What's on my design wall

Just thought I'd share a quick pic of what's on my design wall right now.......the starts of my first ever queen sized (or nearly!) patchwork Healing Heart quilt top. A huge thank you to Diana for the tip about how to make your own design wall using a few skirt hangers and a vinyl backed tablecloth! The quilt design is all my own, drew a rough sketch up on a scrap of paper, and have worked out sizes as I go.....using skills/techniques I've picked up along my crafting journey. I know it's a no brainer for all you 'seasoned' quilters, but for me, this is an achievement as I've only ever made a small cot quilt before, and I had help from Khristina for that!

This quilt is for Raelene who's off to Adelaide in a few weeks for some radiation treatment......she'll be gone for almost 8 weeks, so thought I'd make her a Healing Heart quilt to take with her......and thus far, it's all been made from my 'fabric collection' (Stash to most!)....I'm going to see how much I can make it from just what I have at hand......all comments welcomed. I'm thinking to help out with size....I'm going to put sashing inbetween each of the blocks....just trying to make my indecisive mind up as to whether I also put some squares at the junctions of the blocks....think they're called cornerstones???


Edited at 11.52pm (my local time) to add a second photo....this is where I'm up to as I head off to bed.....decided on the sashing etc to make it bigger than it was......am going to make another one without the sashing and cornerstones as I liked how that design looked too! I'm still not happy with the size of it, but it's a few inches bigger now and as I don't believe I've got any suitable fabric to add a thick border out of....guess this is as big as it's going to get! Went fossicking and found a pink & white (wish it was pink & cream, but white is close enough!) quilt cover that I'm going to use as the backing fabric......won't need to piece it or anything!

Does anyone happen to know where I put my quilting pins when I moved? I've tried to think if I've seen them since we moved, and I can't recall seeing them, or even what I packed them with....YIKES....will be hunting them down tomorrow for sure.....am itching to try out FMQ on a big scale!

Nighty night or good morning, depending on where you are in the world.

You should check this out

I know there's not a pic of it here, but I suggest you click HERE and go visit JanDee's blog and see the lovely applique quilt she made just over a year ago....it's absolutely stunning....how intricate is all that applique work she did? Melissa H (Ardea's Nest fame) will love the profile pic.....a couple of puppies not too dissimilar to her own!!! Thanks for stopping by my blog for a 2nd time JanDee....at least this time I could respond to you via email and if you hadn't, I would've missed out seeing such a fantastic quilt.....I look forward to seeing more posts on your blog now...*smiles*

Great quilt kit giveaway

Shawna is hosting a giveaway and online quilting book club.....great idea. Giveaway entrants, you have a chance to win a kit to make one of the quilts she's reviewing or a copy of the book. You even get a choice of three different kits, I've chosen Sunkissed, what will you choose?....lots of ways to enter...do all, do a few, or just do one, but whichever way you want to do it, entries close on April 24th USA time. Click on the photo of the book to head over and enter. Good luck (even though I'd really like to win).

My take on a Bowling Bag (from a recycled dress!) .

Above in all it's glory, is my take on a Bowling Bag. To explain about the recycled dress comment in the post title, in April 1991, my then M-I-L (RIP Margaret) made me a dress for my new job that I was about to start (Telstra, although it was Telecom Australia when I started). Then a couple of days ago, I found the dress in a box (still unpacking from the move!) and the fabric is soooo not something I'd wear nowadays (don't know what my 'taste/trend' was back then by the way!) so, with it being cotton fabric, I of course envisaged a bag being made out of it.....I washed the dress yesterday, and un-sewed it (rippit rippit) and VOILA a bowling bag was born.

Above you can see a close up of how I attached the handles/straps (depends on which you prefer to call them!) They shouldn't EVER come off....they're also sewn into the seam just below the "X" too, so very sturdy.
It's kind of not that visible in the pics, but the tabs at the ends of the zips are triangular....coz I just had to be different! The above pic shows the end/side of the bag. On one end I put a pocket. On the next bowling bag I make, I'm going to shoot for the stars and put pockets all around! Think I'll make tabs or flaps over the pockets on the front/back though, as I've noticed the inside pockets gape a bit and that's not such a good look when it's on the outside of the bag...on the inside, I can close the zip and hide them....or I could sew press studs on them I guess...hmmmm I might just make that design alteration now I've said it...lol

So, as you can see from the above pic, if you look close enough, there's pins still in there....that's because I was too excited about showing the bag off, that I haven't q-u-i-t-e finished it yet...hee hee hee. Once I've finished this post though, I'll go do the hand stitching on the inside and plan what accessories I'll be making myself to go with it, out of the rest of the ex-dress. Any suggestions????

More things I've been making

I may not have been posting on here, but I have been sewing.....and above is a little collage of some of the 'goodies' I've been making.

The free motion quilting isn't quite my first attempt, but it's probably my best attempt thus far!

The applique circles video tutorial can be found here. Mine don't quite line up, but my sewing machine is having 'issues' with thick seams and goes wonky when it hits thick bits....I shall be making more of these....once I've found my ultra thin interfacing....and I've sorted out the 'issue' my other machine has.....it keeps sewing after you've taken your foot off the pedal.....and it's a sealed unit, so I can't take it apart to clean it or see if a wire has come loose...so think it's going to need a wee holiday at the repair shop...or a new foot pedal.

The freeform crazy patch was me playing around with scraps....I just found a piece that looked like it would fit in the gap and sewed it on.....no stress, no worries, just mix 'n' match bits and attached them to a 9" square of batting. Not sure what I'll do with it yet....potholder perhaps.....suggestions????

The zippy pouch was the last of a scrap of fabric I had and Raelene mentioned she liked, and as she's going away soon for 7 weeks, I thought I'd make her a wee make up bag to take with her. I put an elephant charm on the zip puller as a reminder of her Mum who is now roaming with elephants in heaven.

My latest attempt at Paper Piecing

Well I think I'm finally getting the hang of Paper Piecing.....YAY. The above block is called Mosaic Quilt and can be found here under free blocks and then select Blocks for quilts I. I had heaps of fun doing this one. I traced the block onto thin sew in interfacing.....only boo boo I made was to trim the outside to 1/4" but I should have made the borders a bit wider, such as 1/2" to allow for attaching sashing or joining to another block....OOOPS! Oh well, at least I got the hang of the centre bit. I know the purple polka dot looks like I missed a little on the bottom right corner, but trust me, I didn't, it's the edge of the next row of spots!