Spot the difference

Day One of the Term Three Holidays...
Weather: Raining
Health: Everybody sick in some way or another.
GREAT!

Although progress has been a bit hit and miss... photographic evidence does help.
Spot the difference in these photos:

Just like those old Pantene adds, it might not happen overnight... but it will happen!  The jumbo-sized blocks are growing.

And spot the difference with these ones...

This is called last minute disco dressing up for an underwater theme... thank heavens for left over face paint...

We have a new quilt on the bed: Star Crossed.

This was a quilt I designed for a magazine submission, so was top secret for quite some time.  Then I had a friend who quite liked it, so I was hesitant to use it incase it was going to be sold.  When that fell through, it disappeared into the pile of finished projects.  What do I love most about this quilt?  Probably that because of the variety of backgrounds used it catches the light... sort of looking like it is permanently placed under a tree with the sun filtering through the leaves... Was this planned?  No, just a happy coincidence and unlikely to be repeated successfully.  Also, this quilt was made entirely from stash.  I am both proud and somewhat embarrassed by this.  Did this BUST the stash?... NO it would appear not :o(  Do they ever?

The quilting was simple... stipple and spirals with a hint of hand quilting around the stars.

A moment of weakness and a Moda sale meant a new package arrived in my post box.  These were the stash builders... a variety of mostly monotone prints...

Some Bonnie and Camille florals to add to the mix in the Sugar Block Club BOM triangle production line...

And a few just because...

Do I have goals for these holidays?  I've been thinking about it, and haven't quite decided whether I am ready for goals yet.  Maybe, I'll let you know.

Catch Up

What a week it has been.  Nadia and my husband went on their snow trip last week - so it was just me and Dylan (and the dog) kicking around home by ourselves.  Just another dynamic to get used to... a different split of chores and trying to make the time special for us as well.  And then there was the washing once they got back... well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but still...

I managed to get some sewing done, and some designing... so it was good all around.

Deciding to sew the Mosaic block for our VQR block swap was an interesting choice.  I find this style of block somewhat frustrating, regardless of how you sew the units, they never really fit together nicely, and resist pressing, regardless of how you try to press them.  Resewing some key intersections (every single frigging time) meant that it turned out OK in the long run (don't look too closely at those seams), but I won't be rushing to make a whole quilt out of this block.

 Monika finished up her version of this block... I do green...

Monika does yellow...

And through a random series of link clicks... I came upon this pattern and thought Eureka!  So I have a plan for a plan, for when the other plan is finished...

A free pattern from Bonnie Hunter

 When I made this pretty block from the Sugar Club BOM, I thought it would be a great block to repeat... and add sashing and cornerstones to make a churndash style secondary pattern...

A bit of a play with EQ7 and I have the starting idea for a new little girls quilt.  Funnily enough Dylan saw it and asked if he could have it in Halloween colours, and I could just imagine it in citrine greens with grey (sort of bright but quite modern and masculine at the same time)... he wasn't at all put of by the flowerlike block centres... it is probably all that "eye of the beholder" stuff.

Excuse the photo of the pre-folded piece of paper!

I'm still sewing triangles like they are going out of fashion, although not appearing to make any progress, and cutting more Starburst Cross blocks. I cleaned the fuzz out of my preferred piecing sewing machine... boy, it has been a while since I did that!  One good thing about my Brother is that you can clean all that stuff without having to unscrew the presser plate (is that the right name??) to get inside the drop bobbin, so I give it a whizz around every time I change the bobbin.  My Bernette is a bit more fiddley, so the cleaning is stretched out until it starts to make weird noises or the stitches come out a bit weird.  Naughty, naughty.  Do you have a machine cleaning regime?