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.