Spring flowers are everywhere...

Even in my sewing room!  I walked into my LQS the other week and saw some lovely bloomin' fabric...little did I know, they are the latest arrivals from Liberty.  Bought a roll of quarter yard cuts, that's one of each fabric they had in-store.  They are far too pretty to cut just yet, I keep taking them off my fabric shelf and look at them...imagining all sorts of wonderful quilts to be made!

And when I haven't been doing that, I've been out in the garden.  My spring tulips finally opened and they are just a treat to see when I arrive home, so cheery.  There is much work to be done in the yard, even though it is a much smaller yard than my previous home.  All in good time though, right?  A garden is an ever evolving project, moving things here and there, planning, digging, planting, watering, weeding and taking time to enjoy the results of course!

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

I was immediately drawn to the blue fabrics...

...but noticed the pastels too...so pretty.  Are these considered low volume I wonder?  Maybe not the blue, pink and yellow one.

What to do with these beauties???



 

Now for some real flowers!  I planted 50 bulbs last fall and all but 5 have come up.

I love the shades of pink on the Bergenia's  blooms...so vibrant!

Picked this up at my local Home Depot.  Their selection of planters gets better every year.

A little of this and a little of that

Hello all!  Just a quick post to show you what I've been up to.  More modern monday blocks made, which means I've finished my eight blocks for the month...just in time too as the guild meeting is tomorrow! 

Had to make a nametag for the guild, it's the smallest paper piecing I've done...so far.

And last but not least, began work in earnest on my baby boy quilt...not for me, but for my niece who is expecting her first child in July.

Enjoy!
Mary-Frances

My spools block...could have made those inner triangles a wee bit bigger.

I love this block, it's in the running for my favourite so far.  However, it turned out 1-inch larger than it should be, so will have to cut it down, which will add to the wonkiness but I don't want to just yet!

Didn't I tell you this was small?  2.5 inches...won't be doing that again!  Still need to add some white fabric on the bottom so I can write my name, add backing, quilt minimally, add binding and bring to my guild tomorrow...hahaha!

Piecing the nine-patches together.  I'm making a modified Urban nine-patch pattern using my Quick Curve Ruler.

Making the first cut...eek!

Ok, so far so good.  Three more sides to go!

This is what I have so far.  All nine blocks made, the turquoise sections for the blocks are cut out and have started on the outer arcs as well...more to come next time!

modern monday blocks

Hello all, just a quick note to show that I have been in the sewing room and I did make two additional blocks for my modern monday quilt yesterday. 

It was such a beautiful day here on Monday, sunny and warm, warm,warm!!  I wanted to spend time tidying up the garden but was happily distracted by the great giveaways available in the blogosphere....man oh man, I cannot believe all the fabric and books and other goodies to be found.

Sew Mama Sew is hosting her semi-annual giveaway extravaganza.  There are 275 bloggers listed who are having giveaways and just as importantly, are willing to ship their prizes internationally...yoohoo! 

Have fun!
Mary-Frances

Well, if you've stuck around to check out the photos, thank you!  Here's the whole gang so far, 20 blocks made of 64.



Here's my wonky bars.  This used up some of the smaller scraps which I was glad to do. 



This little sweetheart was paper pieced.  I quite like it even though the photo is rubbish.  Two more blocks to make this week and I've completed my eight blocks for the month...which means I'm actually keeping up with everyone else in the guild - yoohoo!

May the 4th be with you!!

Happy Star Wars Day one and all....;-)

The force was with me yesterday as I was super motivated to get four more blocks done on my Modern Monday quilt.  The sun was shining and my garden needed tending, but I was in the groove and didn't want to leave my cozy sewing room...I didn't even want to stop and make supper (thank goodness for leftovers and microwave ovens, right?). 

I have four more blocks to do this month before our next modern quilt guild meeting and I need to make myself a nametag...kinda stuck on that one...what to do?  I have another week to mull that one over.

Enjoy!
Mary

Here are the latest blocks for my Modern Monday quilt.

Block 17 - hour glass variation, not sure what happened when I made this one but it is 1/2 inch too small....oh well.

Block 19 - another star block..I love star blocks, one of my faves

Block 20 - wonky shoo fly 

Block 18 - wonky flying geese

Almost finished

Hello everyone, what a crazy week this has been.  More divorce nonsense to deal with, DD's 24th birthday (which was lovely) and interviews for my fall practicum have kept me away from the sewing room this week.  I do have one little project that is nearly done, only the binding to go.

Here, take a peek, won't you?

Enjoy!
Mary

I'm almost done this table runner, just need to add the binding.  I bought the quick curve ruler and wanted to test it out.

I did the quilting myself, something I hope to do more of in the coming months.  I stitched in the ditch around the curves then did a back and forth pattern, a ribbon stitch or soft zig zag?  Not sure what to call it.



I filled the spaces between the curves with circles, they look a little like pebbles, don't they?




I've also started a new project for my niece's first child, due in July.  The colours are wonderful and I love this print for a baby boy.



I'm using the quick curve ruler for this one as well...here are the four blocks cut and ready to go.  I'm bringing this project with me to the quilt-along this Saturday night, so I will have more photos for you next week!




I'm using the Urban Nine-Patch pattern, but will make a crib size quilt, so there will only be nine blocks.

Building up the stash...

Sooo, you know how we often make resolutions at the beginning of the year and then sooner or later we just happen to forget about them?  I had this brilliant idea in January (I blame the cold weather) to only use fabric from my stash this year, meaning no major fabric purchases for me.  Well, I didn't so much forget as blatantly ignored my resolultion, I mean, who can resist the siren call of fresh fabric?

Take a peek at some of my purchases this month.  And yes, I've been very, very, naughty.  So much so, that I think my daughters are about to confiscate my credit card! :-)

Enjoy!
Mary

It all began with two, teeny tiny, itty bitty fat quarters.  I mean, are those little birds adorable or what??  I just had to take them home, and I couldn't very well leave the dotty fabric there all alone either...

...and then I saw this delightful fabric with it's gold and orange tones on a muted turquoise background..

...and this Denise Schmidt fabric was just too much fun...

...and these grey's were just calling my name...so who can say no to that?

These lovelies arrived in the mail a week ago, I ordered this from Sew Sisters.

I love the look of these oversized zigzags... these are very much outside my comfort zone...eek!

A fun neutral with grey and white dots on a black background.

And these are my Kona solids, I'm a member of the Kona solids club over at Sew Sisters and each month I receive four different fat quarters...so this is what I've received since I joined last September.  No clue what I'm going to do with them, but they sure are pretty to look at!

Monday Mash-Up

Hi all, take a look at my design wall this morning, it's pretty chaotic, wouldn't you say?  I have two quilts heading off to be long-armed and I spent a little time sorting through my UFO's yesterday.

I pulled out all the blue, or blue and white blocks I could find tucked away in my stash and put them up on the design wall, right next to my modern-esque table runner (see bottom of post for more info on that project).

No set plan for these, will just start sewing them together and adding pieces as I go along.  I have some light blue fabric I'd like to use for sashing. See the orange and blue star block?  I love this colour combo and want to make a quilt in these colours someday. I had to put it up on the design wall, it's so cheery!  

I have oodles of little triangles waiting to be sewn together too, or I could do some raw-edge applique and make something like Cheryl Arkison's Wine Gums quilt (take a look here to see what I mean.)

The triangles are the little bits left over from making all the flying geese for my Cool Blues quilt.  The block on the bottom left-hand corner of the photo is about 2 inches, not a bad size. 

 

 



This is my latest gadget, the Quick Curve Ruler, and I am just lovin' it!  That's what I used to make the table runner on my design wall.  I also bought that awesome nine-patch pattern and am ready to pick out some fabric for it.  I need a baby quilt for my niece who is expecting her first child in July.


Enjoy!
Mary