Work In Progress Week 28 - Boring Binding

Word of the week here straight from Miss Grace "I'm 4 and a big kindy kid" is boring. Everything is boring, said in a whingy tone saying watch out when I'm 13! And so that describes exactly todays WIP! Boring old binding!

I have two projects on the go. Doing the binding of Elliott's pinwheel quilt, below. I have three sides done. And also the dissappearing 9 patch started last week. I have finished all the quilting on this, amazing how fast it all falls together when you don't do "fancy" quilting! Also I have overlocked the edges of the quilt once the binding is attatched, which so far seems to help the edges lay flat. Either that or I am being a bit more careful with my measurements. I ended up going for a yellow binding too on this one as didn't have anything suitable in the dark blue department.

Friday Sewing Bee

Last "official" day of school holidays here and so what does a girl do? Pack the children and the sewing machine in the car and drive 30 minutes to her sister's house to have a sewing day! I got a whole heap done on the Dissappearing 9 Patch quilt which was fantastic. I am loving working on this one at the moment, its coming along nicely. Thank you all for your lovely comments about it in my last post too. Like any blogger, I love getting comments, its such a buzz to know somebody out there reads!

So here we are, Andy is plowing through her raggedy edges quilt for Cate's bed. We had a helper "Little Black Cat" who kept lying on my work and I am not a cat person, I had to keep poking him to make him move! We had a lunch break where we went to Textile Traders where I got some fabric "just because" but I also picked up some quilters masking tape which I have never used before but is just perfect for a guide for me to do the border of this quilt. Just simple lines about 1.5 cms apart. Time to start thinking about the binding colour..... yellow or dark blue?

WIP Wednesday - Week 27 - The Dissappearing 9 Patch

Well I promised myself awhile back that I wouldn't make any more baby quilts for my cyber friends as I feel like bit of a baby quilt making machine and I have this to finish and this as well. But a girlfriend had a baby boy yesterday, and I have been lurking in the dolls quilt swap in flickr admiring the work and stumbled across this quilt here, and thought wow, what a stunning and quick block to make, the Dissappearing 9 Patch! So that sent me to the sewing room to cut up 54 3.5 inch squares in blue and green. Fortunately I was babysitting my 2 nephews and neice yesterday so with 5 children running amuck in the house I actually got quite a bit of sewing done.

So above I have all the squares sewn into the 9 patch blocks. And then below here are the same squares cut in half and twirled around.

And then once I had sewn all the blocks back together, I added a 1.5 inch peep border of yellow to frame it, then a wide 5.5 inch border after that. So here it is ready to be sandwiched and quilted! Turn around time from starting to cut the squares to now, about 28 hours! And I even managed to clean the bathroom and do some washing in that time! Must have had my super quilter cap on! :)

Matildas Door Hanging

Those clown masks have been scaring me for the last few days every time I opened my blog. I wasn't going to post till Wednesdays WIP update but I can't wait that long!

Here is a wall hanging I made for Matilda's door back in early 2005. Look at the difference from Grace's one done in mid 2003 here! This is from a Hot Possum's pattern. AJ recently finished one here and wasn't too happy with the face so I said I'd post some picts of how I did mine. Not that I am an expert, just nice to see how other people do it.

I have to add another one of these to my to do list for Christmas, as I have made every child one in my Mothers Group and regularly readers of my humble blog will know that we have just had a new addition, baby Caitlin, so I'll have to sew her one so she's not left out, which will be a joy as I love sewing these.

Circus Sunday!

We went to the circus today! Complete with clowns, ponies, flying trapeze artists, juggling and lots and lots of cheap merchandize to go with it! We went with one of Grace's friends from kindy, here they are hamming it up with their scarey clown masks.

We had been looking foward to it for the last two weeks and now after two hours of watching and clapping, its all over. The anticipation is worth more than the actual event at times. Feel a bit flat now the day is over, maybe I am just coming off my sugar and fairy floss high!

WIP Wednesday Week 26 - Overlocked Edges

Week 26? Does that mean we are half way through the year?? And I haven't even looked at this quilt which I had promised myself would be done this year.

Okay, BOL progress. Well I echo quilted around the hearts and it looked bad, real bad. All wobbly and uneven, I suppose using a verigated thread didn't really help so in some areas there was a light pink on a deep purple background which really stood out. Would have been okay if it was all graceful and smooth. So I unpicked it all and decided to go for an all over meandering stipple with a few lovehearts thrown into the design as I went. Looks better.

I am going to leave the dark purple border just plain and do the same meandering stipple in the red squares only of the outside border. But I wanted to show this picture, look at the edges, they are overlocked!! I had huge deliemas recently with the edges of my last quilt being wavy so when I requested some advice from the SCQuilter ladies, one lady suggested overlocking the edges of the quilt, before you sew the binding on. Hmmmmmm, interesting! So I measured and marked it last night and then dragged out the overlocker. Since this photo I have added the binding and it does nicely sit down, so maybe it will work. Or maybe I have been a bit more attentive with my meausring and pulling the fabric taunt as I sew the binding on?? I guess I should know by the weekend.

Sew Along - Raggedy Edges Part 2

Welcome back to the raggedy edges quilt sew along! Okay, all the steps on cutting and preparation are in this post here. I didn't take any action shots when I was sewing the squares but below is a shot of all the squares for one row joined together. The easiest way to do this is by chain piecing "feeding them through the sewing machine one after another, but without breaking the threads after stitching each pair." When you have done them all one way, cut the thread between each square and sew on the other diagonal line.


So now we have a lovely cross on each of our squares. We now want to place two squares each with the backing fabric sides together, pin them and now sew about a cm in from the edge. Again you can chain peice these. I have drawn a rough wonky white line below where you would sew. Wouldn't worry about being terribly accurate here as you are going to trim the edges here later to make them raggedy. I use the wadding inside as a guide.


And then when you have sewn theme together, you then do the same again, till all the squares make one long strip! Do that so you have all your strips required to what size you want your quilt to be.

I did start this project hoping to just add on another strip to the above quilt, but I'm thinking now I might just make a whole new one!

Kindy Hanger Completed!

Well I impressed myself, I finished hand sewing the binding on this last night at 1.03am! I have more to say about it but Daz just arrived home from work, so I'll waffle here later!

Okay, back again! Just had to put my attentive, no I haven't been at the computer face on for the dearest husband! LOL But lets talk about sewing related matters, the kindy hanger! Grace loved it, she thought it was wonderful, she giggled and pointed to herself and said "Thats me! And there is......." and pointed to everyone else in the class. We brought a nice little gift bag and folded it up in there to present to Mrs K. "Have a lovely holiday Mrs K" said Grace, Mrs K was at first a little taken back as I don't think getting end of term 2 pressies is the norm, but then she was suprised and a bit touched too. Said it was lovely, just lovely and how bright and colourful it was. It was a nice spur of the moment present to whip up for her and her assistant, they do so much for the kids and Grace just loves kindy. Have to put my thinking hat on for what to whip up for the end of the year! So now, that is over, must get stuck into my BOL quilt, the deadline is ticking down to get that one finished by.

WIP Wednesday - Week 25. Just a quick wallhanging...

Wednesday again! I really need to consult my list as this little project has managed to slip in and is taking up todays sewing time!

Yesterday was dress up day at Grace's kindy to celebrate end of term 2 on this coming Friday. Unfortunately Kerry's princess frock arrived just too late otherwise she would have worn that, so she went as Sleeping Beauty instead. Took a heap of photos of the class and then yesterday afternoon I decided to whip up a quick wall hanger to say thank you to the teacher and her assistant for all the work they put in with all the kids in the class. Grace is the one in pale blue and white on the left of Batman!


So I printed the above out on some Celcast paper, ironed it to some white homespun, then started to sew some 1 inch strips around it and accidentally let the iron touch the image which resulted in it peeling away! ARGGGG!!! I'll bind this one later and let Grace keep it to hang in her bedroom. So onto version two....

Made this one a bit bigger and so far so good, haven't let the iron touch the surface of the image again, I used a sheet of baking paper to protect it. I have used vliesofix to put the letters on and blanket stitched around them. Have to attach these two bits to the photo panal, then brighten it with a hot pink border, then maybe some blue hanging tabs? I have till 12.30 Friday lunchtime....

Dress Up Swap Recieved! Thanks Kerry!!

Well I had a lovely suprise this afternoon when we came home from my folks house after lunch. There was a parcel on the doorstep, our dress up swap from the EB Sewing Girls had arrived! Now I had no idea who it was from but as soon as I saw Woy Woy on the postmark stamp, I knew it was from the lovely Kerry!

Look what she has made the girls! They are so pretty! Two princess outfits complete with puffy sleeves and a built in cape and beading on the bodice! They are really lovely, very well made too Kerry, you clever thing! And the girls love the little box of princess accessories! Earings, a dress ring, two braclets and some high heeled glass slippers! Thanks so much Kerry, you have made two little girls very happy today.

Day Care, Dentists, Tears and some Micheal Miller.

What a day! This is going to be a self pity post. Bare with me....... Today is the girls first day at Day Care, well not their first first as they used to do FDC, but the first at this particular centre. I drop Grace at kindy and then take Milly and then they pick up Grace from kindy and take her there, leaving my whole day free. Which should be a good thing right? So why am I all getting all teary as I'm walking in with Milly? And then as we sat on the mat and joined in singing some nursery rhymes, why am I sitting there singing Incy Whincy spider with a tear rolling down my check? Silly Helen. It's cause the other side of my brain is thinking what are you doing leaving her here with these strangers? Hopefully she'll love it, I know she'll be okay when Grace arrives from kindy.

Then to celebrate my day of freedom, what do I do? Go to the dentist! Its been literally years since I have been, I hate dentists, hate the smell, hate the sound of the drill, hate the pain, yuck, yuck, yuck! But a few weeks ago when I was trying to get some food out of my teeth that was stuck inbetween, a chunk of tooth fell out so thought I better go for a check up. So two X rays later and some proding later, I am presented with the news that I need a root canal and also two crowns. :( The good news was that only 2 of my teeth need work, the rest are okay which isn't so bad as I had visions of like 10 fillings. But a root canal?? Aren't they really painful?? And the crowns! $$$$$$$ So I came out of there and sat in the car, rang Daz and burst into tears again. My next appointment is on the 16th.

Before I went to the dentist I went to my 4 local fabric shops searching for this red Fossil Fern that I need to finish my BOL quilt. Nothing, absolutely nothing! So I'm going to Mum's tomorrow and I'll search her stash, if not I'm taking Atet's idea and introducing another colour. Whats a girl to do?

And to end on a sewing note, kind of..... I finally got this fabric in the mail today, a win off ebay. The seller stuffed up and only sent me a one FQ when I actually won two, so she apoligized and sent me a half yard as well as the first FQ, so I got one for free. Its a Micheal Miller print, nice and summery for spring. Bring on spring actually, am tired of this grey weather and hopefully I will have beautiful teeth then.

BOL Progress...... not looking good

*sigh* This Blanket of Love Quilt is certainly a challenge for me this week! Firstly Joy thankfully saved me from making a quilt that was 60 inches as opposed to 60 cms! Phew! Thanks Joy! :) And now, just then I realized I have run out of the fat quarter that was supplied to be the main colour in the design. The strips hanging next to it here are nowhere near enough needed. Opps!! I'm not too worried as the other week up at Mum's when I was searching through her stash to look for some fabric to match the red, I found a 10 x 40 cm strip of the exact same red. So am hoping if she had that little bit, she may have some more? And if not, well I'm prepared for a fabric shop crawl till I find some.

WIP Wednesday Week 24 - Swirly quilting

Week 24?? Wow, someone told me the other day only 6 months till Christmas Day! On the other hand, only two terms to go of this stupid half days of kindy set up Grace is in. Mumble, mumble, such a PITA!

Anyway, deep breaths Helen, quilting, whats been happening in quilting land this week? Swirls, swirls and lots of swirls! I decided that for the boarder of Elliott's quilt I would do lots of S shaped swirls, free motion, all different sizes. That in itself only took a few days but the fun part of tying all the threads! Well! That has taken just as long as the whole quilt. Now I don't know if I do it the crazy way or the proper way, it is the long way but if any one has a better way, please let me know! Here is the Helen way:

After all swirls have been quilted, snip the thread so you have anywhere from 3 cms upwards of thread left. Using a hand held needle, push the thread through the quilt so its on the back with its matching thread. So you have a mess of threads which looks like the above picture. Then knot then, and again using the hand held needle, sew them into the wadding horizontally to hide them, snip off any remaining bits that aren't in the wadding, aim to have at least 2 cms in there so they don't pop back out. And this has to be done at the start and finish of every swirl. I have about 50 to 70 swirls on each boarder, am about half way around.....

So every night this week has been sitting on the couch doing this, relaxing and at times theraputic! I only have myself to blame as I could have choosen a simplier pattern, even one big swirl, but I thought this would look good. Its my most adventurous quilting yet so I'm happy with that.

Back of a raggedy edge quilt

Have had a request to see the back of a raggedy edge quilt, so here we go! Hope I'm not confusing things but above is a close up of a quilt I made for Grace a few years back, raggedy edge style. I did it different to the style of Milly's in that the backing fabric was the same print as the top fabric. Make sense? All random 6.5 inch blocks. I made the photo a touch darker so the cross of sewing can be seen, thats our next step.

And here's a shot of the front. See the edges all raggedy and frayed? Nice and snuggly! Think I'll start the sewing bit on Friday, give everyone a chance to get ready. :)

Sew Along - Raggedy Edges Quilt.

A few girls I have meet online have expressed an interest in making a raggedy edge quilt. So thought I'd do a little tutorial on how to make one. They are sooooo easy peasy! The one above was made by my very talented sister, Andy for Milly when she was born back in November 2004 from Jan Mullen prints she won from a competition with a quilting mag. I was very envious of that win! So, follow the link to her blog and she has written out all the instructions, and I have the pretty pitcures. I'm going to sew along too, add an extra row on the top.

So below I have cut out 6 squares of top fabric, all different designs in this case. 6 squares of wadding and 6 squares of backing fabric. Your wadding is to be an inch smaller than your fabric. So in this instance I have 6.5 inches square of fabric, and 5.5 inches square for the wadding.

So once its all cut, place your backing fabric print side down onto the table and put a piece of wadding in the centre.

Then on your top peice of fabric, with an erasable marker or some chalk, draw a diagonal line across the centre each way so a cross can be seen using a ruler. Place it on top of your square of backing and wadding.

Pin either side of one of the diagonal lines, try to keep the pieces flat. Do this to all your squares as we'll sew them all at the same time.

Okay, we'll give you a day or so to organize all that then its time to get sewing!

Blankets of Love

In the June edition of Down Under Quilts that I picked up a new weeks ago, there was a challenge to make a baby quilt for the Blankets of Love programme. Such a lovely idea, I have been blessed with two happy and healthy girls, I can only imagine the heartache at loosing a newborn, so I signed myself up.


So part of the challenge was you sent away for a FQ which has to be used enough to be recognized as the main colour. I recieved a red fossil fern print. Not usually a fan of fossil fern stuff. It has to be an original design so thanks to that little quilting journal AJ sent me for my birthday, I came up with this little sketch.

The quilt has to be only 60 cms square and most importantly, it has to arrive in Sydney by August the 3rd. So I have 5 weeks to get cracking! I have piled those pesky log cabin blocks back up in a neat stack till I work out which layout I like the best. Torn between pinwheels and the very first one.

WIP Wednesday - Week 23. More Log Cabins

Well once again I can't post a pict or any news about this weeks WIP as its for the latest EB Sewing Girls swap.... Nearly finished, well in time to make the due date of the 29th! Yahh! One to cross off my list when its posted.

So in the meantime, I have discovered this amazing site, Craftster, I'm hooked! Has the byline of Loves to Make Stuff, Hates Potpourri! Yep, thats me! The Quilting section is just WOW! I posted a thread up asking for opinions on my log cabin blocks as I am just so undecided on which layout! 5 pages of opinions later..... I'll have to make a sub tally! But they gave me some more ideas of layouts. So I have just laid all the blocks out on Grace's bed and had a play with some more possibilities!

I like this one the best! See the pinwheel pattern? And I am fond of pinwheels at the moment!

Strippey one. Hmmm.....

One purple diamond and two purple half tiangles...

One red diamond and two red half tiangles...

This is the first log cabin quilt I have made and I am a bit gobsmacked with all the possibilities!

Should I go into cardmaking???!

Recieved news last night that Jo, my GF from my Mothers Group had a baby girl yesterday morning, awwwwwww! (Thanks Meredith for the call, that will teach me not to keep the mobile charged up!) I just knew it was going to be a girl, so happy for her. Girls are just so much fun, you can never have enough pink in your life!

So hopefully Meredith and I are going into the hospital tonight to have a little cuddle and of course you can't visit in hospital without presents! I'm making her a quilt but that will be months away, so I popped into work this morning and got a little something from Royal Doultan, one of those keepsake feeding bowls and a matching spoon. Then when the girls were having lunch today I whipped up these two cards, how cute are they? (The blue one on the right is for baby Elliott, may as well make one while I had the stuff out!) I think I may give up quilting and get into card making, they were so much fun to make. Admittedly it was all from a kit, I just had to assemble it how I liked and I have two more cards and bits and bobs left over for next time.

Today's List and a Sneek Peek

Here's a sneek peek of the dress up swap I'm in with some of the girls on EB. I'm sewing two of everything, one for the swap and one for Milly. Looking good!

I have had this list sitting on the bench in my sewing space for a few weeks, and have only crossed one thing off it, # 2. In no particular order of importance, but I'm planning on finishing #7 first then tackling #3 and then #6! If I write it here on the www, it might actually happen!

1. Elliots quilt. This is the pinwheel one, still a WIP!

2. Scappy Log Cabin swap. To be posted by the 15th! Posted on the 12th! Enjoy Jess!

3. Blanket of Love Challenge. This has to arrive in Sydney by the 4th of August. Haven't started it yet. Have my fabric and a sketch of what I plan to do....

4. Grace's Log Cabin quilt. Blocks all sewn, sitting in a nice pile in the sewing room.

5. Jo's baby's quilt. She's due on Thursday, haven't started at all! She said I can wait till she's had bub till I start, so I know to go pink or blue.

6. 12 x 12 inch challenge. With the Quilt Studio girls, due at the end of July. Again I know what I'm doing, haven't started.

7. EB Dress Up Swap. Another WIP. Getting there.......

Work In Progress Wednesday – Week 22. Coffee Cup Quilting

No, I am not resting my coffee on the quilt! Would never do that! I’m using the bottom of the mug as a template circle for some swirly quilting. It was just the right size. I have done about 10 so far. Adds some interest. Slowly, slowly although I would like to finish it before the poor baby turns 1!


Am a bit jaded today as found out last night that BIL's wedding in Sydney has been called off. They are still planning to get married, just not in Sydney and not in October which means we won't be going over. Bummer!!!! Was so looking foward to meeting some of the sewing girls from EB. Maybe we'll have to convince Daz there is a sewing conference on and I am required to give a talk on rotary cutters!

Bugger! Poo! Bum! Wee!!! I want to go to Sydney!!!

Quilting the Pinwheels.

A few weeks ago I posted on the boards of SCQuilters asking for recommendations of a Long Arm Quilter to quilt this quilt. I had about 10 replies, mostly encouraging me to give it a go myself! One of the replies was from Gillian from Designer Quilts which is only a few suburbs away from where I am. She said she is actually buying a long arm quilter and then going to start hiring it out so you can go to her studio and use it quilting yourself! Which I think is a fantastic idea and can't wait till she has it up and running. I mean look at the photo! Here I am stuffing this quilt through my little machine's window. I'm just stitching in the ditch on the diagonal for the pinwheels and I must admit it is a bit boring quilting wise. So am thinking of doing a little circle swirl in the squares of the pinwheel that aren't quilted, does that make any sense??!

Getting off topic now... Here's a meme I picked up off Nicole Bridges blog. Just for a bit of fun.

Instructions: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following…They MUST be real places, names, things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Helen
Famous Artist/Band/Musician: Hooley Dooleys!
4 letter word: Hope
NameVehicle: Hyundai
TV Show:Hey Hey Its Saturday
City: Hobart
Boy Name:Harry
Girl Name: Helga
Alcoholic drink:Harvey Wallbanger
Occupation: Hairdresser
Flower: Hibiscus
Something you wear: Hat
Celebrity: Halle Berry
Something found in a kitchen: Hot plate
Cartoon Character: Homer Simpson
Something You Shout: HELP!!!
A Country: Holland
A Song Title: Happy Birthday
An Artist (painter, photographer, etc): Henri Matisse
A Reason to stay home from Work or School: Headache
Something you’d see at a Zoo: Hippotumus
A Snack: Hot Dog
A Character in a Book: Harry Potter
Something Icky: Hairball
A Six-letter Word: Happen
Something Breakable: Heart
Non-Alcoholic Drink: Hot Chocolate
Something you Whisper: Hello.

Our morning with The Men of the Tree's.

We had an action packed weekend. Firstly on Friday night Daz and I went to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). All 37 plays in 97 minutes. Including Hamlet done backwards and in fast foward mode! Very funny stuff. My dearest sister had the girls for the evening over at her place, 5 children aged 2, 4, 4, 6 and 7! When we rung during interval at 9ish they were all still awake having fun. We picked them up at 11 and took them back home.

Saturday, usual 9 to 5 shift for me. Daz took the girls to their dancing class and then food shopping. Had then both asleep by 7, their usual time and then we just relaxed on the couch.

Sunday, today, was the annual planting day at Whiteman Park for the Men of The Tree's Children's Forrest. This is such a lovely project, the second year we have gone, so much fun and you leave feeling warm and good too. When Grace was named at our wedding in 2004, one of our dear friends brought her a tile in the forrest. Thought it was such a fantastic gift. So we now have gotten Milly one too and I am starting to work my way through my neice and nephews now. The tiles are all put up in this little hut in the bush there, we had fun today finding the girls tiles. Milly refused to stand in front of hers for a snap. She is becoming so stubborn around the camera this child!

We maybe planted 50 tree's between the 4 of us? Daz may have done more, he had a bigger shovel! Milly just enjoyed filling up her bucket with mulch that actually made the path through the bush and water that was supposed to go on the tree once planted. This lady below in green was a fairy who had fairy glitter to sprinkle over the trees to help them grow big and strong. See Milly in the background behind Grace just digging?

So as a result we had a lovely busy family weekend, but have done no sewing!

Milly's latest twirly skirt

Finished this skirt for little Milly Moo a few days ago. I had the bits cut out ages ago but lacked the oomph to sew them together (blame it on the log cabins!) Thats one thing I love about sewing clothes for the girls, can finish a project in a day as opposed to quilts taking weeks. I thought I'd be a bit different and sew the second tier with the overlocked edges on the outside as I have seen a few kids skirts in the shops done this winter. So I did that and it just looked horrible, very tacky! So I unpicked it all and sewed it overlocked edges in and it looked better.

As usual though I battled to get a picture of her standing still wearing it, here she is climbing over the edge of Grace's bed trying to get away from me and the camera!

WIP Wednesday Week 21 - Log Cabin Layouts

Well I finished late yesterday afternoon all my log cabin blocks. Here they are spread out on Grace's bed. Now is the hard part of choosing which layout! I am really amazed how much impact the centre diamond of the top two stands out. Grace loves them, she wanted to get under them and lie down, I had to tell her, not till they are sewn together.

So which one do you like best??

Happiness is a New Rotary Blade

*sigh* This time last week I was recovering from the "killer of a Craft Fair". This Sunday, well I have changed my rotary cutters blade! Wohooo!!! It glides through the fabric now, very smooth and nice. I am still working on the log cabin blocks with a zing! I have even used some of the fabric brought last week, in the block below I have used the blue and the orange. I found this range was from Moda, called Spring Fling by Me and My Sister Designs. Amazing the info one can find on the selvage!

Am finding though I am curving in a bit on the corners, see if I can iron that into place? Thats what I get for sewing without pins I suppose.....

On another note, I signed up last week for a scrappy scrap swap at Melly and Me. And this weekend I found out who my swap partner was, Jess who has a blog here. Looking foward to swapping with you Jess!

My pledge for June

I have to write this on the www, so it will seem more real and hopefully I'll stick to it!

In June I will try to not buy any more fabric or clothes for the girls. I have more than enough material in this house and the girls have heaps of clothes for winter. Wadding does not count as fabric though! We are off to Sydney for a family wedding in late October and it really is time to start pulling in the purse strings a bit in preparation. I have to work on the need/want aspect in my shopping! Saying that though, my iron has just died this morning so I'll have to go buy one of those today.... Suppose thats what I get for leaving it on all the time.

Things are getting a bit messy in the sewing room/space/bench/nook. I have two log cabin blocks totally finished, the one on the bench just has the last row to go. I was doing block #2 and #3 as you go, like sew a row, then get out all my strips and see what colour tone would work next. Then if there was nothing there, I'd rummage in my stash. And then I'd just plonk it all on the bench! Should really put it away Helen......