Ice Cream Soda Quilt - Update

I've had a little EPP frenzy this month and have managed to complete 8 Ice cream soda blocks.  It has been nice to have a little slow stitching time in the evenings.  A couple of months ago I succumbed and bought the acrylic templates for these blocks, and a mini rotary cutter.  Oh my goodness, it has made fabric cutting so much easier and quicker for them.

I have now completed 40 blossoms, I have another 32 to go, then all the filler pieces and half blossoms for the edges.  Jodi @ Tales of Cloth finished her Ice Cream Soda Quilt the other day, so this has inspired all of us lagging behind on our quilts.

Have a great week.

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

I finally got around to getting back to that Liberty cushion/pillow I was making.  I quilted it with a variegated thread, and an organic crosshatch - using masking tape as my guide lines.  None of my marking pens showed up on the fabric. I based this pillow on the measurements for the Kansas Dugout pillow in Jen Kingwell's book Quilt Lovely.

That's my pillow  front done, now onto the one I made the one for The Scout. Originally I gad a plan for his, that wasn't going to involve too much Liberty (can't waste that on a male), however a slight miscalculation in my pattern measurements meant that I went improv for his.  Made mainly out of linens, a little Liberty and some shot cottons which I pin tucked, but don't really show up in the photos.  This pillow top has lots of texture and I think is well suited to a male.

Both will co-ordinate with my room, add a little colour, but definitely won't be matchy machy.  I just need to get some zips, and hopefully have new pillows made before Christmas.

It's your turn to share now.  It doesn't matter if it's embroidery, a quilt, applique or epp, or some other stitched or sewn project.  It can be a start, a finish or just a wip.  All we ask is that you follow these guidelines when linking up:

• Link up any post from the past week that features  a sewing or stitching project you have been working on.

• Somewhere in your post, please link to this one.

• Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts, it is always nice to know that people are reading what you have written, and we are trying to encourage people to keep blogging and reading blogs.

Thanks  for joining us.

Julie and Linda

Liberty Scraps

Playing with a new colour palette of Liberty fabrics for my pillow cover in progress, has obviously
stirred my creative juices.

I have been inspired to pull out my ice cream soda blocks again, and have finished three in the past few days.  One I had started before my self imposed rule about finishing Christmas decorations and my AMH quilt top.  So there is definitely an odd one out in the group above. 

Jodi at Tales of Cloth,  who created this block and the stitch along, has almost finished making hers - see here and here, this is very inspiring for those of us who have slowed down in the making of these blocks.  I'm off to cut some more fabric and prep some pieces for more lunchtime and evening stitching.

Of course, I now need to get back to finishing those pillows too.

Here & Now

Loving // All the Dietes Grandiflora that are bursting into bloom , and other small signs of change in the garden- buds, berries, bright green growth.  

Eating // Fresh asparagus, fat juicy strawberries (not from my garden unfortunately)

Drinking // Bubbles - cos I celebrated a birthday recently.

Feeling // Proud, nervous and excited for Miss B, she acheived some fabulous results at school, and is about to start her NCEA exams next week. My little girl is growing up.

Making // Plans and progress -  new pillows for my bedroom - pretty Liberty, Essex linen and Kaffe Fassett shot cottons

Thinking // That Christmas is pretty close now and I really need to do some shopping

Dreaming //Of a few days lying on a sunny beach, I'm so over cold windy days.  Not feeling like spring here.

Linking to Here & Now at Say Little Hen

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

Welcome to Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE.  Hard to believe it is November already, and I guess now the serious Christmas sewing starts for some.  There may be another Christmas decoration or two in my future, but definitely no Christmas quilts this year. 

So, my sewing effort the past few days has been another Anna Maria quilt.  Well to be precise, this is going to be the backing of the quilt top I finished a couple of weeks ago.  I decided to go all out and really make a dent in my stash, meaning I will have a reversible quilt.

Probably the quickest quilt I have ever sewn, this is simply 10" squares and a border of Tula Pink fabric I had left over from backing my Liberty Bloomsbury. which can be trimmed down once it has been quilted.  I was determined to use what was in my stash rather than buying more for this quilt.

It's your turn to share now.  It doesn't matter if it's embroidery, a quilt, applique or epp, or some other stitched or sewn project.  It can be a start, a finish or just a wip.  All we ask is that you follow these guidelines when linking up:

• Link up any post from the past week that features  a sewing or stitching project you have been working on.

• Somewhere in your post, please link to this one.

• Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts, it is always nice to know that people are reading what you have written, and we are trying to encourage people to keep blogging and reading blogs.

Thanks  for joining us.

Julie and Linda

Weekending

In the garden

• loving seeing honey bees again, these ones especially, were enjoying my lemon blossoms
• new season vegetable seedlings have been planted - a grafted cherry tomato, which should give me yellow and red tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, capsicum and parsley so far.

Sewing

• sewing up those AMH squares

Cooking

• preparing lemons for a batch of lemon and beetroot chutney, I also made some lemon curd.   I still have a lot of lemons to use up.

In my Home

• Bird Dance is finally hanging on the wall. looking right at home with my  bright cushions and crochet throw.

Reading

• fiction and non fiction.  I'm thinking that cookbook may need to be added to my collection, some beautiful middle eastern inspired salads in it.

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead.

**PS:  if you think I'm super productive in the weekends, I'm not really, once a fortnight I have a 4 day weekend, Thursday-Sunday, so I get a lot more done on those days.**

Auckland Festival of Quilts

I spent the day at the Auckland Festival of Quilts.  This is an annual event showcasing beautiful quilts of all sorts of styles, there were also retailers and workshops.

I met up with Linda and Raewyn and we walked around admiring and commenting on the quilts of many talented makers and friends.   I also caught up with  Wendy and Anne, out of town blogger friends too.  Of course a little shopping for upcoming projects was done also.

Pictured are some of the fabulous quilts and details from them,  that caught my eye.

Ode to New York by Hazel Foote

Instastitch by Fiona Mendel

Graceful Beginnings by Tracey Roberts

Victoria by Anne Joule

Postcards from Sweden by Samantha Scott

Round and Round by Shirley Sparks.  I loved all the texture in this quilt.

My Around the Corner Quilt by Rebecca Bishop

Snapshots of Tents of Armageddon by Cheryl Houston

Untitled by Mary Hawke

Dandelion Wishes by Margaret Reid

7 Pigeons came to Lunch by Gaylene Davies

Rubik's Cube by Chizuko Hoy, made from recycled and dyed woolen blankets

AMH Stash Log Cabin Quilt by Shelley Pathak

Sea Hare, Land Hare, Gobal Catastrophe by Robyn Rognstad

Mathew's Gaming Geek Quilt by Karen Lee - recycled Tshirts and shirts.  Inspiration for Mr J's next quilt.

My purchases of the day.