New York beauty preparations

A little parcel arrived for me in the week, 100 sheets! that should keep me busy and an add a quarter ruler a gadget that I didn't technically need as I have a 1 - 6 inch ruler already, but hey it doesn't have the edge bit on it so......

 And I've been cutting up my charms into sets of six colour tones.

and then stacking them ready

Ive printed out the foundation patterns, so I'm all set!

This little ark needs some more friends!

This post is linked to

Happy sewing!

Pond life

My pond is coming together quite swimmingly!

This is maybe, roughly, kind of the what the layout will look like, plus three water lily's.

The fish's body has changed colour and I'll probably just have two, but I do like the idea of a little baby fish thou, I should be able to baste it all down soon with my Roxanne glue and start sewing.


This post is linking up with some great linky parties!

Thank you very much for popping by.

May your days be long and full of sewing!



 

Pointy points

It has taken me days and several attempts but I finally learnt how to paper piece.

 It was a hard nut to crack thou, its a very backward way to sew, but you get lovely sharp points.

I have been using these Electric Quilt foundation sheets, but found them difficult to tear away, my sharp points have had their stitching pulled away when I removed the paper, I'm going to have to resew them.

I have sent away for Carol Doak's paper instead.

I watched her DVD yesterday and when she pulls the paper out it tears away easily.

I have been looking for a quilt to make using my Kona charms that I bought last year, I got the classic and bright ones, and have decided to make a New York beauty quilt with them and plain white, each block is going to have one colour peaks but with different tones, I'm hoping that it will look quite modern.

While I'm waiting for the paper to arrive, I'll be making up some water Lilie's.

Happy sewing!

It's all very fishy!

I have started a new applique wall hanging, it's totally inspired by this quilt by Shape Moth, when I first saw it, I was blown away by those beautiful lilies and she has been kind enough to post a tutorial.

After a little google image searching, I found this which makes a good starting point for ideas.

This is what I've done so far, my fish are going to be gold fish, I haven't got many orange batik fabrics and I'm not sure there is enough contrast going on yet.

This blue batik fabric is ideal, Its left over from my poppy quilt, its a good size, its folded her for this photo, and I have plenty of contrasting greens.

This little fishy and the lily pads were made using the starch and press method of applique, it was such a pleasure tonight to sit and make them, the fabrics are gorgeous, I really love this technique and can't wait to sit and hand sew them down.

Next I'm going to make a lily using the tutorial, to see if I've got the size right before I carry on making up the applique pieces, I've made 3D flowers before on this quilt, they are fushias (you could tell right?)

 This post is linking up with

Happy sewing!

Dseign Wall Monday

I've been playing with my new foot, I bought it before Christmas and it is the 1/4 inch foot with the side guide on it which helps with accurate pieceing, I used to have foot like this on my old Janome and always missed it.

I have made the square in a square blocks for the borders of the Bargello, but have decided on a new setting.

I have been wanting to try Trapunto for ages and thought these boreders might give me an opportunity.

I recently missed out on a quilt as you go project that has been taking place in my quilting class, I didn't want to start a new quilt when I was already making the poppy quilt, so I thought I would use the technique on this quilt instead.
I am going to quilt the bargello itself first and then individually quilt the borders.

I'm really excited to be trying out two new techniques!
This post is linked up to




Happy sewing!

Work in Progress

This small bargello is a UFO from 2010.

The fabrics are batiks and are sooo gorgeous, they look much better in real life.

It was made out of  fat quarters and ended up too small for the wall it was intended for, so I'm going to add some borders to each side to make it wider.

To help it coordinate with the wall hangings that already hang in my alcoves, I'm going to make some square in a square blocks to run down both sides.

I did manage to finally finish my Poppy quilt yesterday, but it was too wet to take any photo's outside today, so I'll post some as soon as I can.

This post is linked to Freshly Pieced and Ester's blog.

Happy sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I managed to take some pictures of my progress on my Poppy quilt today, its been quite dark and damp recently in Wales so a little bit of sun between the showers was a nice change.

All the photo's are of the straight stitching on the fused applique.

 

Well that's it my progress so far, this post is linked to Judy's blog Patchworktimes.

Happy sewing!

Happy New Year

2012 bring it on, lots of sewing ......

Ive been surfing my blogs and admiring every ones 2011 finishes, I would love to show you a fancy collage of all my finishes but I'm technically challenged by that so its the usual big pics

First up

My favourite quilt of the year my Roses around the Logcabin, this quilt took me up till May to complete, as it was hand applique.

This sewing machine cover was a quick project and  a nice change, it was made up from left over flowers and its raw edge applique with straight stitch.

Flying Geese Applique Quilt, my quilting really improved a lot this year, I really enjoyed sewing lots of feathers on this quilt.

This is Katie's teddy quilt, I finished the top years ago, so it just needed quilting.

Um that's it really for finishes er that makes a grand total of  four! 


My carry over WIP's

My Poppy quilt, this is definitely my Nemesis and the reason I haven't posted since October, its close ish to a finish and I do love it but I just can't get myself to work on it very often.

My summer distraction was hexies, I took them everywhere and made loads, its bigger now than in the picture, but its nowhere near a finish as I don't like the colour contrast.

Well that's it my 2011 round up.

Happy New Year, I wish you loads of happiness and health!

Happy sewing

Design Wall Monday

Its my Poppy quilts turn to be quilted, the pattern is adapted from one from a book called Flower Show Quilts by Lyn Ann Majidimehr.

It was spray basted on Saturday and this time I placed a large bed sheet underneath it while I was basting, I usually lay out newspapers, but they tend to get stuck to my feet once I start spraying and it gets quite farcical!
At the moment I am just doing the in the ditch parts, I am still thinking about what filler to use for the sky background and will probably puts some feathers in the borders.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times,  and The Manic Monday Linky Party!

Happy Sewing!

A Finish

Hooray! its finally finished , Happy Dancing Happy Dancing :0)
Its only been in the making for several years (I think its at least 6 years old Yikes!).

This is my daughter Katie standing in front of her new quilt, she loves it!

The Teddies have new smiles and a loop d loop design around them.

I didn't quilt around the butterflies as I wanted them to poof out a bit

This post is linked to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts,  its her first week as a link up, I love link ups.

I hope you have got a finish to show too.

Happy Sewing!

,

Work in Progress

I have been quilting loads of butterflies over the weekend on this quilt

This photo shows the quilt before I unpicked and re basted it

I used freezer paper to make my template which is a new technique for me and was suggested by A nudge who has a lovely blog called A Quilting Reader's Garden.

I free motioned around the template using my closed toe darning foot, the open toe foot caught the edges and pulled it up more.

Once I finished quilting around the template, using a scissors I peeled it off.

I then added some details to the butterflies, I tried to make them all look slightly different, not an easy task as there were 20 of them!

I played with idea of hyper quilting the butterflies with different coloured threads and adding more details, but after talking with my quilty mates and the phrase "over kill" was mentioned I decided against it  LOL!

I will definitely be using this technique again, I only had to make one template for all of the 20 blocks and it was still going strong!

This post is linked to Ester's Blog and Freshly Pieced, two of my favourite blogs.

Happy Sewing!