FNSI = Friday Night Sew In/Jelly Roll Race Quilt top

This month, I didn't think I was going to be able to participate in FNSI, but due to a change in my plans, I signed up late....although I've just checked over at Handmade by Heidi's blog, and several people signed up for it AFTER me, so I wasn't as late to the party as I thought I was lol

So here's the thing, I must be honest with you, I actually started sewing and then it dawned on me, "hey fool, it's FNSI and you haven't signed up yet"....at this point, I pressed pause (metaphorically speaking that is!) on the sewing machine and had a wee break from sewing, to come to the pc and sign up for FNSI.

Want to know what I managed to get sewn????  Well you're just going to have to wait as I want to explain a bit about it first....just in case any of you wonderful readers (I'm sure I have some still as I get the occasional comment from some of you!) have any other solutions to the Jelly Roll Race size dilemma???

I stumbled across a formula for calculating how many strips you'll need to make whatever size Jelly Roll Race quilt you want (I think it was on The Quilting Board) anyhoo, I calculated it out.....or at least I thought I had....the best made plans for me, are usually wrong and in the end, this was no different!

One of the FQ's I stripped up, was a small fq and was only 18" square (who sells fq's that size??? lol) so I just did 18" strips and sewed them together, and to make up the shortfall in those, I added a black 2.5" square between each of my main strips....without giving it much thought, I forgot about adding those into the calculation....ooops, my bad!

The first 'pass' of sewing the strip together seemed like it was a Toy Story side.....you know, to infinity and beyond!  Have you ever made one of these quilts?  I know several of you have, as I've seen pics on your blogs, and now I've tried it too....maybe I should've just made the original 1600 JRR top first, and used that to help with the calculations for the right size for Aussie Hero Quilts.

I got carried away, and sewed it one too many times, so then I had to reverse stitch and now I have this really obvious SEAM down the middle, but it'll still work out...I hope lol

Now, I can unveil my FNSI JRR for AHQ (don't ya just love all the acronyms...in English for those not familiar with them, that all stood for - Friday Night Sew In Jelly Roll Race for Aussie Hero Quilts)

Today I have a swap present or two to make and get ready to send, so I can't share them with you, but if I have time, I'll have another attempt at the JRR quilt, but with the amount of strips I think I'm supposed to use to get the right size.....I want it so that it just needs trimming up when you're done with the race part....not cut some off and attach it to the top of the quilt to make the right length....fussy much?  Yep, you betcha!

Here's the two formulas I've used now, and as I said, one is definately from The Quilting Board, and I can't remember where the other was from sorry, as I looked at so many in my research phase of my first ever JRR quilt.  If you can think of any other formulas I can try, please let me know!

METHOD 1:

Width of the quilt required (42") x 36 (number of rows needed to achieve the length of 72") divided by 41 (which is the length the jelly roll strips end up after being sewn) = 36.87 or 37 strips if you round it up.

METHOD 2:

Length of the quilt (72") divided by 2 = 36 Rows
Width of the quilt (42") x 36 = 1512" of strips divided by 41" (finished length of the Jelly roll strips) = 36.87 or 37 with rounding up

So, as you can see, either method gets the same result....now to trial it with just 42" x 2.5" strips and see what size top it ends up being.  Wish me luck.  The thing I think confuses me at the moment, is if you have 42" strips, and you join them together using the bias method, wouldn't that make them shorter than 41" finished???  Or am I over thinking the method?

Results of FNSI

The best laid plans of mice and men....seems to be the go around here....so the following is an account of how my Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) panned out....I managed to find 6 different fabrics that I wanted to make my DGD some baby doll nappies out of, got all 6 cut out, started sewing the first one....that's where the snag occurred....somewhere on the tutorial it would've been handy if it said what size nappies the pattern made....or perhaps I should've worked out they were going to be small!

Which measurement do you use to tell what size a doll is?  Head to toe?  Around the waist?  However it's done, you can see the nappy just fits her, if I put it on the other baby doll I have here (no I don't play with them, one is from when my DGD was a toddler and the other I got at a thrift store to use for props if I make any baby stuff...honest!) she gets the worst case of plumbers crack possible.

So, at this point, I'm thinking "aaah crap, what size baby doll is TaShies' favourite?" so texting backwards and forwards between myself and DD, I establish that the baby in flavour, is even bigger than the big one I have....so making the rest of the nappies up is kind of pointless.

Moving along, I have a quick look online to see if I can locate a bigger pattern, and found one here, that explains to you how to measure the doll to make sure the diaper/nappy is a perfect fit.  So, by now, even though I have the dolls measurements, and I have a method to make the nappies the right size....I'm over it lol

Next, I thought I'd get working on the Doll carrier/bassinet from this tutorial, however, going on the baby doll measurements, it wasn't going to be big enough either, so even though I had all ready lost interest in doing all this baby doll stuff because of being so disheartened by the nappy, I started to design my own.....got the outer base cut out, and the lining piece cut out...then my goldfish/magpie memory span well and truly kicked in and I found myself finding scraps of fabric for a scrappy block swap I'm in on Facebook....lol

Here's the result of finding said scraps

You'll notice the the middle one on the bottom row isn't actually one of the scrappy strippy blocks....but a siggy block which is for a different swap....my Siggy block swap....the newest member wanted blue for her colour choice, and whilst I was going through my scrap baskets, I happened to find two x 4" blue squares which just happen to be the right size for a siggy block....found the 3 & 1/2" centre square and voila a siggy was also born.

So, FNSI wasn't exactly as productive as I'd thought it was going to be, but at least I did SOME sewing hey?  One of these FNSI's I'll be uber prepared, and will get stacks and stacks of sewing done....yeah right, a gal can dream can't she?

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Renmark, Sth Australia, on a wee shopping spree for DGD's birthday stuff, and managed to find her a wee baby doll, some other odds and sods and my friendly neighbourhood next door stalker, Sharina, spied a toy travel cot, so that was quickly placed in the trolley, so will whizz up a quilt and pillow to go with that in the coming week.....in Dora Fabric!

What did you get done?  In the last couple of weeks, I got a special request quilt and laundry bag done for a very special Aussie Hero serving overseas at the moment.  I'll post a pic of it tomorrow for you, so please pop back and have a look, I'm very proud of our Aussie Heroes, and love being able to do something for them to show there's Aussies back home that appreciate them, if even only by wrapping them in a quilt and making their laundry easier to spot in a sea of laundry bags!

I've just signed up again!

I actually got some stuff sewn up last time, but couldn't really share pics as they were for swap gifts, this month I plan on sewing pressies for my DGD who turns 5 on 25th August....so I'll be able to share pics this time.  If you want to sign up for this great monthly event, please either click on the button on my right hand side bar to read a bit more about it, or click HERE (it'll open in a new window) to actually go directly to the sign up spot.  Leave me a message to say you're joining in, so I can check out what you've made this month get ideas for next month lol  Happy FNSI'ing.

Measly results of FNSI

As pathetic as it seems, this was all I managed for FNSI, even though I was awake ALL night!  I did however plot plan several secret projects that are for future swaps, so they will be revealed at a later date!

 I managed to make a few siggy blocks for a swap I'm hosting on Facebook....we have over 70 members now, although a few have left the swap due to them having enough blocks for their projects.  One had chosen Christmas themed fabrics, and is going to make a Christmas table cloth with her siggy blocks...how fun is that?  It'll certainly be a talking point in her family for years to come hey?

I know you're probably all shocked to see what I choose as my centre adornment right? lol  Of course it's an owl...and it's a cute one hey?  Wish I could say I drew it, but it was off a quilt pattern and I just reduced its size till it was the right size for the siggies.  I add the heart though!

I've snuck out from my hidey hole

OMG, you must be thinking I'm so rude....over a month with no post....must be a world record for me...ok so not quite, but pretty darn close....I can't keep my mouth shut this long in real life so I don't see why the blog should be any different. I won't bore you with long drawn out excuses....suffice to say, two things, the flu and a sore big toe! So I bet you're wondering what's dragged me out of silence, right?

Friday night sew in.....it's on again tonight...well for us in the Southern Hemisphere it's tonight, but for those in the Northern Hemisphere it's on tomorrow night....you can still click below and head on over to sign up.  I'm in, will you be????

FNSI - Friday Night Sew In

I have been trying to get the pics of what I got sewn uploaded, but for the last week, my computer has been having several 'moments' and I thought that my USB ports had died, but low and behold, today, they're working.  I struck while the iron was hot, so to speak, and here's what I managed to get sewn on Friday Night Sew In.....I had sooooo many plans, but as usual, my plans change from moment to moment!

 I've made one of these bags before, and when I made this one I took a series of pics to write a tutorial in English (as all the others I've seen, have been in another language and google translate seems to not like converting it into full English and is very confusing to follow!)....and I will get around to doing that.....although I vaguely remember saying way back when, that I wouldn't use Pellon or batting in any others I made, but I went ahead and used batting in this one anyway....lol  It makes them hard to draw the string as it doesn't bunch up too well.  I still have to put an embellishment over the joins front and back, and am thinking I might pop Yo Yo's on it....what do you think???

This is a side on view, to show off the pockets that are formed at each end of the bag/pouch.

This is a simple quilted pouch.  I had to reverse sew some of the quilting as I was too stubborn lazy to put the walking foot on, but I ended up doing that and it's turned out quite nice I think.  It's for a swap gift, so hopefully the recipient doesn't work out who they are!

I even managed to remember to attach one of my labels I made for myself!

FNSI - Friday Night Sew In

I know I said a month or so ago that I was doing this, and believe it or not, I did, but I couldn't post any pics on my blog at the time, so didn't exactly finish it to the rules! I've worked out the new blogspot changes somewhat now, and I've signed up again.

You can sign up and join in on the fun too, by clicking the button below to read more about it.




Sign ups can be done by clicking HERE which will take you to Bobbi's blog.  She has a linky on that post that really makes it a simple task to sign up.

So in under a week, I'll be sharing pics of what I've made, but a little heads up, I'm going to be making as much as I can towards two quilts for Aussie Hero Quilts & Laundry Bags, which you can read about HERE and I'm going to be using the method that I shared a video for HERE.

What are you going to sew?  I hope to see you there.

My first Friday Night Sew In (March 16th)

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but timing hasn't been right (like how I make it sound like I'm always uber busy lol?) however, this time I'll be there and will be sewing. If you want to join the others, and there's people from everywhere participating, then click on the button above to go sign up.....it's this Friday crafty guys and gals! Now I'll have to work out the time difference so I don't prematurely sew in!