Where we are at, Quilt-Wise, in April

A windy and cloudy day,

but still dry enough to take some photos...

 All the berries are on my Carolina Lily!

 And the 'extra'/mistake berries have been taken off

(On reflection, I thought that actually

you can have too many berries!)

So this quilt is almost done -

I just need some white fabric

to add more borders as I want to scallop the edges

like I did for my hexagon quilt.

Scalloping edges turned out to be very rewarding!!

*****

Then, I have put all the blocks together

for my Purple Oceans

Borders next!!

*****

As I was taking photos my neighbour walked past...

I think he thinks I am nuttier than a fruitcake anyway,

but there I was in the wind trying to get my quilts to stay down!

 He kindly took this photo of me

looking very windswept :)

And I got to take a few snaps

of his gorgeous sheepdog!

*****

A Finish!

My first Longarm Finish too!

 Quilted with stars and loops

and bound with very cute carrot fabric

 It's ready to go to it's new home!

 For the backing I used some fish fabric

I had in my stash...

Yahoo! One of my UFO's longarmed

only a few more (!!) to go!

Just 3 More Leaves

Just...

 3 more leaves to stitch down

and then I need to decide on berries...

If I'd followed the pattern...

I'd know how many berries I need,

BUT, I appliqued far too many leaves

so I will have to see if the berries

suffer the same fate :)

 The papers are still in:

 I English Paper-Pieced the bulk of the quilt,

 And I like to leave the papers in

until I'm almost ready to quilt.

But that's just the way I do it...

Wordless Wednesday - Lily Progress

Jelly Bean Borders

I didn't mean to vanish off the blogosphere...

BUT someone in our house wanted the little people

to spend less time on the computer...

which meant I had no computer either :(

I do have a little (and I mean little)

tablet, but replying to comments, typing

and blogging are almost impossible

(uploading photos was indeed impossible!!)

Thank you for all the kind comments on

my rose hexagon quilt and apologies

if you didn't get a reply -

that wasn't intentional!

Anyway, I dug out my old laptop

and as long as I don't move it,

it should work!

So here are my 'Corn & Bean' blocks

with borders!!

I am calling this top

Jelly beans

because it is so bright and fun.

I'm sorry I didn't make more blocks and make it bigger,

but I am definitely making another one!!!

I found border inspiraton

from a pattern called 'Shadow Play'

In this magazine, that I have had for ages.

It uses Ocean Wave blocks that finish at 8 inches

(where mine are Corn & Bean blocks that finish at 6 inches.)

The pattern is also in a beautiful colour scheme

so it's on my to-do list too!!!

*****

When we first had snow I moaned about a few flakes

blocking my way to the studio :)

A week later,

we had a few more flakes!

 But it only lasted a day!

Somebody knew the best place to keep warm

when we had the snow

was on my newly finished quilt

on our bed!:

*****

Of course, I couldn't resist the
'Scrappy Trips Around The World'

blog madness...

I have been sewing my strips as 'Leaders & Enders'

and they mount up pretty fast!

My plan was to use lights and darks

and to have a dark blue running through

the centre of each block.

(One can't just let the scraps take over LOL)

I think I need to get a bit more variety

in the next few blocks I make...

*****

I managed to catch Bonnie's

Quilt-cam the other evening:

 Such fun!

Even if my husband does think I'm bonkers!!

While watching I managed to sew loads of leaves down on

my Carolina Lily borders so I've not got a lot left to do now.

Hope it won't be so long between posts again...

On the back of The Lily Quilt

Not what you need when you're trying to do

teeny tiny stitches to secure your applique vines down...

 

But she is very sweet

and I guess she's showing her appreciation

for the art of quilting...
and she is lovely company!
 

She's sitting on the back of a white quilt

(thankfully, it's the back!!!)

But it shows all the papers that are still in the quilt

from my English-Paper-Piecing method

of Marti Mitchell's Carolina Lily quilt.
 

 

As I've said before, Marti's pattern is for machine sewing,

but I like to hand-sew.

I also like to leave the papers in until I'm done.
(Luckily I have left the papers in as they act as a cat hair barrier LOL)

I Paper-pieced the borders on as well. 

That required sellotaping large pieces of paper together

to make my border templates.

All good quilty fun ;o)

Long Lost Lilies

I still haven't done a blog post

listing my quilting goals for 2013,

but they do include this project

which I started in 2010...

 The pattern is 'Carolina Lily'

by Marti Mitchell.

I decided to English Paper-piece the entire quilt

even thought the pattern gives machine-sewing instructions!!

(I'm an English-Paper-Piecing-kind-of-girl!)

 I am presently trying to get the applique border on...

 This involves pinning the vines and leaves.

I made a mistake and now need 24 extra leaves

- when the error was discovered I took a break from the project,

but I have now decided to turn that 'difference'

in to my own variation of the pattern ;o)

During pinning, I had help!:

 Well probably 'company'

would be a better word than 'help'!

 So the game went something like:

'You pin, I pull!':

You tell me off, I pull again...

I chew...

Hold on a minute!! No chewing!!!

Oops! I've done it again!

Last time I tackled my Carolina Lilies

I sewed some berries in the wrong place...

Well, I unpicked them...

... and promptly sewed the leaves in the wrong place LOL!

Anyway, I have decided to just make more leaves

and sew LOTS of leaves on

(and I may add a few extra berries too while I'm at it LOL)

Baby-Kalico continues to delight us

(lack of sleep is the new sewing...well, sort of!)

As does her brother...

And I still try to fit in a bit of

Gluten-Free baking when possible
(even though pies get left in ovens to cool

instead of being taken out on time,

but they are still edible!)

The tea-towel which is much loved

and very well used is a design

by Veldt.

And we have had some very strong winds lately!

Our poor trampoline was taken for

an unscheduled flight!

A Sense of Scale

Firstly, Thank You to everyone who offered suggestions

on my previous post about the 'Mill-Stone Monster Quilt'.

Secondly, I thought I should actually take some photos of it

to show the scale of it:

This is me trying to hold up half of it:

This is an eighth!:

This is the half section again (heavy arms!!!):

After much thought and heeding lots of the aforementioned advice,

I have decided to take this out of the box:

And put this in the box:

I have enough of my own UFO's

that would actually make me happier to finish!

Mom doesn't care about the quilt

and although I would love to finish it for her,

she doesn't even want it for her spare room.

One of her suggestions included: "throw it in the bin" which is very sad.

One day, when I have more time and more of a plan I'll open the box,

 dust it off and give it another go...

In the meantime, my Carolina Lily's are calling my name....

So let's see if I can get those border vines and berries on!