Wednesday 7 May 2014

Mary Poppins was right.

At least the part where she sang “in every job that must be done there is an element of fun”.  Piecing the string blocks on the treadle and hand crank was so much fun, I soon had all the blocks I needed. Now on to cutting and piecing the hourglass block. In this case, putting this project on hold allowed me to re-read the directions for the hourglass pieces and get it right. Turns out last time I tried cutting them I was using the wrong ruler. The Easy Angle HST ruler is not the same as the Companion Angle Ruler which cuts a quarter square triangle. Thus my under sized units last time. And a finished block to get an idea of the end product:
001
This is the Pfefferneuse block from Bonnie’s String Fling book. Bonnie did a 6 X 6 layout, which needs 36 blocks. However I’ve decided to do only 5 X 5. I’ve had enough of big quilts lately, after Easy Street; Celtic Solstice and now Jarad.
Still plugging away on the Jarad Takes A Wife. A new shipment of shirts revitalized me and gave some much need variety to the chevron units. I would almost call a halt and make do with what is already done, except I have all the first units completed.  Did a count last night and there are still 28 of those which must be a miscount. I have 22 blocks finished. There are too many to layout anywhere so here is a shot of 12 of them.
004


they look much better with the sashing.







And I don’t think I mentioned another hand sewing project I started. It was the fabric’s fault. It was so beautiful. And I wanted something to hand sew this summer while sailing. So I started cutting and sewing another Kaleidoscope Star. Over the past weekend we had a road trip into Toronto so I was able to get a few done. Which ended up using all I had printed so far. Time to print some more and try to save them until summer, if it ever comes.
003 - Copy

3 comments:

  1. Hey Mary, very cool, you are using your treadle! Looks like you have been very busy! I know what you mean about big bed quilts. I could rotate through quilts on beds a lot before repeating! And lap quilts make great gifts! I like the colors on the Kaleidoscope!
    cheers, Claire W.

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  2. lovely projects mary.....true bonnie's quilts tend to be large, one reason i don't make many of them but now she is starting to offer smaller sizes which is really good...or bad, depending on one's UFO list...LOL....post more when you have 'em done...beautiful!

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  3. You're quoting Mary Poppins!! My favorite line to quote is "Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way!" I am happy to have found your blog and will begin following! Yay!

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