Saturday, September 15, 2012

Instagraming.....

I've joined the instagram brigade.I haven't quite got the hang of the hash tag thing but I'm loving the images floating around the instagram-o-phere. It can be mildly addictive....but I have a 15 year old to keep me in check. You know the look, the rolling of the eyes when I pull out my phone...enough said?You can find me as 'sewandsews'.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Non gender specific....

R's English teacher is leaving at the end of the term to have her first baby. Now I've mentioned many times that my circle of friends are done with our own babies and are embroiled in the daily dealings of pre-teens and teens. I shouldn't complain too much, we'll hopefully be grandparents in next to no time if the speed at which our own babies have grown up is maintained! In any case, I jump at hearing about impending births so I have an opportunity to whip up a little quilt. Baby quilts are so satisfying in between the bigger productions. Short sharp and shiny and done with in a weekend!Ms J doesn't know the gender of her baby so I've gone with something that can go with either a girl or a boy....lots of red, blue and green. Once again I combined fabrics from my stash and went with my favourite 5" blocks. There's a healthy does of DS Quilts fabrics, some pezzy print and spots of various colours.I've also machine bound this quilt, something I'm getting better at with each attempt.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Zesty...

It's Springtime on this side of the hemisphere and there are blossoms bursting, leaves unfurling, bees buzzing furiously and today an endless blue sky all wrapped in a perfect mild 20 degrees celsius. We've had a bitterly cold winter and plenty of rain (not complaining about the rain but enough already!). The weather was so beautiful this morning I couldn't help make the most of it and took my latest quilt finish outside to finish off the loose threads.This quilt is another donation towards R's Ireland trip. The jazz ensemble has a performance on Friday night at the Royal Institute in Adelaide (RIAUS), the old Stock Exchange building and this quilt will be used as a raffle prize.I've used a similar layout to this quilt, 5" squares on the diagonal with white set in triangles. The colours are really citrus-y with a mix of hot pink, green, orange and yellow. Selecting fabrics for this quilt really took me out of my comfort zone. I'm very much a 'fabric story' quilter....so this was a very brave step forward in selecting colours and prints but I was determine to use what I had and the scrap bag is rather depleted (joy!). I know most of these prints are much the same saturated tone but it was the mix of colours I was going for in this instance.Not a huge quilt at 54" square but big enough for a lap or a picnic.
The binding is a funny little print of zany green and yellow diamonds with a hot pink dot. It reminds me of crocodile skin! I picked it up for $2 a metre at a Spotlight sale and it blends perfectly with the rest of the colours. Zesty looks right at home under the very last mandarin but only for a day or two!