A little flirting, a few crumbs....

Finally I have got back to the BOM Vicki has put up on Tozz's Corner. This one is called Snowdrop Trickles. It was nice to do some needleturn again.

Following on from my post on Stash Manicure the other day, I thought I would show you the 'crumbs' I mentioned when I talked about my scrap pile...
Here is a picture of my Crumbs Quilt I have put together (another flimsy, still waiting for quilting and finishing - sigh).

I made the crumbs squares as Leaders and Enders; instead of cutting the thread as I finish a seam, I sew a couple of scraps together, adding to them until I have a 4 1/2 inch square. A friend and I did a lot of these last year, we called ourselves obsessive crumbers, as at times we lost track of which project we were working on - the crumbs blocks, or the main project itself!!
Its so neat to look at each block and identify where the scraps came from.
Of course any piece of fabric larger than half inch square is OK to use - no wastage here!!

Below shows 9 of my crumbs blocks joined together and sashed.

I think this was my record - 12 fabrics in one square!!

STOP PRESS!!! Great Minds Think Alike.....Leeanne, my Obsessive Crumber friend, has just done a post about her crumbs quilt too - hers is quilted and bound!! Head over to her blog to view it.
ANOTHER FOOTNOTE!! Sorry, I should have mentioned that the inspiration for the crumbs came from Bonnie Hunter's fabulous Quiltville site

I've been invited!!!!

Can you believe it?... I've been invited to write a post on STASH MANICURE!!! 

If you haven't been there before, you need to know about it... it has lots of cool ideas and discussions about that most favourite and fabulous topic - fabric and quilting!!

Head on over to see what I have to say!!!
FOOTNOTE - my post is called "My Stash"

Lucky me!!

 My evening project for this week has been the third block of Lynette Anderson's My Garden — ta dah!!

Here it is finished!! It really is lovely but I'm thinking that my satin stitched hearts are a bit too naive (in other words, my stitching is not up to scratch!!). I think maybe that after looking at it for a few days, I'll get annoyed with them and may just decide to replace them with some running stitch hearts...... we'll see.

Isn't it neat the friendships you make in bloggy land? And I also love how one thing lead to another which leads to another...and so on....
Firstly it was so exciting that I won a giveaway on Di's blog !! Her posts are always fun and interesting to read and her giveaway competition was a good laugh (I fold my undies the same way Di folds hers!!). It was SO COOL to receive a pack of Moda charm squares in the post from her. Aren't they just gorgeous :-)  - they are laid out on some fabric I bought to go with them....

As soon as I saw them I knew they would make a brilliant pinwheel quilt; and have been pondering lately exactly how I would do it... Yesterday on Freebies for Crafters there was a link for fast pinwheels using a charm pack..!! This sounded like me -  here's the first one; it really was quick and easy.

AND guess what else happened??!! Rae Ann from Cutie Pinwheel (and the famous Stash Manicure blog) and I had a little swap. Here is the parcel I received from her!! A cookbook, pretty little spoon, funky pen, a notepad...and guess what else.. a fat quarter of the most perfect fabric to go with Di's charm pack!!

SO fitting that fabric from Cutie Pinwheel will go into a pinwheel quilt!!  

So thank you to the ladies mentioned for sharing their happiness, and thank you to everyone else who visits, comments and inspires and those who have great blogs that I visit, read and get inspired by.
Have a great Sunday everyone!!

A flimsy in use....

Well, it's still only a flimsy but it's being used... some kind person in our household thought the wee man needed a bit of comfort.........

The unfinished top is a mystery BOM I did last year through Susan-Claire's website.  It was designed as a Christmas quilt with stars and angels but I decided to do flowers and cats instead. I really like it and wish I would get myself organised to finish it!!
Please excuse the photo quality... there was a bit of a breeze....

...and I had a cat to contend with....

(see the paw?)

~~Hope everyone is having a great week~~

Blooming Wednesday

Only a little to report this week!! Here's is today's bloom....pretty in pink.

I've also finally worked out how to put mine together (with a little help from my latest Quiltmania magazine). I will sew three white hexies to the top of each flower like this—

— then I can shuffle the flowers around and join them up as the colour combinations dictate.

I've also decided to join them in sets of just 4 for now; so that as I introduce new fabrics they can be scattered throughout the quilt, rather than clustered together because the first fabrics used are already  joined up (if that makes sense!!).

Below is the latest on my 'pretties-hexieflowers'... I think I promised a few weeks ago to show you the finished article...can't do that yet sorry, but I will get there!!

Thank you for visiting... I'm off to have a look at some more Wednesday Gardeners.... happy sewing everyone!!

My weekend..including a finish!

Some of my friends went off for a (patchworking) retreat this weekend out at the beach, but because of these................

.....................I stayed behind.
However, YD and ED were both home so they were put on farm duties for a few hours and I was able to be shopkeeper at my favourite quilt shop. The things we do so friends can retreat!

When I got home someone had been baking.... 

When I got the chance, I retreated into my 'cave' and did a bit of sewing. I finished a journal cover I had started a while ago.....

The stitchery is one from Brenda Ryan which she put up for us on her blog...sweet isn't she?

I put the older calves outside for their first taste of freedom... (not counting an escape episode a few days ago). I just love watching their first time out on the grass... they just run...

and run..

and run... until it all gets too much and they stop for a rest!

I completed another hexie flower, and cut some more hexagons, but didn't quite get them prepped ready for the week.

So in spite of not retreating, — I had a good weekend  :-) but I am hoping next time I can join in!!

Catalicious

Here is Block 5 of Bronwyn Hayes' Catalicious BOM. I really like the buttonhole stitch for the flowers and blanket edging. I'm only one month behind on this BOM now... but as you can see below I have started the next one so should be caught up soon!

I thought I could show you my latest little technique-discovery. I was reading somewhere about basting a quilt. The author said to cut a longish thread, pull only half of it through and baste with it. Come back to the other end of the thread and baste away in the opposite direction. I thought I would try this idea with my stitching.
Above I have started a new thread and am busy sewing away.
Underneath it is a long dingle-dangle thead, out of the way and waiting to be used (sometime I tack it loosely out of the way if it is being in an annoying mood).
In the next (bottom) photo you can see I have finished the stitching with the first half of the thread; I have threaded the second half (that was dingle-dangling below my work) and started a new patch of sewing in another direction.

This technique has been working really well for me; I have half the number of ends to tidy up and sew in at the back. I make sure I start in a spot that is in the middle of a pattern so I don't run out of places to go.
It's really good for this redwork / one colour stitching but I guess if you were multi-colouring it could be used in the odd place where there is a large amount of one colour.

Well that's my words of wisdom for today!! Hope you're all having a good weekend :-)
Happy sewing!!