Quilt Bee Blocks: February

It feels like I've been living out of a suitcase recently due to a lot of business trips. But yesterday was a day just for me, well for me and my sewing machine :)

Kandra from MMSB asked if anyone was willing to make an extra block, which I hapily signed up for. It seems with this pattern practise makes perfect better as I was able to match up the black seams much better vs. my first block.

Next up was an Amish block for Gretchen in SC3. I decided to try the Swing in the Centre block from Block Central.

One big blearning point for me was that I should of worked with a darker thread... luckily it's not too obvious unless it's stretched.

With my "orders" complete I was able to tackle a small project for myself. Most of the blocks have come in for my picnic quilt, so I got started on the filler blocks. I personaly had never made the blocks I had challenged the MMSB'ers to make, so this was also my first wonky word.

I think that the "Y" needs a bit of a tweek as it looks a little apart from the rest, but in general I fould it to be a fun style (my bee members also seemed to really enjoy it)-- just as well as I have aboutseveral more words that will need to be made to finish the quilt.

Mastering the art of avoidance

Instead of working on making the long list of Christmas gifts, I've been thinking about what the final layout will be for the Bubbles quilt

one line

Or a frame (with an extra white border on the outside)

And instead of sewing it together, I've started a new one....








Yeah, no comment!

My Happier Hour

I've been playing a bit of catch up. First up was the beginning round of Eurovision Quilters, Wendy asked us to make Dutchman's Puzzles (quite appropriate since she lives in Holland).

Out of the scraps left over I managed to make these two little blocks -- I'm not sure if the block has a name... it must do, anyone know what it is?

Next up was finishing up the front of the Bubbles quilt. This pattern is called Happy Hour, I had some issues with it before, being a bit too blah, but I think I managed to sort it out by adding the white blocks to give it more definition.

All "posted-noted" and ready for sewing...

and here it is all done, you can just see my little helper peeking out from the top!

So now piecing the Bubbles side fo the quilt, and I just picked up from Dallas 2 more packs of fabrics for SC3 so I need to get started on those (Bento blocks and maverick stars), and I am working on a hexagon block for MishMash... oh yeah, and the first Brussels Craft Day is coming up... phew!!

Bubble-icious!

Almost all of my Bubble blocks are back in from SC3, and I am starting to sort out the placement of them. Look at all of them, amazing eh?!

Please ignore the lack of ironing...

I still have about 5 blocks to come in so the placement is not final (a diagonal line maybe, or add in some blocks of my own to go with my original idea of a border of bubbles?...), but I am loving how it is starting to come together my group have done me proud!

I arrived home yesterday to find a package waiting for me...

How cute is that envelope, why can't Belgium post offer something like that?? I have such a hate relationship with Belgian post, I always end up in an argument discussion with them about package size, prices etc. Once the stupid irritating post lady made me cut open an envelope of clothes I was sending to my best friend for her baby's birthday, and re-tape it because the envelope was 1cm too wide. The most annoying thing is that the envelope was not even full, so could easily be squished to fit the 'standard' mail size.

Anyways, sorry for the rant... inside the cute envelope was even more cuteness, the first of my bubbles blocks for SC3 all the way from Saranya in Thailand.

She even included some extra bubble appliques for me to use in my block for my bubble quilt!

I was so excited to finally receive one of my blocks. I've been stalking our group's web page to see what blocks have been posted online, and was so glad to see that they seem to have "gotten" my idea. After the initial stress I seemed to have caused people, it's great to see they seem to have taken on the challenge.

Double Zig Zag

So apparently a messed up knee is good for my productivity. With my weekend plans put on hold and H at work, my Saturday afternoon was filled with Season 1 of SATC, and some binding...

Yup, Ziggy's done, and even ahead of schedule! Now to package it up and make a date with the parents to be.

I also managed to finish up Dallas's block for SC3, a slightly modified zig zag (yeah original I know, but she wanted simple and modern, I figured this was a good solution)

I think one of my favourite things about this quilting bee is how you have to make fabric from someone else work no matter the size of the pieces they send, the desired 'theme", or colours. It really stretches the brain :)

Damaged Goods

Well, we are back from vacation, which was wonderful... However, just 1 day after getting back from holidays I have managed to re-injure my knee (my only injury from my former life as a figure skater!)-- yeah, I didn't hurt myself at all on our hiking holiday, but after hanging a new light fixture we bought while away, typical me!

After a day holed up at home feeling sore and sorry for myself, I just had to DO something, so I dug out the fabrics I have for SC3, and got to work on my log cabin block for Quay and Co. and my clean lined modern block for For the Journey.

L: For the Journey R: Quay and Co.

So far one block down, and one 90% done, now only if my knee was doing so well!

Little fabric Bundles

So I swung by Dallas' tonight after work, and we had a fun night packaging up our fabrics because next month is "our month" at SC3, go Team Belgium!!

What you might ask was in those little envelopes, why the fabric for my bubbles quilt of course!

It's crazy how fast time flies, I remember when this group started I thought June... it's sooooo long away- but here we are already! Since June is my birthday month (turning the big 29!) I 'll be getting all kinds of goodies in the mail- should be a nice compensation for being away from home.

As you may remember, I am challenging my group to make me circles-probably most quilters worst nightmare. I've gathered up a ton of tutorials for different methods of making circle appliques so hopefully everyone will find a method that they can groove with. I'm stretching the team a bit I think, but hopefully when it's all over they'll thank me-- or worst case still talk to me!

Letting my hair down

This month at Sew Connected 3 we have 2 different sets of fabric to work with. Jessica's plan was to make a bird themed quilt so she sent each of us a bird fabric with some coordinating fabrics- the only request being that the bird is the focal point of the block.

It'll be a breeze I thought, not much of a challenge as I could do whatever I wanted... hmmm yeah, right! I opened my package and found one tiny piece of bird fabric- Michael Millers' Tweet Tweet (which I have been lusting after)- which has little birdies in cages, super cute, but as the scrap was so small I was totally intimidated.

Jessica said we could add fabric... and I thought crap I have no bird fabric in my stash... or do I?? A quick search through my stash turned up some leftover Amy Butler Temple Flower fabric from my sampler quilt- that has birds AND coordinates with perfectly with the fabrics Jessica sent.... heheh, an evil plan it hatched- I'll switch bird fabrics, brilliant!

So away I went and came up with a really simple traditional block showing off my birdy....

Hmm, that's kinda lame isn't it! I also guilty for"cheating"and that I wasn't pushing myself enough, the whole point of me joining this quilting bee was to stretch my sewing skills and creativity. So, back our comes the Tweet Tweet fabric and the leftover pieces and I came up with this.

Now I am normally verging on the anal side when it comes to straight lines and have already had a minor battle with that already with this bee, and this time I just winged it and let the fabric decide how it would go together. After seeing the completed block I think I'll be adding a freestyle quilt to my to do list- oh yeah, and buying some of that Tweet Tweet fabric for myself!

My not so happy Happy Hour

So... still waiting for my fabric to arrive (can you tell I'm a bit impatient at times!). I decided to start a third project (well 4th if you count the evil sampler quilt whose hand quilting I'm still ploughing my way though, uggg) - you know... 'cuz that's what you do!

June is my month at Sew Connected 3, and I have been collecting fabrics for a while. I have my whole plan ready to go, but before I can send out the fabrics to the "team", I need to cut out the pieces for the other side (it'll be my first um... double sided quilt...? ie. a unique pattern on both sides.) Hmm, still doesn't really make sense does it?! maybe a picture will help... I've been planning something like this:

So pink is normally totally not my bag, but this quilt was inspired by a great antique style shabby chic rose fabric I found in Luxembourg of all places... which I totally loved- think faded Cath Kidson. It's destined for our spare bedroom as pink doesn't really "go" in the rest of our apartment (it also happens to match the "dumpster dived" pink green and white metal flower chandelier in there, gotta love free accessories!)

After the cute simple quilt I saw here I wanted to try out the Happy Hour design. So after cutting out all my fabrics and laying them out I..... hated wasn't feeling it. It was all a bit mushy... not enough contrast etc. So, I'm now thinking of revising the plan to have alternating the colours with white Happy Hour blocks, kinda like this quilt.

The bubbles side is what I will be challenging my quilting group to in June- sewing with curves, hehe I'm mean, I know!- but you know you gotta challenge people right?! Hmm, I hope they still like me by the time they're finished with it! More on this project to come.

Jack is back

So, The Secret Quilt, aka "Jack" as he's become known at chez Craftywaffles is done. Ok, just the top is done, so I guess I should say half done. I hung it up to take some picture and love it.... could you make a patchwork curtain?? Maybe a bit too country for me? Hmmmmm...

He's going to be shelved for a while as I have a baby quilt to get started on for a friend- deadline July... yeah it's a while away but I'm not the speediest quilter. I still havn't decided if I'm gonna risk machine quilting it on my little Frister and Rossman!

My productivity hasn't just been on Jack, I have also finished up my April block for SC3. Amy sent over some super cute fabrics for her picnic quilt. As soon as I saw the ant fabric I had a eureka moment and knew I wanted to have the ants marching around the block in a little ant trail. Because of all the seams, it used a lot more fabric then I expected so I had to scrimp a bit to get it done as well as walk away vs keep fussing with it- but that's part of the fun of this quilting bee, working with "un-me" fabrics and working with what you've got on hand- it seems to be helping my OCD tendancies!

Mostly Non-sewing Crafting

With a change to H's schedule (him working mostly days the past few weeks) my quilting evenings have been non-existant. I feel guilty quilting while he's home since we don't see each other that much, so together we have been doing some other kinds of crafty stuff.

H's birthday was last week, and in the small amount of alone alone time that I've had recently, I found and cleaned up an antique kitchen scale. As a chef, food is H's job and hobby, he's one of those really lucky people who love what they do. So, buying kitchen related stuff is always a safe bet for him.

The scale is over 100 yrs old. It arrived chez Craftywaffles looking pretty rough. It was crusted with rust and its lovely copper face was hidden by years of neglect. Here it is after a nice bath and scrub in anti-rust product (it's original state was too nasty to show!)

After some loving.... it's now looking like this... happy bday babe!

Now, I bet you are asking yourself what is that yellow thing in the background of the first scale picture.... so glad you asked, it's our new chairs!! For Vday H and I decided to gift each other a set of art deco club chairs. The yellow velvet is in good condition, so we gave the fabric a good cleaning which should hold us until we (aka I) re-cover them- I'm in love with these babies!

The other day I mentioned to H that I wanted a bench seat for the end of our new bed (you know in my mind it'd be an elegant sitting place- but in a reality a parking sport for clothes etc!). As the Mr Efficient that he is, H tracked one down- for free no less, Score! Hidden away in a Oostende basement was a settee (cross between a bench and a sofa), just what I was looking for. As we are currently living in an apartment, I banned the bench from coming in due to lack of space- but we are practising our renovation skills on the matching arm chair.

So last weekend H sanded away the old finish while got a jump start on removing the once seafoam green plastic upholstery (yup- you read that right!). However It seems I lost the battle against the person who put that stuff on- However, after a few stabs from the screwdriver- ouch- I got it off.

Now... Yesterday H worked a later "shift" so I had some quality Sarah time - yeah I'm terrible, I'm happy to have a night to myself sometimes... Anyways, I had picked up from Dallas my next batch of fabric for our Sew Connected 3 group. The inspiration images were mostly wonky log cabin-ish, so I tried to quell my inner obbsessive compulsive need for order, and wonked it up. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. I hope Rocklily is too :)

Front Row Seat

Okay, so I feel a bit like the the kid at the front of class who always raises their hand.... But I had the afternoon free to myself and couldn't help but dive into my Sew connected 3 fabric. Apparently I need to work on my math skills, but after a bit of modification I came up with this

I added the red/pink rick rack fabric to the ones Lin sent me, and I must admit I'm pretty proud. Can't wait to get the next bunch of fabrics.

Let the Games Begin

Last night H and I hit up the book fair in Leuven so I could stock up on english books.

Yes, the label is correct they are all a few euro`s a book! They had tons of quilting books (well, tons considering it`s belgium!), and I couldn`t resist picking one up about Japanese quilting.

One downside to living in a foreign country is that the libraries here don`t stock English books - except maybe Jane Eyre or Shakespeare... as they use them for school here. As a rather avid reader that really sucks since buying English books costs about 11EUR each! And as I spend a lot of time sitting at airports and in hotel rooms when on business trips, the books go quickly! - Now I can indulge for a fraction of the price - and guilt factor!

To top off my day, you will never guess what was waiting for me in my mailbox when we got home... a little something from Thailand!! Yup, the first round of Sew Connected 3 has begun, and Lin at Sew-do-I, sent over these fabric goodies.

As H had to work this afternoon, it`s just me my new book and my new fabric for a playdate!