It's my turn!

June is my month for the QCA Bee #1. I have been pinning and planning which block I should do since first joining the group way back in December - so I'm just a little bit excited.

I have chosen the Ribbon Star Block, and found THIS FANTASTIC TUTORIAL over at Freshly Pieced.  The aqua/teal/white/grey block pictured towards the end of that post really appealed to me, so I am asking for something similar to it.

Each member of the Bee will make a block using the above tute and using the following fabrics :
** A white (solid) centre star
** A grey (solid) background - any grey, I think different tones of grey will give the quilt an interesting look!
** Colour A and Colour B are to be done in one colour - eg. lights for 'Colour A' and darks for 'Colour B' . My favourite colours are Green, Purple, Red and Pink - however I don't mind if you use what you have in your stash, as long as it's not orange!

Here is my block as an example.

It did take me just over 3 hours to complete this afternoon. Hopefully everyone enjoys the challenge!

Kate x

I have the Stash!

On Monday I came home to find a gigantic orange bag on my chair - it was the Travelling Stash hand delivered to me by the lovely Lara M.

WOW. Here is a pic of the awesomeness that was inside

I have decided to hang onto these goodies... fun animal print bag, homespun mags, leaf pins, 1 half yd and 1yd of Michael Miller prints, the bobbin holder and the rainbow tin with the owly buttons!

And here is what I'm putting back into the stash bag!

There is a half yd of a fun cow print (Alexander Henry), FQ pink Russian doll cord fabric, FQ bundle of Black/White prints, 1m Brown Owl print, FQ Yellow Trees print, FQ Aqua Owl/Trees print, Schmetz needles and a favourite spool of Rasant Thread in grey!!!

I managed to squish as much into the 3kg bag as I could.

Thank you so much Cass for organising a fun Australian Swap.

The stash is now off continuing its journey around Australia - next stop Maribel in VIC.

WIP Wednesday

Had an awesome Easter break with the kids, but its time to get back into some projects I have on the go. Going back through some pics from the last month, it definitely looks like I am starting waaaay too many things with not enough finishes!!

This "WIP Wednesday" might help me be a bit more focused AND hopefully get me a few more  items on the FINISHED list!

1.  Scrappy Stars 

 I made these from my first ever designer fabric charm pack. I used Moda "Ruby". I was a little disappointed to only get 4 blocks from it. I still had about 10 charms left from the pack, they were all the small dot "filler" type fabrics and just would not fit with the other ones. Meh. I will get back to this one when I figure out how I want to use them.

2. Log Cabin Playmat Quilt

This one should be finished in the next few days. I made the top on Monday night after we got home form the camping trip and I just needed to sew SOMETHING! I used solids I had. Not too keen on the yellow but dont hate it that much to pull it apart and fix!

3. QAYGFMQAL

This one will be around for a while...I have 16 blocks done and have a couple of options on what to do with them. I can make the remaining 8 blocks, or do a 30in centre block??

There is more, this will do for now. I'm going to try to get at least one finished, and progress on the other two by next week.

Kate x

Bunnies!

It's link up time again over at the FMQAYGQAL, I havent made much progress in the last few weeks but I do have one to show. As soon as I saw the tree block I knew I had to stitch a bunny under it!

 Completely inspired by The Rabbit Tree quilt by our fearless QAL leader. Congrats on the feature in APQ (go have a look over at Quokka Quilts ;)

And another Bunny.... Isn't she adorable?? Made from a pair of white socks, a little bit more of a challenge than a standard Monkey.

The pattern is from LaliDolls on etsy - I just saw the elephant and cute baby doll patterns, seriously..wow.

And just one more bunny... I can see my FMQ skills are definately improving, thanks to the QAL and challenges I'm doing this year. This bunny 'hoopla' was made for a craftster swap I was in last month. The theme was silhouette, and my partner had listed 'bunnies' as a favourite. Cost me a fortune to post a 10in hoop to the USA (what is with that Australia Post?? It was lightweight and still cost me nearly 20 bucks??)

Thanks for looking!

Kate x

Quilt Blocks and Monkeys

I've been working on the March blocks for my Quilt Bee this weekend. The block chosen was the Garden Fence . The colours were Yellow, Grey, Black with white - just like the quilt in this tutorial!
The first two I made turned out a bit small - my 1/4in is a bit off apparently. Rather than unpicking, I'm going to trim them back to 10in and make myself a small table quilt!

Here is the final version, photo taken outside as it was such a nice day (with the help of the kids trampoline!)

And I have finished some more Sock Monkeys.

This adorable Cupcake Monkey is now available in my Etsy store, have a quick look if you are interested.

February FMQ

I managed to get my feather done, its the February part of the FMQ challenge - I am really lucky its a leap year or I would have missed it!

Back later, just a quick post so I can link up to the challenge!

Catching Up

I finally had a few sewing moments to myself last night and thought I would catch up on the blocks I was behind on the FMQAYGQAL over at Quokka Quilts !!

First, the Square Stipple. Can you tell I never use my darning foot for straight lines??(Ignore the loose threads in the pics, I was a little too eager to get these pics taken last night)

The Lightning Bolts was next - my points are getting a little better...

This one is the Spiral Illusion . I was *really* tempted to pop the walking foot on - I resisted, and can't believe how straight these lines look!

Landscapes was next. It involved stitching over previous lines...and took FOREVER! I was sure if I had to replace any blocks in the quilt it was going to be this one. None of my stitches lined up with previous lines, my curves are all over the place and I was sure it was going to look like sh*t. I was wrong, it looks fine :)

I got a bit distracted at this point while looking at the video's Leah Day has made on You Tube (...I could do a different pattern each week and still be doing a new one for about 5 years!) I knew the 'sea oats' design was coming up, so I switched it for the Sea Oat Flower instead. 

I completely skipped the Pointy Paisley block. Something about all the angles just didnt appeal to me (see previous curvy looking squares and lighnting bolts?) This is the Pea Gravel Path... I LOVE it! Cant wait to use it on something soon.

10 blocks done, 14 more to go!  

Kate x

Happy Birthday Heather!

Quick post to show off the quilt I finished up this week, made this for my sister's 35th birthday. I have wanted to do a black/white quilt for ages (i still have a massive stash of black and whites!) - the purple I only picked up a few days before I started this one, and it just seemed to work.

I squished it into a box and packaged it up with some choccies for a hamper style gift! Only dodgy indoor pics for this one - as usual, I was hand sewing the binding on the night before i needed to hand over the gift!

K x

Fun Owl quilt for Penelope

Here are some pics of my latest quilt! I started cutting and sewing Friday night, and finished hand sewing on the binding Sunday night - I was just a little excited to see how it turned out.

Since I was dropping the quilt off at a Barossa Valley Winery, I took the opportunity for a quick photo shoot! My photo's are definitely better when outside ...

And just for fun, a tribute toThe Walking Quilted

Let me know what you think

Kate x

Log Cabin - Block 2

I've been having a play with the Log Cabin block the last couple of days. It is the February block for the Quilt Bee I am a part of. I'm glad I had a go at some practice blocks first as I managed to misread the tute and cut my strips a little too narrow for the required 8.5in block (not a good idea when making a block for someone else!)  No big deal for the ones I made for myself - they were for the back side of a quilt anyway... The tute we used is from Red Pepper Quilts.

Block 2 for the QCA Bee - Fiona requested "Gelati" colours, something I have plenty of around here :)

And since I was in a Log Cabin kind of mood - and I needed a block for another swap - I made another one!

I really like the black/white/yellow combination, will have to use it again sometime soon...

Kate x



More FMQ!

So I joined ANOTHER FMQ group! Found this one yesterday, I think I'm addicted ;)  If I get all the quilts made from the groups I have joined this year, I'm sure to be an expert quilter by 2013!

 

The January 'challenge' was a nice little leafy design. I used a variegated rayon thread to do my practise piece. I think it looks ok, the blocks I made last weekend definitely helped with the confidence for this mornings effort - I jumped straight in, and I'm pretty pleased with the result! I did put a little extra flower and some swirls on there, just to see if I could do it again :)

Some pics!

I am going to go ahead and do the sample quilt as suggested. I picked out some nice solid fabrics and I'm going to try Bamboo batting for the very first time! I should get that put together in the next few days, just in time for the February Block!

Kate x

Part 1 - FMQAYGQAL

My first 4 blocks for the Quokka Quilts FMQAYGQAL
I started off a bit shaky with the loops and spirals (I did consider doing some 'practice' blocks after I started the first one - but you know what? These ARE the practice blocks!!). By the time I got to block 4 - I was loving it! The glass of wine may or may not have helped...

My favourite is definitely the last one with the flower!

I'm thinking a square quilt for these blocks - so either 9 or 16 - really liking the red and white choice so far!

Thanks for looking!

Another project started...

I started making a dress this afternoon. That might not sound very exciting, but for me terrifying sounds like a better word! Firstly...I'm not a dressmaker. I have made the odd baby clothes but nothing quite like this. I'm making my daughter an IRISH DANCING DRESS (google it, then you will understand).

I have put it off for 18mths but finally drafted the bodice today - thanks to some awesome online tutorials. 6hours into it, I'm stuck on trying to get the back darts sorted...have tossed it aside for the rest of the night, might have a look at it tomorrow when the brain starts working again.

Goal for tomorrow : get to work on the QAYGFMQQAL! I have 12 blocks pieced in red and white, and I'm loving how it looks so far, just need to get cracking on the FMQ - I'm already 4 blocks behind :(

Wish me luck!

Kate x

2012 is for joining in!

I haven't been part of a sewing group since I first started quilting back in 2001... I lived on an Army base and had some lovely American army wives who taught lots of different hand piecing and appliqué techniques. 10 years later, No one has time to catch up once a week for some sewing...sad but true. None of my friends or family (except my mum, an occasional knitter)sew or craft... ALL my 'crafting' friends are online!

I have made some awesome friends through craftster.org , an online forum for all things crafty (including all the lovely ladies over at Handmade'ns ;) ) . Next year (2012) I'm cutting back on my swaps and joining a few quilt related craftalongs and block swaps. First up is




In case you are wondering, it's "Quilt as you Go, Free Motion Quilting, Quilt-A-Long" !! I'm looking forward to refreshing some skills learnt a long time ago, and learning some new ones - cant wait to get started!

I have also joined my first 'Quilt Bee' through an Australian group on Facebook. It's 12 people with one month each - everyone picks a different block. At the end of the 12 months we should have 12 fantastic quilts that we have all contributed to! I'm still undecided which block I would like, my month is in June so I do have a bit of time up my sleeve.

If I don't get back on here amidst the mad Christmas stuff happening in the next few weeks, I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season!

Kate x x