Prairie points

Not much to report from these parts at the moment. Creativity is crawling along thanks to an irritated nerve in my neck that is giving me the equivalent of sciatica in my arm and shoulder which is just peachy when you need to move said arm to use the sewing machine! I've had to do some quick thinking to rejig my plans for the Quilt Now BOM to reduce some of the reliance on the sewing machine for the final few blocks.

As Issue 9 has just hit the shelves of shops in the UK I can show you what we've done so far and I have to admit to being delighted with it.

All of the fabrics are from various collections for Art Gallery Fabrics and they all play beautifully together. If you're on Instagram you can search #quiltnowbom to see pictures of other BOM quilts in progress.
This month's BOM technique is Folded patchwork Prairie Points. A super quick technique that demanded a fun BOM project - a travel memory game. I dug out some of my Laurie Wisbrun and Heather Ross hoard for a bit of fussy cutting fun.

The free pattern will be  is available on the Quilt Now website soon now. I'm off to finish watching the Great British Sewing Bee now. Catch you soon x

Going crackers!

OK, so we all know I went crackers years ago but I liked the title so I'm sticking with that ;) I've been busily sewing away at a project I've had in my head for a while and today it's finished so I can share it with you. Yippee!! Here's the source of my excitement....drum roll please....the Animal Crackers Christmas tree skirt! No fancy paper piecing or templates required, a super quick finished in a weekend (or less if you're on a mission) kind of tree skirt. I've used some of my precious Laurie Wisbrun stash for this version and I just love it, well who wouldn't love a llama amongst other beasties?!

It's so satisfying when an imaginary project turns out just as you had hoped it would in real life! I contemplated digging out the Christmas tree for the photographs but I'm too much of a humbug for that in November. I've set up a page link for the free pattern at the top of the blog but thought I'd give the quickest of tutorials here for the crackers as I can envisage them in all sorts of Christmas goodies like placemats and table runners. Think of it as an early Christmas present if you're so inclined ;)

For each cracker you will need: 1 focus fabric rectangle 6.5" x 3.5", 2 solid 3.5" squares and 4 background fabric 1.5" squares.

 Mark the 1.5" background squares across the diagonal and place them right sides together with the solids squares as shown above. Sew on the marked line then trim a 1/4" seam allowance and press open. Sew the edge of the solids block with the background triangles to each short end of the focus fabric, right sides together, then press open. Hey presto!

Sash and go your own sweet way or use the tree skirt pattern, either way I'd love to see your version if you choose to make something. I've even set up a flickr group just in case you're tempted...it would be very sad if mine was the only contribution to the group but hey I follow my own blog so I am sad ;) Just time for a couple more shots that show the simple quilting and the yummy chevron binding.

As usual I outline quilted and did some basic straight lines around the top and bottom in trusty Aurifil. This red chevron from Riley Blake reminded of candy canes so it seemed the perfect choice for this project :) 

So there you have it friends, the first major Christmas make of the year and undoubtedly not the last for me. Feel free to share this picture and link if you feel like spreading the tree skirt love around :)

Catch you soon x
Edited to add: There's a PDF link at the bottom of the online pattern now :)

Commitment issues

I have no less than 5 projects on the go at the moment. I don't know why I'm being so fickle, maybe I'm just in a rush to try all the ideas that entered my head while I was out of action :) I've recently joined Instagram so apologies to those of you that follow me there as a lot of what I'm going to show now has been aired over there in the last week or so. [Yvonne's on there too but she might be a bit quiet as they've just moved house and have no broadband]
There's been quite a bit of progress on my kites, diamonds and stars EPP project. I've decided it will be a cushion so I've only got one more set of shapes to piece :)

The lovely ladies of the HipBees have been dutifully returning their October blocks to me (I showed you 2 here) and I've been whipping them up into finished blocks as soon as they pop through the door. So much for taking my time over this one ;) It's shaping up to be another contender for my all-time favourite quilt. You can see the individual blocks here. I'll do a nice post showing the individual blocks when I do the final reveal...whenever that might be.

There has been a trial run of Christmas tree decorations using crazy scrappy patchwork. This is definitely a work in progress as I can't decide what I want the finished hearts to look like. I've got another one ready to put together which I'm going to trim with mini-pompoms.

Today I've been having much fun with some gorgeous Laurie Wisbrun prints and bright solids but I can't show you much detail of this project yet. Here's a sneaky peek for now :)

Finally, I've been crocheting in the evenings whilst watching tv so there is wool all over the place in our living room :) I've only got dodgy phone camera pictures of progress with this project so I'll have to get some better pics of that before I share it here. I'll leave you with photos of the most awesome birthday cake in the whole world ever!

 My gorgeous and talented sister-in-law made this for my 38th birthday, complete with replica Sneaky Stars quilt!

I should have taken a pic of the inside because it had multicoloured layers. Jade has some seriously excellent cake making skills! Even more amazingly, this cake was wheat and gluten-free. I'm almost looking forward to next year's birthday for another cake ;)  Catch you soon x