Progress ...

Don't you just love it when life is just chugging along and then suddenly the gear changes and things go up a notch. That is me at the moment, I have just been cruising along here in Whangarei looking after the house, daughter and cats. Suddenly there is a house to look at in Tauranga and time is of the essence here, but next week is getting kind of busy. I am not sure how I am going to fit everything in, but I will try. 

As I mentioned in the last post I emailed for the corrections for the wonky stars. I have had a reply from Cheryl asking for my mailing address, I have responded to this - so the instructions for the wonky stars should be on their way soon.

In the meantime I have made the alterations to a couple of blocks - it was a colour placement thing - I didn't like the greens or lights right next door to each other.

I am happy with this block now. This is bock one and it is ready for the next step, which will probably be being sandwiched ready for quilting.

The next thing I am going to work on, is getting the applique ready for blanket stitch. I think I will do this by hand. Soccer practice starts tonight for the season and there is going to be two practices per week - a lot of sitting around time for me while I am waiting for our daughter - awesome stitching time.

Will let you know how I am getting on ...

Happy stitching everyone

Donna-Maree

House Sampler Update

When I was checking out the website for Country Quilts in Canada, where this quilt originally came from, I saw a corrections tab and clicked on it. There are three corrections for the original pattern of this quilt. What a fantastic idea, having a place where corrections to early patterns can be found. 

Anyway I am deflecting - I found that there is a correction for the wonky stars. I have emailed for the corrections and when I get them, I should be able to remake my wonky stars which is great.

I love the wonky stars idea but I didn't love mine! I am checking out the other corrections and making sure that they are noted on my pattern pieces for future reference.

Here are my wonky stars and if you look closely you can see that they are not true rectangles but are some funny shape!

I need to see if I have some fabrics similar to these so I can make some more wonky stars.

Check back soon to see what I am doing next.

Cheers

Donna-Maree

And the decision is ...

The quilt that I am going to focus on is ... House Sampler BOM Quilt

I was working on this quilt a long time ago. In fact it was the first BOM that I purchased. I saw it at Calico Christmas and instantly fell in love with it. It was on The Quilters Cabin stand and I signed up immediately. The pattern is from Country Quilts in Canada by Cheryl Wall HERE is the link to the website.

Yesterday I had my friend Leeann over and we were talking about it and I grabbed it off the shelf and laid it out on the floor. I knew that I had nearly completed the top but didn't realise how close to finishing it was. Leeann and I discussed what needed to be completed and some changes that I would like made.

Here is the quilt laid out on the floor, and looking at it from this perspective I really like it, up close though the houses are BIG! There is some applique still to be done, although most of the piecing has been done.

Did I mention that I started this a long long time ago. I still like the quilt but now have the confidence to make changes to suit myself. I have done some unpicking of a few things that I want moved around. My wonky stars are looking really sad, they didn't work too well. Trying to figure out what I am going to do to fix them.

Instead of packing it up, I left it on the floor overnight but unfortunately had to pick it up as land agents where coming through the house this morning. 

Leeann and I discussed the quilting of the quilt and I think that I will do QAYG (quilt as you go). Quilting portions of the quilt and then joining them together as a whole. I am feeling motivated to get this completed. I would love to see this quilt on the wall before we move - wouldn't that be amazing!