My friend Rachel and I have been creating a random sampler quilt in our class at Ozzy. We've both had enough of it now and are desperately trying to finish our quilts as soon as possible so that we can move on to other new stuff. I designed a block for this quilt on EQ7 and below are a few photos of my progress. The flying Geese are all foundation pieced and then I have built the units up just as you would with any curved block except for the middle circle which I put in when the 4 units were put together, using a neat trick which my old teacher Sue Propst taught us. Scroll down and you will see what I'm waffling on about!

I did the Geese in strips of 4 as my paper wasn't big enough to fit 8 on for the outer ring. Here I have joined two sets of 4 to make the strip of 8 blue and yellow geese.As you can see I have joined the 2 units together, which was easier said than done, I tried to match the points of the geese from each row. I have cut a few points off but on the whole I'm quite happy with it. At this stage I haven't ironed it as I didn't want to spoil any bias edges so it looks worse than it does in real life.

Cooking on gas now with the outer edge on. This was much easier than I expected. I cut all the outer edges generously so that I had room to rectify any mistakes.

And here we have the finished block! TaDah! I really like this and I wondered if it would make a workshop as the block is easily big enough to be a cushion. Any takers????? (Anyone mad enough?)

At last another one is finished. This is another BOM that I bought from Patchwork Chicks. I really liked it at first and then near the end thought it was a bit chocolate boxxy but now it, sorry I should say they as I made 2, are finished I really like them again. I have one on my bed and can't help admire it every time I go in my bedroom. The other one is going to be raffled for charity in aid of 2 kids I sponsor in Sierra Leonne. I'm not ready to start the raffle yet as I want to time it with a visit there, as I'm not sure when I'll be going the raffle is on hold until I'm organised. If anyone is interested in buying tickets and finding out more I am happy to answer questions if I can.

FINITO!

At last my quilt from Leanne's house is finished, yay! I've called it 'Annie's Garden' I am really pleased with it. It's a great quilt for using up scraps. I only bought fabtric for the borders and backing apart from that it is all remnants and even better, because the pieces are quite small I used up quite a lot of fabric that I didn't particularly like and got away with it.

'To do' pile is a bit smaller again... I'm getting nearer and nearer to starting on my new stuff, can't wait.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!

After being back at work a mere 3 days after his last injury; here are photo's of our latest disaster!!!!!!

The moral here is when your holding a fence post whilst your pal is hitting it with a sledge hammer, don't put your hand unexpectedly on top of it. Makes perfect sence to me, but it would seem not so to my little boy

Today I have been to my quilt group at Oswaldtwistle. I am a good way through doing a random sampler quilt. This photo is of a Feathered Star... it was a pig to do! My first one was so far out on the seams that I have had to completely redo it from scratch. I started this one yesterday and have been so particular with the cutting and piecing it's untrue. Even so, once I had assembled the nine blocks putting them together was far from easy. The picture doesn't do the lime green and black justice but I was so excited about sharing this achievement with you I couldn't wait for natural light to do a better photo.

My friend Rachel and I signed up to do this BOM, it is a Lynnette Hyland design called 'window to our garden.'

So Rach this blog is for you, so that you can see how I laid out months 3 and 4 on my piece of green fabric, which I had cut down to a 30" square. I had a good look on Lynette's blog and I think we will use the rest of the green to make leaves on a tree which is going to go up the left hand side of the quilt.

I just have to put the yellow centres on the flowers and then I will cut the piece diagonally in half along the ironed line. (No stretchy bias edge to spoil doing it this way.) As you can probably guess putting the pieces on at different angles took a bit of getting my head round so I hope this helps you. I have also decided that I'm not going to put the 2 walking ducks on yet as there is more applique to add between the boy in month 4 and the ducks; I may put mine on in reverse when the other applique is on as it will give more room.

Have fun can't wait to see yours.

Wey hey she's at it again!!!

I am feeling very pleased with myself today. I have layered up 3 more quilts, so I'm getting nearer and nearer to meeting that completer finisher challenge I have given myself. Two of the quilts are the same and they are this BOM called Heart of the Home which I did through Patchwork Chicks at Barrowford it is a Hillary Lynn design. I really enjoyed doing the stitchery. When I've finished them I'd like to raffle one off for charity, but more about that when I've finished as I don't want to make on line promises that take me an age to meet.

This is the other quilt that I have layered. It's another BOM called Leannes House by Leanne Beasley. I wasn't sure about it when I first started making it but now its assembled with the green border I love it. I know a few other people who are doing this BOM and it is amazing how different it looks with other people's colour choices. I was a wimp as I tried to stick to the colours in the monthly block photos as we didn't have a photo of the whole thing until we assembled our own.

Only 3 (but maybe 4 or 5) quilts in the to complete quilt top pile now; I can't wait to get them done so that I can feel free to start designing my own stuff.