ATC Friday

All of these cards are ones where I was the middle player - so you can see all three steps - the finished product, what it looked like to start with, and what it looked like after my addition to it. I always think these are the most fun to look at...

(how it started)

(I added some themed sequins)

The finished product...

how it started...

I added some large medallions.

Finished product...

how it started...

I added the washi tape across teh top and a black decal.

Easy being green

One quilt with binding one - only two more to go. Plus a couple of small ones hanging about! This one has an intended purpose, though - a wedding present for an upcoming wedding - so it's good that it's done...

Cross Stitch Update

Not a lot of progress this week, as you can see, although I have begun to work my way into the second quarter - however, I did manage to get a quilt binding done (photos tomorrow), so that should count for something. I'll work on this one again next week as I haven't really done much with it this week...

Cross Stitch Patterns In

...but not bought - these two patterns were among those being given away by my friend Julie , so they've come to my stash totally free... I have all I need to stitch up the cow, except possibly the right colour fabric, so I might do it soon (or not); the other one needs some variegated threads, so I'll have to have a look through my collection and see what I have that would suit - I don't have anything in the brand mentioned, nor does my friendly UK supplier. Still, there are lots of other hand-dyes which might work...

Using up all those string blocks

I think this might be the end of them... Another top for the Linus pile.

Scrappy Strings with Leaf Border

Another little Linus top - some more of the scrappy string blocks, with a leaf print border. 

Scrappy Tumblers, bordered

Another little top which now has a border and can go in the Linus pile - this one came out really well, I think. I will definitely do some more scrappy tumblers, some day...

ATC Friday

Three sets of ATC Round Robins on which I was the third (and last) player - I added some butterflies and flowers to these blue butterfly cards, 

I added a fish to these fishy cards

and I added a partridge to this pear tree set (luckily I had a partridge in a pear tree stamp from a set of Christmas stamps)...

String squares with a flower border

As I said before, once the block sets are all together, the task of sewing some borders on begins... Here's one of them...

Cross-stitch update

Pulled this one out to work on again - it was something I started a long time ago - in the summer last time we went to the US, so that's 2013...  I didn't do a lot with it when I was there, and so it's been languishing in an unfinished state at the bottom of my cross-stitch basket. I didn't get a lot of work done on it this week as I have also been stitching down binding part of the time, but a little progress is still progress.  Next week, back to the Thirteen Colonies (and binding stitching, too). 

Novelties II

Here are the more girly charms (or at least, the less boyish ones), put in with some pink squares - the pinks were from a couple of larger (but still quite small) pieces.  Again, this will be the centre of a top, which will then get a border of some sort around it...

Novelties I

Another exercise in getting rid of some charm squares - I removed all the novelties and used the more boyish ones with some hand-dyes to create this top centre.  Tomorrow, the more girly ones...

Binding on!

So, I finally got my act together and put binding on not one, not two, but three quilts - this means all the quilts I have which are quilted, now have binding attached. It's not stitched down yet, but it will be before long. The green one will be first, as that's the one which is the gift for the upcoming wedding.  I also have two small quilts which have binding on, waiting to be finished off. Guess I should do them as well. I might make a resolution to stitch binding for half an hour every evening before doing any cross stitch.  Or I might not!

All the charity quilt tops...

Decided that now that I'd put together all those block sets into tops, it was time to have a look at them, and my stash of suitable border prints, and match some up so that it's easy to put borders on when I have time to do it. So here are all the tops on the floor, for me to have a look at...

And here's a nice couple of neat stacks of tops with coordinating prints.... There were some where I didn't really have suitable prints, so I've put those back for later consideration - they will either be donated without borders or will wait until I have suitable fabric, like the next time I visit a quilt show and hit the bargain sections.

Je Suis Charlie?

I joined a swap with a Je Suis Charlie theme and these are my cards for it. I wanted to use a local (to me) map and some paper dolls cut from text on the cards (the words were the required element). I like the idea, but I don't think the dolls work too well on the busy background of the cards. I think I will use the idea again, but with the dolls (or whatever) on a plainer background, where they will show better...

Fabric In

A couple of pieces of fabric ordered in the mail this week (many thanks for the excellent service to my friend Meg at New Threads Quilt Shop) - these are going to be used for binding for a couple of quilts which I've had back from the longarmer for a very long time. We won't talk about how long...  One is going to be a wedding present for a friend getting married in April, so it really needs a binding, and as long as I was ordering binding for one, it seemed sensible to order for the other, too. Plus, it keeps me out of an actual quilt shop, where I would no doubt be tempted into other purchases, which I don't really need at the moment (I'll save that experience for the next quilt show I visit, perhaps Sandown in June).  So, my task soon will be to make up the binding to attach to these quilts - and the other quilt I have waiting for binding (for which I can use a fabric I already have set aside for the purpose).  Maybe on the weekend I'll get around to that task. Maybe!

Cross Stitch Update

Finished the outer border in the first quarter this week, and have moved on to the next quarter, though I'm going to pull out an older piece and do some work on that next week, so it will be another week before I get back to this piece...

Wonky 4 patches

The blocks I showed yesterday used a few of those 5" squares, but the box was still very full after that particular exercise, so I've done a couple of other things. Some blocks I pulled out to use whole in some charm quilts with novelty squares; a large chunk of the rest I paired up and turned into wonky four patches. These will be trimmed, no doubt a handful at a time, and used as centres  or component squares for various kinds of other blocks. And while I'm waiting for that, the little scrap box for 5" squares is a lot less full...

Some quarter square triangles...

Partly (though not entirely) as a result of the other day's scrap sorting, my little box of 5" squares was full to overflowing, so using a couple of fat quarters of fabric picked up a little while back at my local Fabricland and various solid (or near-enough solid) 5" squares from my stash, I've made 2 dozen of these blocks, which I think will make good centres for blocks for Linus quilts for older children.  Back in the stash to await trimming and additional things to bulk up the blocks!

Short strings

...and here's what I did to get rid of the short strings - small (4") string blocks. Eventually joined into larger string blocks, and put away to deal with later!