Monday, October 22, 2012

Polaroid Block Swap

Kristy from over at Quiet Play is hosting a fun block swap - Say Cheese! Polaroid Block Swap.

The object being to make up to 50 of these blocks, send them to her and then she will send you back the same number - but different ones.

You can follow the tut to make the blocks up here at Capitolaquilter.

I managed to sew most of my 50 blocks whilst I was happily chatting at Quilt Group and I am proud so say I am now a huge fan of chain piecing. It just makes it oh so much quicker.


It bugs me a tad that I am not able to trim them - but I understand that they will travel better untrimmed and also, they will be all uniform if you cut the ones that you received yourself.

I am hoping that I get enough Owls (6 or 9) to make my Mum a polaroid cushion for Christmas. I saw a lovely example the other day - but for the life of me, I now can't find it.  As for the remainder of the blocks that I get back - I will one day (Yes probably once the kids have left home and I am retired) make it into an I Spy kind of quilt.

Before I sign off, I just quickly want to share the gorgeous Vintage FQ's that I received from a swap that Jane hosted over at Where Jane Creates.


I already have a project in mind for these beauties - a simple and elegant bed runner with matching pillowslips! However, the pattern is in a book that I brought for the kidlets to give to me for my birthday - so alas, another few weeks worth of waiting.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

September blocks for Queen Bee #2

WOW - I can't believe how quickly our second part of our 3 week holiday went!
I can highly recommend staying at the Sea World Resort! Talk about mega kid friendly and not to mention the fact that I woke every morning listening to the Dolphins talking. 

Anyway, now that we are all back home and ready to hit mundane life again - it is a massive head down bum up effort for me to get all my blocks, BOM's, custom orders and Christmas presents up to date.

So as for last night's effort - two 12 1/2" blocks for Laura for the September Queen Bee #2.


The tutorial for these gorgeous blocks can be found here at Film in the Fridge! 

These blocks would be perfect for those that have a lot of scraps that they want to use up - as for me, I was able to use some scraps, but mostly had to cut into new bigger bits of fabric.  We won't talk about the $90 venture into Spotlight yesterday to buy a metre of white homespun!

Mind you making these, got me thinking that I would love to attempt a 4 x 4 size lap quilt with either a red & aqua colourway on white or a grey,black, yellow & white colourway on grey.  But then again - how awesome would this look in Christmas fabrics??????? 

Anyway, off to catch up on the last of the holiday washing and make a custom Feltie Owl.
Hope you have a great day :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Queen Bee #2 - Miss October!

Well it is October already and it is my turn to host the Queen Bee #2 for the month.

Being only new back on the patchworking scene, I have chosen a relatively simple block in hot purples or lime greens with black homespun! The finished quilt will become (hopefully) a christmas present for my little sister, as the simple quilt I made her when I was back in High School (EEK - some 20 years ago now) has become  well worn and ready to be retired.

Before I go into the construction of the block - I just want to say a huge thankyou to the lovely and talented Jane Kelly who drafted the block for me and gave me some do and don't pointers about bee blocks.


Fabrics:-
Black Homespun
Hot (Mega Bright) Purples (tone on tone and patterns are perfect)
Lime (Bright) Greens (tone on tone and patterns are perfect)

Each block is to be either purple and black or lime green and black.


Construction:-

From the feature fabric (either the purple or green) cut a 3 1/2" square.


Add 1 1/2" black strips to the sides of the 3 1/2" square.



Then add the 1 1/2" black strips to the top and the bottom of the 3 1/2" square.


You should now have a feature square bordered in black - measuring 5 1/2" finished.

Now on to the remainder of the block. Add improv pieces to the bordered feature square so that the square is more towards the corner of the finished block rather then in the centre. 


Starting with the adding the side pieces......


then by adding the bottom.....


and then the top.


Trim the block to 11", with the bordered feature square more towards a corner rather then in the centre of the finished block.



Now that I have made these two blocks up, I am rather excited about putting this quilt together and can't wait to see the other blocks that the Bee members make.