Phew!!

 

I am so excited, no, make that relieved that the problems I experienced when attaching the star border are resolved and I have finished adding border number four....the hexagons and diamonds. It is SO big now, I have to stand on the dining room table to take a picture!! Over 80 inches in each direction.

 

To jog your memory, here is a photo of me trying to ease the star border on last year. The result was a VERY bumpy quilt. The quilt was banished to the cupboard for a few months until I stopped sulking had a little think about it. Anyone who does EPP knows, there is no point moving on because the rest of the quilt will not fit together.

 

 

Now I have a smooth, flat flimsy. I never really knew until this border was on if it was going to be OK.

PHEW!!!!

So next border is the third and final border stripe. I have the papers ready to cover with fabric....

...and the scallops on the final border are joined and glued onto the background and currently being appliqued.

So, I am going to take a little rest from Violet while I finish the quilting on this WIP. This flannel was almost finished when Summer hit. I just couldn't swelter under it any longer and put it away until Autumn arrived. Now the nights are cooler, I am determined to make it my next OPAM finish.

 

I hope you have time to stitch too.



FNWF, Cassislis and Violet Progress

The tittle of this post is long, but don't worry, have told the story in pictures rather than lots of boring words.

 Friday Night With Friends (FNWF) started early with our bi-monthly get together of the Cassilis Quilters.

Julie bound her daughter's quilt.



Kylie worked on her Rosalie Quinlan Stitchery. 

Susan worked on her Irish Circles and Lea on her Lynette Anderson project from Nundle.

 

 

I joined scalloped pieces before lunch and then stared to add the fourth (hexagon) border afterwards. I finished adding these borders last night during FNWF. If you look closely, you will see that flowers have been appliqued on the star border....did that last week.

Some of these flowers have been fussy cut...and some made out of some REALLY ugly fabric. I apologies to all lovers of purple, but it is my least favourite colour. These flowers were stitched on the long flight to visit my brother in London back in 2007!! They have been hiding patiently in a box waiting to  finally see the light of day. Eighteen lucky ones are now on the quilt. The other eighty will have to wait a little longer until I have completed the scallops on the sixth and final border.

 

 

If you would like to see what others got up to last night, click on the image above.

 

Have a great weekend.

Border Three Finished

I know, two posts in two weeks! After my slack efforts so far this year, I can't believe it either.

Border three is on my Violet quilt!!

It now measures about 50x52 inches. I'm so excited to see it grow!

Now that all of the papers are out, I can go back and applique the hexie flowers onto border two in between the stars.

 

I am well on the way with preparation for the sixth and final border.

Templates are made...

 

...papers are cut...

...half the fabrics have been cut out.

I've even had a little practice because I've never used scallops before and wasn't sure about covering the papers with this shape. With the help of my glue pen, so far it is going well. So this border is the portable part of this project while I keep adding borders at home.

 

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and this beautiful Autumn weather.

 



FNSI and a catchup

OK,  so it's been WEEKS since my last post and I am not going to bore you all with my excuses. Just know that I have been sewing, just not taken the time to post about it. Here is what I did while participating in Friday Night Sew In and a quick catch up.

 

 

Last night I started to sew the next border onto my A Legacy From Violet Quilt. This border is hard to see because it is blending into my floor boards, but is a border stripe print. It is very exciting to finally be at this stage. Those who have followed my progress with this quilt will know that I made a VERY large error and I am hoping that the steps I took to overcome this will work. (Click on the 'Label' on the right to see what I mean).

 

Once I have sewn these narrow borders on, I can add the next and widest border. Finished these about a week ago. It's finally growing !! There are 270 hexagons plus all the filler diamonds and half diamonds in this border. 

 

I'd like to finish with an apology to the OPAM team. I let the team down during February, not a single finish. BUT! I am on the ball for March. I finished this at a retreat with my friends Fairy Floss, Country Wishes-Kylie, Cardygirl and my non blogging freinds Caron and Julie on the first of March. If only 2014 was a leap year I would have scraped in with a few hours to spare. Oh well.

 

The needle case and pin cushion I made an age ago now have a home.

Hoefully I will be more organised and more regular with my updates from now on.

Happy Stitching!



Last Skirt

This is the last of four skirts I have made recently. It is the third variation on an A-line skirt. This one has two layers, rather than strips of fabric sewn together. Hems are made with continuous binding and then bound as if you are binding a quilt.
The fabric choices seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase. When I brought them home I started looking at them over and over again repeating just one sound...

 

'Hmmmmmm'.

 

I think it will be fine with the black or slate grey Tshirt I have and a nice bright bangle...Hmmmm.

 

Oh well! It is nice and bright so hopefully the children at preschool will like it. 
 

Today I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday. Pop over and see what other people have been creating.
Below are the other skirts I made, my favourite is definitely the orange and pink one. Just love the little frill at the bottom.

 



First Skirt Variation

 

 I have now started experimenting with some of the variations on my A-Line skirt pattern. I am really happy with this. It took a little longer to make, especially the cute little frill at the bottom, but well worth the effort.
I love the bright fabrics!

 

The orange slicks of colour were cut on the bias, so I had to refresh my memory on how to make continuous binding.

 

Not sure why the bottom fabric looks flouro green, but it definitely lime green with a small white dot.

Zipper installation went much more smoothly with this one, thanks to the tips I received from the lovely dressmaker who sold the zippers to me.

 

 Not sure I want to risk getting paint on this one at work.
 

The really cool thing is that I have lots of REALLY bright fabric scraps left over to use in future patchwork projects.

If you're an Aussie, I hope you had a great Australia Day weekend.


FNSI

Well, I tried to work on one of the variations of my skirt pattern as I joined in on Friday Night Sew In. However, I also had one eye on the tennis. Roger Federer is a favourite of mine and he was playing world number one. Thre Australian Open is popular viewing in our house. With Nadal in front, I just couldn't focus on tracing out a new pattern, so sat down and added (almost) two rows to my Violet quilt. This is a very large border and as I have been working on other projects, is taking a while.

Two thirds of the way there.

Hope you time to sew a little this weekend.