Sunday Stash - 26/02/2017

Just a quick post to share this week's Sunday Stash - a jelly roll of V & Co Ombre. While it is not new to my stash (I've had it for about a year), it is newly unwrapped.

I've pulled it out in anticipation of joining the Ombre Gems quilt along next week. I can't wait to unfurl the pretty strips of fabric (and then chop them into little pieces).

Kat

February One Monthly Goal Update

This month I set myself a goal of catching up on my blocks for the Cook Book quilt along. Today I finished block 8, bringing me officially up to date! Here are my blocks so far:

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts February Goal Finish Link Up. Bring caught up feels with this quilt-along pretty good, especially since I'm planing on joining another quilt along next week (I have come to the realisation that quilt-alongs are my crack).

Kat

SBT50 February challenge

I'm a little late in posting but thought I would share a layout that I made for February's SBT50 challenge. This month we have a great sketch to play along with.

For my DT example I made a layout about our holiday last year to Hamilton Island. I stuck pretty closely to the sketch, except that I swapped the mixed media for a quilt-inspired background.

I used papers and stickers from the Pink Paislee Atlas collection, including some fabulous cork stickers with flecks of gold. I also incorporated a few pieces of memorabilia, which I always find fun to look back on.

There's still over a week left to play along so we hope you'll give it a go. Head over to the SBT50 blog for all the details and lots more examples.

Kat

Sunday Stash - 19/02/2017

This week for Sunday Stash I'm sharing some new goodies that arrived this week thanks to a gift voucher for the Fat Quarter shop that I received for my birthday late last year. I'd been holding onto it, waiting for a few new collections to become available. One collection I've been impatiently waiting for is the Spectrum collection by V and Co for Moda. I am a big fan of everything V and Co so I went all out and ordered a full fat quarter bundle.

I love the combination of bright tone-on-tone prints with low volume. The text prints and geometric designs also set my heart aflutter.

Since I was already paying for international postage I spent all my money and ordered some yardage for backing and binding too.

I also picked up a charm pack to go with my collection of V and Co charms. I now have one of each of her collections except Ombre (which I don't think was available in a charm pack). I might make something with all my chamrs one day, but chances are I will hoard them for a very long time :)

I am very tempted to cut right into the FQ bundle and start a new project, except that my current number of WIPs is already out of control.

Kat

Amy's birthday bag

I have a terrible habit of leaving things to the last minute, and despite frequent vows to be more organised, often find myself making presents for people the day before (or day of!) their birthday.

Today was no exception. Despite knowing about my friend's birthday celebration a couple of months ago, I still left it to a few days ago to start making her present. Last year I made her a zipper pouch so this year I wanted to take it up a level and make her a bag. I also wanted to have a go at making some improv wonky log cabin blocks (this week's prompt for the Elm St Quilts play QAL) so I thought I would combine the two projects.

I ended up making four improv blocks in different Cotton and Steel prints and them sewing two blocks together to make the panels for the bag.

I used a grey Robert Kaufman Essex linen blend solid for the tops and bottoms of the panels and quilted the patchwork in 'organic' wavy lines (= a super quick quilting design).

I used the wide tote pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's Perfect Quilted Totes pattern, but make a few adjustments to accommodate the bigger patchwork panel. I've made the taller version of the pattern before but this time I was braver and had a go at installing the magnetic snap. I was pleased to find it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be :)

I finished the bag this morning, just in time to get a few quick photos before it started to rain.

I think it turned out quite nicely, despite being a total last-minute job. I even had enough time to make a handmade card before heading off to the party.

I've now got exactly two weeks until the next birthday. Hopefully I am more organised this time a don't leave it until the last few day.

Kat

February ARTastic challenge

The February mid month reveal is now up on the ARTastic challenge blog. Our inspiration for you this month comes from this quirky painting called Carousel Delight by Karen Pierce.

The challenge for this month is to create a project inspired by this month's artwork, and to include the additional criteria of BUTTERFLIES.

For this challenge I chose to make a birthday card. I included lots of patterned paper inspired by the carousel theme, such as music notes, tickets and a marbled paper with lots of movement. I also chose papers in colours that matched the artwork.

I used my electronic cutter to cut a butterfly background cut file from vellum and a larger butterfly for the centre of the card. I stitched down the centre of the butterfly and folded up the wings to give the card some dimension. For embellishments I added a butterfly sticker, a tassel and some gold enamel dots - all inspired by the artwork.

Head over the the ARTastic challenge blog for all the details and lots more DT examples. We hope you can join us this month.

Kat

Sunday Stash - 12/2/2017

For today's Sunday Stash I'm sharing a bouquet of brightly coloured zippers.

Late last year I won of a gift certificate to Zip It Zippers as part of the Elm Street Quilts Bag It sew along. I had a lot of trouble choosing between colours so I ended up ordering a 65 piece sampler set which included one of each colour.

I was really thrilled at both the lovely bright colours, and with how each zipper is labelled with the name of the colour.

I see a lot of pouch sewing in my future, and (if I am brave enough) maybe even a Sew Together Bag,

Kat

The Beehive Quilts - February block

This month for the Miss Beehavin Beehive Swarm our February Queen (Josephine) has selected the Checker block in aqua and mustard, with block cross bars and a low volume background. Luckily for me, aqua and mustard are some of my favourite colours and are quite plentiful in my stash :)

After spending hours raiding my stash for different prints (and making a huge mess in the process), I finally got around to making a block:

I also made a few (nine) extra blocks because Josephine is planning to use her bee blocks to make a boys quilt for the Very Snuggly Quilts program.

I'm planning to drop them off in person at tomorrow's Charity Quilt Making Day. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of my lovely Instagram friends in real life!

Kat

February One Monthly Goal

I'm linking up with the February One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts and sharing my goal for February. I'm finding basting and quilting quite difficult at the moment (due to my rapidly expanding twin baby belly) so I'm limiting my goal to some simple patchwork blocks.

This month I hope to catch up on the first three blocks from the Quilt Block Cookbook. I joined the cookbook quilt-along a little late (last week) and so started on block 4. Here are the two blocks I've made so far (blocks 4 and 5).

I'm hoping to be fully caught up by the end of the month, maybe even a little ahead. A simple goal, but hopefully very achievable.

Kat

February Sketchy Boards challenge

Today I'm sharing the layout that I made for this month's Sketchy Boards challenge. As usual, we have a great sketch and/or colour palette to be inspired by:

For this challenge I made a layout about a holiday in Bali quite a few years ago. I used the recent Kaisercraft Ubud Dreams collection, which is a perfect match for the colour palette.

I fussy cut some squares from one of the sheets of pattered paper and added some glossy accents over the top to make them look like glazed tiles.

Head over the the Sketchy Boards challenge Facebook group to see how the rest of the design team was inspired. We hope that you'll get a chance to play along this month.

Kat

Sunday Stash - 5/2/2017

A couple of weeks ago for Sunday Stash I shared some quilting books that I'd ordered from Connecting Threads. For this week's Sunday Stash I'm sharing the fat quarters that I added to my order in order to qualify for free shipping to Australia :)

First up are these fun black and white prints from Cheryl Arkison's Tag collection. I used most of my B&W stash in my Modern HST sampler quilt so these are to restock my stash.

I also picked up some orange and red prints from Amanda Jean Nyberg's Good Neighbors collection for an Autumn chain block quilt that I'm working on.

Lastly, I added some different blues from various Cotton and Steel collections. Blues are a bit lacking in my stash (and I've been drooling over Bec's use of blues in her 100days100blocks quilt) so I'm on a mission to build up my collection of blues.

And that's all folks. I've been thinking that I need to resort my stash by colour, rather than by manufacturer/designer because most of the time I go hunting through my stash it is usually for a particular colour. I'm curious to know how other quilters sort their stash if anyone has any tips for making the big change.

Kat