More Strings

Almost, almost there!

I must say this quilt top is taking its time to come together. 

Slowly, slooooowly but (hopefully!) surely. 

This is what it looks like now:

And this is what it looks like on the drawing board:

If you mix the blocks around a bit:

Hmmm.... decisions, decisions...

Happy sewing!

Pillow for Dad

Hullo hullo!

We had Father's Day a couple of weekends ago, so all of us (minus  Little Brother who is Away) got together to celebrate Dad.  

By coincidence it was also Nephew's 7th birthday, so we had a right party we did, hee! 

I wanted to give Dad something different this time, you know, other than the usual golf paraphernalia, books etc, so I hunkered down the day before and made this applique and patchwork pillow:

Now I'm usually very wary of applique as I'm absolutely useless at it, but for this pillow I had no such qualms because I know that Dad would not judge. Don't take my word for it, but what fun you will have when you throw caution to the wind!

My favorite bits are the Super Mario blocks. These are iron-ons - aren't they just adorable? They're Nephew's favorites too, so I thought I'd add them as a little surprise.

And a picture of the back:

I had another little iron on left, so I used this to make a label for the pillow on the back. Just before it was presented, we wrote our messages  on it with a waterproof pen.

Hope you like your pillow Dad, we love you - Muah!

P.S. If anyone's wondering, Nephew received a magnifying glass from his Auntie :-)

WIP : String Quilt

It's been a CRAZY (being polite here - seeing as is public blog - otherwise be using more colorful language) week at work, but I'm adamant to keep sewing.

Even if all I can manage is a block a day.

I suppose it's a way for me to make sure that I don't get overwhelmed with work stuff, a reminder that there are other things in life aside from mergers and liquidated damages and other seemingly pointless subjects that sometimes make me go "why oh why?".

And so, although progress on the Hello Betty string quilt is somewhat slow, progress there is:

My pile of string blocks is definitely growing, hurrah!

I've got 22 down to pat. 14 more blocks to go.

The Stork is Back!

You know what, I was getting a little worried for while.

You see, I've been making these little baby quilts, but the stork hasn't been visiting my end of the world for some time. I'm sure you've noticed that I've put some of them up for sale (baby quilts, not storks), hoping they'd find a good home.

But I'm soooo happy that in the last week, two little cuties were born!

So I've been able to gift 2 of my quilts away :-)

First we welcomed a baby girl at work, and everyone thought she'd like "Cupcake Party":

Then just a few days after, Mr Tan from down the road received his first grandson. I let Yummy Hubby pick out a gift and he thought "Sunny Baby" would do the trick nicely:

I hope the little angels enjoy my quilts as much as I've enjoyed making them.

Congratulations all around! Muah!

Big plans

Ooooh, I've so many things planned out, and I'm so excited!

Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day and only a fraction of those that I can dedicate to my sewing. Only one thing for it then, to take things on one by one, one block at a time.

So first up, I'm making a little string quilt. I've made string quilt blocks before from my stash, but those have been relegated to the back of the cupboard, being less than aesthetically pleasing. Hardly surprising,  I suppose, because they were test blocks.

For this particular quilt I'm starting I've fished out a honey bun, from Moda's Hello Betty, which has been sitting pretty at the top of my shelves for some time.

Lots of lovely, lovely strips of colour! Mmmmm....yum yum yum!

I'm making 8 inch blocks, and am using a white solid for the 'spine'. Here's one, all pieced and trimmed:

From my calculations, I'll need at least 36 of these before I can even think of piecing together a quilt top. Gosh, sounds like a lot doesn't it - where will I find the time?

Well, I'd better get on with it then, haven't I? Updates surely (fingers crossed) soon!

Peek-a-boo

Okay, I'm coming out from under my quilt now...

You know what I've discovered from my little mini blog-break?

That I'm A Fabric Case. Truly.

Staying away from this blog hasn't helped any. I'm still thinking of fabric at every spare moment. Still covetting, fantasising, still obsessed. (And secretly still accumulating stash). If I locked up my little sewing room, I think I'd still be playing with fabric, piecing, creating and quilting in my head.

As they always say: If you can't beat them, join them.

And so to join them I bravely go.

If only all of life's problems could be so sweet :-)