Tuesday 12 March 2013

Why isnt it called film '94 any more?

Not too much sewing done this last week either!  My zeal for envelopes dwindled rather I'm afraid.  Only one done this week.  Must do better.  Utility room now has my fabulous yellow spotty floor, but I'm saving the reveal photo for when the room is finished - unfortunately a while off yet...

There has been the usual mix of happiness and horror that comes with man's return.  He makes me clean and tidy...  And I have to do much more food preparation too.  Boo hiss.  He has however given in to my whining and accompanied me to the cinema, not once but 3 times!  Woo hoo!  We've seen Argo, Django Unchained, and tonight was This is 40.  Awesome.  I LOVE going to see movies.  I love popcorn...  So far, I dozed for 10 mins about 20 mins in to Argo, tho fortunately I picked it up again very quickly.  Ben Affleck with beard.....  mmmm.

Ben with beard.  And well deserved bafta...  image from the telegraph


Amazingly didn't sleep at all during Django.  Hate to admit it but even although I really loved it, I cant deny I did, twice, think "bloody hell, its still not over?!"  Wooee a long filum.  Real good tho.  And This is 40....  Loved it!  Made me laugh so much.
Other exciting  (granted only for me) news is that we're off to the mainland at the end of the week!  Typically we're off to somewhere even more remote for a week... so I will be offline.  For a week.  No phone signal either.  Am a little scared...

So, before I disappear I thought I'd better get my bee blocks for Di done.  She asked for flying geese blocks, any size so long as finished size was divisible by 12, 6 or 3. She gave us a very definite colour scheme, so that was my first problem...  My reds all seemed either terracotta or pink.  My teals all seemed either aqua or had loads of black in them....  Eventually found some I think fit, lets hope Di approves!

Not having a great deal of experience with Flying Geese I decided to make this a bit of a learning thing - last geese block (only geese block) I did was all foundation paper piecing, so I ruled that out this time.  I had a go at making some using my own maths and my own ideas.



Fail!
Eventually I found two great tutorials online for two methods, and I tried both, and made two made up blocks.

First up we have the Easy Flying Geese Tutorial from Bee in my bonnet.  This uses squares and rectangles, chain piecing, and also produces lots of little triangles for some extra teeny HST's if you can be arsed.
This worked okay.  My sizes ended up a little bit squiffy (smaller than hoped for) but I think it turned out no' bad.



Second we have the Flying Geese - the no waste method  from Happy Quilting.  No waste means no extra weeny HST's so all of you who couldn't be arsed doing anything *with* the ones from the above tute just need to switch to this one!  The tute is good, it works, but to be honest, I found the maths and the working out just... eugh.  My geese still ended up squiffy.  In fact, these ones seemed even squiffier so I had to trim the blocks down and border up the block.  Got a bit carried away as there was no need for the sides boosted.  Oops.



So, that's my blocks.  I thought they were okay, then I saw ol' flashers block and mine now seem, well, pants!  My oh my she really has done a beauty!
I'll leave you to go nosy at her masterpiece for now...  but I'll be back before the weeks out.







24 comments:

  1. I have to say I was not a fan of flying geese (especially after doing a million) until tonight. 1 seam per goose...love it! I adore your blocks, especially the last one. Of course, if you seen the back of mine, you wouldn't be impressed...lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think your little geese are great...and I absolutely love the word "squirmy" (is it really a word???) I am practicing using it all day now!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ok I typed Squiffy and it auto corrected....darn!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have a great holiday and your blocks are lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your blocks look great! Have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't do.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely blocks, and I think the colours are great. Have a nice holiday both.x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice geese! Quack quack! Have a fun trip babes xxx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your gaggle of geese are great. I hope you don't go 'cold turkey' with no electronic communication - yikes! Di x

    ReplyDelete
  9. love your geese. Have a lovely time on the mainland. I was thinking of you whilst watching Shetland this week

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gorgeous geese. I am hoping to make some strips of geese soon too.
    Hope you have fun whilst incommunicado

    ReplyDelete
  11. flying geese make my head hurt! Your's are lovely though, and I am most impressed :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your blocks look great - I've never tried flying geece. Enjoy your week away!

    ReplyDelete
  13. These are great geese, i can't understand why everyone hates making them so much, but HST's, don't even start me! Have a fab time away, but not so sure about the whole no technology thing, aaaaaaargh! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love flying geese and yours are superb! Have a wonderful time on Planet Mainland, I hope you stumble across either a phone signal or an internet cafe ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely geese blocks :-) have fun on your trip to the mainland - sometimes having no signal can be bliss.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great geese and you know for years I always struggled to know what year to say when I was talking about 'Film...' it never seemed to occur to me it would be the er year we were in.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think I'm ready to tackle the goose this evening. I spent last night searching for PP templates and found your first one. We might have matching blocks....will see how it goes :)
    You're going to have a great time! Can't wait to hear all about it when you come back.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Brilliant geese! I love going to the flicks too - haven't been in ages! All work no play round here! Hope you have a lovely week away! Party on! Jxo

    ReplyDelete
  19. ...and there was I thinking you'd be watching Shetland rather than going to the cinema ;-) So envious of you being able to watch these films. Love the geese BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yours look great, hers looks psychotic drug inducing ;o)

    BTW, WTH is more remote that effing Shetland?!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Love the geese! Rhonda was just showing off ;)
    Have fun 'abroad'! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  22. Um, where are you going that is more remote than where you live?
    Great looking blocks.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The geese look great, must admit I'm a bit afraid of those guys as well. They are buggers in real life too!

    ReplyDelete