Something New for 2012

Can you believe it is almost the end of the year - again!  I feel like I have only just started, and then it is over.  Gets faster as we get older, don't you think?

On Saturday I went to Melbourne to Australian Quilt Market, with Penny.  Met up with a few friends, old and new, including Sue and Brooke from Mallee Country Crafts, Jenny from Always Quilting, Sue from Patchwork with Busy Fingers, and Christine of Gecko Gully, who is the website designer for all of us.  One big happy family!

We did lots of looking, and few purchases.  It is great to see what other people are doing, and being a bit of gadget girl, I like to have a look at new things to make life easier.  As these new things start to arrive I will add them to the website.  However, there is one thing I can tell you about now - a new Block of the Month from Sue Daley.  It is all English Paper Pieced, and called This Goes with That.  Each month you get two new sets of papers and fabrics to make the little blocks.  They are all the shapes of hexagons, with internal parts that can be fussy cut.  You will also receive little "surprises" each month - might be thread, or needles or some extra thing you might like.

This is what the final quilt might look like, but it will depend on what fabrics you receive, and how you put them together.  This sample was made by Evy of the Quilters Palet, The Hague.

We will start in February, around the middle of the month, but you can register now and save your place.  Over the next few weeks I will be making my own blocks, and will add a few photos for you to see. So, keep an eye out for them.  I am still working on my Antique Sampler blocks, and trying to get them finished before I start.  I fell behind, when I needed to get a few other things completed.

I had this great plan

for my Circuit Blocks.  I made a heap of blocks from the book, and another heap of blocks from other sources, that fit the style.  Nine of the blocks I made into one class sample, and another nine I made into another sample.  My plan, when the classes were done, was to pull apart the samples, add the other other blocks and make it into a 30 block quilt.  Good plan, eh?  I did not recon on Julie M (yes I do know you drop in here from time to time).  I laid all the blocks out and she insisted that I actually need to 36 blocks in total as it needed to be a square quilt.

I guess I really knew it would look better as a square quilt, but I had this feeling that I had finished the applique, and wanted to move on.  No, not until I had made 5 more blocks.

these are all the blocks that did not make it into the sample, just waiting to be put together.

So far this week I have made two blocks.  My plan is to have 4 of the left hand block, which is called "Cornerstone Block" in the book, and put one in each corner.  So I have 2 more of these to make in different colour combos, and one more which is going to be another wreath. Then I think I will be done - but I think I will check with Julie first :-)

We went to the Central Market for lunch today, so I don't have to cook dinner.  On my menu is mango and icecream.  yum - the best thing about summer.

Half way there

The plan for this project was one block a day until all twenty were made.  Some how that kind of fell in a hole, as I did not make any at all last week.  So far I have got off to a good start this week, and made 3 blocks today.  I really like digging deep into the scrap boxes, and using the last precious bits of some pinks and greens.  Some of these are really old!  I like taking the photos too, it really gives a different idea of what the finished quilt might look like.

 They are getting pretty easy to make, with the fast cutting and sewing for the half square triangles.  I make piles of colours and sizes on the cutting board and hope that I pick up and sew together in the right order.  Hate unpicking................grr

 I sew them together in 5 sections,  then the 5 strips to form the block.  These are my trusty $3 Ikea scissors.  They cut anything, and I leave them lying about in the sewing room so that anyone can borrow them when I am not looking.  You never know what your good scissors might have been used to cut.

Another one all finished and added to the pile

Something pink, floral, romantic

Does this sound like me?  I wouldn't think so.......but when it is double pinks, poison greens, shirtings and scrappy, well then I guess it is.

I started making these blocks last week, and hope to be able to make one a day - 20 in all.  the block has so many different names - Crown of Thorns, Old fashioned Wedding Ring, and English Wedding ring amongst them.  It kind of looks like a floral bouquet to me, and when all the blocks are put together, you get a rather nice secondary pattern.  I am digging deep into my scraps for this one, as I want each block in a different fabric combo.

The finished size of the block is 8 3/4" and straight from the pages of my ever favourite book - Around the Block - Judy Hopkins.  Love this book to bits.  It is one of the very first quilting books I ever bought, and I still use it all the time.  You can tell how old it is by the cover, and yucky marks all over it.

And since when could we buy a book in Australia for $29??  1990 perhaps.



When ever I see a great border fabric I buy a few metres of it, but I am not so sure I have something for this one.  Might have to buy some more.....what a shame?

Beyond the Cherry Tree

I have been home from my holiday for a week now, and finally I feel like I am caught up.  Got the last two blocks of the Cherry Tree quilt finished last night.  I found block 23 a bit tedious but I really liked block 24.

can't believe there is only one block to go.  It has been over 2 years now that I have been working on this project.  I am already planning new things, so..........watch this space!