Less blogging equals more sewing

It seems like ages since I fed the blog, I do have excuses but I'll spare you and give you a little update of the quilty kind instead.
I decided to pay a little more attention to just a couple of projects instead of my usual rotation that doesn't get me any closer to a finish. Don't ask me how long it will last because I don't set rules for myself.
I was pretty conflicted about whether to do the one inch squares for the sashings as in the pattern or use just one fabric.

I  happened to find a large enough piece of this vintage Kaffe Fassett in the cupboard which no doubt I had other plans for but it seemed like a good fit for this quilt and I was more than happy to use it.

I'm currently working on the bottom border and started with this tree which took a long time to applique with all it's innies and outies.

This one was a walk in the park, the hardest part was deciding which fabric to use.

 I love this one, it reminds me of a big palm tree.

The bird bath was quick and easy. I'll finish putting all the large elements on this border and then add in the colours that I think it needs with the birds and the gazillion circles.

I may not blog as often as I have in the past but I'll try to be better about catching up with my blog reading. I seem to love making quilts ( plural) that take a really long time to make and have a lot of hand work to do. This means that I have less to write about or show, age might be catching up with me, sigh.

There's a little write up about my quilting over on one of my favourite blogs, Quilting The Town Red. Annemart does some wonderful posts called in the limelight where she features different quilters and it makes for great reading which I love.

Q.A.D.D.

Every so often I have a recurrence of this condition called Quilters Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is what it looks like when I'm in the throes of the affliction.

Fusing a fabric collage and attempting to  channel Laura Wasilowski.

English paper piecing

Hand piecing.

Embellishing with embroidery.

Needle turn applique, last block!

Hand quilting.

All fueled by an unhealthy dose of "death by chocolate", aka hubby's birthday cake.

In my defense, variety is the spice of life!
Happy stitching, in whatever form it is.
Janet

Fantasy flowers

It's not hard to guess what I've been up to in the last week, or at least for a part of it.

I've reacquainted myself with my magic blinkers which had temporarily lost their magic powers.

There's been a fair bit of project rotation going on in my mind and it was time to settle back into some sort of order. I only had five Flower Garden blocks left to do and blow me down if I didn't manage to get four of them done, the last one is in progress.

Oops, I didn't mean for this one to grow a face, honestly it was an accident but it's staying as is for a laugh. Sometimes quilts should bring a smile.

I'm pretty sure I'll be renaming this quilt "Fantasy Garden"  If you'd like to stich or are stitching one of Kim McLean's patterns, we now have a system set up over at Glorious Applique to allow more contributors. Just send a request via email to me from here or over there.

See you again when I have something more to share, Janet

Project rotation

I couldn't be happier with the cornucopia. I took out the orange and turned it into a nashi pear and toned down the colours of one of the other fruits. It could be a peach now. As long as they kinda look like fruit, I'm happy and the colours go with my other blocks. I have butterflies added to quite a few blocks so added one to this as well. Onto the next one soon.

When I don't have any applique prepped, I'll sometimes break out and do something really different for a change.A stitchery block is a nice change.

My sewing room is so trashed, I left this block off the last lot I blogged about. It was buried under a pile of stuff.

I just had to say that so you don't think I do without sleep and stitch all night to get so much done.

I've been having a bit of ufo guilt lately, I seem to bounce from one thing to another. It's good for blogging but it's starting to bother me a bit. I used to love the project rotation, I think it adds variety and stops me burning out. At times like this I wish I was one of those quilters that just had three projects going at any one time. One to piece, one to applique and one to quilt. I'll be thinking about it, at this rate I'll not get a finish any time soon.

The latest blocks

I'm slowing down but I did get another five blocks done for the flower garden quilt.

I'll call this one my monkey flower.

I love how the black and orange one turned out. I figured there would be some darker fabrics in the borders so wanted to get some in the middle section of the quilt.

Lets not forget the pretty pastel blooms. The backgrounds are all the same fabric, it's just photography in different lights that make them look different.

Since my design wall is being occupied at the moment. I had this idea to put them all together in a photo collage to see how mixed and balanced the colours are. Do you think I need a bit more red or maybe something else?

More blooms

More blocks for the Flower Garden quilt and that means I have a total of thirteen done out of twenty four.

Blooms

These are all the blocks that I've completed so far for the Flower Garden quilt that I started in Kim McLean's class last weekend. Since I'd done the fabric selection for twelve blocks in one go, it really has sped up production. These have all been stitched in the evenings.

I'm convinced that this method of prep really does save time. You can click on these photos for a bigger view.

I thought putting all the blocks in collage form was a good way to see them together and get a sense of how I'm going with colours.

I have to take a break from these over the next week, I have a couple of swap items that need finishing off but I'll be back into them after that.

Workshop news

The workshop with Kim McLean on Saturday was really wonderful, even worth getting lost coming off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, three times. I did get there in the end and not too late either. I have the worse sense of direction of anybody I know but it was the first time I'd driven that far on my own in Sydney, I call it my virgin voyage.

Here's Kim with the Flower Garden quilt that was the class project.

photo credit Belinda Betts

The day was pretty grey and drizzly but that didn't bother us one bit, I think this view is pretty good any time of the year and the large windows gave terrific light.

We all had to get our backgrounds cut out and our templates done for at least six blocks before the class.

All the fabric we were prepared to cart to class was laid out and the selection process started. We were given lots of pointers on choosing fabric and which ones would work well for applique. The shops set up some tables with goodies and I did buy a few pieces of fabric.

Kim was really great at spending lots of time making suggestions for everybody's blocks.

As it turned out, I didn't need my bias strips for class. I pinned them to this swimming pool noodle which I cut down to size with a bread knife, works better than cardboard rolls.

I also had all my freezer paper templates bagged and numbered then I store them on this metal ring I picked up at a craft shop. I needed a system or otherwise I would end up getting everything in a pickle.

Check out that neat and tidy looking block on the left. After that, I abandoned that system and did as Kim suggested which was just to cut out the blobs around the templates which is a faster way of getting more blocks prepped up. I'm pretty cruisy when I'm playing with blocks but I still got a dozen all ready for stitching at home.

I did sneak next door to the Kaffe and Brandon workshop near the start of their class but I didn't have time to go back later.

It looked like they were on a roll and working pretty fast getting their diamonds on the design walls.

At the end of the day we all got together for a cuppa and a small show and tell. I can't show you the students quilts as I didn't get permission but here's one from the Simple Shapes Spectacular quilts book. We also got to see the quilt that will be on the cover of the next book, I better not show it and spoil it for you.

Here are my first three blocks all stitched up. A lot of them only have three or four pieces so can be stitched up quite quickly.