On the home run

 

SSCS 2013 What I sent away...

This is what I sent to Melinda.

The leafy sea dragon is native to the waters of the

south west of Western Australia.

 detail

For some of the quilting I repeated shapes of the

elements of the pattern. I used freezer paper templates.

I enjoyed making this art quilt for Melinda.

I also made this little owl ornament for her.

Flower-filled meadows with dainty streams...

I have finished the little quilt I started at this retreat.
I won the fabrics in a give-away that I blogged about here.


It's nice to make something to keep.

To make the blocks I stacked the six pieces of fabric.
I then made five cuts through the layers at various slight angles.
This gave me six stacks of six fabrics.
I carefully shuffled the fabrics.
Stack one was left alone.
Stack two had the top piece moved to the bottom.
Stack three had the top two pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack four had the top three pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack five had the top four pieces moved to the bottom.
Stack six had the top five pieces moved to the bottom.
The blocks were then re-sewn and carefully pressed.
I took my stack of six new blocks and turned it 90 degrees.
I then re-did the steps above.
After they were sewn and carefully pressed,
the blocks were trimmed to the largest block possible.
I played with the layout until I was happy.
Added the white border and found the striped binding in my stash.
I used wavy quilting using my walking foot.

This quilt makes me think of soft green meadows full of flowers
with dainty streams flowing through.

Scrappy Potholders

My oldest daughter had a birthday recently. As she is trying to de-clutter and simplify, my best option was to give her something to be used and not too precious. She does enjoy cooking so potholders seemed obvious.
 

Bright charm squares and scraps. QAYG. One layer of insulbrite and one of cotton.

Nothing else to show. Secret Christmas Business.

SSCS What I Sent

This is the quilt I made for Linda at linsueray.

When looking through Linda's blog to find out a little about her, I discovered that although she lives in the mountains, she really enjoys her trips to the ocean when she's able. I thought a little reminder of the ocean would be good. The birds are sandpipers, not seagulls - lol.

I hope she likes it.

This is the ornament I made.

It looks huge in the photo, but it's not.

Another successful year with Chookyblue's SSCS.

Pop over to her blog as she's posting all the swaps.

Another Retreat Project

This little table runner is another one of my retreat projects. I used the fabric squares I won in a giveaway and I blogged about it here. I added two fabrics of my own. I'm pleased with it overall and will show it again once it's finished. I love these fabrics. It is Finally Free by Caroline Simas. It's not quite available yet (sigh) but the Fat Quarter Shop will email you when it's available if you ask them.

Fabric Collage 2

so I finished stitching down all the scraps

here it is from the back - pretty cool

(backing fabric will cover this)

i built up the applique on baking paper

then carefully transferred it for fusing

here she is

you probably guessed by now that this is

"Girl on a Tree Swing" by Aneela Hoey

all finished

overall a quick project and lots of fun

This small quilt was submitted to my guild as part of a challenge.

Fabric Collage

So I cut some one inch strips

I cross-cut the strips to one and half inch rectangles

and placed them on to the sticky side of paper-backed fusible web

I had the fusible web resting on a square ruler for easy transfer to the ironing board

I only gently pressed so as to not disturb my arrangement

this is what it looks like from the back

I carefully removed the paper backing then fused it to a white fabric foundation
I then pinned it to my wadding, in this case, pellon

here you can see how I'm stitching it down

I have yet to stitch the green down

there's a little more to be added to the quiltlet after this

My Grandmother's Doll Quilt

My grandmother made this little doll quilt later in her life. It was occupational therapy while recovering from something or other (living in Oz the details were sketchy as they didn't want to worry me or something like that. Very frustrating.) These fabrics are not cotton. Think polyester.

These prints scream sixties and seventies to me.

The herringbone stitch is a nice touch.

A rogue woven fabric - a coat? skirt? vest?

My grandmother loved her polyester suits. But I'm sure she didn't have this many. I believe the fabrics were shared amongst the group in recovery.

Nothing like a good op-shop to find this stuff.

Incredibly, my family sent me a bag of polyester scraps and a huge polyester flimsy... which I've blogged about before but haven't done anything with yet... it's mind boggling and will probably be cut into small quilts. That one didn't have any hand stitching like this little beauty.

I'm sure my grandmother had a green poly suit...

What's hiding in your cupboard?

Scrappy Potholder

So we are off to a family tea at my sister-in-law's but I had a few minutes to finish up this scrappy potholder/trivet. The last one I gave her she didn't want to use because it was too 'good' so I thought surely this one would be ordinary enough to use.
A very plain back and as I had to use a flash to get the photo, you can't really see the quilting.

It's got two layers of wadding, one cotton and one insulbrite. It measures approximatley 12 inches by 14.5 inches.

I've nearly got the back pieced for my green wavey quilt and hope to sandwich it up tomorrow for machine quilting - going to practice a little free motion. Gotto go now to check my vegetable casserole as my contribution for tonight. Evidently my niece-in-law is bringing fish pie. Should be interesting.

Hope you all have a very blessed time with family and friends this Easter.

SSCS 2010 What I Sent Away

This is what I sent to Floss in Canada. This little ornament was fun to make although I did find it a little challenging as I have not worked with hexagons before. I really like how it turned out.

Here is the gorgeous table runner I made for Floss, even if I do say so myself. But before you all reckon I am too clever, I did follow a pattern diligently. This pattern is from the book Skinny Quilts and Tablerunners. The pattern is By The Sea by Karen Eckmeier.

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Floss is an Australian married to a Canadian. In looking through her blog to choose a theme for her, I discovered she misses the beaches of Oz and takes every opportunity to get her feet wet when any kind of beach appears, even in winter (yikes!). So this quilt is for Floss to have a bit of the beach with her wherever she goes.

The quilt is long and narrow (i.e. skinny quilt - lol) so it was hard to photograph.

Here it is again in sections.

Note the starry fabric...

Remember those sneak peaks? Bet you never thought of a beach scene when you saw the lace and beads then the starry fabric. Lol.

Yes, really real seashells sewn in with a bit of tulle.

A little embellishment with wool to add texture and interest.

And not seen in the photo above, I added a few lace seagulls before posting it away.

Here is the quilt again in the bright sunshine.

All those shadows create an interesting effect.

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So another successful SSCS with Chookyblue.

Hope you all had a great Christmas! And here's Cheers to the New Year!