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.

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!!

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 :)

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)!

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

James with his Santa sack

Pickledish Block Finished!

I finished off the pickledish block for my bedroom cushion last night.  Dave is horrified that we are having "patchwork" in our bedroom... he'll get over it I'm sure :)  It's so pretty:

Not entirely certain how to finish off the cushion cover... I would love to hand quilt the block using some embroidery thread in matching colours and then add some piping around it with a plain grey zippered back.

It was a fun block to make... if I make it again though, I would like to make the scrappy pieces all the same size and evenly spaced around the curve.  But that's probably just the accountant coming out in me!

More Christmas...

I saw this Santa sack a couple of weeks ago and decided to make one for James out of a Kate Spain: 12 Days of Christmas charm pack that I had.

The original only had squares on the front, but I sewed up 40 charm squares into an 8 x 5 rectangle and then joined it together into a sack.  I wasn't sure how to do the tie, but after deciding it would be ridiculous to spend $20 on two taxi fares just to get to Spotlight and back to buy a couple of metres of cord, I opted to make a cord out of some Amy Butler: Love fabric that I had. The Santa sack is fully lined with some spotty fabric.

It's a little smaller than the one I saw, but oh. so. much. cheaper!!

I love it... so bright and cheery!  And I love how its all tied together with a little bit of "Love"!!!

Christmas Decorations

Now that we have James, Christmases are gonna be fun all over again!  My plan is to make a few handmade decorations each year.

I saw this snowflake design in Doodle Stitching and thought it would work well for Christmas.  I had the red hexies left over from the hexie cushion that never got made... and backed it with some fabric from a Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas charm pack.

Feeling pretty happy that I've started Christmas and its not even December yet!

Pickledish Progress

I decided to keep my project small seeing as I don't get a lot of sewing time now.  I'm making one pickledish block into a cushion for our bedroom.

I've sewn 5 of the 8 strips so far.  The fabric is a Bliss charm pack with coal Kona solid for the background.

We have grey and white bed linen so it will add a bit of colour to the room.

Pickledish...

I came across this quiltalong today and absolutely positively have to join in... I've always loved the look of this pattern.  It's always looked too hard to make but after seeing how it's done I think I should be able to do it OK. 

But what to make??  What colour to make it??  What size to make it??  Ah, something to dream about tonight!!

Look how cute it is here with the stitching in the middle of the block:   http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk/comfortstitching/2010/09/pickledishand-a-possible-quilt-a-long.html

I'm gonna have to set up a flickr account now so I can add my photos and see all the other pickledish loveliness.

Ooh, too excited lol :)

September

Wow, another month has just flown by!  Baby James is 2 months old already.  And my sewing machine cover project is over 4 months old!!!!  It's almost finished... I'm just stitching on the binding.

And here's a pic of another project I'm working on.  My plan is to make placemats... not sure how many will get hand stitched together like this - they may all end up being different patterns :)

I went to a needleturn applique class a couple of Fridays ago with some girls from quilt group.  The second class is tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.  It's also our 5th wedding anniversary tomorrow and my birthday on Saturday... so I'm looking forward to a couple of nice dinners and a relaxing weekend!

More James

A whole month of no sewing... (except for making a green screen for my husband's office... he basically stood over me until I finished it lol).

I'm a little preoccupied...