6 inch Block Swap

These have all been made and sent off to the lady coordinating the swap.  She has even posted that she has received them.  Yay for the postal services - Australian and US.

This is the first 40 I made.  I signed them in different ways using my old pigma pen.

This is the last 20 I made.  These is signed all the same -just around the edge of the centre square - using a new pen.  This pen is much finer than my old one.

So that is 60 blocks made for the swap.  Luckily I just happened to find a post that some people had pulled out - so I kept 4 for myself. 

I have 8 others that I made as test blocks to check the instructions and my sewing and I will make up 1 more in each of the colour ways above so I have a record of the blocks I made and sent away.  I should get 56 blocks back - and if my thinking is correct one of the return blocks will be 1 I made myself.  I don't want to have these blocks sitting around in a bag doing nothing but getting old, so I am going to sew them together with the test blocks plus the extra 'my record' blocks into some sort of a quilt.  So that will give me 56 blocks sent/received, 8 test blocks plus 11 'my record' blocks I will only have to make a few more to make a decent sized quilt.  Five should probably do it.  That would give me a quilt that measures 48" x 60" without any borders.  Once it is together it is not going to sit about as a flimsy either.  I will send it off to my local quilter.

But that is a long way off.  All the blocks don't have to be at the coordinators until the end of September and she won't be sending them out until October.

Patience must be practiced.

1 Poppy

that will be sent along - with some others I hope - to the people running the 5000 Poppies Project.  They are going to display 500 poppies this year at Federation Square in Melbourne on November 11 and then 5000 poppies on Anzac Day in 2015.  It is all to commemorate the 100th year of Australia's involvement with WW1 and to remember all the fallen diggers (Aussie soldiers for the unenlightened).

You can find their blog here - http://5000poppies.wordpress.com

A friend of mine posted about it on social media and it caught my interest - enough to try out one of the patterns available on the blog.  This was the resultant knitted poppy.

The fluffy black was a pain to work with and I don't think I will use it again.  It certainly didn't take long to make and I have over a ball of red in my yarn stash to use for them.  The next 1 I make I may do a couple of more rows to make it wider - just to mix things up a bit.  I may even try out the crochet pattern on their blog.

Cali Mums Quilting Bee - #2

Yesterday I helped 3 of the Cali mums pick out fabric for their Hexagon Lozenge quilts.  1 picked Xmas fabric, the other 2 purples/pinks.  The Xmas one will only be a table runner with 4 rounds around the centre.  That's all this mum is prepared to commit to.

One of the mum's used birthday money and the store discount that was happening at the time and spent more than what she was expecting.  She is doing the same layout as me, needs 29 fabrics in all but has only got 12 so far.  I think she may be re-thinking hers.  Or hers will be a long time in the making as money is rather tight for her.

It was really good helping these ladies with their fabric choices.  And I loved that I could pick fabrics - cause they let me do that - and not have to spend a thing.  Must be what personal shoppers feel like, spending other peoples money.

So on Thursday I will be helping them to cut out their first few hexis and then showing them how to sew them together.  Oh and we have another Mum interested too - so that's now 6 of the Cali Mums getting involved.

I have finished my first lozenge.

I'm really happy with the way it has turned out.  The pic has the lozenge on it's side.  It is about 39 inches (1m)  tall and 25 inches (63cm) wide.  When all finished the quilt will have 8 lozenges and so it will be around 79 inches x 75 inches (190 x 200cm), big enough for a queen size bed.

These are the other fabrics I have gotten together for the rest of my quilt.

I am not too sure about the grey looking one about 1/3 of the way down the pile.  But I had a look yesterday for a replacement and I can't find one.  Maybe I will have to use the wrong side as the right side.  I haven't looked at that yet.

The top 3 fabrics from this pic are destined to be the corners and the half lozenges.  There's a light purple in the other fabric pic that will be the centres of these sections.

Now I am not too sure on how I will make this.  Will I make all the lozenges and all the corner and side bits and then putting them together, or am I better off making each section and sewing it to the section next to it before moving on to the next section?  What do you think?  I know they all have to be done and then sewn together, but I wonder if I might feel like I am accomplishing more if they are sewn together as I went.

Decisions, decisions.

6" Block Swap

Yesterday, after a bit of tidying up of the dining room, I put my sewing machine back where it belongs and got out the next batch of swap blocks to finish.

I already had the geese section done and pressed so all I had to do was make up the block.  I now have 30 of these done.  That's me halfway.  I have another 6 weeks to go before that have to be in the mail, but I would really like to send them off at the end of August just to be on the safe side as far as postage goes.  They have to go to the US and I would hate for them to be late.

Update: July 27 - I have done another 10 of these and have cut out a further 10 waiting to be sewn together.  And I have signed all 40 blocks......  I just need to press those signed and trim them to the correct size - they are ever so slightly off.

Cali Mum's Quilting Bee

I have some definite participants for the Cali Mums Quilting Bee.  Five mum's have decided to give this a go.  One has already decided on her colour scheme - xmas - and another knows she wants to make one for her youngest with owls.

Today I did some colouring and have sent the mums a pic of it.  The colouring in is to give them an idea of what their quilt could look like.

Another of these ladies suggested we could collaborate on a quilt for the Cali Club to raffle.  I said maybe next year.  They need to learn with this one first before we go making one for someone to win.

Mind you I mentioned the raffle idea to the Fundraising lady - she thought it was brilliant and that it should be in club colours.  I wasn't too thrilled that idea - club colours are red and yellow.  But after a bit of thought I figured we could do a Grandmothers Garden type layout with red flowers and yellow centres, use different reds per flower.  I could even donate parts of my stash.

So now I am excited about that quilt too!!!  A couple of us could sit and do some cutting, bag up the pieces for each flower and then when someone wants to make one we show them how, give them a bag of bits and wait for it to be returned.  May have to see if we can get a cash donation for some wadding. 

Oh how I hate/love suggestions like these.

Another new start

I decided the other day to see if any of the Cali mum's would be interested in making a hand pieced hexagon quilt whilst they wait for their child's class to finish now that costumes are all done.  But then I figured that they should have something to look at before they decide whether or not to join in.

So I have started to make my own hexi quilt.  I am using 2 inch hexagons and am turning the back of the hexi over to the front - with batting in between - all stitched down by hand.  I am making lozenges and they will look kind of like this....

... although I am adding another round of hexagons.

My quilt when finished will be quite large - 200cm x 190cm approx.

I am using all soft coloured fabrics - a low volume quilt if you like.  The centre hexi of each lozenge and all the half lozenges and the corners will be the same pink mottly print.  The 8 lozenges will have 3 different fabric rounds - so that's 24 different fabrics.  I will use the same fabrics for the corners and the half lozenges.  Last night I made 6 hexi's and have sewn them together.  I am really liking the way it is turning out so far.  I'd say "only xx hexagons to go" but my brain can't work that out at the moment.  Let's just say it's a lot......

6" block swap - oh my

I have just checked the number of participants for this swap.  There are 60 of us!!!!!!

And the sign up doesn't close for a few days yet.

Yikes!!  I will be busy.