I am still around...

Is anybody still there??  It has been quite a while since my last post and I have no excuses other than being busy with living life!

Life out of the sewing room has been busy with babysitting my nieces (on school holidays since mid December) and when I wasn't doing that I was helping my family with an assortment of things.  At the end of the day I had no energy or motivation left for getting on the computer :(  Instead I would sit on the lounge with Bloglovin app on my phone and admire everyone elses work.

I did manage to squeeze in a few hours here and there for sewing but no where near as much as I'd have liked.

A dear friend, whom I used to work with had a darling little boy last week.  She hadn't found out of the sex of the baby, nice to have a surprise, so I had two quilts ready.  Here is the quilt that I ended up gifting to her.

This pattern can be found at GenerationQ Magazine.

I was really happy with how the three rows of quilting along each side of the chevron made the zig-zags pop.

I also made some burp cloths.  I chose fabrics that didn't scream baby since Mum will be wearing them.  Pattern can be found at Cloud9 fabrics.

And lastly some bibs.  You can find the pattern for these at JCasa Handmade.  I have made these bibs many times and love how they turn out.

As I mentioned previously I also did some sewing in case my friend had a little girl. I love the bibs which were from my scrap collection.

And the Joel Dewberry Notting Hill fabric for a more 'Mum' burp cloth.

I have also made a couple of cot quilt tops from the same scrap collection.  No pink left in the scraps!  Now I just need to find the time to get to the fabric shop to get some batting.

At the beginning of December I decided to have a clean out and organise my fabric collection.  Once I had pulled out all the fabric and had it all over the dining table, plus overflow, I became overwhelmed about how I was going to clean the mess back up again.  Due to a new cupboard built in the dining room I had to reorganise the sewing room to fit the old cupboard in.  I will share a photo of it next post.

Funny thing is though that once I had that cleaned up I ended up pulling out all my scrap fabrics and sorting them as well.  It took over a week to sort it all into ziplock bags according to the size of fabric.  I did small snippets, short strips, long strips and larger pieces.  On the plus it is a lot less daunting to look at the scraps and use them!

A couple of Christmas presents that I hadn't shared yet.

I have another friend who will be having a little boy in the coming months so I have put together a little bib and burp cloth set for her.  I love this fabric which is from the Safari Soiree collection which is from Birch Fabrics.

The quilts aren't the only work in progress I have at the moment.  Not sure what I was thinking starting so many projects without finishing previous ones.

I have made a heap of HSTs which I will be turning into an oversized star quilt as sketched out.

Lastly I have a Noodlehead Super Tote Bag all cut out ready to be sewn.  Again I'm using Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill collection but in the cotton sateen this time.  This is going to be my bag for University so I hope to have this sewn up shortly.

Last week was the start of University with Orientation Days (very daunting) and a glimpse of the heavy workload ahead.  I have spent all weekend completing pre-readings for this weeks lectures.  Thankfully it has been quite interesting!  Hopefully that continues.

Talk to you all again soon.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday.

Finished projects...

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates the holiday!  I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

I am happy to say I have finished the chevron quilt and it has gone to its new home with a friend who is having a little boy soon.  She absolutely loved it which made me very happy.  She had even bought a cupboard for his room on the week which is the same colour as the bottom chevron (pale blue).  You can see more information on the fabrics used here.

For the back I used this green chevron in a flannel.  It is very soft and cuddly. I really love the grey/white spot fabric.  I am going to have to try and source more of it.

I also made a few more bibs, this time in little girl colours.  These were an order for a friend.  I really enjoy making these with random piecing depending on what scraps I have.  You can find the pattern at JCasa patterns.

Update:  I am linking to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

So many pics...

This week is full of photos again.  First we have the latest blocks from Amy Gibson's 2012 BOM which you can find at Craftsy.  You can see the another 6 blocks here.

String Block

Broken Spider Web Block

Modern Log Cabin Block

Wonky 5 Sided Log Cabin Block

Hexi Stripe

Sunny with a Chance of Hex Block

I also worked on another 2 blocks from the Marti Michell BOM that I'm doing at Sew This & That shop.  One block down and the other is still waiting to be pieced together.

Thankfully I had one (or 3) finishes.  I found out a couple of days ago that one of my friends is expecting a little boy so I decided to sift through my scraps and put together these cute bibs.  I used the JCasa pattern which you can find on etsy.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday.

WIP Wednesday

It has been a while since I've checked in so I have a few things to share today.

I have made a little progress on the Rapid City quilt with a few more blocks completed.  Other blocks can be found here.  I am slowly getting there.

For my second WIP.  I have joined a few rows of hexagons.  I found the hexagons were quick to make but sewing them all together is taking me some time.  I have been sewing them when I get a chance to watch tv and am not too tired to focus.

I would love to know how small you do your whip stitch when joining them.  I have been doing them quite small as I want the hexagons to eventually be a cushion cover but I am wondering whether I am going a little crazy.

And for something new to show I have started work on a cot quilt.  This one is an order from a family member and her only guidelines were for it to be purple and green.

I've used the Abracadbra Quilt pattern along with a Posy by Aneela Hoey layer cake.  I love the colours in this collection and I think this quilt design really shows off the cute patterns.  I have added some Kona  Lavender blocks to bring out the purple more as well.

I included a couple of photos as the ones I took outside look a little washed out.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday.

Going Hexie...

I am in love with Hexagons and how easy they are.  I love that I can carry them with me.  I love that I can do  them while watching my favourite tv shows.  I love that you can use your scraps.

That's enough about why I love them.

I cut a heap of hexagons as I wasn't really sure how many I'd need for a cushion cover.  The fabric might look familiar, I am using the scraps from my Birds & Bees Quilt which you can see here.  I am very excited that the quilt is with the long arm quilter so the final reveal will be in the new year.

Originally it was only Birds & Bees fabric but after looking at them all together it was a little busy.  I think the white mixed in is great and gives the eye somewhere to rest, along with incorporating the solid from the quilt.

We are heading off to the beach for Christmas so these little guys are going to be packed in my bag to be finished and when I get home I think I'll make a simple square patchwork cushion cover to go with this one.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday.

Some Christmas gifts finished...

In the past week I finished a couple of gifts for work friends and one for my Nan.

The first one is for my soon to be 91 year old Nan.  This is the table runner I made in my sewing class which finished up this week :(  You may be thinking this is very bright for a great grandmother but if you could see her very yellow kitchen walls you would understand the choice of colours.

A couple of weeks ago I bought, with my work friends in mind, these very cool coffee mugs that are double walled.  I thought the extra insulation was great as we rarely get through a full cup of coffee/tea while it is still hot.  Then I started thinking what am I going to give with them.

They are always so interested in my sewing so I decided to make these coasters to go with their mugs.  You can find a great tutorial from Jeni at In Color Order.  These are great for using little scraps of fabric, which I am always wondering what I'm going to do with.  I varied the quilting on the coasters to keep it interesting.  I hope they'll like them!

I will be linking up to Sew Modern Monday.