Up, Up and away

Guess what? Today, Mum and I are flying to the U.S. for the quilt festival in Houston...

But first we have 9 days in New York....so exciting...it's my first trip to the U.S., the woolies have been dusted off .... Mrs Billings' triangles cut...and reading glasses purchased, as sewing all those little hexagons has strained my eyes!

Last week I tried really hard to get my vintage holiday quilt finished...but with getting ready for the big trip I just couldn't get it done...but so this isn't a quilt free post I thought I would share progress...

Finally pushed through my fabric paralysis and selected a little Denyse Schmidt print for the sashing and border...

As you can see it almost done, only the top and bottom borders to go...they will have to wait now...till I get back from Houston...oh so exciting...talk to you in November :)

Vintage Holiday Quilt-a-long Blocks Done

Whoop whoop...finally finished the blocks from the Vintage Holiday quilt-a-long, I did two blocks in August then got distracted...the pieces for the remaining 10 blocks were cut out months ago.....plus the pieces for the Blogger's Block of the Month....it was driving me crazy with all these little piles of triangles and squares...and do you think I could remember the order of the blocks :( Note to self don't get over organised!

They are all quite cute!

Now I have gone into fabric paralysis over the sashing...hope to emerging from that soon!

However the decision on the outer border has been decided...see the pretty floral in the last photo...that's it!

Off to agonise over the sashing!

Vintage Holiday quilt-a-long

Before a quilter can start a new quilt-a-long they should make an attempt to catch up on other quilt-a-longs they have started...right?

Remember this one? That I embraced enthusiastically late last year...the Blogger's BOM...

There are twelve blocks in total...one a month...and I have done nothing on this since the beginning of the year....block 12 is due to be posted on the 25th of this month...so a big spurt of sewing is required to  catch up...well may be a small spurt to start with would suffice :)

Block 5 "Sands of time" by QuiltDad

Block 6 Star block by Diary of a Quilter

Quite pretty together I thought...so now my homework is done I can move start on the new Quilt-a-long Vintage Holiday...blogged about here.

My fabric stack for this project looks like this...

I am not sure if I will use all of them, but it gives you the idea of the palette the quilt will be made from.

Block 1...see the scissor print, I bought that as a fat quarter from Big W(Aussie variety store)...fancy that!!

Block 2

These little christmas ornaments are going to look very cute, 2 down...10 to go!

Yummy colours...two small distractions!

I have been a bit distracted this week with a couple things from online land....not hard when it comes to the world of fabric...one of the blogs I like to follow is Anna Marie Horner...firstly, it was because her fabrics are awesome, and yes a few of them may be in the stash cupboard...and secondly she doesn't confine her creativity to fabric design, she also does some beautiful embroidery work and tapestries...can you see where this is going...yes one of her tapestry designs from her online shop has appeared in my mail box :)

Isn't it fabulous....loads of lovely woolliness here...

Check out her blog post on the finished item, and some other designs she has coming out. Can't wait!

Now I have been a bit quiet on the quilt-a-long front this year...too many other commitments! But I have caved in to this one....The Vintage Holiday quilt-a-long...hosted by the Fabric Mutt (great blog name!) the perfect project to have ready for Christmas!

It's a pattern by Camille Roskelly (Thimbleblossoms)...you can get the pattern as a PDF version from her shop....for US$7.95

I have been through the stash and pulled some fun fabrics out...

The little vintage style floral is my inspiration piece...I have not used any traditional christmas fabrics but I think it should be lovely and festive anyway!

Are you interested in joining in? It starts 6th August...plenty of time to get organised :)