Friday Favourites

Colour!

1. wonky log cabin, 2. fields of flowers..., 3. Progress, 4. Cathedral Window, 5. Finished, 6. Visible and invisible flying geese

Piecing!

1. Ringo Pie - Anna's Dessert Block, 2. Mug rug

Swoon!

I also wanted to show this wonderful pieced block but Silort has opted out of BHL so a link it is.

I won, I won!

This awesome bundle arrived this week from Kaelin. I won her blog giveaway at the Plaid Scottie, thanks so much Kaelin!

To top it off Kaelin's in my hive for the 3x6 and sent along my block at the same time. Here's a close up of the zigs and zags - I love it.

Friday favourites - late edition

Friday favourites - late edition, originally uploaded by LilyRose0.1.

It's been a long, tiring week with some late nights at work so I'm soo happy to be on the couch with Mr Posey (I'm sure he'll love that moniker), the cats, flickr and trashy renovation shows. I'm too tired to create tonight but not to appreciate some yummy eye candy! Click the picture to see the links to the photo owners. Blog catch up tomorrow, I have some lovely loot to show!

Happy Mail

It seems that I've been too busy sewing and receiving packages to blog! I'm so behind on reporting on my good fortune. The loveliest mug rug and goodies arrived from Laurraine/Patchwork Pottery.

I really loved this when Laurraine posted her design and it's just so perfect! I know that Laurraine thinks it's funny that it's on my wall but no mugs are ever going anywhere near it - especially ones with tea in them, tea stains! This is soo perfectly designed and made that I was excited but not at all surprised to find out that Laurraine has been featured in one of my favourite quilt books, Quilts Baby! Go and visit her blog, everything she makes is just gorgeous.

I also received my pincushion from Jessica/quilt happie.

Really cute, and it's Jessica's own design - I'm going to have to try it for myself. That little owl needlebook is living in my hexie organiser.

I'm sitting out the current round of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap and have been busy sewing placemats and circle blocks. Maybe I did learn my lesson about taking on too much? I'll let you know when I finish my 36 geese for the 3x6!

All rugged up...

I'm finally coasting along and have had a whole weekend of slacking off and only sewing what I feel like. It feels like mid-semester break used to at uni. I guess it feels even more like a holiday because it's my month in the Bee Seam Piecing Downunder bee and all I have to do is oooh and ahhh over the pretties being made for me. I'll enjoy it while I can because I'll soon be back at it making placemats for the Placemat Swap, my 6 blocks for the 3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee and my normal bee sewing.

I had quite a few finishes in September including the mug rug I made in the Scrappy Mug Rug swap.

 

 I had so much fun with this swap and the little rugs are so addictive. And just because I've made so many things for other people recently that aren't pink (ok, so my pincushion was mainly pink) I put this together for my own mug rug.

I love the colours in this one and I'm really pleased I chose them for my blocks in the 4th quarter of the 3x6. I can't wait to see what everyone makes.

Swap September

Pincushion - ready to go, originally uploaded by LilyRose0.1.

This month has been such a big month with so many things to sew. I'd like to say I've learnt my lesson about taking on too many things but somehow I doubt it!

I sent off this pincushion to my partner in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap today after making another one for her to choose from last night when I got home from work. I really hope she's going to like it - I just feel like I've missed getting her right with this one even though {big hint} this was the one she chose. But there's a difference between "I'll have the best of two I don't really like" & "I love it".

On the other hand I just know that my Mug Rug Swap partner is going to really love her mug rug. Pictures later.

Friday Faves

Just a few of my favourites from round 9 of the Doll Quilt Swap. There were so many more that I loved.

1. Doll Quilt Swap - Received!, 2. DQS9 Front, 3. dqs9 :: daydreaming + kite flying, 4. Finally!!, 5. DQS9 quilt to be packed..., 6. DQS9 rec'd!, 7. dqs9n, 8. Doll Quilt Swap #9 - Recieved

My creative space...

These quilting projects are both calling out to be finished. The first is the Mendocino coin quilt that I started last year(!). One little alteration to the back, 3 or four lines of quilting and binding to go. Surely this should be easy to do but the next pretty/big/swappy thing is always so much more interesting.




The second is this barely started Quilt as You Go project that I'd like to make queen size!





I do have a plan for this stack of lovelies though, they'll go out to my fellow Bee Seam Piecing Downunder bees next month. I thought that these blocks might be a little too much to ask for but everyone has been very generous and said that they're keen to give them a try. I'm hoping that 22 blocks in my mailbox will motivate me to complete the rest.

I love starting new projects but finishing them is not my strong suit. What about you, are you a starter or one of the mythical finishers?

(On the not finishing note, I forgot to add the link for you to go & visit more creative spaces over at kootoyoo!)

Quilt Block Colouring Templates

I've driven myself a bit nuts the last couple of days looking for and then trying to make a quilt block template for mini bow ties - you know, the sort you can colour in to try out your design? Finally today I drew one up in google docs. Here it is in all its exciting glory ~

Pretty spiffy huh? If you find yourself in need of a 4x5 block mini bow tie quilt design, this is for you. Just click on it. I've posted it over in the sidebar as well (don't worry if it looks a little wonky in the preview - it's fine when it prints). After all of that effort it would be lovely if at least one other person used it! If mini bow ties aren't what you're looking for here are some links to other quilt block templates~

The WWQP Colouring Book

50 quilt block templates to colour in. Also has block piecing instructions for these and many more blocks.

Block Central's Quilter's Coloring Book

Smaller collection of quilt blocks templates to colour.

Block designer

Allows you to build a block with squares and half square triangles & print it out. Produces a single block.

Some other really useful block resources

• With Hearts and Hands...Huge List of Free Quilt Block Patterns
and of course
• The list of block tutorials from the Quilting Bee Blocks group on flickr.
  

Sunday Stash

I'm a little obsessed with stocking up on the Heather Ross at the moment so I got some of this Frog Prince in the pink colourway.

It was lovely to see it in a little pile with some of my other pieces of Far Far Away 1.

Heaven. More to come soon, although in very small amounts because they come from local shops.

Doll Quilt received

I received the loveliest package from Rachel/ contented be which contained my gorgeous doll quilt and so many extra goodies that it felt like my birthday.

These are Rachel's pics (I hope you don't mind Rachel), every photo I've taken for a week and a half has been so blurry & I really wanted to post my stunning little quilt. I sparted this little baby straight away & was soo happy when I opened it. I just love it.

Here's one of my blurry pics of my loot!







Yep, I made out like a bandit.


I sent mine off on September the 1st but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm nervously waiting for my partner to receive it and hoping that she likes it as much as I did.

Meanwhile, I'm playing along in two little swaps - the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap and the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. It's really fun to do something small after the Doll Quilt Swap, although I'm having the busiest month ever.

Sorry to you RSS people for the multiple postings, I'm having serious blogger issues today!

Friday favourites...

Musky pinks with a little soft yellow, green, blue and grey.

1. DQS9 top nearly done, 2. peek a boo, 3. 98.365 (testing!testing!!!!), 4. DQS9 Quilt Top, 5. mini quilt., 6. My row block 4

Click the links to visit the lovely quilters.

My creative space...

Lately, it's been hexies, hexies, hexies.

Ok, so there has been some other sewing too but the photos suck. Do you ever go through bad photo patches? It's like bad hair, all of a sudden nothing works and you can't leave the house/ upload your photos. So, hexies it is...

These are half-inchers that I made using the fabric glue basting method (tutorial coming soon). This method isn't quite as portable as sewing them as you really need a surface to press down the edges but I still like to keep my little kit handy.

Visit some other Creative Spaces over at Kootoyo.

pink stash...

I love pinks. I tried to resist them for years but now I've given in and I think around 80% of my stash is pink. These are some Denyse Schmidt, my only piece of Bari J, some Japanese Sevenberry...

and some Munki Munki kitties.

I'm soo happy to finally have the kitties and have already cut into this piece for a little project I'll share later.

Friday favourites

1. DQS9 coming along, 2. block for sarah, 3. DQS9 top, 4. Pastel ceramics, 5. 3x6 Bee 3rd Quarter Beehive 8 neetermo, 6. Bow tie quilt, 7. Nora Barlow, 8. Nicey Jane hexies

Why should all that yummy eye candy languish away in our flickr faves? Dust them off and bring them out into the light I say. I'm loving delicate colours, gorgeously pieced blocks (hexies with borders, blocks with ruffles!) and circular bowties. Click the links to visit the talented sewists/photographers.

Stash & swap

Stash
Some recent purchases ~ spots ~ most from the never ending scrap bag I bought from One Flew Over, and the Kei from Badskirt.





And these two pieces of Saffron Craig, also from the scrap bag. I have to admit to shrieking a little bit when I saw these in the pile!




These are my two very favourite Saffron Craig prints and these are very decently sized scraps. I'm a lucky girl.




Swap
This little package made its way over the Tasman this week. It's my swap goodies from Cat for the Handsome Hexies Swap. Cat and I have been doing some mutual hexie admiration across the blogosphere so it was really sweet to get these from her.




I especially love the Matryoshkis! So gorgeous.





Thanks again Cat! I'm really looking forward to the next round of this one, it's been so much fun.

Tonka on a Tuesday

My friend EJ came by to photograph some sewing work & fabrics for me & snapped this shot of one of our cats. It's such an amazing shot, very much like a portrait of a person (hmm). Her nickname is Tonka because she stomps along so loudly it's like Godzilla smashing all of the Tonka trucks. She doesn't usually look this cranky ~ she's just been moved off of the fabric!



I've had some really cool dreams about Tonks ~ in one she was riding in my bicycle basket, jumping in and out at whim even though I was riding pretty fast. In another she won the 'Best Cat in the Whole Wide World' title ~ says it all really.

Sunday Stash

Some Nest and Joel Dewberry from Pink Chalk Fabrics ...




and some Japanese prints, the bottom two are from Badskirt.


I'm slowly being won over by the world of cute Japanese fabric and couldn't resist all of the details in the piggy fabric - just perfect for little hexes.

Stitching up a hexie storm

I've finished my hexies and have packed them all up to go off in today's post. I really hope my partner likes them. I wasn't able to use my favourite colours (!) which were in my partner's dislikes so I raided my stash for any little scrap which might fit into their likes.


A few little extras snuck their way in.

The completed stack.


It's been a fun swap and I've really enjoyed the hand sewing. I sat out in the sun last week during my lunch breaks at work & whipped up a few of these, very relaxing.
I've ordered more pre-cut papers from Patchwork with Busyfingers and will be trying my hand at some other shapes when they arrive. I went all out & bought some acrylic templates as well to make fussy cutting easier.

Hexalicious!

I'm making these little babies for the Handsome Hexies Swap (Round 2).


They are soo much fun & completely addictive. This round we're making 25 hexies for our secret partner and it's going to be pretty hard to stay within the limit. I have a bunch of fabrics fancy cut and plan to make them all up & then choose the best 25 (or so). I'm also working on a hexie holder using some essex linen and echino.

You may see a little gnome poking his face out at the back there - I got a big generous swatch of this Spoonflower print when I bought a 500gm scrap bag from One Flew Over along with some matching lime Munki Munki, awesome Saffron Craig prints & little bits of Katie Jumps Rope (amongst lots of pieces). As I was basting my little gnome hexie (hoping my partner is a gnome lover, unlike me) I couldn't help noticing his terribly cute pink cheeks and his overall air of mischeviousness & next thing I know... I might, possibly, maybe like gnomes. Heather Ross gnomes, on a hexie. I don't think I'll ever go for a gnome in my garden but I think I can stop warning my swap parterns to "hold the gnomes"!

Rapunzel

Also for my DQS9 quilt. I've settled on a layout for my star and blocks thanks to all the lovely comments from my fellow swapees. I wanted to show all of my blocks but my laptop & I are not friends today so it's just this one. She's my fave though. I think the purple is a little strong for the overall fuchsia & orange colour of the quilt but I'm keeping her in anyway. Have to mix it up a little right? I think Rapunzel might just be my all time Heather Ross character favourite, just pipping Frederick the goldfish bowl fishing kitty at the post. It's not visible in this little scrap but at the bottom of Rapunzel's tower are teeny tiny hairpins.




I've also gotten this perle to do my hand quilting outlines. I had trouble finding the right colours in no. 8 so have gone with no. 5. It's pretty thick but I've bought some needle with suitably large eyes and am hoping for the best.

A scrappy star

for my Doll Quilt Swap quilt.



Still working on the rest of the layout.

Sunday stash, birthday edition.

Stack of loveliness.




Princesses.




Finally, this lovely selvedge.

Sunday stash

Old stash.
Japanese fabrics - the first three are from Kimono House which I visited when I was in Melbourne earlier this year, the bottom one was from Funky Fabrix. I don't have names for any of this stack, I'm sorry.




New stash.
Solids from Blueberry Buckle. Ash, white and some Essex linen/cotton blend in putty. Lovely quality, shame I do not like the colour of the putty now that it's arrived. May be destined for ebay unless it grows on me. On the other hand, I love the ash!


Resizing has added an ugly moire to this photo, click for bigger & prettier.

I think I'm in love

I'd already begun to open my heart to yellow (which I've always hated) & then next came orange (ewww!) but now that I've begun combining them with plums, purples & fuchsia they've swept me off my feet. I think the silver of the Kona ash really makes it for me too.



I'm playing with quilt designs that try to capture the feeling that I get from these photos ~ so far its only working with teeny tiny squares (yikes) which would mean ticker tape or confetti I guess. I have to admit I intended this to be a little model ~ for a block in a box quilt say~ but it may turn out to be to scale. I'm not sure yet whether it would work for a lap sized quilt.



I can't wait to see how the new Heather Ross line Far Far Away 2 goes with these fabrics from her Mendocino and first Far Far Away lines. I have a birthday package winging its way across the sea right now. Some of those fabrics will go into my Doll Quilt Swap quilt, some into a charity quilt which I'll blog about once I get it underway and some will be just for me ~ especially the roses.