Blue and Green Squares Finished.

I finished sewing down the binding and the label for this quilt on the weekend. It has been sitting all quilted since here just waiting to be finished. It really is straight, looks wonky in this photo due to my dodgy photography. I took this shot standing on the trampoline leaning over the quilt on the grass. As you do.

I mixed up two blue spotty fabrics for the binding.

A close up of the stippling....

As I was taking these shots Grace came out to see what I was doing. She then took this photo of me holding up the quilt.

And then I took a shot of her using the quilt as a superhero cape! Complete with purple dress up high heels! I hope the child who recieves this will get as much joy from it. ;)

The House that Helen Built.

I have joined in the fun of a 12 month block swap over at Around The Block. My month is September which is only days away, time to get organized! I have choosen wonky houses as my block. This is only one way to sew a wonky house. There are millions of ways to do it! One great links on how to do it is here. Amazing work. This is how I made mine.

Here is the fabric I pulled from the stash to get started. I didn’t end up using that blue after all! Something else grabbed me by the time I got to that stage.

First up, the door. Two wonky rectangles sewn together.

Sewed another wonky rectangle down the other side of the door. Then a window. I thought some contrasting cyan window panes would look funky. To do the window, a square, slashed in half, a scrap 1 inch wide strip sewn inbetween the square halves to make it a whole square again. Pivot, cut in half again and sew another scrap one inch strip in again to make the square complete.

So then you want to build the house. Rectangles above the window pane, one down the side to make a wall, one above the door. Sew them together and you have the body of a house.

Here is where the fun starts though. You could put the room on now or make an extra level. I wanted a larger house, always wanted an upstairs sewing room, think of the light! So I made two more windows.

Rectangles on either side...

And a rectangle to join the levels together.

And wolah, the house is build. Well this one is, you could go another level if you wanted! Now two strips to the side of the house for the sky.

And I called in the carpenter to put the roof on. Looks a bit like a mushroom. Two scraps on each side of the roof.

Then the roof is sewn on and at last minute I think oh a little chimney would be cute! A perfect way of hiding that I didn’t have enough blue fabric to go across the width of the block!.

Then trim the bottom and sew on the grass. Ready to move in?:)

And here is all my fabric bundled up to post out. Happy sewing ladies!

DQS#7 Tops Finished.

Well I have successfully sewn down the circular flying geese for these quilts. Thank goodness! So simple in the end, bit of a journey to get there though but I think my swap partner will be happy. Which one would you prefer if you had the choice? Clockwise or anticlockwise flying geese??

I've already started the quilting on one. Just simple lines echoing the curves.

Chaletgirls Blocks, Round 6..... 2nd Attempt!

I'm such a goose. I got all excitied back here that I had finished Chaletgirls 9 patch block swap. Thought I was so clever having left over squares and made Louise an extra block. Posted them off to Sheridan only to later realize that I had sewn them wrong! It should have been 5 feature fabric and 4 scraps, rather than 4 feature and 5 scraps. Doh! So a bit of unpicking and wolah, 4 new correct blocks. Now I am finished!

Success...

We have success! I laid the circles out on the white square last night and looked at it and then it clicked, why don't I just fold over the edges of the curves of the flying geese and sew that directly onto the square? So I pinned it down and sewed...... it wasn't great but much better. But then I thought I really should get my machine back so I can use my walking foot. So this morning I went up to my folks place where my machine has been holidaying for the last 8 weeks since this, brought it home, thanked Nan's Janome but put the cover on it and put it away, put my machine back on the table, snapped on the walking foot and wolah! I think this is as smooth a curve as I am going to get. I'm happy. Yahh!

So I am going to unpick that first circle I did without the walking foot and resew it with the walking foot..... And pick the other one as well totally and do it this way. Enough blogging, lets get unpicking!

WIP Wednesday - Week 34 - A mountain in DQS#7.

I'll admit I am a bit dissappointed. This quilt isn't turning out as exactly planned. One version I was doing in to halves, thats the one I had pinned in the last post. All looking good till it was time to sew the two halves together. They didn't exactly match..... The joys of making two quilts at the same time, if one technique doesn't work, I can put it to the side and try to do it another way.

So, I lay out the fabric and cut the area's that would be white. I lay this over the quilt first, drew the circles using the flying geese as a guide, then removed the quilt to cut these.

The idea being to snip the curves, so they would lay flat. Just tuck the seams under and sew into place. Sort of like a hidden layer?

All pinned into place, ironed down. Inner circle first, all good, not as smooth a curve as I would have liked, but pretty good. Middle circles next, looking good.

Then the outer circle, you'd think I'd be on the home stretch wouldn't you? I have created a mini mountain range on the outer rim of this quilt! I don't know if I have ironed it wrong, snipped my notches to far apart? Too close together? And then I got to the end I had an extra few cms of fabric! When it was lying flat on top it was okay. Somewhere between the pinning and the sewing I'm getting a taunt mountain range. Maybe I need my walking foot? Maybe I need next time to think of a design which paper peices the whole quilt rather than combining two techniques? Now I am going to go back to the other and unpick it all and try to maybe vizofix it into place first...

Pinning.....

... and more pinning.

WIP Wednesday - Week 33 - More Flying Geese in a Circle.

It is looking good. I have sewn the two halves together. Thanks to the sharp acurracy of paper piecing, all the points line up. Thank goodness! I have to trim them and then get started on the curved bits. I haven't sewn curves before and the thought makes me nervous. So to delay it all, I started a second quilt for me!

Or maybe if this one turns out better, this may be my swapee's. Different direction and have changed some of the colour graduation a bit. It always strikes me as amusing how much quicker one works when sewing the second item, three sections going at once here!

I have realized my 500th post passed recently. Didn't have a giveaway as it was right next to my 3rd birthday giveaway. So I thought I'd have one for my 555th post. Stay tuned. And while I have my housekeeping hat on, I have decided that I'll reply to comments left. A few of my favourite bloggers do, it seems the polite thing to do after one takes the time to leave a post. So comment away please! (And have your email setting activated through your blog so I can contact you!)

DQS #7.... Pleasing Progress.

I'll admit it... I am pleased with how my quilt for the DQS#7 is coming along. Allow me to indulge in a heap of photos....









And so the two curves ready to make a circle. See on the right side I have drawn in the second circle....

KQI Quilts Finished.

I have just realized while scrolling through the photos on the camera, that I never blogged photos taken back in mid June of the quilt I made for Sarah as part of our KQI Swap.

I made two. This one I made for Sarah. Front....

Back.....

And this one I kept for me.

Detail...

Quite like the back on this one.

WIP Wednesday - Week 32 - The Start of DQS#7...

At last I have been able to make a start on my quilt for DQS#7. I am going back to the joys of paper piecing. My partner said she liked Kaffe so I have pulled some of his prints from the stash. The quilts I did for DQS#5 have always been a personal favourite so I am running along those lines so to speak but going in a circle. I have based the design on a free pattern found here. I'm going to do something else in the centre..... Sewing on curves scares me though so if it all ends up a mess I'm moving onto plan B. I don't exactly have a plan B though, so fingers crossed it does work!

I am still sewing with Nan's machine, it is a trooper! I sewed over a pin and it kept on going.

Chalet Girls 9 Patch Swap - Round 6!

A sad moment in the sewing room today as I sewed the last round of Chaletgirl's 9 Patch Block swap. It has been so much fun she has organized another swap already, Around The Block and I signed up already so although this swap is drawing to a close, the fun begins with the next one!

These are for Louise. I used some Kaffe fabric. Usually I just refold his fabric up, pat it and put it back in the stash, but this time I actually cut it!

After I matched them all up, I realized I had four extra squares, so I sewed Louise an extra 9 patch block, thought it would come in handy for the back maybe?

These green and white polka dots were lovely to work with. These are for Janiecat. Hope you like them girls! And so that's it. All ready to post back to Sheridan and then wait for all my blocks to come back to me.

And now at last I can get stuck into the DQS#7. I have been waiting to get this swap out of the way, not in a bad way waiting, but just want a clear deck before I move onto the next swap, KWIM? Course you do! A colourful rainbow to work with.