December Beehive blocks

Just a quick post to share the blocks I made for our December Queen for the Beehive Quilts bee. Bec requested the Fizzy block in low volumes, black, dark grey, dusty pink and mustard. The dusty pink was a little hard to find, but a rainbow F8 bundle from Pink Castle Fabrics saved the day.

I'm a little bit in love with this colour palette and think I might replicate it in a quilt for myself.

Kat

2017 Saturday night craft along swap

One of my favourite times of the week is Saturday night. Mr. Gray often takes the Graylets to Granny's house for a couple of hours so I can have some deciated crafting time. I also love Saturday nights because of #saturdaynightcraftalong - a weekly instagram party where crafters around the world share what they are working on. I love being part of this community, so when the oppourtunity came up to participate in the Saturday night craft along swap, I couldn't resist.

My partner, Karen, posted this mosaic, highligting her love for pink and aqua, polka dots and geometircs, florals and scraps. After some stash diving I can up with a fabric pull that fit the bill - some FQs from the Brush Strokes collection by Holly Degroot for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

For the main item I chose to make a zip up tray pouch (pattern by Aneela Hoey). I love the one that I made myself a couple of months ago (it's so handy) and thought that my partner would appreciate one too.

I used the triangle print for the outer, the light geometric print for the lining and the aqua print for the binding. I love how it turned out.

I also make a pair of scrappy fabric covered baubles using some scraps from last year's Christmas quilt and Mod Podge.

 

The finished baubles were added to the pouch, along with the floral FQs and some candy canes before being sent off to my partner.

I really enjoyed this swap, probably because my partner and I have very similar tastes - I also love pink and aqua, geometrics and polka dots. For proof, check out the little zipper pouches I made myself a couple of months ago (using this tutorial by Sotak Handmade). I only realized after the swap that I could have used these prints instead.

I'm linking these three pouches up with Elm Street Quilts 2017 Bag It sew along, as they were all completed during the event.

Kat

December One Monthly Goal

It's a bit hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the year. December is my favourite time of the year. December means more time with family, and lots of cause to celebrate (it's my birthday month). It's also usually the month that I start my Christmas sewing.

As a result of leaving it this late, I often don't finish my Christmas sewing and have a few unfinished projects that carry over to the next year. This year I'm going to try to not start any new projects and instead complete some of the projects I started last year. I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts December One Monthly Goal and setting myself a goal of completing a quilt I started last Christmas but didn't finish. Mostly because of big cutting boo boo, but also because I wasn't in love with my test block.

However, I adore this line (Jingle by Kate Spain) and want to try a Jacobs Ladder quilt, so I'm going to persevere. Hopefully some more careful fabric placement (rather than my usual random grab-n-sew approach) and replacing the white on white print will give a better result.

Kat

November Bee Hive blocks

Just a quick post to share the blocks that I made our November queen, Mandy. Mandy requested the tic tac toe block in magenta, bright orange and chartreuse. This is going to be one vibrant quilt!

I'm also linking up with the Elm Street Quilts OMG link up as getting these done by the end of the month was my goal for November. I'm now officially up to date with my bee blocks!

Kat

A quilt for Geoff

Last month my big brother celebrated his birthday, and finished the last assessment of his degree. Naturally I made him a quilt :)

I wanted to keep it very masculine so I used a layer cake of Modern Background Ink and paired it with a Star Wars flannel for the back.

To make the top I cut some of the layer cake squares in half diagonally, made HSTs amd trimmed to 9.5" square. I trimmed the remaining squares to 9.5" and arranged them semi-randomly, trying to create a sort of ombre effect.

For the quilting I used a simple sharp stipple design (my current go-to FMQ all-over).

I took the finished quilt into the city for a quick photoshoot in Croft Alley. I thought the street art made the perfect backdrop for the graphic quilt.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and how efficient it was - both in terms of time (it came together really quickly) and fabric use (I used all of the layer cake squares with very little wastage).  I'm feeling inspired to use up more of my precut stash - especially since my sewing time is a little bit limited at the moment!

Kat

November SBT50 challenge

I'm a few days late in posting, but thought I'd share my project for the Scrapbooking Top 50 November mid-month reveal. This month we have a fun sketch challenge to play with:

Sleep deprivation seems to be killing my scrappy mojo at the moment, but sketch challenges are perfect for times like these. I stuck pretty closely to the sketch and kept it clean and simple, which I think worked well for this photo of my two special guys.

Head over to the SBT50 blog for all the details and to upload your entry. You've got till the end of the month to play along.

Kat

September and October Beehive blocks and November One Monthly Goal

I've been a bit behind on everything lately but am slowly getting caught up, including catching up on sharing my beehive blocks for September and October.

September's queen, Kara, chose the Bunting block with a super saturated rainbow background. I love rainbow blocks so this was a delight to sew. I also didn't need to look much further than by scrap bins, which was a bonus.

October's queen, Sue, chose the Wanta Fanta block in sunny yellows and low volume. This was a little more challenging for me because Sue encouraged us to include a splash of colour in the background. I hadn't really done low volume with colour before (I usually play it safe with greys and blacks) and blacks, and had to do quite a bit of stash diving to find enough prints, but I quite like the result. Perhaps one day I'll be brave enough to make a colourful low volume quilt for myself. 

I'm also linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal November Linkup and sharing my goal for November - to have my November blocks done and in the post before the end of the month. Hopefully an achievable goal!

Kat