Feeling A Bit Frugal

Some of my friends think I am a bit of a spend thrift. They laugh when I say I think I am actually quite frugal. Yes, I can spend a ridiculous amount on a handbag, I like "good clothes", I like French perfume and good quality skin care products. But ... within that, I use my handbags every day. I wear my clothes until they fall apart. I have one bottle of perfume, use it until it is done, then buy another one. And you only get one skin so look after it. Not strictly true, your skin is constantly renewing, but you know what I mean. So, you see, I am quite frugal within myself. Buy good quality, use it up, use it out and repair it, repurpose it or recycle it.

So, it is inevitable that I have always felt drawn to the economy square. I am sorry for the dreadful photo. It looks worse than I thought, taken with my iPhone.

I have never checked, but I presume it so named as it doesn't waste much fabric in its construction. No corners cut off, simply triangles cut diagonally and attached to a square. Without repeating and boring you, these squares are made from a charm club my daughter in law subscribed me to. I knew she was a keeper!

The 5" Japanese kokka squares have had 4 triangles cut on the diagonal from two 5" squares from a contrast patterned fabric. These in turn have are trimmed to 7 1/2" squares. In turn 4  more triangles cut diagonally from two 6 1/2" squares. When I look at the measurement guidelines online, my measurements are slightly generous, allowing for trimming. Maybe my fellow scrap booker friends are right - I am somewhat extravagant!

So my current state of play is I made all these extra blocks. This allows me to make a total layout like the photo above. This is only a rough layout, I need to play around with the placement. Time to get the sore knees! When I get my design wall, crawling about the floor will become a thing of the past?

The eagle eyed amongst you, may notice the piano keys block hasn't made the final cut. I have one block too many. As it turned out the piano key charm square is a rogue block. It was only after I made it up, I realised in its charm square form, it is 1/2" bigger than the rest.

At the minute the quilt is following the oblong, top to bottom format. It is very tempting to make it oblong from left to right, across the width. I think that is better for snuggles with mum or dad, or even granny. Yet the accustomed layout is top to bottom. We will see. There are 30 blocks altogether.

So, I have to trim all these blocks, play with layout and sew them together. The bottom right corner one is rather dark compared to the rest, but I LIKE that one. A couple of Japanese fabrics from stash sneaked in to make up the number, maybe I will have to exchange that one for another.  Next up after that is the backing. I haven't got any suitable backing as yet. I quite fancy a children's print for the back. Something busy. A Japanese fabric would, I thnk,  be too expensive for the backing, (see, frugal again) but perhaps something sort of similar. I will know when I see it, if I can find it. Hopefully. Maybe.

Helen x
linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts