Project Life - Week 1

Over the last few months I have discovered this amazing thing called project life. Many people use the idea of project life in their own ways. But the point of project life for me is to document my life with a picture a day. Hopefully this will be a regular thing on my blog. Finding the time to blog is getting harder.

September 30 - October 1

Monday

Fancy family dinner, feels like Christmas.

Tuesday

Spring is just around the corner and so is my vegie garden.

Wednesday

Beautiful white cherry blossoms. I really love these trees

Thursday

My ferocious feline.

Friday

More fabric! start of a new project. More of this to come.

Friday Night Sew In

This is very late I know but the weekend was jammed packed with social events that its the only time I have had to sit down.

Friday night sew in has been and gone but I am a little disappointed to say that I didn't get a chance to sew on friday night instead I did my sewing on saturday at a quilting day we have once a month.

This is the finished pinwheels top that I have been promising to show you. It looks really cute! I have a small red and white spot for the backing. Its going to be adorable. 

 

This is my friend Rachels quilt. Its very pretty. I do love Cuzco.

 

And lucky last my mums quilt. I LOVE this quilt so much. She made it from her fabric sample books she had and it looks awesome! I might try weasel this one off her for my bed.

There were many more lovely quilts and blocks made that day but was hard to get snaps when I was trying to get my own project finished. 

Did you finish any projects over the weekend?

Lone Starbust Paper Pieced Star

My paper piecing addiction has just gone to a new level.

I made this beautiful scrappy lone starburst star using Anna's pattern from Six White Horses. I made it for my sister but it was very hard to let it go. Now onto making two more, one for my modern scrappy bits partner and one for a cushion for our spare room

 

 

I am going to finish those for friday night sew in which is being held this friday. If you want to participate or just see what everyone is working on then jump on over to Wendy's Blog, Sugarlane Quilts. Pop back on saturday to see how my blocks turn out. Hopefully just as pretty as the one above.

Are you participating in FNSI?

Retail Therapy

Living about three hours away from the nearest quilt store/spotlight can be quite a nuisance for a quilter or crafter. So you have to be very prepared, have plenty of thread and solid white homespun in my case. But there are days when I just want to go buy new farbic!

So that's where the lovely world of internet shopping comes in. I have become quite addicted that's for sure, there are times where I have to refrain and restrain myself.

This week I needed to square up my pinwheels and a shorter ruler, along with some new scissors and a new blade for my rotary cutter. Thanks Oz Quilts for my lovely goodies.




I do love getting parcels, Lyn my post lady is great and she will always let me know if I have a parcel. Thanks Lyn you are the best!

With my new 7.5" square I got a chance to square up my pinwheels




Its all coming to together. Come back in a few days to see the finished quilt.

Pinwheels

I made these block last year and got frustrated with them. I didn't know if to sash or not to sash. Well I have got them back out again and I am sashing them with a cute little aqua square were each corners meet. Its going to look darling.

 

I got the idea for these blocks from a video tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. They have some pretty awesom video tutorials.

 

 

 

I am just waiting on a little parcel with a new 7.5" square to square the blocks up and I can sew them together hopefully this weekend. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain and we can't get mail.

I bought a new square ruler because I like to square my blocks before putting a quilt together especially with a block like this one which has alot of seams that have been cut and put back together. 

Do you square your blocks?

Baby Quilt

So I have never made a baby quilt because I have never had the need to. Many of my friends and family are not at that stage of their life. But it just so happens that my partners sister had been expecting her third child so I was so excited!! Because now I had an excuse to make one. 

No one knew the sex so I had to wait till bub was born! After nine long months I got the news from across pond that it was a BOY! So online shopping I went for some boyish fabric. Btw if you have never looked at all the amazing fabric specifically for kids then you should. It makes me clucky just looking at it ( but for the wrong reason of course) I just want to make more quilts :). 

So after hours of window shopping I found one I thought would go great. 

Bungle jungle by Tim and beck. 

So I got 1 charm pack of that and 1 charm pack of moda Bella solids in white which made the whole quilt top come together a lot faster. 

I did a basic chevron pattern using HST and it came together in less then a few hours. I always forget to take process photos. 

I quilted this little baby myself which made it extra special. I had to add the red flannel on the back because this little beauty was going to the cold country of Ireland so this would have made it extra snugly. 

 Tip: if you are going to baste and quilt your own quilt I would recommend using way too many safety pins and a wool or cotton batting. 

My idea behind this is that if you are going to spend your hard earned money  and time on fabric and piecing and basting a quilt spend the extra money on the batting so that your quilt will be with you for a long time. I also find it easier to quilt with. Just my opinion though. 

So all wrapped up and sent off I hope that little bub enjoys it as much as I did making it. 

For now

- Jazz

Stars and Flying Geese

So I have been a little slack with my blogging. But I do have an excuse, I have been studying feverishly for my exams. But now I am on my one day break so I thought I should post something. So I thought I would show you the second quilt I made, mainly because its the only quilt I have with me. The rest are at my mums house waiting to be quilted.

So.... this quilt was my second quilt ever!! as you may know my boyfriend is Irish and when he got a hold of my first quilt and my mums and our neighbours he wanted one for himself. The only thing he wanted was a green quilt, can you believe it?? So i set out to make him a GREEN quilt (btw I don't really like his take on green). This is the result of his annoying and pestering efforts, a green Irish quilt!!

This quilt was so time consuming, but I LOVE it!! Yes I said I didn't like green, but this is an exception.

I got many funny looks from old time quilting friends who thought I was crazy making this quilt. But I did it and I love it. I snuggle up to it everynight.

These are my favourite two stars, the one below was my way of putting some colour (other then green) into the quilt.

 

Below was the backing of the quilt.

 

This quilt was the first quilt I made all by myself. I had to learn how to do flying geese and they were so hard the first few times, but they got easy after that. I did not quilt this one myself, do not think I could have if i tried, its HUGE! I don't know the exact measurements but it fits on a queen with hangover.

I hope you enjoy this post, come back soon as I will be showing of some new fabrics additions to my stash. 

p.s. Sorry for the bad photos, it was raining and the light was horrible, I tried every room possible!

My First Quilt

So I thought I would share my first quilt with anyone who is reading.

I made it when I was only 20. It was made with scraps from my mums fabric stash. 

I even quilted in the ditch myself. I have never quilted my own since this one. 

I always send it away to the lovely Betty, she does a better job then I would ever be able to do. 

I love the backing fabric, I have a little obsession with polka dots and strips, as you will notice with a quilt that I will show at a latter date. 

This quilt is a much loved couch quilt and is coming apart. 

I must not have done a great job with the quilting. 

But I love it and it is with me everywhere I go.

So just wanted to share. 

*Sorry for the bad photos, did not have the best lighting.