hurricane sandy quilt block appeal

I didn't really achieve all the sewing I wanted to on the weekend but I did get four Hurricane Sandy appeal blocks done.

Annabella alerted me to this appeal on Saturday night - Jenn from Knotted Thread has set up a flickr group and is wanting these simple blocks by the end of November so if you have a little fabric and an hour to spare why not make some too :)

my other Sunday sewing included the craftsy BOM October circle of geese block - I forgot how long it takes to paper piece - all that flipping and checking and pressing - but I love the end result :)

and I very nearly finished the long distance quilting bee block for Joy - this was due to be sent by the end of March so I'm very late and it was lost for 4 months which didn't help.

I've unpicked and restitched this whole block since I started - I originally had the purple frame on the inside (kind of a cross effect) so I think it looks way better as an actual frame.

I just need to embroider the lavender flowers in the top left block and I can post it - I'm so glad this is nearly done as I only have one other block to do for this group and we're finished for the year!

I was tossing up last night whether to keep sewing today or do housework - well, unfortunately the housework won but I'm hoping to get it done early so I can get some sewing in later.

hope you did some fabulous sewing over the weekend :)

a little sewing !

gee - its been more than a week since I last posted and I'm not sure I have that much to show for my time away !

I've made the October long distance quilting bee block for Rhonda who requested a maple leaf block using green and earth colours/leaves.

When I uploaded a photo of my block onto flickr I discovered that the others had done the block with a light background so I decided to quickly make another one just in case I'm the only one with a dark background !

and I've finished up some blocks that may or may not have been on my to do list !

I finished the traditional dresden plate block for my craftsy bom - I just needed to applique the circle so that's another one done.

I also redid one of the craftsy blocks that I wasn't that happy with - hopefully this one might suit the quilt a little better that the original :)

I've appliqued the ball and surfboard onto my wonky house block - I made blocks for the wonky house swap at the beginning of the year and I kept this one as (a) it wasn't finished and (b) it was the first time I'd done curved piecing :) - its nice to have it finally finished as well !

As I've mentioned I'm in the Modern She Made Swap and last weekend I finally decided on the design and some fabrics to make a mini quilt for my partner.

I'm using a design by Quiltdad that he did for a cushion tutorial (along with Julie from Jaybird Quilts) over at the Moda Bakeshop - I decided to adapt it for a quilt - half square triangles with some wonky stars.  I think my love of half square triangles is bordering on obsession !

I've now got the half square triangles sewn and trimmed - just need to put them on the design wall to arrange and then sew together - I am definitely going to machine quilt this one - mainly because it needs to be in the post within two weeks.

I've also finished a little embroidery block that I started sometime last year with the idea to make a bag for mum - its using colouring pencils with embroidered outlines - its a technique used by Helen Stubbings that she calls colourqué - I really like the effect of this technique but I'm thinking now that maybe that orange is a bit out of place !

I need to make this into a project - after talking to mum I've decided not to go with a bag or pouch as she has plenty of them so hopefully it won't take me another year to think of something to do with it !  its about 6" square so if  you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them - my only thought at the moment is to make it into a mini quilt (bordered by hst - lol) !

this weekend I'm hoping to get the capsule/pram cover finished, the modern she made swap top done, and the last craftsy blocks sewn - phew - I'd better get sewing - have a great weekend :)

weekend swap blocks

I made a tiny dent in my to be done before christmas list over the weekend with some swap blocks finished and ready to be posted tomorrow.

first up is the august design camp 2 block - linda requested improv blocks - either an all linear block or a wonky log cabin block - the fabrics she sent were gorgeous - I thought I was going to do a linear block but when I saw the little bird I changed to a log cabin - which was fun - I used all the fabric in the one block rather than doing two smaller ones.

I also sewed the september design camp 2 blocks for suzy who sent out some gorgeous stripe fabric along with white and grey and asked for square or rectangle blocks - I managed to make three blocks out of the fabrics and I'm happy with how they turned out.

In between I did some hand sewing and appliqued the circle of the craftsy bom dresden wheel block so that is finally finished - I need to do the circle of the dresden plate block as well.

the idea of the star of africa swap is to make a block representing your country - for the July block May asked for something in pink and as I was born in Tasmania which is also known as the Apple Isle I thought I'd do an apple applique - for those who don't know Tasmania is a small island at the bottom of mainland Australia and its shaped kind of like a heart or this apple :)  I've embroidered "Tasmania" on one side and "the apple isle" on the other but as I've used pink thread it hasn't shown up too well in the photo.

I was also going to do some extra embroidery on Patti's June block so I could send it off too but I seem to have misplaced her block at the moment - on saturday I found a swap block that I haven't seen since I got back from leave four months ago and now I've lost another one - very annoying - I know I've just put it somewhere for safe keeping but I hope I can find it a bit quicker than the other one !

and lastly I've trimmed the hourglass blocks for baby Lucy's quilt and its on the design wall - hopefully I'll be able to get a layout and sew it together soon as it uses the whole area !

that's a few blocks that I can cross off my to-do list - hope you had a productive weekend too :)

first mod pop block

my plan for the weekend was to get a start on the totally groovy and the mod pop quilt-along quilts, but of course, the best laid plans always change !

I did manage to get a block of the mod pop quilt cut out and I finished sewing it up last night - I'm using pezzy mono pink and kona azalea :)

the curves were a little less stressful to do than the first ones for the totally groovy quilt and craftsy blocks and hopefully they'll improve as I do more !

I've decided to take a leaf from the finish-along girls who link up over at Quilter in the Gap and do a make list so that I get the things I need to done and don't start anything else !

so here goes - my list of things to be done between now and early December - did I mention I'll be cruising the South Pacific in December - well in 1 month, 30 days, and 16 hours according to the cruise countdown widget at the bottom of the page :)

1. star of africa swap blocks - my plan is to make two blocks each weekend until I'm up to date !
2. pram/capsule cover for baby lucy - hopefully I'll get this done soon
3. hourglass quilt for baby lucy - maybe a christmas present!
4. design camp 2 swap blocks - I've got two overdue blocks with another due this month - I hope to get these done during the week
5. long distance quilting bee swap blocks - september and october blocks plus the march block which I've now misplaced but I'm going to find and get it finished - I'm hoping to get these done during the week as well
6. modern she made swap - this needs to be sent by mid november
7. totally groovy quilt - top finished
8. mod pop quilt - top finished
9. craftsy block of the month - october blocks done and top finished
10. blogger's block of the month - top finished

and in between I hope to get more hexies done for the hexy mf quilt-along and then there's the spinning stars quilt-along that I need to start - maybe that will be my first January project !

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 :)

September finishes

jeepers its almost the middle of October and I'm only just getting around to joining in the fresh sewing day:)

I managed to get a few finishes done in September !

1. September care at do.good stitches, 2. September care at do.good stitches, 3. RATZ name tag swap, 4. string blocks, 5. cleopatra's puzzle, 6. chain block, 7. love lines finished, 8. fab little quilt swap - round 2

I like using the mosaic maker from big huge labs to make mosaics for these posts as I've already posted these photos either here or on flickr :)

I'm linking up to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day - don't you love the new button:)

my down under quilt

yesterday, I sent off the little down under doll quilt I made and today I received the one that was made for me - doing the happy dance !!

it was a fabulous parcel all tied up with gorgeous aqua spots ...

my secret swap partner was Lorraine who blogs over at Small Quilts and she has made me a wonderful little quilt :)

I just love it - it's so scrappy and I love the star design and the back is just gorgeous too - pink chevrons - adorable ♥

to top it off Lorraine made an awesome pouch and a super cute hexi needle case ...

the details are just fabulous - a cute zipper pull and hand quilting on the pouch and gorgeous tape ribbon on the needle case - thanks so much for making these for me Lorraine :)

down under doll quilt swap

After sewing together the little quilt for the down under doll quilt swap on Wednesday and Thursday night I discussed the quilting with a long arm quilter that I work with – convenient huh !

I didn’t want the quilting to overtake the stars and I’m really not that confident to do machine quilting for someone else just yet – Cathy agreed that too much quilting would be overwhelming so I decided to just outline hand quilt in the star squares.

I used matching perle thread for the orange and pink stars and some gorgeous varigated thread for the blue and green stars - its only a small quilt and didn’t need much quilting and this way the stars are the feature - I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

If I had more of the small orange spot fabric I would have used that as the binding rather than the big spots but hopefully my partner will love the big spots !

I made little hanging pockets from the binding but of course forgot to take a photo of them - I really like the idea of making these from leftover binding – very quick and easy and an instant hanger especially if you have heaps of thin dowel hanging around like I do !

As little extras I made a key fob and 4 magnets – my partner loves orange so hopefully she will love those magnets – I think I’m a bit addicted to making them :)

the deadline for posting was today so its now on its way to its partner - as this was an aussie swap hopefully she will receive it by the end of the week :)

my very creative dad !

since my dad has retired, we've discovered he's got an artistic streak!

when I was growing up he was usually busy with work and meetings and he was involved in a lot of volunteer and service groups so he probably didn't have much time to show his creative side.

I was visiting mum and dad not long after they'd retired to Queensland and discovered that dad had done a ceramics course - the conversation with my mum went like this ...

me - wow fabulous bowl mum - where did you get that one ?

mum - oh your dad made it

me - what ! dad made it - really ! its fabulous - wow !

mum - yes, he's made a few items :)

and recently he's discovered glass mosaics and has made a few clocks for the family - I was really happy to receive one for my birthday this year - its just gorgeous.

last week Dad sent me photos of his latest project - a glass mosaic table top which is stunning - when I was last at home a few months ago this was just a plain glass top outdoor table !

he's taken apart a couple of bird leadlight hangers (I think they're called light catchers) that were left at the house from the previous owners and set them into the glass mosaic

isn't it fabulous - I just love the design and the colours he's used - so now mum and I are thinking maybe we should get him into quilting - I can just seem him doing some great designs with a long arm quilting machine :)

blogger's block of the month

September was the final month for the blogger's block of the month which started in September 2011 - I already had the June, July, and August blocks cut out so thought I'd get them sewn over the past few days and I also did the September double star blocks too.

  

of course now I've discovered I have 39 blocks - so I needed to either take some out or add more so I'm going to do 3 more of the September double star block to get 42 blocks.

I really like these blocks and I can't wait to get the quilt sewn together - I'm thinking about a small white sashing - maybe 1/2 inch - between the blocks just in case some don't square up exactly.  They are 8" square so it will end up around 51 x 59 - just the right size for a lap quilt :)