Scraptastic Tuesday - Winners in February

Hello again!

Remember my Blueberry Park mini apple cores?  

Well I hand stitched all those little apple cores together, trimmed the panel square, quilted about a quarter inch either side of the seam and added some mustard linen to the edge.  The back is more of the mustard linen and an exposed chunky yellow zip with cute circle zip pull (meant for a jacket but I cut off the zip stop at the end).  

And now I have a finished cushion to enjoy...

My son says it reminds him of ravioli - so my Ravioli Cushion it is then! 


My little bit of sunshine in my sewing room no matter what the weather!

And now its time to award the prizes for the February Scraptastic Tuesday link up.

InLinkz.com

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors for providing the following prizes which will have been awarded randomly among the record 98 people who joined us, well done all of you:

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate: #6, Indiannadreams on Instagram

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate: #40, Allison from Instagram

• Sew Me a Song - $20 gift certificate: #48, The Lilac Cat on Flickr

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a €20 (20 Euro) gift certificate: #62, Sandra, Musings of a Menopausal Melon

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate: #16, Sue at Sue Daurio's Quilting Adventure

• Karen Lewis Textiles  - scrap pack: #80, Linda at Flourishing Palms

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate, #90, Kat at Kat's Craft

Congratulations to our winners! Leanne will be sending you each an email today to get you connected to your prizes.

Thank you for joining Leanne from She Can Quilt and I, and for sharing so much scrappy inspiration. Please plan to join us again on the second Tuesday in March - on March 8, 2016.

Scraptastic Tuesday - February link up

[Giveaway post still going here!]


Here we are in February already!

I am definitely feeling the need of a bit of sunshine - can you tell?

While trying to finish two things that needed finishing I started two new totally unplanned things !  What is that all about?  

Well I did have a cute wee applecore acrylic template and still have lots of Karen's blueberry park scraps so the two sort of went together....  Love those colours - they could even be my favourites!  And I'll be hand piecing them together as they are just too fiddly to machine stitch - I did try a couple but didn't really enjoy it.  

I'm stitching them into rows and then joining the rows.  All hand stitching now and that is so much more relaxing.

Just what I needed to brighten my day!

This will be no bigger than a cushion cover I think - unless I go completely mad and decide it should be a quilt...?

Well it is time to show Leanne and I what scrappiness you have been up to....

InLinkz.com

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors for providing the following prizes which will be awarded randomly among those of you who link up.

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Sew Me a Song - $20 gift certificate

• Massdrop - tba

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a €20 (20 Euro) gift certificate

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate

• Karen Lewis Textiles  - scrap pack

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate

Please join Leanne from She Can Quilt and I by linking up a blog post or flickr or instagram photo sharing a scrappy project, in progress or finished, or your thoughts on dealing with your scrap mountain:

• You don't have to have joined us before, everyone is welcome.

• One link per person, and it will be your entry into the random draw for the prizes. It is the same link up here and at  Leanne's blog She Can Quilt  - so you only need to link up on one of our blogs.

• You can link up from your blog, instagram or flickr, but you have to link up to be entered in the prize draw.

• Please visit at least a few of the links, they are very inspiring, and leave comments too as everyone loves to connect. 

• Use the Scraptastic Tuesday button and invite your friends to join us too. Please share our button, or a link or the hashtag #scraptastictuesday in your linked post or photo.

• The link is open until next Monday night at 10:00 pm MST. We will announce the winners next Tuesday. 

• If you have trouble linking up, let me or  Leanne   know and we will get you sorted.

InLinkz.com

An InLinkz Link-upSew Me a Song

Plaid String-along!

I signed up to participate in another QAL.   I guess you could call it a string-along!


The host is Julie of juliekquilts,  who made the original lovely churndash nine-patch quilt I have been trying my hand at in the last couple of days.  She has fairly ripped along with the QAL instructions and is just about finished her quilt if not actually finished.  


Julie's quilt is in plaids and very scrappy.  She has also featured a reader's quilt on her blog which was made of prints.  Both are lovely!






By contrast I have been a real sluggard and slow poke to get started but now have four blocks done and tried out fabric to set my blocks too.




But first here is my pile of plaid strings 

I have set my blocks in a similar way to Julie but instead of a nine patch cornerstone I have a simple print one.

I think this will either take hold of me and I will get my blocks done quickly or it will be done at a leisurely pace - a lot depends on the children as two are on holiday and one is in her last week at school.  Both she and I will be leaving our local Primary!  She has been there for seven years and I have been there for 12!  It will seem strange not to be standing in that playground... 


I am trying out a different colourway for me - you can probably tell from previous quilts that I love green.   For this quilt I thought grey would go with all the fabrics and then I added pale yellow so the sashing wouldn't be too gloomy.  I think I need more blocks to tell whether it will work or not...


Which colours are you drawn to and which do you avoid?   Fess up all those pink lovers - you know who you are...heehee!


As for me  -  I've told you I love using green and I don't much like taupe! 






Nicky







Block size 6" square finished
Sashing in Kona Coal from Mandy at Simply Solids and yellow scraps

Inspiration Julie of juliekquilts

The end of the Galaxy!

No doom laden post this!  No, indeed not, but a finish instead!  Please excuse my excitement and little joke....




The Front

The Back

I have added more quilty stitchery in those lovely blue and grey colours that I bought recently and I think I have covered sufficient ground to ensure that all stays in place.






The Detail

It is bound in leftover scraps, which doesn't sound very nice but actually I think it looks great.   As it was leftovers this is not bias binding but just straight grain instead.   Must do more scrappy binding! 

I am over the moon about this quilt (heehee) which is my own design and has just sort of evolved as I went along.  I am just so excited - I love it so much!  Have to say using pre-used fabrics makes for a soft cosy feel.




Nearer my year end target - one more UFO down!  Haha!   Maybe I should add a little green man somewhere??


Nicky




This quilt has a history: 


1  http://mrsssewandsow.blogspot.com/2011/04/lonely-star.html
2   http://mrsssewandsow.blogspot.com/2011/05/lonely-star.html
3   http://mrsssewandsow.blogspot.com/2011/06/galaxy-of-stars.html
4  http://mrsssewandsow.blogspot.com/2011/06/in-galaxy-far-far-awayis-quilt.html

Carried away....!

I am a bit carried away by this quilt so again I am posting about the galaxy quilt.  Yesterday I was trying out some BIG stitching in grey cotton perle thread outlining those stars.  


Although this is quick stitching I have not finished but I can let you have a sneaky peek....

I love this style and speed of stitching and thanks to those who suggested it to me - I am 100% in accord and special thanks to Mary from Molly Flanders for helping me decide on the colour!


Not too long before the big reveal I hope!


Nicky

Doubled again - rose dream!

When I picked this project up again I had thought I didn't like this block that much and that was why I had only three blocks finished, but guess what?   I find that now I do! 




No more it is just the 'sitting by the swimming pool' project!  It has also become the 'sitting in the car during music lessons x 2' and the 'evening listening to the Complete Smiley on BBC i-player ' project too!  






Hence the further leap forward: 3 blocks (see here ) became 6 blocks (see here)  and have become 12 blocks completed!  One third finished!  Yes, I said one third!!

I am focusing on the half-full glass, Marina!  Yeay!  


My next target will not be double again - sorry but I don't think I can keep up that pace, the tip of my finger is already tender with all the hand sewing - but instead six more blocks, which will take me half way!  Yipee!  And I have them cut out and ready for stitching...












Nicky