Having a Play!

Yesterday I finished up some swap pressies. Apart from some drama with a zip (accompanied by quite a few 'rude' words), I am fairly pleased with what I have made. I would love to share but I know the recipients are regular readers so no show and tell just yet.

Today I felt like starting something new so I had a little play with some Denyse Schmidt fabrics I have been hoarding for a while. Most of them came from Spotlight except for some bits of Flea Market Fancy I purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop.

I cut a 5 inch strip from each fabric then cut them into charm squares. These are from lots of different ranges which I hope will give a scrappy but not too clashing look. 

 

I am using them to make my October Schnibble, Joy Luck. I wasn't feeling enthused about this months' choices, Hubble or Bounce which are both larger sized quilts so decided to just do my own thing. 

 

I managed to piece the 60 Chinese Coins blocks and hope to piece them into rows after work tomorrow.  

We have a Winner!

Ok, nearly a week late! BUT we have a winner. Congratulations Maree ... the Speck pattern is all yours.

Maree (like me) is a fan of French General fabrics and thought they would work well with this pattern. Thanks to everyone who entered. I enjoyed reading all your fabric suggestions ... Vintage Modern and 1930's fabrics were mentioned frequently ... and just wish I had the time to make them all. 

Lately, I've been mostly working on gifts so all I can share are block 3 and 4 of the 2012 Designer Mystery BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop. Block 3 is called Weather Vane and was designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs.

Block 4 is called Breezy Afternoon and was designed by Aneela Hooey of Comfort Stitching. 

I love receiving these blocks in the mail each month. This years blocks seem a lot less complicated than last years and go together really quickly. Have a great week.

A Big Speck and a Little Giveaway

Once again I missed the A Year of  Schnibbles parade ... only a week late this time ... but better late than never. This month's pattern was Speck one of the new Little Bites series. These patterns are designed to use the new Moda mini 2 1/2 " charm squares. 

I choose to cut fabrics from my stash, mostly small scale florals and patterns. There's a lot of Sweet Shoppe mixed with some Lecien Old New 30s and a few other scraps.

 The white background fabric is Pam Kitty Ping Pong (what a great name!) by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods and I used one of the Sweet Shoppe prints for the border.

I made my quilt larger than the pattern ... 6 blocks by 6 blocks rather than 4 x 5. I hope the quilt inspector approves!

Now to the little giveaway ... the Speck pattern .. completely new and unopened. Luckily for you I somehow ended up with two so I have one to share.

  
To enter just leave a comment on this post... you can tell me what fabrics or colours you'd like to use to make your own Speck quilt or just say hi and where you're from. I'll pick a winner randomly on Monday 15th October. 

If you'd like to see more Speck quilts go over to Sherri or Sinta's blogs to see the October parades.

Scandinavian Rose Blocks

I am really enjoying these Scandinavian Rose blocks.

There was lots of satin stitch in this one which I had to do during daylight hours.

Back to school on Monday ... where did these two weeks off go? Today I plan to have a pottering day with lots of sewing and a few household jobs. Enjoy your day whatever you do.

A Day at the Park

This poor quilt has been waiting for it's binding since June! Finally it's finished and the day was right for some photos ... with lots of 'assistance' from Oliver, the resident quilt inspector!

 I received the fabrics and pattern as a kit from Sarah's Fig Tree Club.

 

 Strawberry Fields is still one of my favourite Fig Tree ranges and this quilt was quick and easy to piece. 

I love the large florals in the borders especially the one with the white background. 

I used the strawberry fabric, again on a white background, for the backing. 

Leanne quilted this one too. Yesterday I cut some fabric ready to start piecing Speck, this month's project for AYOS. Hoping to be back soon to show how it's looking.

Red and White Bag

This is a bag I made recently for a friend's birthday. She had requested something in red. Nearly all my red fabrics have white too so I hope she liked them.  The pictures were taken late afternoon and the reds look more muted than they really are.

I used a tutorial be Sherri of A Quilting Life. This is the second one of these bags I have made ...

and I'm sure it won't be the last. It is a beautiful sunny Spring day here in Penguin today. Hopefully the first of many more.

Dimestore

With all the busyness of eisteddfods and the end of term and the accompanying tiredness which always seems to envelop me, I missed the August Schnibble Parade over on Sherri and Sinta's blogs. Therefore 2 weeks late I present Dimestore.

I LOVED making this little quilt.

I used my favourite red on white spot from the Sweet Shoppe range for the background ...

and lots of pinks and reds for the sashings and blocks.

The pinks and reds are mostly Lakehouse fabrics including Annie's Farm Stand ... 

 

and Pam Kitty Morning.

There's also a little bit of Flower Sugar by Lecien.

 Where the blocks intersect, I used a spotty Japanese fabric that I purchased at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair from a store called Kelani.

So now I am waiting for this month's pattern to arrive. We are making Speck, one of Carrie's new Little Bites patterns.

After a few requests, I have turned off Comment Verification so I hope that makes it easier for those of you that were struggling with it. Have a great day.

Louise

Way down in deepest Africa by the shade of the bongo tree,

Lived an elephant, her name it was Louise ...

Well that's how the song my little preppies love to sing goes anyway.

I won this gorgeous creature made by the very talented Jodie of Ric-Rac during Janelle Winds' recent birthday celebrations.

She is so beautifully made.

I love the flower appliqued on her dress ...

 which is lined with pretty spotty fabric.

 Just look at those cute toes ..

 and nose!

 I am very happy Louise came to live with me.

A big thank you to Jodie and Janelle.

Tali's Quilt

My very special niece Tali recently turned 12. Tali's favourite colour is lime green, (just like me when I was her age!) so I had to make her a lime green quilt.

 

I used the Apple Crate quilt pattern from the Moda Bake Shop.

  

The greens are from lots of different ranges .. I have been collecting for quite a while ... and the white with a tiny green spot was a Quilt Soup fabric by Barbara Jones called Simply Sweet.

 

 On the back is Penny Lane by Deena Rutter for My Mind's Eye, a Riley Blake fabric. It is my favourite fabric in this quilt. The gorgeous quilting was done by my friend Leanne.

  Well, I made it to the end of term and am now enjoying school holidays. For the first few days I was still too 'brain dead' to do much stitching ... I just didn't have the concentration to do much at all. BUT now I am ready to get stuck into my HUGE pile of UFOs and start on some swap gifts that need to be completed between now and Christmas. This morning I read somewhere that it's less than 12 weeks to Christmas ... eeek. Have a great day wherever you are. I'll be back soon.