A quick quilt update: cutting is underway

It's been a while since I've mentioned my patchwork quilt here, and that's mostly because not much has happened since I sorted out the materials from my stash back in January.  That's partly because life has been busy (when isn't it?) but also because I always find it hard to make the first cut. 

When I chose my materials I thought I probably had enough of each material, but I wasn't sure. Because I'm using a mix of materials, including some old clothes I've cut up, it wasn't that simple. But with a couple of hours, renewed purpose and weather that encouraged me to stay inside, this weekend my well used rotary cutter and mat and I became reacquainted.

I've started to cut the 2.5 inch strips, from which I'll cut thirty squares. And yes, I'm using the floor which has been tough going on my knees even with a cushion.  I've also learnt, or reminded myself that:

• there's a lot more cutting to do,

• I have plenty of material for this project, even from the clothes I cut up,

• sewing projects require ironing, and that's before I've even started on any seams,

• purpose bought material is easier to cut than repurposed clothes, mainly because it's already square.

I know that last one is pretty obvious, but using old clothes has meant more finickity cutting. I'm glad that when I arranged the materials in the basket by colours to see how they worked together, that somehow I also instinctively knew to mix them up so the upcycled fabric was interspersed with the purpose bought material. That's helped as after every more complicated cutting I know there's an easier one to come.

I'm about halfway through cutting the materials and my next task is to iron these ready for cutting them into the thirty 2.5 inch squares I need. I'm not a big fan of ironing and it comes to something when I iron more for sewing projects than for clothes to wear, although in my defence I purposefully choose clothes that need less ironing, I mean if you can, why wouldn't you?

Once I have the squares then it'll be a case of working out how to place them - the interesting bit - and cutting out the plain, background squares and I've a feeling there's a lot of those. I'm not focusing on that number right now though and I'm hoping it won't be quite so tricky as I've an old duvet cover to use for that.

But first, back to the ironing, and more cutting...

Thirty three materials from my stash

Last week I told you about my current obsession with scrappy quilts and how crazy my next project was and how I planned to sort out the material for it from my stash. I knew that I needed thirty three fat quarters, but as I didn't know what size they were I was none the wiser until I sat down and looked into it further. It seems a fat quarter is a piece of material approximately 18 inches by 22 inches, which was good news for me, as it helped me visualise the amount of material I was after. 

It turns out it also meant finding the material was much more achievable than I thought it might be. As you'll remember I plan to use material I already have, including some from clothes I've cut up rather than buy new material, so it will truly be a scrappy quilt. With my materials chosen I put them together to make sure the tones worked together and no one material, or colour, dominated.

I think it's worked out remarkably well, don't you?

THIRTY THREE MATERIALS CHOSEN FOR MY SCRAPPY QUILT PROJECT

As I looked at the materials together, my geeky-side came to the fore, and I wondered what the balance was on where the fabric originated. I wasn't surprised to learn that a third of these were from earlier donations from my mum. I was surprised to discover I could source the other two-thirds easily!

There's old shirts of both MOH and me, I haven't worn work shirts for many years but couldn't quite get rid of them so cutting them up seemed the next best option. There's old summer dresses, old skirts, part of a duvet cover and material I've bought either in the past or more recently.

With twelve pieces coming from mum, another thirteen are from clothes (and a duvet cover) I've cut up, leaving only eight from material I've bought.  And even that was a while ago; the green fabric at the top of the third column, I bought most probably in the nineties with a plan and a project that never materialised, and the V&A materials were from a trip there shortly after I took a break from working in 2014.

So for completeness, here's where each piece is from, top to bottom, starting in the left column:

1.  An old shirt of MOH's
2. Bought in a scrap bag
3. From mum's stash
4. An old summer dress
5. Bought from the V&A
6. From mum's stash
7. Bought from the V&A
8. From mum's stash
9. Bought online somewhere
10. An old shirt of MOH's
11. An old shirt of mine

12. An old summer dress
13. An old shirt of mine
14. An old skirt of mine
15. A childhood favourite
16. From mum's stash
17. From mum's stash
18. An old shirt of mine
19. From mum's stash
20. Bought from the V&A
21. An old shirt of mine
22. An old top of mine

23. Bought and never used
24. From mum's stash
25. Part of an old duvet cover
26. From mum's stash
27. From mum's stash
28. An old shirt of mine
29. From mum's stash
30. A childhood favourite
31. An old shirt of mine
32. Bought at the V&A
33. Bought at the V&A

Which means, it truly meets my brief of a scrappy quilt. Now for the next stage of actually cutting the thirty squares from each piece I need...

And then the hard work can really start!

Christmas cards: another year, another tree

Last weekend I knew I needed to find time to make my Christmas cards if I was going to send handmade cards again. I had a design - and a craft - in mind but hadn't worked out quite how to do that. So given the lack of time I decided to try something else instead. It's always good to have a backup plan!

I tested it out and it worked better than I'd hoped. With a plan that works and the motivation to do it I once again found myself making Christmas cards with trees on. Last year there were trees too, and I'm pretty sure there'll be trees again next year, because I want to go back to my original idea.

Just as well I like trees really isn't it?

This year they all have the same design, although there's still so scope for individuality.  I used material scraps and started out by placing the material on the cards, before tacking them down with some glue so I didn't drop them as I moved over to the sewing machine.

At the sewing machine I added an outline to the tree. I liked them before this, but this gave them the finish I was looking for. I experimented with how to add the stitched outline and found it easiest to do this in a continuous stitching movement. The bonus is this leaves a cute tree shape on the inside of the card too.

Then it was time to add a star to the top of my trees, a little sticky star was just the thing. In fact I found this the trickiest and was quite often juggling the stars and chasing them around the card to get them in place.

Phew, just as well I'm going for the individual look...

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and especially how time efficient they were to create.   

But that meant there was no excuse for not writing them. This year MOH and I shared writing our cards - we don't send a huge amount, and it seems we don't have an equal distribution of labour here. MOH wrote one and I did the rest, and boy you should have heard him moan about having to do that and why wasn't there a stamped "Merry Christmas" inside...  

Because dear, we want to write a personalised message didn't seem to be the desired response, but it's true. I know that I love to receive cards where people have added a short message so I like to do that myself. I'll apologise in advance to the people receiving MOH's card...

Ah well, until next year when once again I'll plan to start earlier than I actually do!

Do you send many - or any - Christmas cards? And do you write the same or a different message in yours? And do you write them or share the task between you?