Irene's Christmas Challenge

Hello there.
I hope you have all recovered from the Christmas festivities and are thinking about  the new projects you want to tackle in 2012 - I know I am !

At our last Quilt Group meeting before the holidays, Irene, the Boss Lady, gave us all a little gift.
Inside was an empty frame and this note : Click on the photo for a bigger version to read....

Mmmmmm ......  What could I do ?  I thought - What are most people living in colder climes thinking of at this time of year ?    Summer and warmer weather of course !  So this is what I decided to base mine on.

I got a piece of silk and my iron-on colouring crayons and created a little beach scene.  I used a silver paint to give the sea a shimmery look.

Next I ironed vilene on the back of my palm tree fabrics and sun and cut them out.  On the right hand side is the little sketch I did at the start.

I drew my leaf shapes and the trunk on the front of my fabric, cut them out and glued them with some spray basting glue.

After adding some flowers to the rock in the foreground and layering it up with some wadding, I was ready for a little machine quilting.

I had a lot of fun with this and used some metallic thread for the sea.  As it only measures 4" x 6" it didn't take very long at all.

Finally I added a few little beads for the flowers centers and it was ready to go in the frame......

.......... and here it is !    I love how it turned out.

It really cheers me up and makes me think of summer.  Personally, I can't wait for flip flop weather!!!

Have a good day.
Back with more quilty stuff soon.
Rhianon.

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt Part 6

Hi everyone.  Well the mystery quilt continues despite it being Christmas time and Bonnie released part 6 a day early!!!!
After all the hard graft of the last few weeks, we finally got to make some blocks.

Ohio Star blocks to be precise.

Didn't take too long at all to cut all the necessary 21/2" squares to make these up.
Feels good to be working with some bigger pieces now.  The triangles in the hourglass units that make up the star are tiny !!!

For those of you who are not doing the mystery, I've placed my thimble on the block so you can get some idea of the scale.   I find, the smaller the pieces - the more room there is for inaccuracy :(                I'm trying my best to be as accurate as I can be.             

We have to make 28 with a white background and 28 with black backgrounds.  I reckon I am just over half way through.
I'm enjoying this very much but I still don't have a clue where it is going.  Looking forward to part 7 on Friday.

I'm linking up with Bonnie's blog again so head on over there and take a peek at everyones's progress.
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

Off to do some sewing now.
Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by.
Rhianon.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you !!
Hope you all have a fantastic day.
Rhianon.xx

Orca Bay Mystery Part 5

Part 5 of the mystery quilt and this week we had to make 700 triangles to attach to each side of the HSTs we made in Part 3 ( in the bowl)

So far I have done 250, so only a little 100 to go !!

Bundles of 10........

Here are the 250 units so far....

I am rapidly coming to the end of blacks from my stash - in fact a lot of my blacks are heavily patterned compared to some other ladies who are doing the quilt but I am just going to go with it.   All part of the fun!

As usual I'm linking this post to Bonnie's blog, so pop  over and have a wee peek at everyone else's progress.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html

I am loving th link up this year.  Last year I did my very first Bonnie mystery quilt and had no one to talk to or compare notes with.  This year has been great !!

Have a great week everyone.
Rhianon.

A Few Little Friday Finishes!!!

Well Christmas is fast approaching and I've been busy finishing up a few little mug rugs.
I know you are all probably getting a bit fed up with these but my sister said to me " If I only get one present from you - please let it be a mug rug with a flower!"
 Then my girls chipped in, " we want a mug rug too Mum - with a flower".   I couldn't deny them now, could I?

First up is an oversized mug rug for my DH.  He has a little table that sits beside his spot on the settee, so this was made to fit that.

Yes, I've been playing with my Lil Twister again.  Pretty pleased with how it turned out, although I'm not sure about the meandering in the border with the variagted thread.  Too bad, it is staying as I don't have the time or the inclination to unpick it all.  I'm sure hubby won't mind!

This one is for my youngest daughter.

These cute little panels were in a big bag of scraps that Irene from quilt group gave me.  Irene calls her scraps 'leavings', I am always grateful to get Irene's 'leavings' as she dyes a lot of her own fabrics and the colour assortment is always fantastic!

Flower detail.

This one is for my eldest daughter - similar to the last one but a little different.

What girl doesn't love shoes ???

Finally , the last one is for my sister :

I'm glad to get these finished and under my belt. 

Today I'm linking up with  Lucy from Charm About You.  she is hosting this weeks TGIFF party, so click this link : http://charmaboutyou.blogspot.com/2011/12/so-bleeping-awesome-thank-goodness-its.html
and go and have a look at all the finishes.

I'm off to wrap a few presents now while I wait for Part 5 of Bonnie's mystery.
Have a great weekend.
Happy Stitching
Rhianon.

Orca Bay Mystery Part 4

I can't believe we are on week 4 of the mystery quilt.  Time is flying by so quickly.
I loved part 4 - more string blocks, this time in reds, I am using rusts so I haven't deviated too far from Bonnie's choice.

I must have taken these photos on a dull day because the colours look very green.  My blocks are much more orangey/rusty looking in the natural light.

This is a better representation of my blocks.

I'm using up some real hideous fabric in this part.  I had a FQ of this - no idea where or why I bought this but I am very happy to have found a home for it and it doesn't look too bad at all worked into the blocks.

In part 2 I had teddy bears in my strings and guess what ?  More teddy bears in my rust strings!

For the first time ever in my quilting life I used starch ( because Bonnie told us to!).
I have to say it is fantastic stuff.  Cheap and easy to use - I can see me using a lot of this in the future.

Stack is getting bigger!!!

This is my working set up - everything close at hand.

So after a very enjoyable weekend I have all but 5 blocks finished.
Roll on Part 5........

As usual on a Monday I am linking this post to Bonnie's blog 
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/
Why not go and have a look at everyones progress.
Have a great week everyone.
Rhianon.

Lil Twister Quilt

It's taken me a week to make this little quilt in between my day job and working on Bonnie's mystery.
 I've been taking part in a block exchange this year ( a post on that to follow) and one of the ladies sent me a block using this pattern, then I saw a liitle quilt on Connie's blog:    http://conniekresin.blogspot.com/2011/10/worldly-lil-twister-quilt-and-giiveaway.html
So I just had to get one of these :

I'm in the UK and got mine from Creative Grids.
It's so easy

Sew together a selection of 5" squares.......

....... then start cutting.

It goes together easily and fast.

I ended up with this....

I machine quilted it lightly as I wanted quite a bubbly feel to it.  It measures 30" x 36" - just a nice size for a baby!

I finished it off with a cream binding and I love how it turned out.  I already have my next lot of 5" squares sewn up and ready to be cut.  It's a great little tool and I would recommend it to anyone.

So that is all I've done this week.  I am linking this post to TGIFF.  This week M R from Quilt Matters is hosting  http://quiltmatters.blogspot.com/2011/12/tgiff-wee-spy-quilts.html   so head on over there and add your link or just enjoy all the other friday finishes.

Have a great weekend everyone
Rhianon.

Orca Bay Mystery - Part 3

This busy quilting time continues with Part 3 of the mystery quilt.
Mission this week - to make 350 HSTs finishing at 2" square.

Production line - set up and under way !

First 100 completed, although they still have to be de-dog-eared.
Another 150 ready for pressing and I'm well on my way to completing part 3.

Head over to Bonnie's blog to see everyone elses progress.  There are some interesting colour schemes going on and it is going to be such a blast seeing all the different versions of Bonnie's Orca Bay.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html

Hope you all have a productive week.
Rhianon.