Falling out of love

I can't seem to figure out what isn't working for me with my Liberty Love quilt. I love the fabric, but I'm wondering if it was the choice to use white as the background which wasn't a great idea. I tried some strips on natural linen, but that didn't work either. Then I took some of the cream/murky toned fabric strips out, so the colour palette is clearer now. This is a terrible photo - it is too breezy to lay these pieces outside, but you can see the general direction I'm heading in:

I'm still trying to decide whether I want the word 'love' spelt out in among the stripes. They can go on the back if necessary. (I know that love isn't spelt 'LE' but I really wanted to use the beautiful fabric that Glenys kindly gave me for one of the letters, and E was the one I chose. Random, I know). I am going to do the O and the E with quite strong colours so they don't get lost.

I guess it is just a case of push on and see if it comes right the more I do. Do you ever feel like a project is getting less right the more you do??

Triple 'P'!

I hope you have been enjoying following the Practically Paper Piecing blog hop organised by Kristy over at Quiet Play (thanks Kristy). I am a novice paper piecer, but what I  like very much about paper piecing is that you can get lovely accurate seams just by stitching along printed lines. Magic!

I decided to make a little flower block into a lavender sachet that you would put in your drawers or linen cupboard. The scent of lavender is not for everyone, but dried rose petals or another sort of pot pourri would work well I think. 

The flower block I made had four sections which I then stitched together. I find it much easier to colour in the pieces before I start, especially on small blocks.

I made a narrow border for the completed block:

For the back I used a piece of organza-type fabric (it was originally one of those little gift bags from the good old $2 shop) which I put a similar sized border around. I put the front and back together then filled it with dry lavender and hand stitched the opening closed.

The finished size is approximately 4.5". Quite a nice gift idea for the people in your life who appreciate something handmade. This will probably go to live with Mum - my nana (her mum) always made lavender sachets so I think Mum will like knowing that a little bit of Nana lives on.

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop -I'm looking forward to seeing lots of projects at the linky party!

Bee blocks for Helen

It feels like its been a while since I've been able to sit down at my sewing machine, so this weekend I was determined I was going to make time to call into Helen's and pick up her little supply kit for the bee blocks she has chosen. I knew I was going to love the fabric because I saw the hexy block she posted - when finished the hexy blocks will go in between the string blocks.

I used freezer paper - simply because I had some, and because computer paper isn't quite wide enough to make a 8.5" template with. It did cause a smallish sticky mess until I got enough of the strips on, but not too bad. I was anxious to get the linen centred as perfectly as I could get it, so I measured and pinned the first strip carefully.

After that, it all seemed like plain sailing. Helen had already cut the fabric into different lengths so that helped with ummming and ahhhhhing about where to place fabric. In fact, her quilty maths is superb - those 3 pieces of fabric to the right in the next photo are what I had leftover. It always makes me happy when there is minimal fabric wastage.

Done and dusted. These were really fun to make, I am looking forward to seeing everyone else's blocks and the final product.

Finished Polaroid mini-quilt

I finished my Polaroid mini just in time for our Monday night modern quilting group. Yay! I found some great striped fabric in my stash which made a really cheerful binding, and stitched it on lickety split on Sunday night.

I also tried using my precious Aurifil thread for handstitching the binding down. Precious, because it's not too easy to source in NZ and hence works out to be quite expensive because of postage. However, because everyone in blogland seems to rave about it, I was determined to try it. Chocolate Coated in Australia doesn't charge a fortune to send it across the ditch.

As far as quilting goes, it is a dream to use. My machine seemed to love it, maybe because the thread is very fine and silky. I had no idea that it would also be  magic for hand stitching. It doesn't tangle and get knotted the same way my usual threads do. All in all a bit of a rave review from me, so I will continue on with my quest to find a cheap source!

More Liberty Love

I have had a bit of a winter cold over the past week which has meant I haven't wanted to wrangle any Retro flowers. Luckily I found the perfect sewing project - whipping up quick Liberty blocks. I just sort all my little pieces into colour groups, make a strip then insert the strips into white. Although I want quite a random look, I notice that I need to work a bit harder to be 'random'!

Recently Karyn suggested writing a post about 'word quilts' for our AMQG blog and that made me remember this quilt designed by Tula Pink:

Now I'm wondering whether to be quite literal and truly make this my Liberty Love quilt.

Paper Piecing Blog Hop Begins!

It is the 1st of August! That means the Blog Hop can begin. Well, it can for us in the Antipodes, some of you might need to wait a few more hours!! Hop on over to Kristy's and see what she is up to!

While I plan my paper piecing project (gulp!), I am continuing to work on my retro flowers. My  flowers appear slowly... whenever I feel like doing more challenging sewing. They are not hard to make, but they do require a bit of fussing around so that all the seams match.

I  have six left to make, but I'm in no hurry.

Linking up over at Lee's: