Tree Skirt!

And now that the tree skirt has been (successfully) gifted, I can show it in all it's glory. Or whatever. I'm looking forward to seeing it under the tree for which it was intended...

(floral fabric here is the bedspread showing through from underneath)

Trunk Show Tuesday

Another one where I think I'll show the whole page from my old quilt album - these were two small quilts made on commission; they were the inverse of one another - blue with yellow and yellow with blue (which is which, you may ask).  Quite sweet, really. 

More goodies in

...but this time, I didn't buy any of them. This is the contents of a box of fabric that my friend Sharon sent me, from her destashing - these are prints which might be particularly useful for all the Linus quilt tops I make. I'm always happy to have free fabric...

Quilt spotting!

On my recent trip to St Mary's College with my friends, I stayed in the alumni lodge, and was pleased to see quilts on the beds. The one on my bed was less interesting, so I didn't photograph it, but these were sweet. The other twin bed in the room with twin beds matched this one. 

ATC Friday

No more swap cards to show at the moment, so I'm back to the round robins (which is mostly what I do at the moment).  These came to me quite full already, so I just added a little doodling around the edges. 

These Easter cards (which came to me well after Easter) had plenty of space for something, so I added a nice colourful flower.

Cotton Robin - the Quilting

And finally, here is the quilt which I received to quilt in the Cotton Robin round robin this year.  The original centre block was just the turtle; several people worked on the piece to add the borders. When it came to me, it was like this (but not quilt or bound). 

I choes this fabric for the back, a nice sea-ish batik, and bound it with blue and brown. 

The quilting has some little seashells, 

fish

and waves in it, as appropriate. 

This was fun to work on.  And I think the finished quilt is very effective.

Goodies!

No trip to the US would be complete without a visit to Michael's and/or A C Moore in order to pick up bits and pieces, so of course, we made sure to do that. I think I was very restrained (and most of that washi tape was on sale for $1 a roll!)

Trunk Show Tuesday

Thought I'd show the whole page on this one as I like the snippets of fabrics. I think this was another quilt that came from a fat quarter pack or range, but I could be wrong. This one is still in Sarah's room, so I'm better able to show a good photo of it, take in the sun recently:

Cotton Robin - Second Round Addition

Carrying on with my work on this year's Cotton Robin round robin - here's the piece to which I added a second round. Above is the piece after I've worked on it; below is what it looked like when it arrived with me. 

This one (above) is a close-up of the bits I added.  And below is what the original block looked like before anyone added to it. 

Here's the finished quilt - Personally, I think I'd hang it up the other orientation, but perhaps that's just me.

Cotton Robin - first round addition

Continuing sharing my work in this year's Cotton Robin round robin swap, here is the first round which I added. I received the centre block below, and added the neutral and white squares to make the above. 

 The quilt then went one to someone else for another border, and to another person for quilting.  Here's how it ended up:

Cotton Robin - starter block (my quilt!)

I took part once again this year in a great Round Robin quilt swap (The Cotton Robin) organised by Julie. As the swap is completed, I can now show the work that I did. First, the quilt which I received at the end - this was the quilt that was built up around my centre block, shown below.

The finished piece is great, don't you think?  Here's some detail work:

Pick-a-theme ATC Friday, part 2

Last Friday, I showed the ATCs for one group in the swap I was taking part in; here's the other group. These weren't Altered Playing Cards, like the other group, just regular ATCs. Themes here were Wonderwoman; French General Style; Fairytales; Poppies.   When I get my cards back from this swap, I'll try to remember to show them!

Waiting for binding

Here it is, waiting for me to stitch the binding down. Maybe I'll finish before I go to the US. Maybe not....

Trunk Show Tuesday

This is another old piece, made from a FQ pack, mostly - I used to belong, back in the days before I had a decent stash, to one of those clubs where you get a pack every month or so.

 I've always liked it, but the quilting was very poor as it was an early effort, so a few years ago, I ripped out the old quilting (it's a small piece) and requilted it.

I like the quilting a lot better now, but I haven't put it up on show because I stuck some binding on it and then promptly put it away "to finish off later".  We know when "later" is,  don't we. 

Yep, here it is. Maybe I'll finish it off this year...  Of course, at the moment, I need to stitch the binding down on the Christmas Tree Skirt, so it's not going to happen straight away...

I hate continuous bias binding

I do, it's true. I would a million, billion times rather make French Fold binding. But with a tight circle to go around in the middle of this tree skirt, it wasn't an option.  I think I spent longer making the dang binding than stitching it to the edge of the quilt. Never again. I will find another way. Like 12 inches of bias binding attached to the rest, French Fold.

Scary moment

So, I got the Christmas Tree Skirt back from the longarmer, and it looks lovely (better photo of it later, once it's been gifted), but of course, being a tree skirt, it needed a hole in it so it could go around the tree. How scary is it to cut right down the middle of a beautifully quilted quilt?  Very, let me tell you.  Now, on to the binding!

Pick-a-theme ATC Friday, part 1

I recently signed up to a pick-a-theme ATC swap - this is one where there are 5 players in a group and each one specifies what theme they'd like on their cards, so you make one card to each theme. As opposed to a general swap, where the theme might be birds and you just make 3 (or whatever) bird cards. This swap, I actually signed up to two groups, which means 8 cards. I thought I might have extra time as it's summer. Ha. Anyway, this group wanted Altered Playing Cards, and they specified which number and suit. The themes were mermaids or sirens; faeries with dragons; angels; used postage stamp with an inspirational quote.

Trunk Show Tuesday

Another oldie - this one was made for my friend Cathi, who lives in Ireland. It's a Catherine's Wheel variation, which makes sense, given her name. The photos are pretty awful, but perhaps I'll tag her when it posts to FB and see if she's still got it around to post a better photo!

Again, it's very basic stitching on it, just quilt in the ditch around the blocks - these were early days for me...

MIsssed Opportunities!

Found this on an unexpected road in Hunstanton, but unfortunately, it was Sunday evening, so it was shut.  Not that I NEEDED to visit a quilt shop, of course, but it's the principle...

ATC Friday

Not much to show this week, so it's a good thing I have my Tuesday trunk show, Cross Stitch Update and my Friday ATCs ..  And speaking of those, here are three cards which are all round robins - I was the second player on all of these, so you can see all three stages.