A glimpse of Easy Street

 Here is a photo of the lovely canvas work picture that my Mum made for me for my 50th birthday.  The colours are much richer in real life.  I had no idea that she was making this and I really love it.

 I have finished the blocks for my Easy Street quilt.  I laid them out today to pin them for stitching together.  I'm glad I decided to do the 9 blocks instead of 16.  If I add a border I will still want to be able to quilt it myself.  I like how the top is looking so far, I need to start looking in my stash for a suitable border fabric. I was disappointed I missed the deadline for the last link up on Bonnies blog, there are some really gorgeous versions on the link up.click here to see the link ups for Easy Street.

  I'm back at work now, those 3 weeks flew by way too fast. 

I realised that it is over a year since I've done any machine quilting, mainly because I have a quilt basted that I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to quilt it.  I seem to have a lot of projects that come to a halt when I get stuck.  I'm hoping this year I might get a few of these projects finished.  I was disappointed that I didn't finish my Jubilee quilt in time for my birthday.  That is another quilt that came to a halt cause I couldn't decide on the applique borders.  I'm tempted to forget about the applique and do a pieced border.  My main problem is that although I can envision what I want to draw I have no artistic ability.  I've spent many hours trying to draw the shapes I want and searching the web for help.  I think it is time to admit defeat and give up on cats and dogs frolicking through a vine and just have a vine and a flower or two.  Time to get on with it!

I haven't been able to lay out my Scrappy Trip around the World blocks for a while, my design wall has size limitations.  Here it is on a queen size bed, I think I need 13 more blocks to finish it.  I pinned a whole heap of them together last night so I'll be able to keep working on these too.

Till next time,

Happy Stitching


Debra.x

Clue No. 5

Here are my blocks for Easy Street clue No. 5.  I had trouble finding time to do any sewing this week.  I'm sure I'm not the only one in danger of falling behind.  Lucky for us Bonnie made allowances for this happening and when I finally did manage to get my cutting mat back out it didn't take too long to get the pieces cut and then sewn today.  At least I don't have long to wait for the next clue.  Click here to see the progress being made on the East Street Mystery.

I hope everyone had a very happy peaceful Christmas.  I went to my parents house with Jack and Aleisha for Christmas lunch, we had a really nice time together.  I haven't felt very Christmassy this year and didn't really do much decorating at home.  I will have to try and do better next year.

Now that Christmas is over I'm planning to get stuck into some sewing.  The list is long as always I hope I have something to show for my holidays!

Happy Stitching

Debra.

   

Having Fun on Easy Street.

 Hi there, as you can see I'm up to date with clue no. 3 for Easy Street.  As I don't want to make the quilt as big as Bonnie's I'm guestimating the amount of blocks for each step.  I've made 50 of these blocks.  I'm really pleased with the results I'm getting from the 2 rulers Bonnie uses and the colours are combining really well.

I had a fairly quiet weekend and managed to fit in a few hours of sewing.  I made a few more of the scrappy trip around the world blocks.  I managed to catch a bit of Bonnie on Quiltcam.  Her night time quiltcam is afternoon here.  Jack caught me watching on my ipad as I made his lunch, much headshaking and sighing followed.  It's hard being the son of a quilt tragic!

 Today I received half of my black and white order of fabric, gotta love seeing the Aust Post delivery van pull up out the front.  Again more sighing and head shaking from No. 1 Son.  Taking a bit of adjusting to having him home now school's finished. 

I'm really loving these fabrics I ordered from Canton Village Quiltworks.  I don't need to worry about running out of black and whites any time soon!

It was a really lovely sunny day today and not too hot so I decided I might spend a little time stitching outside.  Guess who broke the chair!!!  I had just sat down when the leg broke tipping me and my sewing backwards onto the paving.  I'm very lucky I didn't hit my head, my back was a bit sore, it really gave me a fright.  

A few weeks ago when I set my table up outside to cut some fabric, the leg on the table collapsed.  Now I really need Santa to bring me a new chair.... or maybe I'll stay inside till I lose weight or it's safe to go outside again.

Happy Stitching

Debra.

Fabrics for Easy Street

 Hi there, as you can see I've made a bit of progress on my scrappy trip around the world top.  I'm liking the colours of the blocks better, there's a bit more prettiness in the fabrics.  There's more pinks and less yellows which helps I think.  I would really like to add some much brighter fabrics but my challange was to use my old fabrics so I'll keep going with them.  The colours are a lot deeper in real life and I don't think the pattern really shows up much except from a distance.  I've decided I want to make it with 3 pattern repeats square so that means I've got 21 more blocks to go.  That should help eat up all those 2 1/2" strips. 
. 

I had the house to myself over the weekend Jack has gone to Byron Bay for "schoolies" (end of school holiday with his mates).  It has been really great to get my kitchen table back and get all of Jacks study things packed away.  I was able to do some fabric cutting on the table.  I've cut about 3/4s of my older fabrics into strips.  It will be fun to make some more quilts with them.

I decided I wanted to do Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt called

Easy Street.  The colours she has used are lime green, aqua, purple, grey with black and white prints for backgrounds.  I loved her colours, I knew I had plenty of the lime greens and purples but I really didn't think I had much aqua/turquoise or grey.  I surprised myself when I went through my stash that I did have enough aquas, and although I did have greys they were very dirty greys and I decided against using them.  I've gone with orange instead and I'll just have to hope it works out okay.  I like all those colours together so it should be right.  Thats the fun of a mystery right? 

Here is the first clue.  2" strips made into 4 patches.  Instead of greys I've got my orange fabric, it is a good contrast against the black on white background fabrics.  I don't want to make my quilt as big as Bonnie's so I won't be making as many blocks as she did.  There is 71 4 patches so far.  I'm aiming to do as she suggested and make some of each step so I don't get left behind and I will have part of the quilt done at the end.  Last years mystery is still in a box waiting to be finished.  What's another UFO here or there?  Most of the fabrics I've pulled out for this quilt are older ones too so thats a bonus.  I won't count the 8 or 9 metres of black on white prints that I ordered this week to replace the ones I'm using.  Some fabrics are just staples right?

Happy Stitching

Debra.