Quickie Post - Turning Four-T

Hi everyone - just a quick note to let you know that my Turning Four-T quilt will be in Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue 19/9. The on sale date is October 27, 2010, but for those of you who subscribe, you'll get it a few days earlier. How fun!

Blog Tour - Starstruck Quilts

How exciting, this is a first for me :-) Barbara Cline has released a new book called Starstruck Quilts, and asked me if I would be interested in being part of her blog tour. Being me, I'm late to the game, but still very happy to be involved.

Here are the blogs involved in the blog tour:

Julia Graber - August 23
Polly the Patchworker - August 24
Quilters Corner - August 25
Dorcas Smucker - August 26
Canton Village Quilt Works - August 27
Deb Girotti - August 28
Spun Sugar Quilts - August 29
Quilternity - August 30
Burgundy Buttons - August 31
Little Lady Patchwork - Sept 1
Tazzie Quilts - Sept 2

So lucky for me, I've had the chance to check out her book, and can highly recommend it - her quilts are stunning and the directions so clear that you'll be making your own 'starstruck' quilts in no time.

And lucky for you, you'll have the chance to win a copy of the book and other treats at each stop on the blog tour. Be sure to pay me a visit on Sept 2nd so you can participate in my giveaway, and you can hear from Barbara too. Happy blog hopping!

Curtains Maybe

I've just come home from checking out some fabrics for curtains. It's for my lounge and dining rooms. Three large windows in total. I've wanted to have them made up for the longest time, and for many reasons (such as indecision and allocating funds elsewhere) they have never yet fallen onto the radar.

Here is the front runner of the fabrics I looked at today. What do you think? The curtains will be pinch pleated with pelmets, and the bottom of the pelmets will have lovely coordinated cording. I'm thinking it will be really nice, and brighten up the room so much. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the estimate. I've a feeling it's going to hurt. A lot.

Project Love!

It's official, I'm completely in love with this project. Thank you so much to our wonderful friend Bonnie Hunter for coming up with such fabulous ways to use our scraps.

Amy is in 'like' with this project, and is thinking it could be hers. She's not sure about the beige pieces, but should be able to tolerate them! :-)

All I want to do is head into the sewing room now, but there is so much to do. We're off to lunch at my parents house - my brother is moving interstate, so it's a 'goodbye for now' party. And this afternoon I really need to put the house back together. We had ALL the carpets cleaned on Thursday, and due to drying and work, I haven't been able to put everything back in its place yet. The house is in disarray, and I feel very out of sorts in it. Hopefully by late this evening I'll be all done and spend some q-time with my Bernina.

And thank you all for your comments on my last post - I haven't had an opportunity to email replies just yet. I feel a weight has lifted after my decision - and let's face it, it's important to look after #1 too.

We'll chatter soon - I have signed up for a blog tour which I've never done before, so I'll get busy on that soon.

Scrappy Bow Ties

Ohhh my goodness, these blocks are highly addictive. I really need to be doing chores, and I can't tear myself away from the sewing machine.

I showed the start of these blocks a couple of posts ago, and while I haven't had tons of sewing time, there has been good progress. The blocks are from Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders book, and the project is called Bowdacious. Bonnie's quilt has bow tie blocks in all the colours of the rainbow, and while I initially cut and started to piece with more colours, I've decided I'm going to stick with pink and purple for the bow ties.

There is not a great deal of purple left in my stash after I pieced my Dogtooth Violets quilt, so I'm going to be digging deeply into the scrap tubs to find the perfect pieces. The cute little sashing strips you see there are a Jane Austen print I picked up while in the USA. I'm not sure what the next sashing strips will be, but I'm sure there is something in my closet that I can use. It's my plan to purchase no fabric whatsoever for this quilt. Let's see how far I can run with that.

In other news, I have made a huge decision this past week. I have decided that I will no longer quilt for others. There are six quilts here for me to work on, and they will be my last. Of course this was not an easy decision to come to, but working so hard has been really eating into my creative and personal time and something just had to give. After I made my mind up, I felt really at peace, and that has to be a good sign. So, all this should mean that I'll be able to work on more of my own projects and in turn share more with you here. All good, right? xox

Framed!

Today I don't have a picture of any fabulous piecing or quilting that I've done lately, but I thought I'd quickly share a little chore I checked off the list in the past week.

While I was in the US in April, I purchased some cute prints at the AQS Museum in Paducah - they're Diane Phalen Quiltscapes and very cute indeed.

I have finally framed and hung them over my sewing area. I'm just thrilled with them, and they're wonderful inspiration.

Braiding

Recently I have read on a few blogs about people committing to a Process Pledge. I really like the idea, and while I decided I don't need the pressure of a commitment, it has made me think about sharing more about my quilting journey, rather than simply the destination. So, with my latest little project, I took a couple of extra pictures along the way.

I wanted to make up some braids and use one of my charm square packs, so first up I sorted the pack into lights and darks. There were a great many more darks, so I cut up some light pieces from my stash too, then I cut each charm square in half to make a series of light and dark rectangles.

I added a red from my stash, cut it into squares and began chain piecing the red squares to the dark rectangles. I've based my braid on one found on our dear friend Bonnie's Quiltville site.

And then I started piecing the braids together. I made two braids so I could continue to chain piece - I really hate to waste thread!

I'm sure you can see I've missed a great many steps here - eg, cutting the strips of braid apart, stitching the sections to make the mats, basting, quilting and preparing the binding. This has been a fun little project, and good for using up left over pieces of batt etc. I just have to hand sew the binding down on the reverse side, and I can call them done!