Block book

I usually use my machine by day and hand sew in the evenings. I lay my pieces out on a tray and put that tray on the armrest of my couch. At least once, every evening, I kick the tray off. 

I needed a block book and here’s how I did it:

I cut 2 pieces of fabric approx. 35x 70 cm, and cut one of those pieces in half, and seamed those on one side.

Put the pieces on top of each other, right sides together and stitched 3 sides: the seamed side is left open. Sewed a ribbon in the outer seames. Turned  and ironed:

 Measured height and width, and cut “pages” just a cm smaller

I cut 3 flannel pages and 2 cotton ones and stacked them alternately. In my experience, patchwork block pieces tend to migrate to the adjacent page when a block book is closed. The cotton pages will prevent this ánd I can pin something on that fabric. The middle pages are both flannel, for XL blocks.

Sewed the pages together in the middle and placed them on the outer part, the dotted red. Sewed all layers again in the middle

 And last I cut two pieces of cardboard and put those between the 2 outer layers.

Now the outer layer is sturdy and the cardboard can be removed if I want to wash my book or want to fold/roll 

Ready to roll!

As I was sewing this, more ideas came to mind: a pocket could be added to the out- or inside of the outer fabric to store a pattern e.g.

Other materials,  room for a cutting mat…

Maybe next time :)

When the sewing mojo hits, it hits hard...

 So, during the time between quilting the blocks and making my mind up for a border motif  for the Farmer’s wife, I cleaned out drawers and boxes in my quiltroom. Donated a shopping bag full of fabrics that I didn’t like anymore ( or gifts from others that I never liked: neither person nor fabric LOL) and re-arranged fabrics that were keepers. I even cut out a piece of cardboard in order to fold all of my fabrics the same size, so I could get nice, even stacks....yup: omg 😮, lockdown fever perhaps?

I also came across a pattern I got for free when I bought the matching panel.

I tucked everything else I found in a box labelled “ UFO’S” and sewed this together frantically on and off in about 2 weeks time.

The pattern as well as the panel is called Thicket from Moda. I hoped it would make a dent in my black/white fabrics, but it turned out that my whites were mostly a bit off white instead of really white.

Not quilted yet, there was no backing available in my stash and since then, non essential shops are closed. Quilt shops are non essential, but that one is open for discussion if you asked me!

But! Note the red and whites appearing on the left side of this pic. O my, that was when the mojo really grabbed me by the throat,so to say. There was no stopping me now: I plunged into a red and white adventure!

Lockdown quilting

During the first lockdown, march 2020, I cleaned my sewing room and found the Farmer’s Wife quilt, hidden away in a corner, half of the blocks were quilted. I decided that I wanted it out of the way and finished! Goal was to handquilt at least one block per day. 

That went smoothly, but it took a while to decide what to do with the border. Templates I had were to small or to big and I had no idea what motif to use...Back in the corner it went.

When it came to the second lockdown last December I made a fan template, quilted every evening while watching Netflix and before I knew it.....tadaaaaa