African Blocks Revisited! (And a little Giveaway!)

Another African Block for Kate!

The pattern is:

Two Colors Star.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly

because it was easier to use

my Easy Angle Ruler,

but it's a fun pattern.

 

 Making another block 

made me wonder

just how many African blocks

I had in total?...

LOTS!!

*****

 These are my favourites

(although, one I'm going to swap out

for another block that I want to try...)

Can you guess which one?

If you guess correctly,

I will send you an envelope with

some African fabric scraps.

Interested?

Just leave a comment

with the block number you think

eg. Top row, block 2...

And a way to contact you!

Be nice now,

because some blocks I made

and some blocks Kate made.. :)

 

Some of the other African blocks

I'm going to use for the back.

- I do love a pieced backing!

 

Wouldn't it be lovely to knock

this UFO off my list too!!

 

*****

Here's the quilty cat

catching some zzz's in my studio...

 She's still missing after my SIL

came to visit today with her dogs ;o)

But she'll be home soon

when she gets hungry!

 

*****

And here's my little hat/bag-maker...

it's just a really sweet, simple old machine

with no quarter inch or zipper foot,

but it does the trick for making hats etc.

 

*****

And here's a photo for Granny...

Somebody was VERY tired

and nearly fell asleep in her pasta!

Giveaway closed.
Nik was right it's
the second row from the bottom,
the last one :)
African Fabrics on their way shortly!

I won't know what to do...

... when the postman stops being nice to me and starts bringing me just the bills!

Even my Mom, who nevers sends me any post, mailed me some of my pre-papered hexagons which I received today!



I felt a sense of urgency to have these pieces sent over in case I managed to piece the whole top before Mom comes to visit in November, but I doubt that will happen. Although I am managing to do a bit here and there while watching the kids in the park, or waiting at swimming etc etc... so maybe soon I'll have some progress to report on that project...



And I was lucky enough to win Lynda's 100th post blogaway. And what a prize! An awesome Japanese magazine, gorgeous fabrics and some quirky charm squares too.



The magazine holds lots of inspiration especially for those of us who are hoping to end up with lots of spare hexagons LOL



Thank you Lynda! I'm delighted to have read probably every single one of your 100 posts and been the lucky winner.

Scraps? Yes, please!

Erm, well that's what I always say, but when I went to tidy my sewing room I noticed that I was becoming a scrap collector LOL! 'Grumps' put a curtain rail up in the spare room where I have a temporary sewing space and to enable him to get to the window, I had to move my sewing table which I have now admitted was far too large for the space. So large in fact that I could hardly sew at it. Sounds crazy, but it allowed almost no space for a chair in front of it before meeting the bed. Sooooo, the table has come out, I've had a little tidy and I have reduced 2 bags of African scraps into...



55 (untrimmed) string blocks and half a bag of almost useless crumbs which I will probably just send to DS1's nursery. One of the bags came from an SA friend and I have had them for ages, the other bag was scraps from blocks I've made. Oh, it's good to use scraps!!!

DH allowed me to sew in the lounge for 2 nights. I got to watch tv and just sew, sew, sew. I'm thinking of doubling the blocks by adding a black HST to each...



But at least now they are more usable in this form.



I have a few swaps to attend to and then I plan to attack another box of scraps! Those string blocks are fun and make up really fast.


On the T-shirt front, the "mom' phoned to say that twins loved their gifts and DH said he saw one of my dinosaur t-shirts at kids tennis coaching that afternoon.


Of course you can never get kids to pose...



However, he did wear his for 2 days so I'll definitely make some more soon... keep your eyes peeled, because if I get really good, I'll put some in my shop :-) or you can custom order one [sewkalico at yahoo dot co dot uk]

What I won't do for fabric!

Carol Doak's Block of the Month's come with some fantastic motivation! June's block had the offer of 60 FQ's for the first picture posted. Well after my dreadful day I was definitely incentivised!

I sewed like a woman possessed, my hands were shaking, my heart pounding. Just at the end my bobbin ran out! Oh no, new bobbin in, press flat, take photo...



A great block to make, one of my favourites so far, but is it a winner?

Orange Crush or (Red) Berry Pie

I have chosen red as my 'orange' for the Orange Crush mystery as I'm not really an orange kind of girl and even my pie is red LOL.


This is another version of the fantastic pie recipe in Healthy Gluten-Free Eating. I can't recommend this book enough if you are gluten-free, but still want to be able to eat cakes, pies, biscuits etc.


Here's another shot of the view from my window. If I'm sitting at my table I will be able to see the kids getting up to all sorts in the garden (I hope).



The last few days I have been so full of cold that I spent an entire day in my pyjamas wishing that instead I was spending an entire day in bed! But, that was sadly not to be and so now I'm still full of cold, but soldiering on... I managed bits here and there before coming down with my cold and then had a whole day without a single stitch!! But finally last night I finished Carol Doak's May Block of the Month.

I wanted to try and use less black so used lots of Amafu fabrics again although I probably could have used a few more colours.


Here a gratuitous shot of DS2 in the bath last night.

He makes me 'tea' in the bath, it's very sweet. Talking of sweet, I bought some plants at the street market (don't ask me what they were, I have NO idea!) and because I'm clueless about plants I was asking the lady for advice. I bought two bushes and she said that they were quite established, but if they got too big I should just cut them back. That night in bed DS1 and I were talking about the street market and he said that he heard the lady say that if the plants got to big I could just take them back LOL

Carol Doak 3500 Member Block

At last, a chance to paper-piece the Carol Doak 3500 Member block


In 'real-life'the lime is very bright against the black. I used my South African Amafu fabrics again and I really do like them a lot so I'm sure there'll be other blocks with them shortly.


This Bank Holiday Monday our local village held it's annual Cuckoo Festival. As a 'Mum' I had a shift on the school's cakestall...


And my sewing skills were stretched to making a wooden cuckoo an apron out of an old dishtowel (in about 3 minutes LOL)



I am slowly moving into the new room. Not quite sure where to put it all!!!!!


But the view is nice :-)

Happy Scrappy African Houses & a 'cool' BQL May bag

I have been trying Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses in African fabrics.



I adjusted the size as I wanted to use 2.5" strips that I already had...


I probably need to work on the frames next time so that there is more seam allowance, but this is a fun pattern and I shall be making more!


I finally finished my BQL Bag Challenge for May which has 3-D Bowties.

I lined it with brown Da Gama fabric and used a beaded pull that my mother made. When I was in South Africa my mother and I made loads of these zip pulls as well as beaded handles.

The bag has 'insul-bright' wadding so that it can be used for chilled shopping or as a bag to keep your picnic cool. The plain fabrics were kindly given to me by my very DB (Darling Brother!!). I think the plain colours are very 'cool' tonally so I'm sure to remember what this bag is for :-)

Now to see if I can do some BOM's before the month is out. Time just flies when you're trying to get some sewing done!!!

Of Pirates and Beauties

Here's the last of my New York Beauty's:
A2 (again)


These are the rejects. All a bit too small due to 'scaling' and not 'cropping' the printouts...

(So just one more for a cushion...)

I have no more of the patterns for this quilt. The BOM that I signed up for is sadly no more and I only have about half the blocks done. Unfortunately the lady organising the BOM has had some difficulties keeping up and her Yahoo! group has been closed before she released the other half of the blocks month by month (- bah humbug!!!). Apparently one could have purchased them previously, but I believe even that option is now untenable.

I'll have a little think how I'll arrange what blocks I have done, but I think I'll only make one or two more and move on to something else.... (no change there then LOL)

On a brighter note. Look what I got in the post today: A pirate parcel of precious patchwork pieces!



Thank you Toni! a.k.a. The Quilting Pirate for these lovely 'spare' blocks from her course with Bonnie Hunter. She also sent some great fabric, a memo pad, a pirate duck (which is apparently now DS1's!!), a pirate card and a cool pattern.

DS1 says the house with the skeletons is the best!

Last year at Halloween he borrowed a skeleton outfit for the day.

We went to 2 parties and still months later that's all he can talk about. Skeleton parties, skeleton outfits, skeletons, skeletons... (he is only 3!). I guess the search for a skeleton costume is on LOL.

The pattern of Toni's blocks is Bonnie's Happy Scrappy Houses, my all time favourite pattern and how I initially found Quiltville.com. I just have to make some myself sometime soon!!

Post to post and thank about...

I am finally aclimatising to this drastic change in temperature although I did make up some silly excuse as to why I didn't want to go to the park with the kids today. The park?!! I mean really, it's cold out! Luckily we have an activity centre in the garden and DH took the two rascals out to play while I made dinner.

Here are the 'roses' (quilty stuff) among the 'thorns' (bills!) that I came home to receive.

A fantastic selection of pre-cut fabrics from Kate.



Yum, yum! Thanks Kate! Most of these will go in a quilt for my Mom. She would like a small quilt to cover her knees and she liked a quilt that Kate had made previously with 4 patches and lots of white on white. Can't remember the name now... The fabrics are inspiring me to get going firstly because they are almost all the colours she would like and secondly they are pre-cut (no excuses then!) I might add here that I am seriously considering doing Bonnie's new mystery quilt. So seriously I have already cut and sewn a few strips for the first part. It's a mystery quilt in more ways than one: i.e. why have I started yet another project when I have so many on the go already? Because Bonnie does great quilts? Well she does, but no, it's because she's using Shwe-shwe fabrics I've just brought back from SA and it was almost like I couldn't not do it!

Also in the post/mail... some Quilt labels I bought from Toni's Home Shopping Network. I am a bad quilter and hardly ever label my quilts. Now I have no excuse!



Toni (a.k.a. The Quilting Pirate) also sent 2 Batik FQ's which are lovely. Thanks Toni!

And the jewel in the crown. My PIF from Kerry. WoW!
A stunning and very useful sewing mat.



Even the backing fabric is amazing.


Kerry also included one of her own patterns. I just love stars!
Thank you Kerry!


Here's what I managed to stuff into my suitcase (among other fabric-y things, but I can't show them otherwise I'll be in trouble with DH)



These included more Amafu fabrics from the Hilltop quiltshop.



There's a little something pink sneaking underneath. Just didn't want the recipient to see it... yet!

Here are some pics of the travellers on our way from Heathrow, via the tube and a train to Leeds and then a train to Skipton, and then a kind lift home. This journey included missing 2 trains...



We hauled kids and bags for hours and miles. This should explain why I had to travel 'light'. Fabric doesn't weigh that much though does it?

In case anyone wanted to see the new specs



(photographed on a sleeping 'new' puppy belonging to my DSIL). Although they are plastic tfhey still have those pesky nose grips, but I am enjoying them. Dexter, the puppy is just the cutest too!

'Anything goes' African style

I was telling a fellow blogger that when it comes to African fabric 'anything goes'. Well that's true, but all of my African blocks that I have swapped with Kate so far have been rather 'conservative' so time to practice what I preach...

Take two fabric squares (I have to make 2 blocks - one for Kate and one for me). I wanted to use a focus centre...

Add borders and just sew, but remember to have fun (I did)!!

until you get to the size you need (our blocks are 12.5"). Trim them to size...

and voila...!



This is a similar method to Patti's 'crumb chaos' blocks except that I haven't used really teeny crumbs. But if you haven't seen it already Patti has a wonderful tutorial to make quick blocks the 'Crumb Chaos' way!
(See Patti’s 'Crumb Chaos' tutorial here)


Still on an African theme...
A while back a friend of mine sold me some of her African fabrics and included a bag of scraps. In the bag were a few half started blocks. With her permission I decided to put them all together adding all the borders that were missing. I made a load more from the bits making a quilt top out of all the blocks - it was a bit like putting a puzzle together LOL.
Here it is... a bit wonky and I need to straighten it up a bit, but I guess that's what happens when you have no straight lines to follow (and no design wall) LOL