Various projects including Orca Bay - part 2

This is my 12th completed block of the Civil War Bride quilt. Its a very time consuming project so along with other projects I do, I aim to complete one a month. 

Next one will probably be done next year.

Another on-going project I've been doing for a couple of months is the Farmer's Wife quilt. Teresa and I swap blocks and these are the latest blocks we exchanged.

She made me these...



And I made her these...



 She also made me this cute mat which is now decorating my newest fabric cupboard...
I love the fact that she embroidered my name on the applique flower.

And now part 2 of ORCA BAY.  I choose yellow. 

I cut strips from some of my stash and cut 3 3/4" squares of paper from an old phone book.
I have never used this technique before but it was really easy and quick (but very messy). Even removing the paper was quick provided the stitch lenght was very small.

And these are my little guys ! 72 blocks measuring 3 1/2 "... Love them !

Bowtie Blocks and Orca Bay - Part1

I have been experimenting with the Bowtie Quilt Block, using the technique explained on a tutorial made by The Missouri Quilt Company. The way its done is very quick and simple, so I made a table topper and ...

a table runner...

I have a number of these types of fabrics (fruits and plants), so I am thinking of using them up in similar projects.

Years ago, one of my first quilts was a Bowtie Quilt, I still have it...
It was made with templates and hand-pieced and took a lot longer to complete.

I've been antecipating the start of the mystery quilt Orca Bay designed by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.
I have done mystery quilts before in a class setting but this is the first time I have participated via the web.

I will be using blue, white, red and yellow fabrics from my stash. I don't intent to buy any new fabrics for this entire quilt.

I selected blue and white/cream based fabrics for this block and went though all my fabrics and as much as possible I tried not to duplicate each fabric.

For the first part, we are required to make Hourglass blocks that measure 2 1/2" square.

Trimming each block using the "Quilt in a Day" ruler.

It was a lot of work involved but I'm glad its done ! 224 blocks.

Now waiting for Part 2 to be released on Friday... I wonder which colours will be in this section ?


My friend Jan-Marie sent me these cute blocks. We've been swapping with her since the beginning of the year and I always love her choice of fabrics. Thank you Jan-Marie !

Catching up...

First up, I want to share with you a quilt I made many years ago that's hanging up in my home. The quilt is called Fairmeadow and was designed by Jeanna Kimball.
It's hand appliqued using blanket stitch and I challenged myself to use orange instead of red.
I hand quilted it but should have quilted a lot more in the borders. 



Here's a close up ...




And closer still.


Orange and black go really well...

I played a little with my little scraps and made 12 more mini logcabins....58 done this year..



I made a few more blocks as part of the Farmer's Wife swap but can't show the photo because I want to surprise the recipient...


And now for some music....

Since I started this blog I've been focusing on mostly Smooth Jazz artists... Today the featured artist is completely different but an old time favourite... My earliest memories of this artist was when my dad and I (I must have been 10 years old or so) used to play his music time and time again.  To this day I still enjoy these old songs and the newer ones too.
So without further to add, here it is ..... TOM JONES...

Love is....

This week I had an extra quilting day because we had a Public Holiday in Melbourne so I turned that day into some creative time.
A few years ago I made a quilt for my daughter's bed and ended up with some leftover fabrics .

This is the quilt ...



Last year I had also made some stitcheries but had no specific project in mind, so they stayed in the UFO box. 

So I decided to just make up a small quilt without a pattern and just cutting up squares so that the sticheries would be framed in a pleasing way.

Bit by bit rectangles, squares, flying geese, 2 patch blocks, pinwheel block were joined...

Until the final border was added.

Then I got the top ready for handquilting...

I have tons of embroidery threads which I purchased years ago in South Africa.  They are mainly  cotton Perle no. 8 and Stranded cotton and the colours are varigated. I just love them and decided to use it for the quilting.

 We had a lovely sunny afternoon today so I hung my quilts under the gazebo to show them.

And here it is ...." LOVE IS"

Close ups...

The two quilts together..



There's still fabric left.... hum, what shall I make next ????