long distance quilting bee

I wanted to get in and post before Friday comes around again - amazing how these weeks are just zipping by - maybe its because I'm going on holiday soon that I seem to be losing time way faster than normal :)

I made these jar blocks for Amy for the March long distance quilting bee last night - they were quick and easy to come together and I really love the idea - can't wait to see Amy's finished quilt - one of the members has done a jar full of chillis and they look so real - its amazing the variety of fabrics you can get :)

I did a jar of fish and a jar of butterflies - I particularly love the butterfly fabric which I've had for a while but never used - I think I had a project in mind when I bought it but you know how that is :)

I hope Amy likes the blocks and I've got to get the other March LDQB block done this weekend - Joy has asked for a herb garden theme block so I'm going to do some embroidery for that - again, I've got quite a few projects to get done this weekend so I'll be busy in my favourite room :)

Hope you have a fabulous weekend.

dqs12

I signed up for the doll quilt swap a little while ago and waited patiently to see if I got in – when the email arrived I was very excited – I checked out my secret swap partner and thought I came up with a great block idea – apparently the swap guidelines are different this year and we had a choice of four different blocks, with no white to be used for the background, and we had to use at least six blocks in the quilt.

So checking out my partner I noticed that she loved grey and a touch of pink so thought a wonky churn dash block might be good….with this idea in mind I went about doing other sewing that needed to be done and a week ago thought I’d better get started on doing this quilt – it has to be posted by 2 April.

So last week while checking in with the group thought I'd check on my partner again and all of a sudden her photos have been updated and there is a heap of colour everywhere so I thought maybe I haven’t made the right choice (read p.a.n.i.c) so I started trying to think about what other blocks and colours I could do.

I thought maybe I could use my half moon fat eighths to do some wonky churn dash blocks but there wasn’t enough contrast although they look good with a white background !

I am using different purples with a touch of lime and orange for my new york beauty blocks so thought I could use some of that fabric and had a play with doing some flying geese blocks but I wasn’t so sure.

 

Then last Thursday finally decided I would do a mini version of the flying geese circle block by making nine 6½ “ blocks.  So on the weekend I started making the blocks and did one and a half blocks and realised I only had enough backing fabric to get maybe three whole blocks done if I was lucky – well by Sunday I was well and truly stressed and confused about this mini quilt – how can one little quilt cause so much unrest !!

I really liked how these blocks were turning out and I did think about doing some blocks with a different background colour (thanks Nicky) but I don’t have very many solids with any yardage to choose from and I don’t have a great deal of time to be doing practice blocks and absolutely no time to order any more fabric so I decided to use the heap of greys I had already purchased for this quilt and go back to my original idea of doing the wonky churn dash blocks.  I also thought about doing this circle with a grey background but I thought there would be just too much grey !

I'm using a bit darker pink that the original and some of the grey fabrics have a touch of yellow and blues in them as well.

Now that I am at peace with my decision (kind of!) I hope I can get this little quilt done quickly and I really hope it looks good and that my partner loves it :)

wonky house blocks arrived

The postman delivered the package of wonky house blocks yesterday – yippee !!

These are the swap blocks from members of the wonky house block group on flickr.  We had to make 12 wonky house blocks along with signature blocks and send off 11 of them to swap – I was lucky enough to get Nicky’s teapot block in my swap return – isn't it just a gorgeous little teapot! 

They are so cute – we’re now swapping smaller wonky green and coloured tree blocks to go with the wonky house blocks - thanks to the girls in my group for wonderful wonky houses :)

new york beauty quilt along

I signed up to do the new york beauty quilt along which started last week and did the first block on the weekend – really loved doing the paper piecing which  initially I wasn’t sure about.

After I’d done the  strips to make the circle,  I decided that I needed to arrange the fabrics differently so that the points stand out more but thought I’d push on with this block as a practice block and make it into a cushion.

 

I haven’t really done circle sewing before and remembered my mum had given me a special foot designed to do circles last time I was home so went on the hunt for that foot.  I found the box with the attachments but no foot, so I phoned mum to see if I’d left it there.  

anyway, I decided to have a go at the inner circle and sewed all four not using pins – I’d once tried to do a curve using pins and the fabric underneath got all caught up and I had a lovely time trying to unpick it all !

 

the circle turned out ok but I thought I’d wait to hear from mum about the foot before I tackled the outer circle – didn’t want to push my luck !

Mum phoned this morning to say that she’d found the foot and had popped it in the post...so while I’m waiting I must get on with the DQS12 quilt :)

friday already !

can't believe its Friday already - where did the week go ? thankfully I managed to get a little bit of sewing in as it wizzed by !

the february craftsy bom blocks - really like all the blocks we've done.

balkan puzzle

chunky chevron

I'm going to leave the march blocks until towards the end as they are both strip blocks and that way I can use the scraps from the fabric I'm using !

I also finally got the January Modern bom blocks done as well !

and forgot to show you my finished design camp 2 february block which I also loved doing :)

its on its way to the USA - hope it doesn't take too long to arrive at Leona's house !

it stopped raining for a few days earlier in the week but apparently its set to rain all weekend again so looks like I should be able to get some quality sewing time in - yay - hope you have a great weekend wherever you are :)

a rainy weekend

means lots of sewing - I mean what else can you do when its raining so much there are flood alerts all around !

On Saturday, after spending quite a bit of time on the computer in front of the fire I thought I'd better get some sewing done and my sewing room was nice and warm so I did the February Blogger's BOM blocks.

on Sunday I started the Craftsy BOM blocks - I finally organised the fabrics I am going to use so was happy to get the January blocks done - I hadn't done an asterisk block before so watching Amy put it together on the video was really handy.

this is the second January block - wonky pound sign - very much like the connector blocks I did last week - love this block as well :)

and I finally got the Long Distance Quilting Bee February block done - Kathy had asked for bright colours with some black and white in a mexican theme - I must admit the mexican theme had me stumped for quite some time - I kept thinking maracas and sombreros which didn't help at all ! then last week I googled mexican quilting and found a mexican rose block which I thought would be good but then on Saturday discovered that Margaret from our group had already done one of those for Kathy!

So after I'd done the Craftsy blocks I thought maybe a mexican star - I had done a starflower block for the January care at do.good stitches group and thought that might just work !  so I made up the block using some bright colours with a black and white background.

after looking at it on the design wall I was thinking I should have cut out the half square triangles and matched them up into each petal first which I kept thinking about as I was sewing it up - I should have stopped !  so of course as soon as it was finished I promptly unpicked it all and re-sewed - matching up the petals - oh well, unpicking is such a soothing pastime !!

so this is now the finished block - I'm way happier with the matching petals (I think) !

I probably could have got a couple more Craftsy blocks done but after that unpicking though I should just pack up for the day :)

hope you stayed warm and dry this weekend and got some fabulous sewing in :)

scrap republic winner

Karen at Listen to the Birds Sing has drawn a winner of the Scrap Republic book - congratulations Rhonda - I hope you really enjoy this book and have lots of fun making scrap quilts :)

Karen has also listed a few of her favourite tools on this post as well ! love the hint for sharpening your rotary cutter.

I've been very busy in the sewing room this weekend so I'll be back with an update tomorrow.

fabric bonanza

wooo hooo - the gorgeous colourbox from Oakshott arrived yesterday - omg what a wonderful rainbow of gorgeous colours - 100 fat eighths - yes - one hundred

notice how the colour card exactly matches the fabrics - wow !

and all thanks to my very lucky win at Lily's Quilts and Oakshott Fabrics !

I almost didn't want to take them out of the plastic they were wrapped in - and it took a while to actually take a piece out of the box - didn't want to mess up that beautiful rainbow of colours :)

this is 78 Mallow - just in case you wanted to know :)

But finally, I did take a few two pieces out and fondled them gently - wow - what soft fabric and the sheen is amazing.

the back of the colour card has all the colours listed for easy reference

The box also came with a colour guide just in case I want to order some more - of course I've already decided on a few colours that I must have yardage of - just wait a little while and I'll need way more :)

I had thought that I would use some of the fabrics for the New York Beauty quilt along but of course now they're here I don't want to use them straight away - goodness, I need some quality stroking and touching time first :)  so I might have to find some other fabric to use for that quilt along !

ok - time to stop drooling !

but it really was a fabric bonanza this week :)

my fugly giveaway fabrics both arrived this week - thanks to Fiona and Susan for their generous giveaways :)

I also received the February FQS Blogger's Choice bundle

FQS photo

which I'm mixing up with the January bundle

FQS photo

and a few fabrics from previous bundles to make the Craftsy BOM quilt.

and also from the Fat Quarter Shop, the kit for the Bunny Hill Designs Scrappy Plate Club arrived this week.

I know - another sew along! -  but I absolutely love polka dots so when I saw the sew along on Anne's blog I just had to join in and purchase the kit - polka dot dresden plates - very cute :)

photo from Bunny Hill blog

so that's my fabric loot ... now I'd better go and start sewing some of it together - its pouring with rain and very cold here today - I've just lit the fire its soo cold and its only 3 days into Autumn ! but perfect weather for staying in and sewing...so I'll be back with some sewn items soon :)  hope you're having a fabulous sewing day too !

Fresh Sewing Day

Its funny that I seem to think that I don't get much done month to month but after looking at my mosaic of February sewing it seems that I sew quite a few blocks - just hope that in March I might get some projects actually finished :)

 1. design camp 2 block one, 2. wonky house 12, 3. wonky house 11, 4. december modern bom, 5. do.good stitches block 2, 6. do.good stitches block 1, 7. wonky house 8, 8. wonky house 9, 9. wonky house 10, 10. dqs12 block 1, 11. bloggers bom - december block 2, 12. bloggers bom - december block 1, 13. bloggers bom - december block 3, 14. bloggers bom - January block 3, 15. bloggers bom - January block 2, 16. bloggers bom - January block 1, 17. wonky block 7 revised, 18. wonky house 6

 

 

although because I'm now in quite a few block swaps and doing block of the month projects, I seem to be making mostly blocks.

my two saving graces for March will be that I have to finish the doll quilt for DQS12 and I'm also doing a few mini quilts for a blog hop that's being done in April - more on that later:)

so I'm finally linking up today with Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts- I have also been meaning to link up with Lily's Quilts small blog meet but notice I'm now over 50 followers - thanks so much everyone :)

design camp rocks

just a quick post this morning to show you my nearly completed February block for the Design Camp 2 swap.

Its called connector blocks and it was harder than I thought to line those second little cuts up :)

but I love the style and will definately make this block again !

now just need to do the February mexican themed block for the long distance quilting bee - I'm hoping I can come up with something good even though I've never been to mexico :)

Here's to March going just a tad slower than February so that I can get my swap blocks done on time !