Wednesday 25 February 2015

Grand Illusion Back On....but my way.

I'm jumping all over the place with my quilting right now.  I can't settle on any one thing.

I pulled out Grand Illusion and with the benefit of a few weeks away from it, I came to my decision about how I am to finish it.  As you can see, I've sashed each block with white, cornerstoned it with blue and that's as far as I have got for now.





I've not even pressed it, so please forgive the crumpled look of it.

I think now I'm going to stitch a floating border of yellow around the outer edge, and then copy Bonnie's idea for the outer border.  I always like that part of it.  Really, I liked this block too but just couldn't deal with the green/black/cream checkerboard sashing, so I've left it out.

Of course now I have 203957 green/black/cream checkerboard pieces left that won't play nicely with other fabrics so I'm going to unpick at least half the unit.  Then perhaps inspiration will hit me as to what to do with that.

Hope you've had a happy day - most of my family is coming down with head colds so odds are I'll get that once everyone else is better.  That seems to be the norm around here!


Tuesday 24 February 2015

A Few Little Purchases....

It was all my husband's fault.

He went away on the weekend and left me at home alone, with the internet, and a credit card.











I took a risk too.  This is all Chinese, and from Ebay.  I don't normally do Ebay.  I certainly don't do fabric from Ebay.  But the colours were so pretty and it was cheap enough and I thought 'why not?'  I was prepared to take the risk in case it wasn't cotton, or it was too thin.  Or whatever.

And yes, it is thin but no worse than what I can buy in Spotlight. And it certainly feels like cotton. And whilst it's pricewise on a par with what I can get from the USA, it all came free postage.  And the postage is what kills us here in Australia.

I don't know that I'll buy Chinese fabric again, but I'm certainly not displeased that I brought this bundle.  I've already got a little quilt in my mind that I want to make.

Hope you have had a great day.  

Monday 23 February 2015

Charm squares and more...

Ohhh gee whiz, the colours on this blog entry are nothing like the real thing.




I had the most divine little pack of charm squares, all about 7" square.  I didn't know what to do with them so I just sashed them together with some pink homespun and it looks really really pretty. Though you'd not know it from these photos.

It still needs a border, and as luck would have it, despite having enough fabric to open a fabric shop or two, I don't have the right colour to use.  So I'm going to have to order some.  I'm thinking a wide-ish border all around, and then perhaps some pinky florally applique around the outer edge.  

I'll wait and see when the fabric comes in.

And because I have many hours to spare sitting and waiting for ballet lessons to finish I made another hexie!  They are very, very delicious!


I haven't decided what to do with them but I do enjoy making them, I really do.

Hope you've had a great weekend, happy quilting!

Saturday 21 February 2015

Dusting Off Dear Jane

a1 a2 IMG_6192_thumb2 a4 a5 a6 A7 Dad's Plaids a8 IMG_6198_thumb1 IMG_6199_thumb1
IMG_6200_thumb1
FullSizeRender-3_thumb1 a13
b1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 B11 B12 b13
c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 c10 C10 Patriot's Lantern c12 c13
d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 d8 d9 d10 d11 d12 D13
e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7 E8 Mama's Maze e9 e10 e11 e12 e13
f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 f10 f11 f12 f13
g1 g2 g3 g4 g5 g6 g7 g8 g9 g10 g11 g12 g13
h1 h2 h3 h4 h5 h6 h7 h8 h9 h10 h11 h12 H13
I1 I2 i3 i4 i5 i6 i1 i8 i9 i10 i11 i12 i13
j1 j2 j3 j4 j5 J6 Granny Weaver j7   j9 j10 j11 J12 j13
k1 k2 K3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 k9 m10 m11 K12 Doris' Dilemma K13
l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 L7 l8 l9 l10 l11 l12 l13
m1 m2 m3 m4 M5 m6 m7 m8 m9 M10 M11 m12 M13

Not that you’d notice up there, with all the great swathes of ‘yet to be done’ spaces, but I’ve made another Dear Jane block.

FullSizeRender-3_thumb3

This one is A12 Framed Fancy.  I have one more to do on this row and then I can say I have finished One. Whole. Row.

I’m having a massive ‘Why did I start this stupid quilt, I am the world’s worst quilter’ moment right now.  I can tell you that the best way to make yourself feel completely inadequate as a quilter is to search other Dear Jane blogs to see their tutorials.  There are some quilters who are just immaculate.  I don’t know how they get their work so even.  It beggars belief how good some people are.  I foundation pieced the block above which should make everything straight and lovely, and even this block is wonky in parts.  I wonder if it’s my pressing that’s letting me down?  Maybe I don’t pay enough attention to grain line?

Not asking for help here, really – just thinking out loud.

I was telling someone that I’d only done about a dozen blocks, but I didn’t really know how many I had finished, so I got them out of banishment and counted them.  I’ve now done over forty which I must admit surprised me a great deal.  So I’ve made one more today, and perhaps I can get back on some sort of schedule with this. 

We shall see. 

It’s another stinker of a day today and we’ve all acted like very precious snowflakes, sitting inside all day under the airconditioner.  I hope you are all coping in the North with your very cold weather, I must admit to being slightly envious of you all.

Happy quilting!