More fun with Scraps...

On a roll with my scraps...I have swapped back to my pink scraps to progress my blocks from this quilt a long at 15 Minutes Play.

I really love this Hybrid Tea Rose block....

The background is a Kaffe shot cotton Storm...

...and looking gorgeous in Kaffe's "Grape" shot cotton...a whole quilt in these roses would be fab...but it's not on the agenda right now though...

And here are the roses with the star block, I am feeling like I am going to be happy with this quilt! Off to make a basket block with my pink scraps now!

Have fun sewing this weekend!

Scrappy Weekend

It all started when My Polka Dot Tree came home this weekend after being in a suitcase exhibition....

and I remembered I had a bag of selvages stuffed away some where in the scrap box....my job for weekend was to make up a 12x12 mini quilt for a swap over at Bumble Beans, to send to my secret partner by 26th November...(yikes now only 4 days away!)

But it's all good, I am almost ready...so I pulled out all those silly little scraps...you know the ones you agonise over whether you keep or throw! Kept the green ones out...and stuffed the rest back into the bag....then I pulled out my selvages...sob...hard to part with...and had some fun...

I built the background with the selvages layering, and stitching them on over the wadding and backing...kind of like quilt as you go! Then I sewed up all the silly little scraps, and made a christmas tree template.....and ta dah...mini quilt...

The tree was fused on with fusible webbing, and zig zagged on...I had so much fun...I made two!

Just the binding to go!

Tropical Run up to Christmas!

Yes, it's getting very tropical here in Darwin, Australia....loads of humidity and high temperatures...my new lounge room aircon is getting a good work out!

I have been having some success with getting projects done...my christmas checkerboard is quilted and looking nice and flat!

My garden is putting on a show, getting ready for the festive season!

Poinciana Tree

Double Hibiscus

Elephant Ear

Purdy Frangipani

Now don't go thinking I am some sort of gardener...I am too busy sewing...but luckily these plants grow like weeds here, and I enjoy them all the more for having put no effort into them...aren't they the best sort of plants!!

One Christmas project done....off to organise the Angels....Tammis Angels!

4x5 Modern Bee Swap - blocks received

Warning -  Small Whine: Did you know mail from the U.S to Australia is soooo slow...it used to take about 7 working days, now it seems to take 14+ working days, very frustrating...does anyone know why it has changed in the last twelve months?

The reason why I am whining about this is because I have participating in this fun swap on Flickr, and most of my partners are in the U.S...they would all be on Flickr saying how beautiful the blocks were that they had received and I would be waiting waiting waiting for mine to show up, but just when I was starting to worry that they were lost, they would appear in the mail box!

And I can say it was worth wait....I had said my favourite colours where red, orange and pink...and my partners have responded with blocks using red, orange and pink!

1. From Amber - www.wambers-whimsies.com, 2. From Kelly - www.kellylautenbach.typepad.com, 3. From Kathy, 4. From Tiffany - thiscraftyfox.blogspot.com/, 5. Fom Lindsay - www.lindsaysews.com, 6. 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee block

I have enrolled for another round of this swap....well... who makes a quilt with six blocks? One with 12 will be much better!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

What a thing! Being in my first year of blogging, I hadn't really heard of such a festival before...but check it out Amy's Creative Side, there are over 560 entries!

Because I hadn't prepared a specific quilt for this festival, I thought I would enter my very favourest quilt I have made...my Georgia Tulips...which I blogged about back in March.

At the time when I made this, I had been reading Georgia Quilts edited by Anita Zaleski Weinraub, and if you have ever seen this book there is the most fabulous red tulip quilt on the front cover, it really inspired me to make the quilt!

I busted out my Flea Market Fancy fabric and string pieced loads of panels, and then cut out the tulip "blades" from a template I had made up..it was loads of fun to make. 

The plains I used were all Kaffe shot cottons, which I think lend it an olde worlde look...I struggled with how to quilt it, but I decided it should be fairly unstructured and carefree...so I did butterflies, flowers, and an original scrolling vine design. I was pleased with the result, but all the threads that I had to pull through was a big pain in the ....

My beautiful quilt sits in a cupboard now, and I bring it out and touch it from time to time...but early next year I am getting a new lounge which I think this quilt should take pride of place on!