Friday, March 29, 2013

Lots of sewing

This post has plenty of WIP photos and one tiny finish! First the finish.

I finished a little pin cushion from my 12 projects in 12 months challenge.  It is from a Schnibbles pattern called Sweet Liberty - Tuffets. This one is machine pieced.






There are some delelctable mountain blocks peeking out of that tin. More about them later.

I have really only finished 2 projects so far, but I am well on the way with Oso. It has been pin basted now, so next is some machine quilting.




Now for some hand applique...

Here are all 8 of my completed Chester Criswell Quilt blocks.



I am really enjoying all the hand applique on these blocks. Today we received the pattern for the next block. :)

Lots more melons prepared to finish Jacob's Coat.





I have decided to take each of the completed blocks and applique them to a large piece of fabric, rather than join each of the circles as Kelly showed in her tutorial. Has anyone done their Joseph's Coat this way?


Two machine pieced scrappy blocks and 3 hand pieced hexagons.

















These are my next batch of delectable mountain blocks.






I love the two blocks with the dark red fabric. I have 23 blocks finished now.

I am still playing with the flying geese blocks in previous posts. There are about 50 6 inch blocks, but I can't decide on the way I want to arrange them. I will probably make some more and have another play in a few days. :)

My plans for the next few days include some more hand applique and making a new knitting bag. I have had my current knitting bag for over 30 years, so I figure its time for a new one! Lol
The weather has finally cooled down here so its time to get the knitting needles out. :)

Have a happy and safe Easter.


Sunday, March 24, 2013

CCCQ Block 8

We are up to block 8 already with the Chester County Criswell Quilt.

This is Vincent Gilpn Stubbs' block.

A fair bit of fiddly sewing around all the flowers, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.



The red fabric (Piccotage designed by Fabric Freedom, London) was a gift from a friend and I think the design adds great movement to the block.

I hope everyine is having a great weekend. Are you finding some stitching time?


 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Nearly Insane

I have stitched the Nearly Insane inspired block into the little sewing bag. Here is how it looks now.



Almost 5 years ago (goodness time flies!!!) I started making the Nearly Insane quilt. I didn't get very far before I was distracted by several other quilts! hehe...
 I dug out my blocks last night. Here are my favourite blocks. These blocks are 6 inches finished.






The fabrics are all from various Dargate lines by Margo Krager.

I discovered one block cut out ready to sew, so I stitched it last night. Here are all the blocks I have completed so far.



Some time ago I found this little badge.  In 1870 Salinda Rupp made the quilt which inspired Liz Lois to make her Nearly Insane quilt and then publish her book.




This week I have brought  out 2 WIP to start working on again.



Looove those bright fabrics!!!

I have only 2 more centre blocks to make for Roseville Album, so I am going to make them together.

Josephs Coat has been put away for a looong time!!! I have been searching for just the right fabrics to finish off the last few blocks. Its time to get it done!

 No, I am not making any more Nearly Insane blocks....yet!  I have been challenged to make block 18  which has 229 pieces!!! (yes, in a tiny 6 inch block!!) Block 18 will be my next NI block and I may just stop there because I will have 12 blocks which can be made into a small quilt.

The cool change has arrived here in Melbourne. What a relief!! Let the Hot Cross Bun baking begin!! :)

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Piecing

Lots of piecing! Machine, by hand and english paper piecing.

Starting with machine piecing, below is my 3rd block for Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls Block of the Month.  I enjoyed choosing all the fabrics and the fussy cutting with this one.  These blocks are 12 inches finished.





The flying geese in my last post now are these 6 inch blocks...








I still have lots more to make.

Now for the hand piecing.

I am still well ahead of my goal of one delectable mountain block a week. Here are some of the most recent finishes,






Late last year I won a bag of scraps from Christine. I have taken some time to think about how I would use them. I wanted to make a lone star of some sort, so I chose one of the lone star blocks from the Morrell Quilt for the centre.






Many of the Morrell blocks have a saw tooth border, but I decide to do half square triangles for this block. I am still trying to decide what to do next. Maybe 9 patches. Any suggestions???

Recently Karen at Somerset had  some more of these little bags arrive.  They are perfect for holding sewing notions.



Several of us Friday girls now have one of these bags, so some of us have added something extra to make them individual.

This afternoon I finished this little block which I will applique to one side of the bag.





If you have made the Nearly Insane quilt you may recognise the centre section (up to and including the flying geese) as the centre from block 22.  I love these fabrics!!! They are from Jo Morton's Square in Square line.
(scroll to page 4 to see all the fabrics in the line)

Have a look here to see what Dorothy did with her bag! :)

One day I will get back to my Nearly Insane blocks! I think I have 8 finished; and  long way to go!

This English paper piecing project has been going for a while and I finised one section of it a little while ago. You may remember seeing some little half inch hexies on my blog last year. Slowly they have been joined together to make one side of this purse from Brigitte Giblin.



A little closer look at the fabrics.....





Every one of those fabrics are from the scraps left from the Morrell quilt BOM.

I have started the 2nd side, but it is slow going!

Next post I hope to have some appplique to show.

Here in Melbourne at the moment we are trying to keep cool. We are on to day 6 of an expected 10 day run of temperatures over 30 C (86F). Today was 36C  (96F) here and we expect about the same for Monday to Wednesday next week. Night times are not getting below 20 C (68F). Very unusual for March!

Have a great weekend everyone. Especially those of us who will have an extra day with our Labour Day holiday on Monday.