Care Circle blocks

its my turn as Queen Bee for the Care circle of do.good stitches for May and also July and as we have a break in June I thought I'd get the blocks for both months done and out of the way !

I decided to use Faith Jones' fabulous scrap plus blocks for July - tutorial available at the Bernina We All Sew blog - they are so easy and effective.

I can't wait to put these together !! but first I need to organise the May quilt - I thought that polka dot circles would be a sweet quilt to make - I had a little one in mind when I chose that theme.

I'm really happy with how mine turned out and again, so looking forward to seeing what the fabulous Care circle girls make !

I'll post a photo of the quilts when they're put together !

linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday with Nicky Mrs Sew and Sow and Leanne She Can Quilt -wow - that's two months in a row !

think pink - its a finish !

well here we are at the pointy end of the 2014 finish along and I'm excited that I've got a finish to share - yay !!!

Well, there's not that much to celebrate considering my list was pretty small but a finish is a finish and I'm taking what I can !!

In my list for the last quarter I had included three Care at Do.Good Stitches quilts and I'm happy to say that one is finally done !!

"think pink" is one of my favourite quilts - its made up of pink scrap blocks by members of the fabulous Care circle - I really loved quilting it and getting to look close up at all the gorgeous fabrics in each block!

I quilted it by echo quilting the stars in each block and It is now machine bound and ready to be given to its recipient - a local cancer sufferer.

While taking photos of the finished quilt down at our creek, Pippi decided to run straight across the middle of it with her wet muddy paws - thankfully the marks came out in the wash !!  but it meant that instead of getting a heap of great shots I had to race back home to wash it straight away !

Quilt Stats
"think pink"
size: 44" x 53"
pattern: spiderweb block from a tutorial by Marit at Quilt It
top fabric: various pink scraps of the bee members
backing fabric: pink and white Paisley Floral
binding fabric: Kona bubblegum pink
batting: Warm and White cotton 
quilting: echo quilting in the star spaces of each block
thread: Aurifil Bubblegum varigated #3660

linking up to the final finish-along party over at The Littlest Thimble - thanks for being a wonderful host in 2014 Katy !

last quarter - 2014 finish along

I've decided to join in the last quarter of the 2014 finish-along.  I was so over my list that I decided not to play in the third quarter - even I'm sick of seeing these unfinished projects !!  On a bright note I did finish two of the quilts that were on my second quarter list - yay.

I've posted about one of those finishes here and I haven't even done a post about the other little one - must do that soon !

so for the last quarter I revisited my second quarter list and decided I'm only allowed to transfer two of them.

the first one is the spinning stars quilt - I haven't even looked at this project since early this year - but I have decided to remove those pieces of pizza (thanks Linda!) and replace them with a hopefully better choice of fabric !

the other one is the Care at Do.Good Stitches pink spiderweb - I managed to get this one quilted in May and it just needs the binding - I don't know what it is that takes me so long to put the binding on quilts - need to address that problem !

I have two other Care at Do.Good Stitches quilts that need to be finished so I've listed them for this quarter.

the first one is the Nested Churn Dash quilt - the amazing Jane of QuiltJane published this Nested Churn Dash pattern early this year and I couldn't wait to try it out - so I chose it as my May block and I'm so happy that the care circle girls were into making these blocks too ! needs to be sewn together then quilted and bound.

the other one is the scrappy stars quilt - it was my month again in September and I asked for scrappy star blocks - again, blocks need to be sewn together and then quilted and bound.

I'm currently making the postcard from sweden quilt - its an amazing pattern by Kelly from Jeli Quilts - I've only been working on it on Saturdays and I'm almost finished sewing the top together so I'm adding it to the list.

and my last one for this list is my mini war and geese quilt - its another pattern by Kelly and the top is done - just needs to be quilted and bound but as my record for finishing off isn't great I thought I'd list it!

I have a list of other stuff that's due at various times over the next couple of months - littlequilts swap due late November, instabee modern blocks monthly swap, and a couple of pillows for a wedding at the end of October.  I'm also taking part in the Modern Quilt Guild challenge which is due at the end of November as well as my monthly Care at Do.Good Stiches blocks so I think I'm going to have more than enough to keep me busy !

linking up to Katy at The Littlest Thistle

weekend sewing

my friend Marney had a little baby girl last week - she was a bit early as she wasn't due until the end of October - I had decided to make an hourglass block using a walk in the woods and the backing fabric only arrived late last week - so my other sewing plans for this weekend were put on hold so I could start this quilt - I've got all the blocks sewn up except two - turns out I was 2 blocks short on the white !!

I just need to finish pressing the seams open and trim up the blocks then put it on the design wall for a little while !  I used the tutorial by Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew but I've made my blocks an inch bigger - Allison does fabulous tutorials and has a great blog too :)

I also sewed together the top for a pram/capsule cover - I had a ruby charm square that I used to make a zig zag top which is 20 x 24 inches - I'll add a border to make it a bit bigger and I need to think about how to quilt it.

today I also sewed the October care at do.good stitches blocks - annabella chose the patchwork wheel block using a tutorial by elizabeth at don't call me betsy and requested jewel colours - it was a quick and easy block to do so they are ready to be mailed to morocco and hopefully they won't take too long to get there (excuse the wonky photos).

I hope you had a great sewing weekend too :)

a few finishes

I tidied up and got a few finishes done today so that I could start on sewing the down under doll quilt tomorrow - its been on the wall for at least a month so it will be good to get it finally sewn !!

I finished the two care at do.good stitches blocks - fabulous wonky churn dash blocks using fabric foundation.

 

I also sewed up the craftsy drunkard's path blocks - they're a bit uneven so I might have to look at them a bit closer when I put the quilt together but I'm pretty happy with the first time curves :)

 

and I finally sewed the binding on a little mini quilt that I made back in April for a blog hop - its the one that had the red dye issues so wasn't finished in time and I'm not sure why I've been so slow in getting it hand quilted and bound ! I hand quilted lines in the sashing with red variegated Perle 8.

I put little pocket hangers on this one which is a technique I saw on Amy's Stitchery Dickory Dock blog earlier this week so its already on the wall !

have a great weekend - we're lucky to have a long weekend this weekend and the weather is perfect for sewing - cold and raining !!

that christmas feeling !

it felt a lot like christmas here today as I received not one, not two, but three swap parcels - squeal !!

I received my purse from the in the frame purse swap from Deb who has a gorgeous blog at Simply Miss Luella.  I actually follow Deb's blog and I had no idea that she was my swap partner !

isn't it just gorgeous ...

and it is lined with pink polka dot fabric too !

Deb also sent me some great extras - a beautiful flower brooch - it is soooo cute

and also a key fob and some green polka dot scissors along with some gorgeous fabrics - I looooove the pink teacups on a lime green background - thank you so much Deb :)

next up is a needlebook from the ratz swap - this was made by Ellie and I was crossing my fingers when I first saw this simply adorable needlebook.  I also follow Ellie at Craft Sew Create - another fabulous blog :)

it has all of my favourite fabrics - pink, lime green, and orange with tiny hexies on the front surrounded by pink polka dots - Ellie has called it rainbow sherbet - yummy !

the back is made from hexies as well - just a fraction bigger.

Ellie also sent me a pair of pink polka dot scissors so now I have a pair - yippee.  I also received a beautiful card, some needles and my favourite sewing tool - a quick unpick !! well maybe not my favourite but one of my most used anyway :)  and on the inside of the needlebook were some very cute pins - thank you too Ellie :)

I also received a beautiful pillow made by Kris for the care @ do.good stitches members swap - Kris made the pillow using gorgeous vintage modern fabric that I love !

the pillow is so well made and it has four buttons on the back - Kris also sent the pillow insert so how cool is that !

I love it and it's already sitting on my couch.  thank you so much Kris - it is such a gorgeous pillow :)

I'm very happy to have received such beautiful gifts made by such generous girls - this is what makes all that stress about swaps worth every second :)

bee blocks

another weekend of sewing bee blocks ... and I sorted my fabrics into colour order too !

for July we had two long distance quilting bee blocks to do - Annika asked for a log cabin block with a little wonk in neutrals, blues, and browns - so I did my first one and didn't really like it when it was finished - I think the issue is the dark brown strip ...

so I did another one - this time a square in a square wonky log cabin in just blues - I really like how this one turned out.

Margaret asked for a churn dash in shades of blue - so I did a wonky churn dash - I do love the wonky style !

as I was on a roll I decided to get the August block done for Evelyn who wants a hawaiian theme - bright tropical colours with lots of green - we could pick our own block style so I did a string block - hope its bright enough !

the weather was absolutey gorgeous this weekend - nice and sunny even if it wasn't really that warm -  pippi still needed her coat !

this is the view from my sewing room - not quite as good as my last house but still pretty- the sheep and lambs were up close to the fence which was great !

there is also evidence that spring will soon be here - can't wait for the bulbs to start opening :)

I also made two granny square blocks for the august care at do.good stitches bee - Dolores asked us to use pink, orange, and yellow - I really loved doing this block and I can see a granny square quilt sometime in the future !

hope you had a great sewing weekend as well :)

bee blocks

this is my first post from my new house in town - after nearly 5 days of moving and cleaning I'm in and nearly sorted - well the sewing room is pretty organised and that's the main thing !

after the moving I then got a pretty bad flu that put me on hold for most of last week - I only just started feeling better last Sunday so things have been a bit slow in the sewing department.

this week I finally put a label on the mini quilt I made and finished back in June for the care @ do.good stitches swap so I've mailed that - my secret partner is in Australia so hopefully she will receive it very soon !  I found the fusible web that I knew I had somewhere but I suppose it took the move to find it!

also this week I made the July blocks for the care @ do.good stitches group - Karen asked for gemstone blocks from a tutorial by rachel at stitched in colour - in aqua and red - I think they'll look fabulous together in a quilt.

and last Friday I finally received the wonky stars - the last of our wonky blocks swap - I received a special little block from Nicky - the orange and blue one (top left) and some other nice little stars - they're so colourful together !

now just have to think about putting all of those wonkies together into a quilt.

this weekend I'll be in the sewing room catching up on some projects due by the end of July so I'll be back with a few finishes on Sunday.