Anna Maria Horner’s Feather Block

June, my favourite month of the year, and it just so happens to be my birthday this month!
It is also my month in the Stars in their Eyes Bee, so I will no doubt be stalking the postie (Mail person) for Bee Blocks. 
So while I am waiting to receive some gorgeous Union Jack Blocks from my hive friends, I thought I would have a go at next months block (July) which is Linda's month.  She requested the gorgeous AMH Feather Blocks (now why didn’t I think of that).  When I first saw that she had chosen them as her block for the month, I was a little nervous about making them.  I have long admired all the blocks I have seen in blog land, but did not think I would ever make them.  But I can now say I am so glad Linda chose this as her block.  It meant I had to attempt to do them.  They are much easier to make than I thought they would be.

These blocks are great for using up your scraps of fabric and I had a lot of fun deciding what to use.
You can find a link to a PDF Pattern that is free here

Linda chose Fall colors, including bits of turquoise, plum, chartreuse and magenta along with the usual orange, brown, gold, and red. Background: gray in medium to dark values, or black.

As you can see I went with a grey background, which I think is perfect for this block. It really makes the colours stand out.
I think I got a little carried away doing a photo shoot!

Graduation Quilt–Think Positive

My son graduates this month! so I decided it was time to make him a quilt of his own!

I was originally inspired by the quilts I had seen in blog land made by Carla (who blogs at Coras Quilts) for her teenaged sons.  As it happened I already had the same fabric line in mind!  But wanted to make mine slightly different.  Instead of cutting ALL squares I cut a mixture of rectangles and squares.

The squares are 6 inches finished and the rectangles are 18 inches x 6 inches finished.    

More details about the cushion can be found here

 

Quilted by Sue Tuma

Suez Quilts

Legacy 80/20 batting

Signature cotton, thread color Rail Grey

Fabric - Curious Nature by David Butler

1st border – Kona Black

2nd Border – Kona Delft Blue

Binding  - Kona Black

Swoon–Cut, Pieced, Quilted, Binding

So I finished the piecing of my swoon quilt back in February and there it has sat since.  I had plans for this quilt, plans to make it into a King sized quilt, well a couple of weeks ago I went on a little trip to Minneapolis again! You know! the fabric shop, where I am in fabric heaven, you can read about that here. (I have been a few times since that trip, it’s a little addictive)

I bought some fabric to make a border and also bought fabric for the backing.  I eventually got the borders sewn on and it was delivered to my LAQ last Tuesday, we discussed pantographs, thread etc. and I got it back on Friday!

Yes you read that right, my LAQ is fantastic, she has such a great turn around, and is great to work with, and if you are looking for a LAQ then I would certainly recommend her, you can find more information here !!!!  and see examples of her work on her facebook page here

In the meantime I made my binding in anticipation for getting it back.

I picked it up on Friday morning and on Friday afternoon I sewed the binding onto the front by machine.  On Saturday I went all over town looking for the perfect tools to hand sew my binding onto the back. See the gorgeous quilting the pantograph is called Sparkle!

LETS TALK THIMBLES

I had a regular thimble already but I have never really got on with it, not only that it makes your finger SMELLLLLLLLLLLL!  So this is what I bought

Thimble It – Complete and utter waste of money, they are so slippy that you might as well put some packing tape on your finger, they are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and I certainly do not recommend themNext up leather thimble, I found this to be restrictive and clumsy and I have heard good reviews, but personally I just could not get on with it,

So I persevered with! wait for it

BANDAIDS

and the occasional use of my metal thimble,

The thing you need to remember is I was sewing binding onto a KING sized quilt!  I anticipated my fingers getting sore and wanted to avoid it, but what do you expect when you have that amount of binding to sew! It’s a labour of love!
I started it on Saturday morning and had the occasional break to eat! and finished at 9.00pm Saturday evening.

sOn saturday evening I slept under this beauty, (sleeping under the stars) WOW did I sleep well.

Thread used: Signature Cotton in Pearl
Batting Legacy 80/20
Pantograph: Sparkle
Quilted by Sue Tuma

Swooning and Sneak peak!

Life has been a little busy here recently, which is why the lack of blog posts.
But I have been sewing when I have had the time.
I have also been working on an upcoming project with one of my blogger friends Fiona who blogs over at Celtic Thistle. this is something that I hope to share with you all very soon, so keep checking up on me so you don’t miss out!  Here is a little sneak peak!!

I have also been swooning again! In fact I swooned 3 times yesterday! and completed the last 3 blocks of my Swoon Quilt.
So here are a few more blocks that I have made since the last time I blogged.

Now all I need to do is attach the sashing and borders. I want to actually use this quilt on my bed, the only problem being is our bed is a California king, so I need to figure out the best way to make it big enough. I think I will add a couple of borders, maybe one plain and one patterned, this is going to be one very large quilt.

Sewing up a storm

 

I have been sewing up a storm the last few days.  I finished the needle book for my swap partner in the  Scrappy Swap over on Flickr hosted by Kat.

I had a really difficult time deciding on fabric for my partner.  I can’t really share what info I did have as that would give the game away.  I just hope she likes it

.

Fabric used :

Sandy Klop American Jane Yellow Pez fabric from the Peas and Carrots line.

Robert Kaufman Fabric by Laurie Wisbrun, Tufted Tweets, red, Birds on a wire

Konna in charcoal

Miscellaneous orange fabric

I also signed up for a quilting bee on Flickr and I am in the hexie hive.  So our blocks obviously includes hexagons so I have been working on them too.

I just cant decide on how to add the hexagons, either together or apart.  What do you think? and my other question (if anyone is reading this) is, what do you think is the best way to attach them, I can hand sew them on but I am not brilliant at applique! or I could use my machine but how??????

 

Fabric used :

Sandy Klop American Jane Yellow Pez fabric from the Peas and Carrots line

 

Oh and did I mention I singed up for another small swap on Flickr tonight!!! Yes, I have an addiction!