February North Pole QAL

What a fun quilt this is. I worked hard on two more of my 12 inch blocks and now have three sewn together. I have a couple more trees to put on then I will put on the wadding and do a bit of outline quilting maybe and a few swirls in the snowy sky. I will also add some hand stitched simple snow flakes in Pearl cotton No 5.
I am feeling decidedly weary but every visible part of the house is clean all at the same moment in time. Even after all the days we have spent cleaning and tidying we both spent another 3 hours this morning. Anyway, I have just taken a few snaps with my iPad of the blocks on my sewing table.

I have decided that I will write the house and shop names on with fabric pen. I am not very good at small writing in embroidery.
I know some of the group have done a bit more this month. Please put a link to your post in the linky below. This makes it easier for everyone to check out our progress.
Happy Quilting,
Val

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January North Pole QAL

Here we are at the end of January already but I know some of the quilt-alongers have already done some of the blocks. The schedule calls for getting your fabrics organised by the end of January but it never hurts to get a bit ahead of the schedule. If you are anything like me something new seems to pop up that has to be started :)

One of you I know has signed up for a very cute BOM called Dolly and Me. I am so tempted. There are several shops selling it as pattern or kit.

Where was I? That's right Welcome to the North Pole. 

I need to stay on track. 

I pulled out all my Christmas fabrics because I wanted to make it bright and colourful. Also instead of dark blue backgrounds I have planned white for the bottom section and night sky blue for the top section with Santa's sleigh so it will be much lighter than the one in the book.

Because I wanted a quilt to go on a bed I had to make it a bit bigger. I also wanted a scenic look rather than disjointed blocks. I pulled out my 12 inch scrapbooking papers (the ones I have had for 15 years and have been eaten round the edges by silverfish) and started drawing up some blocks.

This is what I came up with. 

Rows 1 and 2

Rows 2 and 3

Rows 4 and 5 will be sky  with stars and Santa

Santa and his sleigh will probably be straight off the pattern because it is a bit hard to redraw it.

I wanted snow flake fabric but I didn't have any and I couldn't see just what I wanted on the internet so I settled for white. I think I will hand stitch some snowflakes on each block.

I started Mr and Mrs Clause's house and almost have it finished. The reason it is not finished is I found a wall hanging kit that I planned to make for my mum and just started it. It is cute sandpipers on a beach. I will show that one another time.

Almost finished

If you are quilting along add your name to the linky and link it up to your post about the quilt. 

If you are not in the QAL but you have some blocks or have made this quilt you are welcome to link to your post about them. Only link up if you have a post about the quilt Welcome to the North Pole.

Please leave a comment if you visit even if it is just Hi Val, just looking. If you have a blog I always like to look back. Also make sure you have an email connected to your profile so I can reply to your comments.

Happy Quilting,

Val

New Applique Patterns

I was very excited to win the lovely wall hanging design on Buzzing and Bumbling. A design from Linda's shop was the give away prize on her post in the In Your Words blog hop.

Fabulous isn't it! I have already printed off the pieces.
Thanks Linda. She has other nice designs for sale too.

The other pattern I have bought with a view to joining in the QAL is Summertime from the pattern spot.

You can find the post about it on The House on the Side of the Hill

I have just printed off the little house at the top to start today.
I chose some felts to match the picture and decided to stitch it with the machine just straight around the edges. I have discovered a use for the zipper foot that came with the machine. It is useless for putting in zippers when the zipper pull is anywhere near the stitching but it is great for edge stitching.

You can clip it on either side.

It holds the fabric firmly and I can guide it along the edge.

I am happy with how it looks so far.

Happy Quilting,
Val

North Pole Quilt a long - 2013 and now 2014

2014 update:
Lots of interest again so the SAL continues.
It seems the book is still available from Piece o' Cake for $16.95 USD plus postage. Scroll down the book list until you see it.
It is also still available from UK Book Depository $17.87 AUD with free shipping.

It is always more fun to work on a project together. Though we can't actually share the sewing we can show off what we have completed and encourage each other to do a bit each month.
Welcome to the North Pole is quite a large quilt with lots of applique. I am going to make mine with fusible webbing and machine outlining. I have never tried needle turn applique so I don't really know if it is harder to do.
If you want to complete the quilt for next Christmas it will mean two blocks a month but making a quilt is meant to be fun so there is no real need to do it in one year. It would make quite a comfortable two year project.

Here is a possible one year timetable.

February - Mr and Mrs Clause house and Trees & Reindeer
March - Elves' Recreation Centre and Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe
April - Elves' Bunkhouse and North Pole Carryout
May - Carl's Trucks / Delilah's Doll Shoppe and Three Trees
June - North Pole pole and The Marble Shop.
July - Royal Toy Works etc
August - Slick's Sleds and North Pole Bakery
September - Reindeer Barn and Stars at Night
October - Santa Delivers on Christmas Eve
November/December - border and finishing.

Having said all this I have changed the design quite a lot to suit myself so my quilt will be made of fifteen 12 inch blocks with more of a scenic feel like the table runner. I made the houses a bit bigger and have left out a couple. I found some pictures of polar bears and penguins that I will add too.
Depending on how I am going for time I would like to make the table runner as it is on the back cover using needle turn applique. Though I still might do the long straight bits with invisible hem stitch on the sewing machine. I have set myself a lot of cross stitch to do this year so I am thinking that will be enough hand sewing for me.
I am very excited to get started on this quilt. I bought a few more pretty Christmas fabrics for half price the other day. My quilt will be quite bright. I can't do any sewing til I get the background whites but I will start some house cutting out this month.

If anyone has the book and just wants to make some of the blocks we would love you to join in.

If you join in plan to do a blog post about your progress on the last Wednesday of each month.
For January we can share some pictures of fabrics we have chosen and any individual plans.

Happy Quilting,
Val