom edge of the ruler on the strip and cut along the sloping edge.

  Rotate the ruler and line the long edge with the top of the strip, and the sloping edge where you made the first cut. Trim at the side, and there you have two identical shapes, each sloping the right way. Do not flip the ruler over, just rotate it into place.

You can make these blocks sloping two ways and both are right, as long as you are consistent in the way you lay out the strips. Either have the strips ALL  wrong side facing  up, or wrong side facing down. As long as they are facing the same way, they will join up.  I lay a finished block on the cutting mat to make sure I was doing it right.

 I cut the dark pieces wrong side up,

  and also the light pieces.

However the triangles that go on the end of these strips I cut right side up, for the simple reason that then I could line up the points easily.

You can see here that I cut a strip that was folded in half .(I used the Easy Angle for these too)
The piece that faced up will fit perfectly on the larger piece,

but the piece that faced down has to be lined up with the top and sloping edge (no nice little point to match here) which seems more fiddly. Not wrong, as I can use both pieces, but if I can remember to cut them facing up I like it better. It's certainly easier to keep both pieces exactly aligned as you begin sewing, so to me it's worth it.

For each block you need the dark strip with a light triangle at the end, a 4 1/2"  dark/medium strip with a 2 1/2" square sewn on to one end and a light strip with a dark triangle at the end.

 Pretty easy if you've got them all sloping the right way.

When I press the strips I make the seam allowances go towards the small triangle. I don't care about pressing towards the dark fabric because I'd rather the seams nest at that point when the blocks are joined together.

Each block measures 6 1/2" unfinished and four of them together are 12  1/2" unfinished.

Now you just have to make dozens and dozens of these and play with the layout, they really are so easy to sew it's hard to stop.

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Remember Keryn's Half and Half quilt, from 2009? This is such a simple block, a sort of split nine patch in construction. She sashed and rotated her blocks and they make a wonderful pattern across the quilt, full of movement.

I was testing her instructions and decided to set my blocks together in groups of four which is a more recognisable split nine patch.

  I loved making these, and they used up a power of scraps from the 2 1/2" strip bin. The resulting quilt was donated to the bushfire cause, and I've been meaning to make another one to use up more strips.

  However I began  playing around to see if I could simplify the block even further, and came up with this.

  I started off making the pointed ends using 2 1/2" squares, flippy corner style but I quickly tired of that. I admit flippy corners have their place, but I can't throw away the cut-off bits and I have buckets of them already, so I don't need more.

I found a way to use the Easy Angle to cut this block, and I'll post some photos tomorrow. Even though this started out as a quick scrap quilt, I've also been playing with settings for the blocks.

 They can be used in any configuration that the log cabin uses, and I think I'll have to make a heap more to try them all out. I'm so easily sidetracked it's not funny....

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Bonnie was talking about log cabin quilts and I remembered this pile of blocks from about 1989. My goodness it feels strange writing that date, what a long time ago it was.

I had ended up with a large box which contained all our remnants from our dressmaking eforts, and some of Mum's as well. I decided to make a log cabin quilt, perhaps two, and send one to Keryn as a way to remember all these bits and pieces.

I became utterly obsessed  and every day I was at the machine, sewing these in batches of five or so. I couldn't stop and I had such fun going round and round adding to each block. Some of the fabric was terrible quality, but each bit held a memory and I was too frugal in those days to throw any scrap out, no matter what.

In these two blocks I can see fabric that were leftovers from a 'brunch coat' of Keryn's, two shirts, a halterneck dress and a skirt.

This sprigged fabric was a halterneck top that Keryn and I wore to death, but it was quite a coarse weave while the spotted fabric next to it was a dreadful chinese cotton that was so thin you could see through it.

 This block contains two beloved dark browns, the outer one was a skirt and the William Moriss type one was a dancing dress of mine from the '70's. It was a slightly brushed cotton and is one of my very favourite fabrics of all time. I still have the dress, but it is impossibly tiny and will never be worn by me again, sigh.The red check is from Mum's stash and was a skirt from a little dress for us.

The green was a wrap around dress of Keryns, the purple on the edge a dress that was never finished and the turquoise was from Mum's stash too. I think Keryn made a shirred dress from it, but it's a gorgeous vintage print I'd love to have more of now.

Matthew was about eighteen months old and he got pretty sick of me sewing all the time. I had a big old wooden chair with arms, and I used to let him climb up behind me and stand looking over my shoulder. He was quite safe there, away from the pins and scissors and he amused himself by turning me into a truck and driving me noisily around corners, jigging up and down and singing, brushing my hair into strange styles and sometimes even going to sleep leaning on me. Once I wondered at how quiet he was, and found that he'd been able to reach my container of bias binding and had unwound all the little strips and let them fall to the floor then stacked the cards neatly to one side. That took me a while to fix, but it had kept him occupied for some time, so it was worth it.

I sewed and sewed until I had 83 blocks ( the strips are 1 1/2" finished) and then tried to put them together. It was then that I found out that log cabin blocks can start twisting as you sew them, and you have to be really careful about squaring them up. None of the corners were 90 degrees and they were all decidedly skewiff. I tried nibbling away at each side but I was just making things worse so I had to stop. I didn't have a square ruler in those days so I put them all away in a drawer until I could find some way to fix the problem.

Now I have my big ruler I know I could have these trimmed down in half an hour, but the desire to finish these quilts has been put on the backburner and other more pressing things take over. Still, I've enjoyed looking at these fabrics, and I'm glad that I turned that big box of scraps into these blocks, even if they've been in the drawer ever since. Their turn will come...

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