WIP Wednesday and Sew Kitschy

I am not an expert with paper piecing but I have been enjoying the Sew Kitschy blocks. I actually have a fabric collection that I am using for these blocks so I don't have to search through my scraps for the right colours. The teapot is April and I managed to catch up with the bowl and spoon. Now I have four done and I am all caught up.

I do like the In My Garden pp blocks but I am struggling a bit finding the right fabrics for flowers and birds that need to be a certain colour.

I am taking part in the Super Power blog hop that starts tomorrow. I was a bit concerned that I might have to zip down to mum's again because she had a virus of some sort and I didn't want her to be sick and by herself. Seems it was just a tummy bug type and only lasted 2 days. Hopefully she stays fine and I get my post sorted for the blog hop. My day is April 17th.

I am linking up with
WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and
Sew Kitschy at Quiet Play

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WIP Wednesday

I am so glad I have managed to make another owl. I am quite a few behind now but I plan to make two more next month and try to catch up. I have to wait six months to get the others out of storage but I should be all caught up and ready to put the quilt together by then. The BOM finishes in August.
For this one I cut his eye sections in one piece. The pattern has it in two pieces but it doesn't work out right. The second layer is from a floral fabric and the darker petals make cute eyebrows. I am using raw edge applique and machine buttonhole stitch.
You can see my blocks pinned here.

I have been working away at another dish cloth. The blackberry pattern is much slower than the lacy pattern. I am using smaller needles too to get a firmer cloth. The lacy one looks to be more holes than cloth now :D

Don't forget I am having a linky party for everyone working on Welcome to the North Pole next Wednesday 26th Feb. It will be great for everyone to see what others are up to.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced today.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

WIP Wednesday Go Wild Quilt

Fortunately I had lots of motivation to work on my Go Wild quilt since it was a Jan goal for Something Old, Something New. Before I had to pack up the machine I managed to get quite a lot done.
I finished the 4 border strips, sewing all the squares together.
I pieced the last 4 blocks, so now I have all 16 done.
I only managed to get two blocks appliqued ready for stitching, almost:

and I nearly finished the one block I started stitching.

That puts me a few blocks behind my January goal but I have kept this quilt with me so I can keep working on it while I wait for the new house to be built. A couple of other UFO's are in storage for 6 months.
I have also updated my Go Wild Garden diary blog.

Yesterday I got to visit Spotlight with a couple of vouchers that I had. Did you know that when you register your VIP membership online they send you a $10 voucher that can be used even on sale items? I have been a member for years but only just registered online.

I desperately need some more cotton dish cloths so I thought I would try something cheap. The Moda Vera Gelato is 50% acrylic and 50% cotton and quite a fine yarn. I used it double with size 6mm needles. I will use 5mm for the next one.

I need about 6 more. I have practically worn out my 3 favourite small ones. They are meant to be cream but they look a bit grey now.
Here is dish cloth one from this pattern. It is very soft but cleaned nicely. Maybe a bit holey. I will try another pattern for the next one. Probably this one.

Today I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

WIP Wednesday Sew Kitschy BoM

I have been admiring all the lovely paper pieced blocks being sewn and decided I should seriously give it a go. I have gotten myself fairly well organised this year using Mom's Toolbelt printables so I feel I can work on several of the great BOMS I have found and keep it all organised. (My links to Mom's Toolbelt are affiliate links)

Sew Kitschy is a collection of fabulous kitchen appliances all paper pieced. I have just caught up and now have two blocks done. I only need to stitch 'Cookies' on the cookie jar.

It has been a lovely warm day here in Wide Bay. We have been here for a week now and it still feels a bit strange to be living in a new place but it feels really good to have selling the house behind me. I snapped this pretty sunset this evening.

I am linking up with the Sew Kitschy linky at Quiet Play
and also with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting
Val

Wip Wednesday - knitting for my 18" doll, a bag and a quilt.

I have a talent for cobbling together several different design ideas. Occasionally I come up with something different enough to be considered original. I saw the range of gorgeous knitted clothes made for dolls by Maggie and Kate Create and just had to attempt writing a pattern for my 18" doll along similar lines. It will be a long cable cardigan with a collar. The fashion concept is not mine but the pattern made for my doll will be my original pattern. So far I have only knitted the back but it looks nice.

I like to knit in my back room looking out on the yard. I can see the bird bath and lots of birds just hang about. The crows are a cute couple. They will come to the bird bath together and sometimes they just sit together. Here they are on the back fence. They sat here for nearly an hour just canoodling. Their nest is in a nearby tree. I don't think it is finished yet. The cockatoos have been visiting the bird bath too.

I keep a bird observation sheet. You can see it in the knitting photo. I got the idea from somewhere else and made it my own. If you use Pages on a Mac you can have my bird observations page.

The bag I am working on is also a mixture of ideas from others. I have all the pieces ready to sew.

I have used lots of features like the bag at Patchwork Pottery.
I have changed the top so the zipper will curve over like many of the zippy pouches I have pinned.
I have added a flat pouch on the back to hold my iPad at the ready. It just slips in. No zip top. Because I would also need room for my purse and lipstick I needed the bag to have depth so I kept the gusset for the bag section. I want to put it over my shoulder so I have a long strap like a messenger bag.
The applique dog I got from the beautiful designs at Paste. Denise Fiedler makes framed pictures using vintage printed pages cut into shapes. Here is my applique plan.

Because Christmas is unbelievably close I have kept working on my North Pole quilt. I finished stitching around the applique pieces on the third row and I did a bit more on the Santa row.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced this week.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

WIP Wednesday - North Pole update

I felt pretty pleased with myself for getting this quilt out to work on. I still may have a chance of getting it finished by Christmas.
I finished sewing down the truck shop, trimmed the 3 blocks and sewed them together. The wadding is on and I have to outline quilt all the houses and trees. To completely finish these two rows I have to do some stitched snow flakes.

I am still wondering what fabric I will use for a border. The next three rows are done on plain dark blue like sky. I think I would like to find a starry fabric for the border.

This week I worked on my gecko mat too. Here is a peak. It will be finished up for Friday.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced this week.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting.
Val

Go Wild Garden Quilt - WIP Wednesday

It feels good to get back to this quilt. I love all the projects in this book.
I prepared my applique sheets for easy tracing. I explain it in more detail in my quilt diary

Then made up one block ready for sewing. When I get my machine back from servicing I will be doing machine buttonhole stitch in purple embroidery thread. I am making 16 blocks instead of 12.

I have been very remiss with working on my quilts lately. I like order so I am getting back into a routine of working on a different quilt each week and posting twice a week. I feel like my quilt block pendants for GlassApplique are all under control now. Interestingly it is the photo taking that is the hardest and most time consuming part of setting up shop.

Once again all my fabric photos were a bit blurry so I took my laptop upstairs and checked each one as I took it. I don't think I took them any differently but all the new ones were fine!
Also there must be something up with my Flickr permissions because my Flickr photos don't show up as thumbnails for my blog. When I use a photo from my computer it shows up as a thumbnail in summaries. Things move so fast. As far as I know I set my Flickr photos so they could be pinned but I suppose I will have to check that too. I really want to put a 'pin it' button on my photos in my blog but I am always a bit nervous about changing the code in the template.

I did find out how to add meta tag keywords and meta tag author and a meta tag description to my blog. How to make some simple meta tag changes is here. You don't have to know much about computers to do it and it means people can find your blog more easily.

If you like reading my blog you should register to receive my posts in your email. I post twice a week and I am always sewing something new.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday this week over at Freshly Pieced

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

WIP: Cat Quilt

Such a flurry of activity since last Wednesday. I did a bit more on Nanna's Farm but great progress was made on the cat quilt. I now have some of the rows sewn together and when I make a note of what has been doe so far I feel like it is under control.

Bug Fabric had a great sale last week so I bought some cute cat fabric for the backing and cat words fabric for the 1st and 3rd borders. I probably should have bought another yard of the backing fabric but I so wanted the bird fabrics and I had to get a yard of each. Seven yards is the limit in the post pack before the postage jumps and I couldn't afford to add another seven yards. It worked out at about $7.55 per metre (since we talk in metres) even with postage. The bird fabrics are Nature's Walk Journal and Nature's Walk Birds by Clothworks. I will post pictures when I make something with them.

So far I have sewn two of the sides of 4 1/4 inch squares for the 2nd border and have the other two piles ready to sew. Ages ago I pieced the binding and ran it through my Simplicity binding and bias machine to fold it.

I have been doing quilt as you go by putting wadding on every block and quilting around the applique. It is quite easy to sew the blocks together and press the seam open. I will do the borders in strips with wadding and quilt them before sewing them on. I will then spray baste the backing on in one piece and stitch in the ditch down and across the blocks to hold the backing on place. The quilting is not as glamorous as long arm quilting but I like to do it myself.

I was looking at Pinterest and found a lovely Christmas quilt that comes in a book. With practiced ease I clicked over to The Book Depository UK and bought the book with Paypal. I didn't even have to move. I so love internet buying. I paid $15.39 and free postage.It's called Welcome to the North Pole. The picture will take you to their site.

I was wondering if anyone else had this design and would like to work on it during 2013. It is now my latest WIP . The pages are nearly all stuck together with drool. Not really. I like to keep my books like new. But I just love all the little houses.

This week I am linking up with:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

and Applique Thursday at A Quilting Reader's Garden

WIP Wednesday - Nanna's Farm

Applique is my favourite thing. I have been drawing pictures a lot lately and letting my catnip quilt languish on the floor in the spare room. I don't understand what is holding me back. But instead of trying to work it out I have pulled out Nanna's Farm and made a leap of progress from tracing elements onto fusible webbing to actually cutting material.

I have been putting it off because I didn't have enough fat quarters from the fabric list but yesterday I pulled out the four pieces of beige fabric I had (the pattern calls for 15 different ones) and cut out the 11 squares for the first column arranging them so it looked like that's how it is meant to be.
All the quilt blocks are so pretty and I love the way the design was inspired by Patchwork Pumpkin's nanna's dairy farm.

This is how it looked yesterday. I sewed the squares together and added the bias stem. I ironed on the flowers ready to take to quilting group.

I used invisifil and blind hem stitch to sew on the stem.

This is how it looks today. All the flowers are stitched on with narrow satin stitch and the yellow centres have been ironed on.

It must have been weighing heavily on me that I hadn't made a start on this quilt because I feel much better now and feel energised ready to tackle the catnip quilt as well.

Here is a shop photo of the finished quilt.

And a few close ups.

I am sure no one will mind me giving Patchwork Pumpkin a plug. They are having a great sale in December - buy a pattern get 3 fat quarters free. I will be having a look for sure.

I am hoping to have lots more progress to show next week.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. 

I have also discovered WOW on Esther's blog and have linked up there.