Saturday ...

saw me trying to downsize my large HUGE selection of scraps, and today I have used my '15 Minutes of Play' to produce these.

I had bags (and BAGS) of selvedges which have to be used or thrown away (don't you just hate throwing things away - I do!) this is all part of the downsizing process for my collection of scraps before the 'BIG move'

 I cut 5" squares of calico (from scraps!) and laid the selvedges 'just' overlapping sewing very close to the edges, at first they looked really scrappy but, once trimmed I was happier with them. The top one is all Moda edges but the other is a random selection. I ended up by sorting the rest into 2 piles - those that have 'interesting information', coloured dots or are a solid colour and those that were just plain white or too narrow to sew, those I threw out and the others now fit into one small bag instead of several larger ones. I think I may use some larger scraps or some oddments of curtain fabric to back them before stuffing them and turning them into pin cushions or maybe make some bigger ones and make then into coasters or mug rugs.

My other project today was quilting the Blue star quilt (see previous post) I have used polyester wadding so it's quite thick, originally I was going to hand quilt but my hands are quite painful right now so, I decided to put it on the machine. I set the stitch length quite long (4.5 on the Husqvarna) so that if it puckered or the wadding was simply too thick I would not have too much trouble removing the stitching. However all went well. I used red thread on the front and a variegated blue for the back, I quilted in the ditch around all the pale blue shapes to highlight the stars and I have to say it came out quite well. I think I will try to find some red fabric to match the narrow border to bind it.

Its now 5.50pm and DH has called out to let me know he has a pot of tea waiting downstairs so I'm off to get something to eat and a cuppa, then I plan to veg out in front the TV and finish some doll clothes for H's 'new baby' as my shoulders are now aching from manipulating the quilt through the machine.

Byeee for this time.

Lx