sugar block club bom

Last year I signed up for the Craftsy BOM with Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock which was great fun so when I heard Amy was doing another BOM this year I just had to sign up for that - I also signed up mum so that we would have a project to do together !

Amy's block of the month is called the Sugar Block Club - as well as a monthly block pattern you receive a fabulous dessert recipe too - I haven't actually made any of the desserts although they do look good:)

Amy is using some colonial blocks from the 1920s and it took me a while to decide on fabric but when I saw the January Blogger's Choice fat quarter bundle from Fat Quarter Shop I knew that was the perfect fabric !  Sinta Borland of Pink Pincushion has put together some cute fabrics from Pam Kitty Morning and also Hill Farm by Brenda Riddle.

I'm using the Cotton Couture Primrose as the background and as I need 17 fat quarters for the BOM I've added a few extra solids.

This is my January block ...

mum's January block ...

I love how we've both used pink for the background and green outer points !!

My February block ...

and my March block ...

Not sure whether mum has finished the February and March blocks but at the moment she and dad are holidaying around Tasmania so I'll have to check up on her when they return home :)

Have a great week :)

march project for a lovely year of finishes

its time for the march project for a lovely year of finishes - jeepers - I didn't even get the February project done - these months just seem to whiz by !

My February project was to get a cushion or three finished which I haven't but they have progressed a bit so I don't feel quite so bad :)

I've managed to unpick and replace the border for the bunny cushion and I've sewn the gathered edge on the green cushion - I was really sweating on the gathering but now that its done I have no idea why !! seems its always the way that you put something off 'cause you think it will be too hard and when you finally get it done it wasn't hard at all !I

So I'm allowing myself one small project for the March A Lovely Year of Finishes so that I might get that and February's cushions done :)

As I'm behind in my Star of Africa bee blocks I'm putting the June (and hopefully August - yes 2012 that is !) block down as my finish for this month ! This block needs a bit of embroidery to finish it off ...

and this block needs to be sewn down and have some detailing done !

and if you're linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes I wish you good luck too !

material obsession 2 giveaway

its time to draw the material obsession 2 book giveaway - thanks to those who visited my blog and left a comment - it was great to hear your tips for machine quilting :)

so I've decided to just go for it - I think the reason I haven't started fmq even though I've had the Janome for almost two months is that I'm just scared that I'll mess up a perfectly fine quilt top !

but tomorrow I’m going to ignore my fear and just go for it :)

I've been practicing my stipple quilting ...

I’m pretty happy – mostly round curves – just need to relax and breath !

I'm a bit obsessed about pebble quilting too - lots more practice needed for that design though. 

so onto the winner of the book...I had 20 comments although two from Linda (hi Linda - waving :)) and one from my dad (thanks dad - love you ! )  so I put numbers 1 - 18 in mr random generator and he came up with #13 - lucky for one !

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Can’t believe it picked my dad’s comment (mum already has this book!) so the next comment was from Michele of Quilts from my Crayon Box - congratulations Michele and thanks for your tip!  I’ll be sending you an email today to get your postal address – hope you really enjoy the book :)

I'm off to the sewing room this afternoon – I've failed on my February projects !  my three cushions for A Lovely Year of Finishes are still not finished although they are further along than the beginning of the month. I also have to re-do February’s And Sew On BOM block – the “unpicker” block has caused me to unpick at least 5 times but I just can’t get the handles to match up !

Have a great weekend :)

happy blogiversary

happy 3rd birthday little blog - yes, three years although I only did three posts in my first year and it wasn't until October 2011 that I really got into blogging - I was in my first blog hop in November 2011 so that was a great motivator :) Actually I think it was around October 2011 that I went "live" with my blog - nothing like a long honeymoon !!  so if I want to get persnickety I could say I've only been blogging for 1 1/2 years but I'm going with 3 :)

I'd really like to thank everyone who has ever visited my blog or left a comment - I'm pretty amazed that I now have over 100 followers on google friends and I also have readers through email and RSS - thank you so much- its really nice to receive so much support from people all around the world and it continues to amaze me daily:)


I've met so many wonderful people online over the past three years and as I usually sew by myself its been so nice to be able to connect with people with the same passion !

so to celebrate and to say thanks for following along with me, I have a copy of Material Obsessions 2 for one of my readers :) its such a great book with heaps of eye candy !  its by australian quilters Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke - and just a heads up Sarah's newest quilting book, Hand Quilted with Love is due out in March - keep an eye out for that one - it looks fabulous too :)

if you'd like to add this book to your library, just leave me a comment by Friday 1 March (australian time) and as I'm about to start on my free motion quilting journey you might want to share your best fmq tip !

giveaway closed - Michelle from Quilts from my Crayon Box was the winner :)
I'll email the lucky reader on Saturday 2 March so please make sure I can contact you :)

good luck and have a great weekend- I'm off to the sewing room:)

happy valentine's day

I thought I'd share my gorgeous valentine's day roses that were delivered first thing this morning :)

hope you have a great valentine's day !

a lovely year of finishes for February

after consulting my wisp list I've finally decided on my a lovely year of finishes project for February - its a pink candlewick embroidery cushion cover that needs to be finished into a cushion.

I actually have two candlewick embroideries that need to be made into cushions plus a stencilled one so that's three projects but as they were started around the same era (mid 1990's - gasp!) I think they should be finished at the same time too !

I made the stencilled bunnies cushion in a crafty class that I took while living in Bunbury, Western Australia, so it was actually made in 1995 - the classes were held one night a week over 6 weeks at a gorgeous little school in the centre of town and we learnt to make all kinds of different things including beeswax candles, marinated feta cheese, and spool dolls, as well as stencilling - it was great fun and I think started my love of crafting :)

I moved to Perth not long after that and discovered the gorgeous Heirloom Elegance in Subiaco - I did heaps of classes at that wonderful shop - ribbon embroidery, wool embroidery, as well as a candlewicking class by Sandie Meldrum who was an amazing teacher (her book Traditional Candlewicking has been reprinted 4 times).

I really loved doing candlewicking and of course I bent the rules and used the pink thread for the second embroidery I did :) I made the first one in the traditional cream on cream.  Both of these cushion tops are dated - the cream one was made in 1995 and the pink one in 1998.

I'd recently been thinking about making some cushions for my couch so when I came across a box of UFOs and these cushion tops a few weeks ago while I was cleaning out my garage  - it was definitely kismet !

When I pulled the pink one out of the box I immediately decided to put a border around it and I found the perfect fabric - like it was made for the design !  The cream on cream top already has a green border with mitred corners and also has a gathered trim that needs to be sewn on - it always amazes me that these ufos are still in good condition with all their bits together, especially when I think about all of the moves I've done - since sewing those two candlewick embroideries I've moved two states and ten houses !!

The stencilled cushion needs a new border - the current one is a poly/cotton blend and old fabric that just wouldn't suit my couch !  I'm sure I'll find something else suitable in my stash !

Linking up to a lovely year of finishes 

fresh sewing day

gee - that month just whizzed past - can't believe its already February !

In amongst all that whizzing - I did do a few things in January that I can show for Fresh Sewing Day.

I've done blog posts for these finishes so I thought I'd just add the photos with links !

January care at do.good stitches

January care at do.good stitches

November design camp2 block

October design camp 2 block

scattered squares

January design camp 2 block

January design camp 2 block

craftsy block of the month

craftsy block of the month

craftsy block of the month

September long distance quilting bee

candlewick cushion

and sew on january block

craftsy block of the month

design camp 2 mod mosaic for me

totally groovy

lucy's pram / capsule cover

 

linking up ...

a year of lovely finishes for January

its finally done - the little capsule/pram cover that I made for Lucy is finished ! and I think its sooo cute:)

I know exactly what took me so long to get this little sweetie finished - the quilting !  it seems that every time I think of quilting I panic !  but you know what - I loved doing the quilting on this little one and it wasn't hard at all.

I've discovered I love doing straight line quilting so I've just got to remember that ! 

When I think back to a couple of minis I made last year I can't believe I hand quilted this quilt...

I was worried I'd mess it up if I did straight line quilting - and now I think how great it would have looked with some straight line quilting like this one...

I'm so glad I did straight line quilting on that one - I think it really makes the quilt !

so now I really want to try free motion quilting and I definitely panic whenever I think of it but I don't want to straight line quilt every quilt I make !!  I just need to remember that I CAN do it and the more I practice the better I'll be :)

I think for my February project for a lovely year of finishes I might have to find something that needs quilting so I can practice fmq :)

I was hoping to post a photo of Lucy in her capsule with the new cover but alas her mother has been a bit busy on the farm so hopefully I'll get a photo soon !

I'm linking up to a lovely year of finishes - the linky party closes tomorrow !

a totally groovy quilt !

yes, it is totally groovy - I've finally finished the groove quilt - the pattern by Emily Cier of Carolina Patchworks that was used for the Totally Groovy Quilt-along - and I LOVE it !

I started cutting and sewing last Sunday - although I'd already sewn all the curved blocks during the quilt-along - and I finished the top last night.

The pattern calls for quite a few pieces and during the quilt-along the girls were talking about adding those pieces up and cutting larger strips - so before christmas I'd worked out all the measurements to sew large strips rather than tiny pieces and it sewed together quite quickly.

I sewed it together in sections then sewed those sections together so it wasn't that hard to do and I'm pretty happy with how my curved pieces turned out - they were the first curved sewing I'd done and I was just a little worried !!

I did the throw size which finished at 63 x 73 so it was a bit too large for my design wall - I had to enlist a friend to hold it up for me to take the photo of the finished quilt :)

 

I used Kona Solids in petal, cerise, azalea, sprout, and eggplant.  I'm not quite sure how to quilt it with my limited quilting skills and I'm thinking about piecing the back as well so there's still some work to do - I'll have to get a move on though as this quilt is one of my projects for the first quarter of this year's finish-along so just having the top done doesn't cut it!

a few more blocks

Last week I made a start on the And Sew On paper pieced block of the month and have January's block sewn.

I also finished the last Craftsy block in last year's block of the month - yippee - now I'll be able to put this on my finish-along list later in the year - I need to get some backing organised first!

and on Friday I received a half done mod mosaic block that was my choice for the Design Camp bee in July last year - Tiff didn't get around to finishing it so sent it back to me and I just added a few blocks and its done !  I'm just waiting on one more block and I can thinking about putting this one together as well :)

tomorrow I'm making a start on the totally groovy quilt - can't wait :)