Alena's Quilt - underway

Finally I might have gotten my mathematics right to form the stars. I still managed to muck it up by miscalculating the triangle size for the sawtooth triangles of the star. So I have lots of triangles cut for flying geese blocks for the charity quilt

I took the plunge and just decided that I would machine quilt the entire quilt. Maybe a little too adventurous but I will definitely have honed my free motion quilting skills by the end of it.

Last night I practiced drawing feather patterning for the large triangle surrounding the star just to get an idea of where I should turn and how much curve and generally what looks good.

I dont spend a lot of time deliberating whether I should do something straight off or actually practice it. In for a penny in for a pound,,,feet first.. If I stuff it up I'll just have to make another

So I had some trouble with the first feather looping and found that by changing my needle and re threading the machine solved that problem as I didn't think that I was going to slow with my machine.

The second half of the triangle looks better from behind but I had a couple of sections where my curves did not flow easily.

It certainly is challenging planning ahead where your machine is going and being able to visualise your work. Ideally I should have also done this section in pieces but I don't want a lot of seams showing in the star,

I LOVE The COLOUR!

I laid the pieces outside on the ground to get an idea of overall effect when joined in a strip.

And I couldn't resist photographing this flower at mum's house hanging through the fence from one of her succulent plants. Its beautiful isn't it

I have a lot of projects happening at the moment!

And for anyone interested in giveaway visit Stitch by Stitch for a birthday giveaway here

Big Ball Yarn

The trouble with buying odd ball of yarn is you never know how far they are going to go and if you are going to have enough to finish the job. I am about half to 2/3rd of my way through my thrifted big ball of yarn and have no idea how much of a pillow "poof" I am going to be able to make, currently I have a yarn bowl shaped. Luckily my friend Kirstie  has the exact same yarn that she started to make a rug with and had entirely given up on, so is willing to send it my way so that I can complete the job.
Must say that it is a quick whip up with such thick yarn and providing I get the extra yarn will be finished in no time.

Trebles for the base circle 11 rows
Half trebles for the sides

Charity Quilt under way

The Charity quilt is well under way just with what I have been working on today. I have now used up every scrap of wadding that I had stashed away - not a skerrick went to waste. Although the intention of this quilt was to gather together all the left over blocks that we had in our stash I couldn't resist making a few brighter blocks just make sure that there is a pop of colour. The whiter blocks have been free motioned to death to give a little oomph. I haven't pieced it together as I want to spread out the patterned blocks evenly throughout the quilt. Anyway that's my effort so far

Practising pebble free motion quilting

And a super larger ball of yarn I bought from a thrift shop - bargain $2 - thought I would see how far it would go to making a pillow poof!

Free Motion Quilting - 1st attempt

Yesterday I vainly attempted to draft up a sawtooth star for the lotus flower block that would as a block measure 10 inches as a free standing block. When I printed my lotus flower block I unwittingly cut the block to a 6  1/4 inch block which makes calculating triangles of odd dimensions really difficult. As a result I have ended up with a few odd blocks that I decided to try free motion quilting on.

I've intently watched a few of Leah Days FMQ reels and decided to give it a whirl.

The back of my first block is not worth looking at, as my tension looks really skitty but I am not terribly upset with my first attempt from the front. (lotus flower)

After my first attempt i had to run off and pick up children from school and I probably would have left it there until I have attend a class of FMQ I have enrolled myself in (which will occur in May - ages away)

Today I went to craft and each week they have a speaker give their "God Speak"..sometimes anecdotal, or doctrinal. Today a support/ care minister based at the local school whom provides breakfast for the children and drop in centre for adults. She described a group she holds for women, many from refugee status, whom arrive with nothing  and are able to seek support from this community.

Recently I have been following the blog Little Island Quilting where she is collecting remnant blocks to form quilts for the less fortunate of the world. Her effort and the story from the speaker today inspired me to start a quilt from remnants for this particular group.  I elicited the help from my fellow quilters at craft to make up pre quilted 10 inch blocks which I will sew together and forward on to community  speaker of today.

Hence...I'm back having another go at FMQ and despite the back looking pretty dodgy, quilt number one is under way! I'm getting the hang of curves and trying different patterns and am generally enjoying the process of playing with my machine.
i can see myself becoming addicted to this process and am happy to forward on the results to someone whom might need a boost in colour and a little winter warmth.

I'll show what the quilt looks like when I recieve some blocks from my enthusiastic friends

Printed Stuff

A start on the lotus flower quilt ..10 inch blocks.. a super large central star, not yet totally pieced together as I will be strip quilting it but you get the picture.

After all that leaf stamping I decided I needed to turn over a new leaf..literally.  The little stamp is a pill to hold and I still haven't bought glue to fix a stamping handle/block to it to make my life easier so I decided to make a larger leaf type stamp. Goes well with Kim's Flower I think.

A my op shopped treat. I am not sure whether it is a pencilled drawing or print but I love its' leafy green all the same. Pity the lovely gold frame is falling apart. Probably that's why it was a bargain at $5

Hand Printed - Kim's Flower

 Made a new stamp for my internet buddy and new friend Kim.  It kind of reminds me of a hibiscus flower and has a little bit of a Hawaiian feel when printed in blue. I actually didn't know what I was going to print for Kim, I thought a couple of panelled strips and a larger piece of fabric might be able to be utilised together in some project she dreams up. Check out her lovely quilt in progress at Sarah Lizzies

Also completed a new panel for the Lotus Flower Quilt. New one below , followed by original where I dropped my stamp right in the middle of the quilt

Hand Printed - Sunshine Lotus Flower Quilt

In preparation for my nieces 21st I've started to print up panels of lotus flower in yellows and grey  for her quilt.
Might redo the center panel as I dropped the leaf print onto the lotus flower and had to over print the flower.. one mistake and you need to start again. I did prepare to print two panels by cutting out two 21 inch square pieces of cotton right from the start but the printing will have to wait for another day as I do have to get ready for work.

The large panel and these two strips will form the large center star.
The individual lotus flower panels will be cut for the center of the smaller stars.

A rough sketch of what the quilt might look like. i'm not sure what will be in the two upper triangles of the yellow square..perhaps more printed pieces. Anyway it is a start. maybe I will get this quilt done before her birthday and not a year later like my nephews.

Golden Thistles

Middleton

A lovely day at the beach. Jordy and friend are supposed to be participating in activities week with school but have decided to boycott it stating that there is nothing they wish to do. Hmmm..anyway they seem to have gotten away with it and have arranged their own activities for the week.
Today was surfing and personally I have no objection to pursing such healthy activity. Whilst they were surfing I strolled the beach and do what I always do..beachcombe.
The above wreath is a collection of ropes found on the beach and oddments of shells and dried sea plants.
I also took lots of photos.

The sand ripples and mimics the waves

Drying seaweed

Dont the crabs camouflage themselves well. These two are dried but blend in so well with the sand.

Newly washed up seaurchins

This little chappy wasnt very happy to see me and made a merry song and dance to try to deter me from entering his territory

I was trying to capture the silver flecks in the sand. Its kind of eerie

The girls heading off for a paddle