What I haven't told you is that DH and the kids have been away for a few days, hence I have the house to myself! Well I did have to work (another thing I hadn't told you) but I had a day and a half ALONE! I started by sewing the bottom strip on the Bugs in a bottle. And auditioned a few fabrics for borders...but I didn't like any of them.
So then I got out all the pieces of my charm pack star quilt, the one I started in February and haven't touched since. The idea was to have a pretty, pink quilt, but the red really jumps out, I am wondering if I should take them out? According to the book the finished size is 32.5" x 32.5", which is way too small for my needs. But the pattern cleverly requires you to purchase 2 charm packs of which you only use a bit of the second pack. So I spent some time cutting and stitching until I had enough units to make the quilt larger. The problem with this pattern is that you sew it in rows, not units so I need to be sure of the layout before I start sewing it together. So it is still on the floor, because the family came home and I had to revert to domestic reality and go and cook some dinner.
Today I was able to dig out the cot quit flimsy that my mother gifted to me over Easter. You can see the fabric behind it is the same that I was auditioning for the Bugs in a Bottle....a butterfly print. So colour and theme wise it matches perfectly with this little top. Ironically Mum had also given me the butterfly print as she hadn't wanted it, but I hadn't found a use for it, until now!
Mum also gave me the bit of blue that she had left over so I put a border on, which I think finished it off nicely. Of course it was then too wide for the backing, but I managed to find a nice fabric to match and extended the backing. That's as much as I got done, now that domestic bliss is back in full swing!
My mother also gifted me these three big rectangle wonky blocks, I folded them in half so I could show them all together. I think they will make a nice table runner. The table the blocks are on came from the folks as well, so a new table runner is appropriate.
I visited my friend Lisa over Easter. She gifted me with these cute panels - she was given them by another quilty friend, Kaye. There are lots of different designs, plenty to make a childs large lap quilt. I will have to play with them awhile to work out how to incorporate the small blocks with the larger ones.
We had a really social Easter and caught up with another friend of mine, Chris, who gifted me this ant print! I am now auditioning it as a border for the Bugs in the bottle top. Still contemplating how I can make the top bigger without buying more fabric! Mainly because I found a perfect blue star print for the back of my novelty star quilt...and it was already in my stash....so the digger backing I brought is now surplus to requirements! Well I am sure I will think of something, just not straight away!
That then made me determined to get out my cowboy fabric and see how it went with the backing print I brought. And it does match nicely, except there isn't enough to make a cot quilt! : ( I was sure I had cow and horse fabric, but couldn't find any fat quarters, but think they have been reduced to 6.5" squares, from when I was cutting novelty fabric up last year. I now have a lovely mess in the sewing room, but at least I have made some progress and certainly enjoyed myself!
Happy quilting, Sue SA.
So then I got out all the pieces of my charm pack star quilt, the one I started in February and haven't touched since. The idea was to have a pretty, pink quilt, but the red really jumps out, I am wondering if I should take them out? According to the book the finished size is 32.5" x 32.5", which is way too small for my needs. But the pattern cleverly requires you to purchase 2 charm packs of which you only use a bit of the second pack. So I spent some time cutting and stitching until I had enough units to make the quilt larger. The problem with this pattern is that you sew it in rows, not units so I need to be sure of the layout before I start sewing it together. So it is still on the floor, because the family came home and I had to revert to domestic reality and go and cook some dinner.
