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

Progress, binding and a colourful beauty

I sewed and sewed last night and by the time I went to bed my head was spinning, my neck and shoulders were feeling stiff and sore, but I was HAPPY because I had all 399 units (that includes the separating squares) for the Smokey Mountain Stars quilt done and laid out in labelled piles ready to be sewn into rows. Here's a picture of how it looked when I still had about a handful of blocks to make



I love the look of it so far!! And I hope my Aunt will be pleased with it (if not, I'm definitely keeping it *lol*).

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I'm turtle sitting for a friend of mine at the moment, and when I was waiting for one of the turtles eating, I saw she had a table runner I made her years ago on her coffee table (ok, she doesn't drink coffee...)



This was among my early production, and I started looking at what I had done. There isn't a border on this runner; rather it has a very wide binding, sewed on in four separate sections. Actually I love the look of it! Why don't I ever do bindings like this anymore? Perhaps I should?

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Oh, and my post header said a "colourful beauty" - have a look at this big boy:



This is my friend's largest one. Isn't he gorgeous? Warm browns, lemon yellow, dark pine green and that bright red stripe! Oh, and look at that foot ;o)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Dresses, shirts and scraps

My Aunt has cleared out some cupboards, and she sent a couple of huge cardboard boxes with cotton dresses, shirts and scraps home with me, asking if I could make a quilt for their bed. Over the last days I have washed, cut, pressed and sewed. There's still lots to sort through (not everything is salvagable) and a lot more sewing to do, but something is starting to take form. This is what's currently on my desk next to Bernie:



A small test layout:

Recognize it? I have followed Bonnie Hunter's pattern for the "Smokey Mountain Stars" quilt, but I need to enlarge it to fit a queen size bed - think a grid of 9x10 stars pluss borders should do the trick...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida