4x5 Modern Quilt Bee - Blocks Complete

The 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee officially commences tomorrow but we got started early because the organisers were so on the ball. There's a great bunch of ladies in my hive and I've really enjoyed the experience so far. This is only my second bee that I've participated in and the first of it's kind. 3 of us chose an aqua, grey and yellow pallette (I think it's going to hard to separate those blocks ;)

Here they are all together ....

Charise's block ....

 Jessica's block ....

Adrianne's block ....

Rachel's block .... 

Tina's block .... 

My block .... 

Whilst the block's were pretty time consuming, I really loved picking out all of the colours/fabrics and see them come together. I'm not going to make this block for another bee anytime soon but I think it has given me the confidence to get out all of the petals I made for my Neptune Joseph's Coat and start machine stitching them down :)

Spiderweb Sample Block: 3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee

I still love the spiderweb block, so when I recently joined the 3rd quarter of the 3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee I knew that this is the block I wanted to make ....

Sample block in my colours of aqua, yellow and grey :)

This is my favourite spiderweb tutorial because the paper piecing makes it accurate and I really like the size and layout of the individual spiderweb blocks. I wanted the simplicity of the single spiderweb without the quarter spiderwebs in the corners of the block, so I only paper-pieced half of the strips.

Now I've just got to make them in my fellow bee hive members colours. I hope you like then Hive 11! 

Sew Australia Bee - July Blocks

July is Danielle's month in the Sew Australia Bee and she chose + and x blocks using this tutorial. I enjoyed making the blocks so I ended up making 4 instead of 2 ....

I hope you enjoy them Danielle!!

FWQA - 1st 9 blocks

I joined the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long a little while ago but had to wait for my book to arrive and then start on my templates (over 100 of them) and yesterday I finally started cutting and piecing the blocks. Here are the first 9 of the 111 blocks.

I didn't want the blocks to be too busy so I decided to use my shot cotton stash. I love how the fabrics allow the block design to shine. I'm going with a rainbow theme and will probably use white sashing between the blocks.

Block #31 - Evening Star

Block #29 - Economy

Block #4 - Basketweave

Block #9 - Box

Block #2 - Autumn Tints

Block #16 - Calico Puzzle

Block #6 - Big Dipper

Block #41 - Friendship Star

Only 102 more to go :)

Oh and this is what happens when you don't double check you've got the right template .....

I made the right one first with the incorrect template (9 inches) oops! Then I had to remake it at the correct 6.5 inches. Lesson learnt, check the template number twice!!!

New Henna Garden, the Sandi Bag and a Giveaway Winner!!

As you probably already know, I'm a huge fan of Sandi Henderson and I LOVE her Henna Garden prints.

So I was very excited to read this post and find out that she is printing a Henna Garden collection, which means reprinting some of the old fave's and some new ones too!

I was also very excited to see a couple of my Henna Garden projects featured!

These cushions I made for the Qld Flood Appeal Auctions

And these beautiful blocks are from the Sew Australia Bee members.

So if you like Henna Garden too, go and have your say on what you'd like to see in Sandi's Henna Garden collection.

A little while ago Sandi had a sample sale and I was really happy to snap up this gorgeous bag that I've affectionately dubbed the "Sandi Bag" ....

(Photos courtesy of Sandi Henderson)

It's totally reversible and I love it!!

...............................................................................................


Oh, I better not forget about the fusible thread giveaway!

Drumroll please ......

The winner is comment number 15

True Random Number Generator
Min:
Max:

Result:
15
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations Monica!!

Please email me your postal address and I'll get it in the mail quick smart :)

Fusible Thread and Machine Binding Tutorial & A Giveaway!!! CLOSED

Have you ever wanted to try fusible thread?

Or bind using machine stitching that is nearly invisible from the front?

(Front)

(Back) 

Would you like your binding to be sturdier and to save time too???

 

Well if you've answered yes to any of those questions, then I've got a tutorial for you!!

The amazing Bec from Chasing Cottons has been hosting a fantastic series of quilt classes including a quilt-a-long, entitled Quilt Class 101.

 

As part of Quilt Class 101 I'm guest posting a tutorial on how I use fusible thread and machine stitch binding. It's over on Bec's blog right now!

GIVEAWAY

Do you want to win a spool of Benz Fuse fusible thread?!

 Hop on over to Chasing Cottons and have a look at the tutorial,  and if it's something you're interested in giving a go, come back and leave a message here to enter.

The giveaway will finish Wednesday 20th of July 2011 10pm Australian Central Standard Time. It's open internationally too :)

Swoon - Block 1

I really love this block! It's from Camille Roskelley's pattern called "Swoon".

It's a large block, so I can see that this quilt could come together quite quickly .... if I hadn't used voile!! I've found the voile a little slippery to work with, but I really love Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks and it will be a fantastically soft and luxurious quilt when it's complete, so I think it'll be worth the effort.

1 block down, 8 more to go ....

The Adventures of Miss Pincushion .....

Once upon a time there were two friends named Cindy and Amelia. Cindy and Amelia had never met each other in person, but they had a lot in common with each other (they both loved fabric, quilting, creating, colour and fairytales) so they became friends through a magical thing called the internet.


Amelia was so impressed with Cindy's creations that one day she asked Cindy to make her a pincushion. Cindy agreed and found out the sorts of things that Amelia would love in her pincushion (her favourite Australian fabric designers, Neptune, FMF, green and rainbows). So Cindy went to work, lovingly creating a pincushion that was exactly what Amelia wanted.


Once Miss Pincushion was complete, Cindy filled her up with a delicious meal of chopped walnut shells (which was Miss Pincushions favourite) and carefully parcelled her up and sent her on an exciting adventure half way around the world to a foreign land called Australia.


Now, Australia is a wonderful place, it has lovely wildlife and scenery and lots of nice people too. But it also has some scary things, such as snakes, spiders, crocodiles and Mr Quarantine. You see, once Miss Pincushion arrived in Australia, just before she could take the remaining journey to Amelia's house, Mr Quarantine stopped her and asked her what she last had to eat and when he found out it was crushed walnut shells from another country, he told her that she would have to have a small operation. Miss Pincushion was a bit scared of having an operation, but she knew Cindy would want her to be brave, so whilst the surgeon unpicked her stitches and emptied her walnut shells she didn't cry once! 


After her operation, feeling very hungry, she made the remaining trip to Amelia's house. Amelia was so excited to see her and thought she was the most beautiful pincushion she had ever seen. By this time, Miss Pincushion was feeling pretty weak from hunger and the long journey, so Amelia went out to the shops and bought Miss Picushion her favourite crushed walnut shells for dinner and she ate until her belly was full and her heart content. From then on Amelia and Miss Pincushion have done nearly everything together ..... they play together, sew together, quilt together and generally just hang out together. In short ... they lived happily ever after.

THE END

(Miss Pincushion)

(Miss Pincushion hanging out with with some new friends)

Thank you so much Cindy!!!

Strawberry Castles & some advice needed ...

I've been wanting to make Bec from Chasing Cotton's Sand Castles quilt ever since I first saw it on her blog! I wanted to make it even more once I saw her version in person. It's pretty spectacular!!!

So recently I've had fun piecing the blocks out of Strawberry Lemonade by Me & My Sister Designs.

This isn't the final lay out  and excuse the poor lighting, but I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice on a couple of things .....

Should I sash the blocks?? And if so, what colour sashing do you think I should use? I've overlapped the blocks a bit to fit them onto my "design wall" so there is actually a little more" sky" between the sides of each castle.

Do you think the blue and white prints in the "castles" blends too much with the background blue spots on white "sky" fabric? I'm just not sure.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend :)