Tis the Season for a quilt top

Tis the Season stitch a long

I decided to stitch all the borders onto my blocks to see how it would look. I think I like it. The fabric is Glace by Moda honey bun, there is brown as part of this collection but it just looked off. I did 6 each of red and green and 6 blue and cream, there is a block for the back and left over honey bun too.


The fabric for the Bee in Oz April block arrived from April in Canada today in the post, she wants mod mosaic blocks, Elizabeth Hartman's pillow we are making 12.5" blocks, will show you when I've played with the fabric. 
Also my swap partners for April for the various swaps I am now are in my inbox, I'm making a Christmas log cabin in red and green, and a house or flag or log cabin in red, white and blue.


I have to now get moving on a baby quilt, new grand baby is due in about 8 weeks, I have a layer cake of Animal Alphabet and some plains and I am leaning towards making another of Elizabeth's quilts Mod sampler Quilt. I was going to make the same quilt as I made for Lily but have decided to do something different. Anyway back to sewing or at least cutting fabric to start this quilt.

Another swap group

I love sewing and when I saw Linda of Stray Stitches was not only coordinating Block Swap Adventure was also part of Quilting block swap Australia 2 I went and investigated and joined. You will see the button on the right hand side of my blog, you might also notice that there is a Christmas block swap as well - I did say I like sewing. Add Bee in Oz quilting bee and by the end of the year I will have a couple of new quilts made by others, just as I am making them for others. The block below is for Alex who is coordinating the swap, I hope she likes it and I have asked for stars or pinwheels in autumn tones, cant wait to see what she makes.

Baby bunting block white and light purple

Block from Cathy.......

arrived today

my block from Cathy

doesn't it play nicely with my other blocks

Tis the Season

I've finished my 3 blocks for March

February Bee in Oz block

Shruti fabric went MIA at the end of January, turns out that her hand written in ink with fountain pen addresses got washed off her parcels when the whole lot got wet. They had been sitting at the International mail sorting office in Mumbai. Shruti readdressed them and mine arrived yesterday, with patchwork on tonight today was a good time to make a block. We are all making a block from Elizabeth Hartman's Tokyo Subway. We were all sent a fat quarter to keep and strips of white for the block and use our scraps to make up the block, everyone was given a block to make, I made number 7 there are 25 blocks in the quilt and Shruti is in 2 bees so most of the blocks will get made.
With so many different fabrics (some washed other not) my block the pressure was on to match seams, I hope I did an OK job.
It will be fun to see what everyone else does.

see the seams in the bottom row are wonky,
maybe when it is all together they will sit better

Finished block

Block for Cathy........

my partner in this months block swap adventure was Cathy from SA.  Cathy wanted autumn tones log cabin, the last round are from my Japanese fabrics I liked the texture it added to the block. Colours aren't great in the photo,  I finished the block just as the sun was going down, that's why I took the photo out on the grass.

Autumn tones

cream/neutrals

finished block on the grass

March already........

for my February finishes I did my mug rug swap, Bee in Oz blocks, Block swap adventure blocks, knitted a Caressa express cardigan and a dozen or so hexagons. The fabric in the second photo came from a friend, Karen. She had cleaned her sewing room a had a pile of scrap fabric did I want it, who would say no. Anything that was cotton I cut into hexagon shapes, all the dress, fancy fabric I gave to Kate for playgroup, MOPS, or Girls Brigade to use.

The beginning of something, using up scraps, all the centres
are the same bone fabric from IKEA 

This is all cut ready to sew, fabric from a friend

from this

to this

I knitted the first cardigan for Kate in 2008 and took it to London when we went to visited them. It came home never worn as I had forgotten to adjust the button holes for my 5' 11" (180cm) daughter. So last month we pulled it to pieces, unknitted it and re-knitted it into the second one. The colour of the wool is that of the first cardigan. When I can I will take a photo of Kate in the cardigan but given she is 3 months off having baby number 2 and it is still very warm that could be a while. I am very pleased with how it looks - just like the book.