Relaxing Robin linky party

At the beginning of the year, Dawn, of SewYouQuilt2, started a Relaxing Robin, in which participants started with an orphaned block and finished with a quilted item (quilt, table runner, whatever).

I really wanted to join in but selling our house and moving interfered with my sewing plans so I never got past the second step, which was adding the green border here.

 
I decided that working on that UFO would be my 'Something Old' project for September and got into an email conversation with Dawn.

We decided that we would do the Relaxing Robin together (company is more fun, don't you think?)

Do you have an orphan block that is calling out to you to save it from the orphanage? Would you like to join us? Don't be scared off by the title -- the block never leaves you until it's finished!

Here are the guidelines -- I hesitate to call them 'rules'; this is supposed to be fun and we all know there are no quilting police.

1. choose a block from your UFO pile to work with. If you wanted to, you could make the centre larger by sewing some together, two, three, four etc. have fun! if you sewed 3 for example runner style then you could make the finished quilt rectangular instead of square.

2. add a small border. This could be a plain border, pieced, appliquéd etc but make it small. try and use a color not used in your block for added fun later on

3. Add appliqué. could be to the small border, could be to the inner block, or could be an applique border itself. again, try out options and have fun

4. add some triangles. this could be flying geese, pin-wheels, etc. again, have fun with this. there are many blocks and ideas with triangles.

5. using some of the fabric in the first border make another border of your choice

6. make a border that has squares in it; 4 patch, checkerboards etc would be welcome here. again have fun

7. finish as you wish. this can mean another border or if you think you are done, quilt and bind up the baby.

These are suggestions: you can switch the order or eliminate steps altogether if they don't work for you and your block. To be honest, I got hung up on the appliqué border (step 3) which is probably why the project stalled in the confusion of moving!

I have an idea for a needle-turned appliqué but you won't see it until later because I want to sew on my machine not sit around hand-stitching! So I'm bending the guidelines to suit myself -- with Dawn's blessing!

Would you like to join us? There will be a linky party but we haven't finalised the details of when and where yet. Here's the link to Dawn's current post.

In the meantime, let's free those blocks from the orphanage! ;-)

Something Old, Something New – September edition -- Redux

This post, which was published on 2 September, has been completely re-written. Friends have made relevant comments and there is a linky attached so I couldn't figure out how to write a whole new post. The original post, which has been slightly modified, has been posted as monthly check up and dated 31 August. Some of the comments refer to that post rather than this new one -- sorry, I just couldn't work out how best to proceed.

If you've come in from Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, please follow this link for my green scrap related post! Sorry - I couldn't work out how to edit my entry over there!

Firstly, a big thank you to all my blog friends who reminded me that "Something Old, Something New" should be about just that -- not my whole master list! Thank you, too, for the reminder that nowhere have I said I have to get anything finished. I think I'm confusing myself with last year's linky party!

August was a messy month for me. I undertook a new leadership role in relation to music and that occupied pretty much the first week. Then DD and the boys arrived unexpectedly and stayed for a week because DD became too ill to drive home! Those germs were passed on to me, got into my sinuses and my head was so so stuffy for the next week I could barely do anything.

The last week of August saw me back in my sewing room and quite productive -- but not on the goals I'd set myself.

My 'old" project for August was a pair of curtains that I started making way back in 2011. DD is still vacillating as to whether she wants the curtains or not. I don't like making curtains particularly so I'm waiting for her to make a decision before I spend time on them! At the rate she's going, both boys will have outgrown the fabric and no decision will be needed! ;-)

My "new" project is always something new in the sense of technique or something I haven't made before. I had planned to start a quillow in August but, with all of the above happening, I missed two classes so it never got started. I’ve since decided that I don't really want to make one anyway!

So, in keeping with my original stated aims for "Something Old, Something New", instead of giving you my 'master list' for the month, I will stick with two things:

Something Old: work on Canary on a Pinwheel quilt – this should have been my Relaxing Robin challenge but I fell way behind! Moving house didn’t help! The photo shows it just as I left it in February

 

Something New: start a rainbow "pioneer braid" quilt by learning how to make a  64”-70” braid from orange fabric (this month’s colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge) from the tutorials on two blogs: Stitchin’ Therapy and Quiltville Quips and Snips – I started this in class yesterday (by cutting 2.5” X 7” strips)

 

So, how did you do in August?
Was it too warm for crafting in your part of the world?
What are your plans for September?
Dare I ask if you are starting your Christmas crafting?

Link here with the URL of your specific blog post so we can all come visit.
We'd love to see how you're going and what your plans are for next month.