Monday, June 30, 2014

Number 62


This is another Tula Pink block - number 62. This time I chose a single fabric to work with - the stripe - and then picked two which coordinate. It works ok, but I think the blue dominates a bit. 


It's better in a sort of zigzaggy layout.


Here's a closeup of the block on its own - I only made a dozen of them, as that's all I had of the stripey fabric. But it's fun to play!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

The first of the flock...



...to be quilted. The flock of baby quilts for the Special Care Baby Unit, that is. I haven't bound it yet; I will probably wait until I have several and then making a load of binding at once to attach...

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Pears...


I showed this little top a while ago, but now it has a border on it, so it's really finished. Another one for the Linus pile, I think. 

Friday, June 27, 2014

ATC Friday


Some more cards I worked on as a round robin player - with these, I was the second person to work on them, so I have photos of all three stages.  Here's the finished product, 


and here's what they looked like when I finished and passed them on, 


and here's how they arrived to me!


Liewise, here's the finished one


after my additions


when I received them.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Moving Houses


An ATC swap with a different - in addition to making each card shaped like a house (within the normal size constraints of an atc), these all have moving parts of some sort:


perhaps a door which opens



or a roofline which swings away to reveal something...


or the whole card might flip up to show something underneath....



or a double door, like a wardrobe...


Great fun to make!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Cross Stitch Update


Making progress. There's a lot of lawn to stitch!



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Recognise this?


It started out life a little diffently, but it was one of the tops I passed along to someone else, to use for a charity quilt. In this instance, the lovely Dolores and her group, decided to add to it to make a single bed sized quilt - they have plans for borders already - I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops...



Monday, June 23, 2014

Flock of little quilt tops


My local Project Linus contact organises small quilts for the Special Care Baby Unit at a local hospital among her other Linus projects.  I decided to take these bordered 16 patch units and make them into a load of small quilts, instead of one big one. I could this way use smaller pieces of fabric to border them, and they won't take much time to quilt, so I might even quilt most of them myself!


Most of them are only 4 blocks and a border, but I needed one six to make up the numbers.






Sunday, June 22, 2014

Fabric in


Went to Sandown today (National Quilt Championships), which, despite the official name, is actually a fairly small show, but it's local to me and I was collecting a quilt as a favour for a friend, so it made a nice afternoon. I looked at some quilts, and bought some fabric - it's only the 2nd time this year I've bought fabric (first was at Farnham Maltings in January), so I don't really feel guilty about it!  And I've been making good progress working through some stash stuff.  Most of these fabrics were sale price, though the amazing Alexander Henry Day of the Dead Tarot Card style fabric at front here, wasn't. Had to buy some anyway, though. The owls and birdies are both 60" wide fabrics, so I may use them as backings.


Loved these orange themed fabrics - the girl cutting said they'd sold loads of the fabric (which also comes in a pale background for the one with writing and a pale background with oranges, like the black one I bought.) 


And indulged in some FQ sets which were on sale, including an 8 pack of WOW (white on white) which I use a lot of, and often run out of.


And a few Moda FQ packs, which weren't particuarly on sale, but which I liked anyway. 

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Batik Double 4 patch, with border


An oriental fabic for the border, though not as metallic as many of those. Seemed to suit the quilt top...

Friday, June 20, 2014

APC Friday


A little bit of a different kind of swap - a PIF (pay it forward) swap. This means you make a card for someone, then the next person makes one for you and so on - rather than swapping directly. This is an APC (Altered Playing Card) thread, so we are making cards themed to the person's collections.  A few I've done recently are a postage stamp theme, 


a sewing theme with buttons


And a postage stamp with animals theme.  I've done more, but couldn't find where I've put the scans/photos. Oh well!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Number 45


Another experiment with Tula Pink blocks - this one I thought I'd try in black, white and two other colours, but I'm not sure it worked. I'm still trying to reconcile the modern feel of these blocks, and the way they use colour, with the type of stash I have - not sure it's entirely successful, but I'm enjoying the ride!



And I'm sure this small stack will make a nice little quilt, even if they aren't perfect...

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Cross stitch update


Well, this is what's next. A Lizzie Kate Summer Snippet. I did the winter one of these a while back, and they stitch pretty quickly, except the lawn section is larger than you think it's going to be...  Still, shouldn't take too long. A finished version can be seen here...

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Blocks galore


Two different views of the various block sets I own (not yet put together). I'm sure there were some more added after I took this photo, but it still shows something.  Not saying just what! (Yeah, I know, but I like making blocks. It's what I like best.)



Monday, June 16, 2014

Summer Bird


Finished!  It was only a little one, admittedly.  What next?

Sunday, June 15, 2014

More with strips


Well, the scrapbasket was doing ok, but the bag with scrap strips in it was getting a bit full, so time to attack that! I started with all the short (shorter than 6.5") strips which had accumulated at the end of the last strip-clearing project, because they were too short. I sewed these together into railfence type units, separating them into three approximate lengths and trimming as appropriate. Once they were over 6.5" long,  I then turned them sideways and added strips lengthwise to get them square. Another exercise in controlled scrappy...

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Mellow yellow


June's actual colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is yellow (not the neutral I thought it was on June 1st, when I just had a quick peek at the background colour on the blog). I don't have an excessive amount of yellow, but still, I could do something with it, so I pulled out a piece of focus fabric which contained yellow, and some other things to go with it (and of course, some yellow!).


Here's what I chose to use...


and here's what was left to go back to stash after I cut out all the pieces needed for the double four patches.  Not a lot to stash, and some pieces to the scrap basket and strippy bag.