Squishy 3

This morning, the postie brought me another one 🙂

One of the chief charms of the F²F block swap is that when it’s your month, the exciting envelopes and packages just keep coming.  These beauties are from Claire in France, and I really love the fabrics she’s chosen, and the soft colours. I’m the last one on the list, and after 8 months of sending blocks out to other people, it’s just lovely receiving them.

This quilt is going to be lovely. The soft shades of grey and lilac are going to make for a very tranquil and soothing effect. I’ve already started thinking about how it might be quilted.

I really must get on and make a few more blocks for myself!

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ScrapHappy February

Welcome once again to ScrapHappy Day!

It’s the day my friend Gun in Sweden and I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

This month, I’ve got something to show you. I’m making hexie flowers for a memory quilt from the scraps generated by Days for Girls and this month I halted flower production and started sewing them together. It’s one of those jobs you can do mindlessly in the evenings when you haven’t the energy for anything more mentally demanding.

All but the two flowers at bottom right are sewn in. I still have a whole boxful of them to be added, so it’s not going to be finished any time soon! The quilt is called Days gone By, because all the scraps are from fabrics used by Days for Girls for their kits.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of scraps is eligible. If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate (me!), Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen and Connie

See you again, same time next month!

More squishies in the mailbox!

While I was away, the postman brought me all kinds of lovelies.

First and best was a squishy envelope from Robyn, with three blocks for F²F (Footsquare Freestyle), as it’s my turn this month. Aren’t they fabulous? She’s used beautiful soft colours, just as I asked, and I can tell already that this quilt is going to be A-mazing.

 

 

 

 

 

Then there was my birthday present from the Husband. I’d been given the OK to order myself some fabrics from the wonderful Fifi’s Fabricology. It’s not cheap, but they have fabrics and designers I haven’t found anywhere else. Luckily, there was a sale on and two fabrics I’ve been pining for were in it, so I didn’t hesitate.

You won’t see these fabrics in a quilt except maybe as scraps. They’re going to become wearables, whether garments, scarves or whatever. When they’re worn out, then I’ll turn them into bits of quilt! From left to right, they’re Kaffe Fasset Orange flower border, Kaffe Fasset Blue Flower border, both from the Artisan range, and Holly Holderman from the Pam Kitty Picnic range in Periwinkle.

It’s taking me a while to catch up on things now I’m back from our trip. I’ve had piles of legal stuff to do in the run up to the settlement on our new house, and every time I think I’ve got a spare half hour the phone goes or the email pings. Never mind, only a few more days to go.

First things first, though. I’ve got a pair of wings to attend to!

All kinds of fun in Melbourne

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been off the blog a bit.

The Husband and I have lovely friends in Melbourne, fellow members of our motorbike club, and they’d invited us to visit them if the opportunity arose. We subsequently found cheap flights, booked the leave and then we were off!

We got up to so many things and have so many pictures that I can’t bore you with it do a blow by blow account of it all, so I’m going to leave you with some visual highlights.

Suffice it to say that we ate many fabulous meals, we visited beautiful landscapes, cityscapes, sights and features, we indulged in nostalgia and tried new things, we met old friends and made new ones, gathered in big groups and small, and we were sad to leave but glad to come home.

We were lucky enough to be there for the Chinese New Year celebrations, and some of the photos show this, in case you were wondering if fireworks were a normal part of Melbourne life!

Also, I can give you a link for lots of the things shown in the photos, but if I did that, this post wouldn’t come out till the end of next week, so if you’re interested or curious, just ask.

Finally, I had the very great pleasure of taking Go Teal it on the Mountain to Ovarian Cancer Australia, to do a ceremonial hand over, as the final quilt the Ovarian Cancer team is making for them. The lovely Emily was thrilled to bits with the reality, although she’s watched it progress from concept to finished photo. The real thing always has more impact and presence than a photo… She has asked me to pass on her thanks and admiration to everyone who contributed, and tells me she’ll continue to follow the making of the quilts for the Trudy Crowley Foundation.

We got back yesterday, and normal service will be resumed shortly 🙂

 

F²F³: In the home stretch

It’s February, so it must be my turn to receive F²F³ blocks 🙂

We’ve had a great session this time round, and every year we do this block swap I see blocks new to me, skills improved and people falling in love with colours they’d never normally use, in the pursuit of creating three blocks each for all the participants. February concludes this third iteration of the block swap, and yes, I’ll probably be doing it again. It’s too much fun to stop! The start and end date depend on how many participants sign up; the minimum is probably 9 (including me) because that produces a useful final total of blocks, but we can do it with more. If you’re new to F²F (Footsquare Freestyle), hop over to the blogsite I set up for it and take a look at how it works as well as the galleries for this and previous sessions. And if you’d like to join in next time, either drop me an email using the details on the Contact Me page on this blog or leave a comment.

I’ve already received the first three blocks; these beauties were sent to me by Lynn of Tialys. The colour isn’t very accurate, I’m afraid; what looks red is actually a beautiful plum/burgundy, and the background of the bottom block is more lilac than pink. I’m not getting very good natural light just now with all the rain and dark clouds north Queensland is experiencing, and this colour change is an artefact of artificial light.

Below, you’ll also see my first block for myself, just to give F²F participants an idea if you’re looking for inspiration or have yet to go shopping for fabrics 🙂 It’s called Box Kite, and was designed by Angela Pingel, from her book Modern Blocks by C&T Publishing, and I really like it.

I’ll also be making myself a Circle of Geese block like Lynn’s but in a very different colour scheme. Lynn obviously knows me very well to choose that one to make for me, as it’s another one of my favourites!

I’ve decided to make blocks in both light and dark shades of the colours I’ve selected (but not real brights), because I know it can be hard to decide what someone means by a colour description when you’re trying to choose fabrics. That way, there can be a scattering of both, and no ‘wrong’ or ‘right’.

Right, on with the foundation paper piecing and never mind the rain hammering at the windows!

SAL#75

Not quite so impressive this time, but still respectable…

Here’s how it looked last time:

And here’s now:

Hmmm… really not that much done. But it’s a shocking month for deadlines, so I’m not being too hard on myself!

I’m one of the first to post my progress, usually, so why don’t you give it a couple of hours and then head over to see what lovely stuff everyone else is working on. This month, we are joined by two new members – welcome to the group, Carmela and Jocelyn 🙂

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Jess, Sue, Constanze,
Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph,
Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine,
Deborah, Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny,
Carmela and Jocelyn

The next SAL is due on 22nd February, but I’m not sure I’ll make it, bearing in mind we take possession of our new home three days before that. You never know, though. Watch this space!

 

Bee, Myself and I # 35

And another one to add to the growing pile 🙂

This is Block 28. Just as No 27 was very appropriate for Christmas, this one is equally appropriate for now, as the colours are perfect to go with my colour choices for F2F – and February is my month!  I’ve chosen soft greys and lilacs, and you can be sure that the rest of the hat box fabric will be going into the fabric pull for my F2F blocks.

Two more blocks to go after this one. February is crazy (moving house, trip to Melbourne, working on ITAA month). So I reckon I might just be in a position to start assembling this quilt in around April. If I think of it, I’ll take the last two blocks with me as handwork for the trip to Melbourne – there’s a lot of hanging around in airports and I’ll need some evening handwork for the days we’re there. You never know, I might actually get them done!

Anyway, to return to the subject…. Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column of this blog.

Till next time.