Playing with the birds

I've only had time for a quick play since I started this but have rejoined the three biggest chunks of fabric.  I won't get back to it until next week, so I'll know by then if I still like it (I did this morning). I'm trying to put some of the yellow/amber tones from the other bird fabric in early on.  Sometimes I forget a colour I want to use when I start and it's much harder to go back later and sneak it in!

Linking up with Off the Wall Friday and Anything Goes Monday.

Two hungry birds

Still quilting till my fingers bleed - I will finish that project this week, or perish in the attempt.  Last night I inadvertently sewed my underneath finger to the back of the quilt; a sure sign that I needed to take a break!

I am not one to ignore the signs, so stopped quilting and started cutting:  this is the beginning of the next quilt using my Charley Harper prints, for which I pulled the fabrics just over a week ago.  The Upside Downside fabric has such strong lines that I think I am going to leave it in quite big bits and try to keep the rest of the quilt relatively simple.  

First cuts:

Making the first cuts never bothers me - if I don't like what I do, I can sew them back together, or cut again, it's all part of the fun!

I am going to rejoin the 3 big chunks, maybe using these fabrics.  Watch this space.

Joining in with Show and Tell Tuesday at ihavetosay and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh.

Breaking new ground - Sunday stash #7

I know it sounds unlikely but until now I have been a Kona virgin.   Hand on heart I have never bought so much as an 1/8th of Kona Snow, or Kona Ash or indeed Kona Sky Blue Pink with Polka Dots.  Not sure how that's happened, not a deliberate policy, but there you go.  So today I give you Kona's Amber and Grellow:

The amber is not strictly speaking stash, since it is to go in with the fabrics I posted last week, but the grellow is bona fide fabric-bought-just-for-the-hel- of-it (and because postage costs the same if you buy one bit or two).  

I'm a bit worried that there may be no going back and that in the wink of an eye I will have piles of Kona everywhere and will be compulsively hunting down colour 323, but I'll cross that bridge when I've over-spent my way to it.  (Before anyone who knows me plans an intervention - only joking; I do have some self-control you know).

No surprise here - I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash.  

Saturday photos

Autumn is nearly here.  The days are still, for the most part, warm and bright, but there's a chill in the air first thing, and a distinctive, but indescribable smell that tells me summer is done.  Not to mention the horse chestnuts falling by the score and the squirrels going a bit bonkers trying to bury all their bounty.

And I've been playing on palette builder again:

Don't worry, the novelty will wear off eventually!

Doing the chores...

Yup,  I am doing what, for me, is the quilty equivalent of dusting and ironing: making binding.  This is the one job for which I use a ruler and try to get everything straight, which is just going against human nature!

But my quilt with no name is nearly finished, and I want to be ready for it, so binding has been made.  

I've also been putting together a back for Little Elephant.  Sometimes no matter how much you want to play, you just have to get on with the nitty gritty.

Sharing the excitement today on Lets Bee Social 

Shopping from stash today

I can't believe I'm back at the beginning again. I'm working really hard on quilting my unblogged quilt this week, as it's creating a bottle neck, with two tops now waiting behind it.  Okay, I know there's people out there with cupboards full of UFOs but it's a new experience for me and somehow, I can't work out quite why, it makes me a bit uneasy.  Not that I'm going to let that stop me though.  So while I quilt like a mad woman I shall be contemplating the next piece I want to start, and to that end have been pulling fabrics from stash.

I'm going back to Charley Harper - but different colours this time.

I don't know which of these will make the final cut (so to speak!) but this is my starting point.  

Linking up again with Molli for Sunday Stash and ayliN-Nilya for Monday Makers

Photos for the Week

A walk on a sunny afternoon in my favourite place.  The trees here are truly ancient and I never tire of looking at them.   

Putting Little Elephant to bed

Hooray!!! I stayed up late-ish last night, got up waaay too early this morning, but put all the extra time to good use and got the borders on Little Elephant. Here's a picture on the bed for which it is destined.

And outside on the fence.  It's too big to show the bottom bit properly this way, but put the two pictures together and I think that covers it.  

Now it just needs a back and about 6 months of quilting, but it will have to wait its turn.

Linking up this time with all and sundry:  I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, and Fabric Frenzy Friday.

No more stars for me

A couple of really productive days and suddenly I'm nearly done.  I have to say that I won't be making another wonky star for a while - more than 20 in this and I've had enough of them!  I have a pile of blunt-nosed triangles waiting to turn into borders:

 and once they are on, Little Elephant will be ready to join the queue for quilting.  

I've never had a queue for quilting before.  I need to finish my as-yet unblogged quilt, then Charley is next in line, then this one.  It's funny, but since I decided I didn't care that I was slow, I seem to be getting faster.  

Posting this on Monday Makers at ayliN-Nilya , Show and Tell Tuesday at I have to say, Lets Bee Social at Sew Fresh quilts and WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced.

Saturday photos

5 minutes in the back garden - I was really taken with the beautiful subtle colours of the hydrangea flowers, which have been pink and blowsy  and not particular to my taste, but are now almost bleached and quite lovely in a summer's almost over sort of a way.

 I even had a play on a palette builder. I know that the disadvantage of these programmes is that they don't take any account of the colour proportions within a picture but I've just got the hang of this and I'm having lots of fun!

If I did want to make a quilt I would do it by eye, not this way, (even though this version kindly picked out the fabrics for me!) but I like seeing my photos translated into these nice little blocks of colour.

Dancing elephants

It's me that's dancing, actually, but only metaphorically.  This is the left-hand half (give or take a bit) of Little Elephant done.  I finally worked out where I wanted his little elephant-y fried to sit, and how the other part of the quilt would work.   

There comes a point in each quilt when I feel like I've got the rhythm of it and feel I know where it's going.  That's where I've got to now.  It might not look quite right on it's own, but I thought I'd spare you more oddly skewed pictures of my kitchen floor since I hope I might get the other half wrapped up before

too long.

Linking up with Show and Tell Tuesday , with WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social, and I Quilt Thursdays at Pretty Bobbins