Slicin on Sunday

I know that its Monday here already if you live in Australia, but I wanted to share my achievements for Sunday.

As my darling 2 year old decided that he didn't want to sleep in the afternoon, I cut and sliced. Well just cut actually.

Squares ready for next Quilt Block Swap

strips cut ready for sewing in 36 patch blocks

strips to be pieced into the backing & binding fabric

Jacob's Ladder QAL

If you are a Star Trek fan, you will love this line, "Resistance if futile". In lots of ways patterns, ideas and QAL are very appropriately linked to that statement. Another good one is "I just had to do it". And I have definitely given in to another QAL with no end dates but a fantastic block. This QAL happens to be set up by Impera_Magna at The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe. What a cool and interesting name.

Anyhow my friend Michelle from Daisy Hill Quilts has joined up to make a quilt for her son Jacob of course. Her blocks are beautiful. After looking at them yesterday, I believe my resistance to not join something else collapsed. 

I have decided that I will use this to make my little man a quilt for his bed. I already have some fabric put aside for him already so its going to be bright cheerful of course and I have some left over fabric from the baby quilt I'm working on that will also go to add some more colour.

So I will be sewing up some Jacob's ladder blocks following the Florabunda pattern by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. So if anyone else is interested you can join us on Flickr here

Sew on Saturday

Today I had a great opportunity to catch up with a good friend, Michelle from Daisy Hill Quilts and her Mum, Heather. My darling DH had the kids for the afternoon so I could sew. I just happened to be working on a quilt for another friend who is having a baby in less than 9 weeks. So while I was sewing away I finished strip piecing this pile.

I still had the bug after tea and when the kids went to bed. So I completed my strip sets. I sewed together 10 sets ready for ironing and cutting into 2 1/2" strips to resew into 36 patch blocks. 

I'm in love with the colors and how the white fabric offsets them.

Thanks Michelle and Heather for a great afternoon. I think I will be sewing again tomorrow to piece some more blocks together. If you haven't seen Michelle's blog yet, head on over. She is an amazing patchwork and quilter and her work is beautiful.

Hexagons

There is no W.I.P Wednesday this week as Lee at Freshly Pieced is currently finalising her material range. What an amazing woman. She is so clever and talented.

Anyhow I thought that I would give everyone a sneak peak of my hexagons. I've added another row of color. 

I'm still enjoying piecing it together. I definitely have a paper piecing addiction.

Charity Quilt Part 2

So after seeking out advice, here is the next layout for the remainder of my log cabin blocks. I'm pretty happy and plan to sew it together this evening.

What do you think?? I would like to thank people who gave me suggestions about the design layout. Its Fields and Furrows if your interested.

Charity Quilt

I was asked to make the charity quilt for my Facebook Quilt Block Swap Group for the April swap. I received 22 blocks all together. I managed to put together one of the quilt tops using 9 log cabin blocks. Here is the finished top. I really like this pattern  and how it came together. 

Now for the quilting. What to do??? I have never free motion quilted in my life before so I'm wondering what I will be doing with this one. Maybe I need to find a LQS that will do this for free seeing that it is being donated to charity.

I still have 12 blocks to sew together and have hit a wall. I'm unsure how to piece these blocks together and am seeking some guidance. They just don't seem to belong together like the last top. Help!!!

Friendship Swap Blocks

Today was the big unveiling for the Friendship Swap Blocks with my local quilting group Murray Mallee Quilters group. I have been playing around with Picasa to see whether I could collage the photos together and load them onto Blogger. So just a rehash of what it was. We had a month to complete a block. Our swap partners gave us specifics about what they wanted.

So here goes. These are the blocks that I made for my Swap partners.

These are the blocks I received in turn. One of my swap partners made me 2 blocks because her first block was too small. I asked for sampler blocks and provided purples and a cream background. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do with them.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I can't believe that its Wednesday again already. Where has the week gone. So I'm heading over the visit Lee at Freshly Pieced for another W.I.P Wednesday.

So I have been busily putting the final touches on my Friendship Swap blocks for the Murray Mallee Quilters Group. Everything will be wrapped up on Saturday and everyone will receive their pizza box back (yes that's right, a pizza box was used to carry the swap blocks around). And to celebrate we are indulging in pizza for lunch. Go figure. Here are some of my blocks so far.

I will definitely post pictures of all the blocks after the weekend. I will have to show off my blocks as well. I asked for purple sampler blocks, so I don't know what I will be getting back at this point.

I have worked on my hexagon colour quilt this week and have been adding more background. I'm nearly ready to add my next row of color. How much fun is solids to work with.

So I have a few more W.I.P.s to finish off. This weekend looks like I will have some time to do some more sewing on the machine. As my 2 year old has decided to drop some of his sleeps it is getting harder to get my machine out as I don't have a designated sewing space other than my kitchen table during the day. Oh how much I miss the daily sleep routines.

Weekend Fabric Purchases

The mind boggles with excitement just thinking about what I could do with this fabric.

W.I.P Wednesday

Its been a couple of weeks, but I'm heading over to visit Lee at Freshly Pieced for another W.I.P Wednesday.

I'm so far behind in my catch up projects. But I'm definitely up to my true form. I have been working on my hexagons (the addiction is killing me) instead of finishing off my friendship swap blocks or my placemats, etc, etc.. I just look at my hexagon project and it calls to me. I should really hide it away so I can finish off my W.I.P.s.

Since last week, I have gone for this....

To this....

I've never really worked in solids before. It was something that I was encouraged not to use when I started quilting. With all the quilts in solid fabric out there I just had to try something out. I'm having heaps of fun in the process too.

My son had a speech therapy assessment today to see how we can get him on track again with his speech development now that he is on the mend. He is babbling all the time and having great little conversations. It is all gobbly gook to us but it sounds great.

Playing Catch Up

I having been wanting to post over the past week but DH and I have been busy with some spring cleaning and decluttering.

So for a recap. I had a fantastic time at the Midday to Midnight madness. I met an amazing bunch of women who made me feel very welcomed. There were some beautiful quilts being made by hand and machine. I can't wait for the next one in October. I plan to go back and this time the girls (myself and my daughter) are having a weekend away and the boys are batching it at home. So while I was there, I added more binding to the placemats and worked on the baby quilt using Crazy Mom Quilts 36 patch QAL. 

I also managed to work on my hexagons as well. The portable hexagons go everywhere.

But I have also managed at night to baste and piece the hexagons together to make some progress. As they are 2" finished, the quilt is coming together quickly for me.

And it wouldn't be a quilt trip away if I didn't buy some fabric. This is being put away for another hexagon project with 1/2" finished hexagons. I won't reveal too much but it will be some time before I start this project. More W.I.P.s to finish off before this gets to see some sunshine. I love civil war reproduction fabric. I have a very eclectic stash of fabric as I tend to have favourites from all different mediums.

So today is a special day for us. We celebrate Father's day in Australia. So for all those father's out there. Happy Father's Day.

So for the rest of the week, I'm going to be working on some W.I.P.s. I have too many things to finish off and I need to get them done and sent off or just completed so that I can do other things.