Some Sunday Stitching

Woohoo, yesterday two more seed packets for Round We Go popped into my mail box, and of corse I had to get to them right away. One block finished over coffee this morning - seven more to go. Guess there's no secret I'm having heaps of fun with these ;-)

I did make a dent in the quilting on my Plan C yesterday, and hopefully I can manage to finish quilting it today.

It's not too densely quilted, so I'm hoping it will be very soft, but at the same time get that nice quilted texture

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and Slow Sunday Stitching

...and Oh Scrap over at Cynthia's Quilting is more fun than housework

 Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

FNwF: Hopefully Making Progress on Plan C

It's the first day of September, and also the first Friday of this month , and this means there's Friday Night With Friends sewing over at Cheryll's place Gone Stitchin'.

I have got some music playing, my glass of red wine and a huge bowl of popcorn (placed well out of the way of my quilting)

and big hopes of making huge progress on my Plan C quilt.

Goal for tonight is to get the final seams done, the borders stitched on, and get it pressed and sandwiched so I can quilt it over the weekend.

I have sort of made a plan of how it's going to be quilted... but I'm sure it will change along the way.

Stay tuned and hopefully I'll soon have some pictures to share of how it turns out. Until then - there's heaps going on at the houses of everyone participating in the sew-together, gonna go blog hopping on my quilting brakes - join me to see what everyone is up to?

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Piano Keys

Slowly making progress on my scrappy Plan C quilt - all piano keys are cut and have been stitched together in groups ready for pressing before joining the long borders together:

The blocks have been stitched together into rows, and I have started putting the rows together. Those long straight seams are not the most exciting part of the process of making a quilt...

...but I'm looking forward to having it all put together and ready for quilting, so I'll trudge on :-)

Lots of people stitching along and being social with Lorna at SewFreshQuilts. And since I'll be busy stitching on this project for the next few days, I'm also linking up with MyQuiltInfatuation Needle and Thread Thursday :-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Scrappy Stitching

Been in the mood to play with some happy colours since coming back from vacation. So I pulled a bunch of clear colored scraps, FQs and other bits from my stash and started cutting on Friday afternoon. Loads of flying geese and four patches have come together this weekend.

Back in 2010 I made the small version of Plan C from Carrie Nelsons book Shnibbles Times Two, and ever since I have been itching to make a large one as well. Today I have layed out the pieces, and it's ready to be put together:

The pattern calls for a piano key border... I have cut up most of my leftovers into 2.5" strips and pieces, and I'll see how far they will take me... and how much patience I have stitching small strips together ;-)

Linking up with Cynthia and all the stitchers over at the Oh, Scrap! party

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

A finished Imagine quilt

Woohoo! Some Masterchef on TV and a few episodes of BBC crime shows on DVD to keep my mind occupied while stitching down the binding, and it is done!!! And I looooove it!



It's a bit short to use as a bed spread, but perfect snuggle size to cover my duvet now the nights are getting colder, or keep on the sofa. A spin in the washing machine and a tumble in the dryer, and it crincled up nicely :o) However there are a few bits of paper still stuck in the quilting - arrgh!!

The backing turned out nice and scrappy, however a bit weird *lol*.



I was a bit short on fat quarters and yardage cuts from the Circle of Quilters fabric line, so I added a few bits and pieces from my stash, and I think that worked out pretty well. The puckers still annoy me a bit, but as long as no one examine it too closely...

Happy quilter here ;-D
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Imagine a finished quilt...

I have been imagining a finished Imagine quilt since my post over a week ago, but it is slow getting there. I decided to use a couple of rolls of Quilting-Made-Easy (Pattern #306 Roses) I have had stashed away for a couple of years. You tried them? I'm not thrilled for several reasons:

1. The paper is really hard to hold on to - not good for anyone with aching arms and shoulders (at the end I have only managed to quilt for 5 minutes at a time). Even when you are using rubber tipped gloves or using LicketyGrip (my favourite!) it's very slippery; and it soaks up the LicketyGrip like a sponge soaks water and leaves your hands really dry.

2. With the paper on top it is hard to feel if the quilt puckers. I have some really bad puckers on the back of mine (but I can't be bothered to un-stitch).

3. Picking out the paper takes a lot of time; I used an average of 50 minutes quilting my way through one length of paper, and it took me an average of 30 minutes picking out that same paper - so over 4 hours paper-picking on this quilt! And there are still these little paper pieces stuck in the stitching - I really hope these will come out in the washing machine!



4. There is a lot of waste - this must be the least environmental friendly way to quilt ever! This is aprox 2/3 of what I picked out of the quilt



That said, I'm very pleased with the over-all look of my quilt so far, but I don't think it is worth the hassle of using the paper rolls! At least now they are gone (I think there are some of the blocks variety leftover somewhere in my stash, though...), and no more will fall into my shopping basket! With what was left my quilt couldn't have been an inch bigger *lol*



I have started attaching the binding, and am planning on hand stitching it down at the back while enjoying Master Chef on TV later today - three whole episodes ;o)



This quilt has been a real stash buster - before I started it I had big trouble getting this drawer closed

Have a fabulous and creative Sunday!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Imagine a quilt top

It took a bit longer than I had planned, but my Imagine quilt top is together. And I think I have enough FQs left of the bundle to use for backing and binding ;o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Imagine an update

Soooo... I promised an update... These blocks are heaps and heaps of fun to stitch!!!



Nearly half way through the pile ;o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Imagine the stash

Have you been following Darlene's Shnibblemania parade? I have! And it has left me super inspired to stitch large shnibbles. When I bought Carrie Nelson's book "Schnibbles times two" I intended it as a stash busting inspirator. Soooooo.... I dug into my precious fabric. Don't know if I have mentioned before that my stash is divided into five (perhaps not very logical) categories:

1. 'precious' fabric - don't really have an explanation for this category, some fabrics just end up here;
2. fabric - bits and pieces bought just because I had to - this is the bulk of my stash;
3. fabric that is set aside for a particular project/pigs/wisps;
4. pre-cut fabric;
5. scraps.

I re-surfaced from my digging with a collection of FQs and some yardage from Jennifer Chiaverini's Circle of Quilters fabric line. I know I had a plan for these when I bought them, but have forgotten what that plan was *lol*

Darlene made the lovely Imagine quilt for Carries book, and I think it will look great with these fabrics so I'm starting with that. The cutting is done except for the outer border - not really sure I want a scrappy border...



The pieces has found their way to keep Bernie company - it looks like this quilt will be rather quick to piece, so hopefully we have something to show in not too long



Look forward to seeing how this turns out - I'll keep posting progress :o)

Mentioning Jennifer... this cutie showed up in the post a little while back signifying I have finished my SBS quilt:



Makes a nice addition to my collection of Elm Creek Quilts pins :o)



Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Bindings

I have spent a few days at my family's summer house, and before leaving I wrapped up the quilting on my two 'smallish' tabletoppers so that I could bring the bindings with me as hand work while I was away. And they are both FINISHED!

The Decadent Victorian didn't make it all the way home with me, as my Mum insisted it would look great on their coffee table *lol*:



I had a lot of fun playing with quilting shapes on this one - lots and lots of curvy lines, not a single one of them actually a perfect curve:



The Plan C was simply stippled in the centre - I think that suits the scrappy look of it - and the borders are crosshatched.



And have a look at the binding. Do you have one of these?

I got the idea from someone's blog - sorry I don't remember which one any longer. They are leftover bindingstrips from all projects I have bound using 2.25" strips, and work wonderful when binding completely scrappy projects.

Stay creative and have a lovely weekend!

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Plan C

My leaders and enders sewing has resulted in a lot of little blocks representing a small part of what's living in my scrap box:



Recognize the 20-patches made from 1.5" squares? Something will come of them before too long, I hope! And the bag of blues I have some vague plans of using with my scrappy stars... I have no plans for the green and cream four patches yet, and those multi-coloured four patches...



Ten blocks in each of those piles... In my eager reading of the Schnibbles book I saw the squares in the Plan C quilt were cut 2" - the same as the pieces in those four patces - quilt nearly half done! So I started cutting: the white came from stash and the pieces for the star points came from the larger pieces in my scrap box. After a few hours playing with Bernie we have this:



My first official Schnibble! I changed the border, though. In the original there's a piano key border with four patches in the corners, but I wanted to save myself some cutting. Turned out pretty good :o) So much fun playing with scraps!! What to do with the rest of them? More Schnibbles?

Have a lovely weekend!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida