African themed day

Well, I promised I would drag out my African blocks and show them to you all - here they are. I think there is one more somewhere, but can't find it (an odd shadow applique thing) at the moment. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them - obviously they would need to be sashed or something. I'm not ready to do anything with them, so I reckon I need at least 4 more (in addition to finding the missing one). The main thing will be finding a way to balance the ones which are largely black with the ones which aren't, but I'm sure there's a way around that.




Here's one I finished today - the one on the left is not quite as wrinkly as it appears, but it is a bit puffy. I'll keep that one for myself and either fiddle with it, steam it a lot or possible just quilt the hell out of it later.

Also finished my journal quilt from last week - an African snails trail. Not quite enough contrast in the block, I think. I might do a snail's trail for one of my African swap blocks, but if I do, I will probably make one arm black and one some other solid colour or shwe shwe or something which isn't too busy, and then the two busy fabrics won't touch.

I also did get my "S" postcards mostly done, including quilting them and then deciding I didn't like it and ripping the quilting out again. Tomorrow I will back them and do the edges and get them in the post.

Goals again

Well, it's been one of those weeks - which is not to say I got nothing done, but... I don't mind not getting it all done, though I really do need to get my journal quilt finished. Tomorrow morning, I shall do that...

• journal quilt for the week (deadline 12/7)
• attach label for Summer FSQS quilt and post (deadline 30/7) - done, posted. at least that's something!
• attach label for Hawaiian 2 and post
• attach binding to Hawaiian 3
• begin to quilt Forest Challenge
• set of postcards for Starts with S (deadline 15/7) - I did make a start on these, hope to get them sorted in the next few days

I think next week had best feature a repeat of the current week...

• journal quilt for the week (deadline 19/7)
• attach label to Hawaiian 2 and post
• attach binding to Hawaiian 3
• begin to quilt Forest Challenge
• finish S postcards

Got very little done today - perhaps some tomorrow. Or I promise, I will show my collection of African blocks - I did get them all out, but can't be bothered to photograph them right now.

S is for Snail's trail

This is a start on my S is for... postcards - a squished snail's trail block (to fit the size of postcards. There's a little white paper showing on these, but once I trim them to PC size, they'll be fine. What appears brown in this photo is actually dark red, but you get the general idea. Otherwise, not much done today, other than grocery shopping - and then putting it all away at home. I usually get my shopping delivered but once in a while I like to go to the shops in person. Today I decided to go to Asda, as I needed some new polo shirts for the kids for September, and they have lots of school uniform in the shops this time of year and Asda is cheap - if you wait until the week before school is back, most of it is gone. My exciting life!

Layer cake & diamonds

Now here's something that is very me - I have a nice list of goals to accomplish, some of them with deadlines, so what do I do with my time today? Two things not on the list! I do have a little excuse for not tackling the quilting on the forest challenge quilt yet - my shoulders still ache a bit from carrying stuff around all day at the fair on Sunday, so I decided I'd not do that yet.

Anyway, they are my goals, and if I want to change them around, I will!

So, today - I decided to tackle those lovely fabrics straight away rather than put them away somewhere and never do anything with them. So I've cut them into squares and then sliced them up a bit and mixed & matched them and come up with this - a friend of mine was describing a pattern called a four-layer cake and I basically used that idea - not sure quite how it finished, so it might not look precisely like that pattern... Anyway, the colour in the photo is terrible (what is it with purple?) but in person, the piece looks really nice. Or, I should say, pieces...

I also worked on the diamond quilt for my friend Caroline's sister. Someone remind me why I decided diamonds were a good idea? What a pain! But at least it's looking good. Oh, and please excuse all the laundry piled up on the bed - it's been washed, dried and sorted but not put away yet - well, there was sewing to be done!

Also got this card in the post today - it's S is for swirls, from Jeannette in Georgia (the US one) - the reflection is from some little crystals on the card. I do need to do my "S" cards, and although I didn't do them today, I do at least know what I plan to do now...

African geese

A little something to show today - only a little, but I know that at least one person will be glad to see this! This is the curving flying geese portion of an African block for Karol-Ann - all that remains is the black background, which i hope to add tomorrow. The second one is for myself - I will finish it later - maybe tomorrow night - I am doing the curved strips by hand...

That's all I have to show for today - tomorrow the forecast is for pouring rain and I intend to stay indoors and sew for as much of it as possible!

Goals - better late than never

Just realised that in the hustle and bustle of the weekend (of which there was much) I missed doing my goals roundup and new list, so here it is - a little late, but still here. First, to recap last week's goals:

• journal quilt for the week (deadline 5/7) - finished. nothing elaborate, but that's ok
• finish label for Summer Four Seasons Quilt - done - technically, not within the week of these goals, officially, but it was done before I started the new list, so it seems silly not to cross it off!
• pin together Forest Challenge quilt for quilting - yep
• finish attaching the binding on the second Hawaiian quilt - also finished

So, this week. A little less frantically busy than last week, though I still have a number of non-sewing things I need to accomplish, so with that in mind:

• journal quilt for the week (deadline 12/7)
• attach label for Summer FSQS quilt and post (deadline 30/7)
• attach label for Hawaiian 2 and post
• attach binding to Hawaiian 3
• begin to quilt Forest Challenge
• set of postcards for Starts with S (deadline 15/7)

And that should do it.

Some gorgeous fabrics

So, today was a low-work day - but at least there was a little work (I did the labels for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap Summer quiltand the second Hawaiian quilt - though I won't show them, as the FSQS label has the recipient's name on it), and some quilt-related activity in the form of shopping. My friend Lana mentioned she was popping over to our LQS, Creative Quilting, so I decided to tag along and keep her company - after all, that's what friends are for, right? Anyway, I needed some more WOW fabric, have run my stock down a bit - and needed to have a look at their bits and bobs section, as I've been making lots of mixed-media things lately and have also run my stock down there. I didn't intend to buy a dozen fat quarters of other fabric, but I simply couldn't resist this new range from Timeless Treasures - it's simply stunning, isn't it? I shall have to make something for myself from these - not sure what yet, but something that shows off the fabrics, for sure.

Saturday stuff

Finally, a bit of a day to call my own - only the morning, but at least it was something - tomorrow will be another lost day, of course, with the summer fair at school, but I do feel a little better about my week!

First order of business was a journal quilt - I've gone for quick and cheerful - used the reject NYB block, quilted it with blue rayon thread, and hey presto - journal quilt!

Then I decided it was time to finish assembling the pineapple quilt top - having gone to the trouble to buy the red inner border fabric. I notice from this picture that I have obviously put a few blocks together in a different pattern from what I originally laid out - it had the paler blocks sort of flowing across the top, and now they are kind of clustered on one side. But I'm still happy with it and no WAY am I going to take it apart now. And now it will go on the "to be quilted" list - near the top, but not quite at the very top, as there are one or two things which need to be done first. Maybe next week I'll have some time to get to the next one...

Here, but nothing accomplished...

Well, nothing relating to sewing or quilting, at least...



I did attend two sports days today, spent the whole day at school yesterday organising the last of the stuff for the fair and spent the afternoon after the sports day today finishing the last bits of fair stuff at school. Nothing quilty to show, as I didn't even get any quilty post, but here is Olivia handing over her "egg" and spoon to the next person in the relay - look at that fierce concentration!

If you are looking for something quilty, may I recommend the blog for my little quilt swap (Another Little Quilt Swap) - almost all of the quilts have been finished and sent, and there are some great photos over there. And hopefully a few more to come very soon!

Stuff from before...

I didn't get a chance to do any work today, as I was at school all day helping to sort the library and get the spare classroom (which won't be spare in the autumn) ready for an Ofsted inspection, but I just remembered that there are two things I can show you now that it's July - the July bag from the BQL Bag Challenge, and six blocks for the Block Lotto on about.com, which this month is Quilter's Choice, with red, white and blue fabrics. Both of these things were done before July, so couldn't be shown until the embargo passed, as it were.

I also got a couple of nice things in the post - a silver & gold postcard from Diane, which has photographed better than I expected it might, as it's made from silver and gold lame fabric... And also, from Sharon in Canada, a complete surprise - some of the fabulous fabric she used to make the Here Comes the Sun postcards and a bit of gorgeous brown batik fabric. Aren't people nice?

Wonky Beauty

Worked today on the July block for the new round of the birthday block swap - twice. I started with the block on the left - now, the colour there is not totally true - the fabrics used are the same in both versions of the block - but still, you can see why I decided to do a second one. The central arc was a little short on the left one as well, but that could have fairly easily been fixed with a little picking and unpicking - but when I finished it I decided there was too little contrast in the central arc and that using the sand coloured batik on the little strip was too pushy. The right-hand one is better. Not bad for my first (well, second!) New York Beauty block, ever.

This one will be on the way to Joy before too long...

Everyone's a winner...

Many thanks to all of you who left comments enterring my last weekly giveaway - it won't be the last giveaway, certainly, but from now on they will either occur for special occasions (2 yr anniversary, 1000th post, etc) or when I happen to have a large handful of extra bits and pieces - these occasions may coincide, of course. It's been fun having a weekly giveaway and I know a lot of you have enjoyed tuning in to see what's going this week - I hope you'll continue to come by and visit anyway!

Anyway. To celebrate the end of the giveaway and to thank everyone for playing along all these months, I have decided that after drawing the winner for the large bag of scraps, I would also send a small bag of scraps to everyone who left a comment, except for the three people who specifically said they didn't need any more scraps (Sequana, LisaJo and Stephanie). So, the rest of you will be getting a little squishie in the post before too long... I have addresses for most of you, but I need to hear from the following people: kentanner11, ikkinlala, tottyjo (thought I had your address, jo, but I don't seem to!), Babs Schmidt and trashalou. Some of the squishies went out today, including the big one to the First Winner, the others will go out later this week or next week, depending on when I have time.

Thanks again for playing!

Oh, you want to know who the Big Winner was? It was Betty, which seemed very fitting to me (though it was drawn totally randomly) as she's doing (if you can believe it) a quilt with 1/2" squares!

Monkey house!

Several of you have warned me of the dangers of sock monkey proliferation - and believe me, I know what you mean - already, Olivia is planning her "next monkey" and Sarah is talking about what the sock monkey that she is going to make is going to look like. I don't plan to have loads and loads of monkeys in the house, but then again, you know what they say about plans...

I did also get some of my own work done today before helping Olivia with the monkey (I did a lot of the seams, she did the stuffing and the mouth) - I pinned together the tree challenge quilt to get it ready for quilting. I didn't take a photo of it, though, as it looks a lot like what it looked like before, only with a lot of pins in it. I'll show it once I've done a little work.

Goals for the week

I have a feeling a lot more will have been accomplished this past week than next one, but of course, being me, I have to go through the whole goals thing anyway... Here's what was on the slate for last week:

• start quilting 3rd Hawaiian quilt - finished. now to attach binding!
• sew down binding on 2nd Hawaiian quilt - about halfway done. this is an evening-while-watching-telly project, but I've had some other stuff to do as well
• pin together Forest Challenge quilt for quilting - nope. maybe next week.
• finish up ATCs which are cluttering workspace on desk - yep. done
• work on Shades of Spring quilties for swap on Lenna's Creative Swaps Blog (deadline 19/7) - done and posted off to Lenna for the swap
• journal quilt for the week (deadline 27/6) - done
• June arch (deadline 30/6) - just remembered this one - ought to start thinking of it, at least, I guess! - done - and very happy I am with it, as well

Next week is going to be very busy - Sunday (not tomorrow) is the school fair at our school, so there's a lot of stuff to organise. Friday is the sports day at school as well, and the District sports day for Guides & Brownies as well. Thursday I am going to be at school sorting out stuff for the fair. And Wednesday, for my sins, I have agreed to spend another day sorting out the library at school - I think that will be the last day, though - hoorah! Anyway. Consequently, there will be very few goals next week!

• journal quilt for the week (deadline 5/7)
• finish label for Summer Four Seasons Quilt
• pin together Forest Challenge quilt for quilting
• finish attaching the binding on the second Hawaiian quilt

That's it, officially - I might get a bit more done (ha) but I'm not banking on it...

Flock of monkeys?

Here's my journal quilt for the week - as I said yesterday, there are parallels to the arch, but it's not the same - partly because of the difference in size and shape - and partly because some of the things I used on the arch, I ran out of. And one or two things here, I forgot I had, or I might have used them yesterday (like the red silk leaves). The large green felt flower came to me from Karol-Ann a while back - I think her mother or mother-in-law made it, actually...

That's all I had time for today, as we had a busy day - a visit to the farmer's market, a local primary school's summer fair, an open day in the park. The school fair had a craft room - Alex made a paper windmill - and look who I saw lurking in the window in the craft room - yes, that's right, a whole flock of sock monkeys (do they flock?). And one came home with us - sort of. Olivia wanted to make her own, so we have a sock-monkey kit in a bag. Perhaps tomorrow we'll turn it into a proper sock monkey. It's going to be a very bright and stripey sock monkey.



And lookie what was waiting for me in the post when I came back from the Farmer's Market this morning! This is my mini quilt swap from Lucy Locket's mini swap - isn't it lovely lovely? Yes, it is. A big "thanks you" (as Alex would say) to Lucy.

Fairies in the garden

Amazingly, I did actually get some work done today - it felt like I might not, between spending the morning at school and having to take Olivia to a last-minute dentist appointment (she has a dead tooth which is causing an abcess on her gum) - she should be fine now with antibiotics, probably (there's a chance they may have to take the tooth out - it's a baby tooth - but the antibiotics may circumvent that)) and then having to be back at school to run the uniform shop. But I managed an hour and a half or so, and in that time, did an arch for my arch swap - this one is for Carol R - and started on a journal quilt for the week.

Both the journal quilt (which is farther along than this photo shows) and the arch started with a fairy printed onto a piece of turquoise hand-dyed fabric. I then added some sheer fabric over top, some green mesh, and lots of fibres couched down to make a sort of tree. I'm about halfway through that process on the journal quilt. Once I had enough fibres, I added some paper vines and flowers I picked up recently, then finished the edges and then added lots and lots of embellishments - flowers, buttons, sequins, charms, and so on. The journal quilt will be a bit different from the arch, because some of the things I used in the arch, I don't have any more of - like the metal flowers and the lace flower. But that's ok - I have lots of other embellishment stuff...

I'm very pleased with how the arch came out - I hope Carol likes it, too!

Quilted - already!

Well, hey, look what I did today! Not only did I start quilting the third Hawaiian quilt, I actually finished it as well - this one is for my brother and sister-in-law. I did a basic sort of pointy meaner with some waves thrown in. I did have an entire day's quilting time, with very few interruptions (other than a grocery delivery and a load of washing to hang out) besides my standard email breaks to stretch my arms and back. But still, I didn't expect to finish. When the kids got home from school (a friend does the collection on Wed & Thursday, most of the time) I had about 18 inches square left to go, so I just kept at it. Which was ok, although I have decided that helpers are not really all that helpful when trying to free motion quilt. Especially small boy helpers who keep wanting to hug you without warning while you are quilting. But who can resist small boy hugs? Not me, that's for sure...

Now I just need to get the binding sewn down on the second quilt and get it in the post - and then it will be the turn of this one. And after that, one more to go - my own one - though I have a few things on the agenda to be quilted before that one, I think.

A little more than nothing

Well, as I metnioned yesterday, today was spent at school sorting the library, so there's not a lot of work to show, though I did remember to take a photo of my scarf - I have knitted one and bit balls of yarn and intend to do a bit more before stopping so that I have enough yarn left for some fringe on the ends. Should be a fun scarf, when it's done. I haven't done a lot of work on it lately, as I've got a number of other hand work things going at the moment - stitching down handles on the basket blocks for the June lotto, stitching the stems for the summer mini quilt, binding on the Hawaiian quilt, the African flying geese blocks - probably more as well!


I also did get some nice post today - a card on the left for the silver and gold swap from Priscilla - it doesn't show quite as well as it might because of the shiny-ness, but it's a fun card. And on the right, my June arch from Alis - isn't it great? Yep, it is!

Tomorrow I hope to do some work myself - a bit of quilting on the Hawaiian quilt perhaps, or working on the June arch I need to make. We'll see what the work will be, but it will be something!

Nothing to show...

I did some stuff today but I can't show any of it - typical, isn't it! And no post, either (well, I got some, but nothing quilty). And then tonight, I sat down to do some hand work, but actually ended up doing almost none, as I had to help out an eldery neighbour. So, nothing to show. And tomorrow, I'm spending the day at school, but hopefully I will get some interesting post, at the very least!

Last weekly giveaway (and winner)

Well, the wintery/Christmassy stars from last week were fairly popular, but I have now drawn a winner, who is no11 - aka Tracey. Tracey, if you are out there, get in touch by email (katelnorth at yahoo dot com) and let me know where I should send the snowflakes...

This week, you will have to work harder for your blocks, because what I'm giving away is a big pile of scraps - my scrap basket was full to overflowing - this is the little basket of scraps which are too small to cut into the size squares I keep, which means, they are mostly under 2.5" square. Some might be strips narrower than 2" as well. This is about a third of what was in there. It would be a nice envelope full, for those of you who are into little bits. Any takers, please leave a comment before Monday.

I'm really coming to the end of the stuff I have to get rid of (there are perhaps a few more things), so I thought I might look back to see when the first giveaway was, and the first blog post tagged with the word "giveaway" came up as 23/6/07 - how's that for a coincidence? That wasn't my weekly giveaway, as it happens - that started in September - but I still think it's a sign, so I'm going to make this my last regular weekly giveaway. Which is not to say there won't be more stuff in future, but probably more like once a month, rather than once a week. I still have a number of boxes of blocks and things, which may yield a few spares once I get them made into tops. And I'm sure there will be other things to go - but as I no longer have a huge stack of stuff needing new homes, it makes sense to stop trying to make it weekly and just go for the ad hoc giveaway... I hope you've had fun with it!