how do I calculate fabric

Today my friendly bloggers I am hoping you will help me out in how I calculate how much fabric I need to finish the tula pink quilt.  I want to put borders on each block I think in black and then cut them on a slant,  here is a picture of what I am trying to do just using a bit of poly cotton for the trial piece.

The green piece is cut 8"  and the pink 7",  sorry the pink looks bigger must have had the camera closer as it is smaller really,   I used a 2 wide strip on each block,  think I need to do them 8" as if I use the smaller one there might be very little border or no border at all depending on how I cut them,   or maybe I need to make them larger,   advice please.

I do not think I will get them all cut at the same angle,  well I know I will not be good enough to do that but wonder what they will look like if not all the same?

I have tried to calculate how much fabric I will need    200 strips 6.5" and 200 9.5" if I make them finished to cut down to 8"square  so they will end up 7.5 when put together,  am I doing okay with this calculation so far?
Maybe I need to make them a little bigger but that will make the quilt so much bigger, this way it will measure 75" square plus a border and binding.  Oh yes need to add the border which will be in the black too,  not sure how wide to do that but that will need 2 strips 75" long and 2 well depends on how wide the strips are. maybe 3" so that would be 2 strips 81" by 3" or do these need to be a bit wider?  Then I need fabric for the binding, think this will be done in the black too not sure how much I need of that,  but sure you will all help me there. Well now to work out how much fabric I need, not sure how I go about this so the ball is now in your court   please help me!!

I trust this is understandable and please help if you can, hope to go to York on tuesday to get the fabric, there is a man on the market there who sells a good quality plain fabric which is better than my local supplier or do I need to buy kona fabric, that seems to be very popular and think I can get it on line,   price permitting of course. Think I am going to be in for a bit of a shock with cost.

Alfie and Tula

I thought I would share a photo with you all today of Alfie,  he is my daughter Helen`s cat and he comes to stay with me when she is away. I had him for 2 weeks in august whilst she was suning herself in Portugal.  He is a very large or should I say fat cat and last week was under the weather, as Helen was on a 12 hour shift, she is a nurse I took him to the vets.  An expensive visit £88 and a big ticking off, he weighs 7.5 kilos which they say is twice what he should weigh!  He is now on a diet, 2 pouches of food a day, no biscuits or treats and if he does not lose any weight his food will be cut back further.  Just as well they did not see him a couple of years ago, I am sure he was fatter then!!

Now for Tula,  I have 2 weeks of photos to add blocks 46 to 51

We are working on triangles at the moment,   well at least we were  |I have now done all 100 and they are spread out on my lounge floor,   a good excuse not to hoover don`t you think! I cut loads of them out  early last week and then over from friday to sunday stitched 40 so was very pleased to get them finished, now wondering what to do with my time!  I do not know what I will do with them but wondering about adding a border to every block, this way they will all be exactly the same size as some are  not quite right. Maybe grey would look good, it will be hard to pick a colour that will go with everything , I do not want to use white or cream as I think it will be too pronounced, what does anyone else think?   Thought I would also off set them but no hurry as we only load 3 onto the site a week. Here is a photo of them on the floor. They are in number order but will move them around to get a better effect when I join them up.  If I am honest I am hoping my good friend Cheryl will help me, I will have to arrange for her to come and stay as she is  in London and I am in Leeds. It will be lovely to have her here and might even be able to unload some books onto her! Cheryl is an excellent quilter and a great friend who I met up with at the festival of quilts, we also met Queenie who I am sure a lot of you follow on her blog.

This is the 100 blocks, just as well I do not use my lounge isn`t  it.

I still have not posted any quilt photos, will do soon but her is one of Queenie with her quilt and with me.

I am the one on the left in the orange tee shirt!  It was lovely to meet with Queenie and she shared so much info with me as she is a far more experienced quilter than me a mere learner. Her quilt is really beautiful

crazy quilting

At last I have got round to doing a blog.  It has been about 4 weeks, sorry will not overload you with things just my september CQJP piece and the latest Tula Pink blocks,, I have posted them every week on the web but not updated here so I have 12 to add.

CQJP september.

Not much happening in the garden now, just greenery but do have an apple tree so the centre block is just a branch of it with a couple of apples!  The hedgehog visited and was investigating the apple that had fallen. Sharon`s stencils have been useful again and a tatted josephine knot has taken up the top left hand corner block.Somehow this block looks rather dull not sure how to lift it, have used quite a bit of yellow, will see when they are all finished as to how to liven it up a bit.

Tula Pink blocks 34 to 45

 I have done these as a collage as there were so many, if anyone wants to see any in further detail I can let you have an individual photo.  I now have all 100 blocks cut out so ahead of myself which is good.

Two wonderful quilt shows will post some photos soon, sorry I have been lazy with my blog.

Yesterday I went to a group in Castleford, thought it was a quilting group but   well it is but it is linked to a flour mill that is being restored and the group meet to stitch things that are sold in the local market shop to raise funds to restore the water wheel etc.  I have come home with some blue fabric to make a cot quilt but will pop into the market this morning as I need some white to make up the blocks, They are using half square triangles in 2 fabrics 6" each a total of 15 squares so will see how I go on, if successful a photo might appear here.

crazy block

Another month has come so here is my block for the CQJP challenge for august. Think I might have been a little lazy with this  time, the centre flower is a little crochet flower and down in the bottom left hand corner was something i attempted on the embellishing machine  (can only improve). Only 4 left to do now hen will have to get the thinking cap on as to what to do with them all. There are a couple of Sharon`s stencil patterns here, a beaded dragonfly and of course more little bits of tatting. Over all I am quite pleased with it.

 It is also time for 3 more Tula Pink blocks. These are nos 31, 32 and 33.

courthouse steps bag

I have been playing about with some jelly roll that I have and decided to try my hand at the Courthouse steps block,  having made 25 blocks thought they might work as a bag so joined them all up and then made the back of the bag using strips of jelly rolls.   I mounted these on some bump with a muslin backing and hand quilted both pieces.   I used perle 5`s for the back,  this was a mistake as I thought it was an 8 perle.  The front I used 8`s in red and green,  working diagonals in the centre squares and just stitching up the centre of the steps.   For once I am feeling quite pleased with myself and at last feel like I am getting some where with my patchwork.    I lined the bag with a pretty piece of poly cotton,   I suppose you are tutting now that I did not use cotton but the bump is made from polyester so did not think it would matter.   This bag I will take to the quilt festival with me, lots of room in it too!   I even made a buttonhole on the tab fastening and covered a button with some of the fabric.

When I went to the local market to get the fabric for the lining I took my piece of bump with me  ( I did not know what it was ) and the lady said it was bump which is used to put between curtains and their lining.   Am I okay  to use it in patchwork, it is made from polyester, must say it was lovely to hand quilt.  Advice please.

Prior to making this bag I made another that was in the popular patchwork  bag special.  It is not as big as I would have liked in fact it is small  but was a good learning curve, will try and make another bigger as I am sure I can find things to put in it.  This one you cut the 2 pieces of fabric 9.5" by 15", it has an external pocket both on the front and the back.

I also used the bump in this one.  The bag I made prior that I put on my blog I think I will take apart and use some bump in it as it is very floppy and has no body, I put a small book in it and it went all out of shape,  never mind I have learnt by my mistakes!      Next think I want to try is a bit of machine quilting, I do have a walking foot which makes it easier so just watch this space but do not hold your breath.

6 more patchwork bocks

here are the next 6 Tula Pink blocks. I forgot to put last week`s onto my blog  although I loaded them onto the site so have last and this weeks to share with you today.

I have been busy,  on friday I did 12 blocks but holding them back until I have to add them to the challenge.

this is a bit of a mish mash with the colours, never mind I am learning all the time

think these strawberries look good enough to eat.

suddenly had a brain wave to photo them with a cut out frame around them, think this makes them look better as I am not planning to trim them to size till I decide what to do with them all.

not sure why this one has gone on smaller than the rest    oh yes I remember I took the photo wrong so flipped the block so that it was the way it should  be.

patchwork bag finished

Here is the bag  I made using the hexagons I had made from the batik triangles.    It has been unpicked twice,  first time I used polyester wadding and it was far too bulky so undid it.   I removed the wadding and muslin from everywhere except under the patchwork as I had hand quilted this.   I then tried quite a thick iron on vylene, did not like this either so managed to pull it off and finally mad it up without any thing apart from the black fabric and some very nice poly cotton for the lining.   I suppose it is a bit floppy but I am quite happy with it, much happier than when it had the wadding in.    Not sure if I will use it when I go to the quilt show, that had been my intention, mind you it is not very big for a shopping trip,  maybe that s just as well!
Will not bore you with lots of photos, have put the 4 on a collage,  close ups of the quilting,  the red I did in the ditch then added some small hexagons,  the green side I have done triangles on and nothing in the ditch. The green side is my favourite side.   Did consider machine quilting but need to have some practise at it first as have not done any yet.

I have turned the top layer down a bit so you can see the lining, think it is nicer to put a nice one in rather than using lining fabric.

patchwork bag

Yesterday I decided to play around with some jelly roll strips and came up with two pieces I thought I could use on the front and back of a bag.   I joined 4 strips together but made some of the seams a bit wavy and some narrower than the 2.5".   I then used my 60 degree triangle and cut out 6 triangles from each piece. Joined together I was quite pleased with the effect and have stitched them onto 2 pieces of black cotton which I will attempt to make into a bag.  Need to get some nice fabric for the lining and thought I might try and attach a thin strip of batik fabric to each of the handles, unfortunately do not have much left now so it will be different than the strips I have used.    Any advice on bag construction would be welcome.  I am not sure what I attach the batting to, the main bag or the lining.  Think it will be just a straight up and down bag with a 2" square cut out of the 2 bottom corners to give it a bit of fullness,  have a few bag making books so should have a read about how to go about it.  Do I need to do any quilting on it,  if I quilt it must mean I attach the batting to the front and does that mean I need another piece of fabric under the batting,    not sure about all this as I said earlier advice would be very welcome.  I know you will not let me down!!  

As you can see they are not the same size but that will not matter, I will have the green one as the front of the bag.

more patchwork

I am adding my latest Tula Pink challenge blocks this morning, seem to be keeping up with them, have actually done next weeks yesterday too but will not put them on till they have gone on the sew sweetness site.
                                                               block 22

block 23

                                                                   block 24

I am pleased with 22 and 23 but 24 leaves a lot to be desired!!  When I upload them to the site there is a cropping tool which I have now found and this does make them look a bit better but 24 was beyond help!

We are enjoying the most glorious weather here in the UK at the moment, how I love to feel the warmth of the sun on me, must admit would rather be sitting in the garden than walking about and it must be quite unpleasant working,some of the spuermarkets, shops, offices etc etc do not have air conditioning the air is pretty poor in these places,    the staff seem to be coping, our little Sainsburys is very bad but it is closing for a refit at the end of the month,   wonder if they will install a cooling system then as they really need it. Mind you we do not often have weather like this, they have said on the radio this morning it is the longest spell of hot weather we have ever had.

pin cushions and more

Today I will share some pin cushions I have made recently,   they are nice little projects which stitch well whilst enjoying the sunshine in the garden

there are 3 star shaped ones,   2 made with 1.5" hexagons and the larger one with 2.5" ones. I found this tutorial on  the abyquilt blog. The small blue one is the same design but put together wrong so it came out flat instead of star shaped. The biscornu I think I have shared before on my biscornu collage.I rather like the green one below the biscornu made with 8 2" hexagons, this one I found on the  Lindlady blog. The oblong one I made years ago in the candlewick style and has been the one I have used a great deal. It is filled with sawdust so the pins do not rust. Think I have finally found someone who can give me some after a lot of searching, not sure if I will re stuff all the others or not, time will tell.. The pink and blue one is made from 60 degree diamonds that I found through a link on Anneliese `s blog the stitching lady, I am now doing one with 45 degrees and think this will come out longer. The final one under the large star is a whirly gig one from crazy mom quilts blog,  have just realised that I have got it sewn together wrong, the left hand bottom piece needs rotating,  will make another soon, hopefully correct this time.

I know I was given advice as to how to put a link on  to other sites so you can hop over to  from here but sorry cannot find the instructions, maybe one of you could let me know again and I will try not to lose it this time.

Here is my CQJP for july

  my flower for  july is the foxglove, I have lots in flower at the moment, all self seeded from next door,   the bees have been so busy visiting them. Only one or two are this pal lemon colour mostly they are purple but have stuck with my colour way and done the lemon one.I have also put Sharon`s stencils to good use,   they are a great buy and will have a play so I can make more of them but they only arrived the other day so rushed into them without looking at all her suggestions that I downloaded.  One of the best buys I have made for a while.The butterfly is rather blue but saw on this colour when I went to tropical World with Helen last month and thought I could get away with the colour as there is blue in the feather stitching and think it sort of pulls things together, likewise the tatted red piece in the bottom left hand corner linking up with the red in the top left hand corner.The snail was stitched as I am overrun with slugs and snails at the moment,   can`t pull pellets down as they are poisonous to the birds.

I also put together a rolling nine patch block which was in the popular patchwork magazine for june. Quite pleased with this one but would like to work out how to make it a smaller size as it measures 15"

pinwheels and Tula

It is time to add my latest three Tula Pink blocks, when I load them to the sew sweetness blog each week I have to load them from flickr and I am able to remove the background and square them up but have not found how to do that here.

this block is not as crocked as it looks on the photo I have not trimmed any yet, will wait till the end and see what I am going to do with them.

pleased with this one, sorry about the thread, did not notice it till now.

this one is rather boring!

Have decided that doing small blocks is more difficult than the bigger ones, thought little would be easier but these have changed my mind, sometimes there as as many as 24 pieces of fabric so loads and loads of  seams. But I will not be defeated and plan to do all 100,   a big big challenge for me but enjoying it, maybe enjoying is not the right description!

A few months ago I bought the pinwheel magic 4.5" template and then could not work out how to use it but the other day it was being promoted on create and craft again and have now got my act together and have done it a few samples of the three shapes it makes, once again the poly cotton came out, they take more fabric than I expected and the A block has quite a bit of wastage which will go into the little scrap stash I am collecting.

this one I used 3 fabrics on  template A

this is template A again with just 2 fabrics.

here is template B

this is from template C

My favourite is template A and can see me doing some more of these but have not worked out about colours or if I can make a few all different and will they go together okay or will the pinwheels not be seen if multi coloured,   any information will be greatfully received.

Helen`s move went well, delayed by a day but she is in and loves it.We are still unpacking, I have had 2 days off since a week last monday and feeling very tired but at least it is only 10 mins walk away rather than over an hour and 2 buses from where she lived before. Will go round this afternoon, she has been on a night shift last night so plans to have a sleep this morning then plod on in the afternoon.  I took the lawn mower round on sunday and cut the lawns and also removed loads of dandelions, previous people obviously did not do much with the garden but they had a wonderful trellis with clematis, roses and other things growing, unfortunately the flowering is almost over but here is a photo anyway.

we have to bend our heads to get into the further part of her garden, you can see the rose, they are massive but past their best.Helen thinks she is going to do away with this trellis I do hope she changes her mind, need to find out about pruning and see if we can keep it.

one of the roses, unfortunately no scent but large and beautiful

more patchwork blocks and potatoes

It is tuesday and I am a day late in doing my Tula Pink challenge,  have had the blocks stitched over a week now  but one I did a replacement for as I was even unhappier with it than some of the others.

block 16

the redo of block 17

block 17 discarded

block 18

block 17 in the 2 shades of blue I took apart a few times and redid , now I see it on the blog it does not look much worse than its repalcement. I must learn how to put the photo on without any table showing, discovered how to crop them  at last when I load them onto the challenge site today and think they look better, not so out of line etc.

My younger daughter Helen (37)  is moving into her first house tomorrow, she has been living in shared accommodation for a long time but has now got a mortgage and is feeling  `grown up`. I have been helping her pack, yesterday we worked long and hard packing all her books , clothes, kitchen things and bits and pieces,  fortunately not too much left to do today ready for the move tomorrow, we plan to bring everything downstairs and I have been good and written on the boxes where they are to go at the new house. Alfie her cat will come and stay with me tonight so he will not be too disturbed by the move, he loves coming here, won`t be surprised if he appears at my door when in the new house as it is a 5 to 10 min walk form me. Helen will also stay tomorrow night as her bed does not arrive till thursday. She has very little furniture of her own apart form her wardrobe,  chest of drawers,  dressing table and bedside cabinet which we bought for her years ago and we have fingers crossed the wardrobe will get up the stairs! Also has a fridge,  freezer, washing machine and 2 TV`s. We do not think the freezer will fit in the kitchen, previous owners have them side by side but Helen`s freezer we think is too wide. She has ordered a suite but we have to go and finalise everything this afternoon as it was ordered on the scheme that if the house fell through she would not have to have it but she got it at the sale price. Will now take 4 to 6 weeks for it to be made but she has an old couch which will do for the time being.

Thought I would share a photo with you all,    Helen is not one for cooking, being a nurse she does a lot of shift work and is not adverse to getting take aways,    the photo  is what she found in her potato bag which is meant to stop potatoes sprouting or going off!!

 Helen thinks I am mad as I take photos of odd things but who knows what this might inspire me to stitch, or maybe another blogger will be inspired!