Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Bitty Blocks: May

Our themes for the May Bitty Blocks were "April Showers bring May Flowers" and "60's Retro".  I wasn't around for the majority of the 60's so chose to do the first theme :)

I found this little umbrella paper piecing pattern here, and just altered a couple of the seams so that I could add a garden of flowers across the bottom.


I've also signed up for a side swap for alphabet blocks... Alphabittys!  My letter is O and I have a couple of ideas so far, but nothing on paper (or fabric) yet.

do. Good Stitches: May

The May blocks for do. Good Stitches were made using a tutorial here.  We all made them in bright colours, and here are my three blocks:




I'm not a big fan of scrappy quilts, but I really like these.  I like the white stripes and the fact that the scrappy pieces are all the same size.

The blocks are 16.5" square... so 16" finished.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Alien Invasion!


I received the last two March Bitty Blocks last week, and here they all are together!

I'm thinking I'll make a wall hanging for James' room... just adding a thin sashing and binding of Kona Coal (which is the same dark grey I used for my space ship on the 2nd row).

Although this will be down the to-do list a little bit... I feel like this month is slipping away!!  I need to finish my charity blocks and then start on my May bitty blocks before I do this one.

And just because it's Mothers' Day... here's my beautiful son!



I made him this bunny for Easter.  He loves the long skinny arms and legs... good for chewing on with all his new teeth!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

do. Good Stitches: April

A couple of months ago I registered my interest in a Flickr group called "do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}".  I was rapt when they contacted me last month to say a new circle had been set up.  Each circle contains five quilters and five stitchers (I'm a stitcher)... and each month we all make two 12.5" blocks and send them to the quilter.  Our circle will donate our quilts to My Very Own Blanket - a charity that provides quilts for children in foster care.

April is our first month, and our quilter chose a block by Don't Call Me Betsy.

Here are the blocks I made... we were asked to make monochromatic bright blocks.



Because the quilt is going to a child, I fussy cut a few novelty prints and added them in :)

Heaps of fun!  I can't wait to see what we make next month!  And I can't wait to see this quilt all finished up too!!

Bitty Blocks: April

The themes for our April Bitty Blocks were "Sweets & Treats" and "Sewing Notions".  I chose to whip up a batch of Blackforest Cakes.. yumm!

I've had family from Australia staying earlier this month and then we travelled to Thailand for 8 days, so I finished these blocks off in March and posted them off to my group members on 1 April (no joke!).


About half of them have been received so far... very slow mailing to USA, even though we now live in the northern hemisphere (just).

I still have two more of the March Alien blocks to receive, then I'll post a pic of all of those.  They're looking fantastic all together... like an alien convention right here in my living room!!

So much fun... totally addicted :)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Bitty Blocks


My bitty blocks are all done and flying across the globe to their new owners!

The bottom right one is the original sample block that I made, so I'll keep that one for myself... he's a little too wonky to send out.

I've already received three blocks from other members in my group.  They're all so darn cute, I'll have to start thinking about what to make out of them (it'll be something for James of course)!

Monday, February 28, 2011

Catching up

I've managed to get quite a bit of sewing done this week... yay!

James' play quilt is coming along.  I finished cutting out all the pieces a while back and finally started sewing them together:


Its going to be HUGE!!!  No idea how I'm going to quilt it on my little machine :(

But, I love the Odyssea fabric range, those fish are so cute.


I always had the idea in my head that making a colour book would require the words "green", "pink", "red", etc. appliqued onto each page.  After seeing a colour book made using only little squares of coloured material here, I realised it was going to be a whole lot quicker than I'd imagined.  Here are my first three completed pages:





And finally, I'm really not sure what I've gone and got myself into lol... aliens apparently!!!  Little bitty aliens!!  I've joined a Flickr group where we swap 12 blocks each month.  The blocks are only 3.5" square, and different themes are chosen each month.  This month, you could choose between aliens or teacups (or both).  I chose the alien theme as I thought the blocks would be great to make something for James later.

This is a sample block I did the other night to test how to put it all together.  Other than the stitching being a little wonky, I'm happy with it.  Now to make another 12!!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Doodle Stitching

I bought James a pack of 3 plain white onesies a few weeks ago with the intention of embroidering on them... I was getting worried that he'd grow out of them before I did it, so I finally got my butt into gear and made this one.


We often look at the birds and squirrels in the trees outside, so it was a quick pick for the pattern choice on this first one.  The templates are from this Doodle Stitching book.

I'm still deliberating over what to put on the next two onesies. In the meantime, I'll make a start on the February Birdie Stitches block.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Fabric Diet Fail

It's only Week 3 of the Fabric Diet and I kinda failed... but it was a complete win really!  My sisters came up to Singapore to visit and we HAD TO include a visit to the open-air fabric markets at Chinatown.



About 6 months ago I purchased a fat quarter bundle of the Moda Odyssea fabric, and while we were at Chinatown I found the perfect backing fabric... 4.2 metres of an Odyssea home-dec weight fabric. And it was pretty cheap. And I think its actually an out of print fabric (though I may be wrong). So I had to buy it (sorry diet).


So in my spare minutes this week, I've been cutting out 8.5" x 10.5" rectangles from some of the fat quarters (not even half way yet... cutting is so depressingly slow). I'll eventually end up with 80 rectangles to make an 80" square quilt.

Its going to be a play quilt for James to go over the floor tiles we bought him for Christmas.  At the moment I throw a whole selection of smaller quilts over them, but he still manages to scratch away at the tiles!


With the heavier backing fabric, it will also be a fantastic picnic and beach quilt.


Monday, January 10, 2011

Birdie Stitches Block of the Month


I've joined in!  Each month of 2011, there will be a new stitchery design to do.

Block 1 completed:


And these are the fabrics I've chosen... one for each of the 12 blocks (although I'll probably make some changes as the year goes by):


Not exactly sure what I'll use the finished quilt for... but its a great chance to hone my stitching skills and learn a bit more about using Flickr.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Liberty Coasters

2010 was a very busy year... moving country, setting up a new company, and having a baby.  I got a little behind on things... so in an effort to catch up towards the end of the year, I finally finished my mum's Mothers' Day present (yep... shoulda been out in May).

I made these coasters out of four different Liberty prints using this tutorial.  I then added a stitch around the coasters a 1/4" from the edge once I'd turned them out the correct way.


The fronts:


 And the backs:


So pretty!  I want to make another set at some stage using the leftover fabric from the cushions I made last year.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Lots to do this year...

I was looking through all my 2010 posts and realised I still have a lot of projects to finish:
  • monsters quilt
  • knitted toys
  • placemats
  • wheels quilt
  • ring stackers
And then there's another couple of projects I've started that haven't even made it to my blog yet:
  • hexagon quilt
  • shirred dress
And then there's the ginormous list of projects in my head that I want to do!!!!

So... I've decided to join in with the 8 week Fabric Diet and concentrate on getting my unfinished projects finished :)


Hmmm, 8 weeks is a long time...