Wednesday 16 March 2016

Sometimes you need a push...

... to get things done.


It is shameful of course, I have not been posting anything at all for MONTHS. A dear friend across the pond has even emailed me to see if I was okay?! - thanks for your kind concern, Lara! -

I really have no excuse, apart from not being able to sew for a good while with a hand that was slowly healing (and still is, I am rather impatient with it). It meant I did get into a habit of not sewing, and not walking either (this winter was so wet I almost could have rowed down the garden, but that's not quite my thing!), and therefore not blogging. And everyone ever trying to break a habit knows that it can be hard to do, especially if it's a bad habit!

So even with my best intentions as mentioned in this blog post, I didn't do much for months. Until last week...

I was asked to give a presentation of some of my work for the Cork branch of the Irish Patchwork Society (my local quilt guild). With a week to prepare I said "yes", of course. And then I panicked a bit...

And then I got sewing!

These stack-and-cut improv log cabin blocks have been lying around for almost two years. High time to do something with them!

auditioning a setting fabric
Previously I had decided to use the lime fabric for the alternate squares, but now I changed my mind. However, it meant that the dark red fabric in the blocks fell away against my chosen setting fabric:

the dark red and the brown are too alike
Action was required. Rather than choosing a different fabric again for the setting squares, I decided to add an extra strip to the log cabin blocks where the dark red was placed at the outside edge:

sewing on extra strips

trimming the excess

squaring up the blocks

And when I gave my presentation to the guild, I included this top:

And if you are interested to see what else was included, the recap post from the Cork IPS website has a slide show of my presentation.

I'll be off to do more sewing now - of course!

Linking up with the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters.


Sandra

6 comments:

  1. Oh I was so happy to see your post in my inbox Sandra! It is hard to fire up the engines again when they've been idle. Nothing like the honor of a presentation to get you going again though! That is so cool that they asked you to show some of your work! (I'll be popping over to the IOS website next.)

    I'm glad your finger was well enough that you could sew this great log cabin! I like your solution for separating the reds. I'll be writing you a real letter before the weekend hits, but in the meantime... No rowing down the garden! LOL.

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  2. That was a great slide show! You really have a lot of variety in your work Sandra! It was fun to see the improv pieces (Wow!) and also that you showed the Sashiko stitching you've been doing! I'm hoping we all can see more of your work again, so hurry up and get all the way better!

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  3. Thank you so much for stepping in at the last minute. I know everyone enjoyed your presentation! We appreciate you so much!

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  4. I like your log cabins! I'm working on log cabin four patch

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  5. I'm sorry your finger is taking so long to improve - you are right about losing momentum: it is much easier to keep things ticking along than to get moving from a standing start. Hopefully spring will be mild (and not too wet) and you will soon be back to your old habits. In the meantime, you did a good job finishing your log cabins. I love the red strips echoing the solid squares: couldn't have worked better if you had planned it from the start!

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  6. What a great solution for changing your mind about the alternate square color. The repeated reds in different sizes and places adds to the quilt and seems better than using green. I enjoyed the slide show from Cork; another great way to include absent members and show your work. Thanks for linking your wonderful quilts and helpful post with AHIQ.

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