The Purge

I'm pretty sure a horror movie was named after it......

Rachel over at Stiched In Color is hosting a purge along. I'm totally joining. I probably haven't looked at all the fabrics in my stash since I got them to be honest. As you know I'm working on a colour project, but throwing some more things into the mix won't hurt. 

Like Rachel I pulled out all the fabrics that I just wasn't feeling....

I then spotted the little sewing pouch Blogged About Here I'd made some years back and thought hmmmmm that pouch may be just the project......for the life of me could I find the templates!!! Um no..So I had to draft up some more....

Newspaper is not just for reading you know! I then sorted those fabrics into piles with some zippers....of which I need more of.....

The scraps will be put to use...or swapped....or hurled into a box until next year......

Watch this space

Cherie =]

Colour Schemes -Berry

For this quilt I wanted to do something to really show off the prints. I was umming and ahhing for quite some time before deciding to do a Triangle Quilt.
I grabbed some cardboard, stationary, my sketch pad and notebook and got to work on the Quilty Maths

The templates (ignore ones to right....)

Quilt Maths

Quilt layout plans...

More Quilty Maths....

Then was onto cutting the fabrics. I realised I had some Triangles left over from my Wedge Cushions so I took a few of them to use to boost my fabric selection...

So many scraps left over..but I have something planned for those...

So all fabrics and plans for this quilt are under way..

Watch this space

Cherie

MAM2 in progress..the Sneak Peak

I spent the better part of today sprawled in the front living room. I sketched out my quilt idea then thought OK now I need to fill in the colours....Father was occupying my usual workspace (his bed lol!) so I trailed downstairs, piles of fabric in hand.
I thought up a few idea's either random patchwork or an actual design. In the end I chose the plus quilt only my version is slightly different from the normal construction as I mostly wanted to use my Echo prints for the pluses, I had to use 4 of my Madrona  Road prints too (make note I don't have the whole collection of either. 16 Echo and 6 Madrona Road from the citrus colourway)

 These 3 panels will go on the back of the quilt along with some paper pieced blocks.
These first two will sit either side of the block with a neutral print above and below them

The block will be halved (2 x 3) and go above and below the pieced blocks with a solid print above/below them. 

I just have to colour in the pattern for reference when it comes to sewing as this will be bigger than any quilt I've made in the past.

Shockingly I have no other projects on the go! I'm not sure what I'll make next...any idea's?

Tomorrow I start a new job! I'm thinking as to weather I should pack up some lunch now or wait till morning...it shouldn't take too long just sandwiches to make.....

Siya'll tomorrow =D

Wednesday afternoon at the movies!

As you may have guess I watch an awful lot of movies. My evenings run down with. Dinner, Blog reading and commenting, posting a blog entry, going onto flickr to check swap updates, then watching a movie.

Today though Mother, The Older Giant and I went to watch a movie at our local theatre. We went to see The Amazing Spiderman It actually was a great movie! Way better than the Spiderman movies in my opinion. The story was based more on the cartoon series that used to come on way back in the day and the marvel comics that have been around for years.
I didn't expect it to be much, when I saw the trailer I wasn't overly impressed by it. So seeing the movie bettered my expectations of it. We got to sit in some cool seats too as it was shown in the theatre room so we were in a box! Typically we bought our own snacks in with us, because who really wants to pay the expensive cinema prices! I would definitely advise you to go and watch the movie if you haven't seen it already....knowing that the majority of you live in the USA it may be old news.

Returning home we stopped in the local Chicken and chip shop where the Older Giant made trouble as usual with the owners (Good thing we actually know them!) which was rather funny!

I picked out some zippers for the pouches and pinned the wadding to the lining (the effort to sew it on!)

I couldn't sew them today as my ears are too sore for close counter noise, they were ringing after seeing the movie!

So I got to work on ironing then cutting into my precious Echo prints....and the others...

I'm going with 4.5" squares so I cut a 9" strip from all pieces, some I had to cut 2 as they were skinny FQ's or F8s. I still have some left so I'll possibly make a pieced backing. The Younger Giant calculated I should have about 256 squares if most provide 8 squares. I'll have much more as some strips were cut from the FQ's so I'll possibly have 300+ squares to use. So some may go into the back depending on how large the top works out to.
I still have to cut the strips down to 4.5" squares mind you so wish me luck.
I'll also get on with some EPP as I get better with this cold!

Siya'll tomorrow =D

I'm too tired......ask me later.......

OK so now is slightly later...by mere minutes lol! I say this a lot when the Giants ask me something it's always so funny....They wait seconds then ask me again, those crazy boys....(though due to their ages they can be classed as men) The younger giant will be 18 this year!! He's growing up so fast...Literally! Poor boy can barely fit through doorways (he is 6ft something possibly 7 or 8). Father suggests we put him outside. I suggested we get him a tent at least!

My morning at 'work' was rather busy! YAY! I had to write up some letters and email them. Then print some off to post for the people on the list that did not provide email addresses. Then I had to call another set of people to remind them of a catch-up session for this Friday...that was funny one guy kept me on the phone for a good few minutes not grasping what I was trying to tell him! I had a trip to the post office. Outside was sooo hot. Luckily I bought a bottle of ice water with me, and some snacks. (dried fruit)

Back home I took some pictures of the fabric that came in the post this morning courtesy of Flickr and some quick snaps of my hexies after they were ironed..yes ironed it had to be done! As well as the smaller hexies and my diamonds.... Then my camera battery died...

 My hexie sizes are 2" and 1 3/4" The diamonds are 2". All cut from my own paper, that was fun..I'll have to search out my tutorial and add it to the page.

Then inbetween book reading I continued on with the long overdue quilting on the last charm quilt!

I have the rest of the row to complete...then I can bind it and the quilt will finally be finished and can join it's friends.

I'm really hoping tomorrow cools down! This heat is killing me. At least me nose was better behaved today.

Siya'll tomorrow =D

Stash sorting!

I got some happy mail this morning! Sent to me by the good people at Pink Castle Fabrics. I was feeling a little too lazy to go through what they had and pick out prints so I opted for the random F8 bundles instead. I asked for a variety of colours as well as some neutrals. I must say I was a wee bit disappointed by the colour range they sent...I got mostly blues and greens and I have a ton of those already!

I still need purples, reds, oranges and yellows....plus the neutral tones. *sigh* If anyone would like to swap some fabrics with me let me know please.

With these fabrics I could finally get around to organising my stash better. I pulled out all of my fabrics and went to the iron. It took a few hours but everything was nicely ironed and folded then put away by colour order.

 Yes I just unfolded them roughly to iron so they kind of got thrown into the tub first..I did neatly fold them afterwards as you can see in pics 3&4...

As you may be able to see blue and green have the largest fabric piles whilst all the others are significantly smaller. The rolls on top are the left overs from the F8 I used for my EPP

I have some I need to take pictures of for swapping. If you are in need of some solids I can swap some quarters out. I'm glad now I can see what prints I have and what colours I need to look for...I must say it's fairly hard to find decent purple/red/yellow/orange prints! Don't get me started on neutral prints! I'll have to do some more in depth searching! Plus find some larger boxes for my stash.....

Siya'll tomorrow! =D

Rainbow scraps!

With my sewing mojo gone for a vacation, I played around with some templates. Father bought two large cake boards a 16"circle and hexagon. I flipped them over and divided them on the back to  get wedges to eventually make up some pillows. I just need to decide what prints to use and eventually get cutting.
The bowl is a template for the smaller circular pillows using the HST blocks I made.

I flicked through some magazines hoping the projects would help inspire me on what to make next. I found a few things that caught my interest. Some blocks and one had some cute fabric flowers, that can be turned into brooches or hair slides (well it didn't say that, but I think they could work)

They require 3" circles to make the petals, so I pulled out my fabric basket containing some 3" x 5" strips and cut those down to 3" squares saving the scraps for my jars.

My jam jars plus some other jars I found are now rainbow scrap jars...as well as one for white, black, brown and grey scraps. I even pulled out my scrap draw and cut some of the pieces in there into strips to add in.

Oddly there are a lot of purple scraps though I have no major purple fabrics! Smaller pieces of fabric have lead to that.

I then tipped out my strip bag ready to trim them down to proper sizes to put into another draw. There are various different fabrics here, some cotton, linen and upholstery weight fabric. I'll leave them at the length they are as most of my scraps are smaller pieces.

I'm seeing some scrappy pouches in their future....maybe some log cabin blocks....
I broke my fabric ban slightly to get a better range of rainbow colours for my stash. I ordered some mystery colour bundles from My Fabric House I spent £30. The bundles are 10x12" pieces which works great for what I need them for. I'm going through the fabrics on Pink Castle Fabrics to possibly get a custom bundle made up with some rainbow inspired prints.

Not a very interesting day, but at least I found something inspiring in my search.

Siya'll tomorrow =D

Still so charming!

I've been scouring the net for websites that have great bundle deals. I've found some really good ones that have a range of prints over different colours. Some that have colour bundles with different prints in each. Plus a few with stash builder bundles.
I couldn't believe when I looked through my stash and found I only have 2 purple prints! I also need to get some other colours...So much for the fabric ban, but you really cant make rainbow themed items without the full set.
Pink Chalk Fabrics have some really great bundles in different colourways, with very few prints in each being the same. I may get a few of theses to build some colour groups up.

I got more charms cut today from the ones In my FQ boxes.

The scraps from the ones I've cut! Some were just under 5" I was not amused!

The piles with newly added charms..The blue and green have the largest piles..don't quite know how that happened.

I pulled these prints, which are F8ths I'm thinking of getting some more of them too to build up my charm colours...I'll just have a load of 4" squares too. Buying from SurlySheep, the owner Brooke was very helpful the last time when I asked for fewer aqua prints as I had so many already.

These are fabrics I'm thinking of using...well some depending which ones my partner chooses. For the Modernista Swap She said she like pink and green as a colour combo, so hoping she likes at least a few of these prints.

I got some more hand quilting done on the last charm quilt too...only forgot to take a picture as Mother an I were battling with the oven...I'm really hoping we get a new one! They are coming on Tuesday to see if they can fix it.

Tomorrow we're off to London for a Family 'Party in the Park' only with the current weather, I doubt the park bit will be involved.

Depending what time we get back I may have some news to share. Until then

Siya'll Later =D

A sigh of relief and an Idea...

I'd like to start by thanking those who left such nice comments yesterday. After getting some sleep and thinking a little more rationally I did also wonder if the email sent was just a hoax. It did come with a virus after all that thankfully my laptop wouldn't let me open! My arm is also feeling better. I didn't do any cutting and won't have to for a few days as I have some, just to be sewn WIPs.

On to sewing...I started on the owls and came to the realisation that I'd only cut body features to make 12! I really need to get some more bonderweb, mine is running low already after cutting all the features (for just 12)
I have 10 owl bodies with no features...poor things. So i made 6 girly ones and 6 boyish ones.
I would have taken a picture, but they were damp from the bonding so I put them into the airing cupboard to dry out. There was just one error in sewing

One right side and one wrong side! Fool! 

With the extra 6 wing pieces that weren't part of the flowers from yesterday's post (the one with 5 I took the extra 1 from the 9) I started on a cushion cover for this pillow, that has oddly been in the family since I can remember. The cover it has, has been on it for just as long. It was in need of a makeover. I stuffed the pillow some more as it was a bit on the flat side.
Make note the cover is not finished. I'm using the purple duvet cover to back it. Odd combo, but wait till you see the petals

The cover before (the pillow has been stuffed)

I draped the to be new cover over it for emphasis.

I've added a button flower to the middle where the points meet. The back is ready to sew on. I'm going to sew around the petals in a few colours before hand...once I decide which colours that is. I love the petals specially the larger frog one! If anyone has that fabric I'll happily trade something with you. Speaking of which I still have these available. Plus a few others on my bought fabric page..which I'll add shortly to the swap shop to save on some confusion.  

The idea

As you all know I love swapping and scraps, so I wondering if anyone would be interested in a scrap swap?

There would be 12 swappers. (13 with me included)  We all put in an FQ worth of scraps. You send them to me along with an SASE. I mix them all up and post you back an FQ worth of scraps. You then have the next month to make as many things, or maybe one awesome thing with your scraps. You link up any items made from the scraps. 3 winners will be picked at random to win a prize at the end of the month (of course I wouldn't be joining the giveaway). 

Sound like a good idea? Would any of you be interested?


Well that's all from me folks =D

Welcome to Summersville-Population 17!!

Oh yes that's right! I was reading and commenting through my blog list and got to Lucie's (only the designer of Summersville fabric) she said she was adding some prints to her UK Etsy store! So of course I sped over there and asked for a custom listing, for 17 of her prints!-She even wrote a note to go with them =D
As well as that arriving today I got my Embroidery thread, so now I can finish off that last charm quilt and finish/start some swap items. Plus some swap fabric from Marika. It was a great mail day

As well as cutting into all that fabric to add to my charm stash. I cut some background fabric, ready to make some giant grannies seen here on Katy's Blog. I'm out tomorrow so will be searching for some (much needed) backing fabrics!-I would use fabrics from my stash, but I'd rather have some larger fabric for backing as opposed to FQ's
Also today I got some sewing done, of the machine and hand kind 8 little scrappy pincushions 4" squares. I had the squares ready cut it was just a matter of sewing them together. (since march I've had them cut!)

I love them, so cute. The fabrics match in a strange way...well to me they do. More items for the stock pile. They are such fun to make. I'd like to make up some others so if anyone has any tutorials, I'd love to see them. Thanks in advance.
I'm also looking for some linen, so if anyone knows of any good (and reasonably priced) sites please post here. =D

When is a scrap not a scrap?

Answer..When you order them from Fabric Shoppe.
I was expecting some small scraps, you know those odd pieces you end up with from various projects right?
WRONG because instead I got these

I received 28 different fabrics ranging between 5-17" in length and 21-44" in width...most of them were 44"! Prints from designers and collections such as: Alphabet soup-My minds eye.....Hoo's in the Forest-Doohikey Designs.....Ann Kelle...Robert Kaufman.....Riley Blake...Just wing it-Momo.....Indian summer-Zoe Pearn.....Colourful Christmas....Screen print.
When I first opened the pack I thought they were FQs and they had gotten my order wrong! Until I unfolded some and thought WOW these are the "SCRAPS!"

There isn't one I don't like, there are some I LOVE! It has a great range of colours and prints that fit in really well with my stash. As I wasn't expecting them this size I didn't allocate space! So I had to shuffle some things around to have a spare under-bed box for all the other fabrics I have yet to come!

Still no sewing! Seriously it feels odd not sewing! We went shopping, then I came back and sorted out all those fabrics, cutting a 5" strip from each for my charm collection and then from the ones I bought yesterday.  At half 4ish was my Driving lesson! I've gotten a lot better at steering and turning corners....I need to learn to follow directions better mind you. It's great, hard work remembering everything, I know it'll be worth it in the end.

It feels like a Sunday as that's usually the day of my lessons. next Sunday will be cake making!
I hope nothing major gets in the way tomorrow I really want to finish that quilt!
Oh My Mother goes on holiday tomorrow, she's off to Tunisia for a week, with a friend of hers!
Well that's all from me today...=D