What have I been up to? Do you really want to know?

I've spent a couple of days doing a bit of sewing, a bit of housework, a bit of laundry and a bit of gardening.  A great way to get things done without feeling like my entire weekend has been spent doing mundane chores.

I've been piecing together the vertical rows of the handbag/vase layer cake quilt.  I am going to put a narrow sashing on this (due to the fact that the blocks don't line up - but don't tell anyone), and I also need to do the blanket stitch around the fusible applique flowers - two sewing machines are not enough - I really need three.  But as that is unlikely to happen (without winning Lotto) I need to organise my jobs to make the most of the sewing machine that is available.  So this will need to go on the waiting list.

I put an oldish quilt top into my Janet frame a few weeks ago and it's just sort of sat there (I don't think I even have a photo of this one, so its probably pre-blog).  Last weekend I set up the Brother machine all ready to do some FMQ with Janet.  This time I chose a more complicated pantograph pattern in the hope that it would hide some of the imperfections that were a bit too obvious in the simple pattern I used for my first quilt.  But it does take quite a while to complete each row - so I'm just slowly plodding my way along... trying to get a row done every few days.  Once Janet has released my Brother from its clutches, it can get back into the blanket stitch jobs that will be lining up... the flower blocks and the My Tweets block which is only half done.

I've also been plodding my way through the half pieced Swoon block that has also been sitting on the design wall for quite some time.  Yay... they're starting to look... cohesive.

Laid out like this, there are more completed blocks than empty spaces... I can almost see the end!  I can also evaluate what colours I would like to include in the remaining blocks.

I've also got three round blocks completed... no photos... but I need to order more fabric - so this one is now on hold.

Whew, it's been a busy weekend!

The Last Day of the Holidays

The last two weeks have actually gone kind of quick.  For a change the kids have semi-behaved, I've done some sewing... enjoyed time with friends... chilled out and relaxed... all the things you are supposed to do over the holidays but don't always get the chance to do.  Anyway...

I woke this morning to find two more projects attached to my design wall...

wonder how that happened??? (technically this is attached to the carpet... the
design wall ran out of room!)

This is the problem with buying new books and looking at peoples blogs... it just puts new ideas into your head and before you know it your brain explodes and you know what comes next - new projects!

This one started it's life as a charm pack from The Country Yard

and this was the original project which was a sample in the shop
and after a bit of measuring and figuring, was definitely do-able...

but then "A Few Scraps" gave a tutorial on doing a double disappearing
nine patch block, whereby I first discovered that the original project was in fact
a "disappearing nine patch" block... and has somehow now become a double.  I'm really
proud of the fact that the white on white is something from my stash... and I bought
a few metres of some solids from Spotlight which have really come in handy for several
projects so far.

And you know the cover of one of those jelly roll books I was telling you about the other day... well, on the cover of one is a handbag quilt made from Layer Cakes (10" square packs), and when my mum went on her big trip to England, I asked her to buy some fabric that she liked, that even if it wasn't really english, would remind us of her trip.

This is one of the layer cake packs she bought back.  If you haven't ogled
any French General fabric yet - you need to see it in person.  Hard to describe, it
has a very elegant depth to the designs...

Couldn't help it - couldn't stop - just had to do one... I know I'm an addict and they should set up help groups...

Although I like the handbag quilt too, I'm thinking of turning
them into vases - and putting a few modern flowers into the top. Can you
see it??

And just to show that I have been trying to be good, some nice progress on my Xmas stitch along blocks, with week 3 finished:

and week four is almost done too!  I'm sure I'll be on Santa's good list this year - perhaps he'll bring me fabric... or at least the postman will when my order from fabricworm.com arrives... then again - maybe I'll be on Santa's naughty list when the visa bill comes??