Quilt-a-long Progress

Farmers Wife Blocks

I'm so enjoying working on these lovely little blocks, life does seem to be rather getting in the way though and I have still not caught up from joining in late. It is week 5 now and so 10 blocks should be complete. The great thing about this QAL is that you can go at your own pace, I do want to try to achieve 2 blocks a week though!

Here is the one block I have managed to make this week

Big Dipper, number 6

Here are all the blocks I have made so far

Please excuse the terrible photos, I must remember to try to get my photographs taken when its nice and sunny outside instead of trying to do it first or last thing when its all shadowy.

I just made this on BigHugeLabs after Lynne at Lily's Quilts told me how, thanks Lynne

I'm going to try to get caught up this week but with so many other projects that need some attention i'm not sure I will, oh well, must try harder!

You can do it, Skill Builder blocks

My fabric arrived and I have managed to catch up with this, luckily I was only 1 block behind so I quickly wipped up my log cabin and then completed my 2nd block, a value 9 patch.

 I'm really happy with how they have turned out. I knew I only wanted 3 solid fabrics for this quilt and I hummed and hahhed about whether it would work or whether I would need more fabrics, well so far so good, hopefully I will be aright for the other blocks. I do like how clean and modern these are looking.

The Crafty Campers

Wow what a weekend, as you may have guessed from the title I have been off camping. Our local craft group decided to have our first group camping weekend, oh and it was so much fun. You may be imagining us sitting round sewing, knitting and crocheting, well actually none of us did any craft for the whole weekend! We sat round drinking, eating, drinking, getting to know each other a bit better and did I mention drinking!!! It was just girlies on the Friday night and then families arrived saturday afternoon

Oh we had so much fun and have decided to make it a regular occurance. So many of our group are campers of some form or another, a few have tents, one has a caravan and a couple have VW campervans. We have been trying to come up with a name for our little craft group and after this weekend we have decided that we are the Crafty Campers. What do you think of the name? it brings a little smile to my face so I think that means it must be ok.

I haven't actually achieved that much this week, I joined up for Amy's one week challenge and set myself the goal of making 3 things for the little people in our lives. I did actually manage to meet this goal, yay
1st was Elsies embroidered quilt

A pretty little baby quilt or playmat for a pretty little baby

2nd was a lovely little pinny for Iris' 4th birthday (I forgot to take a photo, but it was oh so pretty with a large pink gingham check fabric, white broderie anglaise sash, a pink check ruffle trim and some embroidered flowers on the bib)

3rd was this bunting for Isla's first birthday

Not quite finished yet but I figure I have until the end of the day and I know it will be done by then. I'm going to applique Isla's name onto it.

My fabric has arrived for the 'you can do it' skill builder quilt-a-long. I have made the first two blocks and I love them. I'm so glad I decided to go with just 3 fabrics and they are all solids

I think they are going to give this sampler quilt a really graphic, modern look. No photos of the blocks yet but I will post them in a couple of days. They are Kona solids in White, Slate and Bright Pink

Must must must go do some work on my FW blocks, I don't want to get behind!

Linking up with Sew Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday, and Amy's One week challenge. Check out all the talented people that are linking up, there are always so many lovely projects

WIP Wednesday (no.6)

Well I've finished another block for the FWQAL, that makes a total of 4 but as it's now week 4 I should have completed 8, not sure when I'm going to get the chance to catch up but I will. It definitely won't be this weekend though as our local craft group is having a group camp, I'm so excited. I don't think I will actually get any craft done though as I think there may be slightly too much wine and Pimms involved!!!
Here is my latest FW block

Postage Stamp block

Also my quilt for baby Elsie is ready for a reveal

It's a mixture of applique and machine embroidery with some free motion quilting

I'm also really happy with the cotton check that I found for the back in my local fabric shop Carolyns.

I'm really enjoying doing some free motion quilting, I've booked myself onto a beginners course to try to improve, really looking forward to it, it's an area I would really like to improve and become good at!

I'm using the left overs of the backing fabric to make a birthday pressie for a lovely 4 year old that is having a birthday party on Friday.

I'm going to make a wide waist sash out of broidery anglaise and I'm going to do some hand embroidery on the bib.

My fabric has finally arrived for the We Can Do It Skill Builder Quilt, so far i've done the cutting for the first block which is a log cabin. I'm hoping to whip it up tomorrow morning, but sorry no pics yet.

So to round up:

Quilts finished - Elsie's embroidered quilt
Projects finished - none
Quilts waiting to be bound - none
Quilt tops finished - none
Projects started - pompom roman blinds, stag cross stitch, embroidered childs pinny
Quilt started - Naked bed quilt, Farmers wife quilt, Skill builder quilt
Projects to start - too many to even think about!
Quilts to start - Basic quilt-a-long quilt, rainbow quilt, bob the builder, babushka, noahs ark, pair of skull quilts

12 quilts of 2011 completed - 1) Krissy's quilt

                                            2) Buddy's ABC quilt

                                            3) Cravat play mat/quilt

                                            4) Crocodile quilt

                                            5) Elsie's embroidered quilt


Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday, there are some lovely projects going on out there, go check them out if you get the chance

Baby and toddler gifts

Well it feels as though my to do list has rocketed this week, there are babies being born and little ones birthday parties to attend and with both of those comes the need for gifts. I always prefer to give handmade where possible and where I think it will be appreciated. However this does increase my work load drastically.

A good friend of mine had a gorgeous baby girl last week, she's called Elsie Rae, isn't that adorable! So of course I wanted to make her something lovely. I don't want to reveal it all until I have given it to her gorgeous mama but here is a sneak peak

I love how this is turning out and am thinking of doing another one for one of Boo's friends that turns 4 this week. We also have another two little peeps birthdays coming up and a baby shower, see what I mean by so much to do!!!!

Have I mentioned that I am taking part in the Brit Japanese fabric swap held by Fluffy Sheep Quilting, I'm so excited, I ordered my fabric today

Don't you think this is so cute? Hope everyone else that is taking part loves it, I thought it looked like it would work well cut up into 5 inch squares.

I have managed to get another block done for my Farmers Wife quilt and I am so happy with how it turned out, I know it's one of the easy ones but all my seams line up and I like the dark salmon pink, I think its going to look quite interesting with the other pinks I have chosen.

For any of you that missed my last post, I'm teaching an introduction to quilting quilt at my local craft group and thought I would simultaneously run it on here as a quilt-a-long for anyone that wants to learn a few of the basics. The quilt I've designed for this project looks like this

Sorry for the very rough sketch!
For more details and for fabric quantities check out this post.

And lastly I thought i'd include this photo of my little Boo

He got a new bath towel/robe and is modelling it beautifully

Linking up with Megan for Sew Modern Monday and Heather and Megan for Fabric Tuesday, make sure you head over and see the great things everyone's been making

WIP Wednesday (no.5)

I'm feeling so excited about so many projects at the moment but am struggling to fit everything in, especially now I've gone back to work.

I have officially started my Farmers Wife quilt. For anyone that doesn't know it is a massive quilt-a-long being held by Angela and  Amanda. These are the fabrics I've chosen so far

Need to order some darker greys to mix in, I think I'm going to go with some Kona solids
This is my first block

It's number 4 - Basket Weave

This is my second block

Number 2 - Autumn Tints

My printer is not working at the moment so I'm doing the math rather than printing out the templates.

Check out Flickr to see what the others are doing, I think there are now over 300 members on there that are joining in!

I have also come up with this design for my craft group quilt-a-long

It's 42 inches square, involves a giant log cabin, some 9 patches and some pinwheels so it will teach a few of the basics.

If anyone wants to join in then I'm recommending the following quantities of fabrics:

• 25 cm each of 6 dark tone on tone fabrics all in a similar colour
• 15 cm each of 6 light tone on tone fabrics, again all in a similar colour
• 2 m of a plain, light colour such as cream or white.

You will also need 50 cm of a fabric for binding and you will need some batting but these will be discussed at a later date.

I am starting it with the girls at craft on the 29th June so it should appear on here soon after that. It is a quilt to learn some basics so feel free to join in, especially if you have never quilted before, you may find you really like it.

Feel free to ask any fabric questions if you want to join in but are unsure what sort of thing to buy.

Not much other sewing is happening around here, i need more hours in the day, or should I say more hours that the boys sleep, that would be lovely!

I did take this lovely photo of Buddy today

He had his second swimming lesson and is absolutely loving it, he spends the whole time yelling with excitement, it makes my heart happy.

This is my weekly round up:

Quilts finished - None
Projects finished - Russian doll needle book
Quilts waiting to be bound - none
Quilt tops finished - none
Projects started - pompom roman blinds, stag cross stitch,
Quilt started - Naked bed quilt, Farmers wife quilt
Projects to start - too many to even think about!
Quilts to start - Basic quilt-a-long quilt, rainbow quilt, bob the builder, babushka, noahs ark, pair of skull quilts

12 quilts of 2011 completed - 1) Krissy's quilt

                                            2) Buddy's ABC quilt

                                            3) Cravat play mat/quilt

                                            4) Crocodile quilt

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, check out the fab things the others are doing

Quilt-a-longs

Just a quick note to say that my copy of the Farmers Wife book has arrived so I'm going to be joining in the massive quilt-a-long that everyone seems to be involved in. It started at the beginning of the month and it's 2 blocks a week so I'm a bit behind but not too much, hopefully I will catch up quickly. A lot of people have chosen to do a scrappy version but I don't think I'm going to. In fact I'm off fabric shopping tomorrow to get something lovely for it. Check out Flickr to see what everyone else is doing.

As well as joining in the FWQAL, I'm looking forward to doing the skill builder sampler that Leila is hosting. I think I'm going to do this in some Kona solids to try to give it a really modern look as I do tend to think of samplers as looking quite traditional which isn't really my style.

And finally another quilt-a-long, this one is hosted by me. The girls in my local craft group have asked me to teach them the basics of patchwork and quilting. I'm so excited, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to design a nice, basic lap quilt and teach them all some basic skills. I thought I would try to include all of the following:

• Accurate cutting/using a rotary cutter
• Sewing a 1/4 inch seam
• Chain piecing 
• Half Square Triangles
• Boarders
• Basting and straight line quilting
• Binding

So as I am going to be teaching it to my group, I thought maybe I would also do it as a tutorial. It's going to be for beginners, people that are new to quilting and just want the basics. I'd love to get your feedback as I write it as it will be my first tutorial so if there is anything that you think I could do better, give more detail etc. then please let me know once I've started.

I have managed to get some sewing done recently but hardly any, things have been manic here and the sewing has definitely suffered!

I did however finish my Russian doll needle book. I love her but not the needle book
:-(

She turned out just as I had hoped

However, I decided to do a pretty, fancy stitch around the edge of the needle book, big mistake!

I knew that the felt stretched when sewn as I had that problem with it when I used it before, also look at the wonkyness above her head, not happy, I don't cope well with unintentional wonkyness. I'm kicking myself that I didn't just use a straight stitch with my walking foot.

Oh well, I will get over it, her insides are pretty though

The bamboo felt does feel lovely.

I'm linking up with Sew Modern Monday, have a peek at what the others are up to

WIP Wednesday (no.4)

Wednesday has come around far too quickly once again. I have managed to get a few bits and pieces done despite the fact that I returned to work this week, so I am officially no longer a stay at home mummy :-( This does make me sad, I would love to be able to afford to stay with them, I hate the thought of missing any of their 'firsts' but needs must! Actually I do really enjoy my job and the boys go to my mums so I know they are in good hands, with someone that loves them almost as much as I do. My mum also lives next door to me and I work down the end of our road so it's all very convenient and I still get to come home at lunch to feed Buddy, and i'm only doing three days after all.

Anyway enough waffling on, this is what else I have been up to this week

Working on my naked bed challenge quilt.

 I missed the deadline for this, as you can see it's still in the very early stages. It will still be known as my naked bed quilt though. I'm actually completely undecided on the design of this quilt, I think i'm just going to go with the flow and see what happens rather than planning out a design and layout. Do you ever do this?

I also got three of the cords for the roman blinds that I have been making

Aren't they gorgeous? I'm just waiting for the red to arrive and then I can finally put the four blinds up and have some privacy! I can't wait to see these hanging, i'm really hoping that the colours pop against the white of the blinds and the white walls.

I finished the crocodile quilt.

I've written about this already in this post

And I have started thinking about doing a pair of cot size/toddler bed size skull quilts for the boys

I have seen a lovely one on flickr and thought I could design something similar to it but with quite a different background

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday, go check out what everyone else is up to

So to sum up:

Quilts finished - Crocodile Quilt
Projects finished - Wedding bunting
Quilts waiting to be bound - none
Quilt tops finished - none
Projects started - pompom roman blinds, stag cross stitch, russian doll needle case
Quilt started - Naked bed quilt
Projects to start - too many to even think about!
Quilts to start - rainbow quilt, bob the builder, babushka, noahs ark, pair of skull quilts

12 quilts of 2011 completed - 1) Krissy's quilt

                                            2) Buddy's ABC quilt

                                            3) Cravat play mat/quilt

                                            4) Crocodile quilt

Distracted by a wedding

Sorry for the lack of posting here recently, we have all been pretty busy helping out with bits and pieces for my little sisters wedding. The wedding happened on Saturday 4th June and it was wonderful, such a brilliant day and I think you will agree Kate looked stunning

My mother made this dress, didn't she do an amazing job?

The beading alone took her over 42 hours and she thinks there is over 3500 beads on it! It's made from a lovely lightweight silk that draped beautifully. Over the last 5 years she has made all three of her daughters wedding dresses and they have all been very different but all amazing, maybe I will post pictures of mine and my other sisters on here soon. She is definitely very talented.

I have actually managed to get some sewing done recently (just no blogging!), I made a few bits for the wedding, one of which was some Just Married bunting out of hessian and lace

I have also finished the crocodile quilt, it is quilted, piped and bound and i'm so happy with how it has turned out

I love the pieced back and i'm so pleased with how the quilting turned out. I've actually done very little quilting myself, when I lived in Australia I used to send my quilts off for them to be quilted, so in total I think I have now free motion quilted two and straight line quilted three, this one being the third (first time using a walking foot) and has the heaviest quilting as the others were extremely lightly quilted.

I stitched in the ditch around the crocodile squares and then around the outer border of each crocodile, then straight line quilted the white sashing 1/2 inch apart. I really like how it looks and the quilting is still not heavy so the quilt is still soft and floppy and snuggly

Sorry but I don't think you can beat pictures of babies on quilts and I think my baby is super cute and models the quilt wonderfully

And finally a little something i've been working on - a russian doll needle book. I am only halfway through so it's looking pretty odd as she has no hair or face but I have high hopes that she will be lovely when she's finished

I made a birdy needle book for the sew mama sew giveaway and have since realised that I need one myself ( I think the husband will be much happier if he doesn't find as many needles floating around!)

It's made from bamboo felt again with the russian doll appliqued on and then some lazy daisys, french knots and chain stitch to decorate, with a back stitch to outline.

I'm going to line it with this

Isn't it gorgeous?

And then I just need to add some more felt for the pages!

The Naked bed challenge finishes today and unfortunately I have not managed to get my act together to finish my quilt top (to be honest I have barely started), however head over to Naked bed challenge flickr to see what everyone has been up to.

Im linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations for (Sew) Modern Monday, there are some great things people are making, if you get the chance, check them out.