Three for March

I hope I'm not getting over confident with my goals after last months finishes. I have a visitor staying with me for a week this month.  I can't wait to see her. We are going to have a great time catching up, but it may reduce the number of available sewing days. Fortunately she's a quilter too so there's a probability we may squeeze some sewing in between the talking, and the going out for coffee, lunch and dinner.  It's already a week into the month and I haven't even worked on any of the three projects I've listed. 

OK now I've made myself hyperventilate.

Keep all those appendages crossed for me, I'm going to need it.

1.
The scooter quilt will be basted, quilted and bound!


2.
A quilt top using this fabric bundle


3.
Make the backing for McFlurry




      

No title, because I can't think of one.

I've had a pretty productive week.

I can't believe that I am finding time to sew, enjoying it, and even finishing a WIP, hmm, let's face it, it's really a UFO.  Fingers crossed that this is the start of some crafty goodness at the all new Chez Sunshine.

I started this after doing the Kelly Wolfsohn workshop in Adelaide with Shay.

I really enjoy raw edge applique and think I'll have another try at it this year as this has turned out so well. Maybe next time I'll try some background quilting!

It could do with a good press. I suppose it wouldn't look like that if I had quilted it. It doesn't look so bad in real life.

Looking back through my Flickr photos, I see I started this at the end of April 2011. Almost 2 years ago. Why do I procrastinate so much? it didn't take me long to find a fat quarter for the backing and another for the binding, put it all together, make a hanging sleeve for it and hand sew the binding down.

I started a new quilt about a week ago as I desperately wanted something to hang on the walls. This is where I used the Lucy's Crab Shack charm pack.

When I'm piecing, I lay out the pieces on an old cutting mat covered with flannel. It's great for keeping the pieces in order and for carrying to and from the iron and my "design bed".

The pattern is from this book.

I spent part of the day basting and quilting it, in between having a swim in the pool as it's hot here today.

Evidence - me quilting in my swimsuit. The heart is to keep my modesty and to ensure this image is not burnt into your brain.  Hmm, swimming pool hair and a tan. Even though I slather on the sunscreen, don't go out in the middle of the day and try hard not to tan, it doesn't seem to be working.

I'm really really happy with how this has turned out. I think I might attempt another triangle quilt this year.  Now to finish the binding so I can tell you all about this quilt in another post.

.

WIP Wednesday

Last week I totally amazed myself and quite a few other people too!  I made the jelly roll race quilt top as the backing for a quilt top that I had made almost two years ago.

I finished the quilt in a day.  Yay!  It had been bothering me that the quilt top had been sitting there for so long, so it was good to finally finish it.


and the back

I quilted through the middle of the chocolate squares on the front horizontally and vertically.
Front

Back - and sometimes the quilting crossed through the chocolate squares on the back!

Pure for the binding.

It's not very big but it's the perfect size as a small lap quilt while sitting in a chair or wheel chair. I have someone in mind for this quilt, but I'm going to wait and see how the next quilt pans out before I make a decision.

Part of the pile of squares from last week has been made into HST's and trimmed to size. It's time consuming trimming them down, but at least I know they are all perfect 3 inch squares now. I much prefer making them a little bit bigger, and knowing I can trim them down, rather than hoping that my piecing is perfect and then finding it isn't and I have to make more because I wasn't accurate enough.  This is coming from a LOT of experience in my not so accurate piecing. The  #@!* snowballs especially, come to mind.  I'm slowly piecing the rows but I'm not 100% sure how it's going to turn out, as I think I may have stuffed up the value. I wasn't looking at the colour value when I started, more concentrating on the use of colour.  I'm reserving my judgement until I have more of it sewn together. I'm hoping that the fabrics and colours will produce a subtle pattern on the quilt top which will be great for a masculine quilt. Rather than a dogs breakfast of random grey and aqua blocks with a few HST's thrown in for good measure. Fingers crossed. I'm using a wonderful pattern from a fabulous person but I'm not going to say who or what yet, as I don't want to give her "credit" for a really crappy quilt top that is all my fault. If, however it turns out as beautifully as the original by ________ I will be shouting about it from the rooftops.

I'm going to need another burst of colour in my sewing soon, all these neutrals are pretty but you can't beat lots and lots of vibrant colour.  That reminds me, most of my hand sewing and quilting projects have lots of colour,  and I forgot to show the finished circle from a couple of weeks ago. It's not as colourful as some of the other BOM blocks but I really really love this one. I swapped out a couple of the fabrics from Amitie and slipped in my own. I'm really starting to enjoy the process of making the templates and then hand sewing these blocks.

I also forgot to show the Grey Skies and Sunshine quilt in it's new home.

I was relieved to see, the greys, taupes and browns worked perfectly in T's new home. Look at the fabulous coloured glass on the kitchen wall in the background.

Finally, a tiny bit of hand quilting has started on this.



Worked On This Week
Pure Quilt
Modern Chevrons
Charm Pack Mini Quilt


Sitting On The Sidelines
Material Obsession BOM
Amitie BOM
Starflowers
Paper Piecing For The Terrified

Ignoring/Possibly Given Up
McFlurry
Mystery Quilt

Statistics
Finished - 1 and it wash't even a WIP it had been a UFO
Worked On - 2
Waiting Patiently For Me To Show Interest -  still 7
New - 1

Pop on over to Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced to see all the lovely talented people who are working on WIP's this week.

WIP Wednesday

I'm back on the proverbial bike. It's been almost 5 weeks since I last used my sewing machine. I completely lost my sewing mojo. Yesterday I made the big decision to do something, anything to try and get back into sewing again. It worked, yay.
First off I cut up some Hope Valley, Hometown  and some solids into eleventy million 3 inch and 3 1/2 inch squares for a scrappy chevron quilt. It seemed like that many!

Sorry it was very dull here today and I'm not used to taking photos in such poor light, so the colours in some of the photos aren't great.

Thanks goes to Shay who suggested making a Jelly Roll 1600 or Race quilt with her. As usual I procrastinated and took forever to decide which jelly roll to use. Shay had already finished her top, before I even picked out the roll.

I found the remnants of this Pure jelly roll in the bottom of a drawer and had a lightbulb moment.


I made this quilt top back in July 2010, it has been a UFO ever since. The jelly roll race would be perfect to make as the backing for it, and I'll have a two sided quilt.
Of course I can't do something without tweaking it a little. I saw this on flickr and came up with my own version.

Annoying spots and diamond print near the bottom where the fabric cut and the prints don't line up, grrr.

It didn't take long to sew it together and today I've basted, quilted it and I'm about to sew on the binding.

What a comeback after 5 weeks of nothing! I sure hope it lasts.

Worked On This Week
Pure quilt
Modern Chevron Quilt

Sitting On The Sidelines
Material Obsession BOM
Starflowers
Amitie BOM
Charm Pack Mini Quilt

Ignoring/Possibly Given Up
McFlurry
Mystery Quilt
Paper Piecing For The Terrified

Statistics
Finished - 0
Worked On - 2
Waiting Patiently For Me To Show Interest - 7
New - 2 (technically one was a UFO)

Check out all the other wonderful WIP's this week over at Lee's at Freshly Pieced.

WIP Wednesday

First off, a finish. This quilt has been sitting in on my WIP posts since I first joined in the WIP Wednesday linky party.

Sorry it's not a great pic, bad lighting and I had to improvise and find something tall enough to hang it on, it's still dragging on the ground.  This quilt started life as the Floral Bouquet quilt from one of the Jelly Roll books.  I renamed it Lily Quilt as I think the flowers look like waterlilies. At least to me they do. I used left over jelly roll strips to make a scrappy binding. All the details and stats in my next post.



After my trip to Melbourne last week and visiting Amitie, I was inspired to try another Circle Game block.

This is the second one. I'm enjoying the hand sewing part, the cutting out templates, tracing and cutting pieces.....not so much!


When I was cleaning out a cupboard I found this box that I had kept "just in case" and it is the perfect size to store the Circle Game blocks.


I also made the second block in Foundation Paper Piecing For The Terrified (FPPFTT).
I'm really enjoying these and now I'm not quite so terrified of FPP, hmm I may yet have to eat my words when the blocks become more complicated. I'll have  a few orphan blocks when I've finished that I might be able to use for projects down the track.


For the second block I used scraps from this quilt, that I made back in 2010.


As usual I had a million things in my head thatI've been wanting to make, but rather than start on one of those, I had to start something else. Do you ever have those moments?  Today the tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh Frannson was calling my name. I pulled out two charm packs, a Kona solids and "A Stitch In Color" .




I only made this block 8 x 8 squares as I want to try making a mini quilt with this as the centre. It's not wonky, it's just my bad photography skills.


Oh and for those that remember I was working on a mini quilt for a swap but I couldn't reveal the finished piece, I believe my partner has received it.
So here it is.


Worked On This Week
Paper Piecing For The Terrified
Lily Quilt
Amitie - Circle Game BOM
Charm pack squares

Sitting On The Sidelines
Material Obsession BOM
Starflowers

Ignoring
McFlurry
Mystery Quilt - to be fair, I did get it out of the bag and contemplate trying a block after my paper piecing successes, but put it back in the bag after about 30 15 seconds.


Statistics
Finished - 1
Worked On - 4
Waiting Patiently For Me To Show Interest - 2
New - 1

Pop on over to Freshly Pieced and see lots of other WIP's and inspiration this week.

WIP Wednesday

I think I've missed at least two if not three WIP Wednesdays. The last couple of weeks at Chez Sunshine, I've been concentrating on the two swaps I'm in.

I've been working away at the Mouthy Stitches zippered pouch. I love English paper piecing, it's relaxing but it's slow. You can see some more close ups of it here.


The back

It's finished and today it has been sent off to it's new home with fabric scraps tucked neatly inside.

I finished the Name Game Swap mini quilt, sorry, the big smudge in the middle is where I've blurred the name, I can't reveal that part yet as I still haven't sent it to my partner.

I made the label yesterday and was in the process of sewing it on when we had a massive thunderstorm and the power was out for almost 6 hours.  I'm hoping to finish it this afternoon, that's if we don't have another storm.



I've also been hand quilting Tiggly Winks. It has been a real struggle to try and summon up the enthusiasm to work on it. It's about 3/4 finished and I've made the decision I just don't like it. Life is short and I'd rather spend my valuable time working on something else.
It is now officially being put in a bag and stuffed in the back of the cupboard.  Maybe one day I'll bring it out again and maybe I might like it enough to finish it. Then again........I doubt it!

Over the weekend I had a very strong urge to make something new, that would be quick to finish and not make me think too much.  I had to think way too much making that pouch!

I whipped up a baby quilt, you can read more about it here.

Worked On This Week The Last Three Weeks
Mouthy Stitches Swap
Name Game Swap
Baby Quilt
Tiggly Winks

Sitting On The Sidelines (I'm not ignoring them, I want to work on these but I needed to get these swaps finished, arghhhh)
Lily Quilt
McFlurry
Material Obsession BOM
Starflowers

I Really Am Ignoring
Amitie BOM

Given Up
Tiggly Winks


Statistics
Finished - 2
Worked On - 4
Sitting On The Sidelines - 5
New - 1


Linking up with Lee over at Freshly Pieced, so pop on over and look at all the lovelies worked on this week.