Is it going to work for me this time?

I have been following the Just Take 2 BOM, and working along trying really hard to keep up, Last week I dedicated a few days to finish the first quarter. This is what I have ended up with.
Now if you are also making this you will see that there are a couple of blocks in here that should not be, that is because I became frustrated with what I had made and decided that it was just not good enough and so I made my own. It is the hand piecing that is not working for me.

Anyway........ I am happy with what I have made, the feathered star especially and the applique one in the bottom right hand corner (which by the way I did with vliesofix and blanket stitch on the machine)

This one is certainly testing my staying power, and since I have finished this quarter there has been new blocks put up, which I cant start because my printer is out of ink. This is a very good excuse and I am sticking to it.

More Blocks

 Two blocks for the April BOM

And the blocks for March and April Sentimental Journey

I have been really slack with posting what I have been doing

But I have not been idle.
During the first few weeks of this year I became a pattern tester for Arbee Desighs Ltd.  Check them out  here.

    

This one is called Star Crossed, it is foundation Pieced, But once I got the hang of it, it progressed easily.

And this one is called "Star Medallion" .

The original pattern was made with Floral Fabric, but I was anxious to get started and I did not have enough floral to get the repeats so used the fishy one instead.

Unfortunately neither of them is quilted yet

Someone is watching me

I wonder who it could be?

And I have made fabric from Scraps

This is what I have so far, while it was raining I went well, two days ago it stopped raining and so did I.

The latest project

This is my latest project, it is on going, all those little bits scattered everywhere are from my on going scrap box, normally I sort it all into colours when the box is full, bu this time I am going to do something else. I am not going to elaborate just yet, I will put up a new post when I get part one done. So far it is taking a lot longer than I expected.

FMQ

I am not proud of this, matter of a fact I was tempted to throw it away, but.......... I thought this might remind me to get better, after looking at it closely I think there was one bit of one feather that looked OK. This is the back of my work, the front would not photograph very well. I ran out of bobbin and stopped.

Another lot of red and white.

Here is the next lot of the red and white blocks, Notice there are two of the same block in different sizes, the small one must have been practice for me ( I am not admitting to anything else) cos I made it too small and did not discover it until it was nearly finished, so I decided a spare block might come in handy somewhere along the line. Alos it's big brother ran colour on me when I pressed it. I will try washing it, but not until I have one of those colour catcher things.
(Note to self put it on the shopping list)

Also the bottom left block I have changed, I cut it all out how it was supposed to go, then decided that all white around the red centre was boring so quickly swapped the corner blocks for red, I like how it turned out.

Caring Hearts Bed Runner

And it is finished, this will go to a local charity as a fund raiser. Funny I have had it finished except for the quilting for ages, finally it got in the way once too often and I did the quilting. Not in the ditch, but beside it, just ran the edge of the foot on the ditch.

And another BOM

My Craft Forum is doing a block of the month, and I decided that it would be a good idea to use up scraps. I have so many and for some (tongue in cheek) unknown reason they keep multiplying

Another Sentimental Journey Block

This one is called "Stormy Weather"

FMQ

I have wanted to try Free Motion Quilting for a very long time, but have always been too scared to try in case I mucked it all up. Yesterday I got an email from Online quilt Magazine. It had this tutorial 
so off I went and found an old lost block, and some batting and a small bit of calico for the back, and this is what I came up with.

I realise now that I should have stuck to the dark shape (star) and just did that. My biggest problem is that my machine does not have speed control, the pedal controls how fast it sews. I had a lot of trouble with going too fast and my hands were moving too slow, hence the small stitches, but I think for a first go it turned out alright.

I think I will make it into a pot holder.

Just Takes 2

I have joined the Just Takes 2 BOM, so far it has been pretty easy. I decided to use up all the bits of red and white fabric that I have. So they will all be different shades.

Caring Hearts

My quilting forum, gave out Caring Heart blocks, and so I thought I would make something out of a few.. This is a bed/table runner. I am not quite done yet, I still have to quilt it. At the moment I am not sure how it will be done. Each of the blocks ended up ( I make it up as I go) being 18 inches square.
The colours are a little washed out in the photo. I did not notice till after I took the photo, that one of the hearts was not finished being appliqued. Took longer to find the right thread and then thread the needle than it did to sew it.

Remember George

Well this little cutie is the new owner of those bibs. Gosh she is cute, but I may be biased.

Yesterday I got busy

I finally got to work yesterday and did the binding on these two (yes two) quilts, I have had them quilted for ages, and they just sat there and waved at me every so often to remind me to finish them. Well yesterday they finally waved hard enough and they are done. I machine stitch the binding to the back of the quilt and then use a fancy stitch to sew them down at the front.

The top quilt will go to my Son in Tasmania to be raffled/ auctioned, I am not sure which it was now. The pattern for the cats came from here, it was last years free BOM. The irish chain was my way of fitting them all in together. It is a lot brighter in real life.

The Black one is all Scaps, and out of my head, sort of made it up as I went along.  I went through all my bits and anything that was 2 1/2 inches or bigger went into it. I had so many I did the back as well. To be honest I am not sure whether I like the back or the front better. The back is the one with more black. It was a bit of fun (not) to get it all straight on my frame so that I did not miss any of the colour, but it all worked out fine in the end.

George is modelling for me today

And isn't he cute. These are the baprons that I have made for my lovely granddaughter. I sure hope they fit her as well as they fit George. The first one in the middle row is the back of one. I only made five, and to make the picture come out right we needed six photos.

The Bapron

Look what I found on Craftiness is Not Optional, click here if you would like to try it too, take hardly any time to make and it is soo cute. I have two made so far and another three to go.

Eli's quilt

And finally the quilt for my nephew for his birthday is done.

  A Dress each for my Granddaughters in Tasmania, and seeing I was at it I also made some for the newest Granddaughter. I bought the  T-shirts and added skirts.

I know this is not sewing, but I am so impressed with this flower, I have had the plant in a pot for going on 15 years, and it has never done anything, and now it is flowering

 A Bag for someone special, the pattern is for the Rivendale Collection by Sally Giblin and is called "Dilly-Dally-Daisy.

 The next Sentimental Journey Block, with a bit of a twist, this is not exactly the way it was supposed to be, I  like to change this a bit.

And last but not least a bag made out of a tie. This was from the Learning Fibre Arts Yahoo Group.