Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Cross-stitch update


More work on the left hand side, towards the bottom, this week. Not yet at the bottom edge, but approaching it before too much longer. 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Stitched trees


Some ATCs for a swap - all free motion stitched on spare bits of cross-stitch canvas with variegated thread.  I like the orange one best!




Saturday, February 25, 2012

Another quick four patch


I made this recently, with the intention of doing a mini-tutorial (it's the same technique I used a few weeks back to make another stop in reds and browns) - and I even took pictures of the steps, but I haven't got around to writing up the tutorial - even a mini-tutorial takes a little time to blog.  Maybe later this week if I get any days which are less busy. Ha, ha.  

Anyway, this one, I think I may keep for a baby quilt for myself. I have a couple coming up - although actually, those will need gender neutral quilts and this might be a bit girly.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Cross-stitch update


As promised, I have abandoned the "Winter" piece for a while and instead, stitched up some other bits and pieces. First up, this little birdie - he's only small, so he didn't take long to do - two evenings, perhaps.


So then I went on to this little sampler, again only a few evenings because it's only little.


And then I started on this larger piece. Not much exciting to show yet, but here's what the finished piece will look like:


Sunday, February 19, 2012

Purple Fibre ATCs


Made (mostly) for a swap. I haven't done a lot of this style of fibre ones lately - but I do enjoy them. I think I might do some more in another colour soon!






Saturday, February 18, 2012

Bag!


Gift for a friend's birthday. 

Flying Geese Circle

Judi asked about this pattern, but unfortunately, her account is set to no-reply, so I can't reply (and I'm not positive which Judi it is - I know several!). But Judi, if you are reading this, the geese pattern IS online, and can be found here:  http://piecebynumber.com/pastbom/colorwheelpatt.htm

Friday, February 17, 2012

Block lotto hearts


February's block lotto features heart blocks (or blocks including a heart) in your choice of pink, orange, cream and grey (at least two colours). I did a variety of scrappy blocks of various sorts - finally got around to finishing them, although I do still have to remove the paper from the bottom row (the others weren't paper pieced).

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Green Geese Circle


Green flying geese circle, as the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green in February. Now I have red and green. Wonder what will come next?

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cross-stitch update


Good progress this week - you can see quite a change in the lower left window and greenery. Always nice to have visible progress....

Next week, it's time for something different; I have decided to put away the Winter cross-stitch for the moment - partly because I'm tired of winter - but mainly because it's too frustrating to have two large, intricate pieces on the go at once and I need to make my second piece something either smaller or more simple, with larger blocks of single colours, etc  - or maybe an alphabet sampler - something totally different, at any rate. The whole point of having a second piece is to feel like I'm having a break when I switch and the two projects I have on the go at the moment are too alike in the type of attention they require of me - too many similar colours and too much blending, etc.   Anyway, watch this space, but expect something completely different!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Another scrappy top


Another small quilt top from my productive week - this one started out with 6" squares, which I sliced randomly to make wonky four patches (stack one colour, one neutral, both RS up, slice once. Swap out the pairs and sew, then stack again and slice again and sew again - hey presto - four patch!)  Techniques like this are so quick and effective...

I should add, this is about 26x33" - Obviously, you could easily adjust the size by adding bigger or smaller borders or making more blocks to start with. I reckon this top took no longer than an hour and a half to piece - though of course, I did have the 6" squares to start with (not the background colour, but the blues and greens).

Monday, February 13, 2012

Green scrappy top


This is a little green scrappy quilt for Project Linus - the colour this month on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green, so although my green scraps are a lot more manageable than they were at this time last year, I knew I'd have enough for another top. 

The block is just a half-log-cabin block -  a starting square with two round of logs, but only around two sides. Very quick to make and good for using scraps. I then decided to set it on point with some green setting triangles. Hey presto!  Frankly, the thing that took longest was making sure I had the stripey setting triangles all the same way around...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Red Scrappy Rail Fence


After using my tiny red scraps as enders and leaders for a few weeks, I needed to do something with the resulting pieces of fabric that were created, so I decided on a simple rail fence block, with the scrappy reds in the middle.  The dark and light neutral both came from the .5 metre pile, and although there is some left of each, I used enough to demote them into the small pieces boxes.  Who knows, this whole scrap- and stash-busting stuff may actually work! This is another for the Project Linus pile...and did I mention how nice it is to get into my sewing room and actually sew?

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Pink and Brown pinwheels


So, I finally got a chance to do some sewing today (not counting the three pairs of trousers I hemmed this evening, ho hum) - and I finished up the top from the pink and brown mini-jellroll. Works well, I think, though it would be even better with blocks where all the fabrics contrasted with the background the way the brown ones (and the darker pinks) do here. Still, it will make a nice baby quilt for a girl baby - two people at my work are pregnant at the moment; one won't be finding out the gender of the baby, so her quilt will be gender neutral, but if the other is having a girl (I know she's finding out) this will be for her. Otherwise, it will just go in the pile. 

So nice to sew again!

Friday, February 10, 2012

More ATCs


Just some more, random ATCs I made for swapping - no theme this time, just using whatever took my fancy from my stash.


With the found poetry one, the background was already made, and I just added the poetry to it!


Thursday, February 09, 2012

Some Altered Playing Cards


A few more ATCs - this time, in the subcategory of APCs or Altered Playing Cards, where you take an actual playing card to alter. Some people collect decks with a certain theme (birds, animals, flowers, travel, black & white) while others simply try to collect one of every number and suit.


When offered for trade, APCs often go very quickly as people try to fill the gaps in their decks! I am hoping someday to have a deck with birds on - and in an ideal world, black birds - it may take a long time, though!


Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Cross-stitch update



If you look carefully, you can spot some progress - there is some more background stitching filled in, also, I am beginning to go back and get the seed heads on the umbles and there's one stem which shows really well.  All in all, not a great week for stitching, though!


Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Birds & Hearts


Well, it's been one of those weeks, when I got absolutely nothing done, in terms of art anyway. Admittedly, I have plenty of times when it's like that in the week, but the weekends usually offer at least a little time - not this past week, between a big shopping expedition with the kids (list the length of my arm) and a birthday boy...

But finally one evening this week, I took some time to make some ATCs.  Four of these will be for a swap with the theme birds and hearts; the other will go in my swap gallery for general trading. Not sure which yet!










Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Cross-stitch update


As you can perhaps see, I've done quite a lot of work this week on the lower left - the vines around the lower window, and the start of the shading in the window itself. Also a few places where I've filled in small bits of missing colour. Definite progress has been made!