It's called QADD

I'm still hanging out with Kaffe Fassett fabrics but I've veered from my current projects. An all too common occurrence for me. Honestly I have no discipline. I blame Amy and my new book. I have Quilters Attention Deficit Disorder meaning I'm just not the sort of person who sticks to a few projects. I thought I could but I was deluding myself.

The quilt pattern is Pickle Dish from the cover of Quilt Romance. It was calling my name. Mr Quiltsalott told me to make it as soon as I showed it to him. That sealed the deal of course. I'll put a bit more colour in than the pattern and not put in as many dot fabrics. The scrappier the better.

The blocks remind me of this pile of beaded deliciousness.

I've been busy going around these circles, attaching them to the border of that other quilt so I have been good some of the time.

And just so I don't feel totally undisciplined, I am attending to my nine patch swap blocks even if they are a bit last minute.

I'm thinking I might cut my posts down in frequency. I feel a little stale and don't want to risk being too boring. I noticed there are some other blogs wanting to scale down a little bit, or take a break. I think it must be the blog bug going around. I think it might help me to get really stuck into my projects and that will be a good thing.

See you next time, happy sewing!

A winner and another block

The only downside of having a giveaway is all the lovely people who didn't win, it makes me sad but I'm happy for the one who wins and that is.......

**************Juliann*************

From Lining up my stitches

Congratulations Juliann, this quilt will be winging it's way to you today! WOO HOOO!

Thanks to everyone who has added their name to my follower list and also to the wonderful comments left on my last two posts, I truly appreciate the time it takes and I feel quite humbled by all the lovely motivating words you leave me.

So this week there's been a few disruptions to my sewing time but I did manage to get this Mary Mannakee block done.

I don't know if it's helpful or not but I'll share anyway. When you have an applique pattern, it's assumed you'll have enough knowledge to know how to tackle the parts and in these blocks, sometimes you have to think about it.

I know the leaves are tucked under the stem so to keep it all lined up nicely, I tacked the stem on first through the middle so I could tuck the bottom of the leaves in.

This bloom had to be replaced because I sewed the wrong parts together but you'll get the idea. I stitched this one off the block as one unit. I left some seam allowance free at the tops for tucking in later. This way, I can trim out the seams at the bottom which would be bulky and sew the bottom as a smooth curve. Check out the finished block.

Two leaves have to fit across the bottom of this piece so to make sure I didn't have a ravelling skinny and unstable seam, I ticked it under and it makes putting the leaves on stress free.

I then finger pressed the leaves before placing both of them for stitching down. That way I can check that they meet just where I want them to.

I hope this is helpful to some of you, sometimes with applique, you have to analyse the sequence and methods and theres always more than one way to tackle needleturn but this is a peek into how I do it.

The last block

I was so happy  when I finished the last of the four blocks in the Princess Feathers quilt, I'm sure I gave myself a headache from being so excited. I  just can't help it, this pattern and these fabrics are just so darn cheerful.

I feel like I've made some real progress after putting together the middle with the sashings.

I need to finish all the circles on the right hand border and now that I've added one corner square, I'll be able to make a start on prepping the applique for it.

I seem to be dividing myself between two projects at once, such contasts in fabrics. I've had a burst on prepping some more Mary Mannakee blocks.

I'm in a rhythym with prepping now, it goes something like this..........

• Make an overlay.
• Gather fabrics.
• Make templates and lay them out on the pattern.
• Select fabric to match up with templates.
• Sew.
• Enjoy.

It all takes time.

A new home

This quilt is going to a new home, where is that? Well I don't know yet but it could be at your place.

You can read about my header quilt here and here. I'd like to thank all my  visitors by giving you the chance to win this crib quilt, especially those of you who take the time to pop in and  leave me lovely comments. I have enjoyed my blogging journey since last December, passed my 100 posts and have a birthday coming up before the end of the year. This is my way of celebrating.

So all you have to do is leave me a comment. I won't reply this time because I'd like to get some sewing time in. I will read them all though. Isn't that easy?

You need to make sure you have an email address so I can get hold of you. Check your account and click on profile and see if you have your email link there otherwise email me privately. The address is in my profile.

Good luck and I'll announce a winner next Friday morning Australian time.
Thank you for the journey, the encouragement and the inspiration.
Janet

Wild with a dash of mild

I have to show you these awesome fun letters my DD made for little miss nearly four years old. She's learning her letters and I think some numbers may follow as well as a bag to hold them in. You can find the tutorial here. Great gift idea! They only took a day to do, even better.

I visited a new quilt shop last week and picked up a few brights and Kaffes, luscious colours.

They could come in handy for the Sue Ross bom I've joined from MO. I joined the pretty but I'm doing a second set in bright contemporary out of my own stash.
The instructions said to hand piece the last set in seams but I partial pieced the seam you can see below which made joining them a cinch.

This is the block 2, wild version. I think I might starch the fabrics for the mild block to make all those bias edges behave.

Block 1 and 2, wild.

OK, this block was looooong in the making, things weren't fitting. Never mind, we have the fudge factor and darn it, I was going to make it fit. I managed to get it all pinned up when I noticed spare parts, you know like putting furniture together and finding extra screws at the end.

See the spare parts on the right?

I had a good laugh over that one but all's well that ends well and I now have a not quite perfect but acceptable mild block.
This type of colour and fabric scheme is right out of my comfort zone but I did want to work with them as a way of learning how these fabrics look together.

Stay tuned for another bright post next time, it must be spring!