Here is my first birdie. It was quite tricky to put together but it turned out almost exactly 6 1/2" square.
Cheers,
Val
Here is my first birdie. It was quite tricky to put together but it turned out almost exactly 6 1/2" square.
Val
The bird block has so many little pieces. It took me 15mins or so to get the right pieces out of the folder and get one lined up ready to sew. Oh well. Some progress is better than none.
Val
I've started doing other things in the morning before I sew and write and this morning we went to the shops as well. It's nearly 4pm so a bit later than I intended.
I have finished the second bird in the nest block.
Val
I thought I better get on with the blocks so I finished cutting out and made the first of two bird in the nest blocks. Yesterday went by the way with family staying.
I finished the binding on the mini quilt this morning. I had to look up how to finish the ends of the binding again. I knew it was an ingenious method that I never would have thought of myself but I think it may be used in the quilting world. I know different people have different ways to finish their binding ends.
Here is my finished mini. Front...
I took a break from the cutting out and made a mini from the same pattern book. I used scraps from the kits. to do the appliqué and I needed som brown from my stash for the tree.
It's 8" square. The other minis I made had a backing that was stitched around and turned right side out. This time I am using a face washer that is part of a pile I decluttered from my bathroom cupboard yesterday.
I spray basted the top onto the face washer and did some echo quilting.
I will be putting binding on this one tomorrow. The borders and binding are some fabric I had in a bag. There was just enough.
Cheers,
Val
I'm not a fan of the cutting out. I managed 5 more fabrics from the list today. There are quite a few pieces that only need to be cut into one piece next so I guess another 2 days to get it done. I am only working for as long as I can concentrate on the measurements, which is about 40 mins or so.
It is also surprisingly hard on the hands and shoulders because I don't use my muscles in just that way very often. The first kit that I cut out I did over 2 days and I couldn't work out why my shoulder blade was so sore. Then it dawned on me that it was the cutting out. It was actually my left shoulder that was sore because I was pushing down hard on the ruler to hold it still while I cut.
It's just the fabrics on the right that I did today.
Val
I missed a day but that's OK. I wore my amethyst bracelets the last few days and my pearl and pink opal bracelets. They give me such pleasure and they come with affirmations to make me feel good about myself. I love making my own bracelets and looking up what powers they are supposed to have.
I give myself permission to rest and re-energise.
I feel fulfilled and I am happy with my life.
I am in harmony with my personal power.
This morning I just cut the pieces to make the appliqué block and sewed it together.
This afternoon I attached all the appliqué pieces.
Val
Just enough done to say I did something this morning.
I cut out only 3 different fabrics.
This week I picked up my quilting extras from the post office. I ordered them from the Quilting Bear.
I have a 12" rotating mat and a 6 1/2" square ruler.
I haven't used the rotating mat yet.
Last Quarter in the Southern Hemisphere |
Over the past few years I have been enable to link my energy levels to the phases of the moon. For the next 10 days or so I will have low energy. That is a fact that I have noticed over the years. I wondered why I seemed to go up and down all the time. I still don't know why exactly but my ups and downs coincide with the full moon and last quarter/new moon.
I don't attribute any magic to the moon but my scientific side thinks it possible that some people are affected by the moon cycle since we evolved with the moon cycle as part of our environment. I consider myself to be a highly sensitive person so maybe that is why I feel the affect of the moon cycle.
Anyway, the result is I feel unfocused and a little fragile and more likely to make stupid mistakes. So I am going slow and only doing what I feel comfortable working on. When I have high energy I am likely to be overconfident and make reckless mistakes. I look forward to the in between times.
Today I finished the appliqué block for April and cut out the fussy cut house pieces from the May kit.
Not much going on today. I didn't feel like I could focus on the free motion for the whole sky. I just did a bit of sky and around the flower and leaves.
I spent a few minutes sorting out the fabrics ready for cutting out the next kit. I have found that cutting out all at once leaves my arms and shoulders a bit sore so I will spread it out over three days this time.
Just some free motion quilting today. I did around the eggs and the bunnies and the house and butterfly. Then I did the grass.
I still have to do the sky and the plant.
The raw edge appliqué stitching didn't take long this morning so I added on the checker strip and the batting. I actually thought I had the things in the plan for today but when I looked I saw that I had written the strip and batting for tomorrow. Because I wrote it down last might I thought it was on today's agenda.
I don't usually look at my planner first thing because I pretty much do the same every day. Quilting, writing and doll dressmaking.
A pesky thing I noticed with my block is that it is 1/2" too narrow. No idea why. The green grass hill that is part of the appliqué is only 12" when it is supposed to be 12 1/2". I checked the pieces I cut and I have cut them smaller. The only explanation is that I read my cutting ruler wrong. But why is the precept grass only 12"? Oh well. I will have to fudge putting it together somehow. Even if I add a strip down the side.
These things happen :(
Cheers,
Val
Finally got the last of the 12 blocks done for April.
I now have two weeks of cat sitting. This is the lovely Miles.
I was a bit distracted this morning because I was thinking about finishing my latest doll dress pattern ready for publishing. I lost a bit of time while my daughter was visiting so I was a bit behind with my schedule for the pattern.
The pattern needs to go out today with the newsletter so it will bug me until it is done. I also knew that if I didn't do the quilt block first I probably wouldn't get back to it. Hence the distraction and the annoying mistake I had to correct in the basket block.
I got the bottom corner the wrong way round and had to unpick it.
Another basket block today.
Yesterday I listened to a minimalist expert tell me that it is wrong to want things. Yeah right. Like that goes down well with a quilter. I did think I needed to make my work table a bit neater so I put the dolls behind my computer and divided the table so quilting things were on one side and doll dressmaking things were on the other side. It's much nicer now.
I don't think I will ever be a minimalist! But I do like to have my things neatly arranged most of the time.
Cheers,
Val
I was a bit tired this morning so I decided to just tackle one of these basket blocks. The little HST are made by sewing diagonally across the two pieces of fabric then cutting it many times. The seams are a pain. They seem to go every which way. So just one block today.
I have to do 3 more basket blocks, free motion stitch the appliqué block and then quilt it. I already have the next kit but I won't be starting that until I finish this one.
Cheers,
Val
Today I did my quilting later so my sewing wouldn't disturb my visitors.
I have done the second two tulip blocks in pinks.
Val
I am working on the Bunny Knoll blocks. Each month has its own book of instructions with full colour photo of the items you can make. There is a set of items for each month that feature the theme for the month. Bunny Knoll has:
I am really enjoying seeing this quilt progress. I like working in the morning first thing after I get up. It seems so easy to get things done. Once I catch up with the April blocks I want to start doing a bit of this quilt then a bit of the Garden quilt I have pulled out to complete.
This is the Down Wander Lane quilt I am working on.
Because the kits are for the 12 small quilts I will have to do the outer border in two colours with the border fabric from two kits. The same with the binding. Once I get all the 12" blocks together I will play with the borders.
Today I cut the rest of the fabric and sewed up one 9 patch block and the appliqué block background. I also got out the pieces for the rest of the 9 patch blocks ready for tomorrow.
Val
Today I started the April kit. I have a few weeks to get this one done before the next kit arrives.
Val
Today I finished the binding on the cushion cover and tried it over one of my lounge cushions. I plan to keep this cover and use it only on the bed with the quilt. I will have enough spare blocks and backing to make 2 more cushions. That will leave me 81 blocks at the end to make a 54" square quilt just from the 6" blocks. I only need 3 of the 12 from each kit for the big quilt.
I got out the fabric for the April kit and piled it in order ready to cut tomorrow.
Val
The major downside of doing the quilting on the individual blocks is that each block shrinks a bit rather than the whole quilt. I also seem to have been a bot careless sewing on the strip at the bottom and it is quite crooked. Along with a bit of shrinking this has left me with nearly 1/4" of batting showing. I will have to be careful sewing the blocks together to make sure I catch all the raw edges.
They are left over because I only need three of the 12 that I got with the mini quilt kit to use in the big quilt. I completed the backing with a zip and now I am ready to bind the edges.