Busy Week but not for Sewing!!!

Very slim pickings this week but I did manage to get my weekly Barbara Brackman BOW completed.

I decided to foundation paper piece this block, as it happens it was in the EQ block library so that saved me having to draw it up.   I put the larger triangle on before I realised I was going to try and put a handle on the basket and tuck the ends into the seam.  Oh! well better planning needed next time!!!

In between my busy schedule this past week I have been making a few more QAYG blocks to add to what I had been given by the girls in my Quiltbee group a couple of weeks ago.   I'm also anxiously waiting for two quilts to come back from the long-arm quilter, should be this week sometime!  After the binding goes onto them I really want to make a start on the UFO I committed to a few weeks ago! 

Hopefully by my next post I will have more to share!

Hope you are all busy sewing, thankyou for dropping by!

Take care,
Merilyn

Another Weekend Block

This weeks' Barbara Brackman block design is a real sweetie, I checked in late Saturday night (when it arrives here downunder) and slept on what fabrics I would use!

Got up early this morning and put it together.   I haven't used much in the way of blue in these blocks so far,  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!!!

Some of the ladies in my Quiltbee group have contributed more QAYG blocks for the 'Quilts for Christchurch' project.

These are Sharon's blocks, she made 35 out of Batik fabrics.  This should be enough for one quilt.

 The colours are just wonderful!!!

These colourful contributions were made by Reta (correct spelling this time!!).   She managed to make 20 blocks, she is in her 80's, so I think she really excelled!!!

Great work, thankyou Reta!!!

Ethel made 12 blocks!!  Thankyou Ethel, your contribution is greatly appreciated!!!
These blocks will be sent on to Jan  in Victoria very soon!!!

Not much other sewing this past week, but I do have a couple of quilts with the long-arm quilter, can't wait to get them back !!!!   I'm really hoping to get back to my UFO's very soon, I feel like I haven't achieved much for the while, sometimes that's how it goes......

Thankyou for dropping by,  until next time....

Merilyn

Disaster Relief Patchwork

Can't believe a whole week has gone by since my last post.   I usually try for a midweek post, but I just didn't get there this time!

Firstly the highlight of my week, the Barbara Brackman BOW.

I really enjoy a new block each week, but I still have a hard time trying to decide on fabrics!   I just love the mustard print from Judie Rothermel and her 'Cider Mill - A Journey Through Time' collection, and had to find a place for this, the other 2 prints are from Bonnie Blue Basics.

It's quite unbelieveable what the climate has unleased on the world over the past couple of months, so many people have lost their lives and so many survivors has lost everything.   The images coming out of Japan in this lastest earthquake and tsunami is mindblowing, and it looks as though the death toll will be very high.  

If you have been following me you will know that I have been making QAYG blocks for a couple of projects here in Australia and New Zealand.

My lastest work is for the Christchurch earthquake project.   I completed 35 blocks, which is enough to make up one quilt, and have sent them off to be put together in Victoria, before being sent to NZ.

This is what 35 blocks look like all stacked up.   A quilty friend is nearly close to making a stack like this for Christchurch too!  

I looked around my sewing room and found that I had a lovely panel left over from a prevous project that I ended up not using.   I can see now that it was destined for another purpose!   

It is for a child's quilt, I added a border of bright colours and will get it long-arm quilted very soon.   This will be going to Christchurch as well!

This panel is from the 'Lollipop' line by Sandy Gervais for Moda.   I still had a few layer-cake squares which I added as corner stones, and was lucky enough to be able to match up the green and aqua from my local quilt shop.   I love how cheerful this little quilt will be, the monkeys are so cute!!!

My plans for completing a UFO or two had to be put aside,  so hopefully now I will be able to put them back on the sewing table!!!

Whatever your pursuits this week, hopefully they will be rewarding ones, stay safe enjoy each day to the max!!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Merilyn

Busy Weekend

I've had a pretty busy few days and have managed to spend most of the weekend in my sewing room.   It rained on and off so what better place to be!

I printed off Barbara Brackman's lastest BOW 'Lincoln's Platform' late last night, and this morning set to and put it together.

I kept away from the computer all day, (such discipline!!!) and early this evening posted it on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/
After loading onto the group site, I caught up with what other members had posted, and to my utter amazement another lady used the exact same centre fabric - the likelihood of that happening would be quite rare, but there you have it!!! at least our great taste ended there, because we both used very different accompanying prints...whew!

The rest of my day was spent putting together QAYG blocks for the 'Quilts for Christchurch' project.

Jan MacFadyen at 'Oz Comfort Quilts' http://ozcomfortquilts.blogspot.com/  is the Australian contact person for Catherine in Auckland in New Zealand.  
 http://catalinanz.blogspot.com/2011/02/quilts-for-christchurch.html

Jan will be receiving and making up quilts to send to Catherine who will then distribute the quilts to earthquake affected families in Christchurch.

So far I have made 20 QAYG blocks, with another 15 to go, this should be enough for one quilt.

They go together quite well, and certainly are colourful!  I love the fact that I am actually busting my stash of oddments, hopefully they'll brighten someone else's day!!!

One of the girls in my Quiltbee group, Sharon,  is also busy making QAYG blocks, here are the first ones she made.

She's been busy in her sewing room today too!!!

Another working week ahead of me, but I'll try to snatch as much time as I can to get the remaining blocks completed and sent off to Jan.

Of course I was not alone in my sewing room today, I did have a supervisor LOL, and when she was satisfied that I was doing a good enough job, she curled up on my sewing chair and fell asleep (thank goodness I have two chairs, else I would have been standing up sewing!!!

Have a great week, stay safe, and thankyou for coming by!

Merilyn

A Years' Work

This week has seen the beginning of Autumn, and what a relief that is going to be after such a hot summer!   I know I definitely will be welcoming cooler days which will make spending time in the sewing room more comfortable.  

Here is my latest Barbara Brackman BOW!

I used fabrics from Judy Rothermel's Nottingham Village range.   They contain some gorgeous blues and browns!

In the last while a few people have commented on the quilt I have featured in my header.   This is how it came to be!

This quilt was made in 2007.   It took all of that year to do!   The blocks are 6"x 6" and come from a book by Rosemary Youngs called "The Amish Circle Quilt" (2004). 

A class I had signed up for doing miniature blocks was cancelled due to lack of numbers, so I decided to see what I had on my shelf,  Rosemary's book had been sitting quietly waiting for me to discover its' secrets!!!

I didn't want to make all 121 blocks, so I chose 49 pieced blocks - there are a mixture of pieced and applique blocks in the book - to make a quilt that would fit neatly on a queen-size bed.

Some of the blocks are quite intricate and were best made using foundation paper piecing.  

This little 'school-house' block was not in the book, but I really wanted to include this block, so I drafted one to the size I needed and foundation pieced it.

The 'buggy' block was actually an applique block, so again I drafted a block onto graph paper and foundation pieced this as well.

This block was quite a challenge as the pieces are very small, and foundation pieced.

This nine-patch is hand-quilted, but I used a mix of hand and machine quilting throughout the quilt, and since these early photos were taken have added more quilting to some of the blocks that only had very sparse quilting on the blocks at the time.   I treated each block as a miniature quilt in its own right.

The quilt was made entirely from scraps left over from other projects except for the sashing, border and backing, so it has a very scrappy look, some of these pieces I have had for a very long time.   I treat fabric like gold and throw nothing away if it can be used no matter how small!!!   So it was natural to call the quilt "Tiny Treasures".

This was my draft drawing using graph paper, I traced the foundations from this onto very fine tear-away which I used for all the foundationed blocks, it was a bit of a nightmare cutting away all the pieces from the back of the blocks, but you do what you have to, to get the result you want.

These are some of the projects that are featured Rosemary's book.

This little item was not available when I made my quilt!   In fact I didn't even have a computer or EQ at that time, I traced each block directly from the book and did it all the old-fashioned way!!! that's probably why it took a year to complete!!!   Nowadays quilters have the luxury of being able to print all the patterns they want directly from their PC, how good is that!!!

Today we had our Quiltbee group gathering, and the girls have really been busy doing their homework.
We thought we'd start the year by making small sewing keeps, pincushions etc.   On one of the Yahoo groups I belong to one of the ladies gave us a link to an amazing pincushion pattern.

It's called the "Eight Pointed Civil War 'Buckshot' Pincushion, there is a free pattern on the Marcus Fabrics website:
http://www.marcusfabrics.com/makeit/projects/eight-pointed_civil_war_buckshot_pincushion/civil_war_buckshot_pincushion.pdf

It is quite an incredible looking item:

This is Lorraine and Rita with their creations:

Deb and Ethal look happy with themselves!

And Margaret really excelled herself, she made 2 pincushions plus three sewing keeps!!! (You know who the over achiever is in our group LOL)!!!   Needless to say I didn't get round to making one of these interesting pincushions at all, pitiful really!, I really will have to lift my game!!!

I have been sewing, every minute I get a chance to, and have been putting together some QAYG blocks for the Quilts for Christchurch project.   Another member Sharon is putting some together as well and a few of the other members will try and get some made to send away to get made into quilts for those who have lost everything in the earthquake.

Thanks for dropping by, I wish you all a very relaxed and sewful weekend,

Take care,

Merilyn

UFO's - This Quilting Life!!!

This feature of quilting life, the UFO is one that always baffles me!   Some people amass UFO's like their stashes - with great abandon!!! (In fact I think it is part and parcel of  being a quilter these days! - we have so much choice and so little time!)

It actually frustrates me no end, but I seem to be helpless to do much about it.   When I first started quilting I would dutifully see each project to it's grand completion - ah! but how times have changed LOL!!!

I'm really not sure how this UFO pile crept into my life, but crept it has with alarming reality.   All I have to do is look down one end of my long sewing room, and there they all hide, on the spare bed, piles of them....

A couple of yahoo groups I belong to have recently issued challenges to get UFO's under control!   Members have to be quite upfront about this by posting pictures of their shame, and elect to get finishes done by a certain date.

I love the idea of finishing up projects, but actually putting my hand up and revealing the uncompleted and worst of all committing to a certain date for completion fills me with terror!!!   I can feel the anxiety swooshing around enough to give me hives!!!

I have been challenged to at least finish up one project!!!   So here goes....

This little quilt has been sitting idle since I finished the top on the 14th February 2010.   I hope to finish it in a month or turn into a pumpkin!  - that shouldn't really be too hard as it is already basted - we'll see how I travel LOL!!!

I was inspired to make this as I had been making pincushions using 4"x 4" blocks using up scraps.   I enjoyed making the blocks so much I decided to use up a couple of charm packs of 6 1/2" x 6 1/2 squares and created a small quilt. 

The block designs are from Carol Doak's book "300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks" , the accompanying CD allows you to print straight from your computer and adjust the size of the blocks to suit your needs.

I then added a 3/4" coloured border around each block to bring them up to 5"x 5" using scraps from my stash!  I then found a funky colourful fabric for the border.

These are the pincushions that inspired the quilt:

I love to use small dishes to sit my pincushions in and use a bit of hot-glue to make sure they stay there.
These small white dishes are Tapas dishes and are typically used for Spanish food/dishes.

I like to search for little dishes in second-hand shops and also my local kitchen-ware shop where I sometimes find little English Bone China sugar dishes that have somehow found themselves alone and are sold separately.   I can give them a loving home LOL!!!

This dear little dish (centre) was very lonely, but not anymore!!!.   The other pincushions have all been given away as gifts to quilty friends!!!

I have been thinking lately that I would like to try doing some cross-stitch.   While I was browsing http://www.countrystitchesonline.com/  I came across a lovely little booklet which contains small cross-stitch projects.

These designs are Stacy Nash Primatives   http://www.stacynashprimatives.com/  and I really fell for them.
Of course I know next to nothing about cross-stitch so I asked a fellow blogger Barbara Jack
http://sanguinestitcher.blogspot.com/  who does some wonderful crosss-stitch for some advice.

She has been very gracious with her knowledge and offered to send me some linen to start my first project.   A lovely little package arrived yesterday afternoon.   Not only did she send a gorgeous piece of linen (32ct Belfast linen),  just the colour I wanted, but she inlcuded a few little surprises as well (naughty girl!!!) she really shouldn't have, but I just love the little extras!

Isn't she a peach!    she obviously has taken note of my favourite things and has been kind enough to send them to me.   Included is some hand-dyed silk floss  'Olde Salem Red', my favourite colour, from http://www.cariesthreads.com/ , some Japanese made Tapestry needles size 28 and a beautiful pair of scissors.  I was quite blown away, they will be treasured items for sure Barbara, thankyou so much!!!


On a very sobering note of course most of you will have heard about the devestating earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand this past Tuesday.   I lived there for a few years while I was doing my Nursing training many years ago and have very fond memories of this most beautiful, historic, picturesque and peaceful city.  

It is hard to envisage such destruction not only to the CBD but also to many suburbs where people's homes are no longer inhabitable.   Already the death count has reached 144 the last news bulletin I heard late this afternoon.   It is also wonderful how people can pool together to help out especially teams of police, military and specialised rescue workers and the like from Japan, USA, UK, Australia, Singapore (some of their Army personnel were in Lyttleton on a military exercise at the time of the quake) and others to make a difference in using their unique skills to assist a city in crisis.  

Of course we as women will do as we have always done, create comfort and warmth during these sad times and that is exactly what quilters are stepping up to do again.   If you want to help please visit
http://catalinanz.blogspot.com/2011/02/quilts-for-christchurch.html

Catherine is asking for QAYG blocks, her blog will provide further links and information on how to go about this and also an address.   I will definitely be making some blocks for this most worthy cause!

This afternoon I had a little visitor in my sewing space, in fact she was right in the middle of things, as cats have a tendancy to do! I didn't have the heart to move her, so I worked around her - as you do!!!

Have a great weekend everyone, thanks for dropping by!!!
Stay safe....

Merilyn

Some new fabrics

I really enjoyed putting together the latest Barbara Brackman BOW.   This latest block the Cotton Bol is the same block that Kansas City Star Quilts featured in 'My Star Collection' this past week.   For a very small fee the Kansas City Star Quilts sends subscribers a new block each week.  

Between 1928 and 1961 The Kansas City Star published quilt patterns.   A numbers of the blocks designs were created by women who sent in their own designs, others are traditional designs.   This was a great way for quilters to gather a small library of patterns freely in the local newspaper at a time when quilt books were probably not a part of the domestic budget.  If you are interested just go to
http://subscriptions.pickledish.com/

This is my version:

I don't usually have a hard time deciding which fabrics to use for any quilts/blocks I want to make.   But this series of BOW's have me really scratching my head!   I end up with my sewing table strewn with fabric trying to decide what will go with what. 

It may be that I as we are getting a surprise block each week and have no idea of the end product, that this is what I am finding so difficult.   In a way it is a leap of faith to create blocks that hopefully will live nicely together in a quilt!!!

There are some great variations of Barbara's blocks featured on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/
It's a great way for everyone to share and see others' work, and maybe get a bit of inspiration with fabric choices!

I also ordered some new fabric that has just arrived at my door.  (Just to help the confusion of choosing fabric for future blocks!!)

Firstly my favourite quilt store is having a sale and some of the fabric is 40% off.  http://www.quiltersstore.com.au/ 

In Australia you can't scoff at that sort of discount!   I found a few older lines that I loved and had had in my stash some years ago and had used it all.  The pink/peach fabric is a Judy Rothermel.

Also arrived was a lovely little collection of Bonnie Blue Basics from The Fat Quarter Shop.
http://www.fatquartershop.com/

These little lovelies should keep me going for a while....

I hope you are all keeping your sewing machines company and staying out of trouble LOL!!!

Have a great week,

Merilyn