Christmas Quilt BOM

I recently pulled out my Christmas quilt to see if I could make some progress this year and get it finished before another Christmas goes past.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the last post about this quilt was August 2017. That is like a life time ago! 

I have got my 2022 goals sorted and finishing some sewing projects is one of my intentions this year.

I looked in the box and found that I have blocks 1 to 5 completed. This is very encouraging.

Block 6 was well under way and that is the one I am working on now.

I fused the little applique circles on and hope to stitch them in the next few days. 

There are lots of other things on my goals list for this year so I just want to fit in the quilt when I feel like it.

I have been procrastinating on the star block because I don't like the idea of cutting all the little triangles. However, I was doing some tidying and found my special triangle cutting ruler. You end up with triangles that have their long side on the straight grain. 

I have just paused to think where I stashed the ruler after finding it. I'm hoping it's in the draw of my cutting table. Let's check before going on..... What a relief it was right where I thought it was!

This is a beautiful small quilt and I really want to get it done this year. At least then I will have room for starting another BOM kit. I love getting all the fabric and instructions on where it all goes. I can design my own colour scheme but sometimes it is nice just to have it all set out for you.

Although I don't allocate a lot of my time to regular sewing projects (not doll clothes) I hope to consistently make progress on my UFO's throughout the year.

Happy Sewing,

Val

2017 Christmas BOM from Gum Valley Patchwork

I got an ad on my Facebook newsfeed for this lovely Christmas BoM called Christmas Delights. It started in April and we are now up to block 5.
I have just finished Block 3.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

My aim is to finish Block 4 before the end of August and then I will get blocks 5 and 6 done in September.
I am so proud of myself for keeping up so well. All of you who have started BoMs and got behind will know what I mean.

"The quilt was designed by Linda White and is exclusive to Gum Valley Patchwork. It uses Gail Pan's new 'All Things Christmas' fabric range along with some blenders."

Visit Gum Valley Patchwork online to see the finished quilt.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

A Bit More Piecing on "I Love My Cat"

It looks so much better with more pieces laid out. I have finished the 4 sides. I can't do the other two cats until I get my roll of fusible applique paper. I bought it online on Fishpond and it is coming from the UK. It worked out cheaper than buying it from an Australian seller.

I plan to make it a bit bigger with some borders.

It will look something like this. The rectangles in the last border will be made from the same fabrics in the quilt as much as possible.

I will put it aside for now while I wait for the applique paper. In the mean time I will be making some Splendid Sampler blocks.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Friday Night Sew In - I Love My Cat Quilt

I have been working on this one for a while. Since I was sorting all my scraps for the Splendid Sampler I decided to do a bit of this quilt as I went. (Just before posting I checked the post I did of the first of the cat blocks. I can't believe it was this time last year that I started this!)

I don't know what I was thinking when I put that dark blue check as part of a back ground block but it will end up blending in I think.

I carefully worked out where the dark, medium and light fabrics were placed and tried to stick to that layout even though my colours are completely different to the photo I am working from. I am sticking to red, green and brown.

I have matched the strengths of the fabrics to the design in the instructions. Where there is dark blue I have put a strong red. Then there are some light greens in mine and some medium red, green and brown.

Adding some applique hearts

I have done the top and bottom and a few of the in between bits.

I have just laid out the sides. I shuffled things around a bit until the patterns fit together OK. I tried to stick to the order of dark and medium and light as best I could from the photo. The dark strips are reds only with the light and medium being greens and browns.
I wasn't perfectly happy with this layout. I thought it looked a bit dark. I found some lighter left overs from the top and bottom that I have since substituted in. It made a big difference just putting in a few lighter strips.

I didn't do all this on Friday night. Luckily I don't have to juggle much with my sewing so this is how

far I have gotten over 4 days.

I hope everyone had a successful night. A big thank you to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew-In.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Stumpy gets very tired watching me work.