I fell in love.....

.....with this gorgeous quilt, from the current issue (107) of Quiltmania.....

It is called 'Brinton Hall', and the minute I saw it, it really was one of those 'I love that so much' breathtaking moments, and I do just adore it - but, sadly, let's be honest here LOL, at the rate I sew it would probably take me about 15 years to make it..... 

It is going to be published in 2 parts, so I am anxiously awaiting the next issue.

Nevertheless, as much as I love it, I decided I absolutely could not start it until I had finished a few other things first, and given my sewing stuff a good sort and tidy.....

.....only to find myself on Friday saying to my lovely friend Gabbie, hey, let's do THIS quilt together..... *insert rolling eyes*.....

Gabbie was at my house on Friday, and while we were looking at some things on pinterest, she saw this Kim Diehl quilt and loved it, and I remembered the pattern had come out in one of the American quilt magazines some time ago, which I just happened to have....  I dug it out to give to her, and of course, as all good friends do, I offered to join her!

As it happens, I have been looking at Kim Diehl quilts a lot just recently and had literally just the day before started a 'Kim Diehl' board on pinterest.  I love her designs, but I really love how she uses colour, and puts colours together.  

So it kind of felt a bit 'meant to be'..... particularly when Gabbie realised she had the same magazine
at home too! 

I think we will break it down into sections and do a bit each month, a bit like a block of the month, so hopefully there is a good chance it will get done.....

In the meantime, I have started playing with the layout of my hexie blocks, and I am having fun.....

xx

fnsi..... sewing with bonnie & camille

FNSI saw me working on a new quilt (as you do; even though you only plan to work on UFOs and gifts, and not start anything new!).  I actually started it a couple of weeks ago for FNWF, after I got Camille Roskelley's book 'Simply Retro' from the library and fell in love with this quilt, 'Fresh'.  

Star quilts are a favourite of mine, and I thought this one was gorgeous.  And having a little stash of Bonnie and Camille fabrics, mostly 'Bliss', and along with buying a few extra bits and pieces from some of their current ranges to round out the colours and designs I have, will hopefully make this a beautiful quilt.

Not a lot of sewing so far.... lots of cutting, a little bit of sewing, and laying out a few blocks ahead.

 

There are a lot of pieces in this quilt, so I imagine it's going to take a while to make, but I am enjoying the process.

Hope you had a fun FNSI too.  To see what everyone else got up to, pop on over here; thank you to Wendy for hosting another great night.

Tania xx

fnsi & another lovely weekend.....

It's been another lovely weekend here, starting with FNSI, and continuing through until tonight.

There has been lots of sewing - FNSI saw me making my 'homework' block for the underground railroad quilt project, a log cabin block - actually it's been a weekend for 'building' log cabins(!) as I worked on some of my small log cabin blocks too.

homework block

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am taking part in the Huckleberry Stitches 'Kathleen Tracy/Prairie Children and Their Quilts' quilt along, and I have now finished the 12 blocks needed for this quilt.  This mini quilt has a total of 156 pieces, so there has been lots of cutting and sewing.  My blocks are now ready to put together.

I did struggle with putting these together.  By the time I started the second 'round', they started to get very wonky, so I actually drew up the log cabins as a foundation piecing pattern and made them that way, and am much happier with them.  I also tried to make them pretty scrappy, so I will see if that worked when I put them all together!

I also made a bag..... I have a bit of a love of foxes, both real and the crafty kind (show me a really cute fox softie and I nearly swoon lol!), so when I found this fabric last week at Lincraft, I could straight away imagine it in a bag -

During the week I looked for a bag pattern I liked and came across the '32 Minute Messenger Bag', a free pattern and tutorial on Amy Smart's 'Diary of a Quilter' blog.    Having not really made a bag before, I decided to make a practice version, before I cut up my cute foxy fabric and quite possibly ended up wrecking it.

Here is the result;  I used these fabrics from my stash

and ended up with this bag.....

I have to say, not being very experienced at bag making, it did take me quite a lot longer than 32 minutes, but I mucked around with the strap a bit.  I'm sure it will take me a lot less time next time..... but I am happy with how it turned out for my first attempt!

There was also my usual Saturday activity, watching my nephew play basketball, they had a good win yesterday which was great, and then this morning I took my nephew out for breakfast to our favourite cafe, 3 Little Pigs.  We had a fantastic time, my nephew is such great company and very funny.

So another lovely weekend has flown by; I hope your FNSI and weekend plans were fantastic too!

xx

a lovely weekend - Irene Blanck pattern launch.....

I had a wonderful time last weekend.  I swapped days at work last week so I had Friday off - only realising a couple of days later Monday was a holiday too, so I had accidentally organised an extra long weekend for myself! I spent Friday tidying and cleaning at home - not fun while you are doing it, but very satisfying at the end!

Friday night of course was FNWF and on Saturday, my friend Amanda and I went to a pattern launch at Mary Kelly's shop Patch and Quilt in Gisborne, of new designs by Irene Blanck, of 'Focus on Quilts'.

 

Held in Mary's classroom at the rear of the shop, a small exhibition of Irene's quilts both new and old was set up, and it looked gorgeous.  It was a shame that, as the room is needed for classes during the week, the exhibition could not be left for longer so that more people could see it. 

 

Irene's quilts really are beautiful, and it was really enjoyable to see so many of them in one space together.

 Confetti laying flat on the table in the photo above
 

Irene herself is a lovely lady, and very inspirational.  She is a very prolific and talented quilt designer and maker, and yet has an extremly full life away from the quilt world, including a full time job, doing hospice care, and teaching meditation classes, as well as looking after numerous family members.  Irene says that if she can find time to quilt, then anyone can - and I would have to say I completely agree!

In fact, she has inspired me to try and be more organised and productive with my own quilting, and managing my time with the other aspects of my life better (and hopefully I am doing better; I already have 3 finishes for OPAM, which is unheard of for me lol!).

Here are a few more photos of Irene's quilts - all taken for my blog with Irene's permission.

 

Melon Lime & Bitters on wall in photo above  

I did buy two of Irene's patterns which I have noted above - one for Confetti, a hexie quilt which I have loved since I first saw it about 4 years ago, and one of her new designs, Melon Lime & Bitters.

Afterwards, Amanda (who doesn't like to have her photo on the blog) and I went to my favourite cafe in Gisborne, 3 little pigs, for hot chocolate and a muesli bikkie for me, and latte and sticky syrup pudding for Amanda - yum!

 

On Sunday I spent the whole day at home sewing and reading, just me and Ollie. 
It was pure bliss, and sooo relaxing.
 

I also spent some time with family this weekend, including a lovely visit from my Mum and Stepdad for afternoon tea on Saturday, and out for dinner at one of our local Chinese restaurants on Monday night with my Mum and my niece which included lots of laughter and silliness - always important for the soul!
 

  

It was a fantastic, accidentally-extra-long, weekend!

xx