crazy quilting, fabrics for projects,butterfly

I finished my CQJP january block yesterday,    well I say finished but I am not too happy with it,  mind you it is for Helen my daughter and she has chosen the fabrics threads etc,   grey is not a colour I like and there is very little about,  I did use silk paints on some to add a but of grey in the fabrics,   Helen and I both thought it needed another colour to lift it a bit and she chose the turquoise and dark blue, will see how it all goes together and I can always unpick or add more when it comes to putting them all together.

I also had a trip to York for fabric for projects for this year.  Did not have to buy them all fortunately,  here are photos of what I think I will use.

These are for the aiming for accuracy quilt that was a BOM last year it says 24 fat quarters and 3. 75 yards of contrast.   Well I  am not using 24 fabrics as the most any block uses is 12 fabrics and I plan to use 8 on that block,   I have dark brown as my contrast, wanted it darker but made do with what they had, not sure all these will be used, the second green from the top and third one from the next pile I also bought but the rest I already had.  Have thrown in some pink as I have 2 fabrics here that have the oranges and pinks in and they work well,  not so sure about the blue one but that has the other colours in it in the little motives,  also a little yellow has been added to the mix.  Will see how it goes when I start it.

These are for the Jennie Rayment quilt she is doing on the create and craft channel, it takes 4 colours and a contrast. I have got white with a leaf pattern on for the contrast and will abandon one of these other colours think it will be the floral one on the left. This quilt has 9 blocks in it.   The red and yellow ones I had to purchase along with the white contrast one,   sorry do not seem to have got that in the photo

I disturbed this poor butterfly the other day,  it must have had such a shock, I did not know it was hibernating in my spare bedroom and I had the heating on for a treat and to dry the washing,  had to turn the radiator up in this room and the heat must have woken him up.   Now he is asleep again in a corner of the window,    how good was it for him to pose on my little pot teddy`s head.

hexie block, tula,quilting

Today I am posting a photo of the BOM for january in the hexie challenge.   I am not sure what I am going to have as a background for these blocks,  they need squares 15.5" so are quite large,  think I might go for cream/white as I will be doing the blocks in different colours using up what I have,  I have no idea what all the blocks will be like. I think this is the one problem about BOM`s when you  do not know what the block is like until it is released.

I rather like my multi coloured snowflake

Here I have taken a photo of it on top of a largish hexie flower block

The lounge floor is today covered with the remaining 76 blocks from the Tula sampler,   have not arranged them in any order, I have 10 rows with 7 blocks on each and 6 extra blocks so think I might make one more so it will be 11 by 7,   or maybe I might remake the 16 blocks which I have put together in the batik quilt    well maybe not! This way I would have a quilt using all 100 blocks,   the more I think about it the more I think I might do it, must check I have enough black fabric first.

quite pleased with this 

Now for the slash and stack piece,  yesterday I hand quilted it,   I drew circles randomly over it and around the edge a few half circles.  I used gutermans hand quilting cotton in yellow.   Now I have 2 fingers on each hand the worse for wear from being pricked with the needle,  I do try and wear a thimble on my right hand but it is not very successful,  I feel they need to be longer as they do not stay on too well and I always feel I need to push them further onto my finger but there is not the room to do it.   Will need to wash the work when I have added the binding to remove all traces of blood and also the pencil lines.  I am planning to use some dark turquoise to bind it with.

Yesterday we had our first snow of the winter,  it only lasted for abut 5 minutes but the flakes were pretty big,  I thought looking at the sky in the morning that we might get snow but it had not been forcasted.

economy blocks, CQJP blocks, projects for 2014,

I seem to have got a bit carried away this week!  Having made some economy blocks and run out of scraps I then launched into some fat quarters and completed another set so now have 100 blocks.

not sure what will happen to them all now,  I expect they will be put in a box or bag  for a while till I decide whether to make them into one big quilt , will also  have to consider whether to add sashing or not, I expect that will depend on how big I want it to be.   decisions decisions.

I have also constructed the 12 blocks for my CQJP and Helen called yesterday to approve them! Not sure what I would have said and done if they did not meet her expectations,   probably told her to do it herself

I hope it is not going to be too pink!  have included a bit of grey but this is what she asked for. The stitching and embellishments she wants in the same colours, will see how it materialises. Glad I have them all made.

Now to my projects for 2014

I did not realise till I sat down what I had committed myself to.

1. finish of the Tula Pink challenge

2  CQJP 2014

3  do something with the economy blocks

4  quilt the stack and slash wallhanging

5  I have signed up to the hexie BOM for this year.

6  Have the chicken run blocks from R Glewe to do, these are foundation pieced so will have to master foundation piecing first, there are only 3 in the series.

7  I have just bought the instructions for the aiming for accuracy 2013 quilt, this really appeals as it has blocks of different sizes which I have wanted to do for a while.

8  Craftsy BOM with Laura Nownes from 2013 is also on the list, this has 10 not 12 blocks but this is one project I might pass on.

9   Craftsy Mickey Depre pieced hexies project.

10  I could not resist buying the hardanger SAL from Mabel   (sorry not sure of her surname)

11  Last but not least is the round robin I joined with embroidery friends, not sure what has happened with this as so far I have only had 3 to stitch on, it seems to have come to a standstill, hopefully the lady holding it up  will be in touch soon.

numbers 6,7,8,9,and 10 have not even been started yet

Well I think that is it but no doubt I will see other things I want to do too.

Tomorrow I am at the modern quilters group meeting.  I have bought a tablet as we are going to be shown how to use pinterest and similar sites, not having an ipad, lap top or modern phone I would not have been able to take part so with tablet in hand I will boldly attempt to follow what we are told,   do not hold out for much though as these contraptions are all a bit beyond me,  will make plenty of notes so hopefully will get the knack in the end.  I am also hoping to get some advice on my stack and slash quilting, have got some yellow hand quilting cotton to use,   struggled to find the cotton and when I did could not get the colour I wanted, Gutermans is the only make I could find and they do not do a large range but I think the yellow will work

Will let you know how tomorrow  goes 

economy blocks, Tula, Greek crosses

I am today posting the last 4 of the 100 blocks from the Tula Pink sampler.  I have still to do something with 75 of them and the 15 that I have sashed and joined together are no further on than having the batting and backing attached and tacked together.

97

98

99

100   all done!!

This week I have made some economy blocks following a tutorial on Rita`s blog Red Pepper Quilts.  I was using up the few scraps I had that were big enough and ended up with 51    5.5" squares.  Think I will need to make at least 19 more but preferably another 49 before I can make it into a quilt so it is now on back burner till I have more fabric I can use.  I have enjoyed doing these as they are only simple and  only took a day and a half which is quick for me. One has not had its  photo taken as I found it on the floor later!

I follow Sarah at http://sewmeblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/bee-blessed-january-2014.html  hope I have the link right!  She was asking for some Greek cross blocks so thought I would have a go and made some which have found their way to Ireland.  

not sure what has happened here, there are only 5 blocks really but the collage has put the first one in twice.  I have sent 4 to Sarah and kept one as a reference for myself in case I want to do some more.

Sorry the link does not seem to have worked but I did try.

Being quite new to patchwork I was surprised how so many patchworkers did not seem to complete quilts but had so many UFO`s,   when I was just doing my hardanger and things I only worked on one project at a time usually and did not start another till the one I was doing was complete,     now I understand why patchworkers work  in a different way having 2 quilts waiting to be quilted and lots of assorted blocks which I keep in a large hat box. not sure what they are waiting for!

tablecloth

Today I thought I would share a cloth with you that I made many years ago and found in the drawer under my bed whilst searching for another cloth. It is now on the dining room table, well in the centre of the table as it is only 32" square.  I was given this with less than one corner done but cannot remember who it was from. Might even have found it in a charity shop or similar but I think it was more likely given to me by an elderly lady who could no longer see,   hang on as I wrack by brain I have a vague motion it might have been one Granny started, she passed away in 1956 and when I grew up and showed an interest in stitchery Mum gave me quite a few things Granny had done  ( Dad`s Mum) my Mum was not a stitcher.. I enjoyed doing it, it is the only piece of cut work I have done, when I look closely I can see errors but it has stood up to washing a few times so has not done badly.
It is not raining today so have hung it on tine line to photo

Last year I also had a go at a slash and stack hanging, I though I had blogged about this before but can find no trace of it so it must have been in my dreams.I followed a video on justhands-ontv which was very instructive.

I have put a narrow border in lime green around it as there are tiny areas of lime in the fabrics,  I did have a dark turquoise wider border on too but did not like it, prefer just a narrow one. the backing is turquoise with white spots.  The batting is one with a sort of sticky side to it, I have this on the top with the quilt on it, not sure if this is correct.  It is all tacked ready for quilting but still cannot decide how to tackle it,   would prefer to do it by hand but as to what colour thread and what pattern  I have no idea. Advice and suggestions please

This is a photo taken during the summer before border etc was added, it shows the colours better as it was a sunny day.

I have added another photo for my CQJP for 2103 that I took in the garden this morning too as the colours are more true than the one I put on my previous blog