All around the world

I worked on a couple of different things today, but this is the one I've photographed (the other things aren't quite done). Yes, another batik TATW block - I'm really liking these, though it's still a challenge to get the contrast right.

ABC ATCs: GHI

Here are a few more in the series of alphabet ATCs - we have G for Gondola

and gingerbread.

H for Hand

and I for island.  Not very inspired words, perhaps, but I am trying to work from stash, so it's sometimes a little challenging when I have to work to spec.  Making cards for their own sake is much easier....

Scottie Dogs

This quilt is made largely from Scottie Dog blocks won in the block lotto several years ago. I finally got my act together and had it quilted up as a Christmas present for Sarah.  She likes it, which is good!  I'm not normally drawn to animal quilts, etc, but actually, I'm very fond of how this came out - perhaps it's the colour scheme which makes it cute (but not too cute) and endearing rather than twee...

Quilted by Lana Dragicevich of Bewitching Stitching.

Cross Stitch Update

This week's cross-stitching projects were two-fold. First, to add a new bird (this catches me up with all the parts I currently have in this project) to the "Faith is the bird..." stitchery (though I had an email that another one has been mailed today - they are quite small sections, though, and quick to stitch). I've just realised that I forgot to give this chap an eye - I'll add that next time I stitch on it.

Then, because it wasn't the end of my cross-stitch week (the only week which ends on a Wednesday), I chose a new design to work on as my alternate (next week I go back to the Winter piece, and perhaps finish it) - a summery garden sampler. Mainly, I chose it because it was a kit rather than a chart, so I didn't need to spend time gathering resources. Lazy, I know!

Here's what the finished thing will look like (the in progress photo is not completely true to colour - it's a bit less washed out in reality). 

And, because I am really not completely lazy, I've chosen what the next project will be after I finish the Winter border, and made sure I have both canvas and colours for it!  (But you'll have to wait and see what it is...)

A millennium of blogging?

I said in my intro recently that I've been blogging for 10 years and writing this particular blog for 6, but I only just realised a few days ago that this very post will be number 2000 for this blog (yep, I talk a lot).   Now I've got a little giveaway going already, so I don't really fancy another one - even a more interesting one - at the moment, so I think what I'm going to do is wait until later in the year, when I hit some other interesting number (I'm thinking 2222, perhaps - that will give me lots of time to prepare!) and do a decent giveaway then.  Watch, as they said, this space.

Now that's not a very interesting post, in and of itself, so I thought I'd also show this post-Christmas ornament I made recently - I often make one of these from the Christmas cards we've received - you need 20 circles of your chosen size and I usually pick my favourite cards, either in pattern or colour, to use to make a ball (I have 4 or 5 of them now). If I were clever, I'd remember to write the year on it somewhere, but I haven't done in previous years...

I've made these lots of times and don't really need instructions, but if you want to have a go and have no clue where to begin, here's an excellent tutorial I just found (gotta love the internet - I googled "folded paper ball tutorial" and this was the first hit) if you are interested in making one yourself.  I didn't use a glue gun, I just used fast-drying glue. And I didn't have a circle die-cutter, I just drew around a juice glass 20 times!

Patchwork Meadows

(Photo montage courtest of Plantlife Patchwork Meadow Project)

A little while ago, I was contacted by a representative of the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife. They are asking the public to create a giant “Patchwork Meadow” of textile squares, celebrating our native (UK) wild plants and their central role in British Culture. Anyone can submit a square, whether amateur or professional. Once completed the “meadow” will be shown at a series of exhibitions around the UK , beginning at the Wild North Festival in Caithness and Sutherland.  I'm not sure if I'll be making a square or not, but it sounded like a fun and worthwhile project, so I said I'd pass the information on to anyone out there reading my blog - do take a moment to go check it out!

More scrappy trips

Among the other things I've been sewing is more batik Trip Around the World blocks - these are great for sewing one block at a time, because you don't have to press after every step. I know I'll have to repeat some of my batiks - especially the brighter ones - as otherwise, it's hard to get good contrast.

But that doesn't matter, really. I will try to keep the cross-block diagonals unique in each block, though, as I think that will make a better effect. 

Binding on...

I did several bits of sewing today, despite the morning spent at swimming (Olivia and Alex both have lessons Saturday morning, one after the other, so I usually go and swim myself - I can manage 50 lengths (33m pool, so 50 lengths is about a mile) during their joint lesson time and still have some time to play with Alex after his lesson is done) and the afternoon doing some errands, like having the kids' passport photos taken and getting Geoff and new phone. I made another batik TATW block, which I'll show later, and sorting out some backings from the fabric I bought recently. I pinned a small quilt together to put in my "ready to quilt" pile - the theory there being that if they are there, ready, I am more likely to actually quilt them...  And I made some binding for the these two small quilts, which have been quilted for ages - I hate to look back on the blog to see how long - but have been sitting in a pile. (OK, I had to look - August. Not quite as bad as I thought.)

Of course, the challenge now is actually sewing the binding down, of course - I still have the binding on the big red and white quilt to do as well! I ought to take advantage of the cold weather and sew this binding at night at the moment, while it's cold enough to have a big quilt on my lap...

Grow your blog - intro

Welcome, to anyone who might be reading as a result of the Grow Your Blog project. If you're someone who knows me and has read my blog for a while, I hope you'll either bypass this post, or else read it and discover some things you didn't know about me. I can't promise they will be interesting, though!

I have been blogging for a long time now - over 10 years - though on this blog, not for as long as that. I began blogging in July 2002, on my family blog, more or less when I stopped working. The idea was, I think,   just to have a way to impart information to those far and wide - I had two small kids at the time (rather than the 3 rather larger kids I have now) and a dial-up internet connection.

10 Years later, and I no longer have dial-up - and I no longer have a single blog.  I do still have the family blog - in ten years I've posted 1288 times, apparently.  Not a bad average, although this year I'm trying to post more often. I talk about my family, my house, trips we take, days out, cooking, art and craft the kids do, the weather, books, and so on. It's a family blog - does, as they say, what it says on the tin.  In 2012 I blogged our family meals, with recipes, which was great fun, but also hard work, so this year, I'm not dropping that idea entirely, but I'm only blogging photos of the food and a little chat about them with no recipes - avoids all the copyright issues, too...

I started this blog, my art blog (which used to be called just Kate's Quilting, hence the URL), in August 2006 (you can see my first post here, if you fancy it - and indeed, can view any of the nearly 2000 posts by checking out the archives in the sidebar), and in addition, I have several other blog that I am involved in or run - the one for my mini-quilt swap (Another Little Quilt Swap) - which has just wrapped up its 7th round (aside from a few quilts still lost in the postal ether), and one specifically dedicated to scrapbusting ideas for quilters. I've also been involved in various blogs related to challenges and projects, like the one for a Stay-at-Home Round Robin I ran for a few years, and so on. Blogs come and go - though I think this one is here to stay.  I sometimes think I should just have the one blog, but I don't want to drop either of them, and I think a lot of my quilter friends wouldn't be all that interested in my family blog - and vice versa. People can always hop around if they want to!

I always hate trying to tell people about myself, especially unprompted, so it occurs to me that if you really want to know, I did an interview about 5 years ago on Carina's blog, which probably answers all the questions you could conceivably ask...

Anyway. Welcome! Enjoy, relax, comment.  I'm here blogging anyway, so it's nice to have you along for the ride...

Oh, and I meant to say, there will be a giveaway related to the Grow Your Blog project!  Leave a comment (make sure you are contactable) and you'll be in with a chance to win this lovely(?) set of 6" squares - there are actually 51 in the pile, because I apparently can't count, and at least 44 of them are unique. There are a few repeats, but nothing more than twice. All cotton, from various sources, mostly regular quilting cotton, but a few from my dad's Hawaiian shirts and other such projects.  I'll draw a winner probably on the 1st of Feb.

Scrapbuster quilt - bound!

I know I showed this a while back when it was quilted, but I hadn't got around to doing the binding, as there were other things going on. Finished the binding the other night after quite a long session at my quilt group - ta da!  It's a big quilt, but it's going to live in the back of my car, for all those times you find yourself needing something to sit on/lay on/wrap up in...

Cross stitch update

Quite a good amount of progress done this week with the winter cross-stitch - I finished the centre portion - backstitching, outlining, long stitch and so on, and have done part of the surrounding border (though not all of it). I was considering carrying on with the border, as I am so close to finishing, but actually, there's more work in it than it seems, so I'll leave it and swap back to something else - the next installment of the birds on the pink canvas, I think.

ABC ATCs: def

Some more in my alphabet series of ATCs - this was the second installment, D, E, F. Not very adventurous themes here - dress, eggs, flowers, fish. But I had fun collaging the cards.

Grow your blog

Here's a fun event happening in blogland, which I have just discovered, thanks to Angela. It's a way to help you find more blogs to read (as though we need that in our lives!) and to help find followers for your own blog...  I think it will be fun to take part, though - and it's been many years since I started this blog, so perhaps a short statement about who I am and why I blog will be fun to produce - look for that on the 18th/19th...

Farnham Maltings Fabric Sale

Every January, there's a big fabric sale (and small quilt show) at Farnham Maltings, about 40 minutes from where I live. There are usually a good selection of vendors, with lots of sale fabrics - tons of stuff at £5 and £6 per metre, but more importantly, a selection of stuff at £3/metre, which is perfect for quilt backings. I took my list of finished tops which don't have backing fabric set aside for them, and managed to come away with backing fabric for four of them, plus another piece for an as-yet-undesignated quilt. 

The blue dolphin fabric will be a backing for the blue and orange French Braid quilt (eventually); the astrological piece (which was £2 per metre!) was bought as backing for this scrappy star quilt, though I'm not sure about it in person - I might change my mind and use it for something else;  the small floral print will be a backing for the Modern Clover quilt, which I have in mind for a particular gift; the print at front left doesn't have a specific purpose yet, but it was a 5m "bolt" for £15, so it seemed a good investment for future backings.  And finally, the green Christmas print will go as a backing for my Oh My Stars! Christmas scrappy quilt. 

I also bought some "just because" fabric - a metre each of  two black and white batik prints (£4/metre), a metre of lovely red floral (this one was more dear - £7/metre) - a metre each of black and white number prints (£3/metre); half a metre of an art nouveau style Christmas print (£2.50) and a set of 4 FQs (£5). I did well, I think - now all I have to do is get some of the quilt tops which I have backings for actually quilted... But that's another story...

Scrappy Trip Along

I didn't spend a lot of time sewing today, as Saturday mornings are always taken up with swimming and usually a quick trip to the supermarket or Farmers' Market, and I wanted to help Alex with his puzzle this afternoon, but I got time to make a few blocks - this batik Trip Around the World block, which is the first in a series - all batik, and all different. The challenge here will be making sure there is enough contrast between the rows of the batiks, as many of them can look a little samey in tone, at least. I do have some bright ones, though, so I'll be making good use of them.

A lot of folks in blogland seem to be taking part in the Scrappy Trip Along, making Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks, using Bonnie Hunter's pattern.  I've made this block before, recently for the block lotto, and perhaps even other times before that - it's a nice, simple way to produce TATW blocks - of course you could make them all the same if you like, but that wouldn't get rid of small pieces quite so well as making it scrappy.   I'm going to aim to get a few of these blocks done each month, and then I'll have plenty to do something with at the end of the year - I'll be doing them all batik, as I said, and I reckon it will make a nice dent in my collection of small, not very useful batik pieces. The ones which aren't big enough to cut a 16" strip, I will have to find something else scrappy to do with!

Yes, I know this project wasn't on my list of things to do in 2013.  Maybe I should go back and edit it!

I did also make a few more stretch shoofly blocks - one for the lotto and two for my collection; I'll show them another day.

ALQS7 Grand Reveal

Well, I have finally got around to doing the Grand Reveal of who made what in the ALQS7, so I can actually go ahead and show the quilt I myself made for the swap - it was this little piece called Three Mother Goddesses.  The piece is 12x12" and uses a piece of discharged fabric for the background, with other hand-dyed fabrics used for the other parts of the quilt.  In the end, it went to New Zealand to a new home - I hope Jan is enjoying it!

This piece was inspired by a little fragment in the Museum at the Roman Baths, when I went there this past summer:

It was only small - several inches high - but it really caught my eye. It was described as Three Mother Goddesses, hence the name of my own piece. 

A detail of the quilting.

ABC ATCs: abc

I've recently finished a series of alphabet themed swaps of ATCs - each having a letter of the alphabet on them, with the subject of the card either matching the letter or not (not required).

It occurs to me that I haven't blogged any of the alphabet at all, so before I show the recent finishes, we'll go back to A and work our way through!

Cross stitch update

Although I suppose I should have gone back to working on the winter piece, I got distracted by this sheep, which was sitting in the top of my basket - I purchased the pattern in Yorkshire this summer.  I wanted something quick and easy and wasn't quite feeling up to doing the winter piece, which is full of  intricate counting, so this seemed like a nice antidote.  Of course, now that it's done, I'll have to go back to the winter piece, but that's ok...

Block lotto

January's block lotto block is this stretched shoofly block, in red, green, black and white.

I made 5 blocks for the lotto back in the end of December,

as well as more blocks to add to my block stash (no photo of those yet). 

However, I have the intention to make some more before the end of the month,

and have even pulled the fabrics to do so. Now I just have to stop putting it off and getting sidetracked by other projects!

Plans for 2013

I always hesistate to use the word "goals" because it seems like there's an element of failure already implicit in the term, but there are some things that I'm hoping to work on in the coming year...

• Flying Geese Circles. I made 7 or 8 of these last year and then bogged down (ooh, just checked my blog and I've actually made 9!) - I need to finish enough of the colours off to make a quilt top from them. I have a plan for the quilt, actually, so  that will give me the incentive to actually work on them. Maybe. I have red, green, pink, neutral, yellow, two purples (reddish and bluish) and two blues (light and dark). I'm thinking I need brown, black and orange to finish up. Shouldn't be too much of a problem.
• African blocks. Karol-Ann and I have been swapping these for a while and while I have a good number of larger (12") blocks, there are also some 6" blocks to consider - if I want to use them at all in the same project, and if so, how to use them and how many I need. And I need to work out  how to put the 20 larger blocks I have into a top of some sort.
• Lady of the Lake. Cathi and I have been swapping these blocks on and off (mostly off) for about 3 years - yikes!  I don't think there are really that many - I need to count how many I have, I guess - but again, I need to work out how many I want to have and whether I need to keep swapping. Cathi hasn't done much sewing lately, as she's really into fantastic papercrafting at the moment, so at least I don't have to feel too guilty about not holding up my end of the swap!
• Sawtooth Cat Quilt. I'm pretty sure this was one of my goals for last year, and I know I have barely worked on it, if at all.  Really must do some work on it this year!
• Sheep Wallhanging. When I visited Karol-Ann last summer, I brought home a selection of goodies which were the leftovers from a quilt swap package she had put together for a swap a while ago. The quilt which came back from the swap is sweet, but unfortunately, doesn't really suit the space where she'd hoped to put it, so I offered to try to make something more suitable.  I have actually made a start on this, but because she's a regular reader to my blog, I'm not going to post it as I go along. 
• Dancing Stars. On Vicki's blog, I read about the Dancing Stars Quilt-a-long which she is sponsoring this year and thought it was a fun pattern. Now, I'm not interested in a big quilt - I have neither the time to make it or the need for another large quilt, but the pattern has lots of sizes, and I did think it might be fun to make the baby quilt size, which uses 25 foundation pieced blocks - that's only 2 a month, more or less, and might be achieveable. I do need something for background fabric, though (the stars would be scrappy and white or off-white), so I thought I'd have a look next weekend at the Farnham Maltings Quilt Show and Fabric Sale.

Of course, there will be the usual things, like playing along in the block lotto and trying to do some ATC swaps and trying to make some quilt tops  for Project Linus and for my friend Sarah's quilt ministry, but those are smaller things I will fit in as and when. Or not, as the case may be!