More of my Garden Quilt

Took some time off from calisthenic costume making to have some me time.  And this is what I did with that time - some more blocks for my Pam Bono quilt.

A pretty peachy one....

A bright Pink one....

And a rich Purple one....

I also made a cushion for youngest daughter's buddy.  It's in the club colours.  I hope the buddy likes it.

The buddy's name starts with a E.

And I started a painting after reading my current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

It's actually a lot darker than the pic shows.  When I get the next layer of paint on, I'll show you.

MSNP has kicked in again!

In the week leading up to Easter I was browsing some blogs and a number of people were making Dresden Plates blocks.  Now I have made 1 of these before and I quite liked the ease of the block and how nice it looked.  Since we were going away for a week over Easter, I was also thinking of what to take with me craft wise.  I was hoping hubby qould be off fishing and leave me to my own devices.

Looking at these blogs was when my MSNP kicked in.

I decided that I just HAD to make a Dresden Quilt.  I worked it all out - 16 squares with a smallish border, Suffolk Puff where the blocks meet each other and the border (that makes 25 of those) - size and all.

Since I decdied to have a black background and I needed wanted to have rainbow colours in each Plate, I knew I did not have the fabrics on hand.  So mucjh for trying to use the stash.  So off to the shop I went.

I came home with this:

And some plain Red and lots of plain Black.

I made my own templates:

Then I cut out some of the fabric:

 And sewed it up into this, just to check my template:

It worked and sat flat, so I made some more:

By this stage we had to come home early - the weather had turned really cold and when you are living in a small caravan with a canvas annex it's not pleasant.  Once home I spent the next day finishing off all the plates blades and then started on appliquing them to the background.  I also had to cut out the centres:

The first one complete looked like this.  Each plate is hand stitched down:

With some friends the quilt looks like this:

I played around with a folded fabric flower - not sure if I like it though.  Maybe it will be better if it's a bit bigger.

All 256 blades have been sewn together to make 16 Dresden Plates.  I have put just one colour every fourth blade and mixed up all the other blades in each plate.

I am going to quilt it in a quilt-as-you-go method and use a variggated thread (if I can find 1 I like); I have cut the front background pieces larger than the back background pieces.  This will give me a flap or sort of binding to sew down on the back.  Being all the one colour - Black - you most likely won't notice it anyway.  Whatever I end up putting at the block corners will be added after the quilt is together.

Painting

I bought a monthly magazine the other day just because it had instructions on how to paint a beachy/sea scene.  Like I don't have enough mags and books on the subject!

But it got me inspired to bring out the paints and the brushes again.  I think the end product is not too bad.  I used acrylics on a stretched canvas.  I will be donating it to one of the girls calisthenics clubs for their end of year concert raffle.

Then when I went shopping a few days later I came across a canvas with a frame and a pic lightly drawn on it.  Pic looked ok, so I bought it - $12 only - and have this morning finished painting it.  Way brighter than the pic given.  The paints given were terrible to use - great if you were dabbing them on but not if you were trying to sweep them on.  Not entirely sure I like this one.

Maybe it will look better once it is in it's frame.

Easter

I wish you a happy easter,
I wish you a happy easter,
I wish you a happy easter,
Seasons blessings to you.

Busy week

Last week I was going thru some of my computer files and I came across some downloads from Pam Bono.  I decided it was high time I made some of  them.  I chose her My Flower Patch patterns and this is what I have made so far.

A Peachy one....

A Blue one....

  A Purple one....

A Pink one....

and....

A Yellow one....

Each block is around 18 inches square and I have 7 more to go.  This is going to be 1 large quilt - it should be around 89 x 109 inches (225 x 270cm).  One I will definitely be sending off to have quilted.  The blocks go together really easily and quickly.  The hardest part is picking the fabric from my stash!  I intend only using fabric from the stash where at all possible - so far so good.  I think I will only have to buy greens and maybe a white for the border.  I have started with the easy blocks first - none of Pam's rectrangles yet...

So fabric is chosen for the next block - more pinks.  Off to sew...

Blessings

Busy Busy

Was a bit busy last week.  What with taking back on the treasurers job for the girls calisthenics club, I managed to get two quilt tops finished, backing sewn together and now they are just waiting to be quilted.  These I think I should do myself on my quilt frame.  That will make hubby really happy.  He made the frame a few years ago and I have hardly used it for it's intended purpose.  It has been used to store things on and under. 

So here is number 1.  It's made from new and recycled flannel fabrics.

It is going to have a red binding; the backing is also flannel so it should be nice and snuggly.

The other one I finished is a sudoku quilt top.

This was fun, yet frustrating to make.  Fun - to see how all the colours went together.  Frustrating when the blocks all got turned around and I had to sit and figure which way they went.  Not sure if the pic does the colours any justice.  They are really bright and the green is amost fluoro.  I am really pleased with how this turned out.

February Socks

A tiny bit late, but I have actually managed to get the red thigh high socks (stockings??) finished - well the first one anyway.  The other one of my pair of socks for February is a brown self stripe with a chevron pattern around the leg and down the top of the sock.  That one was a breeze to do.

It's a short ankle sock - they way i like them.

Close up of the pattern on the red stocking.

And in it's entirety....

I have tried it on and it fits well - comes up to nearly the top of my thigh so with a suspender I will be able to keep it up.

I am now onto month 3's socks - the first one is a blue self stripe 8ply using a pattern form the 1940's.  It is a staggered (spiral) rib pattern with no heel.  Should be interesting.