Quilting Block Swap Australia & Fabricworm Giveaway

Quilting Block Swap Australia blog is having a giveaway sponsored by Fabricworm.  For more info on how to enter, head over to Quilting Block Swap Australia blog here!

A short but sweet post but in the middle of a chaotic family week. Hope to post something more down the track!

Thanks for stopping by!

Goodies in the Mail!

Yesterday was a great day for mail in my house, some nice squishy envelopes and a my Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine arrived.

A little over a week ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway by Fiona at Finding Fifth and yesterday it arrived in the mail.

Its a cute little mini quilt (or mug rug) kit in lovely rainbow polka dot fabrics.  Thanks Fiona, looking forward to getting stuck into that down the track. (Must not start any new projects until others are done though!)

Must be my lucky month as then on Monday I was the 70th liker on Quilting at Get Stitched Facebook page and scored a free fat quarter. Who couldn't use another fat quarter?  It arrived yesterday as well!

Its a very pretty purple and I think it will fit into my Craftsy BOM blocks colour scheme.  Thanks so much Karyn!

Its fine but very cold in Adelaide today so after warming up with a bit of vaccuuming, floor washing and clothes washing I decided to fiddle about with a project I want to send to Canada for my step-daughter for Christmas. Knowing my lack of speed at completing projects I wanted to get onto this one soon so there is less pressure closer to Christmas.

Its a wallhanging similar to the one I made last year at a workshop using fabric from the Under the Australian Sun range by Leesa Chandler. If you would like to see my original wallhanging, have a look here.  Only difficulty was that by the time Kymberley told me she'd like one so she could have something Aussie on the wall in Canada, I couldn't get any more of the fabric could I?!  I waited for the second series to come out but its not as bright and bold as the first one.  I did buy some though and between that and some scraps I had left of the first series I'm hoping it will turn out okay. So after some application of fusible web, I'm now at the fussy cutting stage.  Here is what I've cut out so far:

This is not in any way arranged, this is simply a collection of flowers I hope to make look like a cohesive bunch further down the track!  Actually the flowers look better in this photo than they do in real life! The banksias tend to look a bit too gold but I'm hoping with a large amount of machine stitching in red I can make them stand out more. Now off to prepare the backing and keep cutting out those flowers!

Its a long weekend here in Adelaide for the Queen's Birthday so with an extra day hopefully I can get a bit more done on this one if my other half doesn't try and cramp my style too much!

Have a great weekend, long or standard!

Block Swap - June

In June I was partnered with the lovely Sue B, the esteemed organiser of our Block Swap. Sue asked for any block in grey, yellow, black and white.  Now grey is not a colour I've used much of and I wasn't too hopeful when I dug into my stash until I found some fabric I bought way back when I first started quilting as it was on sale and I just loved it.

Its quite a dark grey though so I hope its okay! I have to say I love the way it looks when mixed with the yellow, black and white. My nephew loves yellow and black so I think this may end up being made up into a quilt for him at some stage now!

Anyway then came picking the block.  I came across this one on Quilter's Cache. Its called Blackford's Beauty. As I hadn't made it before I decided to make a block for my own swap quilt in black, red and white and practice it before making Sue's block.  Here is my block:

And here's the one I made for Sue B!

I'm always amazed at how much of a difference the choice of fabrics makes to the finished result!

Sue has emailed me since I started this post and let me know she does like it, phew!

Today in the mail I received Sue's block. And not only a block which is lovely but also some handy swatches of fabric and a cute little bookmark made using selvedges. What a lovely surprise!

A closeup of the bookmark. It has the black and red fabric on the back.

I love reading so it will be put to good use! Thanks so much Sue!

Another Block Swap done and dusted, bring on the next one!

Thanks for reading my blog today,

Craftsy Blocks Update - June

I've managed to get cracking on the Craftsy Block of the Month this weekend, due to some unexpected chilly weather which didn't leave much scope for other outdoorsy type projects - great sewing weather though!

I must say I like this month's blocks a lot more than May's blocks.  I don't think the random style did much for me!  I really wasn't happy with my end results as one ended with a very narrow border which was going to be a pain when joining the batting and the other just seemed too dark.  I ended up cutting the blocks back a bit and reworking them.

This is what they looked like when I first finished them:

Here is the first one after I re-did the outer borders:

And the second one:

I'm much happier with them now. What do you think?

Anyway onto this month's blocks.  First my version of the Greek Cross:

and my Octagon block:

Finally, here are all the blocks I've got so far:

Some I love, some I don't but I think they're all going to work together. Just hope I've got enough of all the fabrics to get through to the end. I might have to buy one or two other co-ordinating fabrics just to be on the safe side!

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Completed Project

I finally finished the last of the handstitching on the binding on a quilt I made originally as a way to try the Tube Quilt (a great Youtube tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Co - see it here). It really was extremely easy to make and I will definitely make another one. If you need a top finished in an afternoon this is the one for you!

I decided to give the finished quilt to my friend's Mum Zelma, who was diagnosed with lung cancer about the same time.  She is currently having chemo and doing okay but I was still keen to get this one finished. (I apologise for the quality of the photo, it was not a good day for photograph today! Managed to snap these shots just before it rained again!)

     
I'm not really all that keen on the apricot but at the time I restricted myself to any fabrics I could find at the Spotlight clearance sale that went together. I do like the pink and coffee coloured patterned one though. Initially  I put it together with just the blocks but when I came to look at quilting it I decided it needed to be a little larger. I didn't have any pink heart fabric left (as I had made a pieced backing for it already) so I combined what I had left of the other two.  Then of course I had to make the backing larger!

I hadn't thought about what I would put around it as binding but luckily I managed to get more of the pink and coffee patterned fabric down the track so I bought more and bound it with that.

I used it as an opportunity to try some different quilting patterns as I don't usually make quilts with repeating blocks. I found a nice floral motif and using tearaway stabliser I free motioned around those, mostly on the lines! Then I filled the other blocks with a combination of hearts and loops.

 

I think the best way to improve my free motion at present would be to improve my sewing table. I need to get my sewing machine into a flat bed position but if I do that I can't get my legs under my sewing table! Sometimes being tall is a hassle!  I did tell the people at the Horn cabinet display at the Quilt Show a couple of years ago and they tried to tell me I was using the wrong stool. I soon gave them a demo on their stool and showed them it was the length of my legs, not the height of the stool that gave me the problem! (I might point out here I'm not ridiculously tall - only 5'10".)  When I spoke to the lady presiding over the Horn booth this year about something else she told me she understood they were coming out with a height adjustable one soon so perhaps someone was actually listening!  I would prop mine up on something but I need to be able to open and close it as I sew in the hallway and have to close it all up at the end of the day!

I'm thinking some sort of temporary insert might do the trick. I've seen some great things done with polystyrene sheeting and a plastic tablecloth so I might give it a whirl!  Has anyone else tried making one of these?

Oh, lastly a quick shot of the label:

Well, now to give the quilt to my friend to give to her Mum. Hope she likes it!

Children should not be allowed to breathe on you!

Don't get me wrong I love my two boys but Kieran has a cold at the moment and he has clearly breathed on me as now I'm lucky enough to have it too! That's the kind of sharing I could do without!

Normally I'm busy quilting on Wednesdays (my day off) and I sort of was today but instead of sewing my projects I went to visit a friend, Jeanette, at Virginia who has been quilting for a long time and has made more quilts than I ever will I'm sure. Jeanette is an older lady who my husband met through his bird club (aviary type birds is what I'm talking about here!) at about the same time as I felt I just needed to start this whole quilting thing.  She's been lovely and encouraging and while we don't catch up too often due to my work and Virginia being a good distance away, its nice to have someone to have a natter to about all things quilting. She likes it as she is not computer savvy so I fill her in on all the things I find on the net and she is right up with other more traditional techniques if I need some advice.

Anyway she mentioned at one stage that she had never tried foundation piecing as she couldn't quite get her head around it and as my first quilt was all foundation pieced I offered to show her how it works.  Anyway today (despite this cold trying to stop me) I headed out to her place to give her a 'tutorial'!  She was easy to teach once she got used to the idea of forgetting about matching edges and 1/4" seams!  Now Jeanette is off to look back through her books for more blocks to try, with a plan of tackling a foundation pieced Mariner's Compass quilt she has been wanting to try for ages.  Nice to think I've been able to give her inspiration to try something new!

No photos of today as my fuzzy cold riddled head left the camera home but here's a nice photo of my gorgeous old dog Molly 'helping' hubby to hunt out our recent rat visitors in our aviary!

Well, more in a supervisory capacity I would say!

Thanks for stopping by!

Where does the time go?

I've been meaning to post an entry here for a week and I never seem to get to it! Mind you all the giveaways happening at the Sew Mamma Sew blog this week kept me out of mischief for several evenings checking out new blogs and entering competitions. No luck though it seems! Maybe next time will be my turn.

I have managed to fit in some sewing among other commitments this week, such as work, having gas connected and a new hot water service, visiting the blood bank, helping out my hubby's elderly aunt with some home maintenance and helping hubby out with hunting out two dreaded rats from his bird aviary. Yuck! We had some very wet weather this week in Adelaide and clearly they decided our aviary was a nice dry place to be.  No longer though!

I have been trying to finish off a quilt for my best friend's Mum who is having treatment for cancer and I'm nearly there despite interruptions. The binding is on but needs turning to the back and hand stitching closed and I'm partway through making the label so not far to go now.  Just needs a wash then and it'll be done! I'll post a photo when its all finished and pretty.

For now I thought I'd share a photo of some new fabric I received last week. Its the first time I had ordered from Pink Chalk Fabrics, a site I happened upon through one of the blogs I'm following (not even sure how I got there now!). They had some lovely fabrics on sale so I couldn't resist but just a half yard of each. Not sure what they'll be used for but just had to have them, you know how it is!

From left the first two are Kate Spain Good Fortune Lantern Flower Tranquility, Valori Wells Karavan Quartz Blossom, the next four are all Carolyn Gavin starting with Soul Garden Flower Garden White, Soul Sketch Pad Pink, Soul Sketch Pad Blue and Soul Garden Butterfly Yellow.

I also had a nice little surprise parcel included with my order, perhaps because I was a new customer.

It included a voucher for 15% of my next order, a reel of Mako variegated thread, a cute little retractable tape measure and a handy laminated card with Standard Quilt Sizes on one side and a pretty quilt photo on the other. I love surprises, don't you?

Then I needed to head off to Spotlight (a discount homewares shop here in Australia) as I needed some tearaway stabiliser to use on my friend's Mum's quilt. Dragging a thrilled husband along (fairly sure he won't come again!) it happened to be Sewing Saturday so there were loads of specials and I also had a voucher for 40% off if you spent over $100. As there was 20% off wadding I decided to stock up on some bamboo/cotton wadding, and picked up these fat quarters as well to perhaps use to make some blocks to go with my Quilting Block Swap Australia blocks I'm collecting in these colours.

I also bought some polyester wadding for a new technique I want to try from a book I bought recently written by Geta Grama who is a Romanian Quilter.

Its a technique using organza and polyester wadding over solid fabric. Gorgeous quilts result! The book has loads of different sized projects and a CD containing all the printable patterns.  I originally found Geta through her blog, she does beautiful work! I just need to find some water soluble thread and I'll have all the bits and pieces I need to give this technique a go!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!