Walking in the Park

This weekend I have been sewing, sewing, sewing... Since making the boys rail fence quilts I've been wanting to make one for me! When I saw Central Park by Kate Spain I knew it would be perfect. These aren't the best pictures because the sun was setting but I was so excited and proud of myself for completing this quilt top in 24 hours! Yup - you read right! 24 hours! An absolute record for me!

Last night I sewed all the strips together... then this morning I cut them into blocks while the boys happily watched Finding Nemo... and this afternoon while they slept after being tuckered out by swimming and a picnic lunch I trimmed and sewed together my blocks into rows and my rows into a quilt top!

With my motivation high - I pieced together the backing and made my binding strips too! So this quilt is ready and waiting to be delivered to the LAQ this week... I promise to get some better photos soon!

Quilt details:

Fabric - Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda (I used 2 jelly rolls)

Quilt size - 72" x 72"

Hope you had a great and productive weekend too!

House. Hunting.

I have to say I am a little over it. It's not quite as exciting as I'd hoped it would be... buying our first house. Scratch that. Home... We spent the weekend in Auckland. Which I loved. It was so sunny. So hot. So amazing. I really can't wait to be an Aucklander. Before heading out to look at more suburbs and houses we went to the Auckland Zoo.

Outfit snap. The DH thought this was soo funny. Note to self - do not wear yellow dress next zoo trip.

Ollie and Gus

Cutest kids on the block. Just saying.

So the house hunt continues... We've at least somewhat settled on a location. The North Shore. Ironically where my Mum grew up and my SIL. It's got that relaxed beachy vibe that we both love and the houses are solid. Fingers crossed we find one soon. Please send good house hunting vibes my way!

I have a crush...

Innocent Crush by AMH... maybe not so innocent... because I want more.

These FQ's are utterly gorgeous. I love the colours. A lot. These are likely to be a mixed tape quilt... or perhaps a single girl quilt. The verdict is unknown. What ever it becomes it will be mine all mine and I will love it.

Have you had any innocent crushes on fabric lately? Or projects? Do tell.

Project Planning...

Last week my first quilty book purchase arrived.... Camille has some gorgeous patterns in this book and it's got me planning and dreaming of quilty projects.

I am thinking of using my Buttercup jelly roll to make this quilt...

and I think a Punctuation version would look fabulous too!

And I am going to use my Bliss jelly roll to make this quilt here... I am very excited to start some new projects and play with some new fabrics :) The best thing about all these planned quilts is that they are for us! I aspire to have a healthy stack of quilts like this one day.

I've got 3 quilts to bind this week though which will be the perfect way to spend the evenings. I hope you've had a great week so far! We are still house hunting. It's proving harder than I'd hoped but we are at least narrowing down suburbs :)

Happy sewing!

Munki Munki - What to do?

Oliver noted a little while ago that I hadn't made him a new quilt in "ages"... Now that Gus' postage stamp quilt is off at the LAQ, I was thinking I'd try make Oliver a quick quilt using these Munki Munki charms... The charms are all mostly fussy cut so I want to make the most of them... I am just not sure what to make?

All suggestions will be gratefully received. Thank you!

The Philatelic Society - Complete!

I finally finished the Postage Stamp quilt for Gus. I've never named a quilt before but I am naming this one - The Philatelic Society. I used to collect stamps when I was younger. I have quite a collection which sits in a box in our spare room. From time to time I still like to flick through the albums and look at all the colours and countries.

The most challenging part about this quilt was matching all those darn seams. 1200 squares = a lot of seams to sew. And a lot of pinning.

I am mostly loving just having this quilt top complete at the moment. I love the riot of colour and Gus has already had fun looking at all the little squares with me spotting trains, planes, blocks and children.

This will be off to the long arm quilter this afternoon. I have a very soft lemon for the backing and will be binding this quilt in the light blue stripe.

After all that pinning I am looking forward to sewing something that doesn't require too much thought :) I am planning to use my Central Park to make a quilt like this one. But a lot bigger. And because I am weak I ordered some more fabric - mostly backing and binding fabric so that I can make some quilts.

Hope you are having a great week. We've got a sick little man at the moment. Gus has a nasty cough so there hasn't been much sleep at our house. My right eye has been twitching since Monday morning. He's on antibiotics so I am hoping he starts to improve!

Happy Sewing!

An Ode to Colour

The postage stamp quilt is continuing to grow. Not quite as quickly as I would have liked. I would quite like this quilt to be finished. I have completed a little over half of the blocks.

But I still have a few more to make... then of course I'll be sewing the blocks into rows and the rows into a quilt top... I am hoping to have this quilt top completed by the end of the weekend. I am resisting the urge to start something new. I am happy with how its coming together though - although I wish my seams would match perfectly everytime!! Wish me luck!

Stashing.

My stash has been growing lately. You've probably noticed. Here are my latest arrivals

Delicious Buttercup, Bliss and Punctuation from the Fabric Shack. They have half price shipping at the moment!

An increasing stash is causing storage issues though as my consumption rate is not as quick as the rate the parcels have been arriving...

Here is my precut drawer... Looking rather full! Oh Wee Play. I love thee.

 

This drawer has FQ's and some yardage... Tidy right?

 

Wrong!

This is the awful mess in the corner of our spare room. I need to sort this out. Before we move. I have more scraps than I know what to do with... I think I need to get brutal. My plan is to use Gus' drawers as my fabric drawers when we move so I think I might sort his clothes out and see if I can take over now...

How do you store your fabric? Any tips? 

PS - If you live in NZ and would like some scraps sent to you - leave me a comment and I'll contact you for your address :)