Log Cabin Star

So, here's the quilt I took to the longarmer the other day - yes, I know it was only a few days ago, but that's the advantage to living down the road from your longarmer - when she's ready to do your quilt she rings and says bring it over... Needless to say, the quilt is more square than it appears hanging on the washing line, which I hadn't propper up with a pole, being basically a lazy person - but trust me, it's square (72") and once I bind it I will take a better photo. What do you think - purple or green to bind, or should I do multicolour?

A closeup of the quilting pattern as well, which I really like. This one is going to get bound very soon, as I want to put it on my bed for the summer!

Nothing else to show today as I got nothing at all of interest in the post (AA renewal documents, junk mail, catalogue) and spent a lot of the day at school brainstorming for the summer fair - the hour or two I had at home, I just didn't feel like working on anything. Perhaps tomorrow... The only problem with nice weather is you hate to be indoors, even doing something you enjoy.

Thursday things

Some nice things in the post today - first, an African block from Karol-Ann - a liberated star, or whatever it may officially be called. Also, a beaded pen. And from Ati, a red & gold postcard for the colour challenge on Textile Challenges - my colours (two random colours drawn for each participant) were purple and plum - not going to be a high contrast card, I feel... Anyway, Ati is ahead of me - I haven't made mine yet...

...but I did make these today - these are my "Q is for" postcards - and in this case, Q is for both quote, which this is, and "quietude" which is the subject of the quote and whichi s a word I've been fond of since first encountering it in the mentioned novel. Which was a long time ago, back when I had lots of spare time for reading.




I also finished off the binding and label for the Miniature Booty Swap Quilt, which I am not going to show you until it reaches its new home in the US - hopefully that won't take too long!

Booty call!

Lookie what I got! This is my mini quilt from the Miniature Booty Swap - isn't it fabulous? It was made by Ann, and I just love it. In honour of this little lovely, which I decided had to be hung on the wall in my sewing room, I have cleared off my pinboard today...

So that I could hang the little quilt above it. I noticed when I took this picture that I had hung the quilt sideways, so it's now hung the other way - like in the photo at the top of the blog entry. I know it's a bit cluttered, but it's not a big room... And you can actually see some of the cork in the pinboard for a change - not that that will last for long, of course!

Here's some more stuff which came in the post - a brown postcard for the beautiful brown swap from Leah, and the selection of goodies which Ann enclosed with her mini-quilt.

And finally, what else I did today besides tidy my wall - I made a postcard for a challenge on Arts in the Mail - the challenge was to use 200 items on the front on the card. And so, I have - there are 50 pieces of fabric - 10 thin rectangles, 20 triangles and 20 squares. There are 20 lines of stitching. Then, there are 10 buttons, 56 sequins (10 pink, 10 flower, 13 gold stars, 10 leaves, 13 misc small sequins), 20 jewels and 44 beads. Whew. Much glue was used in the construction of this baby.

I also did a little mono-printing as part of the May challenge for Textile Challenges - I intend to use the fabric as backgrounds for stuff - probably my journal quilt later this week, for one thing, and then, I think some more ATC backgrounds.

Lots of different stuff

Well, I finished quilting my Miniature Booty Swap Quilt - I can't show it here, because my partner is lurking out there, but I have put a little sneak peek up - ignore the gold flecked fabric, that's just masking the bits I don't want you to see. And that's all the tease you get - the quilt will go in the post later this week - I haven't finished attaching the binding yet, but as the quilt is really small it won't take long.

And here's the Spring Fling Round Robin with the vines sewn down and the pins out - it's parcelled up now to go on its way to the next person, who will quilt it and send it on the final recipient.

And I got lots of fun things today - three things in the post - the first are these little white quilties from the white quiltie swap which Lenna organised. My quilties are from Fiona, Susanne, Dawn and Val. Aren't they wonderful?

And these two birthday blocks came as well - on the left, one from Joy and on the right one from Patty. Patty's is a 9 inch block (I think) which is great - now I have several which aren't 12". Soon, I'll get all the ones I have received to date out and photograph them together - should be fun.

And finally, fabric! My friend Lana, who is moving to India for a couple of years later this summer is having a little stash clear-out before she goes - being a good friend, she gave me first dibs -

I got these three pieces to use for backings on small things; the coordinating pieces on the right will go to make a baby quilt of some sort, with a few plainer fabrics thrown in; and the fabric below was just because. When you are getting a bargain, you don't need a reason, right?

Bank holiday sewing day

Well, for once the weather forecast was wrong about the bank holiday weather and it was actually warm and sunny rather than the warm and rainy which had been predicted. However, I still stayed in for most of the morning and sewed - why let an opportunity go to waste? And then, I spent several hours in the afternoon in the sun doing some hand-sewing, which was lovely as well.


I started out with my current round of the Spring Fling Round Robin, which I knew wanted some vines or flowers appliqued to it. Even though that's not my favourite method, I was being a good girl and listening to what the quilt wanted, so here it is, with lots of pins still in, but with some vines and leaves attached all about, in a pink background. (Placement of the leaves is approximate and subject to change as I go on.) The person who worked on it second passed on the brown stripe from the narrow inner border to me, and although I included a small bit of it, I thought it really wanted to be the binding, so I have left most of it for the next person to use as binding. Consequetly, I have raided my scrap basket for a variety of scraps in the right sorts of colours, and I think it works. As I type this, all the green vine is actually sewed down (all that stitching in the sun), as are all the green leaves - the other colours I shall make a start on this evening in front of whatever telly is being watched.


Also this morning, I made 5 ATCs with a garden theme - two are to swap with Susan, who offered to swap on a garden theme, the others are for the general ATC swap I am offering (see previous post).



And finally, I wrapped up the day with some work on my two complex cloth pieces - I decided to use paintsticks on both of them - the first one, I didn't want anything too dominating, so I have used a pearl white paintstick all over with a flower texture plate underneath - the flowers are heavier in some places than others and I have let the edges of the plate show in places as well. I think it works ok - another day or so drying and it will be ready to heat set and send on.


And the other piece, which was a sort of parfait to start out with, only a bit washed out, I thought I'd carry on the parfait style by emphasising the colours that were already there - what I've done here is use the paintsticks with my fingers - rubbing the paint onto a finger, then rubbing onto the fabric in an area of similar colour, again with a texture plate underneath. I've left some parts virtually untouched and filled other parts in more heavily than on the original cloth, but I'm really pleased with this effect (in fact, I think I may do some other pieces like this, just for fun - someday). Again, it needs to dry thoroughly and be ironed, but it will be ready to move on before too long.

ATCs to swap! (updated)

Just to say, there are three ATCs left for trade: the two red vintage ladies and one of the blue cards with a flower; the others have been spoken for. Thanks for your interest, everyone!



Over the past few weeks, I've been making ATCs for various things, and making some extras as well, with the intention of offering them up for swap - and here they are. There are 9, but one of them is promised to Domito - she has first choice. But if you would like to trade an ATC with me (these are 2.5"x3.5"), leave me a comment letting me know which two or three you like best and I'll try to match up swappers to their preferences (I can't promise you'll get your first choice, it just depends on what other people want) - only one ATC per swapper at the moment, as there are only 9! First come first serve, as this is the first time I've offered an ATC swap - and if you'd like to trade but get here too late, I'll save your name for next time.

If you leave a comment about swapping, please make sure I can either respond to your comment (i.e. it's not set to "no reply") or that I have your email address from something else, or that you email me separately at katelnorth at yahoo dot com.

Looking forward to swapping with you!

Rail fence giveaway

Believe it or not, I am finally getting towards the end of my huge pile of giveaway stuff - though given the popularity of the cross-stitch pattern I gave away a few weeks ago, I will dig a couple more of those out and offer them up before I've done.

Anyway, here's one of the remaining projects - this was going to be a rail fence quilt for one of Sarah's teachers (about 4 years ago) who was having a baby, but she was so ill she actually had to leave way before expected and we ended up not making the quilt (Sarah was helping make it) - we had planned to finish it anyway, but she lost interest, and frankly, I've lost interest, too. But it would make a nice Project Linus quilt or something. There are 36 blocks, and they are partially assembled. If you are interested, please leave a comment here before Sunday.

A purchase, a finish, a winner

I didn't do any work today as we went out to a local May fair - one we've been to several times before, although I don't think it was as good this year as it used to be - a lot of the so-called craft stalls weren't really crafts at all, which I find kind of annoying - and the food is very overpriced. Still, it was fairly fun - being tired out with a cold doesn't help my mood, I know, but the kids had a good time, especially with the circus skills area which is always set up. More over on the family blog about our day. Anyway, one of the things I did find which I really liked was a booth from an African women's organisation of some sort - among other things, they had some lovely fabrics at the back of the booth and I found this gorgeous piece in blue and brown - four yards of it - it's a bit of a loose weave for quilting fabric, but I think it will make an excellent back for something, with possibly enough left for a cushion or two, as well.





And this is a (mostly) finished quilt - I sewed down the binding the other night, except for a few feet in one corner which I will finish shortly. Which will leave me with nothing left to sew by hand - I'll have to come up with a new project (it's ok, I have something in mind!) for in front of the telly.


And finally, the winner of the bag of scrappy bits from last week is no 4 - Doreen Kincade. Doreen, send me your address and I'll get them in the post to you. Congratulations!

Goals, goals, goals

Well, I didn't do too badly this week, although there is one thing I didn't do - I didn't quilt the Beach challenge quilt - I am really not inspired to work on this at the moment, so I think I am going to put it aside for a while and wait until it speaks to me again. I'm sure it will before long. Otherwise, I did fine:

• finish two birthday blocks (deadline 30/4) (finished & posted out)
• work on quilting "Beach" challenge quilt (deadline 1/5)
• journal quilt for the week (deadline 3/5) (done this morning)
• do some work on the Miniature Booty Swap quilt (deadline 23/5) (the top for this is now assembled, it only wants quilting and binding)
• make 6 ATCs for the Angel, Diva & Fairy ATC swap on Creative Swaps Blog (deadline 24/5 (I actually made two sets of cards for this swap - and have had very positive feedback, both from the swap hostess, and from Carol, the designer of the images we are featuring in this swap - which was really lovely)

Next week, I don't have too many things planned which will eat into my time - Monday is a bank holiday, but it looks set to rain, so I might just hang around the house and sew anyway. Here are some goals, then:

• quilt and bind Miniature Booty swap quilt (deadline 23/5)
• work on cards for "Q" is for... swap (deadline 15/5) - I have an idea for this, after much dithering, and hope to combine it with a monthly challenge for my Textile Challenges group, which is on monoprinting
• 200th member celebration postcard for Arts in the Mail (deadline 7/5)
• 3rd round, Spring Fling Round Robin quilt (deadline 9/5)
• journal quilt for the week (deadline 10/5)
• April blocks (6") for dyehard nesting round robin/surfacing quilt 2008 (primary triad using circles and curves)
• complex cloth round robins

It looks like a lot, but there are some fairly small things in there, and some things which can be combined, so it's not really as bad as it looks. I hope!

Two shall become one

I know I have a lot of stuff that needs doing, some of it with sooner deadlines than this, but because I am listening to muse (or whatever) I decided to go with it when it told me that I should work on the ALQS quilt instead of some of the other things I perhaps should have been doing. I decided to do something traditional, with something a bit more modern stuck in. So I made these two pieces - a small (about 15" square) trip around the world quilt and a curved strip of flying geese. At some point soon, I will join them together so they look something like this:

approximately. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the blue left so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the binding. But there's a ways to go before that really becomes an issue, so I'm not going to worry about it just yet.

I also found time to do my journal quilt for the week - it's a sort of a combination of the two sets of ATCs I worked on this week, with a few other bits and pieces thrown in. I have to edge it, but on the whole, it's done.

And here's some stuff I got today - the coloured mesh sheets and the little bits are from Tesco [ok, inserted here a rant about my local Tesco, which you should feel free to skip entirely if you like. Our local Tesco is a huge superstore, which every few years they rebuild to make bigger and have more stuff. Personally I hate it because it's too big, badly organised, claustrophobic and always completely crammed full of shoppers. The other reason I hate it is clearly illustrated by a brief visit today - Alex left his water bottle at the playground this morning (not the local one, the one where Sarah does her tennis, which is about a 15 minute drive). We had to run a few errands, one of which took us directly past Tesco, so i thought we'd stop in and pick up a new water bottle for him. After searching around for a while, I asked someone - they don't stock them. Or lunchboxes. I can buy a television in this supermarket, or a bicycle, or patio furniture, shoes, a mobile phone or a microwave, but they don't stock lunchboxes and water bottles, items which mums regularly have to replace for their kids during the school year. Grr.] and below, another block for the birthday block swap - this one is from Wendi, who has also included a little patchwork pocket purse - either for change or other little bits - it has a velcro closure, so will be quite useful. And a great block, too, isn't it!

Friday stuff

No work to show today as I spent most of the day at school doing one thing and another, but I did get some nice post, which I'll show here - a brown postcard from Barb; a birthday block plus extra fabric from Angelina; two quilting/stitching magazines from Carol.

After some discussion of magazines on Textile Challenges, three of us have decided to share subscriptions - we are all the type of people who tend to read a magazine right when it arrives, then never do anything from it... So we decided to each take a sub we have and pass them along to the next person so we can all read all three - if there are articles you really really want in one of the mags, you can always take a copy... Carol will have Cloth, Paper, Scissors; I'll keep my FibreArts subscription going; Gillian has Quilting Arts. Hopefully it will all work out nicely. And we won't have to feel so guilty about spending money on magazine subscriptions we don't use as much as we should!

May reveal

Today we have a few more ATCs - again, 6 of this will go for the swap I am in and the other two will be up for trade later in May. These are sort of similar to the others in manner of construction, etc - I think I must be developing a kind of personal style for mixed media pieces - but I have changed the orientation, colours and the main images, which actually come from two different Altered by Design sheets - I needed a certain size, and some of them were either too large or too small. I have used German paper scrap wings with them - I will have to buy more wings, as I don't have many more decent sized ones - the only ones I have left are small. I do love them, they are so versatile. I have also used images of old tickets from a collage sheet from Artchix, a piece of pink lace, a flower transfer (the rub-on) kind, and butterfly and pink floral sequins. The background is a piece of ruched fabric from a dyeing swap, which actually, doesn't show very much, but adds texture where it does. And the backing is a piece of dark terracotta coloured heavy paper. Now all I need to do is print some little labels for the back of the two sets of ATCs and they will be ready to go in the post. They aren't due with Lenna until the 23rd, but I like to allow extra time, just in case.


On the right is some fabric I was sent as hostess gifts for the birthday block swap I've been running on about.com (it's almost done - a new year will be starting soon - signups opening some time in May - first block probably due in June). The butterfly batik is from Lisa Jo and the three coordinating prints are from Becca along with blocks from the ladies, which are below - Lisa Jo's on the left and Becca's on the right. So far, I think Becca is the only person to send me non 12" blocks, even though I said any size or shape (it's possible I have at least one 9" block, I can't remember for sure without checking). Aren't they all really striking? Soon I will have to get out all the ones I have so far and take a photo of them together. Maybe next time I have nothing much to show...



But that's not today - today I have lots to show, as it's now officially May and I can show both my May bag for the BQL Bag Challenge and my block lotto blocks for May. The bag is insulated, so will serve as a picnic bag, and I decided that I would definitely keep this for myself, so I have used "good" fabric - ok, stop laughing, you ALL know what I mean - fabric which you really like and keep saving to use for something special. These are Lonni Rossi fabrics - even the lining - and personally, I think the bag looks fabulous, if I do say so myself. The blue squares are 3D and sit on top of the other blocks, sort of - hard to describe, but funky. And yes, there's a zip in the top. Plus, it's crinkly, which my kids love (it has a layer of mylar in it for insulation).


The block lotto blocks also look great this month - great choice of pattern by Sophie - purple and green Buckeye Beauty pairs. Often, I make blocks for the lotto but donate my chances of winning back into the pot but not this month - I really like these and am coveting them!





Finally, something else I got in the post today - the fabric for two rounds of the latest complex cloth round robin I am in. The fabric on the left is Kelly's starting fabric and the one on the right is Vicky's fabric after Kelly has worked on it (she added the printed ovals - you can't really see them except in the closeup). I don't technically have to work on Vicky's piece until June, but I will probably try to do them both next week so I can send them on to Wil to work on. Who knows, I might even manage to get to them tomorrow. Probably not.






[Just had to say, I think it takes nearly as long to go back and link all the appropriate links in my blog entry as it does to type the entry in the first place!]