Starburst

From this:

To all cut out.....

ETA:  Quilt along here

Birthday Crafts

Birthday Crafts... Yesterday I had 4 girls over for my older daughter's birthday. She wanted to do some crafts. So the first craft we did was make Sock Bunnies. It was a great success and lots of fun... most of the girls had very little experience with a needle and thread. We used cross-stitch needles with blunt tips, so there were few poked fingers. We used thisSock Bunny tutorial . The second craft we did was clipboards with paper Mod Podged onto them. It went much faster than the sock bunnies, but was very sticky!

Solstice Star Blocks

Just Takes  2 Block & Sew Happy Geek Quilt Along Block

FNSI - Around in circles!

Wow!  Don't get out your ruler... don't look at the back... but the quilting has started.  Round and round in circles...

I ended up re-pin basting them... I really wish for these that they were spray basted.  By sewing around and around, the fabric did move some and I wonder if glue might have been a better solution than pins! There are a few puckers on the back... but I'm not taking them out!  This quilt is about learning new techniques - so now I know what doesn't work!

If you are interested in scrapbooking software, check out my giveaway here!

Using some new (to me) tutorials...

Lily's Quilts recently posted a tutorial on Curved Seams....  And since soon I'll need to sew up my dresden circles, I figured I could make up a doll's quilt with some scraps I found at our summer place.  The only problem was I didn't have much batting (and only fusible batting...), but it worked for my small project.  It was quick to baste together!

This is what I cam up with - it is a little wonky, and needs binding.  For the binding I'm going to try the following Single Fold Binding Tutorial at mamacjt.blogspot.com.

Another tutorial on binding, that looks great for small projects is Machine Sewn Binding at Bloomin' Workshop

Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge. Its great when I'm away from my sewing room to find such great resources and project ideas!

Friday Show-n-Tell

I was away last month for Show and Tell, so here is the quilt I completed last month....

This is my daughters Birthday Present....

And here is what I'm currently working on....

Centre block quilted!

Dresden #4 for Lily's Quilts QAL

Dresden Circles

dresden-circle3
Originally uploaded by l3designs.sewing

Lily's Quilt's QAL

Three Circles done. I have one more to complete.... I decided I only wanted to do a 4-block quilt as a 60"x60" would be great for my living room...

I've also just finished a few large quilts and don't really feel that motivated to make the 60"x90" version!

Two blocks have Inner Circles of 7", Outer Circle of 25-1/4"
The third block has Inner Circles of 6-7/8", Outer Circle of 25"

Wonder how close I can get with the last one?

Productive Friday Night Sew In

A productive night...

St Patrick`s Day Quilt:
Further progress includes adding all the borders, cutting, assembling the binding and cutting out the  backing.  Its ready for basting!

Saturday Update:  The quilt is now pin basted!

UFO Challenge - March
The number chosen for March was 1!  This was great, a nice simple one, assuming I could find it... It only took 2-3minutes to find tonight, and I was off to finish up - even better was that the binding for the project was folded up with the project.  So finish some of the quilting, square it off, and sew on the binding.  Then I machine stitched down the binding, I`m quite happy the way this one turned out.

This project originally started in May 2009 when I made 6 of these. Only 5 were finished then... the one that didn`t get finished was for my husband.  Now he has one to take into work!

Quilt Along Progress
I cut out my fabric for the Dresden circles tonight.  I did have some difficulties with the template, so ended up redrawing it instead of trying to print it again to have it off size.  Thanks for listing the sizes on it...  I will need to look at the background pieces once I have the background fabric.
I hope I can keep up with the progress of this quilt as the kids are on Spring Break for the next two weeks!

Only one other project attempted tonight - hemming a pair of my sons pj pants... they were a Christmas gift!

St Patricks Day Quilting

Over at Sweet Stamping Treats, she is running a St Patrick's Day Challenge. I wasn't into scrapbooking right now... but did think it would work great on my St Patrick's Day quilt. I have digitized the file, and here is my test out on a tea towel.

REVIEW of my embroidery design... I really like it, but the black outline didn't work out too well.  I forgot to change stitch to a triple stitch or go over it more than once.  For some reason the tension was off slightly and some of the bobbin thread is showing in the black outlining.  I will fix those stitches before I stitch out the piece for a quilt... And I have a new tea towel for tomorrow!

The Quilt:

Fabric pile this morning!

This the fabric for the quilt.  I picked up the St Patrick's Day fabric last week while we were away and bought the matching yellow, light green and darker green.  The white and black fabrics are from my stash, and  the green at the top is for the backing.  It doesn't match perfectly, but will be good for the backing.  I have completed the 4 Irish Chain blocks in the two tone green and white, and added the black sashing.  I'm nearly ready to cut out the 4 leaf clovers for the blocks...  I will use my Accuquilt Go Heart cutter and some Steam-a-Seam, then appliqué them to the white blocks.  The centre block will then have the above embroidery on.

Progress on my St Patrick's Day Quilt... 

Lily's Quilt Sew Along Fabric

I'm thinking this needs a cream or beige for the background instead of the light blue.... 

Slowly its becoming a quilt

Here is my version of this weeks Moose on the Porch Quilt Along

And all 4 of my blocks.... the problem with taking photos in the middle of the night... poor lighting...

Anchors

I like the stripes better than the solid red...

My completed (or not quite completed) blocks...

After laying this out, I need to add some sashing between blocks, finish my mariners comapss and make 4 more stars... And make my 2 lighthouse blocks.


Sunday Stash Report


Stash Report week 1 / 2011 (Jan 1-2):
Used this Week: 0.6 metres

Used year to Date: 0.6 metres
Added this Week: 0
Added Year to Date: 0
Net Used for 2011: 0.6 metres


Please visit Judy at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their Stash Reports

New Year`s UFO Busting (Quilt #2)

These anchors were started over a year and a half ago and were the first blocks I started for this quilt. These were fiddly to do, but I do like the way they`ve turned out...

Here is my stack strips cut into squares ready to assemble this block.  This is for a different quilt than the other blocks I`ve done for the Moose on the Porch Quilts Layer Cake Along.  But thought this might work quite well for my sons Quilt (Quilt #2)....

I might also do a set of 4 of these up for my daughters quilt too (Quilt #3)

One set of these borders is trying for a waves effect. I think it will look great once on the quilt, but I`m not sure where on the quilt they should go... I think I have enough for two horizontal stripes of these... the plain blue and white stripes, might go between some blocks, or in some blocks...


The UFO Challenge on Patchwork Times has us working on Project #6... Since I need to finish Project 1 before January 24th, I`m swapping numbers 1 and 6!

Quilting UFO Projects:

• January Project:  Quilt for my son (Quilt #2)
• February Project:  Quilt for my oldest daughter (Quilt #3)

Other Projects:

• Hand print quilt for my husband
• Rocking Chair Cushions for my mom
• Hand Bag for my mom
• Small bag started at a quilt class
• Baby Quilt cut out years ago
• Rag Flannel quilt

Friday Night Sew In Progress

I completed the following blocks for my daughters quilt (Quilt #3).  The first blocks are 3" pinwheels made from the scraps from some HST that were cut off the second blocks.  The second blocks are 8.5" (the original pattern was for 12" blocks, but my quilt needed some smaller blocks too)....   These are part of the Moose Quilts Layer Cake Along.  While making the HST for the flying geese, I cut the fabric 1" too small so ended up with 2" squares instead of 2.5" squares - so had to start over!

And I tried to make a Mariners Compass block for Quilt #2... but its all wonky and I will loose the points of the compass if I try and appliqué it on the quilt block.  I think I will be starting over - with a different technique.  I've never paper pieced or foundation pieced... so I think I need to learn!

I also did the binding on 3 mug rugs -- they are complete!  YEAH!

And started quilting my pile of Christmas presents - one fully quilted, another nearly finished.  Still have a few to finish before Christmas and they must be bound too!