mindless sewing

Yesterday I was in a foul mood. I have a list the length of my arm, across my back and back down the other arm but I was in no mood for doing anything I should do and instead I told myself I would sew together the big bag of flannel scraps I got from Brenda a while ago and see what I ended up with after 2.5 hours of sewing (because that was 12 noon and it seemed a good point to stop).

I made 4 churn dash blocks, because they don't require any kind of thinking and are probably my favourite simple block. I would have liked to make 12 of these and end up with a quilt top, but I had 2.5 hours and that wasn't going to happen, so I cut my scraps into strips and just kept adding them to the churn dash blocks. I didn't think about where the fabric strips ended up, just sewed 'em on, trimmed off the excess, and carried on. I didn't use pins, I didn't press until I was finished, I just sat there and sewed and sewed.

This was the result....



The quilt top measures approx 44" x 50". Not bad for a couple of hours of frantic sewing!

I'm not very good at improv - I can't quite get my head around letting go completely so this little exercise was quite enjoyable, it made a lovely change from measuring and pinning and pressing and planning. And by the end of it I was so relaxed and chilled out I think I'll do it again next time I'm in a foul mood! I definitely have enough scraps and fabric for a stack of mood lifting mindless sewing quilts!

This morning I basted and quilted it (I used a pale cream aurifil 50 weight for the top and a pale grey aurifil 50 for the bobbin thread), added some binding leftover from other projects (I sew all my binding leftovers into colours and save them for future projects).



And tonight I'll hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt and add it to the stack of quilts that don't really have a purpose but look lovely stacked up!



The postie brought me some treats today (it was wise of him to avoid the house yesterday, seeings as I was so very grumpy)

Tracey sent me some flannel FQs after I'd mentioned my flannel scraps on twitter. She had told me about some that had been delivered to her (that aren't in the shop yet, but I'll let you know when they are) that reminded her of men's suiting. I love flannel. It's so cozy and makes beautiful quilts, and is much easier to sew with than you might imagine. It doesn't shed or fray too much, not much more than regular cotton to be honest. It can be a touch stretchy, but not problematically so. These from Tracey feel less like the Anna Maria Horner flannels I used in the quilt in this post which are almost fleece-like to touch. These are more brushed cotton, less stretchy and like a thicker version of the brushed cotton shirts my Granddad used to wear. I'm thinking of making some pouches for Christmas presents, they'd be perfect for the men folk in my family. They'd also make a gorgeous quilt, wouldn't they? (Tracey has a 30% off sale on at the moment on everything in the shop)



Mr Postie also brought me the cherry limeade bundle I ordered from Brenda last week. I am even happier with this in person than I was when I put the fabrics together, I absolutely love it. I think it's going to become a patchworky Holiday in London Duffle.



I have a little box of left over scraps from sewing together my quilt. I was wondering if one of you might like to have a morning of mindless sewing too, there's a 12" quilt block I made but didn't end up using, some small bits and some bigger bits. Probably enough to make a nice little quilt top, I'd love to see what one of you ends up with after a couple of hours or so sewing. Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner in a week or so (international entries are fine - I'll mail them anywhere! Just make sure you leave an email or some way to contact you if you win).

Now closed - thank you!