furtling around at home

Wow another couple of months have zoomed by in this crazy year - I'm sure its not just me who thinks that this year has literally flown by !?! which is good and bad too, I suppose !

anyway, it’s time to join Archie The Wonderdog for a furtle around - although to be honest its halfway through the month so I'm more than a little late to the party, especially as I started writing this post for last month's linkup which I missed !!

Like everyone else, I'm finding it hard to make sense of everything at the moment and like everyone else I've been staying at home and trying to stay safe in the current global crisis, although it sounds like we might start opening up a bit by the end of May !

A little while ago I was looking for something to straight sew - something easy and not too taxing on the brain - I think I needed to just sew to keep my mind off all the Coronavirus news and as my current projects all need at least a little bit of focus, I went digging around in one of my UFO boxes and 5 hours later found the fabrics I’d put together to make a Maple Leaf quilt - back in 2015 - lol !!

Even though it was late afternoon I got quite a few blocks cut ready for sewing and sewed a few blocks up - my original plan was for a cream background but I had this Kona Zucchini on hand and I really like how it mixes with all the browns as well as the oranges and yellows :)

At the beginning of April half of the blocks were made - I’m going for a 7 block x 7 row quilt - 63 inch square - and when I put them together on the design wall I thought it looked very busy although I think the alternate row direction above makes it a little less busy !!

so now I’m wondering if it needs sashing and then I thought I could combine with solid squares or maybe use only a few blocks in lots of negative space !! anyway, I’ll continue to ponder as I finish making the blocks with the fabric I’ve already cut :) I'll continue to ponder and make the blocks when I find where I've put them again !!! Honestly, once a project comes off the design wall it seems to just disappear - although I'm sure it will resurface again at just the right time when I need meditation sewing again :)

My Midnight At The Oasis project has slowly been moved from the design wall

every time I had another little project to do another piece was taken off so its totally off now although I am very happy to say I've finished all of the orange peel blocks !!!! so once I put the centre block back together I can start sewing a couple of borders on - yay.

The other project I mentioned in my last furtle is the Hourglass blocks - a prompt by The Ad Hoc Improvisational Quilters. I’ve made quite a few blocks now.

I'm still thinking about what I’ll do with them - I had a thought about columns, a la chinese coins, with solid fabrics in between columns of hourglass blocks and maybe strips in between blocks or chunks of blocks, then I thought about a medallion style with those little pink and grey blocks in the centre - anyway, I'll keep playing for a little while longer with these little piles ... while I ponder !

especially as I've already moved onto another recent UFO -  my sherbet Ocean Waves blocks - I finally tracked down the 3 fabrics I'd "misplaced" and I'm absolutely loving making these blocks - it looks just like the mock up block I made in Electric Quilt !!

I'm looking forward to these blocks becoming a quilt and hopefully I won't get distracted by anything else long enough to get the rest of the blocks sewn :)

Anyway, I must post this before the link closes !!  happy sewing, stay safe, and I hope life is starting to look a little like the new normal wherever you are :)

work in progress on a Friday !

Tuesday was the Australia Day public holiday and I also had the Wednesday off work so took the opportunity to do some catch-up sewing.

I made the last scrappy nine patch blocks so I managed 56 blocks in 56 days ...

when I decide what sashing to use I'll sew the top together - I don't want to use white sashing in this quilt - I'm thinking charcoal but I'll probably end up using a silvery grey!

I've also finished one of the pillow tops I'm making for mum and dad - hope to get it quilted this weekend.  I'm using 6" jacks on six blocks for this little pillow - love the secondary star pattern - mum and dad picked out the fabrics when they visited last November.

and I finally sewed together the Pack Patch Mini Quilt Along blocks into a top - it was a Flickr quilt-along hosted by Chase of Quarter Inch Mark and I finished the little blocks almost a year ago !!

I'm going to hand quilt this one so it will be a while before its finished.

I also came across a mini charm pack of Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky so on the spur of the moment decided to make Moda's Love Quilt - its only a 12 1/2" block so I'll probably add some borders and make it into a pillow.

have a great weekend !

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

a seabreeze giveaway

Last week it was my turn on the seabreeze mini quilt along blog hop and as well as making a mini quilt I also made a seabreeze pillow to giveaway.

I had such fun making this pillow - I made the blocks 2 inches rather than 3 inches so it ends up as a 18 inch square pillow.

I used the same fabrics and same layout that I used in my mini quilt and quilted it on the diagonal - I was going to cross hatch it but I'm happy with the softness of just doing one line.

I used one of my favourite fabrics Erin McMorris' Summersault for the back - the raindrops just happen to have the same colours as the front !  I made a zipper back too !

If you'd like to win this pillow, just leave me a comment ! if you follow my blog then you can leave a second comment telling me that !  If you're visiting from instagram I plan to have another giveaway for my instagram followers very soon !!  please note that due to postage costs the pillow insert isn't included !  I used a 20 inch insert for the photos.

I'll get mr random generator to pick a winner on Sunday 3 August 2014 at 6pm (australian eastern time)

and don't forget the seabreeze mini quilt along blog hop is still going on and finishes with a linky party on Saturday 2 August over at host Angie's blog - you can find all the details here.

seabreeze mini quilt along

Hi there - thanks for joining me for the Seabreeze Mini quilt-along...

Thanks to Angie at GnomeAngel for organising such a fun blog hop - she has selected the Sea Breeze Mini by Megan Bohr of Canoe Ridge Creations for the quilt-along.  All of the details of the quilt-along are on Angie's blog and she is doing profiles on each of the bloggers so make sure you check it out !

I love making mini quilts - they're quick and easy and also a great way of of trying out a design before committing to anything larger !

I also love half square triangles - they are such fun and so versatile so of course this is the perfect combination for  me !

While thinking about fabric choices  I tried out a few different combinations for the quilt in EQ7

I think there is definitely a pink and white seabreeze in my future !

I decided to go with the solids this time - just for something different !  I used a mix of Spotlight Prima, Michael Miller Cotton Couture, and Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements but I've matched pretty closely to the following Kona solids:

Baby Pink, Carnation, Bright Pink, Cactus, Sprout, Lime, Bahama Blue, Azure, and Lagoon.

I'm calling it "Into the Shade" due to the ombre effect of going from light to dark !

I've put the top together and started quilting in straight lines - after looking at it for the past few days I've decided I need to do a few more lines of quilting - I have a bit of an addiction to matchstick quilting but I'm going to refrain from doing that on this one !

I'm also making a cushion/pillow for a giveaway - I'm making a smaller version of the mini with 2 inch blocks which will make an 18 inch cushion/pillow - I've used the same fabrics as my mini quilt - not sure how I'll quilt that one yet - maybe straight line or maybe cross hatching !

and because I love this pattern so much I've made a start on another cushion !  eeek somebody stop me !

I've made quite a few mini quilts with the eternally cute half square triangle block.  I like to sew them the old fashioned way - using my hera marker to mark a line diagonally on the square and sew on either side which is how I made the blocks for both the solid mini and cushion - I usually only cut my blocks 1/2 inch larger rather than the normal 7/8 inch so that I don't have as much waste.

However, last weekend I found another way of sewing the blocks together - I saw the Clearly Perfect Angle sheet on a sewing machine which jogged my memory that I actually had purchased one a few years ago and as I couldn't use it with my old machine it was put away.

After a bit of a search I found it and it fits the new machine really well !

it is a plastic sheet marked with angled lines - as well as sewing half square triangles you can use it to sew diagonal corners, joining strips for bindings and probably lots of other uses - all without having to mark your blocks.  I decided to give it a go and made some more triangles for another cushion - I'm happy with how they turned out but I might just make my blocks a little bigger next time I use the clearly perfect angle - giving me a little more wiggle room !

As I mentioned I'm currently making a cushion/pillow for a giveaway next Tuesday 29 July - if you are visiting from Instagram I'll be posting about it there as well as here so you won't miss out !

To continue with the Seabreeze Mini Quilt-along blog hop - tomorrow's bloggers are Rachel @ Little White Dove and Penny @ Happy Spider Knits Podcasts - can't wait to see what fabrics they're using !

I also hope you checked out yesterday's bloggers Kellie and Gillian from Secret Society Sewing - Gillian even printed her own fabrics to use !

Have fun making your own Seabreeze Mini and don't forget to come back next week for the cushion/pillow giveaway !