making time to make

• First priority this long weekend, making Lemon cake! I used a yummy recipe from Annabel Langbein, with yoghurt/shredded coconut/oil not butter/and lemons!
• Olive is really into making masks at present... a little search on 'google' and we found many to chose from.  Must make a trip into Spotlight asap to get more crafty supplies for this sort of rainy day activity. Olive helped me make a list... pipe-cleaners, wobbly eyes, feathers, glitter ... she had lots of ideas!  
• And I made time to sort out this scrappy fabric pull, a rather antique colour combo I know, of pink, blues and brown! Then, because I was keen to see how the colours worked together, I found time for a little bit of rainy day play for Granny too! Not sure yet where this is heading, but it's fun playing with the values in this repetitive way, and I'll keep you posted! For a couple of interesting reads about using values, check out Rachel's post from 'Stitched in Color' here and Katie's post from 'Sew Katie Did' here.

Linking into 'oh scrap' here with Cynthia

a quiet energy

With many of my quilts I tend to focus on bold & bright colour, but not this time!
Using a scrappy selection of low volume fabrics has created an interesting result.
It's a quilt that's easy to live with, it has a quiet restful energy about it
 ... I'll just let the photos do the talking!

a little colourful punch of orange binding 

a bit more #28
For more details, inspiration etc about my quilt see an earlier post here

And, I found a great solids version here
- variety certainly is the spice of life!
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday here over at Crazy Mom Quilts
and to tgiff here
My first FAL Q2 finish ticked off 'the list' woo-hoo!

Hope you had some time this weekend to be creative too!

modern buzz saw {some progress}

There's been a bit of interest in my latest WiP, thanx for all the comments & emails! This quilt was on my earlier FAL- Q1 list however, as I've taken some time getting around to it, it's now on my Q2 list! Once I started this week I was hooked, and I thought I'd share with you what I've been up to!

I'm using the Modern Buzz Saw pattern from 'fabulously fast quilts' by Amy Smart {see here for more details}. Inspiration initially came from some lovely vintage quilts in pinks & indigo. My version of this classic block is a crazy mixture of scrappy modern fabrics with that vintage-y colour scheme. I wanted to add a sprinkling of yellow & green to keep it from being 'just a pink & blue' quilt, and here's where the fun started! 
Initially, I thought I needed to make some of the blocks in yellow/green colours, as you can see from the pics below! *But as I progressed, I discovered it was much much easier to pick a pink or indigo fabric with those extra colours actually in it! So I raided my stash again to find a few suitable 9" square candidates!  
The two tone background in this block does add an extra dimension, and I feel it's also very reminiscent of those old faded calicos you see in some vintage quilts! {see collage pic # 4 below!}

                                                    # 4

Here's a few pics I took while making the blocks.

 It's an easy-to-follow process of stack, slice & shuffle....

1. HST 

2.Cut it into four strips

3.Reverse the order of the strips 

4.Add one extra strip & join together to make 1/4 block

I made up a few more blocks and discovered there were lots of possibilities! I got very side tracked today with a bit of experimental playing! I had fun drifting way, way away from my initial ideas of setting & colour, see...

*EDIT
Ah, now it's looking a bit more like what I had imagined in my head
... enough playing, staying focused now
... truely! :)

Linking up with WiP Wednesday here 
and with Scraptastic Tuesday here at SheCanQuilt
Pop on over to see what everyone else is busy making!

2015 Finish-Along {Q2 list}

Well I guess like many, I really did find having that list over the past few months certainly kept me focused! I think I achieved more than I would have otherwise, and it was a very good way to document a collection of things I would like to see finished. In all honesty, I started out the year knee deep in unfinished projects, and while I didn't accomplish everything, I did manage to cross off four things, so it's all good. And of course, I got sidetracked just-a-little along the way with other projects, and I've added a couple of them to my next list! Here we go....

• I've been on the hunt lately for something to make with my little stash of Liberties. I made a few trial blocks a while back, scrappy Liberties & Low Volume Double Four Patch I think I'll call it! It'll take some time I know, but even if I at least make a bit more progress on the top I'll be happy!
• This strippy neutral quilt is all layered up & pinned ready for some DIY machine quilting. Looking forward to doing this, and have made the binding already! 
• Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt, the down sized version! Our Monday Modern group are doing this as a BOM but I learnt a valuable lesson with this quilt top - make what you like, not just because it's something others are making! Still, it's away now getting some quilty magic, but will need the binding done on return.
• And finally, the Modern Buzz Saw quilt- a bit of a crazy mixture of scrappy newish fabrics with a vintage-y colour scheme, and using a stack, slice & shuffle technique! I'm also alternating the cream & white backgrounds! Needs piecing, quilting,  and binding, but we have 3 months, yes?

Linking up with Adrienne here for the 2015 Finish Along Q2 Finishes.

this week...

It's been a bit quiet here on the blog, just back from a lovely break at the bach down at Waihi! Great weather, lots of walking, not too much cooking, and even managed to get a few maintenance type jobs completed!

And this week, I've been sewing quite a bit! First up, possibly my oldest WiP! {But it's ok, I came across these comforting words by Anna Maria Horner... "Works in progress - even dozens of them - are a good thing! It's life."} I initially posted about this quilt here and yes it's taken a while, but it's now finally finished! It's so good to have it completed! I started making this ages ago, then lost interest when I couldn't find the right binding and put it away. I pulled it out recently, I had forgotten just how lovely and vintage-y it looked! It's a row-by-row assembly and has a great assortment of liberty, linen, textured, & cotton fabrics.

close up of binding, a softly textured old fashioned pink

lots of  little liberties! 

close up of clam shell quilting

by Annette de Raat, Wild Cotton Ltd 

And here's a peek at my design wall this week, more about that soon!
Linking up with 'oh scrap' here - where it's all about sharing scrappy projects each week. 

Hope you have some time this week to be creative too! 

a mini break

gone to the beach
...back in 2 weeks

happy Easter everyone!