The Sunday Report (more projects than hot dinners)

My mini goals for the week were:

1] to get the Modern Sampler Blocks for the week done.  CHECK!

Sorry for the strange angle - that's what happens when you put them in place at the top of the design wall and can't reach with the camera :0)

The yellow and green one at the top should have had some peach in it... but as my yellow had green accents, I went with green.  Maybe not the best choice now that it is in position, and reveals the sad nature of my yellow stash :0(

 2] Get cracking on my Tokyo subway blocks for October, block 19.  DONE!

While I've been puddling along, I finished off the last few seams of the Constellation quilt, sewing the giant nine patch together, and attaching the borders.

Now it is safe and sound in the pile of quilt tops/backs needing attention.  Note to self, this pile is growing!

I also fixed up this block...

It now looks much better!

One day when I was feeling quilty... but not really in the mood for sewing (it happens to the best of us), I put together a little bundle.  You know it's all down hill from here isn't it?

Anyway, it started with a yard of fabric I thought looked interesting... and has sat in the stash for ages...

Larkspur Meadow by Alexander Henry

The full monty

 And then some time later I came across another print in the collection, but only bought 1/2 metre

I LOVE this bird print!!

Well, it seems I have quite a nicely colour co-ordinated grouping here...

Just need to decide what to do with it now :0)

I've also been thinking about this old project... sometimes things just need to fester for a while... or a year or so... before you come up with the right solution.  Not sure that I've solved this one yet, but it's definitely developing.

Having a bit of fun with the camera

This was having a bit of fun with the pencil drawing filter on Picasa 3 - no, I can not really draw!

A close up of Nadia's Flower Quilt

Quilted blocks

I need to practice with the lighting to get the colours so that they don't wash out

A pretty quilt I made with a FQ pick and mix bundle from Grandmothers Garden and 1m of a feature fabric

Remember this one?

Finally I can show some decent photos of what fabrics actually look like

Aint she cute?

This was a photo I took while the TV was going... well, everyone else was in bed!

And I have finally finished zigzagging around my circles, onto the next stage, cutting the background fabric away from the reverse

To reveal the back of the appliqued circle and the freezer paper template

Just a bit closer because I can.

Action shot removing the freezer paper (whew-wee, I can even take photos of my own hand!)

This weekend NZ celebrates the Queens Birthday with an extra day off work on Monday.  So far we have had gorgeous weather, and I've managed to get a bit of sewing done too.  Looking forward to the sleep in tomorrow.

Will there or won't there?

Much of my afternoon has been spent firstly trying to connect the printer to the wireless network.  The rest has been getting the camera to download to the laptop... and then working out the best way to edit the photos since my photo editing software that I finally worked out how to use has disappeared.

I simply don't have the strength to work out how to format my photos properly on this post... so it will just have to be a bit messy - but at least there are photos.

My design wall - half log cabin blocks which I started sewing at retreat using my pile of Moda bella solids in bluey greenie colours with a hit of mustard, and some Jotta Lansdotter prints.  The gaps will eventually be filled with assorted cream filler strips.

I'm having fun mixing the different colours and prints without being too worried about what goes where.  Very meditative.

 

Ahh, the circles.  This quilt is from Modern Mix... I'll give more details in another post, but this is the start of the quilt on the cover.  The book focuses on mixing plains with solids... has some really neat ideas.

This was just really a bit of an experiment with the closeup function on the camera.  The zigzag setting I used is 1.5w by 1.0 stitch length.  It really is very tiny.

A few more logs here...

and there.

This was actually the inspiration for the half log cabin block - the idea of having three different sized blocks within a single block.  Why not try it with log cabins??  And so a new quilt design was born.  Now go back to the first photo and see if you can pick up the large blocks... even though it looks complicated, the overall design is just a straight setting 3 blocks wide by 4 blocks down (or at least it will be once I do a bit more sewing)

And this is the book where this block appears.



April's finished Swoon Block

So how many times did I actually use "actually".  It must have been one of those days!

Slow but steady

Well, still no word from the insurance company about replacement items... so still no new photos to show.  I have just finished my April Swoon Block... mid May!  This was not without its challenges - it was just one of those "how on earth did I manage to sew those two bits together and not notice until now" sort of scenarios.  After multiple unpickings, and multiple sewing something else wrongs... I finished the last seam this morning.  Ahh - the satisfaction of a finished block.

Some imagination required to see this one as actually finished

I have also been slowly zigzagging around my circle shapes... does anyone remember this one?

Well, it got taken along to retreat with me a few weekends ago, and I laid out the circles constructed so far on my solid grey background strip. Although my circles didn't fill the entire space, I quite liked the few open areas... so decided to leave it as it was.  I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through the attaching process, and hopefully will have something more to show... once I've got a camera.

Also at retreat I started piecing half log cabins blocks with my pile of blue/green/mustard Moda Bella solid fat quarters which I purchased quite some time ago from Thousands of bolts, with a few of the Lotta Jansdotter Echo line (the ones I could find in NZ after my order from Fabricworm went missing in transit!) thrown in.  I'm loving the effect - and just need to work out if it will morph into this design I played with several months ago.  Well, that may have even been before Xmas...

I also quilted my first quilt on my new handiquilter frame using the lazer bit on a self made pantograph.  I used a simple figure eight design, similar to that used in many of Denyse Schmidt's quilts... it gives great texture and doesn't fight with the actual piecing.  Anyway, you'll just have to believe me on this one - my binding it attached, and I'm halfway through the handstitching bit.  So looks like Nadia will get it on her bed before winter finishes this year.

Now, do I start my May Swoon? or play with my log cabins?... got to hang washing out first - for a change it is actually sunny!

I've been a bit distracted...

...as we have had Nana come to visit last week, so although the BIG ONE got finished after she left, not a lot of other stuff got done. 

This was all I could fit in the camera screen... need to do a good outdoor shoot but also need it to stop raining!

Closeup of a less than perfect feather...

The last couple of days have been spent sewing and finishing a little dress for my midget.

One happy chappie

Oh to be 6 and get away with these sort of combinations.

She is very happy, and it is actually a pattern I would sew again!  Wow, how often do you say that??  In fact, who remembers me swearing off any form of sewing that wasn't quilt making??  Should I confess that I have fabric for a pair of pull on pants (what a weird explanation - don't you pull on all pants?) and two tops...?  The fabrics are to die for, so I just have to make them - hopefully before summer finishes.  So a few details, I purchased and downloaded the pattern from Printsew.com - not without it's hitches but all worked out in the end, Simplicity 2377 View C.

After a circle-less week, I have been playing with these babies again... OK, so I need to do more... yes, I have some awaiting the glue stage... they will get added as time goes on - but COOL aye?

I also have pulled out the instructions for Block Three of Gail Pan's Bluebirds and Berries BOM.  Making progress!

A little crooked, still heaps more to do... and I notice I've chopped the last bit off the bottom which is a vine block - although it is just an empty background rectangle at the moment, which probably explains why it got chopped off in the first place.

I've also been keeping an eye on numerous quilt alongs... oh, so tempting... and I've even bought a pattern for one... dang it... and downloaded instructions (although as Nadia would say "constructions" as in "Mummy, do you have the constructions for that?") for another... how on earth did that happen??  How many more weeks of school holidays are there - am I losing my mind??

But sometimes I just have to admit to karma (or whatever it is) - when something happens, and you go, I have fabric that would look great in this... and it's a pattern I really like... and... and... and so I think I'm going to join the "I'm a ginger monkey" Swoon quiltalong (would that be a Swoonalong??) - using these FabricWorm fabrics I got last year.

Do you like them all lined up?

Or a bit more random?  This was two fat quarter bundles that caught my fancy and I thought might work together in some way - or is that swoonway??.

Must be the day of double questionmarks!!  Edited to add I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced... check out what everyone else has been up to.