Warning! No Colour Zone

My order of Prima Homespun black and white fabrics have arrived in the post ... all 7m of it ... hence the online order.  I don’t think my kiddies would be patient enough at the cutting table for this lot.

7m I say!

I don’t think I’ve ever bought that much fabric in one hit before?  Have you?

Another thing I don’t normally do is wash my fabrics before I use them – but – I think in this case I might have too as I’m worried that the black will bleed into the white.

For those that do wash their fabrics … do you use soap powder and softner? Or do you just wash with plain water?  You’re advice is greatly appreciated!

Now to start my plan of attack to finally make this.

Linking up with Finding Fifth for Sunday Stash.

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Here's a Finish!

I actually started this quilt and gave it away pre-blogging, so I apologise in advance for the lack of construction photos.  But I just had to share this quilt with you as it’s one of my favourites so far.

 The quilt was made for a little friend of ours that we affectionately call “Pooky”.  She is a delight of a little girl who loves pink, purple and princess castles (well, who doesn’t?!)

She spends a fair amount of time having sleep overs at her Nanna’s house because of her Mum’s work schedule, so I thought I would make her a little something special to snuggle into on those nights.

I recently stumbled across Chasing Cottons Quilt Designs and immediately fell in love with her Sand Castles quilt pattern – you can buy it here. 

Chasing Cottons Quilt Designs "Sand Castles"

So I bought it (yay for me) and headed down to Spotlight to stock up on fabric.

Left over fabric scraps used in the quilt

As it’s quite a bright and zany quilt, I decided to stick with the same sky fabric through-out (the pattern suggests using different fabrics).  

I also used a sand coloured fabric with little ladybirds to tone it down a little (or she’ll never get to sleep!) and tie it all together.  I didn’t have enough fabric to do the pieced border, but I think it turned out fine without it.

Peek-a-boo Hubby's toes :)

Pre-blogging photos with my picture-taking shadow!

I had so much fun making this quilt, it’s bright and cheerful and just brings a smile to my face every time I remember handing this quilt to Pooky and hearing the squeal of delight she let out.  Just makes it all worthwhile doesn’t it?

Linking up with TGIFF hosted by Blossom Heart Quilts

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WIP – One stitch at a Time

We had a little “Incident” around these parts that involved an ungodly hour, a drunk driver, his car and our house.

Whilst restoration work on our home has been happening, we have been set up in temporary accommodation which makes sewing and blogging a little difficult.  But I have had one saving grace … my love of cross stitch.

There is a silver lining in every cloud (they say) and it just so happens that the temporary accommodation that we are calling home has a lovely winter sun spot in which to sit and happily stitch.

I’ve taken advantage of said spot and am now ¾ through the 1^st of 22 pages of counted cross stitch.  I think this will end up being my life’s work, but what a peaceful life it shall be …. fingers crossed!

Stat’s:

Aida 14 count

Final width = 218 stitches

Final Height = 275 stitches

Total stitches = 59,950 (eek!)

Floss used = DMC

Amount of colours = 46

Jpeg picture converted to counted cross stitch using this website

The picture was chosen for my Mum.  It’s of a chap called Babur … he’s a relative of Genghis Khan and his life story is quite amazing.  He’s known as the 1^st Mughal Emperor. End of history lesson lol!

Hopefully I will be back next week with another instalment of my MIL’s quilt. 

Until then, we'll keep taking advantage of this beautiful winter sun.

I hope you find your sunny spot to sew.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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WIP Within A WIP

Time seems to be slipping through my sewing fingers … I find that always happens when I start a project with a deadline – do you?

Any-whooo … I've almost completed another block for my MIL's quilt.  As she is English I've made a Union Jack to add to her story quilt.

It’s  a paper-pieced block (my first ever!) and I really enjoyed the process.

I used this template to make it.

My hubby liked it too (being English of course) and asked if I could make a WHOLE QUILT out of these little babies – hmm I'm not sure if I enjoyed the process that much?

Now to sew all the bits together

It’s a tiny little block so I think I’ll add a white border so that it matches a little better with the Apple Pie block I've already done.

Hmm, now that you have my attention paper piecing … what will you do with me?

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Sx