Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I love hand quilting







Here's a little milestone - I started this quilt all the way back in January, and now I've just finished the hand quilting of it in red and pink Perle threads. So enjoyable, I'm a little sad it's finished and will have to find another hand quilting project to take on. Think, think, think!





Please excuse the poor quality photos - my camera battery is of course flat, so these are taken with the iPad camera which is, shall we say, fairly ordinary!



This one is destined as a housewarming gift to my sister and her husband who have, after months and months of searching, finally purchased their first home. They pick up the keys tomorrow - so excited for them!



Now for the binding....

I'm linking up to Lee's work-in-progress Wednesday for the first time in ages. Hi Lee! Lee has done the best flying geese block I've seen in a long time - must try this one!

What's your work in progress this week?



Saturday, August 27, 2011

Trim, trim, trim


We are still in the same busy predicament, but thankfully there was a little time for sewing this week. I have fallen behind with my bee commitments and must rectify!

First up is a half-square triangle based block for Kelly. I do love me a half-square triangle or two. Such a simple concept, seeminly limitless possibilities. The only part I don't like, however, is the trimfest that has to happen on each little square, to relieve the square of its dog ears and make sure it is, in fact, a square. Otherwise you end up with wonkiness, which we don't want, in this case.

While trimming these little ones (and aren't they pretty - I'm not sure which fabric line this is and perhaps I'd best not ask because it might force me to purchase some), I experimented with a few different methods of squaring up. I don't know about you, but I need to find some more techniques that save time!

What worked quite well I think, was to simply snip off the ears (not too precisely, to begin with). Then lay down the square with the diagonal running upwards from left to right, with the bottom side square against a line on your cutting mat. Hopefully the left side will also be square against its cutting line, but don't worry if not. So, with bottom squared up, trim the right hand side as necessary - in the case the squares were trimmed to 2.5 inches. Then rotate clockwise so the just-trimmed edge becomes the bottom edge, and trim again. With any luck that's all the trimming you'll need to do, but it's quick enough to check with your ruler.

I ended up trimming two squares at once and this seemed to work quite well too.




And here's the final layout for the block. Unfortunately there wasn't enough white fabric to complete it, so I'm going to sew as many rows together as I can and then Kelly will complete it.

Next up - a dresden circle which will be interesting!


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Yes I'm still here!

Hello everyone! Thanks for bearing with me through that extended break in transmission. Its so nice to see in my visitor stats that people are still dropping in regularly. Hopefully from now on there will be a bit more to see than posts that are 4+ months old!! Let's just call it a winter blogging break, shall we? I know I always seem to be saying this, but I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by. My lack of blogging is certainly not due to there having been nothing happening here in the Petitselefants house!

Winter has been really cold this year, or maybe it's just that I'm getting old and am feeling it more?.... But at last there's a little hint of spring in the air and I can't wait!

There are also some exciting things happening which I will share with you soon. But for now, just a little taste of a couple of new projects...

Some Sherbet Pips in progress - there are some plans for this quilt so this is all I can show right now.





In a moment of weakness I joined Lynne's hexalong - English paper piecing, inspired by this quilt.


At this rate (this is all I've got to show for about three weeks of occasional evening TV sewing - yes it's slow!!), I could be finished in ooh about 27 years.

I'll be back with some more WIPs soon.

In the meantime, I've also become a Pinner and a Twit so please come and follow me!