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!

Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

Soooo exciting! I'm really on the home stretch with Camo's Hungry Caterpillar Quilt. All I have to do now is hand stitch the binding on the reverse side and it's done.

The quilting is just very simple and done with a monofilament thread as I really wanted the lovely fabrics to shine. Camo is thrilled, so I hope I can finish it up tonight.

Since this project first appeared on my blog, I've had a lot of comments and emails regarding the pattern. I purchased this as a kit from Fons and Porter in 2008. I don't think you can get the kit any more, but they seem to still have the pattern, it's located here.

I'll finish up here, and get busy hand stitching :-)

Still scrapping ...

Even though I haven't spent as much time as I'd like to in the sewing room, I've made some progress sewing the scrappy bowtie blocks I mentioned in my last post.

I'm really enjoying these blocks SO much! It feels great to cut into these brighter scrap fabrics - they're usually overlooked when I'm scrapping, in favour of my reproduction prints.

I'll keep working at these as I have the chance, until tomorrow when I'll have to pack things away to begin quilting on a customer quilt. And should I get that done in time, I'm really ready to quilt up Camo's Hungry Caterpillar quilt. It'll be great to progress another UFO toward a finish.

Bonnie's Bowdacious

After machine quilting four quilts in a row, I was just exhausted and itching for some mindless piecing. And because I had a recent finish, I could allow myself to start something new.

In Bonnie's 'Adventures with Leaders and Enders' book, there is a project I've been checking out - it's called Bowdacious. It used scraps from the 1.5" bin, a size I don't use often, so I thought it would be fun to mindlessly cut and sew.

These little four patches are jewel like, and even though this will eventually be put to use as a leader and ender project, I'm having fun sewing away right now. And when I'm in the right frame of mind, I'm going to get busy with my Nearly Insane blocks again. I'm really looking forward to playing with them :-)

A WISP finished!

Did you think I'd fallen from the earth? It felt like I had - at least fallen out of touch with everyone. We had internet issues. First of all we had run out of allocation for the month (an issue we will be remedying) and had dial up speed for six days, and then on the day we were back off line, a storm knocked us out completely for two and a half days.

I realised how much we rely on the internet while we were offline, and also found a lot of free time! Time that I used by finishing up a work in slow progress - one that I've been working on for about five years or so.

This is my hand quilted Holiday Wholecloth project. My plan was to finish this table topper and use it for a Christmas centerpiece. It has taken such a long time to be completed it seems such a shame to use it only at Christmas time. This is a close up of the centre section.

I really love to hand quilt, but since I've learned to machine quilt, I've allocated less and less time to it. I have some small wholecloth pillow kits that I picked up in Paducah, I'm thinking I really need to make time for hand quilting - it really is so relaxing.

And here is the finished article. Last night I put it through the wash to remove the blue lines, and then laid it out flat on towels to dry overnight. I may yet wash it again though, after being dragged around for such a long time, there are a few stubborn little marks, and of course the project could not be laundered while in progress, as all those important blue lines would disappear forever!

I have always thought I'd like to quilt queen size wholecloths as wedding gifts for my kids in the future. Not so sure how I feel about that now - at least I hope they give me plenty of notice!!

Kaffe Prints

While I was in the USA recently, my wonderful friend Linda gave me a fabulous gift , it was a kit she'd made up. It included the most vibrant Kaffe Fassett fabrics, two black and white prints and a pattern by Artichoke Collection called Urban Chic.

Yesterday I started putting the blocks together, and I'm simply loving my progress. It's super easy piecing, and the simple design allows the wonderful fabrics to shine.

I just have to stitch the blocks into rows, and then the rows together and I can start working on the borders. I think I'll make up a different border treatment for this quilt, but it's gone together so quickly to this point that I can have fun playing and not feel that I'm wasting precious sewing time. Happy days!!