Winter Blocks

I've been playing around with my Winter jelly roll, after I decided to use it for the Boxed In pattern in the jelly roll book I bought over christmas. I did all the cutting on Friday after finishing 4OT (and only managed to cut myself once!).

The blocks are pretty easy to put together; I'm happy with the first two, but I'm a bit uncertain about the third. The fabric is pre-printed with a log cabin pattern, which makes it look a bit fussy (in my opinion), though my mum likes it...

Because the jelly roll has 40 stips, and the pattern requires all 40, I couldn't avoid using this fabric. I'm hoping once its all assembled that it will blend in a bit more.

Catching Up

I got back from my holiday yesterday, and have finally packed everything away and settled back into a normal routine. Which means time to share!

I spent a week in Beechworth, which is a country town in northern Victoria. The region is noted for its wineries (many of which I visited), and for its produce (much of which I ate). One of the wineries I went to had a beautiful view across the vineyards towards Mt Buffalo in the background. We managed to sample quite a few of the local wines, and purchased quite a bit of fruit direct from the growers. It tastes so much better than the stuff you buy in your local shops! I don't think I've ever eaten quite so many cherries in one sitting.

We did a fair bit of driving around, visiting other towns. We came across a Vienna Patisserie out in the middle of nowhere!

We also had some cute visitors where we were staying (sorry the photo is a bit dark; the bird on the left is a bub).

To make up for a bit of over-indulging over christmas, we hopped on our bikes to ride some of the rail trail (an old train line converted to a bike path). On the way we rode past the Hops Gardens, and stopped at one of the old train stations. I'd forgotten how sore the bike seat makes the tush!

I also visited a few quilt shops: the Beechworth Quilters Cottage which I always drop in to when I'm up that way, and then I stumbled upon a shop in Bright by the name of Homespun Memories (I think). They had a lovely range of more traditional fabrics, jelly rolls, quilt kits, and heaps of patterns. I snagged a jelly roll book while I was there, to make headway on that pile of jelly rolls I seem to be accumulating...

While I was away, I finished the binding on both B's baby quilt, and my Wallflower quilt.

And of course, Miss Bella was very happy that we collected her on the way home yesterday; she hasn't let us out of her sight!

Home is where the heart is

Earlier in the year I discovered Jelly Rolls, and went looking for something to try. I came across the "Heart and Home" pattern, done in Moda Madeira fabric. At the time the Madeira fabric was available, and I was able to replicate the quilt in the pattern. This is mine:

As I was only new to machine quilting, I wanted a quilt that would let me try out lots of different quiting patterns and techniques, and this was it. Each block and border have a different quilting pattern in them, making it something of a sampler quilt. My favourite bit of quilting is in the windmill block.

I've been working away like crazy on the Crabapple quilt, but I've got to a point where my hands can't take anymore, so I decided to start on the Recipe for Friendship baby quilt. I'm using the squares, and an equal number of white squares, to put together 80 half-square-triangle blocks.

I've found that the easiest way to do this is draw a line, corner-to-corner on the back of one block, put it face-down with another block, and stitch 1/4 inch on either side of the line. Then just cut along the line, open out and press....and you have two blocks! (no photo of this yet sorry)

I've also been trying to get a nice picture of Bella to post, but she does like to be difficult. Just as I took this photo, she stuck her tongue out at me! She's all class!