dragging my feet ....

.... in the snow!  (yes it's still here, despite a slight thaw and no prospect of warmer weather for the foreseeable!)

I can't get blogger to put this the right way up -  sorry!  (the Teenage Diva after doing snow angels ... need I say more!  LOL)

I've got all the blocks for my Carolina Christmas Mystery quilt from Bonnie K Hunter last year pieced.  I just have the borders to make.  It's currently 80.5" square, and my frame only takes a max width of 82 -  but I have a plan, and it will look beautiful with the borders on it! 

I also got some more Anita's Arrowhead blocks done, and I'm loving how they look!  I've been pressing and sewing them up in batches, and it seems to work very well rather than one block at a time.  (I have another 16 ready to piece and hope to make good progress on this this week)

I said I'd been dragging my feet, well, I should have been doing a foundation block for my C&G, but as yet, it remains in my head!  Instead I've been meaning to play a little with some crayons (yup, good ol' kids wax crayons)  and a little (naff) quilting practice...

And my copy of Quilting Arts magazine arrived, which distracted me even more!

I painted this after the quilting with acrylics, and I love how the surface pattern on the fabric comes through...

So while I was at it, I had a little doodle, and now I have 5 new postcards  :)

So I guess I better go do that foundation pieced block now I have no other excuses .... hehe!

Happy quilting!

Brrrrrrr....

It's bloomin' cold!  The temps have dropped to sub zero, the snow came, and more forecast for later (though we have nowhere near as much as some) and today it's still -4! 

So this morning I finished off cutting these for a quick Pork Chop Swap over on the Old Red Barn Flickr group. 

And whilst I was in town earlier this week I picked up a couple of quilting magazines that I don't normally buy, including this one.

There's great instructions to make those Arrowhead blocks by Anita Grossman Solomon.  The magazine article starts off with 8" squares, and after reading through all the materials and instructions, it got me thinking.... did you hear those cogs from where you are?  LOL 

Anyhow, what if I don't want to cut my FQ's and have a little left over from all 21 of them!  How about if I used a layer cake instead.  I was pretty sure I could make it work, but not sure how big a block I would get at the end of it.  So off I went to delve into my stash for an unsuspecting layer cake and some contrasting fabric to go with it. 

Now I'm sure you all remember Twiggy? 

I've had this for quite some time, added a little of the drops from Hushabye by Tula Pink, and as LCs in the UK only ever seem to come with 40 squares, I'll cut a couple more from the blue spot that is from Freebird by Momo all for Moda.  (I've discounted the green, it was just a little too bright for the other greens in Twiggy) 

So this is my trial run.

And I managed to trim this down to a 12" block so it will be 11 1/2" finished.  That means I can have a quilt that is at least 18" bigger than the one in the magazine.  Wooohoooo! 

I think I may get this pieced sooner rather than later!  And if ever there was a good excuse to stay in and keep warm, this is it!

So back to the cold weather.  A beautiful sunny morning called for a walk, don't ya think?

I'm so very lucky to live next  to all of this!

Happy quilting!