Random Ramblings

Nearly another month gone by and the clocks about to 'spring forward' despite the arctic weather.
I've been on annual leave for 3 weeks this month which has been wonderful and means I've had more time to think!
First up my March makes:

 

 

I made these 2 pouches to hold my EPP bits and pieces. I made one using a pattern I had bought from Elizabeth Hartman because I thought her pouches always look fantastic in her blog and on flickr. The other I made using a modified free pattern from Flossie Teacakes.  The Elizabeth Hartman pattern has lots of ideas for handles etc but the zip insertion technique is far better in Florence's  tutorial because you insert the zip first and then topsew the zip which includes both the outer and lining fabrics.  This gives a much better finished result as the lining fabric is held down and doesn't annoyingly ever get caught in the zip, which it does with the other technique. I'm pleased with them both and I just love the fabric.

 

I also managed 21 EPP blocks:

 

 

 

I've really enjoyed fussy cutting these diamonds and seeing very different end results.

 



 

 Only another 230 to go!

 

I've pieced together my scrappy trips around the world for Helena:

 

 

 

It looks really pretty in real life . Once I'd sewn it together though, I realised that the scrappy lone star that I'd made for the back, just wasn't big enough. This was also annoying so I made another larger one:

 

 

I've now got to sort out having one half star on one side and the other half star on the other side. There will still be a large area of negative space in the middle but it's not as bad as it was.

 

I've also made 3 bee blocks for Mary and I've pieced together a second top for Siblings together. I'm not going to post a picture until I've also finished the original. I haven't had all the blocks back yet.

 

The lovely Charlotte in her post of 5th March talked about how since coming home from Quiltcon she is going to make less quilts because she already has enough quilts in her house. This got me thinking... Apart from one quilt which I need to post to Siblings together ( just got to attach the label that Laura Jane kindly sent) I don't have one finished quilt in the whole house. Now why is this? I have 14 quilts in various stages of development. Half of these  I'm making for specific people as gifts, so they will disappear when they are finished.

 

 

 

 

 Another (above) is a Kaffe Fassett quilt that is one of the first quilts I attempted. I made it before I had ever quilted anything and I was so terrified of spoiling it by cocking up the quilting, that I decided to hand quilt it. That means it has been shoved in a bag never to see the light of day. I occasionally get it out and do a little more but as it is 6 ft square it is going to take forever to finish. I have not pushed forward with it either because although I absolutely love it for itself, it does not fit my decor at all.

 

 

 

 

 And this is another reason why I don't have one finished quilt in my house. My inclination when making quilts is for colour and variety, preferably with scraps. My house isn't like that- the aesthetic would be more toward the Denyse Schmidt very plain, calm quilts in solids with only one or two colours. I am planning to make one quilt like this  eventually (when I've finished the other 14!) The children have both taken the quilts I made for them away, so they're not in the house either.

I have got one quilt I intended to make specifically for my house, to hide a hideous leather sofa that Mr Hare inherited and will not part with. But, again I made it early in my quilting journey and (on advice from one of my local quilting shops !) bought the wrong wadding- a very puffy high loft polyester and then I hand basted it which took hours. As I used the only fabrics I could find at the time ( I had not yet discovered the joys of Oakshot cottons and all the other lovelies out there) and my tastes have changed. I can't face hand-quilting it and so it just languishes in another bag. 

One of the UFO's I started in a class and I don't like it , so even if I finish it it will be given away.Another I tried to make quick and dirty and it didn't work, so it will have to be recycled into scrap. A couple of the others are experiments, so I'm not sure if I will ever finish them but they will also be given away if I do.

 

I have received a lovely present this month

 

 

 

Linda sent me this gorgeous bird that she had paper pieced. It's just beautiful.

 

 

To finish my ramblings for today some gratuitous house fire pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So nearly 3 months on and I still have only a leaking tarpaulin over part of the roof and we've had the coldest Winter in decades!

 

I also discovered a new to me blogger The Bitchy Stitcher . Check out the ironing board cover March 12th 2013 if you want to laugh out loud!