Messy little madam!

Hello from the mess that is supposedly my front room (a.k.a. sitting room, lounge, parlour, whatever you want to call it).  I've been sorting through piles of fabric and trying to bring order to it.  Fat chance of that!  Nevermind.  I thought I'd start this blog post off with a failure.  Something I tried but which didn't really work out.  

I've been playing around with making simple doll shapes lately, and yesterday morning had the idea of making a doll patchwork block.  A background of 6 inches x 8 inches and a doll shape appliqued on.  I'd recently bought a packet of Bondaweb and wanted to try that out, not having used it before.  

I deliberately chose clashing colours and patterns, going for a scrappy look and lots of contrast.  Four of the five blocks I made turned out okay, but the fifth pink block had the doll shape appliqued on all wonky, so I put that aside.  

I added the blank faces, ready to be embroidered with features, and backed the four sewn-together blocks with white cotton.  Then it kind of went wrong.  

I've always quilted by hand in the past, but tried machine quilting this time, attaching those two layers together.  But I got little tucks and pleats where my fabric didn't lie flat, plus when I tried zig-zagging around each doll my stitching was way too messy to look good.  I think I was losing heart by that stage.  The partially completed patchwork was lobbed into a corner, and I'll probably chop it up and used the pieces for something else.  Oh well, it taught me how to use Bondaweb, and confirmed that machine quilting's probably not my thing.  Time not entirely wasted.  

I needed something to cheer myself up, so played about with cutting out strips of material and sewing them together, then randomly cutting those pieces up and re-sewing them.  I know, it sounds nutty as a fruitcake, but it's fun.  Honestly!  

I love all the odd angles this generates.  All the little slivers of materials and pointy triangles.  

The orange material, the pink material and the green all used to be skirts and were bought for very little money from a charity shop.  Only the yellow & black material was new.  

After that, I sewed another row of blocks on to this work-in-progress.  

Note the little pocket from an upcycled pair of jeans.  

After all that, I still felt like sewing.  I dragged out yet another work-in-progress.  This jumble of leftovers and orphan blocks was sewn together a while ago, and I intended it to form part of a quilt backing.  But looking at it again I wondered if it might make a crazy patchwork quilt top instead.  I gathered up yet more odds, ends and leftovers, sewing them together and attaching them to this main piece.  

It now looks like this.  (Sorry about the poor lighting.  It was pouring with rain outside and the sky was a dreary grey, making the light in my room gloomy too.)  

I know it's a hotch-potch, but somehow - for me at least - it all hangs together.  Perhaps because there are repeat colours and fabric patterns throughout the piece.  

I'm actually quite looking forward to quilting this, even though quilting together layers of patchwork, wadding and backing fabric isn't usually my fave occupation.  

This lot are all in the waiting-to-be-quilted pile, and there're others lurking upstairs too.  A crafter's work is never done, eh?  Though would we want it any other way?