Some finished ATCs

More round robins - these three are all ones which I started, and then two other people worked on. 

Blue strips

As part of the January colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I decided to see if I had enough blue strips in my strip bag to make an entirely blue strip quilt - not surprisingly, I did. (What is it about blue, anyway?)  Now all it needs is a border, and it can join the pile of charity tops awaiting a kind soul to quilt and finish...

Cross stitch update

Here's my alternate piece from the snow scene I was working on last week. This one is small, and is almost finished (you can see it stitched up here, though her blue thread is lighter and more variegated than mine - I think she used Belle Soie threads, whereas I used the Crescent Colours options, as I have some of those already).  As you can see, almost finished - a little bit of blue left, then just the red touches and a white border. I'll leave it, though, and go back to the other piece for a week.  And then, only a little stitching to finish this off; I'll probably do the next installment of the pink bird piece next.

Free to a good home...or several

no 1: Green and Purple Log Cabin, approx 45" square

As anyone who reads here regularly knows, I make a lot of quilt tops, which I give away to charity, mostly Project Linus. But I don't really want to quilt them first because I'm lazy busy and what really relaxes me is piecing, not quilting so much. The quilting I save for gifts for friends, etc.

Anyway, the main person I regularly send tops to has a bit of a backlog at the moment (not even counting the 7 or 8 tops I have waiting at home for her - not these pictured here!), so I decided it was time to give some of the other tops away elsewhere.  And that's here.

Here are the "rules" of this giveaway.  Anyone, anywhere in the world, may leave a comment asking for one of the tops as long as you intend to use it for charitable purposes.  I don't really mind what charity or how you intend to use it (i.e. quilt it up and give it to a hospital, hospice, nursing home, disaster recovery centre, shelter, whatever; quilt it up and raffle it off for a school, scouts, organisation; sell or raffle the top itself; and so on) - as long as the top is being used for a good cause of some sort - any sort - I don't mind.

I will post the tops out anywhere in the world; you do not need to reimburse me for postage (though if you want to, that's ok, too).  However, it's possible that if more than one person wants a certain top, I may favour UK residents or those who want to make a postage contribution (just depends on who wants these, and where they are). 

So, if you are interested in one (or more) of the tops for your cause, leave a comment, and in a few weeks' time, I'll sort out some recipients, as fairly as I can.  Please feel free to let anyone who you think might be interested, know about this giveaway (and I'll certainly do more of them through the year - though probably only one or two a month, not 8 - I've been accumulating for a while!) 

I've numbered the quilts and put a size (all sizes in inches and  approx - I was measuring quickly on the floor and didn't feel like crawling around all afternoon) and description, for convenience...  Oh, and if you do get a top and finish it off, I'd love to see a photo (though it's not a requirement!)

no 2 - Strippy scrap quilt with polka dot border, approx 43x55"

no 3 - Neutral Background with strips I - approx 36x44

no 4 - Neutral Background with strips II - approx 36x44

no 5 - Crumbs in a square, approx 42" square

no 6 - string log cabin with oriental border, approx 44x52"

no 7 - string log cabins with broccoli border, approx 44" square

no 8 - baby blue rectangles - approx 30x33"

Quilting with Broccoli?

Here's another little quilt, bordered and ready to go to a charitable home - and no, the print in the border fabric isn't trees...

More blue stuff

Here's another blue thing I made this month (technically, this is a photo of the blocks, but I have since sewn them together, just haven't taken a photo yet) to use up blue scraps in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. These pieces weren't strictly scraps, as they were from my box of small blue pieces, but none of them were large (except the lighter one, which is the same throughout).  I used to have 2 storage boxes of blue fabric (I use CD storage boxes from Ikea for all my different small pieces of fabric, organised by (mostly) colour) - one for darker and one for lighter and aqua fabric - it's now down to 1 box. It's crammed full, but it's all in one box.  We're getting there! (I'm not trying to get rid of all my stash, just trying to make it more sensible and manageable.)

Bordered blue

The little blue scrap quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge now has a border. The border isn't strictly blue, but I think it works well, and you'll notice that I even took the time to mitre the borders as I thought it would work well with this print. The black gaps in the shirt fabric make it look like there are even more rows of border, which is fun.  One to stick in the drawer to (eventually) go to Project Linus.   I have a lot of surplus tops waiting to go to good charitable homes - be on the lookout later in the week for a post giving some of them away!

Altered Nines

The latest in a series of altered playing cards with a butterfly theme (which reminds me, it's about time to make the 8s to send off) - in the end, there will be an entire deck of altered cards with butterflies on them... Fun!

Tumblers

After playing successfully with tumblers earlier this year, I decided to do a scrappy quilt using them as well. No rules except no two same ones next to one another, at least in the original rows.  I actually have about 5 more rows I made, but I decided this was big enough. Not sure whether I will make more to go with the 5 rows I have or do something else with them!

Cross Stitch Update

Progress is being made on this one, as you can see. Not a huge amount, as I was out a couple of nights and didn't really stitch much, but some. I'm starting another project as well for this week, as I like to have two (or more!) on the go, and switch between them...

More borders...

Still working my way through a few more scrappy quilts which I want to border, adding the borders as I do other sewing. Here's another one I bordered this weekend. The print is a Lonni Rossi vegetable print - this one has broccoli on it (looks like trees from a distance, I know!)

Spread some joy swap

These cards were for a special swap I am taking part in (haven't received my returns yet) - someone in the group works with adults with intellectual disabilities, teaching art, and some of the cards I will receive back will be from this class, while some will be from other players.  A fun idea, to spread the trade of ATCs to the wider community...

Two scrappy tops

Had a chance finally to put together all those blocks from the scraps, which I showed a while back. There are two tops, same size, though slightly different both due to scrap fabrics and placement of the neutral strips, which I didn't control, particularly. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

January's colour is blue, so I've decided to make a small piece in various blues. Soon, I will border this, I think with some of the Hawaiian shirt print I've used as a border before - it's got a black background (not blue) but will work well, I think.  Perhaps tomorrow!

Some more finished round robin cards

This one (which unfortunately arrived with a broken button, which I will try to find a match for in my stash) is really good fun - the card started with just the background and pocket, which are both paper. I added the metal charm on a ribbon and the third player added the buttons.

Here's another card progression - the background arrived to me - a torn edged piece of paper printed with sheet music, mounted on a black card. 

I added some birds, punched out of music, to go with the theme. And I like birds.

And here it is, finished off!

This one, I'll deconstruct - above is the finished item. 

Here's what it looked like when I finished

And here's how it was when I received it - definitely fun to watch them change...

Baby Quilt!

This has been quilted for some time, and the binding even attached, but I've been procrastinating stitching the binding down because the baby wasn't due for ages (mid January). Except that it's not ages any more, it's actually mid-January now, so I took the time tonight to get that binding sorted so the quilt is ready to go once the balloons go on the door (or I find out in some other way the baby has been born - it's common around here to put either pink or blue balloons up on your door once your baby is born - lets the neighbours know without everyone bugging you constantly, I guess!)

Cross stitch update

Added another section to the pink birds this week - only two more to go (one of which, I have the chart for - the other, I haven't received yet).  Can't believe this is nearly done (though I still have all the buttons to add - I haven't done them as I've gone along as I worried it would make it hard to put the frame on where I wanted it if there were buttons everywhere...

And started something new, as the pink installment was finished.   Not made a lot of progress yet, but this is what it will look like in the fullness of time:

Artist's Choice

A swap with no set theme, so I just went for stuff I like (read: stuff I have easily to hand) - book pages, tissue paper, transparencies (acetate), brads, gems, sayings, little flowers. And there you have it!

After and before...

These three cards are all finished cards from starters I sent out - which means that two people other than me have worked on them.  Here's what I sent: 

Again, the finished card above, and what I sent, below:

And one more (actually, I have pictures of lots more, but I'm trying not to show TOO many at one time - and trying to show some sewing as well, when I get a chance to do any, that is...)

And more fabric in...

This time, a gift from a friend (thanks, Sew Kalico!). I'm not sure what I will do with these lovely shibori pieces, but I will do something with them - and not just stick them on a shelf somewhere...

Fabric in...

Well, it's that time of year again - Farnham Maltings Quilt Show and Fabric Sale. Often I head down with a list of quilt tops which need backs, but this year, I don't have as many large tops hanging around with no allocated backing fabric - and the few I do have have a lot of batik and hand-dyed fabrics in them, so finding a matching back is a little harder. 

So I went with a different main goal - to pick up a metre or two of inexpensive fabrics which would make good borders or feature fabrics to use with a lot of the scrap quilts I make for charity (and myself in some cases).  I don't mind using the better part of a metre of fabric on a charity quilt border, if that fabric has only cost £3/metre...  The fabrics above are a case in point, although they were actually £4/metre. And the Beatles fabric, I will be keeping for myself rather than using in a charity quilt (probably). 

The designer prints at the front, I'm not sure what I'll do with, but the birdhouses will make a good border, for sure.

These ones were all £3/metre, and will suit a variety of scrap quilts, either in the border or as larger, plainer blocks along with scrappy blocks - the ones below were also £3/metre (though I bought 2 metres each of them as they seemed very useful). 

These ones were a little more - £5 or £6/metre, but I have them in mind for baby quilt fabrics in future, and the white on white is just something I use a lot of (and even at £6/metre these are probably not much more than half price). 

This peacock feather fabric was £3/metre, so I bought 5 metres for backing - I did get one quilt on my list backed, at least!  That is, if the fabric is suitable for the quilt I have in mind...

And finally, a couple of real bargains - pretty sure these were both £2/metre - I know the Hawaiian one was- the ice cream might have been £3 - either way - excellent for bordering those scrappy pieces!