WIP Wednesday

Yup, it's another Wednesday! Sooo, what have I accomplished this week:
Well, this Circle of Geese block was destined for the back of Come Fly With Me.

However, I just wasn't in the mood to do a pieced back, and frankly, I want this quilt done! So I made this block into a pillow, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I use some Robert Kaufman Quilters' Linen in black for the borders and the envelope back.

Then, on to the quilt, which I finally spray basted with a plaid flannel backing, and started some strait line quilting.

Oops! I Did It Again!
This week for the TYSS , I did the small pinwheel blocks which were quick and easy to do. Then the next block was Dutchman's Puzzle. Grey Cat Quilts has a fantastic tutorial as part of the Skill Builder's Series, to make flying geese. The block is supposed to look like this:
I thought  I had it all figured out, so I didn't have my computer on when I put it together..........you know what's coming right?

Totally wrong!! Good grief! So darn annoyed with myself for wasting time. Here are my blocks so far---

Hopefully, this week I can finish Come Fly With Me, and then finish cutting fabric for Drunkard's Path QAL. I was going to use a template, but I caved and bought a Go!baby die which will make is so much quicker!

Time to link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Have a great sewing week everyone!

Colour Me Disappointed!

I was pretty happy yesterday when I picked up a copy of Quiltmaker magazine because it had Sonja's Winter Critters pattern in it and I had huge plans to make this as a gift. I knew what fabric I was going to use and everything. So, this morning I opened it up to see where I wanted to start.........!!! Only part of the pattern is in this issue! What?? Reading a little closer, it certainly does say Series-Part 1 of 2. But, seriously?? The next issue doesn't come out until NEXT YEAR! I don't buy many magazines because the cost of them here is outrageous, but is this normal practice for magazines to do this? I would much rather buy directly from the designer, but Sonja is only selling in kits which include fabric. Only because I had specific fabric in mind, did I not buy the kit.
So now, I can only make a raccoon I guess, which is wonderful on its own. But, I'll always know that the pattern is incomplete. So, be aware, if you were planning to buy this magazine. It's a sad day in my household. The only thing that can help is some therapy of the retail variety! I just decided that any shopping I did prior to purchase of said magazine, will not count as therapy! Shine up the Mastercard and move on..........
Let me also just say for the record;-) that is no way do I blame anyone but myself for my disappointment. I obviously need to read thoroughly, and not just look at the pretty pictures!

No sewing, but....

Yesterday and today is the biennial Quilt Show here, and wow, it is amazing! I was doing a lot of drooling...and shopping!! I've been waiting for this to buy some Aurifil, and I sure did-5 spools of the delicious stuff.

The green coloured insert is a 40wt, and I want to try it with some FMQ. I also picked up a couple of templates(no pic) and hardly any fabric-just a few FQ's honestly. I wandered through a booth that had a Drunkard's Path die .Hmmm. I won a Go!baby a few months back, and I am doing the DPQAL with Kristie and Kate. But, I have already made my templates and cut out a few of them, so I didn't buy it(patting myself on the back).
And then today happened! My evil, lazy side spoke to me in a loud, whiny voice that I couldn't ignore. That Go!baby is just sitting there pouting about being ignored. Why don't you go buy the die?
I decided to let fate determine my course of action. I went back, and decided that if they insisted I pay an entry fee again, I would leave. I do have a tiny bit of self control after all!

Yes, I am now a proud owner of the DP die. Good thing I hadn't cut very much fabric!
Also, yesterday I had a lovely surprise in the mail!

These arrived is less than a month from this Etsy shop in China! I'm shocked! I've waited longer for fabric from the States. Canada customs must have been having a good week. So, now I won't be sitting on the sidelines for Rebecca's PAL. Yay! However, I did order more frames thinking these wouldn't arrive! Poor me!
One last thing. I picked up Quiltmaker magazine because Sonja or Artisania has her paper-pieced Winter Critters pattern in it. Have you seen it? Absolutely wonderful. Check it out, and you will be hooked too. I can hardly wait to do it.
That's all folks!

WIP Wednesday

Some One good thing finished this week! I'm pretty happy that I finished Building Blocks for the Dead Simple QAL at Lily's Quilts.

I thought I would finish the Card Trick block for Test Your Skills Sampler..........what's that about measure twice and cut once!

BIG booboo and I cut them all! Okay, start over and lesson learned.
Sandi's instructions were perfectly clear! I just didn't pay enough attention! ;-|
Now, I plan to get back to finishing Come Fly With Me. I just have to add the backing, which is a plaid flannel(seems to be a favourite of mine this month!). Then quilt and bind it and then USE it.

Still in the works, I'm still in the process of unpicking a gazillion FMQ stitches from Picket Fences. And still languishing on a hanger is Ocean View.
On a surprise note, I found these fantastic buttons while sorting through my Mom's sewing notions. She was more of a mender than a sew-er, so I was surprised to see these cuties!

I know who most of them are, but the top left lady has me stumped...anyone know who she is? I have no idea what I'll do with them!
Time to link up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!

My Celebrate Color Entry

Well, I "slept on it" for a couple of nights before deciding to go ahead and enter my Building Blocks quilt into the Celebrate Color contest.

This is my first QAL, thanks to Lynne at Lily's Quilts who started the process with her Dead Simple Quiltalong. As I have already posted about, this was really the first time I picked my own colour palette and fabrics that were not part of a collection. So, this is Building Blocks.

I used 16 different fabrics in 4 colourways, bound with Kona Mahogany and backed with a plaid flannel. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Building Blocks....the journey

Once upon a time there was this wonderful quilter and blogger princess and her name was Lynne. She lives in a far away land known as Lily's Quilts. As talented people often do, Lynne wanted to share......so she invited all of us...people she had never met!........to join her in a journey. She gave this journey a name-Dead Simple Quilt.

Well, that didn't scare me off!....much...I signed up for the first time EVER! What have I gotten myself into?  Lynne said..."Go forth and find yourself a palette." You mean I have to do this myself? Don't you think you should do this Lynne? After all it was your darn idea!! Silence from Lynne...well, CRAP! Okay, here I go.First stop (well, only stop really) is Design Seeds. I look at the website all the time, never expecting to have to use it. I am the collections kind of quilter. I just want to look at pretty pictures.
Lynne said " Have you gotten your palette? Now, go forth again and this time match fabric to your palette!" Do I have to do freakin' everything? When will you jump in and save the day?
Well, as all good stories go, there is a happy ending. Myself and many others learned that yes, we can do this ourselves. We need to take ourselves away from what is safe and comfortable and try something new. Nothing bad is going to happen after all! The worst thing might be that you don't like your quilt. Not so terrible, because someone else will love it and appreciate your efforts. So, thanks Lynne, for giving us the push we needed. And I hope you don't mind the goofy story!!!
My personal journey started with this palette from Design Seeds.

I wanted to use only fabric from my existing stash, so it took me a very long time and a considerable amount of angst to make my choices. I thought I had narrowed it down to a manageable amount...

When the time came to cut it up, I got a wee tad anxious about all the orange, so I made a few changes and started cutting it all up into 5" squares. Easy peasy.

Princess Lynne...Lynne gave some very helpful ideas about layout once her own fabric arrived from Never, Never land!
Since I had narrowed down my fabric to 4 colours, I decided (all by myself, thank you very much) to make my "blocks" 4x4.
It's probable very difficult to tell, but each block had 2 colours forming an x, with the remaining colours filling in. Then the order was reversed and alternated. Good thing I have a large wall !
Backing was the next thing to think about, but I knew I wanted flannel.I don't know why...I just did! Winter is coming? Yeah...that's why! Then I spent a lovely evening with Inspector Lewis and Hathaway, and put on the binding using Kona Mahogany. Done and Done!

 Thus ends the longest post I have ever done. And really, truly, thank you Lynne.