Wednesday, October 26, 2011

More (Too Many?) Christmas Projects!

Good morning all!

It's Wednesday again, and time to take stock.



My I Spy quilt is now sandwiched and ready to quilt. I was held up trying out thread for the quilting. I found some lovely silky shiny 100% polyester thread, only to find that I could not get the tension right. Perhaps you knew that would happen? At least I found out before I started. Turns out that this thread, in all it's wonderful colours, is for machine embroidery. So now I have some of my favourite thread and am ready to go. I was thinking of a simple grid, but diagonal. Trouble is I wanted to quilt in red, but I don't want to sew across the white alphabet letter blocks in red. And I couldn't get white. All out. The best I could get is a pale grey. Decisions, decisions.






I finished ruffle dress 1 for Miss K. Along the way I changed my ideas for this dress and recut the already cut dress pieces. Is nothing simple? Here's hoping the dress for Miss E goes more smoothly.



I've decided to make a lap quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas. My daughter will take it when she goes to visit. The pattern is a Moda Bakeshop pattern called Blissful Confection. I'm going to use fabric called Sophie by Chez Moi



The large border will be in the cream colorway




I found this fabric on sale yesterday for the quilt back.



I'm going to a quilting retreat next month, so hope to have time to make it then.



Have you seen 
12 Gifts of Christmas Blog Hop
There are some great tutorials, and I'm inspired to make the placemats from Jennifer's own tute.

I also like the case for carrying cards and a notebook. Maybe I'll make that for me...  After Christmas!


Do you think I've got enough on the go?  Hoping I can report some finishes soon!

Check out the great projects over at Freshly Pieced.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced


Till next time

Sue

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

WIP Wednesday and other thoughts!

It's that day of the week again, and I'm not much further than last week. I'm waiting for fabric, don't you just hate that? I don't want to leave my current project and get all involved with something else and then have to put that down!


Here's a pic of my I Spy quilt so far, up on my design wall, aka my bedroom wall. It means I can look at it in my sleep and move things around!

As you see, I decided on a scrappy border and cut half square triangles to make a zigzag effect. I'm using the same 4" squares from the I Spy blocks, the ones with the small prints. I can't do much more until my solids arrive - bright red for sashing between the blocks and a bright turquoise thin first border. Can't wait to see how it looks put together. Everyone who's seen it (and they've all been adults) found things in the quilt to look at, so I'm hoping it will interest the little girls.

It really feels like fall outside. So many people say fall is their favourite season, not mine! Brr, and we've only just begun wrapping up and pulling out sweaters and coats. I admit, the leaves turning colour looks pretty. Our new trees are turning too, I hope this means they are alive so far.

Busy day tomorrow - quilt group in the morning, Stitch n Bitch at my house in the evening. In between there's an elliptical trainer being delivered. I have high hopes of exercising off my flab on this thing, but I ask you, is it likely??!!  Specially since my favourite activity is done sitting down! There's a thought, Quilting On The Go instead of QAYG.

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced, have a look at all the great projects there.

 
  
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Till next time,

Sue

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The truth, the whole truth...

Dawn from As Sweet As Cinnamon wonders why everyone picked the blog names that they did. I've wondered the same thing, and often find myself reading bloggers' profiles hoping it will explain an unusual name. Dawn is even offering a giveaway to satisfy her curiosity, so here goes!

I started my first quilt back in 2008 (oh where has the time gone?!!). It wasn't long before I was bitten by the quilting bug, and I haven't looked back since! I was eating, sleeping and dreaming quilts. I saw designs everywhere and read everything I could about the process so I could do it "better". My family started to roll their eyes when I got started on the subject. Friends have been known to run away! A piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric has brought me out in a rash on occasion. Now I ask you, does this sound like an addiction? In a good way of course!

What's your reason??

Till next time,

Sue

Sunday, October 2, 2011

A new month, a new project!

I can't believe so much time has gone by... I've been busy!
If you've been following my adventures, you'll know that we moved house in August. So much work! My arms still ache from lifting boxes...oh wait, maybe it's from my suitcase!

 In mid-Sept I went to NY with 3 friends and had a great 5 days, sightseeing.

My friend and I visited Victoria of Bumblebeans. She has the most amazing studio, and was kind enough to show us some of her beautiful quilts.  Here are Victoria and Mary:

 While there we went to the Garment District. I tried to be restrained, but  I bought at least 20 lbs weight of fabric which I heaved with me to my next destination, England.  Ten days in England, and I'm home at last, with arms that must be inches longer from the weight of my suitcase!

Now back to the quilting!

Fresh Sewing Day

I'm linking to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day. Why not look at what all those great creative people have been doing?

I have two finishes to report, Flower Fairyland and Fishy Tales. They've both gone to their new owners.



Since both were framed rectangles I couldn't wait to do something different. I'm working on an I Spy quilt.
I decided to use a 9 patch form, and then I thought to go with the alphabet to sort things a bit. There are some very difficult letters to find! I expected U, X, Y, and Z to be problems. I was surprised at N and O and J. I've collected everywhere I've been, and have nearly finished the alphabet squares. Then I'll make about 20 9 patches that aren't sorted by letter and start putting things together. Fun!



I'm also linking to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet. Sometimes it's hard to meet other bloggers, so this is a wonderful way to share my ideas, and read what others are thinking and doing. There's so much variety and creativity out there! Click on the link below to read what other bloggers, small in size but big in ambition, are doing!

Small Blog Meet

Till next time,

Sue