barijquiltalong {update}

I spent a bit of time this afternoon handstitching all my Dresden Plates down for my barij and southerncharmquilts "wild bloom" quiltalong blocks. After a bit of chopping up & changing things, I've ended up with a variety of centres using pretty fabric and vintage doilies.

I'm very new to embroidery, but I decided that this QAL is the . perfect . time to try out a few stitches, so I've had a go and added some additional little cross-stitches & french knots too. In the big scheme of things my handmade stitches will be fine I'm sure. Oh, and, I also made up this week's pattern ''arrowheads' block, quick & easy, so I'm all up to date :)

Getting so close now to having a finished quilt top! 

It's great seeing all the different versions of this quilt, pop over here for a little look 

Linking up for 'slowsundaystitching' here

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sew stitch snap SHARE #20

Happy Wednesday
and welcome to another 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE'

With a few more WiPs hanging around here than I care to admit,
I really did try to avoid starting something new one day last week . . .  but I failed!

Still, I do now have a finished quilt top to share with you

To sash . . .or not to sash?
Decisions, decisions!

My inspiration was a vintage 30's quilt made up of florals and shirtings, in a gentle palette. For my quilt, I wanted each block to showcase one bright vintage fabric, and I used a variety of low-mid volume background fabrics to try & help limit control the scrappy look.

The original quilt didn't have sashings, but I decided to add four vertical rows into my version. And, of course wouldn't you know it, I didn't have enough of any one fabric to do all the sashing. So I mixed it up and used two different low volume fabrics, a Kaffe grey spot and a Jen Kingwell's 'behind the scenes' grey print. I used that wondeful Phillip Jacobs 'tree peony' fabric for my outer border. {see back here for early details}

I enjoyed using this combination of vintage and new fabrics to create a pretty quilt. And you know me, I love any project that uses up my scrap and stash fabrics. All ready now for basting & quilting. Oh, and any ideas about a name for this quilt?

That's it from me this week. Time now for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup. My pick from last time was Donnalee from DONNALEEQ post on her blocks for the barij & southerncharmquilts "wild bloom" quiltalong.

I love how she added this doily to her Dresden Plate block, you can see more here

Have a little peep at her earlier blocks, more pretty sewing. . .

and I just couldn't resist showing you all this photo from last time too . . .

Glen from quiltswissy is making a fun 'Little Red Riding' quilt, pop on over to see more.

{all pics reposted with quilter's permission}

Do you have a project to share this week too?
Just follow these simple guidelines:

•  Link up any post from the past week that features a sewing or stitching project you have been working on, whether they are WiPs, starts or finishes. You can write as much or as little about your project as you like, and snap off a pic or three, and share here.
•  Somewhere in your post, please link back to this one.
•  Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts.

Thanks for joining us,

Julie & Linda

from inspiration to reality

Feeling a little overwhelmed with all this house moving stuff, so I'm relaxing with sewing something I've wanted to make for a while now. This quilt was inspired by the work of Sheena Chapman and a photo of a vintage 30's quilt. Loving how Sheena works, it's improv in style, so scrappy & vintage-y, and she makes combining unco-ordinated fabrics look so easy.

Over the past year or so, I've been collecting little pieces of vintage fabric {from apieceofcloth} and I finally decided to make a quilt with them. I followed the measurements Sheena kindly gave me and I am really enjoying using up my vintage scraps and other odd pieces of fabric, including a few solids, in this. 
I don't know the finer details of this quilt, just going with my gut feelings really . . . like, my centres are the vintage fabrics, corner triangles mainly geometric, everything alternating light/dark as I go, and having an overall colour combo/focus fabric, like the wonderful Phillip Jacobs 'tree peony' fabric I'm planning to use in the borders. A class with Sheena would really be so wonderful! 

I put on the concert progamme on this afternoon and began making up my own stripey sections in roughly the same width and then pieced several 'square in a square' blocks using the vintage fabrics as my centres, easy as! And yes, I loved it, so I kept on going. Hope you enjoy all the progress photos so far.

And how about you, can you drop everything and just sew what you love too? 

Linking up with Kelly from myquiltinfatuation for 'needle and thread Thursday'

late night shopping

We've all been there, right?

A little late night shopping in our PJ's, jimjams, whatever,
and here's a little glimpse of my recent late night {online} shopping . . . 

 And talking about fabric

. . . . did you hear today that FreeSpirit have shut down?

All productions stopped,
including Kaffe, Philip Jacobs, Tula Pink, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner,

& Denyse Schmidt, among many others.

I don't know many details but maybe check here to read a bit more if you are interested.

And there's lots of comments & thoughts over here at Rachaeldaisy's IG feed

sew stitch snap SHARE #19

Happy Wednesday everyone!

We are back this year with our Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE linky party

I'm sure you will agree, the online quilting community has provided us all with a limitless source of inspiration, support and encouragement. Julie from julielou and I decided that we needed a regular mid-week link up to share WiPS, starts and finishes. And to keep the love of blogging alive.
So we have created Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE - it doesn't matter if it's sewing or stitching, snap a photo or three, and share it to our link which we will co-host each fortnight.

First up, what's happening here in my sewing room? Well, as some of you know, I am between homes at present, so I've set up a small area to sew and am mainly doing hand sewing- like stitching down my Dresden Plates onto backgrounds for the barij & southerncharmquilts "wild bloom" quiltalong. There's seven of them all together, 3 complete full plates, 2 1/2 plates, 1 wonky one, and 1 1/4 plate. Time consuming, but so ridiculously cute.
And I'm loving adding little extra embroidery bits to make my quilt have more of a bohemian look about it, learning heaps!

- this little one ends up at 7 1/2" across, other larger ones are 9"

- and then, while packing up for the big, and final, move
I came across an old tin of Mum's with lots of little bits, perfect for my Dresden centres

There's a few gaps still and it's quite tricky to get it all in the photo,

but here's a little peek at how things are looking so far . . .

That's it from me this week.

Time now for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup

Do you have a project to share this week too?

Just follow these simple guidelines:

1. Link up any post from the past week that features a sewing or stitching project you have been working on, whether they are WiPs, starts or finishes. You can write as much or as little about your project as you like, and snap off a pic or three, and share here.
2. Somewhere in your post, please link back to this one.
3. Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts.

Thanks for joining in with us again this year
Julie & Linda

a finish & other things

Here's another recent finish I wanted to share. My 'stars' quilt came back from the quilters late last year and I have finished binding it now. You may remember my quilt from this post here, way back in January 2017.

I used Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 'mostly manor' fabrics + scraps for my stars, and then I faffed about for ages trying to make up my mind about how I wanted to set these stars. Sometimes there are just too many options!
I finally decided to use a light VFW fabric for my setting diamonds, and then I opted to use a bright layer cake of Lecien fabrics for the larger setting triangles.
It was machine quilted by Annette de Ratt in an all over lazy daisy design and I used a Kaffe fabric for the binding. Finished quilt measures 125cm x 160cm.

And here's some other little things I'm still working on - the latest blocks for the barij & southerncharmquilts "wild bloom" quiltalong.
I've made a start on my Boho Dresden Plate blocks. They are the biggest part of this quilt. There's seven of them all together, 3 complete full plates, 2 1/2 plates, 1 wonky one, and 1 1/4 plate. Time consuming, but so ridiculously cute . . .

- I used my Dresden ruler to cut each blade 2.5" tall

- and these blades were cut at 3.5" tall

These three Dresden Plates still need to be hand stitched down and some extra bits & pieces added like lace, french knots, and maybe some little fancy stitches around the centres. Loving the gentle pace with this barijquiltalong - follow the IG link here to see all about it.

Another Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE linkup

will be starting Wednesday 7 February 2018 - hope to see you then