Bonjour….

Just another day of work for me….. but today's work is bought to you from New Caledonia!!!!  I had to  "pop" over here for a meeting and unfortunately (or lucky for me) I have to stay 2 nights.  I love sewing on the plane and here are a couple of my jewels that I did on the plane.  They will be sewn onto 6" blocks and incorporated into my Sue Ross BOM construction.

Hope everyone is well….. back home tomorrow.  Kimbo

Slowly getting there

I've just stolen an hour or so in the sunshine and managed to finish another block (while chaos continued around me...)

So the next question is whether I stick with the hand sewing and finish off the basket and flower applique...or brave heading back to those tricky blocks, the geese or the feathered star?? I think for now the calmness of applique is the go, at least I can see progress that way!

Class activity

Boy oh boy was there activity in our Saturday Sue Ross class at Material Obsession.  Firstly we welcomed a newby to our class Elke.  I think we didn't scare her too much and hopefully she'll come back next month.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of her block but it was looking fabo.

Here are some snapshots of blocks from the class so far.  Sorry not too sure who's is who's but all the same there is lots of eye candy for all to see.

I'm off to New Caledonia tomorrow and if I get a little organised tonight I might be able to take a little sewing with me for the plane journey, although it is only 3 hours.  Photos of my progress, yes finally there has been some progress, to come in the next few days.  I need about one hundred 3" blocks, fourty 6" blocks and half a dozen 12" blocks, plus a gazillion 3.5" strips.... but it will all come together in spectacular fashion.......

Hedley's quilt

After all the sadness on the blog I thought it was time for a positive story!

One squirmey, almost one month old boy came to visit yesterday and his Auntie Caroline was very happy to give him his new quilt. He seems to like it!

Apologies for the quality of the photo...after everyone had left I discovered the smeared lens....mmmm two 2yo boys may have been the last ones to play with this camera.

It gets worse....:(

Late yesterday afternoon, after sweltering through a very warm 34 degree day, I thought that I should do a little quilting..... after all I had a plan on how to rectify my mis-measured strips for my Lone Star centre.

So out comes my incorrect strips, all nicely pressed .....

I measure them, calculate that I need to trim back half an inch of one of the strips and then add another 1.5' strip to them.....

I count the number of strips I have made already ......

I don't have enough!  I not only mis-measured and incorrectly cut the strips for my stars, but I also seem to have miscounted that I needed 14  not 7 to make my Lone Star diamonds!!!  So back to the drawing board I go. 

Fingers crossed there is some exciting new fabrics in store on Saturday to help me find my mojo again.

Perhaps cake will make me feel better....?

Fishy

I am secretly pleased that other people make silly mistakes too.  I am sure that Kim can find a way around her issue in the last post.  I am still lacking the mojo to unpick my mistake.

Of the "Homage to Hearld" series, I have only finished the fish block.  I decided to do a quick "quilt as you go" to get a little 3D texture into the block.  I am happy with it, although I have no idea what to use it for ... Not sure if a quilt will work.  Maybe a cushion cover or a wall hanging for a kids room.  

Killing me softly.....

The old rule, measure twice, cut once.  We all follow it religiously......  but of course there is the one time we don't and guess what - it's that time!

After drafting the foundation paper for my variation of the Lone Star centre piece I thought "bugger it I'll strip piece it and then cut"..... wrong wrong wrong!  I "forgot" to add one quarter inch seam so ended up being too short!  And naturally I had cut the entire lot of fabric out, strip pieced the 14 sections I needed before I discovered my error.  And naturally I don't have any more fabric, plus the shop doesn't have any more of the fabric (because I bought it all)....... so back to the drawing board.

So disappointed..... words or photos can not explain!  I have one idea that may work but you'll have to wait and see on Saturday to see what I decide.  This is what it was supposed to look like but we'll see........

Has anyone got any photo updates of work done this month?

Kicking myself

You know the old saying measure twice, cut once.  Well I thought I had done a pretty good job as I had manged to insert my 21.5" squares into the sashing fabric and was feeling, frankly, pretty impressed with myself.  But pride does come before a fall as my grandmother used to say, and sure enough, as I lifted my now complete Sue Ross mystery BOM quilt aloft, it hit me.  I had sewn the last seam TO THE WRONG SIDE OF THE OTHER PIECE.  Now I have houses, baskets and vases, all heading in different directions.  And I know I just can't live with it this way.  So three blocks will be unpicked and realigned to the correct direction.  I am so cross, I have folded it up to deal with later.  If I try to fix it now I will not be as careful as I ought.  Here it is in its confused direction state.  Maybe its a message ....  Below is me trialling a border fabric.  Not sure about this one.  I think the photos are a bit wonky, but then, the quilt is too, so maybe that is OK.