Nuts About Blog Hop.

Welcome to my day on the 'Nuts about' blog hop. Many thanks to Marian from Seams to be sew for organising the hop. It's been fun visiting everyone and seeing what they're nuts about and what they made.

I'm nuts about a whole bunch of things , sewing, quilting,  knitting, trying to paint, walking bird watching and a whole heap more. I tend to go through phases so for example I'll spend weeks being nuts about knitting and then I won't touch it for ages. The one thing that is a constant is that I love sewing. It doesn't matter what type of sewing, whether it's dress making, sewing curtains, quilting or embroidery I just find it very relaxing.

Now I love fabric and I do sometimes find it difficult to cut into a pretty length of fabric but I love what I can create with it. I also love trying to use up every last scrap of the fabric so there is no waste as it always seems such a shame to throw away the scraps because they look so pretty. In addition fabric here in the UK is expensive especially the good quality cottons so using it all up is essential.  So I have to admit I am nuts about making scrappy quilts and other items from my scraps. It's fun to see just what you can make with what's left over

For example this quilt which is my header photo was made mostly from pieces of fabric left after other projects or some fabric that I was given. My Rainbow group designed the pattern and learnt how to use the sewing machine by sewing the squares together. I finished up the quilt that was then donated to the Linus project.

The Tetris quilt made when Melissa from Happy Quilting ran her quilt along was all made from scraps.

 

 These little mini totes not only use up scraps but make great gift bags.

The little schnibble quilts designed by Carrie Nelson are perfect for using up scraps

Which bring me to my project. My starting point was my box of 1 1/2inch squares.

I decided I would use these to make some 9 patch blocks that I would then set on point with a solid background. The idea was to make a set of 6 mug rugs.

So I made enough 9 patch blocks but I decided to use white as the background as it made the blocks look so pretty. Now white isn't a good colour for mug rugs so I decided to tuen this into a table topper.

I was sitting looking at what I had completed on Saturday morning prior to getting back to the machine and adding another row of blocks when I changed my mind again. I have a colleague who pregnant. It's still early on and she hasn't told everyone but I started to see a baby quilt. So instead of adding another row I started making more blocks. I also decided that when I got to the border stage (if I add one)  I would use my strip scraps to make it. This box is just one of 4 of strips

By mid afternoon I had blocks in various stages of development. Some were just a bundle of squares waiting to be stitched into rows. Some were at row stage and waiting to become 9 patches and some had already had some of the setting triangles added, with some needing the seams pressing and others ready for the second set of triangles. It was at this point I remembered that this project was being made for this blog hop. Opps I'd got completely carried away and forgotten what I had set out to do.  So I need to apologise to you all as I don't have a completed project. Saturday was my last chance to get the main stitching done as we had visitors on Sunday and I'm working this week. By the time I get home from work I'm just too tired to get the machine out. At this point I thought about just making the table topper as I had all the blocks ready made and it would be quick and easy to quilt and finish it. By now I had set my heart on making a quilt so I decided against it.

This project needs quite a bit of work on it. The blocks finish at 4 inches when sewn together. That means I need lots of blocks. It a good job I'm also nuts about making blocks.

You need to visit the other folks taking part today, who are:

MeadowBrook
Sew Many Yarns
From This To That
Seams To Be Sew

There is also a giveaway but I am having serious problem getting the linky bit for it to work. Please go to Seams to be Sew to take part. I'll try and sort it in my lunch break.

Enjoy the rest of the hop and good luck in the give away. 

Lyndsey