Happy New Year and BOM Updates

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that 2013 is all that you want it to be. For me it will be one of a huge change in my life.
I have been studiously completing my Easy Street Mystery quilt components and the last part will be released tonight my time. For part 7 we had to construct 4 corner sections and 12 of the triangle sections similar to the one below.


Easy Street Part 7

 

Blocks 5 and 6 have been sent out in the Blackwork Birds BOM.

Blackwork Birds Block 5



Blackwork Birds Block 6

Shirley B and Amy P have also sent in pics of their blocks to date. I think you will agree with me that it is great fun to see what everyone else is doing.

Amy P's Blackwork Birds Blocks

Shirley B's Blackwork Bird Blocks

I have been a slack blogger

I have not posted for  a week and I feel bad. Since finishing school on the Friday before Christmas all I have wanted to do is sleep but I have finally turned the alarm clock off and gone in to retirement mode. I have been working on the BFC Blackwork Birds BOM and also the  Kenny Kreations Crazy Quilt BOM so have not been sitting idle. I am also up to date with the Easy Street mystery quilt (links on the right hand bar of the page) and waiting on the next clue for that tonight my time.

 

Our daughter has been home with us since Christmas Day and she leaves to day to return to Canberra. She is taking some of my black and quilts to use as bed quilts and wall hangings in her new house.

 

I received some  lovely cards, flowers and gifts on my retirement and thought I would share some pics of those with you.

Engraved back gold watch

Gorgeous litle ornament/plaque

Etched glass keepsake

Merry Christmas

Angel Children courtesy of Background Fairy

It is a beautiful and sunny Christmas morning here in Devonport ,Tasmania. I wish you all a joyful and safe Christmas. Our darling daughter is home for a week and we are looking forward to a lovely Christmas lunch with my Mum. It will be tinged with sadness as Dad will not be sitting at the head of the table this year.

Easy Street Part 5 and Tutorial Uploaded

I have completed Part 5 of the Easy Street Mystery Quilt (the link is in my side bar). We were required to make 64 of these 3 1/2 inch square units with half square triangle on the sides.

Easy Street Part 5

You can check out what everyone is doing over at Bonnie's Link Up page. Last time I looked there were over 217 people linking up with their progress last week.

Football- Sport Team Quilt

I have had many requests for a tutorial for the quilt I gave to my secret buddy. You can download the tutorial from HERE. You can quite easily make an effective quilt in team colours without using logos etc.

Exciting Day Yesterday and another Freebie Roundup

Yesterday my DH and I went to an engagement party of one of my ex colleagues from school. However, when we got there we were asked to board a bus and we were taken to the wedding. I do not have any photos as I did not take a camera with me and left my phone at home. How exciting was that!

There are quite a few freebies being given away in the lead up to Christmas so thought I would give another roundup before Christmas if you have the chance to have a look at them.

 

Sulky has some projects and free embroidery designs if you follow this link.

 

EverydayDesigns has freebies that are added daily.

 

If you have a few minutes to spare and are able to stitch out some lace snowflakes,Baby Lock, Designer’s Gallery Software and Amazing Designs have teamed up to offer FREE embroidery designs for anyone who would like to help in the Connecticut PTSA’s effort to transform the new Sandy Hook Elementary into a Winter Wonderland. Follow this link.

Katrin Diederich has an Advent calender with free designs . Follow this link . Scroll your mouse around the windows until a number pops up, click then download the design.

Weekly Freebie Roundup

Kenny Kreations are giving away 4 lovely free designs. Go to  their home page, scroll to the bottom and you will find the links for the designs. The ITH Christmas tree is lovely and  I may have to come up with a project to use the new  Feathers n Fern quilting design.

Hatched in Africa have a great give away of a bottle apron including a blank with which you can insert your own design. You can find it here.

Murphy's Designs has also generously provided some lovely tatted edge bauble designs.

Also a reminder to download and collect the advent numbers over at the Bernina Blog

Urban Threads also have a lovely new free design so make sure you head over and pick that up before the end of the month.There are three sizes to collect.

 

Last Day of Work

Today(Friday) will be my last day of work. Yesterday was quite emotional with two school assemblies One was the final assembly for our departing Grade 10 students and the other was a Christmas/Farewell assembly for me. My husband was also a special guest and we sat up the front of the school on a couch to watch the proceedings. I managed to make an impromptu speech.

Carlton Quilt 1

 

 

 

At recess time today we will reveal our secret buddies to each other. I have made this Carlton football quilt for my secret buddy. It is in dark navy blue and white. The quilt measures 60 inches wide x 69 inches long. I will post the directions if anyone is interested. The letters are machine embroidered using designs that are free to download. Please let me know if you would like me to do a tutorial. It is a great way to do a football/sport quilt without having to use logos etc.to get the effect of the team colours.

Easy Street Mystery Quilt and Crazy Quilt Update

Easy Street Part 4

I have completed Part 4 of the Easy Street Mystery Quilt (the link is in my side bar). We were required to make 64 of these stacked flying geese units. We also had to cut out 145 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch squares from our lime green fabrics in readiness for another part down the track.

Easy Street Part 4 Fabrics

You can check out what everyone is doing over at Bonnie's Link Up page. Last time I looked there were over 240 people taking part and linking up with their progress.

We are always on the look out for freebies and if you scroll to the bottom of this page on Craftsy you will find some free classes. I have been following the Block of the Month all year.

Also a reminder to download and collect the advent numbers over at the Bernina Blog



Bernina Advent Number 15

I have just sent out Block 9 of our Crazy Quilt BOM ( actually it is more like Block of the Week).

Crazy Quilt Block 9

Crazy Block 8 -Retirement Countdown

Instructions for crazy quilt block 8 have been sent out to those particpating in this BOM.

As for my retirement countdown, it is 8 working days after today. It is getting very close now.

Don't forget to collect the advent numbers over at the Bernina Blog

Crazy Quilt Block 8

Easy Street Mystery Quilt - Blackwork Birds BOM

I have completed Part 3 of the Easy Street Mystery Quilt (the link is in my side bar). We were required to make 64 of these shaded units. Each new part comes out late Friday night Australian time so I have a quick peek and then go to bed. You can check out what everyone is doing over at Bonnie's Link Up page

Easy Street Mystery Quilt Part 3

As we do each new part I am laying the pieces out on boards to photograph them but also to make it easier for when we have to put larger units together.

Blackwork Birds Block 4

 

Block 4 has also been sent out in the Blackwork BOM that I am doing. It seems that those with AOL are having trouble receiving my email so please check the blog to make sure you are up to date with the parts you are receiving.

 

As many of you know my husband and I act as guides for Little Penguin tours in one of our Conservation areas each Saturday night. Last night we had a spectacular thunderstorm but I was able to take a pic of some cute babies waiting patiently in their burrows for their parents to return from fishing all day at sea and provide them with  their evening meal.

Little Penguin Babies

 

Advent Number Freebies

If you hop on over to the Bernina blog you can collect the Advent numbers they have been givng away since December 1. You may need to translate the page and the links for the previous posts for December are there on the home page. There are also some nice ideas for Christmas sewing. The downloads will appear with the words Adventskalenderzahl.

 

I am also sharing with you a delightful quilt made by Eileen using the Rag designs from Hatched in Africa and the  Pretty in Pink quilt layout design from my files.

Eileen's Quilt using Hatched in Africa Rag designs

Oswald the Owl -Wish I Could Digitize!

Laura is one of my very talented former students. In her early 20's she is very gifted academically and also is lucky enough to have a great artistic talent. She has been doing some drawings of Oswald the Sad Owl and has used this artwork for products in an online store where you can buy T Shirts, greeting cards etc. Wouldn't they make a great quilt if they were digitized?

If you have a chance go and check out her items for sale at Zazzle.

Crazy Quilt Block 7 and the Countdown Continues

I am now down to 14 days of work before I retire. The time is going so quickly.

Block 7 of the crazy quilt has been sent out to those particpating. The next three blocks are also in these tonings and we then move on to greens.

Crazy Quilt BOM Block 7

 

Easy Street Mystery Quilt

As mentioned in my earlier posts I have started doing Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt. There is a link to her website and the mystery quilt in right hand side bar of my blog. You can also see what others are doing on the Quiltville blog.

 

I have completed the first two parts and so am up to date. It was helpful having a public holiday last Friday so I was able to get my normal weekend chores out of the way early.

 

Part 1 involved making 192 4 patch units using a base grey fabric and an assortment of black and white prints, my favourites as you all know.

192 Easy Street 4 Patch Units

It is a lot of units to make and I was a bit worried about making too many duplicates so came up with a bit of a system. I am,sjure that it is nothing new but may help some others who face the daunting task of sewing nearly 200 of these units.

 

Make sure that you have all your units oriented the same way apart from the one constant (marked 1)you are going to use in the first round.

Pick up  a unit from position 1 and then one from the pile to the left. Sew them together as per Bonnie's instructions. Continue picking up units from position 1 and match them with one unit from each of the other piles.

When you have used one from each pile move any remaining units from position 1 out of the way.

Make the unit to the left of former position 1 into the new position 1 , rotate them vertically and repeat the procedure of matching units in this pile with one from every other pile. Keep repeating until you have rotated through all the piles you have.

Part 2 involved making 128 flying geese units using speciality rulers: the Easy Angle Ruler and the  Companion Ruler. I do not have either of these rulers but the Nifty Notions Quarter Square and Half Square rulers worked just as well. These flying geese units are constructed using a variety of purple hue fabrics as well as the recurring black and white fabric theme.

 

Can't wait until the next instalment next Friday evening our time here in Australia.

128 Easy Street Flying Geese units

Nifty Notions Half Sqaure Ruler

Nifty Notions Quarter Square Ruler