Saturday 22 September 2018

Red White and Bluesters - Good Luck ROOSTERS!

When we arrived home from our last adventure I was keen to start the 2018 Moda Blockeads challenge on my sewing machine. Last year I used all shades of brown, and I admit with so much traveling the last 12 months I have still to finish the last 6-8 blocks from that challenge. Downloading the pattern for the first block and needing to decide on a colour theme I thought it is footie finals sew why not make a red white and blue quilt for my ROOSTERS.
I was about 10 blocks behind and once I started it took just over a week to catch up. Of course, then two blocks were released for the following week.
 This block was an applique block but also included a piecing pattern. Sew don't want to do applique right now, so piecing it is.
I'm using one white background fabric and at the moment working with only two dark blue fabrics and 4 red fabrics.
A lot of the blocks have cut off sections, and you know me, I wont waste any fabric. I now have a large collection of 'bonus' half square triangles, some of which I have already used in later blocks.
 There are 46 blocks in total and this week 19 and 20 were released, sew almost half way.
 

Sunday 16 September 2018

Back home and in between adventures a little sewing has been happening, as well as lots of baby cuddles and some house sorting. A few weeks ago I started '100 hexies 100 days' by Sew Foxy Mama. Each week has a theme, starting with 1 and a half inch hexies, 1-7 theme was ME. All things that mean something to me. #1 I use to love being a teacher; #2 I love to travel; #3 I love cruising; #4 I love my ROOSTER boys footie team; #5 I love being in the caravan and seeing Australia; #6 my favourite colour is pink; #7 I love tea.
I did the same challenge last year and have all these hexies sitting in a box, so this year I decided I would make them into flowers and add them together to make a lap quilt. As I had a plain pink hexie, I decided to make that the centre of the flower and embroider the theme. Lovely Aunty Margaret actually embroidered the ME, while did the other two while visiting her. Hexies #8-14 were 'Summer Fun' - a palm tree; a sombrero; a beach house; beach towel pattern; lovely flowers; and sailing.
Week 3 theme was Mystical. With a lack of 'mystical' type fabrics in my stash I decided on alternate hexies to make this whimsical flower.
Week 4 was Cute Critters. Some cute, some not so cute.
Week 5, 1930's prints. This was hard, in that I couldn't find my stash of 30's prints, so had to make do with 'look a likes'. I chose to use 1" hexies and make flowers with maroon centres. 
I will turn these into a centrepiece.
Week 6 micro mini things - I am making these out of half inch hexies, so will not use these in the quilt, but will probably add them to something else, but who knows!
Sew.... I have another six hexies to make, and Week 7 starts in 2 days!!!!

Sunday 2 September 2018

What a wonderful winter trip we had ......... and how addictive are hexies?
Knowing we were going to drive through a lot of drought affected Queensland and the red centre of Australia, and lots of fine dust, I took my little Elna Lotus machine out of the van and packed a lot of hand sewing. I didn't even open my box of Farmers Wife blocks, but did a lot of hexies. Continuing with Naomi's Fussy-cutting Sew-along, Wk 21 was favourite fabric house. I love Tula Pink fabric (although I'm not fussed with her De La Luna range) and I collect it as I find it in LQS in our travels. I found this lovely fabric, Sorbet Hypnotizer from the Chipper range in Kyneton, so decided to make my hexies pattern match. Week 22 was favourite fussy cutting style - well, as I haven't been doing fussy cutting for very long, my preferred (and easiest) method is framing as I knew I can do that one.
The theme for the month of June was  flowers. I used the same fabric for each weeks method: Week 23 - central motif; Week 24 - petal tips; Week 25 - pattern matching; Week 26 - section frames. I realised the fabric pattern didn't have a good repeating pattern, but I'm happy with the results. I've used this fabric for a lot of little bits and pieces, including the trim around my ''fly hat' (to keep the flies away from one's face). 
 
July's theme was Summer - as the host of the sew-along lives in England, it is their summer. We, on the other hand were travelling outback where the days were a beautiful 24-27 but the nights were frezzing, one night it got as low as -3! Week 27 was Independence day - I didn't pack any red, white or blue fabric, so had to wait until I found some, which I did in a craft shop in a little town called Quorn in South Australia.
I also found some other fabric remnants, roosters and a bright orange 'summer' fabric, so after making week 27, it seemed perfect to add a rooster to the centre for my favourite football team.
Week 28 was central motif and the closest fabric I had in my 'caravan stash' was tiny, so this flower had to be 1/2" hexies.
Week 29 was sections, and this was when I was able to use the orange 'summer' fabric.
Week 30 - we had the choice of central or pattern matching. I chose pattern matching and not only had to match the focus of the fabric, but also the background pattern.
Week 31, and the last of the 'summer' theme was lines or frames. I found some Mexican fabric with cactus, and to me that is summer looking. The fabric will also suit the August theme of Travel.
Now that we are back home, I can get into some machine sewing, which I have missed. I have a new challenge of Moda Blockheads 2 - which I am going to do in red, white, and blue. I will continue with the New Hexie Challenge and I've started 100hexies100days challenge two.

I am determined to layer and quilt the finished Spring Fling Mystery by Simply Colorful and also finish the browns in Moda Blockheads 1 - SHHHH don't tell anyone!