No more projects ......

That is what I keep telling myself - no more projects LOL. But it is so hard not to start new and very pretty projects. That is why I started the 'roll the dice' for when I have finished a section of what ever I'm working on, I have something to go on with. Make sense?

Anyway, I was able to get a few blocks of Ringo Lake Mystery complete before we went away in the van, so I'm keen to continue with them today after this post. 

While I was away I started a new challenge 😊 - Fussy Hexie Challenge on Instagram #fussycuttingsewalong with Naomi Clarke. Each month there is a theme, January is Purple. 

Week 1 - Jan 1st - central purple motif.

I still have to do this one. As we were in the van, I didn't have a lot of fabric with me. I had taken the box of Farmers Wife Blocks, but not much purple in there, and my small container of hexies to make flowers for a small lap quilt, and not much 'fussycutting' purple in there either. I must REMEMBER to take a stash of scraps next time in the van. 

Week 2 - Jan 8 - purple lines. 

While in a small country town we came across a Big W, and as they sometimes have fabric we had a look. This town, once had two quilt shops and now has zero. I was lucky to find a FQ of purple with green leaves, and a FQ of green with some 'almost' purple. As we were in Parkes, where the Radio Telescope is I decided to embroider a scene of the telescope. I loved the idea of this for our travels, and think I will need to make a lot of calico hexies to embroider places we have been. I used the lines of green leaves to depict the stars moving through the skies.

 I haven't done any hand embroidery since high school so I'm pleased with this result. Improvement will come with more practice.

Week 3 - Jan 15 - purple flowers.

I had found some more fabric in Spotlight in Tamworth, so made a flower. I really need to get fabric that is suitable for fussy cutting. Here are the bargains I found at Spotlight.

... and here is my week 3 flower.

Week 4 - Jan 22 - purple section.

This one does need different fabric, so it had to wait until I got home and to my stash. February theme is love, and now that I'm home for a few weeks I should be ok.

So while still in the van I decided to use some of the fabric to make a quick 'Ghosts and Mosts' quilt top. 

I love my little Elna machine and my machine cover. 

I didn't get a lot done, as we had to head home. If you follow my travel blog, or FB page, you would know that we came home early from our trip as our daughter was likely to have her baby (our 4th granddaughter) early. This meant that I had only a few days to finish her quilt, which I did two days after little Mackenzie was born. I had previously made the top 'Scrappy Square Dance' so only had to sandwich, quilt and bind. I finished the binding last night, so today I gave the quilt to 3 day old Mackenzie.

A few months ago I started another challenge - 20over20berrybirdy - it is about doing a different technique every week. It started Oct 14, so when I started I wasn't too far behind. Week 1 was an owl, and I really enjoyed using some scraps from my blockheads to paper piece this owl. Berry Birdy made her owl into a bag, but I made, well started to make an owl placemat - work in progress.

I only recall seeing one other 20/20, a water colour block. I'll have to research where they are and catch up. Meanwhile, here some updates.

Roll the Dice Update:

1. Caravan Quilt top to quilt
2. Brown Bag Mystery finished - top now to quilt
3. Maddison's baby quilt FINISHED replaced with En Provence to finish, quilt
4. Row by Row top to quilt
5. Halloween Mystery to finish
6. Mackenzie's baby FINISHED replaced with Christmas Countdown to finish, quilt

Projects I'm working on:

Ringo Lake Mystery 2017

Moda Block-a-thon

Bonnie's Leaders and Enders 2017

#20over20berrybirdy techniques

1930 Farmers Wife Blocks

Hexie #fussycuttingsewalong

Projects finished 2018:

1. Elvis coasters

2. Mackenzie's Baby Quilt

On Ringo Lake Part 6

With the releasing of clue 6, the clues came fast - one a day. At present I am working on clue 7, but 8 and the finishing will have to wait until after our road trip.

After following Vireya's instructions in Part 4, I was interested to make sure the units would work in this unit. I used the template that Bonnie suggested in clue 4 to rule a line marking the triangle. I stitched 1/4" along each side of the line and made two of the units. Worked fine. What an easy way to do the units and not having to sew on the bias. 

Now, the trick is to remember how to do this next time.

Our first Road Trip for 2018 is to the Elvis Festival in Parkes and then to the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Back in 2010, on a USA trip we were fortunate to go to Graceland, and I purchased some Elvis fabric. All these years I never knew what to do with the fabric, but now that we are finally going to the Elvis Festival I thought I would make some small items to sell to the other campers for pocket money.

I started with coasters.

So far I've made 8 sets of 4 coasters, I'm not sure if I'll have time to make any more.