Spinning Stars FINISHED!

Finally finished the binding on my Spinning Stars Quilt! Have already spent many wintering nights snuggled under it on the couch!

I was so excited when I realised that my precious Amy Butler Wallflower print went perfectly with all my reds in the quilt. I was hoarding it for a special project and so excited that I got to use it on my very own quilt!

 

So that is now Goal 1 of my FAL Q2 complete! yeah!

Now the only problem is that I came out the other night and found hubby under my blanket! Tsk tsk. So I finally found the motivation to start his quilt which I have been collecting fabrics for a number of years for. I have been secretly making it during the day while little man has been asleep and even sneaking some sewing in after hubby has gone to bed. I was aiming to have it finished by the start of the week for his birthday but he was sick last weekend and has been home most of the week. It's been driving me crazy as I only have a few lines to quilt!! here is a sneak peek!

 

Getting my A Block on

So I have started making my A Blocks for my Simply Solids quilt. I think I am crazy for attempting this - by my calculations I need to make 18 Blocks - each block is 49 squares of 2" goodness so that is 882 squares. I'm crazy right? Well I have two down, a third half done - lucky they are fun to make! Still waiting on a few more B Blocks. I am leaning towards having all the B Blocks in the centre and then border it with A Blocks.
My lucky dip of 2" squares
As I sew each row randomly together I am liking some of these colour palettes!

Rain rain... Happy mail day

What an icky day in Sydney- blerghhhh!

So far my day has been filled with tantrums, kids not sleeping, dogs wanting a walk and general coldness. Then my doorbell rang and like a ray of sunshine my postman delivered me 4 packages (well three for me and 1 for hubby - but at the moment I am living a delusional fantasy that it is a present for me - reality it is probably dog worming tablets) anyway back to the three packages. Firstly my Simply Solids Block for May from Adrianne from New Zealand. I have put all the ones I have together and am loving it!

I need to make up a few of the A blocks but I am leaning towards putting all the B Blocks in the middle and the A blocks on the outside as a border. I will certainly need to have a play!
Second package was my order from Craft Depot in their May sale. I needed some fabrics to make some bunting for my sister-in-laws wedding - it will be a surprise so no pics on this one. But I did sneak in some Amy Butler Lark - $7.95 a metre - that is cheaper than overseas! Miss E immediately grabbed it and said "mummy, blanket for ME" so her morning tantrums were all erased. Sorry Elsie - that fabric is for me!
The third package was a prize from the Sew Mama Sew giveaway - all the way from the Netherlands! Muriel from Hopfaldera sent me some awesome little crafty items, including the cutest owl fabric!
Now if only those rain clouds would go away - I have a few quilt finishes I need to photograph so I can share!

Where are the pirates mummy? Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Welcome to the Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2013 hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side
 

The Quilt I am entering is a modern eye-spy quilt I made for my daughter completely made from scraps. For me it is actually quite a special quilt as every window has its own story for me. There is fabric I have used in my projects over the years. So there are bits that remind me of friends and family and hopefully Elsie will be able to match up the fabrics in years to come.

I have been on a major scrap bust this year. Many hours have been spent in front of the TV going through my scrap box (which was actually 3 boxes!) sorting them into different size squares and strips. I started fussy cutting some 2 3/4" squares. There are a few repeats of fabric - but each piece is of a different story. Again using scraps I created a film strip look with different colours to create the windows.

So that gets me to the title of this post - 100 fussy cut squares for the quilt top and little MissE spent about 10 minutes (which is impressive for a 2 1/2 year old) looking at it excited to see giraffes, owls, butterflies etc and she looks at me and asks "Where are the pirates mummy"? It seems we like pirates at the moment, and while my stash does not contain pirate fabric (how embarrassing!) I did have a pirate ship. So I made another 2 rows for the back and appliquéd her name.

And to make it even more scrap friendly, I used a scrap piece of bamboo batting and the binding is made up of all leftover binding from other quilts. I have used some gorgeous Golden Book fabric for the backing that was leftover from making some library bags. I just love all the little characters from my favourite childhood books!

Thanks for visiting and be sure to drop by some of the other amazing quilts at the festival.

Details
Size: 30"x 38"
Quilting: simply straight lines by me
Category: Favorite Baby Quilt

Oops did i start a St Louis 16 patch...

Mmmmm I started eyeing off the St Louis 16 patch quilt the other day and thought that looked quick and fun. But I couldn't justify starting another project at the moment and I did not think I had any fabric suitable. Then as I was tidying up my sewing space I came across a stack of Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow Fat quarters. They were destined to be a quilt for the bed, but I never got around to it. We have since moved and while I still love the fabric I don't think it is "me" or our place at the moment. Plus I since started my Washi quilt which I am excited about!

Still needed that justification... Looks like my lovely Aunt has decided to get married at the end of May instead of later in the year! Yipppeeee there is the means and the motive!! Got 4 squares done tonight :)

Oh ye fabric gods - I thank you!

I have just spent 2 days tidying my sewing storage space and table. I may have accidentally started at least 2 more quilts as I was putting away my fabric, did bits'n'pieces on some other projects and had at least 2 more quilts on the cutting board before I had a chat to myself about finishing other projects before starting new ones. Anyway fabric is all put away and as I was doing it I made some progress on Miss E's car quilt by finishing fussy cutting all the centre pics.
So I essentially have cut 100 centre bits, with only a few repeats of some of the extra cute fabric (but only if it contained a different picture) Then I started thinking about it - that is pretty much 100 bits of fabric I own, and that wasn't even going through some of my boxes and not including solids. Yikes ... Lets not tell hubby ... He may be right for a change - I may have a ridiculous amount of fabric. I have pretty much been on a fabric ban for the past 2 years as well (with a few splurges!) so I have been entering competitions to try to win fabric! And lo and behold I have been on a bit of a streak! At the end of last year I won a sponsor prize for the Simply Solids Bee - $50 voucher at the Aussie only store Duckcloth (which I heard is now shutting down :( ) So I stocked up on some solids and other cute fabric.

Then I won a $30 voucher at Sew Mama Sew for my Up from here block. I picked up some awesome e-patterns including the Peekaboo Dress pattern which I am going to make for my little girl when she is a flower girl later this year.
And finally I won a $50 voucher through Red Pepper Quilts for Fashionable Fabrics. Which arrived today!
I may have splurged and got a few extras - but hey we have to make that postage to Australia worth it!

Simply Solids : a modern {bee} May instructions for Fallow Group

Yeh, May is my month in the Simply Solids: a modern {bee} for the Fallow group. I am asking the lovely ladies to construct the Scrap Vomit B Blocks in 2" squares using their own stashes. For the layout you will need
13 x 2" squares of Fabric A
8 x 2" squares of Fabric B
4 x 2" squares of Fabric C
24" x 2" squares of random solid fabrics - the more the merrier! I don't mind if there are multiples of fabrics in there but please use at least 6 different fabrics for the random section.
Fabric A forms the bigger diamond but I would also like the very centre square to be fabric A as well. The layout is below

Instructions for putting together the Scrap Vomit B Block can be found at I'm a ginger monkey

April Bees & Blocks

Skill Builder BOM

Hello Woven Star and Woven Chevron





My 6 blocks together so far...



The April block for the Simply Solids: a modern {bee}was for Sally who sent out some fabrics to do a corner block.



May is my month - am thinking scrap dive for solid scrap vomit quilt!