Too Much Pink is barely enough!

A couple of weeks ago  I blogged about feeling very distracted not knowing what projects I wanted to be working on...so I have given in to myself and started (yes I know!) something I have been wanting to do for ages, but haven't because I already had a pink quilt (Pink Blooms) that wasn't done...well now that's finished, and there is yaaaardage of pink fabrics in my cupboard I have started making Peppermint Sparkle, out of Applique Outside the Lines (Piece O' Cake Designs)...it all starts with the background, from your favourite pastel pinks...

Then playing around with fabric and shapes...

Starting to take form now....

Luvin' that hot pink! I have used Visoflex to iron the fabric shapes onto the background...

The next bit is already to go, I like to cut out the centres of the visoflex pieces so it is easier to do the quilting as the quilt is not too stiff, and the fabric doesn't bubble once it's washed.

I will be raw edge appliqueing the pieces down, once the top is complete...I am enjoying putting this together, so this is what I will be working on this weekend!

FWQAL train - I am jumping on board

So I have finally caved in! After finishing the piecing on the Japanese x and + blocks, some would say there was scraps covering every flat surface in the house! But that statement is being denied, I say there were scraps covering my sewing table, the lounge in the family room, where my sewing machine is, there  may have been a few scraps on the floor after a recently completed sewing frenzy...you girls know what I mean...right?

Anyway you gotta use up those scraps...so what better than a project that has 111 blocks...the Farmers Wife Quilt-along...fanfare...so I have kicked off with the first eight blocks...

So they looking all very pretty...maybe I will make more...but will I make another 103..mmm...

The idea of this quilt-a-long is to do two blocks a week, the rest of the girls are up to week 12, so that's 24 blocks, I have a little catching up to do, but I am not too worried about that...I might not do all the blocks, I figured I would keep on making the blocks till I felt it was time to move on.

There are over 800 members in the Flickr group, so there is plenty of inspiration and chatter over the blocks! Are you going to get on board? Or are you already there?

Japanese x and + blocks - All sewed up!

Look at this....36 blocks all sewn up, and it's looking good...if I had more time in my life I would be tempted to make more of these little beauties, but other projects are-a-pressing!

I have been playing around with some border ideas....

I have been finding myself very distracted lately...so many ideas, so little time! So much fabric too sew!! I have added some more fabric to my collection to add to my distractions....from my local fabric store (Dragonfly Fabrics) I pounced upon this print the other day...

I am thinking some fussy cutting might be needed for these girls... the design runs from selvedge to selvedge.

Of course they go quilt well with these lovely ladies...who have been resting in my cupboard for a while now..

They are like a grown up version of the first print.

These ladies run along one selvedge like a true border print...I noticed that DragonFly now has this print with a dark aubergine background...all very lovely...

Japanese + and x blocks...the latest and the last!

It has been so nice to get back into doing whatever I felt like doing, post my sister's wedding and the finishing the quilts for the guild exhibition....so I have been on a mission to complete eleven Japanese + and x blocks....

having fun with loads of different fabrics...

It's been great fun, but gee I make a mess matching up all the fabrics, I have scraps and piles of fabric from stash spread out everywhere! It's even driving me crazy!

 And my favourite of this set....

There are so many scraps left over from this project, I have run out of space in my scrap drawers...does that mean I need to make another scrap quilt?

Focus...next steps for this project is to get all the blocks sewn together! I am starting to think about how to do the border...Have a good weekend of sewing!

Soo Pretty dresden plate!

Just a quick mid week update...a little while ago I signed onto the 4x5 Modern Bee swap, blogged about here, and I have decided that the block I would do for everyone in my "hive" is a Dresden Plate. I have had an acrylic template to do one for a while, but was a little bit scared...so the weekend just gone was time for a dummy run, using some of my favourite colours I now have my first ever Dresden Plate.

Once trimmed up the block size will be 12.5", the blades are 4.5" wide. The centre is button holed and the plate is appliqued down with a straight stitch. To stabilised everything before sewing, I used a spot of Roxanne glue (liquid stitch) on the blade points and around the centre to keep everything nice and flat before sewing.

The block came together quite easily. The only thing that I will differently for my swap blocks is to make sure that my bobbin thread is the same colour as my top thread, because it is popping through a little on the button hole stitch.

I am thinking that this weekend I might start my christmas sewing with this pattern, using christmas fabrics of course!

Pink Blooms

As promised, a little more on the quilts I entered in the Territory Quilts 2011 exhibition, the first is my Pink Blooms...which is very pink...I can't help it, I really love pink, I try hard not to buy pink fabric, but it keeps on leaping into the shopping bag...I was going to take a photo of all my pink fabric but it's too embarrassing, and besides, then I would have to put it all away again! So Pink Blooms...

Based on a pattern in the publication Q is for Quilt by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes...this quilt was started about 4 years ago and had been languishing unfinished in the cupboard as a lonely quilt top.
About two years ago, I got it out and pinned it together for quilting, and then put it back into the cupboard, which is a bad thing to do, but here in "the tropical north of oz" it is a really bad thing to do, because the humidity makes the pins go rusty....but I was really lucky with this quilt as there was only one or two pins that got rusty and they happened to be near the edge where the rust marks would be covered by the binding!

So Pink Blooms came out of the cupboard at the beginning of this year because I knew I needed to get the pins out, and I wanted a sample quilt to practise my quilting on before I started quilting Red Hot Basket.

I had quite a bit of fun doing the free motion quilting and practising some new quilting moves, such quilt writing....

I really love the log cabin baskets in this quilt...and obviously I was so happy with the quilting I decided I could enter the quilt into the exhibition!

The other quilt I entered into the exhibition was the Pam Holland Christmas Beetle, about three years about Pam Holland came to Darwin to run a two day workshop for the Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters, what a revelation this was me, a whole new way of doing applique... free motion applique and quilting all at the same time...you gotta love that.

Pam supplied us with the picture of the beetle (actually you could choose from a variety of insects), and we brought in our own fabrics for the beetle and background...notice there is no pink in this quilt!

I really enjoyed the creative process in learning this new technique, and her work is amazing...check it out at Pam Holland Designs...I love doing workshops...you just never know what little gems of interest you will pick up! Some of it is even quilt related!!

Territory Quilts all over and done with for another year...well done to the Exhibition Coordinators (Barbara and Mum), and the Exhibition committee, for organising another successful exhibition.

Have a great week...I have been busy this weekend so there is some fun stuff to show you next time.