Quilt Block Swap & Craftsy Blocks for October

Well in my usual bloggy slackness it has been a while since I blogged but I'm here at last!

The early part of each month always sees me making blocks for Quilting Block Swap Australia and this month I was partnered with Brenda from Ohio USA who asked for a Storm at Sea block in blues and browns.  I haven't made one of these before and so I printed the pattern from Quilterscache and the next day when sitting down to cut out my fabrics discovered I needed another page which would show me how to draft the templates I would need for the edge diamonds.  Goes to show I should have read the pattern when I printed it doesn't it?!

So, Take 2, after making the templates I got stitching and although I then had to unpick the side diamonds as I wasn't sure how to line up the triangular parts when sewing and of course I didn't get it right the first time, it all turned out alright in the end. And now I know where to line them up for the next time.  I've mailed the block today so I hope Brenda likes it!  Here is how it turned out:

Do you like the brown fabrics? I must say its not a colour I have in my stash so it was fortuitous (there's a word I don't get to use much) that I received a nice little surprise parcel recently which just so happened to include these two fabrics. I'm in a group on Facebook called Rainbow Charm Squares & More which is mostly about charm swaps and a lovely group it is! When a recent batch of charms was returned our Swap Mumma, Sally included my surprise parcel, wasn't that a lovely thing?  I would have been stuck without it!

Sue B, who organises the QBSA asked for volunteers to be Angels for the group and I was happy to help out.  The Angels help by making a block for members who for whatever reason (having a difficult patch, illness, injury etc) have had to drop out of swaps for a little while.  I have made two this month:

I'm not mentioning who they went to but thought I would just share them here.

I also have knocked over the last two Craftsy BOM blocks. This month they were all about paper piecing and aside from the first one being larger than it should have been (obviously some sort of technical hitch in the works there), all went smoothly.

The first is the Friendship Circle:

Block 2 was Circle of Geese:

I like this one! I saw this one earlier in the year and I had a strong suspicion we were going to do this one (I think there may have been a hint given early on!).

So these are all my blocks together. The photo is not the best as my hallway is the only piece of empty floor large enough to lay them out all together!

I worked my butt off yesterday and managed to get them all sashed and the top is now finished. Yay me! Only problem was we had a dramatic change in weather part way through the day and its been pretty miserable since (and cold, did I mention cold?), so no photo to share yet.  I think it might have to wait until the weekend when I can get a victim volunteer to hold it up outside for me!  I can hint though that I used the purple fabric on the right to sash it and I used green for cornerstones, so you get the idea.  So now its ready to get sandwiched and quilted, hopefully in time for Christmas!  I'm still quilting the Red, Black & White quilt so this one is next in the queue.

Anyhow, that's enough out of me for the moment! I think I might head off to bed to try and warm up my hands and toes.  This sudden cold snap is very odd for October.  We even had snow on Mt Lofty (a not very lofty mountain compared to many in other places but the best we have!) for the first time in October in 100 years.  We don't get snow on Mt Lofty in a normal winter, let along in Spring! That is definitely a cold snap.

Thanks for reading my blog today,