A new QAL

So with one QAL sadly nearing it's end another one must start. This times I will (with a Danish expression) 'smack two flies at once'. 

I saw this diamond chevron quilt that KD made and thought that would be a great pattern for a guy quilt. See, I've been planning to make my BIL a quilt for Christmas as my SIL and Nephew wont let him use their quilts *LOL*. Next thing I know KD is making a QAL. So I get to make a guy quilt and there's a bit of pressure to finish before Christmas. Two flies, ya all  ;)

So here it goes - my fabric selection:

The background is the light grey dotty fabric and the chevron lines will be the square fabric and the triangles the three different blues. Haven't quite decided on them all yet. I think the lighter of the blues will have to go.

Anyhow, at this point I'm thinking this could easily end up being a pretty awesome quilt...

Here's a picture of KD's fantastic quilt shamelessly borrowed from KD's blog:

Blogger's BOM last block

Oh happy day... This morning I finished my last Bloggers BOM block - the quilt-a-long hosted by  Jackie. This is the last block of the 12 blocks, which also means it's been a year since I started this project.  It's been so much fun and a great way to learn balancing colors, piecing and trimming. I can easily tell the blocks I first made from the later blocks.

Sarah Fielke choose the 'Star in a star' block. I loved the idea right away - even when I read the instructions and found out I was to piece triangles made from diagonally cut 1 7/8 inch squares. They are pretty small I should add! But besides feeling a bit clumsy with big hands, it went fine. And I have to say I think it goes perfectly with the rest of the blocks.

Each time the kids pass my design wall I force them to express just how much they like it... Evil mom as I am. No seriously, I love, love, love how it turned out.

As usual I did two blocks in each a cool and a warm pallette (the cool looks a bit lopsided- must just be the way it hangs on the design wall - in real life it is straight):

Wednesday WIP - new projects

A really quick WIP this week - as usual I'm running around like a mad woman and trying to meet some pretty hefty deadlines, parent meetings and a lot more. Busy days at my casa! Despite of that I have managed to start a few projects - or maybe - because of that. Sewing is just great for de-stressing and I actually get a lot of thinking done while sewing.

Anyways, on the the WIP's. This weekend I finally got started on a new quilt. It's made all from scraps (and some pretty odd ones too) but so far so good. I have pieced a few of the rows but I still need a couple of hours of uninterrupted sewing to really feel I'm getting somewhere. Below the layout. Hope to have more to show you next week  :)



Yesterday evening I made this months block for Bee Europa 2012. It's the Converging Corners block:

 

As usual I like to make something inspired from the bee block as a little extra thing to send with as a little fun gift. This month I decided to make a small bag from linnen and various scraps in the same colors as the block. It ended up a tad bigger than I planned (10"x12" unfolded) but it's actually a great sie e.g. for taking an EPP project on the road. Geez, almost want to keep it myself!

Linking up to Lee's:

In lack of general ability to focus... warm cool hst.

My sewing mojo must have gone hiking.... without asking me for permission. Lately I've found it difficult to make anything structured. I hesitate to cut into my 'nice' fabric feeling like this, so without much of a plan I just started cutting scrap blue and red 5" squares and ended up with a big bunch of half square triangles.  Lots of different styles in this... 30's fabric, Kaffe Fasset fabrics, lots of polka dots (well, can't go wrong with those), romantic prints, modern prints. You name it and I bet you it's in there.

Here's today in pictures:

At this point I was wondering what in the world I had imagined when I started cutting into the fabrics... and cursing my general lack of a structured approach:


Okay... Here I am starting to see some potential despite the above mentioned lack of a structured approach:


Here I'm clapping my hands in joy of the prospect of a potential warm/cold hst quilt and realising that the screaming yellow/orange does not do anything good for this particular quilt. :


And here's the final layout. I was almost beaming with excitement of just having done SOMETHING related to quilting:


Now it's nicely stacked in numbered piles and just waiting for me to get started with some piecing. Sometime soon would be nice :)

3x6 bee blocks

This weekend I finally finished the 3x6 bee blocks. I love making plans but seem to have a problem sticking to them. This bee is no exception. I spend several days plowing through my quilt books before the bee started and finally had two patterns picked out. Then as the bee members started to post the mosaics I changed my mind. Again… And again :)

I finally decided on Freshly Pieced ‘Hex around the block’ but in a less scrappy version. I love the scrappy lok but since the color options are limited I opted for the safe version of the block. I loved making them and might end up making lots more out of scraps for quilt project.









I also made an angel block for someone in another hive, who didn’t get all her blocks last quarter. It was a wonky hive… I’m not 100% pleased about this one but I was completely out of ideas of what to make and finally just decided just to make a wonky log cabin block. To make thinbgs worse Ella had asked for purple and tangarine - the two colors I have next to nothing in, so my stash was really put to the test on this block. 



The pictures are a bit dark and the usual poor flashy quality – I finished well past midnight and couldn’t help taking some pictures right away. Patience is a virtue. Too bad I don’t have any.