March already !!

Is it just me or does this year seem to be speeding along ? maybe its because this time last year the whole world seemed to slow down, a lot !! 

anyway, I had a very productive February so I'm happy to be sharing progress on some of my UFO projects for this month's Furtle with Archie the Wonderdog :)

First up is my Message in a Bottle UFO - as I discovered when I pulled out this project last month, I hadn't made much progress on this quilt since the initial workshop with Irene Blanck in October 2015 !!

I've now sorted the applique fabric for each block - I'm using turned edge applique as its a lot easier on my hands than the needle turn method - so all the blocks are ready to have the applique edges prepped for hand sewing.

The pattern calls for alternate appliqued orange peel and melon blocks for the borders but I've decided to change that up and I've made hourglass blocks for the borders instead.  I know that if I had to do more applique after I'd finished all the blocks that the project might stall again and as there are hourglass blocks in the quilt I'm hoping that the hourglass border will look good ! (apologies for the photo quality)

The other UFO I've been working on recently is my Steam Punk Quilt - again I've made quite a bit of progress on this one as I've unpicked and resewn 31 of the 41 blocks !! (its ok, I already know I'm crazy !!) so now when I sew the sashing on the blocks I won't cut off the edges of the propellers !!

Jen Kingwell's pattern calls for 7 half blocks to use as some of the setting triangles but after making and remaking 70 of these blocks I've decided to use just fabric for all of the setting triangles !  Again, its all about doing what I can do get these projects finished !!

I'm currently prepping the centre circles and will applique them before I sew the sashing so I might even have this top done by next month soon !  You can see the polka dot sashing I plan to use along with the setting triangle fabric in the photo above.

I've been playing around with the layout and moving blocks around for the past week but I think I might now have the final layout - it helps to view as black and white too - especially with all the colour chaos in this quilt - this quilt's working title is Hectic !!

My Lawn Star has also grown a little more this month ...

and I have less than 80 diamonds to go !! 

but I think I might need a bigger design wall to lay them all out :)  I had a big session of removing the papers from these blocks which was a great way of seeing all of the different fabrics - I have some of the first fabrics I bought in this quilt so it will be a real time capsule of my stash !!  There's even a scrap from a stitchery I made for my mum and also scraps from when I used to make cloth dolls - over 20 years ago !!

I also managed to make and finish some mini quilts, a cushion, and a couple of handbags too !

Phew that's probably the most sewing I've done in ages - hopefully the mojo keeps going through March !!

Popping over to link up with Archie The Wonder Dog !

furtling through August

Hello there - hope you are well and coping with crazy life as much as you can! 

I’m just scraping in right on the deadline again, with a Springtime Furtle!!

My big news for this Furtle is that I’ve finally finished my Midnight at the Oasis top – woohoo !! the little churn dash blocks were on my wall for a while as I got distracted by making other things but finally I needed to just get them finished so I could get my design wall back !! (better photos coming soon)

 

 I’ve also recently made a couple of bags and a wallet and I have another two bags cut out and ready to sew – I’m making the two sizes of the Hillside Tote bag by Noodlehead.

however due to an ironing board injury I had to stop sewing for a week - I thought I’d lost the tip of my finger when the leg of the ironing board broke while I was holding onto it and my fingers got caught when the leg collapsed and sprung up and jammed two fingers ! This is the nail of my middle finger the day after - I also got a big cut on the other side as well as losing a chunk from the middle of the tip of my index finger – it hurt like crazy and the ironing board is now on the rubbish pile - ha!

 I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to sew for a while but thankfully the cuts healed quite quickly and just in time to take part in last weekend’s Maria Shell (Tales of a Stitcher) online zoom class – wow, what an amazing class that was – Maria makes the most amazing improv quilts and I was so excited to be able to join in the online class.  Due to the time differences I didn’t take the live class but watched the recording of it later so that was almost as good.  I’ve made a couple of mirrored stripes and I look forward to making a lot more soon!

I've been thinking of making a shades of green quilt for a while and a few weeks ago I came back from walking Pippi and just had to find the fabric and start cutting and sewing right then - I was a bit possessed I think! I free-cut skinny strips of fabric, sewed them together, and then re-cut a few strips, turned them upside down, and then sewed them back together! I just had this idea in my head that I had to make and I made it in a couple of days – of course when I finished I knew I was going to revisit it later and then when I discovered Maria was doing an online class I jumped at the chance to join in and now I know exactly what I’m going to do with my little green quilt!

For a change of scene, instead of setting myself sewing goals this month I’m going to set blogging goals instead! I’m going to do a post about my Midnight at the Oasis adventure, a post explaining my 14 shades of green top, and a post about my recent bag and wallet makes – let’s see how I go by the end of the month :)

Before I go I want to shout out and thank my friend Linda (Flourishing Palms) for the notice about Maria’s zoom class via the Vermont Quilt Festival – Linda has blogged about quite a few fabulous zoom classes she has taken lately and when she mentioned that she was taking Maria’s class I just had to check it out !!  

So when I’m feeling dazed and confused by the global pandemic that has struck us all, I am also grateful for the technology that means there are now amazing artists jumping into online teaching, and that I can now take classes with teachers across the world from my home – it really is a little bit of sunshine to fade away the gloom.

 Linking up to Archie the Wonder dog :)

  

its a summer bag !

so I'm supposed to be cleaning and decluttering my house over the Christmas break but I've sewn a summer bag instead !!

I was looking for some fabric a couple of days ago and happened upon some other fabric that I'd put aside to make a bag - when I think about it this bag has been on my to do list for quite a while - so I decided then and there to make it !

its a pretty quick bag to put together and I've made one before so it was finished in a couple of afternoons !

I changed it up this time - I used batting and free motion quilted a cross hatch on both front and back of the bag - it was so quick and easy - although I did mark the lines first.

I also had a zip in the bundle and now I remember I was going to try and do an insert pocket but in my rush to get it done I clean forgot so it has a sew on pocket instead !

If you've visited me before you will know just how much I love my Bernina and I was especially grateful that it comes with an edge stitch foot that makes top stitching such a breeze and gives such a professional finish ! woo hoo !!

the pattern is The Phoebe Bag by Rebeka Lambert from Artsy Crafty Babe and is available here.

so now that I've sewn something this week its back to the cleaning and decluttering !

linking up to finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

a little wrong, a little right

its been another week since I've posted - jeepers the time is just flying - must be getting close to christmas huh !

last week I made four blocks for the Hurricane Sandy appeal and when I went to post them I discovered Australia Post has changed their rates - now you can send up to 50 grams or up to 250 grams - nothing in between (they used to have a 125 gram rate) so of course the four blocks were just over the 50 gram mark so I thought I'd make some more as it wasn't going to cost any more to post !

So I sewed up six more blocks and posted them off to Jenn in Hawaii on Thursday - there was a bit of a rush as they had to be there in two weeks.

I then posted the photos of the new blocks on flickr and that's when I discovered they didn't quite look the same as the previous ones I'd made - eeeeekkk - I'd managed to sew them together the wrong way - I couldn't believe it - poor Jenn - she's busy trying to sew up the quilts and I've sent her six blocks that need to be unpicked and resewn - of course I gave her the option of just forgetting about them but she was very gracious about it :)

I still can't believe I didn't notice the difference until I put the photos on flickr - doh !!


on brighter news - I finished the mini quilt for the Modern She Made Round 2 swap - I'm really happy with how it turned out especially as I had another design in mind when I cut all those half square triangles - I suppose that's why I love them - you can make so many designs with them :)

I machine quilted this one with straight line quilting - I really wanted to do the whole quilt in really close parallel lines but I thought it might take away from the design - so I was happy with doing the dense quilting in the corners.  I also  did a square spiral in the centre blocks and some outline quilting !  I'm really happy with the quilting - just hope my partner likes it as well.

I made the label and incorporated it into the backing which was fun - I also put some hanging pockets on the corners so that it can be hung different ways.  I went with white binding which was suggested by mum - I was thinking about using a bright pink but when I laid them out the pink just stood out too much and the white looked way better - thanks mum ♥

As I finished the mini earlier than I had planned I made myself a new bag - I've had this gorgeous organic fabric from daisy janie for a while and I always planned on making a bag with it - so when I saw a bag on the modern she made flickr group that I really liked - I decided to give it a go.

It was really quick and easy and came together in a few hours - its the phoebe bag by Beki and the tutorial is available at her blog here :)

so only one of these projects is on my to do list but at least that's one I can cross off - now to get those swap blocks finished this week :)

hope you're coping with the christmas countdown and enjoying life wherever you are :)

little handbag

after sewing so many quilt tops - I decided to make a little bag today - its from a tutorial by Rachel at PS I Quilt