FRESH AND FUNKY QUILT BLOCK BEE..

Owls is a tree block...

This is my October block for the Fresh and Funky quilting bee, it was Cat's turn this month and she wanted tree blocks to make up in to a quilt inspired by 'The seasons' quilt in Material Obsession two...

Cat had some great inspiration pictures on her Flickr, I was particularly taken by this girl on  a swing picture...

There is a great tutorial for this HERE. The block is made using raw edge applique and free motion stitching..

I was not sure about the block at first as you can obviously see the raw edges of the squares used for the background, but now I really like the messiness of it..

The block will now be flying across the other side of the world to Cat in New Zealand, lets hope that she likes it....

PUMPKIN PATCH SWAP AND SUNSETS...

My parcel from Crafty Helen's Pumpkin Patch swap arrived yesterday, I was partnered with Aija of Crafty Smiles, these are the parcels sat in a little patch on sunlight on the kitchen table...

 

And here they are all opened up.  What goodies Aija sent me; a lovely zippered pouch, a Halloween pot towel and pot holder, buttons, fabric, sweets, chocolate, a vase, wooden pumpkin and bat and a great recipe for cookies...

Thank you for such a great parcel Aija...

Thought I would share the next couple of photos with you that Freya took from the car window last night on the way to be dropped off in Blackpool to walk through the illuminations with Cubs..

This one is the windmill on The Green next to the estuary which is two minute walk from our house...

And this one is the sunset over Granny's Bay which is about a 20 minute walk from our house, round the other side of this bay are a stretch of sand dunes and then you hit the bright lights of Blackpool...

Sally Ann's Shop...

My friend Sally Ann opened her first shop on Saturday, it is just on the outskirts of Blackpool town centre...

and she is a ...

How cool is that !

The shop looks really great and Me and Ma coordinates so well with Sally Ann's wooden painted gifts..

So I wish Sally all the luck in the world and hope that her shop is a huge success...

EVALUATION...

Do you ever take stock and evaluate your skills ?

It is not something that I do very often, and as I have been self employed for the last eight years, I have no employer to do it..

But just recently I have been looking back at various things I have made, and I am pleased to see some sort of progression in what I do.

The above block is an example of what I mean, it was the September block for the Fresh and funky quilting bee .   Crystal asked us to make a spiderweb block from this tutorial,  the fabric parcel arrived weeks ago and has been under my sewing table ever since, it looked way to complicated to me !

 But, when I actually sat down this morning and made a start, it was not half as bad as I thought, and I managed just fine... and although I felt out of my comfort zone, it did make me think "You know, I can do more than I think I can, and I am not that bad at what I do !"...



CRAFTY SUNDAY # 17



I finished this Advent Calendar this week, with help from these great girls Julie, Marg.Lynz and Jo, they along with myself are The Quick Christmas Quilting Bee 2010...

I am so very pleased with the finished calendar, it is just great on so many levels,  little pockets big enough to fit four little gifts for four children, lovely bright fabric and the perfect size to hang on a door..

This was my first time at free hand quilting, and I really enjoyed it, but I did learn a thing or two along the way !

* The slower I went on the foot pedal the larger the stitches became, I persume I need to try and keep at a constant pressure which is easier said than done !

* It is very easy to catch your fingers , ouch !, I think that is probably because the darning foot is a bit flatter than other feet..

* Would it have been better to draw the lines on in a disappearing pen ? Mine does look very scribbly, which I don't actually mind, but maybe if I had lines to follow it would be neater ?

Any advice on the above points would be most welcome...

 

A big thank you to the girls for all their help, I am sure I will have four very happy children come advent  xx