All in a hard days work!

The colour isn't the best in this picture, but I got this great navy print with red and blue stars on it yesterday and sewed the final border on my version of Bonnie Hunters Story Time Stars this morning...while I was still in my PJ's!  LOL there is nothing like waking up with lots of sewing enthusiasm.

Bonnie Hunters Story-Time Stars pattern - my way!

 Then after reading a blog recently that talked about going with your motivation (rather then finishing UFOs) I talked myself into starting a new quilt!  This pattern came from Bug Jar Blog and is free, no connection to me, but to be fair to the blog owner she is trying to sell kits of insect fabric.  I have been collecting bug fabric, specifically ladybird prints for along time, although I haven't added any new of late.  So I decided that I had better make use of them now!   Like right now!  Well I did go and have my shower and get dressed first!

Bugs in a Jar quilt

I got all the novelty fabric out of the box and then realised I didn't have twenty different insect prints...I am hoping to beg, borrow or swap some with my quilting friends this week...but as you can see I already resorted to frogs, goldfish and mice in bottles!  I would have really loved some tadpoles, but alas I have never seen tadpole fabric!  So just a bit more background fabric to cut out, a bit more sewing and this top is nearly done!  Oh and a warning - this is my March Project.  I know your wondering what March has to do with bugs, well the ants have been going crazy here and I cannot put the washing out without them crawling up my leg!  A tenuous connection, but there you have it, I am up for cheating in my own challenge!

Happy quilting, Sue 

Stitching along...

This week DH was away and despite having first dibs on the remote control there was "nothing" to watch on TV!  So dragged out my Seven Sisters hand piecing project and stitched up a few more stars.

 This star has been finished for awhile, but I am unsure how I want to join the "sisters" together.  See how 

the next sister has a secondary pattern in the shirting just in the centre?  You don't get that look in the photo above...so I have to decide if I am going to use a contrasting or the same shirting in the outside of the block. Decisions, decisions!

 These are some of the stars I finished this week...the green, blue and chocolate brown stars...well the dark blue is nearly finished, if only I could find what I did with the last diamond!

 In this sister I made the grey/blue star, green, purple and blue stars this week, now just trying them out in a group.  The light is not the best, I really need to convince DH to come with me an choose a new light fitting - the single bulb one we have is hopeless.  

 The novelty star top got a red border...the red I choose has a tiny orange/red star print.  Now I am stuck for the final border, I want to make it bigger, but cannot find anything to match, mainly as the red is so 

strong, perhaps if I made it smaller?

These blocks I started last year (?) as a scrap quilt for my charity group.  I finally got the blocks together this week, but as you can see I ran out of the pink check.  Luckily when we found some more in the cupboard on Thursday, its the same size check but a softer pink.  Still I was very happy with this, its already got one block where I had to substitute fabric.  Not sure why this picture is so grainy?!  

Happy quilting Sue

I finished a wish list quilt!

I got Liam's quilt back from the long arm quilter (Elaine) Friday night.  It was then a mad rush to buy (who knows what I did with the left over border fabric?) binding fabric, cut, sew and iron it into place and get the label on this morning.

Elaine and I were stumped as to what would be an appropriate all over pattern to use, so she brought one especially for this quilt, how lucky am I!  Can you see the gorgeous checker flags she got!  How cool is that, and it just makes the border look great, much better then plain blue!

And for the back I used up the other dirt bike/motor-cross fabric that I had brought but not needed for the front.

Sorry about the picture, but I had it all hung on the clothesline only to discover the sun was behind me and causing shadows.  That's our "new" shed we had put in a year or two ago now, and lying on the ground in front of it is the little old shed we pulled down...and sold this weekend, yippee!

Liam's quilt left for its home in Western Victoria today on Granny Express Transport, along with this cot quilt I finished last year, that is going to friends that had a baby boy in February.  More sewing planned for day, trying to get a red border on the star quilt and maybe a few more humbug bags made,
happy quilting Sue SA.

A kids quilt or Ohio star?

I was a good girl and did the housework and washing BEFORE I hit the sewing room last weekend.  I thought I should do something with these Story Time Star blocks that I made, courtesy of Bonnie Hunter and her free pattern.

 So I choose a sashing, hum well I brought sashing as my stash options were too small and then I sewed the sashing on. Now I have been a quilter for 12 years so I don't have a good excuse, but sometimes you just want to stitch instead of "reverse sew"?! So instead of unpicking or resizing I just ignored the uneven size of these blocks and added sashing and cornerstones. (The cornerstone fabric is lots of colourful hot air balloons, looks much better in real life, I promise!)  The end result looks good so far, but I am sure that at some point in the future l am going to regret it... undoubtedly when it comes to the basting and its not flat?

 Then during the week I managed to sew the rows together and now I need to decide on a border?

The yellow fabric has little wheels on it, busy but fits the theme.  The red is the left over fabric from binding my French General quilt.  I don't think its bright enough?  But I am yet to decide if I will go with this busy roadworks fabric for the border or not?  I have heaps, must have been on sale! ;-)

And then I need to decide which category this top fits into ...on my wish list....so is it a kids quilt or an Ohio star?

Happy quilting, Sue.
PS still haven't tackled the mobile phone instruction book to download the pics from all day quilting, sorry promise to do that this weekend ...it's only a little book...bedtime reading perhaps?

PPS my Internet connection has been SO SLOW today that I managed to add the last few pieces into the sashing strips, and then sewed all the rows together on this top!  Its not mine, the blocks were donated to my charity group and I have just added the sashing and cornerstones.  I found this "job" when I started tidying my sewing room, because the computer was taking so long to add the photos to this post!  Yeah you guessed it, not much tidying up got done, there is always tomorrow! ;-)