crazy block

Another month has come so here is my block for the CQJP challenge for august. Think I might have been a little lazy with this  time, the centre flower is a little crochet flower and down in the bottom left hand corner was something i attempted on the embellishing machine  (can only improve). Only 4 left to do now hen will have to get the thinking cap on as to what to do with them all. There are a couple of Sharon`s stencil patterns here, a beaded dragonfly and of course more little bits of tatting. Over all I am quite pleased with it.

 It is also time for 3 more Tula Pink blocks. These are nos 31, 32 and 33.

pin cushions and more

Today I will share some pin cushions I have made recently,   they are nice little projects which stitch well whilst enjoying the sunshine in the garden

there are 3 star shaped ones,   2 made with 1.5" hexagons and the larger one with 2.5" ones. I found this tutorial on  the abyquilt blog. The small blue one is the same design but put together wrong so it came out flat instead of star shaped. The biscornu I think I have shared before on my biscornu collage.I rather like the green one below the biscornu made with 8 2" hexagons, this one I found on the  Lindlady blog. The oblong one I made years ago in the candlewick style and has been the one I have used a great deal. It is filled with sawdust so the pins do not rust. Think I have finally found someone who can give me some after a lot of searching, not sure if I will re stuff all the others or not, time will tell.. The pink and blue one is made from 60 degree diamonds that I found through a link on Anneliese `s blog the stitching lady, I am now doing one with 45 degrees and think this will come out longer. The final one under the large star is a whirly gig one from crazy mom quilts blog,  have just realised that I have got it sewn together wrong, the left hand bottom piece needs rotating,  will make another soon, hopefully correct this time.

I know I was given advice as to how to put a link on  to other sites so you can hop over to  from here but sorry cannot find the instructions, maybe one of you could let me know again and I will try not to lose it this time.

Here is my CQJP for july

  my flower for  july is the foxglove, I have lots in flower at the moment, all self seeded from next door,   the bees have been so busy visiting them. Only one or two are this pal lemon colour mostly they are purple but have stuck with my colour way and done the lemon one.I have also put Sharon`s stencils to good use,   they are a great buy and will have a play so I can make more of them but they only arrived the other day so rushed into them without looking at all her suggestions that I downloaded.  One of the best buys I have made for a while.The butterfly is rather blue but saw on this colour when I went to tropical World with Helen last month and thought I could get away with the colour as there is blue in the feather stitching and think it sort of pulls things together, likewise the tatted red piece in the bottom left hand corner linking up with the red in the top left hand corner.The snail was stitched as I am overrun with slugs and snails at the moment,   can`t pull pellets down as they are poisonous to the birds.

I also put together a rolling nine patch block which was in the popular patchwork magazine for june. Quite pleased with this one but would like to work out how to make it a smaller size as it measures 15"

crazy quilting

I have started on the embellishing of the january block, it is going slowly and thought I would share a couple of photos with you all.

  As you can see I have embroidered a flower in the centre block,  might do a flower  each month in the centre to link them together

 a few more bits added here, herringbone with detached chain,  my initials in stem stitch and the red/orange diamonds also stem stitch

The hollyhock I have added today, worked with the same thread as the diamonds.  The tatting I am not sure about, it might well be removed in the next few days or I might wait and see how the block grows. I do not want to do too much on it but there again I do not want to do too little.Another seam has also been stitched in knotted cretan stitch

Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Today I liquidised some leek and potato soup in the kenwood,   hurray I have finally conquered it,  have decided the liquidiser needed to be attached even if using the mixing bowl   well it seemed to work that way, lets hope next time it is as successful.  I have only had it about 18 years so it is about time I worked out what to do. Thank you for all your tips and advice.

CQJP update

thank you and thank you again for all the advice I have had since my last blog.

I am now feeling far more motivated and plan to do my blocks in green, various shades and embellish with additional colour, charms,tatting, maybe a little ribbon work which I have not done before and lots of stitching.

This morning I enthusiastically washed 21 fat quarters, 5 half metres lengths, one one metre length and quite a lot of small pieces I had dyed over the years, all these are in green but some have a bit of added colour and not all are plain so I do not think i will be able to use them all. After washing I spent what seemed like hours ironing them dry and steaming up the kitchen so i could not see out the window, all done now so no excuse for not moving on to starting the blocks. I plan to make all 12 together so will only have to embellish one each month, well at lest that is the plan.. Also washed the muslin I am going to use as the foundation Hurrah!!!

When the warmer weather comes I will wash the other pieces of fabric I have and then will know all is prepared, did not realise how much I had, just picking up fat quarters here and there, found there were 2 I had duplicated but that is not so bad as I bought the first pieces in the 90`s but never  knew how to progress till now.

Well it is New Year`s Eve here, I am afraid I will not be staying up to welcome the new year but wish you all a happy,joyous and content year ahead.

ponderings

We are fast approaching the new year and I have come up with one resolution,  in 1995 my late husband bought me a Kenwood food mixer, with liquidiser etc, well I still have not managed to work out how to use it, it did come with a video but no video player,   bring back the old manuals please!!  Two years ago I got in touch with Kenwood and told them it did not work, I press the button but nothing happens, well they said send it back which I did and they returned it saying it was in full working order,  still no success but 2013 is going to be when I get the confounded thing to start or the bin can have it!!!

Now fellow bloggers I have signed up to CQJP for 2013 but have not got a clue where to start, have asked one or two of you for advise but thought I would throw it open to everyone.  Do I need a theme? what size should I do? oh so many things I want to know.  I think I would like to make it into a hanging when finished so surely it needs to have something linking the blocks together, I thought maybe the blocks should all be the same but with different stitches but this seems a bit boring. From looking at other blocks plain colours seem to be the thing to use    oh dear have I bitten of more than I can chew??   Advise will be greatly appreciated and maybe then then creativity and inspiration will begin to work.

I was given some jelly roll templates from my daughters for Christmas, they are new to England and were demonstrated on create and craft tv channel, only available at the moment through the tv, They are from Australia so as I have a jelly roll I might do something with that whilst waiting for your advice for my CQJP

All the best to you all for 2013.