I must be half way!

It's fair to say that I'm hand quilting my Mrs Billings project reasonably heavily ...

I guess I'm about half way through, and I've just finished my first reel of thread. I love this YLI thread for hand quilting ... it's just delightful. I'm hearing great things about the heavier weights of Aurifil too, so I think I'll try that for the next bit of hand work - the YLI will be a hard act to follow though.

Alrighty ... enough of a break for me ... it's back to work ... hand quilting while watching Wimbledon - someone needs to do it, and I nominate myself! xox

Have you missed me?

You don't need to answer that :-) I'm still quilting on Mrs Billings, and while I'm progressing really well, there's still plenty to go. But this is noteworthy:

You all know I'm a glutton for punishment with huge time consuming projects, well, I've lined up my next one. It's a block-of-the-month project at Esther Alieu's blog. Do check it out.

The first instalment will be issued tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. This time, I'm not going to set myself a ridiculous deadline to complete the quilt, and I'll really enjoy working on it. Of course, I won't be able to get busy until I finish with Mrs Billings - and hopefully that will be within the next 8 weeks or so.

Alrighty, it's off to finish up some chores before I head off for the guild exec meeting tonight - Thursdays are just crazy busy days in my house! Chatter soon! xox

Still quilting ...

I know you all realise that I'm madly quilting away on Mrs Billings, I feel really naughty not checking in more often - but honestly, I can't imagine constant 'in progress' pictures of hand quilting are all that interesting for you ...

But I took a picture of the girl while I was moving the hoop this morning, so here you go:

I must admit, I'm really happy with how things are progressing, and I'm getting it done faster than I thought I would. Happy days!

And for a little extra eye-candy, while I was at work last week, Betty brought in a quilt she'd just finished binding for her Granddaughter:

Of course, with my mad photography skillz, I managed to cut the E off the end of Betty's Granddaughter's name, but it says Georgie down both sides. Isn't it adorable. I'm terribly flaky and don't remember the name of the pattern or the range of fabric she used, but if you're interested, please let me know, and I'll endeavour to get the details when I see her later this week.

Well, I'm back to the quilting grindstone now, I hope to get another 45mins or so in before I head to bed. Chatter soon friends! xox

30 Minute Zippered Pouch

I have to ask, are you addicted to Pinterest? I definitely am, it's like crack for Quilters. Or Crafters ... or Cooks ... or whatever you're into, you'll find inspiration on Pinterest ... seriously! If you'd like to see what I've been pinning, follow the lead of the Pinterest button on my sidebar.

While browsing around amongst the Pinterest pictures, I found a darling pouch tutorial, and decided that I'd have to make one sometime. Only thing is, I didn't really know where I'd find some woollen felt - the stuff has never been on my radar before, so I never had my eyes open for it.

Fast forward to today, I teach at Hettie's Patch on Thursdays, and while browsing their wares after class, BAM!, I spy a whole box of woollen felt in the most darling colours. And then a selection of delightful trims ... and then some zippers ... and guess what has come home with me today? All I needed to make a zippered pouch. Want to make one too? Be sure to check out the link above, and here's what I did ...

Lorraine from Hettie's Patch loaned me some decorative edge scissors, so I scalloped the edge that abuts the zipper - because we're working with felt, no need for any fancy seams :-)

 The scissors were great, and I can see I'll be investing in some for the future!

This darling trim looked so nice with the felt - I just had to have some. Use the ruler as a guide to affix the trim in place with the glue pen before sewing.

The zipper foot seemed to be best for stitching the trim in place - and with the handy dandy glue, it didn't budge an inch!

Hmmm ... a couple more pictures wouldn't have gone astray here, but do refer to the tutorial at the blog linked above for help. I sewed the zipper in (gluing it in place first) still using the zipper foot, and then turned the project inside out. Ohhh, do remember to open the zipper up first.

Flatten the project in half ready to sew the side seams - you can have the zipper near the top, bottom  or centered - whatever you like. Sew the side seams, open to the right side, and you're done! Ohhh, and if you forgot to open up the zipper, you'll have the devil of a time turning the project back to the right side ... thankfully I didn't forget that step!

And here is the finished article - I thought it was very cute! This pouch is quite large as I used the whole piece of felt, but you could make them absolutely any size you like.

Two great things for this little project: First, it took me less than 30 minutes to put it together - I started after I got home from work, and I was done before it was time to pick Camo up from school. Second, all the supplies I needed came to less than $7.50. Bargain!

I DO love working on Mrs Billings, but I was just dying to work on something a little different for a change, so now I feel like I've been able to do something else ... and I can happily get back into quilting tonight. I also have a little eye candy to share from class this morning, so I'll share that in the next day or so. Chatter soon!

Hand Quilty Love

Here's the new hooped area I'm quilting on right now ... it's such fun to get to a new space and try some new things.

Now, don't be fooled into thinking I'm this far along with the quilting on the whole quilt ... on a few of the sides there are still some of the hexies to work on ...  I'm just moving around a little to stop myself from lapsing into a 'quilting-boredom-coma'. That's a recognised quilting ailment ... google it (or not)!

In other news, recently I lost my Quilters Guild name badge, so at the last guild meeting I ordered a new one. Last week I learned that the new one has arrived and I can pick it up this week. Today of course I found the old one - it's the law of lost things. Buy a new one and you'll find the old one.

Chatter soon! xox

New York Beauty Workshop

This weekend just gone, I was so thrilled to be able to participate in a workshop with one of our most wonderful local teachers, Lessa Siegele. We were working on foundation pieced New York Beauty blocks, and had the very best fun. This is a project I've wanted to make for the longest time, and though I'll be waiting until I finish Mrs Billings before I work on the project any more, I can't wait to get busy with some of the brights in my stash.

Here are the blocks I created over the two days:

The block above was my first one, and I decided to test myself by adding the extra ring of points. Made for a mighty tricky insertion of the small quarter circle in the corner ... but I finally did it!

And a bright one with more points for the second day in class - definitely having fun rifling through my batik stash.

Those of you who know me will remember that I'm often a slowpoke in classes (but not always). In this class though I made only one block each day - I made them up very carefully ... and chattered a whole lot too :-)

There were 15 or so of us in the class, and here is a quick snap - one of each of our blocks (although it looks like there is a duplicate in there). It's amazing how different they all are, how fun!

Apologies for the blurry picture - I was shooting from a distance ... and let's face it - my pictures aren't the best even when I'm working with ideal conditions! ;-)

Lessa is a fabulous and generous teacher, we received the most informative handouts, and on the second day there were even more notes on other techniques she loves to teach. And for your viewing pleasure, she also generously allowed me to take and publish pictures of her class samples:

 This blue and white one is right up my alley don't you think? I can definitely see one in my future, being the vintage girl that I am.

And this one was the inspiration for the blocks I made - I figured while I'm in class, I may as well step outside my comfort zone ... way out of it!

So, that was my weekend, and the week previous was super busy too - in fact, I have a lot of quilty work ahead of me for the next month or two, so I hope I don't neglect the blog too much. And further to that, thank you so much to the sweet ladies who emailed me to check on me - what honeys you are! :-)

Let's hope before the end of the week I'm back up to date with my emails ... and if I'm really lucky I'll be back reading some blogs again too, I've missed you all! xox