The Quick and Easy Pinwheel Block Method

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn patchwork, Quilts12 Comments

Last week, when I shared the new decisions I needed to make on my baby quilt , you lot most decisively told me I should make pinwheel blocks between the jungle fabric squares. I completely agreed, but also cringed at the thought of all the extra work. After all 10 pinwheels require cutting and sewing 80 half square triangles. (In future to be referred to as HSTs)

Or do they?

Somewhere in the back of my brain I remembered there’s a quick way to make a square that consists of two HSTs.

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An HST Square

I rummaged around in my grey matter then cut out 10 red and 10 mustard 6″ squares.

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The technical bit…

At the start I had looked for a formula for how big the squares should be, but I couldn’t find one – Please tell me if you know of one. So I calculated for a pinwheel that measured 6″ once sewn into the quilt I needed 6″ squares and a small amount of trimming. (FYO: A pinwheel that measures  12″ once sewn into a quilt would need 10″ squares and a small amount of trimming.)

I placed one red square and one mustard square wrong sides together and sewed a 1/4″ seam around the edge…

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I then cut each in half from one corner to the other…

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…then in quarters by cutting across the other diagonal…

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This created four HST squares from each pair of larger squares…

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I pressed each HST square with the seam towards the darker fabric…

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I then trimmed the HST squares to make them 3.5 inches square exactly.

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I rather liked that I needed to trim, because it meant my squares were unquestionably the right size.

Then I pieced the squares together in pairs – being careful to make sure they were all pieced identically, so the final result would be identical pinwheels..

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More seam pressing…

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…then the pairs were pieced together in pairs…

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Followed by more pressing.

Et Voila! A pinwheel block…

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So pleased I remembered this method.

Hope you’re having a great crafty week.

Until next time,

Bekki x

 

Scrap Happy – New Home Cross Stitch Chart

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Scrap Happy, Cross Stitch16 Comments

I always save the left over embroidery threads from cross stitch kits, but until now have never found use for them. But I finally used some…

Recently a friend’s daughter and her boyfriend bought their first house. When I looked for a card to send her none felt good enough, so I decided to make my own with a bit of left over aida and some of the aforesaid left over embroidery thread.

‘Cheapskate’ I hear you say?  Well, I guess it didn’t cost a bean, but it took a lot more time, effort and love than buying a card. Plus once I’d finished it, I decided to pop it in a small frame, that I did pay for, as I felt there’d just been too much effort put into it to glue it to a card that would only be enjoyed for a week or two.

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If you fancy stitching your own house cross stitch for a card or to be framed, here’s the chart I made up for mine…

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I’m joining in this month with Kate & Gun’s monthly Scrap Happy Day where you too can use your scraps of fabric, yarn, paper, wood, anything to make something useful or lovely or both and show it off to the world.  You don’t have to join in every month, only when you have something to show.  Here’s a list of the other Scrap Happy participants should you want to visit their blogs:

Kate , Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, and Pauline

Bekki

Sunday Sevens (almost)

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens21 Comments

This week has been a not very interesting week, but managed to scrape together a few photos of my week beyond the blog…

Last Sunday as we so often do, we went to the beach. It was quite warm but overcast. Harry, of course had a great time. He found lots of other dogs to play with, but here’s a pic of him just on his own…

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On Tuesday I had great time playing hide and seek with Harry amongst the gorse bushes on Fernworthy Moor…

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Wednesday, of course is pub quiz. We lost as usual, but this week our team was just me and my lovely next door neighbour and we scored two more points than one team who had a eight! So not too shabby. No pic, but the question with the most ridiculous answer was:

Last month Armando sold for one and a half million, the highest ever paid for one of these. What is Armando?

Answer at the end of the post.

This year’s lambs have been arriving for a while now, but our next door neighbours don’t lamb until late, so this was the first week they appeared in the field we can see from our house…

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The weather has been chilly but dry and bright for most of the week.  It’s amazing how quickly things start to dry out. This was particularly noticeable on the stepping stones at Fatherford…

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Last week I told you how pleased I was to see two baby bunnies appear in our garden after months of seeing no rabbits at all. Sadly I found one of the babies dead on the lawn on Wednesday morning, but pleased to see three more appear on Saturday…

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And yes, that is only five pics, but it really hasn’t been a very interesting week.

Hope you’ve had a good one.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Answer to quiz question: Armando is a pigeon.

 

 

Back in the Jungle

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn patchwork20 Comments

Last week I asked your opinions on the colours to use with a some jungle fabric I wanted to make a baby quilt out of.

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It was all but unanimous that I should use red, gold and green.

I set about pressing my fabric before I cut it, only to find the jungle fabric had been folded for so long it had developed white lines bang in the centre of each fat quarter.

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I now couldn’t cut sufficient pieces of the right size for the pattern I wanted, so I decided (after much anguished thought) to make a smaller quilt of 5×4 6″ squares where every other square was jungle fabric. I could have made the quilt bigger with more other fabric, but I wanted the jungle print to dominate.

Still not convinced I wanted to add more than red and gold to the mix, I cut out some red and gold squares and arranged them with the jungle print on the green fabric…

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I then tried chucking in some black and white polka dot to reflect the zebra colours and a bit of red and white polka dot for the hell of it…

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Now I know you almost all voted for red, gold and green (and I do think including green looks better in the photos) but in real life the gold and red only are winning my vote…

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However, what I’m thinking would look even better (even though this was supposed to be a mega simple quilt) is having red and gold pinwheels rather than squares.

So that’s where I’m up to a week later, still staring at the fabric and wondering what the heck the quilt is going to end up like.

And while I’m staring, I’ve got a quick question, what colour thread would you used to piece these colours together?

Hope you’ve had a more successful crafting week.

Until next time,

Bekki

 

 

 

Frog or Finish April Update

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn UFOs21 Comments

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since my last Frog or Finish update of the 9 UFOs that I’ve and vowed to finish or frog this year.

Having dealt with four of them, I had five left by the middle of last month:

  1. The quilt – if you read regularly, you’ll know I’m making steady progress on this and the patchwork is now complete, I’ve made the binding and I’m working on the quilting.

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2. The blue cardigan – this is only waiting for buttons, but I can’t find any I like. Anyone got any links to some nice big blue statement buttons?

3. The socks: I’ve done some work on these; I’m ready to turn the heel on the one that hadn’t got a heel turn and the leg is a little longer on the other.

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4. The shawl still needs blocking. We were away when the warm weather hit, so still I’m waiting for the weather to warm up to do this.

5. I’ve completed the two project bags!

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And, as a bonus, when I dug them back out I found another project bag that hadn’t been finished, because I’d forgotten to sew corners of the lining when I was making it. Doh!

20190403_144431oo.jpgThis is now finished too…

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All in all I’ve only one task ticked one UFO off the list, but I’ve completed three finishes and made progress on 4/5 – if you count hunting for buttons.

All in all I’m quite happy with that given how long nothing was happening on any of them.

How’s your UFO tally doing this year?

Until next time,

Bekki x

Sunday Sevens 2019 #10

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens10 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens, a post where I share seven or so photographs of my week beyond the blog.

Here in the UK last Sunday was Mothers Day. Lovely Eldest sent me card and some lovely smelling candles….

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Lovely Littlest sent me a Golden Retriever pic…

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And Harry gave me a card…

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and a pair of pink Timberland boots…

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We were away from home last Sunday and came home in the evening to find spring had burst into bloom in our garden…

So it was a bit of a shock on Wednesday when we woke up to an inch of snow….

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The snow quickly melted and was replaced by baby bunnies…

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Thursday evening was book group. The book we read this week month was The Girl in the Red Coat. Hopefully I’ll manage a review post next week.

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This week we took part in both the pub quiz on Wednesday and a quiz at the golf club on Friday…

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Most disturbing question of these week was,

Whose effigy was stuffed with live cats so that it squealed when it was burnt?

If you want to play along the answer is at the end of this post.

Saturday I had a stall at produce morning.

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Something rather lovely happened there. Last year a friend passed away who was a big part of our village and much loved by everyone. Her daughter has made an amazing effort to make sure her possessions have gone to people who will use and love them. On Saturday she took a stall at the produce market to give away the small amount that is still homeless.  Now ever since I bought my bernina I’ve hated the cheap and nasty accessory box that came with it. It can barely stand up on it’s own and one of the doors broke almost immediately I got it

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Since I started quilting my quilt I’ve been promising myself I’m going to make a hexi box for my bernina accessories once the quilt is finished. So on Saturday when I saw one that used to belong to my friend on her daughter’s stall it felt as if my friend had heard me and had put it there for me…

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I’ve popped my sewing machine feet and needles from the bernina box in it and the bernina box has gone in the bin.

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I now need to find a small box to replace the small Tupperware box in the middle.

A hexibox might not be the usual place to keep your sewing machine accessories, but it’s perfect for me and so lovely that it found it’s way to me. It will also remind me of my lovely friend every time I sew and also that those who’ve moved on are out there there somewhere listening to even our simplest thoughts and wishes.

Hope you’ve had a great week,

Bekki x

Quiz question answer: Guy Fawks

Quilting Challenges

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Quilts31 Comments

By now I was hoping to be showing you lots more quilting on my pink quilt. Unfortunately my Bernina has decided to misbehave, so I’m a very unhappy bunny itching to get finished, and I haven’t even got the repair man to call me back yet!

Meantime, with the help of my faithful 30 year old Singer, I’ve made 4 meters of binding for the edge…

I’ve also been contemplating making another quilt. I blame Lynn and her foxy quilt she’s made for her new great niece that’s due in June. I’ve got a a new great nephew due in June and the foxy quilt reminded me I’ve couple of fat quarters of fabric in my stash suitable for a baby quilt…

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I’m thinking of making a simple half triangle affair like Lynn’s. I have some green, gold and red in fabric in my stash that match the colours on the jungle fabric….

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Or should I leave the green out and just have the three primary colours…

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Or do I need to add some more fabrics? Although ideally I’d like to be doing this from my stash and I have nothing else that works.

Also is the gold too dull? Should I have a more vibrant yellow?

Look forward to hearing what you think,

Bekki x