We start making some blocks this week. Download Step Six instructions here.
You will need to find your 4-patch units from Step Two and the D/C and D/A HST units from Step 3.
Category: Projects
Not so Mysterious Quilt Step Five
You’ll be more than halfway through by now! Download Step Five of the not so Mysterious Mystery Quilt here.
You will need more of those Half-Square triangle units made in Step One and Fabric C Half-Square Triangles.
Not so Mysterious quilt Step Four
Step Four of our not-so mysterious Mystery quilt can be downloaded here.
You will need to find the Step One Quarter-Square triangles and the B Half-Square triangles.
Not so Mysterious quilt Step Three
More units to stitch in Step Three of our not very Mysterious Mystery quilt. Download the instructions here.
This week you will need your Half-Square triangles. You’ll never guess what you are going to do with them!
Not so Mysterious quilt Step Two
Instructions for the second step of our not so Mysterious Mystery quilt are here.
This time you will need the strips you cut. Depending on the accuracy of your cutting and the size of your fabric you may find you need to cut an extra strip or two so make sure you have any spare fabric to hand as well.
Little pieces
Barbara made a quick trip to The Corner Patch for essential supplies for some class samples and came home with these
The Layer Cake has been unwrapped and carefully starched before we share it out and the Charm packs are waiting their turn. But there was a free gift of the really tiny squares and they got unwrapped immediately and somehow arranged themselves into random 4patch units
then pinned themselves together in groups and set off to be stitched together
And now they are waiting to be set together somehow with other fabrics foraged from the stash – more procrastination!
One thing after another
We’ve reeled from computer emergencies to fabric emergencies this week. The computer emergency is ongoing and has shut down a complete department at C& B Towers and limited the IT scope of our Rural Office too. Fabric emergencies have been generated during all the cutting and stitching that seems to have filled our time while we await the resolution of the computer situation. Chris has begun and finished a full size quilt – so far only this glimpse is available
– designed and finished the sample for her next Machine Quilting class –
There have been several trips to The Corner Patch to find fabric ( who would have thought you could find fabric in a quilt shop!?) to rescue incomplete borders and backing and discover the need to acquire fabric for projects as yet unplanned – so much choice!
Barbara found one selection irresistible and now finds that a new quilt for The Grandson is imperative
Absence of computers = more stitching time for Barbara’s newest hand piecing project
Increasing the size of this sample will result in another fabric emergency as there are very limited supplies in this colour range in Barbara’s freshly-tidied and seriously reduced stash.
Dealing with all this stress and activity has taken its toll and our intake of this vital resource has increased considerably
Time to put the clocks back and enjoy the “extra” hour – and a lack of emergencies next week!
Spaces and progress
All the renovation work that has taken place at C&B Towers has had a knock-on effect at our rural office – Barbara has re-assessed and revamped all her space and contents with some notable results – clear(ish) surfaces and more floor space. There is still quite a lot of fine-tuning to do but it feels a lot better, bigger and brighter – A Good Thing! The hope is that production from the rural office will increase as a result (about time too! – Chris) and so far the plan seems to be working. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by all the stuff that is hanging around waiting to be finished, or at least moved on to the next stage, so Barbara has shoved carefully moved all the WIPs, PhDs and UFOs into one large storage bin under her desk. Now everything is close at hand but not immediately visible, easy to dip into and put back.
The production so far has seen a start on a forgotten charm pack
which may end up as a small sofa throw or table cloth. Samples have been produced for our class Jelly Roll Seminole on Saturday –
Samples have been produced for our Positive Negative class in November –
A Grandmother’s Fan project has been found rescued retrieved and moved along one more step towards completion –
A HUGE pile of books and magazines have been moved out so that the shelves now look more like this –
Back to work – production calls!
Singing our praises ..
Every once in a while we try to remind ourselves that its ok to point out some of the stuff we do apart from “just” teaching – but it’s not always the easiest thing to do yourself. So Barbara thought this short post should be a reminder of some of Chris’s output. Every month you can read Chris’s regular “Wandering the Web” column in Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Then there are the countless projects Chris has had published over the years in Popular Patchwork magazine – her Autumn Star Sampler is in the current issue
Here’s a glimpse of a very recent finish from the Stitching Studio at C&B Towers which may well be a future magazine project –
And did you know you could find a selection of Chris’s downloadable patterns at Meadowside Designs and also on Craftsy? (Chris reports that the current favourite is the Hallowe’en Spider!) (largely ‘cos it’s free I suspect – Chris)
Activity update
Chris has been very busy re-organising a pond and has had various adventures in the course of finding suitable supplies for said renovation. Now, she says, it’s just a matter of replanting – or will it be that simple? There’s also been much muttering along the corridors of the executive floor of C&B Towers – it appears that a new website is being constructed and the entire IT team (aka Chris) has laboured for days to complete the project.
Barbara meanwhile has been scouting possibilities to move our HQ to Spain – this looked like a good candidate, two chairs are already set out!
The view is good from the terrace
and from the table
Not too far away is the news kiosk
which would mean we would still have reading matter to hand. On the floor inside the church is a lovely Lone Star picked out in tiny squares of marble to make the design (apologies for a slightly blurry pic) –
All this is really in the realms of fantasy and our usual procrastination. Back in the real world the next major event will be Festival of Quilts (eek! in less than 7 days) and Barbara is mentally gearing up and finishing the planning for her spot in the Quilting in Action section of the show. This year she is contemplating selling some of her quilt and stencil design samples – and Chris distinctly heard “selling quilts to make space”. So if you are visiting Festival, stop by and see what the decision was!
chris & barbara quilts 