Friday finish.

I usually have Friday as a day off but today I was working and I thought the working day would never end. I was interviewing all morning and in the afternoon I needed to catch up on a heap of paperwork. Finally it was time to declare the weekend open, move all my work bits  and computer off the dining table and set up my machine. As I got myself organised I could feel my blood pressure dropping at the thought of playing with fabric.

I wanted to get the top of the latest baby quilt finished today. When I stopped last night I had three rows of blocks joined together and two more 16 patch blocks made for the final row. I started by making the last two blocks and then needed to pick out some 2.5 inch squares for the corner stones of the sashing. I got Lucy to help with this as she asked me to make the quilt for her friend's new baby daughter. Next job was to sew together the horizontal sashing and then connect all the rows together. I wasn't sure I was going to get it finished today as by this time it was getting fairly late and we still needed to have dinner. Lucy offered to cook and I finished as the meal was ready to serve. No time to waste as I needed to pack everything away so we could eat at the dining table.

The top is now finished and I'm pleased with how pretty it looks. I used up 217 two and a half inch squares to make the quilt top plus 40 2.5 by 8.5 cream rectangles for the sashing. The sashing fabric was from my stash and was left over from fabric bought for another project. All other fabric used was from my scraps boxes.

The quilt will finish at 42 inches square. It's a simple but effective design and very quick to stitch together. Some of the scrap fabrics used are children's prints and there are items such as elephants, frogs, owl, a whale, kittens, tractors and a lion to spot

That's three scrappy quilts made this year and I still have the scrappy apple core quilt top to finish. Unfortunately the scraps are continuing to multiply and even with using up scraps on these quilts, the box doesn't appear to have got any emptier. I guess I'll just have to put more effort into reducing my scraps.

Recently I received a template with my quilting magazine for cutting hexagon log cabin blocks. As I'm trying new things this year I must give these blocks a try. It could be another good way of culling some of the scraps. I may play with a couple of practice blocks tomorrow to see if I like them. I'm still working on the apple core quilt and if you remember I also received the templates for this with my quilting magazine. I like the effect the apple core produces but sewing the curves is a bit of a pain as it takes so much extra time.

Tomorrow I want to make a decision about this quilt top.

I liked the top when I made it but I'm not sure now. I think it is the way the colours are arranged. Tomorrow I'm going to decide it's fate. I may complete it or alter it but I want it out of my store cupboard as I need the space. This was made for the rainbow scrap challenge in 2015.

Sewing is for tomorrow, for now I need to send Scamp outside before bed time. He won't be happy as it's raining. Picasso is rampaging round the kitchen having his pre bedtime mad half hour. I want the pair of them to settle down so I can read a chapter of my book before I settle to sleep. I have nothing planned for tomorrow other than making some bread and sewing. It sounds like a perfect Saturday.

I'm linking this post with Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict for her Can I get a Whoop Whoop? 

Take care,

Lyndsey