Tags In

Recently I showed the tags I had made for an altered tag swap - here are some of the ones I received. The theme for this group - as you may have worked out - was black birds.

Baby Quilt no 2

Here's another of the recent baby quilts - this one for an old friend who had a little boy. Hopefully it will reach home soon!

Cross Stitch update

Not much stitching this week - probably because I usually do it while watching telly, and there hasn't been much of that while away in Italy (not least because Italian television is hard to watch - and not just because it's in Italian!).  But I think you can tell it's going to be another little sheepy...

Baby quilt, no 1

Here's one of the baby quilts I made recently. I know the recipient has received it (but I think I'm going to show the other ones anyway, I'll just be cryptic about who they are for!)...

This one was for my cousin (first cousin once removed, actually), who had a baby girl.

Cotton Robin - the quilting

...and finally, the piece that came to me for quilting. Fairly straightforward, you'd think, but it took me ages to work out how to quilt it. And I didn't take many closeups, so I'm not sure you can see it anyway!  But it worked in the end...

Cotton Robin - second round

This one was a bit more of a challenge for me as the centre block I received (below) was rectangular (though the starting centre was square), so I had to think if I wanted to square it off or not, and if so, how to manage that.  In the end, I went for making it squarer (but not completely square). I think it looks nice!

And here's what it looks like at the end...

Cotton Robin - First round

So, in keeping with the Cotton Robin post the other day, here's some more Cotton Robin work - this is what I did with the centre block which I received (below) - I decided to make it a little asymmetric...

And here's how the finished quilt looked, once it had another round added and was quilted:

More altered tags

These are the tags for the other group I was in, in the recent tag swap in which I took part. Themes here were coffee (above), vintage chocolate ads (below),

cats (above), oriental (below)

and finally, a hostess gift to the theme of inspirational quotes.

As I think I said before, I'm not going to get heavily into collecting tags, but it's a nice departure from time to time and certainly lets you use some of the slightly bigger embellishments you end up collecting, which are a little on the large size for ATCs...

Cotton Robin - my own piece

I took part again this year in Julie's Cotton Robin, which is a round robin - four rounds. Each person makes a centre block and sends it to Julie, who sends them out (anonymously) for others to work on, pass to the next person, and so on.  Each centre block gets two subsequent additions and then is quilted, which means we all work on four stages - centre (our own), round 1, round 2 and quilting & binding.  I always enjoy this round robin and have quite a nice selection of quilts from it. This is this year's, where we were challenged to do something monochromatic/and/or out of our comfort zone colour wise.  So I decided to go for something low value and monochromatic (ish). Which I find hard.  Great quilt, isn't it!  Here's how it started:

and some close up details of the quilting:

Three Little Words Cross Stitch pieces

You may have seen these in process, but look!  they are now in frames, and have even been given as gifts to people, rather than sitting in a basket somewhere waiting for me to do something with them...

Another Little Quilt Swap - Round 9 Finished

Another round of my little quilt swap is finished, so I can show both what I put into the swap this year (below - this is actually an older piece, which fit the size requirements) and what I received (above, made by Mary J, who has no blog, so I can't link to other examples of her lovely work).

If you want to see the full Grand Reveal - all the quilts made and where they went to live - you can find it on the ALQS blog...

Scrap update

After all that recent work with Hawaiian blocks and adding binding to a bajillion baby quilts (ok, five), does the scrap situation need some attention? Well, the basket's in pretty good shape, but the strip bag is getting very full.... Guess I know what's going to need looking at when I get back from holiday!

Hawaiian Squares

Some real progress being made with this quilt - I've now sewn all the smaller units into the larger (12", I think) blocks - next step is to get those blocks into a top, but that may take some time - it's not high on my priority list as I probably won't be able to buy backing for the quilt until January anyway...

More baby quilts quilted

I know, right?  That's five quilted in like 2 weeks. Now I just need to put some binding on these and stitch it down (along with the other two which already have it attached). And then mail them off to their new homes!

Altered Tags

A bit of a departure from my usual ATCs - these tags are a little larger, about 3 inches across and 6 inches high (approx). I don't normally join tag swaps, but someone I know was in one where they didn't have quite enough players and talked me into it. It was actually fun as I got to use a few embellishments which are a little too large for ATCs... This was a PAT (Pick a theme) swap, so the players decided what theme they wanted - the category for these was Famous People. Above, the requested theme was Young Queen Victoria, with wings.

This one was a Harry Potter theme, as you may have guessed. 

And this one was Roaring 20s flappers.   I joined another group as well, so you'll see those next week!

Block Set Update

Current block sets in house - a couple of them gone, made into tops (or top centres) and some new ones added - the crumb blocks aren't technically an addition as they've just changed, I guess... But the Hawaiian ones are new to the collection. 

Cross Stitch Update

Nearly finished now - just another night or two to go.

Crumb Four Patches

A while back I showed these blocks in an earlier state - 3" crumb/scrap squares, made to empty out the scrap basket. I've now turned them into 4 patches, with some plain (or TOT) fabric making up 2 of the blocks, to tone them down a little. Not totally sure what I'll do next with them, but it's a start.

Irish Chain baby quilt

Here's the first of the baby quilts - all the other people I am making/planning to make for are on facebook, so I won't show those pieces until I know they are safely with their new owners. This one is safe, though, as the person it's for doesn't use FB, so she can't find out it's for her!  Very simple quilting - just went diagonally across the squares in both directions. Perfect.

Baby quilt season

Very productive today - I quilted and put the binding on not one, not even two, but THREE baby quilts for upcoming occasions (or in one case, one which is slightly past, but only by a week or two).  Now to get the binding stitched down, so the quilts are finished completely...  And actually, if I get my act together, there are a couple more to be done!

One of these I'll share in more detail very soon - the others are for people who regularly use FB, so I might wait until they get them to post photos.

Blue Log Cabins

Another set of blocks assembled into a top (or rather the centre of one; it will no doubt get a border, in the fullness of time). 

ATC Friday

Another recent ATC swap I entered had the theme of fish (as you may have guessed); these are the cards I sent in for the swap...

ALQS 9

Many readers here will know I run a little quilt swap once a year or so. The current round has now finished and all quilts are home safely with their new owners (none lost or severely delayed this year - woo hoo!).  Above is the piece I put into the swap; if you want to see what everyone else made and received, The Grand Reveal is now up on the swap blog...

Cross Stitch Update

Got a new little Three Words in the post, so of course I had to start it (can't believe I'm doing a monthly program I'm actually keeping up with - what's got into me?).  Won't take long to get through it - that's the joy of these little pieces!

Scrappy Log Cabins together

Another block set assembled to a top - or at least the centre of a top. It now joins the pile of tops waiting for borders...