Steampunk Blocks

I was going to start quilting my steampunk blocks so I could move on to joining them in the quilt as you go method, however when I laid them out I realised that I didn't like the look of it with only 9 blocks so I decided to add three more designs to make the quilt longer. The three extra blocks are complete so now I need to psyche myself up for quilting these again. Because this is a step into the unknown I am procrastinating a little...

Space Invader Wall Hanging

Another finish today and I must say I didn't realise I've been putting this one off since 2009! Terrible!!

This project had been quilted, but still needed trimming and binding. It took most of the day today to get it squared and trimmed due to its odd size and then to work out how big to make my hanging tabs for the top and bottom. A little tweaking was needed there because I made them a little too big and because the hanging is supported top and bottom it was floppy in the middle.

Once I got it hanging correctly I tried out the machine binding tutorial I mentioned back in 2009 as well but hadn't tried due to a lack of a suitable project. It went reasonably well with only a couple of errors which I had to go back and fix. The good thing about black on black is noone will notice!

I think it looks pretty good hanging on the door. It is replacing a lace curtain which we usually cover with a solid curtain in Winter as a lot of heat escapes through the glass window in the door.

If you like space invaders you can get a pattern for piecing the red invader free. I'll be working on patterns for the other guys and the tank gun soon!

Circus Tent Quilt Complete

This one is finished! The quilting process took a little longer as I used masking tape as a guide for my quilting which took a while to stick around all the hexagons. It gave me even spacing between the piecing seams and my quilting. I needed to quilt within 10" according to my batting so I've left the quilting fairly open with the largest area being about 7".

The back shows the quilting lines even better. I selected a white thread so that it would blend in best on the animal print fabric and lightly contrast with the "circus tents".

The binding is the same dark patterned fabric as the blue hexagon which gave a nice contrast with the green back and complimented all the colours on the front. I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. I was hoping to get it done in a week, but 2 weeks is a pretty good effort to turn out a completed quilt! :)

Easter Chocolate Containers

With Easter just around the corner I thought I would mention something about those little plastic chocolate containers you might receive this Sunday. The two containers pictured above were from chocolates such as Lindt and Fererro Roche that are sometimes gifted at Easter and Christmas. If you're lucky enough to get a deep container like these they're perfect for your sewing supplies!

I use one for my safety pins (I leave them all open so I can just pin them straight in so sticking your hand in there is usually an adventure!) and one for my binding clips. I have another which had a broken lid so I use that to throw in small items such as a pen, thread I use all the time, a few needles and anything else I'm using that I dont' want to roll off the table.

They're really handy containers so make sure you save a few because you never know what kind of sewing trinkets you might need to store!