Part 2 finish-a-long

Knowing how busy the next three months will become I have chosen to pick easier projects.
I have chosen another five, I need the challenge, any less would have been too easy.
The black and white with Kaffe has only five blocks and four panel pieces to join together, with a border or two to add and be quilted and the top quilt and table runner just need to be quilted.
The pieced block using day sail fabric will probably turn into a cushion cover - a small project that needs to be finished and I have only two blocks to finish off the Blessings of Winter BOM.
If I finish only one I will be pleased but to have them all finished will be great.

Finish-a-long finishes

   

 

 In January I chose 5 quilts to finish for the   2016 Finish-A-Long. I was very happy to quilt and finish three quilts. The other two UFO"s were made into tops and I hope to finish quilting these in the near future. As they require more intricate quilting it may take a bit longer.

Check out the next post to see what I hope to complete in the next 3 months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Tasmanian Shop Hop

 

During March we have been running a shop hop in the north of Tasmania. The five shops involved are Esmes Patchwork in Launceston, Patchworksplus in George Town, Wells Crafts in Latrobe, Cranberry Crafts in Ulverstone and The Fabric Parcel in Wynyard.

You still have a few days left to enter and we have extended it to include April 1 and 2.

Pop into any store to pick up a passport soon.

The picture above shows one of six great prizes to be won and goody bags that you will receive on handing over your passport.

 

One of our widow displays featuring frogs - the stars of our shop hop.

 

 

Two lovely ladies - Ann and Mary- who were the first to collect a goody bag each. mary was visiting from Scotland and just happened to be here at the right time!

 

Despite being very busy in the shop this month I did manage to get out for a couple of days to join the shop hop with the Tuesday girls. They did enjoy themselves!

At George Town we also checked out the NSW Challenge quilts.

And Judy (below) was most taken with the Fabric Parcel's shop window.

Thanks girls for letting me tag along.

New fabrics and lovely customers

 

One of the best parts about owning a shop is when lovely customers come in to share the things they have made with our fabrics.

The mini quilt above was made by Helen in a Deb Louie workshop. I just wish I could make time to play with the fabric like this.

The Tilda quilt, below,  was made by Maxine with the fat quarter bundle of fabrics she won from our facebook giveaway.  Thanks for bringing your quilts in girls.

 

 

I have been enjoying "the Splendid Sampler" quilt along. This is my first block for the quilt- centre.

The heart block on the left is for my red and white quilt -one of the reasons I am doing this quilt and the block on the right is the practice block. Not sure what I am going to do with this yet. And I made the pincushion from a link from one of the designers.

 

 

New Tilda fabrics -Pardon my Garden and Spring Diaries.

 

 

 

Little Ruby from Bonnie and Camille at Moda. 

 

Black Tie Affair by Moda

 

 

And another Bonnie and Camille range called Vintage Picnic.

 

 

Much more to come - lots of new fabrics, two or maybe more Splendid Sampler blocks, new quilt sample from the Tilda range and some customer quilts.

 

The Splendid Sampler

The first I knew about the Splendid sampler was when one of the designers Vicki signed me up to the facebook page.  What is the Splendid Sampler? Google it - it's going to be huge!  Over 10,000 people have signed up to the facebook page. Basically two designers - Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson got together, had an idea and signed up another 80 American and Australian designers and over the next 12 months are giving away the patterns for two 6 1/2"blocks each week - a total of 100 blocks. Get in now I think sign-ups end this weekend.

So I had to sign up, cos I need another project :) And the main reason was that I started a similar project a few years ago  - It Just Takes Two - using red and white fabrics.  So my thoughts are that I will make two blocks- one in  the colours above and a red and white one. The new project encouraging me to finish an old one. And I will finish two quilts by next year!

The block above is the sample block to try out your colours. It is  a bit darker than the blocks I will be making for the quilt, but I just needed to use these Cotton and Steel fabrics.

So watch this space, I hope I can keep up!

A busy month

Well I certainly had good intensions of putting up a new blog post every week earlier this year, but it seems I  have slipped back into old habits.
 Last post I showed the five projects I am hoping to complete in the next three months.  The picture above is the first UFO to be completed. This was the easiest because it only needed to be quilted.

Here's a peak at something I have been working on this month.  All will be revealed in March.
As well as working on stitcheries I have been cutting kits for the new Homespun BOM by Natalie Bird that starts next month. Susan  almost has the first months block finished.  Only a few more days before we can show you.
And you may have noticed the new header photo above.  Finally figured out how to make the image the right size.

Another stitchery - a centre piece for  a "Frivoll "  sample that we are working on. One more border to add and I will be able to quilt it.

And this is sample for our Sew Creative class that I forgot to show last post.

I will finish off with a picture of another  "frivol" sample. This needs more borders and it will be ready for quilting. So you can see I have been busy stitching as well as finishing off patterns and kitting many kits for the shop.

2016 - the year of finishing projects

 

 

 

 

January has always been the month I finish several projects and while I continue to finish projects throughout the year it slows down somewhat as I manage to get very side-tracked with starting new projects. So this year to try and get more focussed I have joined the 2016 Finish-A-Long.

This Finish-A-Long  has been running for many years world wide and to explain it I have copied from the website:

The Basics of the FAL

The FAL is a low pressure community event that allows you to make a list of projects that have already been started but not finished and thus are hanging about in your sewing room as UFOs. The list is linked up at the beginning of a quarter and then at the end of the quarter you link up a link for each item on your list that you finished. Each link is an entry into the random draw for great prizes sponsored by our generous sponsors. There is no penalty for not finishing something on your list. 

The photo above shows the 5 projects I have chosen to finish in the next three months. Three are relatively new, one is 15 months old and the Craftsy BOM was started in 2012. Getting them finished to the top stage will be easy, quilting them may slow me up a bit.  Wish me luck.

 

 

Despite a very busy week in the shop I did manage to quilt a new oriental quilt that now just needs to be bound.

Also finished off a Tilda journal cover that had been hanging around for a few months and the grey cushion has been waiting about 18 months to be completed.

 

 

 

Wool felt applique

Before Christmas the girls in the Wednsday night group- Sewcial and the Tuesday morning girls tried their  hand at wool felt applique.
Everyone enjoyed the process and the Sewcial girls made good progress on their last night.

 

 

 

 

The final Tuesday session was such a great party we didn't have time to sew, but I know a couple have completed their applique.  

I have been working hard over the Christmas break and have almost finished the patterns and kits for these new sewing wallets.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year

After a wonderful Christmas break at Swansea and a couple of days at the shop we had a great day at the Taste in Hobart today.  The Taste was wonderful as usual, we had a quick look at the Salamanca Market - which was very crowded, and popped into Helen Stubbings new, soon to be opened shop. Just beautiful Helen and thanks for the sneak peak. And I finished paper piecing a cushion cover on the way home.
So--- I thought I should have another go at resurrecting this blog and I think I may have got it to work again. YAY
It's taken 2 years  and hopefully this year I can keep it updated.

This is the next shop sample I plan to quilt.  It has been sitting around for some time, so hopefully it wont take too long for me to get it quilted.

 

The latest shop window display. Not the best window to photograph - very hard to avoid reflections, but it gives some idea. Featuring a lot of Helen's - Hugs and kisses- projects and fabrics.

 

A new cushion sample.  This year we will be running  Sew Creative Classes. We are currently working on samples and will have class dates published very soon.

 

And finally for this evening some photos of wool felt samples I have been working on.

we have patterns and kits for these.

Sorry it's been so long but hopefully now I will be able to keep you all better informed.