Lo and behold - I reacquainted myself with my sewing machine!

But first - a photo I had taken with my phone-camera and forgot all about it ... when I took the picture of my Nearly Insane quilt hanging in my dining room the other day - I had unceremoniously dumped my Dear Jane quilt in the lounge.

Miss Gracie clearly saw this as an opportunity to rub up against a quilt that up till now had been impossible to get to! Little monkey!!

And in entirely marvellous news - I have been able to make a little headway toward catching up on the Civil War Quilt blocks. Here are the blocks I made on Sunday:

This is Block 39 - Hovering Hawks. Such an easy block, but so effective.

Block 42 - H is for Hospital. How fun would a quilt be made entirely with this block in a Rail-Fence kind of design. Very striking.

And lastly, Block 43 - Right Hand of Friendship. I had to do a little unpicking with this one to get it just right, but I think it was worth it. I love the red print with the dots - I only had the smallest piece and wish I had more, it's adorable.

Well, that's my sewing for the weekend - it was so much fun, and I can't wait to get a few more blocks made. Chatter soon! xox

Yet more Civil War Quilt blocks ...

Friday evening and Saturday (inbetween mountains of laundry) I got busy with a few more of my Civil War Quilt blocks:

Here is my version of Block 3 - Seven Sisters. I'm not sure if I'll make this one again before I finally put the quilt top together - I altered the shape of the stars to make them easier to needle turn. I've been struggling with needle turn applique since I got acrylic nails for the first time in December. I just can't seem to grip things as well - and either I'll get used to the acrylics or at some point I'll give them up. For now I love them though :-) so this block will have to do!

And here is Block 9 - Birds in the Air. Super easy to put together even with the final bias edge seam. I may fiddle with that seam intersection in the middle there ... it's a little out :-)

And lastly, Block 11 - London Square. Another easy one despite the bias edges. I now only have two blocks to catch up on, Block 13, and Block 16 which was put on line yesterday.

I have also been debating what project I'd like to work on next, and since I've seen my friend Linda's Civil War Crossings top made up recently, I decided that's what I'll work on next.

Linda and I were coveting this project at the very same time a little while ago - I had my finger hovering over the 'purchase' button at Hancocks of Paducah, and talked to Linda on the phone, and she was debating over it too. I had it delivered to Linda's house, and I don't remember if it was my 2008 or my 2010 visit to the US when I picked it up, but regardless it's been sitting in my stash for too long! I'm going to enjoy this one, I just know it!

More Civil War Quilt blocks ...

Yay! Slowly slowly I'm catching up on these wonderful Civil War Quilt blocks. But I still haven't finished Block 3. Yes, it's THAT block. I'll get to it - honest!

Anyway ... here's Block 10 - Lincoln's Platform. Making up a 3 grid block in an 8 inch size requires some tricky cutting ... you know, working with 16ths of an inch and stuff, but this one has come out the right size. Happy days!

And here's Block 15 - Fort Sumter. I made myself choose some of my darker fabrics for this one, and it's kind of cute.

I'll be interested to see how all these blocks look together in the end. The trick will be picking the perfect sashing strips and cornerstones I'm thinking.

And further to my last post, I've tallied the comments, used a random number generator, and the commenter to receive my 'reject block' is Subee Sews. If you'd like to email me privately with your address details, I'll send a squishy your way.

I'm heading into the sewing room now - I hope to get an hour of stitching time in before I head to bed. TTYL :-)

Bits and Pieces

Monday is one of my days off work, and I really got some quality sewing time today. Yesterday I spent some time tidying up the sewing room, so it felt great to work in such a clean space :-)

First up I put together another of the Civil War Quilts blocks I'd not yet made. This one is Block 12 - Louisiana. I've noticed I seem to be selecting a lot of mid range fabrics in these blocks - something I hope I've remedied with the block I'm working on right now.

And then I played around with some things I've wanted to do for a while ... I made some of the string blocks for Bonnie's Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt. It's on my to do list :-) And then with some if the tiny pieces left over from my NI quilt, I made some 4" Log Cabin blocks. There are a great many more of these in my future I hope :-)

And just for fun, I lightly quilted and bound one of my reject blocks from my NI quilt. It's block 8 - one of the blocks that has the 1/2" finished HST's. I thought just for fun I'd give it away if anyone is interested - it'd make a cute mug mat. If you'd like it, just send me a comment. If I get a few comments, I'll use a random number generator to select someone. How fun! :-)

**Thank you for your comments - Subee Sews' name has been drawn to receive my reject block :-)**

A little sewing ... and a couple of dishes ...

I haven't done much stitching this week, but I have managed to put one block together:

This is Block 14 - Fox and Geese, from the Civil War Quilts project. I'm really quite behind with these darling blocks, but if I at least make two blocks per week for the next few weeks, I'll be able to catch up fairly painlessly. Sometimes the fabric selection is a good deal harder than actually putting the block together!

And here's a little something that arrived today:

I'm determined to have a full set of Masons Vista dishes to use this year for Christmas - and slowly but surely I'm finding pieces to add. These are the 20 10 (oops - typo) inch dinner plates. Of course, I could get a whole set yesterday if I wanted to pay 'full tote odds' but I'm only choosing to buy pieces when they're at reasonably inexpensive prices ... and so far so good. They're just so pretty, and I'm hooked!

Civil War Blocks 6, 7 & 8

On Wednesday night, I got the final green border on the table runner, and by Thursday it was in Lizzy's hot little hands for her quilting master strokes. I didn't take a picture with the border as it was really late, but I know I'll have it back quite quickly so I'll be able to share with you all.

Today is one of my days off, so I decided to do a little catch up on my Civil War Quilt blocks. I still have two more to finish, but at least I'm not quite so far behind now :-)

Here is Block 6 - Richmond. I've used some of my scraps for this one, and the red came from Donna's scrap bag. I'm not sure if it's a reproduction, but it looks like it could be :-) Donna was a big help with this one, she suggested to cut the little squares 1-7/16" instead of 1-1/2", and the block went together so much easier. It's a smidge small, but will work in the big scheme of things. Probably a block that would be better made at 9" square rather than 8", the maths would be so much simpler :-)

Block 7 - Log Cabin. Also made from my many reproduction scraps. You'll have seen them in my Nearly Insane blocks all over the place :-)

And lastly, Block 8 - Cotton Boll. We Aussies would probably say 'cotton ball' but for the purposes of this exercise, I'm just going with it as named. In this block I've used some of my scraps from the 'Back Home Again' quilt.

After dinner tonight, I'd really like to put another Nearly Insane block together. I only have 8 to go now, so the finish line is in sight.

Block 5 - Kansas Troubles

Here is my block 5 from the Civil War Quilt project - Kansas Troubles.


This block was fun to put together - one inch finished size HST's seem like such a breeze after working on the tiny ones in the Nearly Insane quilt. (Update: I just noticed there is a damp spot on the block from when I starched it - oops!)

Today it got to 42c (107f) at home, and I've been laying low and doing things that don't require too much effort. I got busy with paperwork - clearing out stuff that's more than 7 years old etc. It's amazing how those papers can build up. I've decided I should devote 15 minutes to it each day. It's going to take me a while to get thru all that shredding!

Block 3 - Seven Sisters ... almost ...

Gah! This is my third attempt at making this block, and I sooooo hope it will be the last!

First up I was needle turning the original star shape, and though I'm pretty good at the needle turn technique, with my acrylic nails I just couldn't manipulate the fabric well enough to make nice sharp points.

Then I decided to head down the path of fusible applique with machine blanket stitch. Which was fine until I removed the paper from the back of the stars - all the raw edges of the stars shredded! Grrr ...

So now I've chosen a completely different star shape, and I've changed how they're laid out on the block, and I'm back with the needle turn again. I've done an inner and an outer point, and so far so good ... let's hope the third time's a charm!

Block 4 - Texas Tears

Here is block four of the Civil War Quilts project - Texas Tears. Love these T blocks - long time readers will know I made a very special quilt from a similar block :-)


Is anyone thinking 'I haven't seen your block 3 yet'? Ummm yeah ... I haven't started that one ... Just haven't felt in the mood for applique yet ... (or I'm just terminally lazy) I'll let you decide :-)

Block 2 - North Star

This project is so exciting, block 2 was posted 50 minutes ago, and I'm all over it - I made it already! It's called North Star, and super easy to stitch up.

It's not to late to jump in on this historic quilt. Check out Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts blog for details.

Block 1 - Catch Me If You Can

I simply couldn't resist - before I went to bed last night, I cut out the squares, and sewed the HST's for this block of the new Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilts project. I had to leave it there though, as I glanced up at the clock and it was quarter to one in the morning!


So this morning, as soon as breakfast was taken care of, I was straight back into the sewing room - and pictured above is the result. I've chosen three fabrics from the Howard Marcus 'Charity' collection - these ones actually came to me in a Moda Scrap Bag - score!! The block was super easy to put together, and I simply cannot wait for the next one.

And, I have to add, did you see who commented on my last post? Barbara Brackman herself - what an honour! I feel so special, and I'm entirely thrilled that Barbara is making this project available to us all. Do join in if you can - I'm certain you won't be disappointed! xox