Fairytales Continued....

Last week, I shared with you the beginnings of a new project.  I kept plugging away at it, and have now finished all the blocks required!

 

Sleeping Beauty - She was super tricky!!  Pattern by Quiet Play.

 

Cinderella in her pauper days...... She looks like she could be the Grim Reaper's long lost cousin, but it really is a mop!  Oh, and I messed up with her hairline.....Just one teeny tiny little piece!  Pattern by Quiet Play.

 

And last, but most certainly not least - the fairytale castle!  This pattern was designed by Alyce over at Blossom Heart Quilts.  It is HUGE!!!!!  24.5" x 18.5" to be exact.  I absolutely LOVE it!

 

Lots of fussy cut Princesses.

 

I had a lot of fun pulling out of hair choosing fabrics for this block, but am completely wrapt with the end result!

So much so, that today has seen me putting this baby together!  And I've actually taken a break from quilting it, to write this blog post!

All will be revealed next week!  So be here or be somewhere else miss out check back in at some stage and you will see it!

I'm linking up with Paper Piecing Party - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Triangles Continued....

This baby has been sitting on my shelf, patiently awaiting the arrival of more grey spot, to continue on with the epic-ness that a gazillion triangles sewn together is!  Well, it's arrived - and yesterday was a very productive one!

I'm incredibly proud - and astonished - to say that no points were harmed lost in the construction of this quilt top.  They are all fully fledged pointy triangles!

Given that this is to become a king single sized quilt - I'm doing some guesstimating in putting it together.  I'm definitely over half way, I'm thinking I have around four more rows to go!  It's going to be a very big bundle of yum.

I've had lots of questions on IG and FB in regards to sewing triangles - so once I've wrapped this quilt up - I will be posting a tutorial of sorts here for you all.  I know that when I went in search of ideas and tips for sewing triangles, I had to gather info from a few different sources.  Hopefully I'll be able to put all the information I found and used all in one spot!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced & And Sew We Craft Linky - You can too!

Confession - A Christmas First

Yes, my dirty little secret is out...... I've never made Christmas decorations!  Shock, horror, gasp!  The closest I've gotten to making anything Christmas'y are my kids santa sacks - and they were very basic.  But it's ok, I've changed my ways - because on Saturday, I made a table runner!  A Christmas table runner!  Hoorah!

I bought some 1/4 yards of Hip Holiday a few months ago, because I wanted to attempt some Christmas goodies.  But what?  I started adding projects to my Pinterest board a while ago, but in the end, just made something up!  So here it is.....

Isn't she lovely?  So this is how I made it - I cut out a bunch of 4.5" squares, laid them all out on the floor, and worked out where I wanted my wonky star to be amongst it.  Once I had the layout sorted, I got to making the points for my wonky star, then popped them back in the layout (I use this tutorial if I ever need a refresher!).  I then got to sewing them all together in rows.  Once all the rows were done, I sewed all the rows together - Easy!  This took me probably all of an hour and a half to do!

Then came the really fun part - the quilting!  I sat and stared at the finished quilt top for a bit, trying to figure out how to quilt it.  I chose my go to Aurifil silver/grey #2605 in 50wt, whacked the walking foot on, and started straight lining it.  Basically straight down each and every seam - 1/4" out.  I went around the star also.

The walking foot came off, and the fmq foot went on!  I switched over to Aurifil #2024 - nice shimmery white.  I left the grey in my bobbin though - I don't do this often - don't ask me why!?  But because the backing on this was a plain white, I wanted to try letting the quilting really show.  I did some nice little swirls, which are almost the same as the swirls on silver in the fabric.

The back shows everything!

The other thing I tried for the FIRST TIME EVER - was burying my threads.  Now I had heard Gemma talking about burying threads before, but had no idea really what on earth it meant, but last week she explained it in her post HERE, and I thought "what the hell".  I was sick of worrying about my reverse stitch coming undone. So with nothing to lose, I started burying!  I LOVE the end result!  You can see on the photo of the back of this runner where I have reverse stitched before I started burying, no more reverse stitching for this little duck!!!!!  The burying of heads stitches was not half as tricky as I had imagined - quite simple really.  And it gives a far more professional end result.

So that my friends, is the latest in my quilting repertoire! Always learning, always learning.....

**This table runner is for sale over on my FB page HERE.

I'm linking up with I Quilt Linky Party & T.G.I.F.F. - OctoberQuest 2 - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Not For The Faint Hearted.....

I shared with you on Friday that I was a little addicted to paper piecing.  My decision on the weekend to start yet ANOTHER project, another PAPER PIECED project has just confirmed that I am completely NUTS!!!

You see, my friend Gina, who I "met" when we became Wombat Stew girls, is putting together the most divine Fairytale quilt known to man woman.  You can see the progress of her quilt HERE.  And when she showed us a sneak peek at the finished quilt top, I literally DIED and went to heaven!!!  And then thought "I NEED TO MAKE SOME FAIRYTALE BLOCKS".  Cos you know - I've got nothing else going on!!!!

So my other lovely friend, paper piecing pattern pusher - Kristy - agreed with me and came forth with her patterns.  HAVE YOU SEEN THEM!?!?!?!?  Amaze-balls.  But then.  I had to choose.  You see, I'm not making a whole quilt.  I'm not telling you what I'm making, cos who doesn't love a surprise??  But I had to CHOOSE!!!  Here are the first two blocks done. and. dusted.

My daughter was able to figure out who this delightful little lady is.....can You?

And it took my husband a bit of guessing and re-visiting his fairytale stories to work this one out.  It didn't take Alyce long to work out that I'd sewn the shutters on the wrong sides!  And it took me five minutes to decide I wasn't unpicking them, so they are decorational shutters - this Princess has shutters on the inside that shut - OK!?!?!

Now I just need to learn how to embroider teeny tiny faces...... Easy yes?  No.......

Stay tuned!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday - You can too!

Sunday Stash - Sharing Shipping

One of the great things about being a part of an online community, is finding like-minded people, who you know are just as fabric obsessed as you.  After the QCA Melbourne meet up, I found some new friends within reasonable proximity to me.  And a couple of weeks ago, as I was scrolling through my FB, I saw one of those lovely ladies, Moira, was considering making a purchase from my favourite online store - The Intrepid Thread.  I knew there was a sale on, and I knew they stocked Cleo, so I mentioned to Moira that if she did in fact place an order, and needed to fill an envelope, I could throw some fabric in and split the shipping.  30 minutes later, we had a full envelope and the deal was done!  Friday morning, whilst I was at work, my Mother In Law messaged me to say a package had arrived.  I had to wait ALL day to get home and rip it open!

This is my part of the full envelope we got.....

A gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Acacia in Berry.  These prints are just divine!!!  I have no idea what I'll use them for, but you can never pass up some Tula!

And four yards of Cleo.  This will make up most of the quilt backing for my Cleo quilt I've been working on.  Kind of makes sense design wise!

I've got another fabric order on its way, somewhere over the ocean.  It was another case of "fill the shipping package", and I managed it again without breaking a sweat!  Hopefully I will have that stash addition for you next Sunday!  

Do you ever share shipping with others?

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash - being hosted by Sew E.T. this week - You can too!

September Round Up......Late As Usual!

As these school holidays limp to an end (TWO MORE SLEEPS!!!), I've accepted that I've been a little lack lustre in terms of getting things done when they're supposed to be!  BUT - they do get done - eventually.  Like my September round up!

I've managed to finish a few quilty projects - World Tour Patio quilt, which was a customer order; My Artist's trading cards, which I'm still yet to do a complete blog post about, as we are still waiting for one of our recipients to receive hers; Refractatorium wall hanging quilt; Polaroid bee block for QCA Bee#5.

I also got back in to the swing of things, dressmaking wise.  Whipped up these three little frocks, and about six more not photographed!  All for customers - which makes my heart sing!

And that's all folks!  October is already shaping up to be a big one!

I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day - You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. - The Paper Pieced Edition!

You have probably noticed I am becoming a little enamoured with paper piecing?  It's yet another thing I thought I would NEVER partake in, and have somehow managed to become hooked on!  Same old story that keeps repeating itself around here.....

September's Queen Bee for our Wombat Stew group was Kristy.  She chose a garden theme, and left us to come up with some ideas if we so wished.  I immediately went to Pinterest and searched myself silly.  I came up with a few options, but settled on these gorgeous little bird houses!  You can find the pattern for them HERE.

Now, it's far from perfect!  I only realised after putting the whole thing together that the post on my small birdhouse is off centre.....but I'm just claiming it makes the birdhouse look like something my husband built!  If I'm to be completely honest - this pattern was a bit frustrating at times.  I think I'm so used to using Kristy's fabulous patterns, that this one just didn't come together as easily!

I did however have fun with fabric choices!  And managed to fussy cut a little birdy in to one of the nesting holes!

And this butterfly is just too cute!

The other project I'm posting about today, is my Cleo quilt.  It's started!  I posted last week, asking for your advice and suggestions on possible patterns I could use for this fabric range.  THANK YOU all so much for your fabulous feedback!  I have pinned many a new pattern for me to fall over, but would you believe I found the pattern I decided on by sheer accident?!?!

Yep, I just happened to see a quilt that Kristy was working on (You can see the finished quilt top HERE), and just KNEW it was what I wanted!  You know, when you just know???  Now, the plan was to make a queen size quilt, however I have re-evaluated that plan, due to the fact I would have to send it off to a quilter, and I have another plan for the quilting.  So I'm now thinking it will be a large throw size.  Maybe.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I have no idea what this will end up being!

Aren't they beautiful??  They won't be sewn together like this, aka chevron, but off-set.  They are paper pieced blocks - 8" finished size.  I've done 10 - only about 20 more to go!

I'm REALLY happy with them!

Now, down to the business of giving away a bag of scraps!  Random.org tells me it should go to.........

#1 Comment - Sue!

SueSeptember 23, 2013 at 9:13 PM

What about oversized HST 8-10" finished, swoon also comes to mind, they are big blocks and you could tie together with a plain colour like pale grey or a pink.

A Swoon quilt in Cleo would be divine!  But, I've conquered the Swoon - so had to move on!  I will be sending you off an email asap for your postal address Sue!

Thanks again to everyone for their lovely comments!  I PROMISE I read them, but as I said the other day - I'm struggling with the whole replying thing due to school holidays and kids who actually want my attention!

I'm linking up with Paper Piecing Party & T.G.I.F.F. - You can too!