Here’s the latest of the plainer ones I’ve been making, using a new cream fabric with small autumnal leaves that I like a lot. It’s very similar to the other ones I’ve made recently, and I think having laid them all out that they’re making a definite improvement to the quilt as a whole. I’ve now run out of the dark green fabric used here, so the top right and bottom left corner pieces are a substitute fabric that I got. I don’t think it’s too noticeable, and I did spend some time laying them all out to see which would work best. I’ve been getting fabrics, including the new one and the orange / gold one used here online from ‘Laughing Hedgehogs’, which have a great range. As I’ve also run out of the brown fabric with orange leaves used on the previous block, and it’s not in stock anywhere that I can find (bought it on ebay so it will have been end-of-line) I got a different brown one from Laughing Hedgehogs, which I think I’ll use in my next block. As I had them laid out last night, I thought last week’s block was my favourite to date, and there are some I made earlier that I definitely regret! Oh well, learning curve.

I’d love to be able to machine-quilt it, but know at present I’m not capable. I don’t even know if it’s possible to machine-quilt a big quilt without long-arm quilting, and suspect not, but nonetheless I want to be able to use my sewing machine better. Plus, my mother-in-law wants to help me with it, as she’s a very good dressmaker, but I’d like to be able to say I did the whole quilt myself (I know, pride comes before a fall), so would like a different, quicker, project, to have for her to show me how she uses the machine to quilt. She says she doesn’t even use a quilting foot! So I decided I’ll make a quilt just using simple 5-inch squares, in shades of pink, for my aunt. It would be a lap quilt, so not too big. Whether she’ll want it or not is another matter! So last weekend, though in a great rush because I was booked to help at church in the afternoon, I cut a load of 5-inch squares using fabric I had in stock, with some pre-cut squares left over from a pack I bought for a previous project (a 25-inch cushion cover, the biggest thing I’ve made yet!) but which I didn’t use as they were but cut up because the project consisted of half-square triangles (and 3/4 and whatever you call squares made up of 2 half-square triangles!). I’ve pepped it up with a few green, which do tone in with pink/green blends in some of the other fabrics. I decided it couldn’t leave it entirely plain, so am making a few pinwheels. I’ve missed doing pinwheels, with all these flying geese I’ve been doing for the autumn quilt. I’d also like to try needle-turn applique to do a few pink flower shapes to sew onto some plain green squares, so that the quilt isn’t entirely plain but has a few features. The picture is just the squares to date laid out to give an idea of size and some spacing of the different colours, though obviously not exactly because it’s without the pinwheels and there are too many elephant squares too close together! I’m not sure yet if it’s too small. I hope not, because I’m really keen to get on and play with my sewing machine. Oh, there are not enough hours in the day!