Still Quilting!

I'm quilting away on my Caswell quilt, and though I'm just loving it, hand quilting doesn't really make for exciting blog fodder.

So, if you need me, I'll be here ...

... for probably around the next five or six months!

Hopefully I'll have some fabulous progress pictures soon ... because I'm super happy with how it's coming along :-)

Chatter soon xoxox

Operation Hand Quilting

Hand quilting on my Caswell quilt is continuing in earnest. Every spare moment I have is spent on the 'throne' in the sewing room with needle in hand, and for now, I'm loving it!

It's hard to capture the stitches in a photo adequately, but you can see some of my efforts, and hopefully some of the patterns I've been trying to stitch.

This is going to be a long term commitment to stitching, and hopefully I'll be as enthusiastic about it near the end. So far, all signs are good! Chatter soon :-)

HOQH - Two more blocks

This past week I put two more blocks together for this sweet project. I am really having fun trawling through my repro scraps to find the perfect pieces to use. Until I get to the stage of sashing etc, I'd like to try not to cut into yardage. Because they're only 6" blocks, it shouldn't be difficult right?

Here are the next blocks:

Block 22 - Leaf Block

Block 55 - Malvina's Chain

With both of these blocks I paid absolutely no attention to the directions whatsoever. With block 22 I made up flying geese units using the flippy corners technique. With block 55 I made up the pinwheels using the doubled up half square triangle technique. I can truthfully say it was much easier than cutting all the individual triangles and worrying about bias edges etc. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this with all the blocks going forward, but I'll be trying to cut some corners where I can!

These blocks will go on the back burner for an indefinite period of time now though. On Thursday Lizzy delivered my basted quilt top to me, and I'm now quilting in earnest!

This is not going to be a quick process, but I'm enjoying how it's coming along already. I'm playing tennis this afternoon, but as soon as I'm done I'll be stitching those tiny stitches again. Can't wait!

Also - a sweet lady emailed me and asked some questions about having my quilt basted, and I put the message aside to answer once I got my quilt back - but I now can't find the message. So I'm so sorry to that person, do you mind messaging me again? Thank you :-)

Chatter soon :-)

HOQH Blocks 43 and 51

After a busy day of chores yesterday, late last night I was able to put another block together. It was kind of a stressful one!

Block 43 - Flower Pot

These blocks are 6" finished, so you can imagine that some of those triangles are on the small side. Not Nearly Insane kind of small, but small enough nonetheless. This particular block was frustrating me ... for some reason the little triangles just weren't playing nice and I found it hard to get the block to sit straight. I got there in the end, but holy moly. Maybe I shouldn't piece late at night - I think I finished it up at around 11.30pm.

Another busy day today with chores, but I was hoping to have time to get another block together - after I picked up Camo from school, I had my moment!

Block 51 - Toad in the Puddle

This block went together much easier, and I'm super glad! This finish means I've made 14 of the 59 blocks for the quilt. Yay!

Just for fun I made a collage of the blocks I've stitched up so far. The collage repeats two blocks, but it's still fun to see how they're looking:

I'm super happy with how the blocks look together, I'll keep going with the brighter of my reproduction fabrics and keep the brown and black to a minimum.

In other news, I have finally had an opportunity to take a picture of the latest Dresden project I put together. I had made a baby play mat for a gift a while back and wanted to make another to share in my Etsy store:

I have been hoping and hoping for a bright day, but even the brightest of sunlight won't make me a better photographer - hopefully you can see how cute this mat is anyway :-)

Well, that's it from me for today, hopefully I'll have a few more blocks made by the end of the week! Chatter soon :-)

More Quilting Heritage blocks ...

These blocks have really hooked me in - I do love applique, but I love piecing too - absence makes the heart grow fonder maybe? While I have some momentum, it's best to make as many of these blocks as I can. I was able to put two together yesterday, and I pieced another before my tennis match this afternoon, and then another this evening after I got home. Here they are:

Block 1 - Xquisite

Block 24 - Squares & Diamonds

Block 33 - Double X

Block 54 - Aunt Dinah

Block 33 Double X - I may or may not have put the block together, taken the picture, cropped it down and posted it on the blog ... BEFORE I realised that I'd added a corner back to front ... and then had to delete everything and fix it. Can't prove anything ... ;-)

Once again, a lot of the fabric I used in these blocks was from the various parcels from my friends in the USA - thank you ladies, I always love using the fabric you send me :-)

Speaking of fabric, I didn't forget to take pictures of the fabric I received in the mail this week. I made a purchase at Threadbear after a blog post they put up recently. I hadn't seen this fabric anywhere locally and knew I'd have to move quickly:

I just loved this panel - it's by Howard Marcus Dunn, and the range is Collection for a Cause - Preservation. Wouldn't this look just lovely as the centre of a medallion quilt. I'm so pleased I jumped when I saw it, because they're out of stock of the panel already!

And I had to have some of the large print that went with it:

This would be fabulous for broderie perse too! After the Di Ford-Hall workshop I did earlier in the year, I've been looking at fabric in such different ways.

Anyway, that's all I have to share for today - I wonder if I'll get any more blocks made over the next few days? If I do, I promise I'll share them with you really soon! xox

Honouring our Quilting Heritage

While I spend some unpressured time waiting for my quilt top to be basted, I've been able to revisit a project I started at the same time as the Caswell quilt. I don't know if you remember, but a year ago I declared that I was going to have two projects on the go - one appliqued, and one pieced. It didn't take long for my true colours to show and the applique project bullied it's way to the forefront and once again I was focusing on one thing only. It seems like that's the way I work best!

So these past couple of days I've been able to put a couple of blocks of the Lori Smith 'Honouring our Quilting Heritage' project together, and tonight I took some pictures to share with you all:

Block 3 - Flutter Wheel

Block 5 - Handweave

Block 19 - Connecticut

Block 41 - Quilters Dream

The blocks are 6" finished and really do go together quickly. Some of them look a little wonky in the pictures (like the one directly above looks crookedy at the bottom) - but it's just because the bottom row was propping up a little when I took the picture. Maybe I should use double sided tape to stick them down in future ... just thinking out loud there ...

I'm using some of the pretty fabrics that were gifted to me by my friends in the USA over a few visits. We share a love of repro fabrics, and I'm determined I'm going to use some of the lovelies they gave me. I think I'll limit the use of browns and keep this quilt on the brighter side of things? This quilt won't grow quickly though, I'm going to be spending a lot of time hand quilting in the not too distant future.

Before I go, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for the lovely comments on my Caswell top finish. It really made my heart sing to read all your lovely words. I haven't responded to you all personally just yet, and there are a few I won't be able to, but I promise to email those that I can shortly.

Lastly, I received a squishy in the mail today, and I'll share the contents with you in my next post - it's too dark for pictures right now, and this lovely fabric really deserves to be seen at it's best! Chatter soon xoxox

A bit of a reveal ...

I can't even tell you how thrilled I am! My version of the Caswell quilt is a completed top! Initially I had wanted to finish the top by the end of September, but life got in the way ... so I reset my deadline to the end of the school holidays which was yesterday ... and I got there!

Now, I have to tell you, unless you're my buddy on the facebooks and have seen it already, it probably doesn't look like you're expecting it to ... so here it is:

I'm super happy with how it looks - beyond thrilled actually :-) Today I dropped it off with my sweet friend Lizzy, and she's going to baste it for me. After she's worked her magic, I'll start quilting on it ... and who knows how long that will take. It will be so exciting to work on something other than applique though, can't wait!!

And today - because I could ... I worked on a little doodad for a special project:

This is a tiny tile, and it's for a special project being run by one of our guild members for the 'Little Quilts of Love' initiative. If you're interested in how it's made and info about the project, click here.

Even though it's not really time for me to start thinking about my next project just yet, I wanted to share a couple of patterns I purchased from Threadbear from the recent Festival of Quilts:

Both these quilts are right up my alley, and either of these could be contenders for my next BIG project. But I think I've already settled on my next love:

I adore all the quilts Sue Garman produces, I genuinely think she's the quilter I'd like to be. You can visit her website to purchase patterns here, and her blog which is entirely wonderful is here. It just breaks my heart that Sue is currently fighting the battle of her life, she has lung cancer. And just when you thought she really had quite enough to bear, her world was rocked when she recently lost her husband. Just absolutely devastating, I hope Sue finds some comfort knowing that the quilting world is holding her close and praying for her. 

On that sombre note I'm going to leave off, but I'll check back in with you all when I get busy quilting. I cannot wait!

Plugging away ...

I'm still plugging away on the final borders of my Caswell quilt, it doesn't make for interesting blogging - so many of the same flowers and leaves ... but here goes anyway:

You can just see there is a seam in the cream fabric under the flower. I hope I've done enough applique to make the seams not too visible. I didn't actually have enough of that cream fabric to make a diagonal join - my calculations were too good and I only JUST scraped through. I didn't really want to purchase any more ... though maybe I should - I really like it as a background fabric!

I think I'm just over 5/8 done with the border, and it's my sincere hope I'll be done by the end of next week. I think I can do it ... just give me some uninterrupted appliqueing time!!

In other news, some more bling has arrived in the sewing room ... these days being known as the ladies lounge ...

Love me a little glitz and glamour :-) Shame about my crookedy photo though ... I love how my sewing room is looking, it's not a chore to spend time in here!

And for the last bit of eye candy today, I just wanted to share a quilt one of my sweet ladies Pam made recently:

I just love this quilt!! It's a pattern Pam purchased from Hetties, and the fabrics are largely by Tilda with some linen thrown in too. It's just darling isn't it? I feel like this would be the perfect thing to make while my quilt top is away being basted. I'm looking forward to something that's not so time consuming!

And just before I go, I want to say a quick shout-out to some commenters I haven't been able to reply to, thank you so much for stopping by to Jacqueline, Paula and Лёка,

Chatter soon! xox