Birds of a feather...

Before I get to the title I just want to show you a couple more charmer blocks that have safely made their way to me - this time from Lisa....

A few more should be coming...and maybe I'll need another update photo soon!   Thank you Lisa!


And now the feathers of my title!   

How can you free motion quilt and not do feathers!?   I have been avoiding them for so long.

Trudi very patiently showed me how to draw feathers last year at Retreat!  Every time I saw her I was sketching feathers under her advice!  Poor Trudi!

More recently I have watched Angela Walters on her Craftsy class Free Motion Quilting with Feathers....

And so finally I decided to have a go!

It's not perfect!  A long way from that, but not as bad as I thought it would be!    

Was I mad?   Quilting in a thread that shows up?  Quite possibly!   The gaps were filled in Angela Walters style with some swirls which sort of helps to hide the not so good bits! 

The quilting of one of my Finish-Along list has begun - the first of quarter two!   Oh dear so behind .....

I have got my shades on....!

No not that sunny on planet Mrs Sew & Sow!

But I just wanted to show you my first ever homemade lampshade!

I bought a kit from my friend Karen some time ago and thought that looks like it will take time and concentration to do.  

But you know sometimes you are just wrong about how scary something is!  This wasn't scary after all.  Perhaps I should believe my friend Karen when she tells me something - I will be listening in future I promise!

In fact the whole thing was fun!  Enough stickiness to keep things where they should be but not so much that other things get glued too! 

I love the look of it and keep looking up to check out how pretty it is!  

Two views of the same lampshade - but another is in the pipeline for the other light in my sewing room.   



And what else happened this weekend?  

Janine's blocks arrived for my charmer quilt!   Pretty aren't they?   Hope they don't suffer from vertigo way up on the top row....

And here they all are together - see I left that gap in my recent update for a reason!

Janine also sent this cute pincushion - it reminds me of the time when we met up as Janine was looking forward to receiving some Tradewinds fabric from a giveaway she'd won!

If you want to brighten up your room and have a bit of fun then why not try making your own lampshade!?    A kit from Karen is available here

Evolution

It is how my quilts tend to come about!

I'll have an idea, it leads to something, I'll have a think, it leads to something else - and then maybe I'll get a big idea!  

That's what happened here...

I love it !  I want to make the quilt!   Hope you love it too!

The Arrowhead block can be found on page 18 of the Modern Blocks book compiled by Susanne Woods.

Charmers update!

They are still arriving, my blocks from April as Queen Bee of Scrappy? Sew bee it!

First there were a set from Jess in Tasmania

Followed by a set from Deborah in California

Totally gorgeous...

And here they all are together - such a happy and international quilt...

I keep changing the layout - can you still spot yours!?


I made one more block too!

It does seem to shout a bit - think it might be the black - it may not make the quilt but it will be made into something!

A few more to arrive yet I think!   Just how big is this going to be?

Artist's Trading Card Swap!!

I joined up Ali's Textile ATC Swap!  

How could I resist??  

I have my partner assigned to me and while waiting to pick up children from school I tried making one...

Ok it is fairly basic - just a bit of FMQ but it only took a few minutes.  It is the wrong size for the swap but I sort of like it.   Seed-podish I thought.  Hence the name I've given it....

Maybe for the real thing it would need further embellishment.  Waiting for Ali to allow me into the Flickr group and I'll post it and see what reaction I get.

In case you want to make one - it should be 2.5" x 3.5" - a very mini quilt if you like.  I think this could be addictive....forget moo cards...ATCs are the new me.

Seeing stars!

As usual I get totally distracted trying out blocks - sort of sampling how they would look in a quilt together.  So here is the latest update on those pieced triangles called Arrowheads

I have added a few more in different colours for a rainbow effect but also to try out an idea I woke up with this morning!   

Yes I woke up seeing stars!  No-one hit me on the head (thank goodness) but I thought if I carried on with yesterday's layout this is what I would see!

It works for me!

Now I'm thinking some LV ones interspersed with rainbow ones or maybe stars of one colour or hot colour and cool colour stars !  

More playing required!  The quilt idea is evolving!  Well I need to know what to ask for when I'm Queen Bee - I'm calling this forward planning!

If you want to see more blocks made from this book why not visit this flickr group or this bee!   Have fun!

Piece and play!

After some lovely and encouraging comments on my last post in a few idle moments I made some more pieced triangles....

I mixed them up with some plain solid ones as I cannot see me making a quilt out of these little darlings (each side is about 7.5") - I'm just not that patient!

But then I thought this would make a great border and what if I sized them up a notch for the main body of the quilt and then asked some bee mates to help me out? Either Modern Stitching Bee or Bee a Brit Stingy Bee??  Or both??

I will have to work out how to scale them up but I'm hoping my maths is up to it and if it isn't I know someone who can and has offered to help me on the maths front in the past!  Shhhh!  I haven't told her yet!

This pattern is called Arrowhead and can be found in brown (not so pretty) on page 18 of the Modern Blocks book compiled by Susanne Woods.

The book looks like this:

And you can get your copy here!

There is another block that caught my eye in this book - might get a chance to try that one out soon!   

It seems that bees help you try different things when making blocks for others but also when trying to decide what to ask for!  Have tried out at least four different options already and must decide for July and August - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!  Anyway if they don't become quilts they can always become UFOs cushions!