Free Block Of The Month - Introduction

I used to design quilts for a quilt shop, and made this one many years ago:

It was called Bountiful Bouquet, and it utilised fat quarters of Nancy Halvorsen's range, Acorn Hollow.  That fabric range remains to this day as one of my all time favourites.

I designed it to be as a row by row, and by breaking it up into monthly instalments, most of our customers found it to be quite achievable.  It had an outer border which I've cropped out of the picture, because I was never overly happy with it and I don't want to tarnish your image of it. 

This is NOT what we will be making.  I repeat, this is NOT WHAT WE ARE MAKING!  At least, not really.

It's a very nice quilt, but now that I have had years to chew on it, I've decided some of the blocks are a bit...blah.  I want to spice the pieced rows up a little, and therefore, I've decided to rejig my original design.  I think (well, I hope) that I am a better designer now. 

I've decided that I will make another row by row quilt an awful lot like this one (but not quite) and offer it as a free pattern.  I'm going to use the top floral border, and selected other pieced rows through out the original design, but as I haven't made them yet, I don't know what they are going to look like.  But I am going to have a big floral appliqued border around the outside.  I know that for sure.  Because I wish I'd done that from the start.

I was going to start at the beginning of August, but I think for now I will just post the requirements list at that date.  I plan to post instalments once a month, to give you time to complete what you need to.  I envisage most of the months will be easy enough and I wouldn't think it would go much longer than eight or nine months.  The applique will be able to be done by any method you wish, but I always use buttonhole (because I can't needleturn to save myself).

I would love for you to join me on this possibly ridiculous exercise in keeping deadlines, because I think it might be fun!

I warn you though, I'm a beginner in the whole blog thing still, and almost a total dummy in regards to tutorials/instructions so you must promise to be gentle with me!

Until then, happy quilting!

Suzie

What I've been working on...

I've felt a little... blah all day today.  Blah isn't the right word but today I don't feel very good with words.  I'm sure lots of it is this terrible business in Oslo.  I do worry...really I do. 

I've been steadfastly avoiding the television and the internet news.  I'm of the opinion that all this news, all the time is no good for us.  The upside of avoiding television and internet surfing is that I got very busy on my current project.

You may remember this post here where I showed you one block of a project for my swap partner in our quilting group.  It turns out that I've been terribly neglectful in my deadlines, and I thought I had loads of time to go till I have to hand it over.  Not true!  So I've pulled the proverbial out and I have motored along today while the little people played beautifully together, and I think I shall be finished just in time to swap it with my partner.  Do you like it?  Again, yellows are so not my colours, but as I think I've become a little too safe with my colours, I'm pleased I've challenged myself to work outside my comfort zone.

I think it's okay.

Enjoy your weekend!

S.

Blue string quilt blocks

I spent a large amount of today with free time as my little people were taken off my hands for the morning (thank God for grandmothers!).  I managed to piece a large chunk of my blue string quilt blocks, which I'm thrilled about because it went together so much quicker than I thought it would.

I've managed to nearly finish all sixty four blocks, and put a sizeable chunk in my wadding, backing and blue fabric stash.  Of course, it's barely noticeable amongst the rest of the stash, but it's a start!

Till tomorrow,

Happy Quilting!

S.

A Quick Hello

I've got family staying at the moment, and what with it also being school holidays, little or no sewing is getting done, and I'm able to spend even less time at the computer.  Life sure does fly past!

But I did manage to piece a few of the Civil War quilt blocks by Barbara Brackman, and in lieu of a wordy post, here is some piccies:

When I have a little more time (soon, I hope, please???) I'll organise them a little better.  But not tonight. 

Night all.

S.

Kangaroos

I've noticed that I now have some followers!  I can't tell you how exciting it was to find that out this morning.  Welcome!

It was another no-sew day today, though I did manage to cut up lots of backing fabrics for my strip quilt and sort out all the blue fabrics in my stash (surprisingly, not that many).  So no photos to show you there.

I live in Australia, and one of the interesting animals we have living here is the kangaroo.  I love the kangaroos.  They are as plentiful as you've heard.  I live in a rural area, surrounded by paddocks and fruit blocks and not a day goes by without seeing one, or two.  They are a real hazard at night time on the roads, and many, many cars have had their front end written off by hitting a kangaroo.  They see you coming, and they decide 'Will I jump away from your car, or will I jump right in front of you?' and you don't know which way they will go until they are there.  Thankfully I've never hit one, but that's more sheer luck than anything else.  They are THAT plentiful.

This pattern is one by an Australian designer, and makes great use of batiks and hand died fabrics.  It's another one of my mother's (the woman should really have her own blog, don't you agree?) who really does excel herself on these landscape type quilts. 

Till tomorrow,

S.

15th July

Can you believe I just sat there and thought for ages, and that was the best title I could come up with?  Pathetic.

I didn't get a chance to do much sewing today.  I did the first step of a mystery quilt my quilting group is hosting, but unless you want to see a pile of blue half square triangles, there's not much to show for that.  I'm just about to go and cut up a whole swag of wadding pieces for a strip quilt, but again - there's not much to show there.  So I'm fiddled about in my photo archives to find something to post...and this is it:

I didn't actually make this quilt, it was one my mother did.  But it was the first time I looked at civil war fabrics and thought 'Oh yes, that's what I want to do'.  I'd always been keen on 1930's fabrics, and have a huge amount of those in the cupboard.  I guess it was an easy jump to civil war stuff.  I have too much now, I'll never use it all.  But I do love it.

Well, best go and cut wadding squares.  Hubby is watching his beloved footy team getting flogged.  I might leave him to it.

Till Tomorrow,

S.

Finishing Fool

I pulled out my oldest UFO the other day.  All it needed was a border and then I pieced the triangular outer border, and it's done.  I was scared of the border but in the end it wasn't too hard.  This quilt is practically an antique, it's so old.  It's so far from what I would make now, but I find that interesting really.  My quilting style has changed so much over the past ten years.  I think all our quilting styles have.  This design just screams nineties to me. 

Yes, that bottom border is sitting as crooked as a dog's hind leg.  I wasn't the best of quilters ten years ago. 

Till next time,

S.

Brass Monkey

The last few days have been brass monkey weather.  Don't know what I mean?  I won't be indelicate enough to explain in detail but please feel free to google it.

So because it's so cold, my two little monsters and I have barely been outside.  I've been a horrid mother and let them watch too much television.  I do feel such guilt about that.  I've tried to entertain them but it's day five of the school holidays and I'm running out of ideas.  There's only so many biscuits one family can make.

As part of my sewing day on Saturday I took a few different projects from the one or two (hundred) that I have started in case I got bored with one.  I took this little piece and finished the hand quilting and then framed it on Sunday.  It only took one evening to hand quilt it, and I feel silly that I didn't start it sooner.  So many jobs on my list are small, I don't know why I just don't finish them when I start. 

Anyway.  Hope you like it.  It's from a Lori Smith pattern.  Lori Smith is definitely my favourite designer.

All day quilting day

So yesterday, after massive amounts of organisation, pleading, wheedling, promises and hugs, I got to spend my entire day (ten am to ten pm) with my quilting group, sewing.  No kids, no meals to prepare, just pure, unadulterated sewing. 

I worked like a mad woman, and finished the behemouth now known as Bears Paw Quilt No. 1, plus its little friend, Bears Paw Quilt No. 2.  When I was sorting out what I needed to take to my group, I realised that should I finish my quilt at 7 blocks by 7 blocks as was the original plan, it would be so big it could be seen from space.  So I've now made it 6 x 6, which meant I had enough for a littler version.

This is a photo of the littler version.  I don't know that I could find a place big enough to photograph the larger one. 

I've still got to put an outer border of half square triangles on it.  I think that would look okay.  That's my plan for this week.  So please check back to see how it progresses.

Till next time,

Happy Quilting!

Just Sneaking In

I'm supposed to be houseworking, but you know how I feel about that!

Here's a quickie, a scrap quilt I cut with my new Accuquilt Go machine and whipped up in about four minutes.  It's meant to be an Eye Spy but it's more a scrappy thing.  I still think it's kinda okay for a very, very quick quilt.

Till tomorrow!

S.