SAH Robin reminder

Hi everyone! If you are following along with the Stay at Home Robin or would like to, I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is August (yikes!) so there will be a new instruction to follow. If you want to follow along and haven't managed to make your starter block yet, don't worry, the monthly instructions at this point are fairly small and easy, so you can still join in with no stress at all... Later down the line, they may be a litle more time consuming (like the month you'll have to quilt your piece!) but for the next few months, they are pretty small. I have added one more block to the page today, but don't forget to let me know via email or comment if you make a block - I wouldn't want to leave you out...

A little sewing

I actually did a fair bit of sewing on the weekend, but I forgot to take a photo of the quilt backing I pieced together (not very exciting anyway) to give to my longarmer friend and the other sewing I did is stuff that can't be shown yet.

Today, however, I did do a few wonky geese as a get-well giftie for one of the block lotto players. I'll mail these off once I get to the US. There was an 8th block, but I trimmed through one of the corners when I was trimming it. Sigh.

Probably won't be very much sewing over the next month, but I hope to be able to blog quilty things anyway...

A few more ATCs

I actually did these tonight while watching telly (no sewing involved) - just grabbed some stuff and went with it. I might try to do that a little more often - prepare some bases and then embellish while watching telly... I've been trading a lot on ATCs for All, which is a great ATC (and other stuff) trading forum and of course I've got my birthday ATC swap, so I always need to have some on hand...

More Stay at Home Robin Players!

I have a few more additions to make to the list of people following along with the Stay at Home Robin (hurrah!) - and don't forget, it's not too late to start - even if you don't make it in July, you can easily start later and catch up.

Here's the list of who's playing along (new folks first), with links to where they've blogged about their starting blocks...

• Narelle
  
• Barbara (hasn't blogged specifically about her starter blocks, but find her here or here)
• Gene has replaced his starter block with something different
• Rhonda has joined us

and then, there's still:

• me, of course
• Janet
• Gene
• Lisa Jo
• Plum
• Amo House
  

More Around the World Quilt Bee

Here are the other two blocks which I made for the around the world quilt bee - I didn't take photos of all the other blocks for these two, because I was in a hurry and none of the blocks for either of these was sewn together - it's just too time consuming (I needed to get them in the post today). So you'll just have to trust me that the blocks work with the themes for Flossy Blossy and Indigo Blue, respectively. And that's all of the swap, done. Soon I will show my own quilt top, which is great :) But tonight, I am going to bed.

Around the world quilt bee

Yesterday I received the last four installments of the Around the World Quilt Bee - I did blocks for three of them today - and the fourth one is mine, so I didn't have to work on that (yet - obviously it will eventually have to be quilted!). I'll show one of the blocks today - this is for Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) who has a virtual village thing going:



My block will be the first in the last row at the bottom - it's not shown in this photo. The other two blocks will follow later in the week, as will my own quilt - might as well save something for another day!

Today was an ATC sort of day

First, I finished off a set I had started the other day - three of these are going off to the July birthday girls in my Birthday ATC swap; the others have gone into the gallery on ATCs for All, which I joined back in June, but have only just started swapping with (and I've already arranged about 10 swaps in just a few days - if you want to swap ATCs, I think it might well be the place!).



Then I worked on these - they started with the top three as cards for a "Three of a Kind" (card must feature three of the same something) also on ATCs for All - one other requirement was that the cards be flat with no bulky embellishments. Well, you can imagine how hard that was for me, the Queen of Bulky Embellishments... But I persevered and came up with three cards with flat threes of a kind. However, along the way, I kept thinking of all the things I might be able to use if I didn't have to make flat cards, so I used some of the same materials and added a bit more stuff which wasn't flat to make some other cards. Voila.

These cards are also unusual in that they aren't finished on the back. They are fairly neat on the back, just a little stitching and a few fold-downs of brads and things, but I didn't want to back them because the card I used as a base fabric was punched with loads of tiny holes and I wanted the cards to still be partly see-through.

Tomorrow, it's on to the last of the Around the World Quilt Bee blocks - I got four sets of blocks in the post today (one my own! when I open it, I'll share it here, but I'm trying to get the ones I have to work on done before I look at my own) and hope to make the blocks for the three that have to move on, tomorrow.

SAH Robin update

I kept meaning to post during the week, but it's been so busy towards the end of school, that I just don't seem to be able to work up the energy... Anyway, thought I'd share an update on the stay-at-home Robin - click at the top of the page to see all the photos so far, but just in case you are curious, here's who's playing so far:

• me, of course
• Janet
• Gene
• Lisa Jo
• Plum
• Amo House
  

If you decide to make a block and play along - even if you don't start in July! - please let me know so I can add you to the virtual round robin...

Little wall quilt

Instead of doing a second Stay-at-home Robin to make a quilt for the girls' room, I decided to use a Moda charm pack which I had - the line is Cherish Nature by Deb Strain for moda and it has just the right colours in it. The whole thing was fairly random - I just did triangles & squares & rectangles without much planning. This is how Olivia arranged it on the floor, with a few minor balance adjustments. If I don't lose track of the order during sewing, this will be how it looks (more or less) sewn together, as well...

Canal House D

This time around, I decided to do the edges of the windows, doors, window frames, house top, etc by couching yarn down with a zigzag stitch - this worked well, and wasn't too labour intensive. I might well use this method again on another house. Ta da!



I did some other sewing today, as well, but as I know I have another week of no sewing during the week (working both morning and afternoon), I will save the photos for a little later in the week. I also have an update on the Stay At Home Robin - at least 3 people have shared their starter blocks with me, so I'll blog about that - and maybe a cross-stitch update, too. So, a little better than last week, which was a bit of a desert on the blog...

Fireworks!

I don't know where my brain is, as I obviously should have posted this either on the 4th of July, or on the 1st of July when it was no longer secret what the blocks for the July block lotto were going to be. But then again, if I had, I might have nothing to show for today. Though I could take a photo of my cross-stitch, which I haven't showed in a while.

It's been a busy week, and I haven't sewed much (at all), though today I did finally get a chance to start stitching the windows down on the canal house. Hopefully I will finish that tomorrow and be able to show it - and then, another week of work! Whose idea was this whole work stuff, anyway?
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Canal House D

Here's another Canal House - this one isn't finished, as I've not done any sewing, but I have at least placed the pieces onto the stabiliser so I can work out what I want to do next. I think I might try couching some yarn down to do the windows, but again, not totally sure - will have to play with it!

The water is from a piece of fabric which I got in the post yesterday, as a wrapping for this bracelet, which I bought from Michelle's etsy shop. The minute I saw the fabric I though - canal house water, for sure. The sky is supposed to be a sky at sunset (or sunrise, perhaps) - I think it works ok, though I was a little unsure about having quite so much pink in the sky!

Linus & Robin

Not some odd new crime-fighting duo, but the first block for my own Stay at Home Robin - this block is free-pieced using a technique similar to the one used for the Block Lotto in May (reed blocks - lime green on black), except that I didn't use bias strips, just cut the fabric as it came, and as I felt like it... I figured a batik & black quilt would work well, as all batiks go together anyway, and they all go with black! I am debating doing a second one at the same time as the girls have been asking me for a quilt for their wall (a small one - there are lots of quilts they could have, but none really fit the space) - that would be chocolate brown, turquoise blue & silver (or grey), which might be fun to do as well. Will have to see what I have in the way of fabric...




And here's a little quilt top for Project Linus at some point - the border fabric is actually apple green with baskets of apples on it, so you can tell it has really washed out in the photo. I think three of the four fabrics in this quilt are ones my mother has given me - possibly all four. The apple fabric I know came from when her local JoAnn's (she lives in the US) closed down and liquidated its stock. The two cat themed FQs (red and blue) just seem like something she might have passed along...

Stay at Home Robin

Ok ladies (and gents!) - the moment you have all been waiting for (ok, SOME of you have been waiting for it, I know). The start of the Stay at home Robin. This year's Robin (and yes, that implies if this works for me there will be another year...) will be a wall-hanging 16x18" (approx 40x55cm) in size, and will run for 12 months. The first 7 months will involve piecing - sometimes one piece, sometimes two and once, three - but nothing bigger than 5x15" and of course, there's no need for the pieces to actually be pieced themselves - they can be partly or completely single pieces of fabric. As you will have seen from the robins I've been posting on my blog recently, the finished quilts work best when there is a combination of pieced sections and unpieced sections - but obviously, this is your quilt, so it's up to you. The last 5 months will involve doing something else to your pieced top - up to, in the final month, binding it and putting a hanging sleeve (if desired) and label on it.

I will be making my own little quilt each month as we go along (not working ahead) so I might not have my example ready with the first of the month's instructions, but I will also be making a virtual quilt, which I WILL have ready for the post with the instructions. When you have done your month's work, either send me a photo, email me with a link to your blog or comment on my blog to say that you've done it, and I will add you to the page (tab at the top of my blog) for the robin.

And then, we can watch each other's progress and see how we are getting along - hopefully, we will have a lovely group of little quilts to show at the end.

Right then, so the first month's instructions are: start with a block which is 6" square (finished - so your block should measure 6.5" square before you sew it to anything else) (this can be pieced or plain - personally, for the first month, I recommend pieced!).



Here's my "virtual" quilt block for the starter - and just to give you an idea of the shape of the overall piece, here's what my "quilt" looks like so far




We are not putting a border on our quilts, but I have showed the border with the EQ layout, because it was hard to see what I was doing without it - and it gives an idea of how your block will fit in to the overall scheme of the quilt, which might help you with things like choice of scale, etc.

Later in July, I'll be showing my actual quilt block - once I figure out what I want to do, that is - it won't be a fabric representation of the virtual quilt, though...