A Long overdue finish and another BOM Block

After my whine yesterday, I spent a bit of time reminiscing about my adventures last year as a new convert to the whole blogging thing.  Reading about how last years school holidays were starting seemed incredibly similar.  Wow, was that a whole year ago?   In fact, I could just cut and paste. I also noticed how so many of the projects I had at that point in time... well, I still seem to have.  Fascinating!  They don't do themselves when you're not watching!!

So I hunted out my Amy Butler tunic - tried it on... still fits... worked out what needed to be finished... and just finished it.  Took about an hour.

I also finished glueing my seam allowances on the My Whimsical Quilt Garden block I started whenever it was, and have since finished doing the invisible zigzag.  So a BOM finish too! 

I'm now putting together another block of Gail Pan's Bluebirds and Berries BOM together... and will probably do a bit of blanket stitch on Block One of My Tweets as I go... although definitely need to change the needle - sewing dinosaur spikes does not do great things to your needle!  I haven't forgotten about the FMQ - just taking a break... just need to make sure it is not still sitting there at this time next year.

What's been happening over the weekend?

Saturday and Sunday have been totally different.

Saturday was a busy, busy family day.  First off a trip to The Country Yard (background blocks for My Tweets all under control plus sashing for the Row by Row round robin) - then a quick jaunt cross country to Matakohe to visit the Kauri Museum where the Otamatea quilters were holding their exhibition.  While I wandered and oohed and ahhed, the kids and husband walked around the amazing museum displays - incredible amount of work on show by everyone from both areas!  Then a circular trip home via Dargaville, Waipoua, Opononi, Kaikohe... and home.  Tired but a good day out.  Now if you don't know where any of those places are... check a map - it was a real adventure which took 10 1/2 hours.

Sunday has been a rainy stay at home day.  Rain and more rain... very dreary.  Kids have been... irritating. 

When the rain slowed to a drizzle, it was time to go
and check the chickens

But worth our while with five eggs.

I have been taking a break from FMQ...

So far so good... or at least, it will do.

... and have been preparing my shapes for the next block on My Whimsical Quilt Garden scrap quilt.

Just the petals to do on the second flower... then ready to
attach to a cream background - very striking on my dark
desk though isn't it?

Progress on this and that... plus what happened to all those little bits??

I enjoy reading my own writing too much to have a wordless post... so I will bore you with all the little details of my minor accomplishments over the past few days.  I'm also linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her Wednesday WIP thingee.  My entire blog is 99% work in progress - it would be brief if it was only finished projects (snort, snort).

Firstly, with the guild's Xmas lunch pending, the need to make a handmade gift for the santa exchange had been hovering over my head.  Over the weekend I played with a little grab bag of leftover fabrics from "my local" (the lovely ladies at The Country Yard) containing fabrics covered with quilting related words. 

Now I can't reveal all at this stage, however... a small, sneak peak.

I have also started piecing the sashing strips on a charm square quilt.  I'm starting to get the hang of these solid fabrics... and they are definately growing on me.

OK these are really just pieced straight, but don't they look
so much more interesting on an angle?

My Sew Happy Me stitch along is progressing nicely... still behind but who's counting??

And just incase you were wondering about the freezer paper templates I gave you a little tutorial on cutting a few posts ago... well they've blossomed into a wee block.

Freezer paper ironed onto the reverse of the chosen fabrics waiting
for the seam allowances to be glued down.

Little bird still needs a black bit on his eye, and whole thing
needs to be invisible machine stitched down.

After a bit of a vague email, those same lovely ladies from The Country Yard sent me a package containing my favourite thread for everything "Seralene" by Mettler in a mid grey.  I think it is meant to be used as a bobbin fill - but I use it for just about everything.  And also a little selection of Japanese Taupe fat quarters to add to my rapidly diminishing pile of scraps which will ultimately end up pieces in Gail Pan's Bluebirds and Berries BOM quilt.  Don't you love it when they wrap them up to look like presents?

The Last Day of October

One of the books I have on order is a sampler book of japanese taupe blocks.  After a quick squiz of a friends, I was (a) inspired to order the book and (b) reminded of how I love the subtleness of these fabrics and my grand plans of yet another quilt.  It was also time to do my last row for the round robin.  Stars aligned and I found a great grouping of fabric to match the existing rows, and made me realise that actually I had quite a few of the japanese taupes fabrics, certainly enough to get started with the block of the month pattern I bought ages ago, anyway.

So the little stem I started to illustrate the bias stem tutorial (part of block one) got pulled out again, and after a bit of ferriting, ironing, messing around... I started to accumulate the components for the first block.

The stem with some new leaves and berries

The bluebird block... not sure if the bird fabric is quite right, but
we'll see how it goes...

The rest of the block components... still need to finish
the blanket stitch fusible applique, and join them together.

A lot of this quilt has been pieced from scraps so far - and I really mean scraps.  Strange little triangles, odd strips remaining from other projects... it's really fun remembering why you bought it in the first place, and what quilt it has been in already.  Of course, I will need to buy more fabric...

And this led me to pull out one of my other hairbrained schemes to use up scraps... an applique quilt using invisible machine applique and using a mix of scraps that fit into a completely different colour scheme.

A couple of blocks from My whimsical Quilt Garden pattern

I've decided that I am going to do one block from each pattern each month.  We shall see how longs this committment lasts!  After the experience I have gained from round robins this year, that is: deciding you are going to complete a small portion of a larger quilt with a monthly deadline; I have great confidence that I should at least get some of them done.

Now, back to the round robin row.  I have to be very discrete because this month I've been working on Ms Lottie's, so I can't give too much away.  If you've been keeping track of her blog too, you'll remember her original row:

And this months theme was birds and bees...

You'll just have to use your imagination!  There is not however
any nudity (although are the birds wearing clothes??)

And my great pride in being almost caught up with my stitch-along has returned to the plodding along stage - situation normal.  Week Four almost finished:

Just a few more letters, a star and a heart... very cute!

Are you any closer to finishing any projects?

Maybe I should call this blog "An ongoing list of projects and ideas that are started and never finished".