More purple play and placemats

I have been calculating amount of fabric required to make a quilt for a raffle. We have a certain amount of fabric so had to work out the best size we could get out of all the fabric.

We decided on working out a French braid with a piping strip. So off I went and had a play. Out came my purples.

Cut into 2.5” * 6.5” pieces. We need 7 strips of 50”. How many pieces do we need for each strip. Well, I am a visual person so I had a scrap piece of wadding about 60” long. Perfect. Sew, sew, sew. Quilt as you go technique.

Yes I counted correctly. We need 40 pieces per strip. I have drawn out a design and calculated fabric. Wonderful. We have enough for a quilt about 60” * 72”. Now to put this braid to good use. 

Trim the strip. Guess a rough size for some placemats. I can get 3 out of this piece.

I had a scrap of this fabric that is perfect for the backing. 3 across the width uses it up.

Now I’m late to the party. I was at my friends and talking about putting bindings on fully by machine. I do this quite a lot on placemats and charity quilts. Just to save time. She was saying she uses her stitch in the ditch foot on her Janome. I didn’t even know my machine had one. Yes, it sure does. Foot G. What a game changer. This was a perfect spot to give it a go. This will be getting used more often now.

3 pretty placemats

All together. This makes 37 out of 50 completed….

So I am linking up with

https://www.sugarlane-designs.com/ for FNSI..Friday Night Sew in

&

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2025/07/scraphappy-saturday-purple-passions.html

Clearing out my black and whites.

 After having a great weekend making this quilt top with friends.

It was time to work out the backing. I wanted to make it scrappy too. Out came the pen and paper.

I never used to piece backings together but with scrappy I now do not want to use meterage. So I’m having fun with designing the backs. The strips for borders are cut.

Here is the start of it. It just looks like a normal block but they are 10” squares in the 9 patch.

And here it is sewn

Here is a side by side to show that it actually looks like the quilt block on the front

Now this did use up so much of my blacks. I think I only have one piece left of a plain.

Now to quilt it. I have cut a striped fabric for the binding.

The truck quilt is finished

 I had a lot of fun making this quilt. I used up so much of my black and white scraps.

Damien loved the quilt.

Playing with purples

 This month over at Angela’s is purple

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2025/07/scraphappy-saturday-now-in-purple.html

I saw this great tutorial on YouTube for a mini bucket bin. 

https://youtu.be/YKY-nZZBlr0?si=7EN2McqxdXjBdZnj

I wanted to give it a go. So I decided to use up some purple scraps.

Here is one

It was so easy and fun to make I made a second one..

This should fit a round margarine or takeaway food container.

One will be a gift for a friends birthday. Now what should I put in it.

CHOOKSHED challenge July is # 9

 Okay. What is my # 9.. hang your britches on the line.

Oops. Haha. My inner child coming out.

Progress on my Farmers Wife quilt. I have not touched this since 19th July 2024. The concentration and time required to do these 6” blocks has not been with me with what I have been dealing with. At the moment things are in more of a routine. I have finished some quick finishes but it’s now time to make a little bit of a difference on this quilt. So here is where I am at now.

And here are some of the blocks

Now to work out where I’m up to.

Thanks for the push Deana 

https://dreamworthyquilts.blogspot.com/2025/06/july-chookshed-challenge-number-is.html

A quilt for my son in law…..

A quilt for my son in law. It is his birthday soon and I have had this in mind for 2 years. It’s about time I got it done. So I pulled out the panel I had bought and showed it to my friend. A light bulb went off and I thought of how I could finish it. I was so happy that I drew up a design and pulled out my black and white fabric scraps.

Corner blocks have started

The blocks and road is growing.

Do I add the side borders to resemble the white lines on the sides as of the road.

I decided not to do the extra borders on the sides as the quilt was big enough. 

All the sewing on the top was done and I won bobbin chicken

The brightness in the sun light

The colours show differently in the shade

It was a lovely day outside this afternoon. The sun was out, no wind and very comfortable temperature. Great time to baste a quilt in the fresh air.

End of June….

 Where has the month gone.

This month’s colour was ORANGE for RSC and my challenge for June CHOOKSHED was to make placemats. This was an easy make so I don’t really know why I left it to the last weekend of the month. I suppose deadlines are good.

I have been so busy with a mystery and I couldn’t leave it go. I’ll start those posts soon. Then all this morning I was reading blogs. I haven’t really looked at them for over a week so say goodbye to a few hours.

Anyway for the orange. I pulled out my scraps

I’m even using scrap wadding. Yes, I overlap mine but I sew 3 rows of large zigzag stitch which helps flatten the thickness. These are only placemats and it works ok.

Sewing quilt as you go style and just sewing scraps.

Attaching the same binding on all of them.

Aren’t those zippers fun.

All 6 here ready to pass on to the group.

That’s now 34 out of 50 made

Thanks to Deana for helping us get some UFO’s out of the cupboard.

https://dreamworthyquilts.blogspot.com/

Have to wait and see what the number is for July.

Have a look over to Scrap Happy Saturday. RSC and see what others are doing

July is PURPLE

A good day of sewing

 I have had a couple of days sewing and I am very happy with my progress.

Using up some scraps and tidying up some baskets. 

This is where I am so far. 

I still have to sew the corner triangles. 

I have decided that this is big enough. I will do a scrappy binding. Very happy with this design.

Not sure where it will go but if I wanted to make another one in a colour way or larger it is doable..

It measures 56” * 72”

Now to choose a backing. I might copy the block and make it larger with a border top and bottom. Use up more scrap fabric…..

Why didn’t I think of this earlier

 Just a silly little thing came to my mind recently. I needed a new oven mitt and was going to make one. I was visiting my brother and the local shop had some on sale so I bought them.

I got home and ready to through them in the cupboard like I have done all my time living away from my mums. Stuffed in the cupboard with all the others.

What was I thinking. I had an idea to put some hooks on the inside of the cupboard door. Hang them up and they are always there when needed.

Such a simple fix that should have happened many years ago.

How I made my scrap block

 I’ve had some interest of how to make these blocks. So here goes…

*****************************

This is what is needed to make one 8.5" block

9 * 2.5" squares

1 * 3.5" square to be black

1 each black and white 1.5" * 6.5" strip

1 each black and white 1.5" * 8.5" strip

(Or you can cut longer strips, sew together then crosscut to size)

*********************************
Sew strips together and cut to 6.5” & 8.5” long…

Placement of pieces. Now let’s sew them together.

Sew the strips to 2 sides

Stitch diagonally. If you do another row of stitching 1/2” away towards the corner you will get a bonus block.

Iron over to check if you have covered the corner

All you need to work out what size quilt you want. Divisible by 8"

Ie: 48" * 64"
Is 6 * 8 = 48 blocks

Or 64" * 72"
Is 8 * 9 = 72 blocks

Cut away the bonus triangle and this is what you can do.