First of all, do you remember me showing you these?
Bonus half square triangles from the autograph panel I made for Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt. I made some more using leftovers from my Postcards from Sweden quilt (no I haven't finished it yet), added some blank background squares and.............
This was it on January 17th, all I had to show. At the top of the pic you can see the aforementioned Postcards from Sweden, pined up because I really want to get on and finish it this year. How long has it been there? Going on two years I think, but who's counting?
But, here it is today
Too big for the wall even (well it is a rather small wall but better than no wall at all). I took this pic on the floor, the lighting isn't great but it is what it is I'm afraid.
It's 15 blocks square and measures 56.75 inches. The biggest size I could get from the leftover blocks was 4 1/4 inches and I didn't see the point in cutting them smaller to 4 inches, the 1/4s added up to an extra 3 3/4 inches on the finished top.
It's a free pattern from Kitchen Table Quilting, here is the link for the pattern. It comes in two sizes, I did the largest size but omitted the last row and added an extra one on the side to make it square.
I have a grey solid ordered for the back and I will insert some sort of improv panel using up bits and pieces of solids I have to make it wide enough, it's my favourite way of making a quilt back.
That's all I managed to make this month, I've been rather busy with the final edit of my husbands new book, the second in The Enlightened Spaniel trilogy which will be published the end of March. I must tell you, the first book is now available on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have it you can read it for free. On February 1st Amazon are including it in their monthly specials and it is only 99p in the UK. I don't know the prices in the rest of the world but I think it's on specials in other countries too. I have to tell you I am so proud of Gary, almost all of the 45 reviews on Amazon UK are five star, it's incredible. The book won't be to everyones taste of course, what book ever was? It's an unusual storyline.
I haven't told you what did happen to me this month, apart from getting locked out of my bedroom when the latch broke on the door, it took a professional to get it open, fortunately he managed without having to break the door down!
I digress, this month I became eligible for my state pension!!! Oh yes, I am officially a pensioner, I don't know wether to laugh or cry, although I was surely laughing when I got my first payment two days ago! I stopped working two years ago when I hurt my back so not going out to work isn't new to me, but it's lovely to have the income. I have a bus pass too, I can travel on local buses all over England for free, that's worth leaving the car at home for, the price of petrol.
The block of the month programme I was in last year is now finished, unfortunately my top isn't.
This is the most recent pic I have, I have done most of the next round but not the corners. I loved doing a quilt with Sarah Fielk, everything was very professional with the pattern released every month accompanied by a video, including videos for techniques that some may not have done too. The Facebook group was very active and Sarah was very approachable if anyone was struggling. I'm not taking part in this years but I wouldn't hesitate on partaking in another of her programmes.
That's all for this month, I will try not to leave it so late next month when I should have a finished quilt to show you, or at least have a layered part quilted one anyway. I should also have started the front of Chris and Sarah's wedding quilt, Sarah saw her perfect quilt on Pinterest, it's all HSTs, a bit like Postcards really, sigh............ Here we go again!
Until next month,
With smiles from
Kate x
Congrats to your hubby on his publication! That's a big deal, worth celebrating. I love the bright, sparkly triangle top. And the Block of the Month piece is really lovely! So glad you've been able to get back in your bedroom for a good night's sleep. We pensioners need our rest, you know, to give us strength to sew :)
ReplyDeleteOh no! More HST's! Will you be able to keep motivated to make it or do you love doing HST's? I love your finished HST quilt. It very much reminds me of Postcards in Sweden, just with more white mixed in! Good to see you blogging again, Kate and you are motivating me to get a blog post written.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that your husband is close to another book publication! Congratulations on officially becoming a pensioner. I think it was smart to keep the HSTs as large as possible and I hope you have fun creating in February!
ReplyDeleteOh! Wow! HSTs - it's trimming them all that gets me! I invested in a Tucker Trimmer ruler which definitely takes some of the fiddle out of the trimming :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking time to share your quilting month. I find writing blog posts helps me keep track of my projects and gives an incentive to keep going when I get a bit bogged down.
Enjoy your bus pass!
So much goodness in this post, Kate! Tell Gary congratulations! I can personally attest to the richness of this book.
ReplyDeleteI love your HST quilt. Thanks for sharing the link. Enjoy the perks of your pension. ☺
ReplyDeleteI love those triangles--they look like color confetti! And your Sarah Felke BOM looks amazing!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove your triangle project!
ReplyDeleteLove these quilts!
ReplyDeleteLike you, the less I blog the harder I find it to come back to, but two or three posts in a row usually do the trick. It's nice to see you have still been sewing though.
ReplyDeletebeautiful triangles! I look forward to the next post.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to your husband on the fav reviews on his book. Good luck with the release of his second book. You've got some fun quilting projects in the works. Love the BOM project and your left over HSTs project. Hope you continue to have time to stitch in February.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see you return to the blogland. Whether it is slow or rapid, the important thing is that you are sewing and sharing. And we are happy to see your work :-) Big Hugs to you.
ReplyDeleteYour HST quilt is beautiful - it looks like confetti. Very colorful and lively. The other quilt is also beautiful - calming and restful.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Gary on his second book! Will you travel on the bus? DH and I are lucky(????) enough to be in walking distance of two railway stations so use our passes often. (The question marks are because it means every Tom Dick and Harriet think it’s OK to park all around us, sometimes leaving vehicles whilst they go on holidays even!!!) Moan over!!!
ReplyDeleteYour HSTs are growing on me (oh oooh!) to the extent I’m wondering how much background fabric you needed? Although I really should finish some of my UFO’s before I start anything else!
It was lovely to catch up with you, missed you.
Hugs,
Barbara xx