Going around in circles

My One Monthly Goal for March was to play catchup with my Quilty 365 circles.   I had to do January, February and March and I am very pleased to say that I got there in the end.   Here are my January circles

February circles

And March.   I still have a few more to go for March.

I have tried to make each circle represent something that has happened on every day - a birthday, anniversary, gardening, cooking, sewing, having a day out with friends, the beach, a holiday,   maybe weather related like an umbrella for rain, blue for clear skies or doing mundane domestic chores.    I am thinking that this will be a memory quilt of 2016.  

I am using a close zig zag stitch on my machine to applique each circle onto a background of off white fabric and my stitching around a circle is getting plenty of practice.    It is quite a tedious task pulling the threads through and tying them off - a good job for in front of tv of a night.

I am really enjoying rummaging through my scraps and novelty fabrics to find a suitable piece to describe the day.      Three months down and 9 to go.   This is going to be quite a big quilt.    Perhaps I will make 6 months on the front and 6 months on the back - two for the price of one.    I will give this more thought as my block count grows.

If you would like to see what other One Monthly Goals have been achieved during March head over here.

Linking up with Quilty Folk

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNSI

Turned into "Easter long weekend sew in" for me.    Hubs and I had lunch with mum and dad on Good Friday which meant that I was able to come home and get stuck straight into some sewing on Friday night without having to worry about organising dinner as we over -indulged at lunchtime.

Firstly I sewed up my  9 patches  for the Rainbow Scrap challenge.    The colour for March is purple with yellow accents.   I have plenty of purple but not much with yellow so I had to improvise a bit on this one as can be seen below

After finishing off the 9 patches it was onto the tedious job of pulling through and typing off the ends on some of my circles for 365 dots

Saturday morning started off lovely and sunny so it was into the laundry to pre-wash some fabric that I want to use in the near future.

While that was drying I cut out the strips needed for the next set of clues for the mystery runner

Morning tea ....what better than a mug of coffee along with a warm hot cross bun.

Now that the weather has cooled down a bit it is time to start thinking "winter clothes" so out with the master pattern to trace off size 3 for Miss M.

On Sunday I made a start with some of the pre-washed fabric from yesterday and cut out corduroy pants along with some fleece pants and tops.

Miss M's Cinderella dolly met with accident and needed some medical attention.  

 She is now all back together again.

With all this sewing and cutting out one needs to have a chocolate fix every now and then.

 
Poor bunny is missing his ears.   I think that is the best part of the bunny and always start with the ears first - maybe because the chocolate is the thickest there.      What part do you  attack  - (eat) -first?  

There is still one more day left of the Easter break but I have to do some domestics tomorrow as well as a bit of  shopping.      There maybe some time in the afternoon to do a bit more sewing.

I hope that you all had a lovely Easter and enjoyed whatever you did.

Thanks again Wendy for hosting another fun night and if you would like to see what the others who signed up for FNSI achieved pop over to Sugarlane Designs.   Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

On track

The next clue for the mystery runner that I am doing will be given out on Saturday so it was time to make sure that I was up to date and had the first lot of clues ready.    After joining up my little centre squares I placed the other squares and HST's around it to see where I was going before sewing the rows together as can be seen below.

 
Once I knew which direction I was going I spent today finishing off my 4 blocks.    They are all ironed and trimmed to the required 5" square that they are supposed to be.

I still have quite a few fabrics that we have not done anything with yet so I am wondering how they will be used........I suppose that is part of the mystery.     All will be revealed soon.  

Back soon with some photos of the next stage and in the meantime

 Happy sewing all

The journey has begun

I had my plans for today change unexpectedly so I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up with the clues which were given over the weekend for the "mystery train ride".    First off was the cutting of some of the fabrics which can be seen below.

We have also been given sewing instructions for putting these together however I will tackle that later on.    

After putting all those bit and pieces together in a safe place it was time to start getting my fabric and instructions together for quilt group on Saturday.   Even though I have chosen a  simple block I did do up a sample one so I can show the others what they are making.    Being a "visual" person myself I like to see a sample should I get stuck on written instructions.

So here are some of my bags ready to give out.   Each one contains an instruction sheet and one
6 1/2" square of the same white fabric.    Also in the photo can be seen the sample block.

Time to have some lunch then head back into the sewing room.

Back soon with some progress photos of the "mystery" and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNwF

The challenge that my quilt group has come up with to start off the year is for each member to decide on a block that they would like the other members to make for them.   The first block given out is called "Illusion block" and seeing that it is due back to it's "owner" next week I took the opportunity to use FNwF to make it up.  The block had quite a few pieces but did go together very easily and I think that it will be a very effective design when completed.     I have kept a copy of the instructions as I think that it could be added to the "to do list".

  
We were given the cream fabric and asked to use a yellow centre in the large blocks as well as a dark blue for the small blocks.   She also gave suggestions as to colours that she would like used.

Next week my block will be given out and I have requested the HST block.    I like the way that this block can be used in some many different ways to form various designs.   I will be supplying everyone with one 6 1/2" square of the same white fabric and asking that from their stash they chose a blue fabric - it can be light, medium or dark.    

After finishing off the "illusion block" I made a start on cutting up my white squares to be given out as well as gathering a few blue fabrics which I will use to make some HSTs to add to those that I am given.

If you would like to see what the others who signed up for FNwF got up to just wander over here.

Time to head off and do a few  chores and sew today's circle which I am sure will have to reflect a domestic theme.    Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

One Monthly Goal - March

The time has come to set my goal for March and looking back on what I had listed out for some of the goals that I would like to achieve over the course of the year I have finished the last 2 Sunbonnet Sues in the series that I was making, I used the cupcake fabric to make the apron for Miss M, the Star War fabric to make shorts for my daughter in law and finished off the cushion cover that I am giving as a gift.  The recipient  does look at my blog from time to time so no photos of that one yet.   That still leaves a few things that need to be finished off that were on my original list and of course I have found one or two more projects since then.

I have joined Quilty 365 late so my goal for March will be to catch up with my circles for January, February and March.   I am starting to make some progress as can be seen below.

I have almost cut out the circles for January and February with just a few blanks to fill in.  

Back soon with some progress photos and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

All aboard

Last year I took part in a "mystery train ride" and ended up with a lovely table runner.   It is the first time that I have taken part in a mystery project and I was thrilled with the result so when I found out that another one was being run  I was ready to jump on board.  All I know is that it will end up being another table runner and so far we have been given clues to gather the fabric - 13 different pieces in all plus fabric for the border and binding which I will decide on when I see how the runner ends up.   The photo below shows the 13 fabrics that I have chosen using the given clues.

So now I have to wait until Sunday morning to get my first  cutting clue and the mystery ride ends on 19th March.  Roll on Sunday morning and in the meantime I will make sure that my rotary cutter has a new blade ready to go.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Quilty 365

I saw this a few weeks ago and have been having a think about whether to take part or not but the urge to fill the gap of my year long project which ended last month has taken over and so onto this challenge which involves making a block with a circle to represent each day of the year.   I have drawers full of novelty fabrics which I am sure I can put to good use to describe each day.     Most of the others taking part in Quilty 365 have a good head start but with the aid of my diary, blog and I will have to see just how good my memory is to fill in those blanks I hope to catch up soon - maybe.   I have made a start on cutting out some squares of background fabric and some circles which can be seen below.

My squares will end up being 4" square when finished and I have used a 3" template to cut the circles.   I will use the zig zag stitch on my machine to sew the circles onto the background fabric.

So for this week I have not done anything - which is not a very good start - but we do have our little granddaughter staying with us for a few days and we have been keeping her rather busy or should I say she has been keeping us rather busy.     Lots of visits to the beach

Playing in the park

Feeding chickens at the local petting zoo

Checking out the penguins at the sea life park as well as the other marine creatures to be found.

Miss M is going home later on today so I will make a start on my circles tomorrow amongst other things.

Back soon with some progress photos and in the meantime

Happy sewing all