Black and white

I saw this pattern in a magazine months ago, me and my patchworking chum Irene decided to make it our project for one of our patchwork weekends. It's been a challenge finding just the right black and white fabrics, especially the white, some whites look too creamy placed alongside other more snowy whites. I was delighted to find the white and black versions of the number fabric going really cheap at the festival of quilts this year, I bought lots of yardage of both, they will do for many more quilts. I just eked out enough of the last border fabric, had to do a wee bit of frankensteining but I don't think it shows too much.
Once I master FMQ ing this will be one of the first babies to go under the machine!

Finishes for 2012

It's been a messy year, I was full of hope for 2012 and while I don't think it fulfilled its promise neither did it totally disappoint.
I felt during my treatment when I had lots of time off that I had clarified in my mind what direction I wanted to take quilt wise. I had lots of time to sew, going back to work and study full time was a bit of a shock. I felt during my treatment when I had lots of time off that I had clarified in my mind what direction I wanted to take quilt wise. I had lots of time to sew, going back to work and study full time was a bit of a shock. I think I now have more clarity, probably a lot to do with studying educational theory for my PG cert. Reading about surface and deep approaches to learning led me to think about my approaches to patchwork, mostly surface if truth be told. Well let 2013 be the year of a deeper approach. More in depth FMQ ing and less mindless joining in of any QAL which takes my fancy.
So with that resolution in mind, I will buy the Leah Day FMQ class from Craftsy and eventually crack the whole FMQ ing thing. My time off during treatment was great for getting my piecing loads better now my finishing needs attention.
So lets finish this post with some of the finishes I did in 2012.

Playing about

I have been playing about, making more changes, feeling restless. The digital photography course was good, but ... I am not a good photographer. It doesn't come naturally so I will keep trying to perfect it but I have a loooooong way to go.
So I will just plod along trying to make my photos better. The main thing I have been doing is catching up with my Flickr stream. Goodness I had been neglecting it a lot! And the more I had to upload the less inclined I felt like to do it.
Plus it wasn't helped by the completely useless apps for the iPad for Flickr. I have to say that's been my main bugbear with the iPad, the complete and utter useless photography apps. There are some great apps but you can't join them up? You can't access the photos in them from any of the Flickr apps which only seem to go to the official iPad photo storage. I may be missing something but this seems bonkers.
Anyhow, I found a new Flickr app, flickstackr I had to pay for it but it was under two pounds and it has just paid for itself. You can edit quickly and easily in upload mode, organising, tagging sorting is a breeze and it has a lovely flipboard style interface. Double plus good.
So here, apropos of nothing are some gratuitous photos, just because I can and they are all now lovingly sorted in Flickr.

The finished quilt from Bunny hill designs
scrappy Dresden quilt along.

My first two mini quilts from Moose on the porch it's a mini quilt along.
Now all I need to do is catch up with my naming of my farmers wife quilt along blocks ...


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Struggling

I was trying to find things to be grateful for today and struggled, really struggled. It's miserable, rain, cold, am on a train which looks like it is going to be late so I will miss my connection.
So I start looking through my pictures of blocks and finished quilts and realise I have a lot to be grateful for. Not least that I am still here and able to continue with a hobby that gives me so much pleasure.
I have finished off a few quilts recently and these two give me immense pleasure. They were the first quilt along online blocks I did when I started chemo last year. It was the Über fest QAL, quite a tight deadline there was one block per day, I choose to do it in batiks as I had a lot of batiks left over from an Amy Butler quilt I did.
I remember loving waiting to see when the blocks would benposted, it took my mind off what was going on and gave me a focus, thank you to the organisers for that.
I made the blocks into two quilts as I want to give them to Project Linus, I think a child will appreciate the bold colours and wild pattern. So here they are.

 
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saying goodbye

I love all my quilts, some more than others but I don't think there is one I don't like.
So it was with a heavy heart I took some quilts along to my new project Linus coordinator. When I was folding them up I realised I hadn't seen them for a while and I really didn't want to part with them. This batch had a couple of batik quilts in it, if you see my quilts you know I love colour and these have a whole lot of colour in them.
But when I got to see Nikki my new coordinator I realised I had done the right thing. One of the places she will be giving them too is a respite centre for children who have cancer. I can't actually write that without tears in my eyes. Having just come through six months of chemo myself it's hard to think of a child having to do so.
Anyhoo, these will hopefully give some comfort and cheer, they were made with a lot of love.
This is the top of one of the double bed sized quilts I made here are some more shots.




Now for the batiks! Get your sunglasses on!




This I think is my ultimate favourite of the batch, lovely and loud.

 

 

 

I hope they are enjoyed and bring some cheer.

I hit delete by mistake ...

Oh dear, lesson learned, never get slap happy with the delete button. Anyhow here is a shortened version of the post I deleted.
In and out quilt, from a pattern by Lisa Dinkelman from Seattle Quilt company in Aberdeen. Made during a fab weekend with chums!
First you choose the brightest Art Deco fabric and cut, and cut and cut,
Then you sew sashing to top and bottom of rectangles and layout according to pattern diagram,

Sew rows together, it comes up really quickly, main thing is to remember block placement, very important for overall look. You eventually end up with this:

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Calico quilt

This quilt was a block of the month quilt from Totally patched quilt shop in Bewdeley I dont think they do this BOM any more. I did it along with 2 chums, I loved doing it because there were so many different techniques in there, some i will do again, others - crazy pathchwork, i will give a wide berth. So a great quilt for trying new stuff. Also we were able to make it up in the quilt as you go method, my favourite for big quilts from now on I think.
Another bonus? well my husband likes it - calm colour palette, no big vibrant colours ....