20 blocks done!

And only 5 more then I am a silver Jane!

The past weeks blocks B-11 Melissa's Cross (it was nice to work with a colour OTHER than brown) A-5 Cathie's Campfire, A-3 Hunters Moon B-4 Chris' Soccer Field

D-13 Field of Dreams, B-1 Batchelor's Buttons and last weeks BOW C-10 Patriots Lantern

Last Weeks TOW was LS-12 Buttonhook.

Last weeks SBS block of the week, A-9 Chinese Coin.

Plodding Along!

Well I thought I was going great guns on DJ until I headed over to Janes blog!!
http://purrfectlyquilted.blogspot.com/ Well I guess I am handpiecing and Jane is machine piecing so it's a bit quicker, thats my excuse anyway and I am sticking to it, well done Jane. I must admit looking as A-9 Log Cabin I do feel tempted to FP by machine! Anyway I have completed the most recent blocks of the weeks, which was K-9 Scounts Honour in the DJ blocks


I also completed B-13 Four Corner Press, C-1 Trooper Greens Badge, A-7 Dad's Plaids and A-8 Florence Nightingale.

Last night I did H-12 Hannah Lou's hearts and tonight I have one already cut out exactly the same as mine for Catrin in Denmark who lost her son in Afghanistan. My needleturn skills are slowly returning, it helped I remembered to cut curved pieces on the bias.



BR-13 Argyle for the TOW challenge




and H-1 Log Cabin for Sylvias Bridal Sampler which was the BOW.



Not much else to report, in the workroom I have been busy trying to get through the edge to edge so I can catch up on my custom quilting.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Isabella is now two years old, doesn't time fly! Unfortunately she wasn't well on her birthday and she was a bit scared of Dora who made a special appearance. One of her presents was
the striped Hi-5 top she is wearing, she insisted on putting it on over her other clothes. Coco wore her pink headband and Russian Dolls dress and finally a photo of Bella when she was a real baby!



Bec and Bella Bella wants Dora to keep her distance!






Dora the Explorer and Coco Bean!


Baby Bella!

TRC Longwood!!!

Well I feel like I have run a marathon! I have finally finished the TOW challenge, the top right corner, Longwood all 57 pieces of it. I am pretty happy with it, I just need to work out the pressing for the handpiecing I need to press it a bit differently here and there so I don't lose the points in the pressing after I have worked so hard to get them in the first place. I did the small star area a bit differently to the book, I copied the piecing in the photo of the block (in the front of the book) so that I could piece the star rather than applique it.

Wow am I looking forward to going back to the normal little blocks.

Dear Jane and other things

Well at the moment I am rolling along on my Dear Jane journey. I have now completed 7 blocks and one triangle. I am trying to keep up with the block of the week and triangle of the week on the Dear Jane list. Above is A-6 Uncle Homer, M-11 Rickshaw, B-8 Water Lily (last weeks BOW) and B-3 Mirror Image. I am handpiecing the blocks although M-11 and Hills of J were foundation handpieced and I am not entirely happy with them. Since then I have Linda Franz http://www.lindafranz.com/ Quilted Diamonds books 1 and 2. Book 2 included a 2 hour dvd on handpiecing and is just fabulous so I have made the other blocks using her handpiecing methods.

Below is Hills of Jerusalem (last weeks TOW), A-1 Pinwheel Gone Awry, A-13 Starlight Starbright (my favorite so far) and this weeks BOW D-6 Challenge which was just as well as one of the corner kites is this weeks TOW and has around 55 pieces, I thought A-1 was challenging with only 28!

Sylvias Bridal Sampler

My book An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler arrived this week which is the first three novels in one, The Quilters Apprentice, Round Robin and Cross Country Quilters so I have been re-reading them at the moment as I intend to get all of them in the series and I think it's up to book 11 now or book 11 is coming, lots to catch up on! Anyway I made last weeks BOW on the SBS list which was Jack in the Box and this weeks is complete, Lincoln's Platform. I have also completed Jacobs Ladder, Mosaic no3 and Bright Hopes.