Christmas Checkerboard

Since my last post I have had 101 ideas for Christmas projects, but this week I have focused in on just one! I have made this fun checkerboard, using lots of lovely reds and greens that I showed last blog...

Cut up into little squares...

Not sure whether to leave it as is or try and incorporate the Tammis Angels!

Decisions...decisions!!

All in a Flurry!

What fun it was to bust out the Christmas fabrics this weekend, I have touched all the lovely reds and greens, and come up with some nice ideas.

For a little while now, I have been playing around with Dresden plates, you may have read previously here that five were made for a swap I was participating in....well whilst I was on a roll with the dresden template I also made up 4 dresden plates for myself, using Kate Spain's Flurry charm pack, and the Flowers in the Park Dresden table topper pattern from the Moda Bake Shop.

So this weekend I machine appliqued them onto the background, and pieced the blocks together with the sashing, from Kate Spain's previous range 12 Days of Christmas (thanks Mum!)...and ta daaa...one small quilt top done ready for me to quilt!

What's next I hear you ask...apart from quilting....well here are the lovely reds and greens I mentioned earlier......

....and I just can't wait to do some thing with this lovely Tamis Keefe panel!

FWQAL Blocks 13-16

Still struggling to get to the sewing machine! But luckily there is this lovely little quilt-a-long I can do when I have a little time to spare! Check out this cuties!

(13) Buckwheat

(14) Butterfly at the Crossroads

(15) Buzzards Roost

(16) Calico Puzzle

And here is a mosaic of all the little blocks together...I keep on trying not to use the warm colours like pink/red/purple, but they keep on creeping into my colour combos!

Are you looking forward to this weekend? I am having some fellow quilters over for an afternoon of sewing, and I am thinking about busting out the Christmas fabrics....yikes only 67 days to go!!!

Pink Scraps - a little twinkle!

Been struggling a bit lately to get to the sewing machine, but I managed to get back to my pink scraps, blogged about here, it's been fun turning made fabric like this...

into this...

and when I get time, I have these cut out and ready to go....

Have you tried playing with your scraps?

4x5 Modern Bee Swap - Dresden Plate

Lots of sewing got done this weekend just passed....five Dresden plate blocks for the swap I am participating in...the 4x5 Modern Bee Swap.

I have made up each of the blocks in the colour palate that my partners have requested...

For Lindsay who blogs @ www.lindsaysews.com

For Kelly who blogs @ www.kellylautenbach.typepad.com/

For Tiffany who blogs @ thiscraftyfox.blogspot.com/

For Amber who blogs @ www.wambers-whimsies.com

and for Cathy....

So far I have received two of the blocks from these girls, the rest will show up over the next couple of weeks, and they are looking lovely!

I loved making these Dresden Plates they came together so easily! And it was fun to work in the other colour palates...surprising that I had all of these fabrics waiting to be pulled from "The Stash"!

It's possible I might have too much fabric...but maybe I can squeeze a little more onto those shelves :)

Pink Scraps

This my 50th blog...fancy having so much to say about quilts! In honour the occasion I have given my blog a bit of a makeover...actually it was a bit of an accident...I was playing around with the template and the header and I kind of accidentally published it....I never said I knew what I was doing! Anyway I was happy with the result...what do you think?

Well finally the borders for my Peppermint Sparkle are done...here's a not so good photo of the completed top! Who knew pink was difficult to photograph?

So now to sandwich and raw edge applique...mmmm not sure when you will see this baby again!!

So of course after this quilt there was plenty of pink scraps, so I have been playing around "making fabric" this is what I have done so far...

Hey where did that green come from?

I am going to do a few of the blocks from the 15 minutes play blog...Block of the Month challenge...I am not going to do all of the blocks...but just have a play around with a few of my favs...what are you up to this week?

Bow - Wow...Max and Whiskers

In a brief break from blogs featuring pink fabric (Thank Goodness! Some of you are saying!), I had the pleasure of participating in a 12 hour "Quilt-In" with the local guild yesterday...the Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters...there were about 15 hearty souls to start with....by dinner time the numbers had dwindled so there was room to stretch out...I don't get to many of the guild's meetings so it was great to catch up with everyone and meet newer members.

I had changed my mind a hundred times over the last couple of weeks, as to what I should work on, then fate intervened, and the sister of my son's girlfriend, had twin boys on Thursday....Hamish and Lucas 2.25 Kilos and 1.75 kilos ....so tiny....they were 35 weeks old when born, and one of the boys had some breathing problems but the doctors said he would be fine. All of my children weighed around 4 kilos, actually the second child was 4.5 kilos, so big in comparision!

Anyway I digress...I love babies...so obviously it is the perfect opportunity to make baby quilts...so what is a great pattern to use when you are chattering at a 12 hour sewing? The split nine patch of course (sometimes it is called the Disappearing Nine Patch). Check out this charm pack and companion yardage of Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers.

How cute is this fabric? I made up 5 blocks (using 20 charms squares) using the white as the posts...

It looks very snazzy all sewn up....

Then I made up another 5 large nine patch blocks using an ochre for the posts....

The backs are pieced up, so it's all ready to pin and quilt....I probably could have pushed on yesterday and got the pinning done...but I think I was talking too much!

The quilts are 37" x 30"...if you like this pattern and haven't tried it yet, check out the tutorial here or here. Actually if you google disappearing nine patch there is so many links...including a youtube video!

Breaking News.... Over at Canton Village Quilt Works there is going to be a free Block of the Month over 12 months, it includes quilters from Australia and America...it's calling me! Help!