Saturday, March 31, 2012

Hexagons

Though I may be quiet, I'm still here, plugging away at my Mrs Billings hexagons. Not long now and 'block 3' will be finished :-)

Monday, March 26, 2012

FWS Sewing Day

On Saturday I went to the Farmers Wife Sit and Sew, which was organised by the South Australian Quilters Guild. Oh my goodness, I had the very best time. I met friends old and new, and made some new ones too. I even managed to get some sewing done! And here are some pics from the day:

These are some of the girls getting a demonstration of FWS using EQ7 by Karen from the Sewing Sanctuary - our visiting shop for the day. Karen also runs the FWS Yahoo Group, and she's just lovely.

My friend Jan is sitting in the foreground sewing away, and that's my precious baby featherweight there on the table, having a day out :-)

And here you see my dear sweet friend Suzi's blocks - aren't they just gorgeous?
   
Suzi is hand piecing her blocks, and she's made so many already - I just love the fabrics she's chosen. And a big thank you to Suzi and her Mum Shirl for organising an entirely wonderful day!

And here are another lovely friend's blocks - they belong to Pip.

What a great idea to sash the blocks as you go - saves so much stitching at the end.

I had cut out five blocks to stitch up while I was there, but given that I'm such a chatterer, I only made three blocks on the day:

Block 31 - Evening Star

Block 34 - Flock

Block 62 - Old Windmill

On Saturday evening when I was home, I finished putting these next two blocks together, after all they were all cut out and ready to go ... and I was on a roll! 

Block 61 - Northern Lights
 
Block 103 - Whirlwind

Since making Whirlwind - I've taken out the large pink center square and replaced it with red. I decided it just looked too pink and blocky ... and a little ewww :-)

Because I'm currently addicted to this project - I made two more blocks this morning. This first one was super easy.
Block 41 - Friendship Star

But this next one - ohhhh my goodness, I really didn't enjoy putting it together much at all! It looks harmless enough, but each of the squares and HST's were cut at one and eleven sixteenths of an inch, and those kinds of measurements drive me crazy!! Thank heavens it seems to be the right size :-)
 
Block 42 - Fruit Basket

Something I'm really struggling with right now is the fact that I have two projects on the go that I love equally, and are equally time consuming. I want to work on them both ALL THE TIME, but really only have the time to work on one of them ... I guess I'll just keep flitting between them and plod along as I can. Better run, I'm ready to put some more blocks together! xox

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Insert sound of crickets chirping here ...

Oops - I didn't mean to be away for so long, I don't really have a very good excuse - only that I've been on the 'down low' with sinus trouble, ohhh, and a lack of very much interesting to share ... But I'm here now - still not much to share, but there ya go :-)

I'm still working on the hexagons for 'block three' of Mrs Billings coverlet - I really hope I'll have enough done soon to be shareworthy - they're really cute, and I'm loving the ones that I've fussy cut. If I have a chance tomorrow, I'll applique some to the background so I can love them some more :-)

The other thing I did this week was quilt a small charity project for the guild. This is it:

I don't actually know who pieced it, but isn't it cute? I finished binding it today while watching the F1GP. (And a big thank you to Lizzy for her part in the binding too!) And regarding the F1, love that there's two Aussies in it this year!

And here's something I forgot to share from my travels to the USA:

To add to my collection of Masons Vista, I had the two handled soup bowls delivered to Linda's house so I could bring them home with me, they're so cute, and terribly expensive and hard to find here.

I wasn't sure they'd make it home unscathed - I had to put my carry on bag into valet baggage on one of my short hops - and while I was waiting to pick the bag up at the side of the aircraft, I saw the bag somersault off the end of the little conveyor onto the tarmac. OMG, I swear my heart just stopped! I didn't have an opportunity to unwrap anything to make sure it was okay, so you can imagine my relief when I got home and found that nothing had been damaged - phew!

Well, that's it from me - I need to do some reading with Camo, and then I have some emails to return. Chatter soon! xox

Monday, March 12, 2012

Mannum

Today was a public holiday in Adelaide, and given some free time, we decided to visit my grandparents who live in Mannum. It was such a lovely day, so we couldn't miss a view of the Murray River from the lookout.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The view ...

Look up from my sewing machine, and this is the view :-) I adore the Edyta Sitar calendar - it's so inspirational, and I love the 'coffee' tea towel so much that I couldn't actually use it for its purpose.

Donna, do you see what's hanging from the bottom of my thread rack there on the left? It's the little shoe you gave me - I just love it, thank you!

So friends, what's happening around your sewing machine?

Friday, March 09, 2012

Hexies

The hexies for the next round of the coverlet are going to take some time. This is the first time I've used hexagons in a project, and I'm finding them addictive! I'm certain there will be more in my future :-)

Do you see my little bobbin donut there? It's from Superior threads - the first time I visited their booth at Road to CA, I pondered over it for ages, and then walked away. The next day I resolved to make it mine - it has ended up being one of my favourite purchases, and one of the most useful too! No affiliations etc, just a very satisfied customer.

It's a long weekend here, so I hope there will be plenty of stitching time. Chatter soon! xox

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Mrs Billings Block 3

I've been chipping away at the Mrs Billings project today. Normally I wouldn't add appliqué backgrounds until I've done the appliqué - but I was nervous about the fit of the red inner border.

Fortunately all is well, so I won't add the side blocks until they're complete - I think the appearance of fullness is because of the previous pieced border having a little stretch to it.

It's so exciting seeing this project grow, it's an amazing learning experience, and I love it!

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Tiny pieces!

I'm still itching to be done with 'block 2' of Mrs Billings Coverlet - so I got busy and stitched the tiny squares and triangles together that form the next round.


All that remains to do now is to attach another framing border, and I can move onto 'block 3'. It's fun that they're called blocks, but since this quilt is a medallion, the blocks are really a series of borders :-)

Miss Holly doesn't like being alone, so she's helping me out in the sewing room.


Now that I'm tapping away on the laptop, she's snagged my chair. She better not get comfortable!

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Plans for the weekend

For a little while now, I've been thinking I should start sashing my FWS blocks together - just like I did when I put my NI quilt together - and that way it wouldn't be such a big ordeal at the end.

I had already made the block for the first corner, but had nothing put together for the next row of three blocks. Since I've been on such a roll with my blocks this week, I thought I'd put one from that row together last night:

Block 81 - Snowball

Before I started putting the FWS blocks together, I was thinking about making the Civil War Love Letters project - a friend of mine was making it, and I was enamoured with her blocks. It soon became clear that it wasn't really a project I could make with just my four fabrics (given the abundance of flags and photos), so I switched projects.
   

So now I have these two test blocks - I don't have a need for them - would anyone like them? I'm happy to send them to anyone who can use them ... maybe they'll fit right in with something you're working on already?

And this weekend, I have a little project:
 

Here is the state of my cutting table right now. How can I work with all this mess around me? It stresses me, and I can't work properly. I'm hoping to have this area in a much better state by the end of the weekend.
 

And this is my sewing station - not too bad, but it could really use some tidying up too. You can see that after I finished working on my FWS block last night I moved on to the next border of the Mrs Billings Coverlet project. I'm finding it really difficult having two projects that I'm equally in love with. They're both fighting for my attention!

Well, that's it for now - let's see how far I get with the tidy up. Chatter soon xox

Friday, March 02, 2012

FWS - Blocks 47, 66 & 77

Last night was so much fun - I had been invited to demonstrate Farmers Wife blocks by machine at the SA Quilters Guild. I always enjoy guild meetings so much, and last night was no exception. A big Hello to all the ladies who introduced themselves as blog readers, it's always such fun to know I'm reaching out to new friends :-)

I had prepared three blocks to work on, but with all the chatter and whatnot, I only got one put together, and this is it:

Block 77 - Seasons

So this morning I set to putting the other two blocks together - after all, they were ready to go. These are the two blocks:

Block 47 - Homemaker

Block 66 - Periwinkle

Block 47 was lots of fun to put together - the set in seams made it challenging, but it was entirely worthwhile as it looks so pretty.

The guild is hosting a Farmers Wife Sew-In later this month (they're changing blog things around at the moment) so as soon as I can, I'll provide a link to the details. It would be so much fun to see you there!

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