Swap progress

I stopped procrastinating yesterday. I'm so very good at procrastinating, it's a pity there's nothing to show for it, lol.

Instead of working on Tiggly Winks, (I really don't love that quilt) and it's becoming a chore to finish, or cutting the binding for the Lily quilt (aka Floral Bouquet) I started on the two swaps I'm in.

Firstly the Name Game swap. My partner is very very very very very quiet, and there's not a lot to go on but I've come up with an idea that I hope she will like.


I started with this for inspiration. An Orla Kiely design.

Made the background. Very pale and beige but I wanted a quiet background for the applique details to stand out.

 and will add lots of these. Love that Baby Go Cutter.

I think these are the colours she likes. I'm crossing my fingers that she will like the design.

The other swap, Mouthy Stitches, I have a really good partner, probably too good, I had stage fright at the beginning and my mind went a total blank. Next, I couldn't settle on an idea or colours, using the scatter gun approach and thinking up all sorts of ideas, not many of which I think are particularly interesting/different or what I think my partner would love.  I had some really obvious ideas, but then I can see from her flickr account that she makes/made them and I'd like to do something that I think she likes but not what she has made.

Yesterday I cut into this for a test run.

To make these teeny tiny triangles. Yes I know, I cut into fat quarters to make these!!!!!

Then sewed them together.

I really like this and I'm going to make another one because these fabrics and colours are not what my partner likes, I knew that when I started. I made this one in the Lark to see whether I could do it and because I like the fabric. I thought I might as well do something I like for a trial run. I think I'm on the right track here, it's now a waiting game for the linen I ordered 10 days ago. I can't choose which colourway from the stacks below until that arrives. I might have to tweak the fabrics as some of the prints are too large.

I couldn't help myself

I started something new. I know you are all so surprised!

Awhile ago I won a Go Baby from Anorina at Samelia's Mum. I've been wanting to use it but didn't want to start anything new until I finished a couple of WIP's. That's why I've been madly trying to finish those quilts in the last couple of weeks. I was originally going to make something with circles in it, but as I've already made a couple of quilts with circles and curved pieces this year, I thought I'd give HST's a go. I thought of doing something arty but then decided to try something more traditional instead. Yesterday I started playing around with Quilt Pro. I found the Ohio Star #3 block, which is all HST's and came up with this. 

This is the design I settled on. There are a couple of mistakes in this copy and I've tweeked it a little since then but it will give you the general idea of the pattern. I had to take a screen shot to get this pic into here so it's  a bit weird around the borders.

I had some Hometown fat quarters and found some other fabrics in my stash, and cut lots and lots of HST's and it only took me about 40 mins to cut the strips of fabric and put them through the Go Baby. It would have taken less time if I was a little more organised, but boy, it is soooo much quicker than rotary cutting. The best thing is that the corners are already cut off so I don't have to do that once I've sewn them together. From memory, there are roughly 430 triangles.

                                     

The first block, 11 more to go. I'm hoping this will look fabulous on the sofa with my red/off white/black cushions. 

Last night I sewed together another starflower. I'm not in love with the centre of this one, but once they are all together in the quilt I think it will be fine.

I'm not sure whether I'll keep doing Pyjama Party Sunday. I've been thinking about stopping it the last few weeks. Will let you know if I decide to keep it going.

Thank you so much to all the new faces, waving and saying "Hi", welcome aboard and hope you enjoy the ride!