Scrappy squares

 I really don't need to start yet another project as I've so many works-in-progress.  But here I go again ... 

Seeing a scrappy quilt on a YouTube channel set me off with this.  I cut 6 inch squares of calico, and arranged on them little pieces of fabric, odd leftovers, small lengths of ribbon.  I've sewn them down with lines of simple running stitch.  

These might look too raggedy edged to be squares, but if I turned them over you'd see the 6 inch square of calico underneath.  

My running stitches are as straight as a dog's hind leg, but they do the job.  I intend to embroider into these blocks, using both matching and contrasting embroidery threads as I'm going for the more-is-more effect, rather than something minimalist.  I've no idea how many blocks I'll eventually make, and this might end up as a cushion cover or a lap quilt, or maybe even - possibly? - a bed sized quilt.  Or is that being wildly optimistic?  Perhaps I should aim for a rice bag as that would only need five squares for the outer sides and base.  

Apart from that on-going project, I had a go at a smaller sewing task this morning.  In a scrap pack I ordered from Bazaar, as per my last post, there was this pink spiral.  

I wanted to try something similar, so found a piece of yarn in the scrap pack and couched that on a bit of white linen (from a chopped-up shirt I never wore).  

I used a pinkish-purple sewing thread to hold the yarn in place, then couched it a second time with gold metallic thread.  It's a nice little technique, and I'm going to add this spiral to one of my scrappy blocks.  

In other 'news', I finished reading Helen Dunmore's 'House of Orphans' which is excellent.  I'd known nothing about Finland's history, so the novel's given me a glimpse into that.  It seems that Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 onward, and they allowed the country a certain amount of autonomy.  However, in the early 1900s there was a period of 'Russification' when Russia wanted Finland to more closely integrate.  Many Finnish people rebelled against this, and it's against this backdrop that the novel's central characters exist.  

I'm going next for a change of genre.  A cosy crime book set in a sleepy Cotswold village.  Hopefully it'll be a quick, fun read before I return to something weightier.  My pile of To-Be-Read books is slowly decreasing.  If only I can stay away from the bookshelves in charity shops and resist the urge to buy any more ... as if!