SLOWLY GETTING NEARER

Trying desperately to catch up with everyone, I cut out a few more to make as and when, as I could and when I can basically. I have had to send my beloved Bernina to be fixed--don't ask-- I am using a Janome at the moment and it is driving me nuts, I cannot get on with it at all. They say a bad workman blames his tools... I am all over the place with the machine, but have got to do them, so just carried on as best I could. I took these pictures with a white lace cloth behind them, had to really cut them quite a lot so as to block out the hideous white lace - not a good look at all.

Bouncing Betty - WEEK 15
she sure did bounce!!



Chain & Cross - WEEK 17
I am thinking these are strange names for some of the blocks...

Union Square - WEEK 19
looks like Bear Paw to me...



Pinwheel #4 - WEEK 20
spot the mistake - not deliberate -
a moments concentration flew out the window
it is staying as is...



Hayes Corner - WEEK 21
an odd block to be sure, but it makes a lovely quilt...



Starflower - WEEK 22
zipped up in no time...



ERROR ERROR ERROR

I was making this as Dakota Gold - WEEK 16
I kept thinking, this is the same as Starflower, why am I making two
the same? Should have stopped, I hadn't printed the first page out had I -
doh! so of course didn't see the picture properly, this too will stay as is,
but I will make the proper block - eventually...

Lessons learned from these blocks, don't let your concentration waver, don't sew when you are tired, choose your colours in the daylight, make sure you are reading the pattern properly

Reformed Slacker

I spent a marathon day yesterday in my sewing room. It helped that the weather was crappy and Hubby was making dinner. Many, many hours later, fortified by chocolate, cashews, coffee and a glass of Merlot, I am happy to say I am a slacker no more. Here are the results, although I won't say they are for your viewing pleasure! Some are nice. Many are downright ugly. But the bottom line is that I am fully caught up with Friday Block Party! Here they are, eight weeks of the good, the bad & the ugly.



Week 24: Interesting block.


Week 23: Extremely easy and not very interesting.

Week 22: I love stars and this one is a favorite. I was pleasantly surprised that my points all matched!

Week 21: Ugly block. Stupid construction technique. I didn't put the little square onto the rectangle but just cut the strip to size. This one as a stand alone is awful. It is destined to be an orphan. As a whole quilt it is much better. I still don't like it.

Week 19: I love this block. My piecing on this one went smooth as silk so I guess I am improving. Someday I will make a quilt with Union Square blocks.

Week 2o: This one was interesting and different.

Week 17: I like this block. Very easy to piece. It would make a good alternate block in a top to create a different look.

Week 18: I have never liked this block. I think it must be the whole Nazi thing I associate it with. This was my last block of the day and I think the glass of wine was taking effect. It is pretty sloppy.

So there you have it. I'm all caught up. One thing I can say for certain is that I am getting pretty darn good at working with the homespun fabrics. I use a lot of spray starch on it and it really helps. I plan to put all those blocks into a quilt one of these days.

Crooked and Done

Crooked and done is better than perfect. Right? I finally made Week 17's block. When I trimmed the inner block thingy, I got it crooked! Oh, well. So I'm human. On to the next block!

Chain and Cross

Some Kinda Foot !

I really didn't like the "FlyFoot" pattern , so I didn't do it...exactly . The pattern probably looks really good in a "multiples" setting, where the pinwheel legs would join up to create a secondary pattern, but I didn't like the way the single block looked at all. I wanted to use one of my Victorian florals, so I used a really bland beige for the focus and turned the corners in on themselves... sort of looks like a fortune cookie, I thought.

This was supposed to be "Cross and Crown", but I changed it out a bit; I think it looks a bit like a Celtic Cross. Since I added the extra blue border, the chain kind of looses itself and the Stone Henge-y gold parts kind of pop out. Part of that is beause I reversed the blue and gold sides strips on the sides as well. It really is amazing what we can do when we are not paying very close attention to directions, isn't it??? LOL.

Jungle Chain and Cross

Wow! After seeing Brenda's post, I feel as if I haven't done much this week! Okay, so I have been kind of lazy. But I did get this week's block made - just in the nick of time. All the fabrics are from my scrap bin. I love it when I can use stuff from there. I like this block. And now that I have been inspired by Brenda's quilt, I may have to do some more of these.

Kathie's Week 17

This week's block will be made into a 'sister' pillow to last week's block. I must admit that the blue/white combination is about my favorite.

Stars and Moons

I supersized this block by an inch so that it would fit with my other Halloween blocks. I can't say that I like this block done in my fabrics.

caught up again!

Heeere's Betty! I'm not thrilled with the way my "random" arrangement of the background worked out -- but I didn't care enough to take it all apart and re-sew.
The Dakota Gold was fun. I did put this one together wrong the first time (the points were pointing out instead of in) so I did rip. The green fabric is actually much greener than the photo shows --
And, here are some more cherries. I'm glad to be home and getting some sewing in!

all caught up

this week's "chain and cross" was easy. Strip piecing before cutting pieces saved soooooo much time and effort.

should have been a little more careful with the directional print, but it doesn't actually bother me much in real life as its not that noticeable...

Heather - Week 17

I made my block this week using the same theme fabric as the previous 9 inch block. This block was fun because it went quickly since I strip pieced the red and white.



Here's the matching block from week 3:

Psychedelic Chain & Cross

Thanks Marlene for the suggestion of using fusible web and sticking on a piece of shoe fabric to the middle block. This works for me and the block looks more complete than the one below.

I had this psychedelic shoe fabric that I wanted to use and thought that this just might work in this block for the corner squares. The shoes would have been too chopped up in the strip portion of the block. Once I got the block finished I wished I had cut out a shoe from the shoe fabric for the small centre block, but too late and I wasn't about to rip everything out just for one little block. I followed the instructions from the web site but I had problems with the long narrow strips stretching some even though I did starch the fabric. Still a fairly easy block to piece despite the stretching.

This week's block is Chain and Cross, a 9" block. No nasty triangles, lots of squares and rectangles...

Before I can get started I need to sew last week's block, but I shall, I promise. :-)