T.G.I.F.F. - Snap!

Today has been about catching up!  The Queen Bee for August in our QCA Bee #5 chose a Polaroid block.  Having never made one, I put it off thinking it was going to be tricky.  Wrong.  This little baby was whipped up in a couple of hours from start to finish.

I quite enjoy getting out ye old novelty prints, and getting my fussy cut on!  These are only 2.5" fussy cuts, which made the choice a little tricky with some of them.  The Queen also declared these blocks were to be for a boy's quilt - I think my block fits the specifications?

For the first time in forever, this block came to a perfect 12.5" without any trimming at all!  Unheard of!  I need to give it another iron, because I can now see that the edges of the polaroids aren't quite straight!

And a closer look at those cute little prints.  Some of these are proof of my change in fabric purchasing. I actually buy some fabrics for their fussy cut potential!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted over at Quokka Quilts!  You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. #5 - Kissing Fish

In what can only be called a miracle - I finished kissing fish......and not the "in the water kind".  I definitely wanted to challenge myself with the whole quilting business this year, but think I bit off more than I could chew with this baby!

So without further ado - Here is my version of "Kissing Fish".....

Kissing Fish on Flickr

Lots of straight, stitchin in the ditch!

Gorgeous ribbon fabric I bought on a whim!

Love, love how this light has shown off the colours!

So the five million points are not perfect, the lines are not all amazingly straight and heck - I may have broken a needle!  But I LOVE it!  I used THIS PATTERN from Freshly Pieced.  Although it is classed as "easy", I would say it's easy but fiddly and at times frustrating.  Only because of the 100's of HST's!

I chose the ribbon fabric for the backing, basically because I was going to use it on the quilt top and then forgot!  And after much deliberation, I went with all the different prints for the binding - kind of rainbow-y?  And now I have to wait a whole two weeks to gift this to a very dear friend of mine, for her very much loved baby girl, who is yet to enter the world!

And yes - that is ALL I finished this week - but what a finish it is!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted by Kit Lang - Art this week!

Have you finished anything this week??
AND just in case you've missed it so far this week - The Sew Fab e-Pattern deal is still available, but only for a couple more days!

You can see all the patterns and purchase the bundle HERE!  
**  Please note - this offer is available until 8am EST (US) Monday the 11th of February!  There was a typo with the date on the original post which was provided to us!!

My first Quilt - finished!

Well, it has taken me  a couple of months, but I have (literally) just finished my first "proper" quilt!  I say proper because I have made dodgy ones here and there over the years, but because I am such an impatient human being and do not gravitate towards anything fiddly, I have done rush jobs, and have not been proud of them.  But tonight - I'm overflowing with glee....

One cot-sized quilt for a very special baby girl.

I know it's not perfect - but it's close enough!  Ooh, and you can see the mistake I made....

The colours are stunning!

A big thank you to the lovely ladies who have helped me out and given me the confidence to get through this project!  You will be happy to know I already have another one ready to be started......

What I did today...

It may not look very interesting to some....but I have been run off my feet these last few weeks - sewing orders for others.  So today, I finally got around to making some Christmas presents!  It was the first time I had ever made crayon rolls (or pencil rolls when you can't find the right size crayons!).  To say I was impressed with myself would be an understatement!  You can find the tutorial I used here. 

The other gorgeous numbers in the photo are notebook covers.  I tried with a different tutorial last week, and completely failed. So took a deep breath this morning and plunged head-first in to this one.  It was really fiddly at first.  But once I wrapped my head around the instructions, it all clicked and worked out fabulously!!  Once again, great Christmas gifts.  My primary school aged children will have them to give to their teachers, and I have made a couple for family and work mates.  I am hoping they love them!

Today is most of all proof that even if you really hate what you think is going to be fiddly and tricky stuff - give it a go.  You may just surprise yourself!

Now - what's next?