I said I wasn't going to play around...

First and foremost, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  Mine was very calm as I've been sick so I've been spending a lot of time thinking of quilts...

I had decided, I should make a quit after a pattern, follow it to the dot and then be done with it. Could I do that? Nooo, of course not, I had to go playing around with the pieces on my wall and no I can't decide what I want. Any and all input is much appreciated =)

Do I want the original design? 

Do I want it with black corners?

 

 

Maybe I Want circles instead?

Or perhaps a table runner?

Log Cabin Poppy Wreath

So, last night I really stepped out of my normal comfort zone when it comes to fabric. I wanted a quick project so I started a traditional log cabin pattern for a table topper. The pattern comes from Mias Quiltbod.

The fabric is adorable, I love it but it's just not something I'd normally use. A special person came popping (no pun intended - honestly!) up in my head all the time I was sewing. A person that is pretty much like both the pattern and the fabric in combination. I don't think it's her style at all though, but she is lot's of fun and really bright and cheery like the fabric, while still traditional, like the log cabin... So if it turns out good, I think it might become a gift for this person despite it not being something I think she'd normally enjoy. Wow, this is a really weird thought process I realize but it's all how I felt last night when I couldn't sleep and stayed up and sewed instead.=)

So here's what's on my design wall right now, but I think I'm going to exchange the corner pieces for all black log cabins instead, to bring out the wreath. And I think I'm not going to make a border of the flowers but do something else instead... Sorry about the bad quality of the picture but it was pitch black outside when I took it.

I'm so excited!!

*continues to sing* And I just can't hide it! =D

I can't believe I'm posting this, but I'm going to start on a project for something really awesome quilt wise soon! Something I've always wanted to be a part of and now I am. I still can't believe it. Will share more with you as soon as I can =)

*does a little silly dance of pure happiness*


Pinwheel Table Runner
So on to other, a bit less exciting things. Since I got some left over charms from making my 12 Days Of Christmas Rag Quilt, I made myself a little table runner. I was trying out a new way to make pinwheels that I've been wanting to test, it's SO quick! Will share the technique with you later I promise. =)

However, I didn't have any suitable sashing fabric so I used a pillow case, bad idea! It stretched more then a little and it came out a wonky due to that... But I like it anyway =)

12 Days Of Christmas Rag Quilt - Finished!

It's finally finished! It's been washed, tumble dried and it's finished! Not a single seam unraveled, no discolorations on the white squares from the red, no seams I'd missed to clip, nothing! I'm so happy! It's so cozy with the flannel backing and the flannel batting makes it the perfect weight but still so warm =) I love it!!

I'm currently making a little table topper with the leftovers, will show you as soon as I've done the binding.

12 Days Of Christmas - Rag Quilt

Seams are finally clipped!

After many, many hours of clipping, buying new scissors (which where not much better then the old ones), spending more hours clipping and clipping, every single seam is finally clipped! I swear to some kind of higher power that I will not make another rag quilt before I buy myself a high quality pair of spring loaded scissors. This was a nightmare and I've officially ruined the skin on my little finger and my ring finger... But the feeling when I was finally done was awesome =)

And speaking of scissors, oh how I miss high quality stuff like fiskars scissors easily available in a nearby store. The expensive stuff one finds here isn't high quality at all sadly..

Anyhow our washing machine has been broken for a week and yesterday the mechanic came and took it with him, so I have no washing machine and my laundry is piling higher and higher. That isn't so much of a concern, my biggest concern is that I can't wash my new quilt... And my friend and neighbor who normally lets me borrow his tumble dryer is away on a long holiday until after Christmas so I'm really at loss as to how I'm to be able to finish this quilt before Christmas... Went down to the laundromat a few streets away but they had no instructions on how to work their tumble dryer and no personnel to ask either and I don't want to risk ruining my quilt by running the wrong program in this industrial size dryer. So stay tuned for the continuation of the "tales of the rag quilt" =)

Not sure if you can see much of a difference from the last photo, but all seams are finally clipped here:

Christmas decorations and how I love my handy fiance

My machine is finally working really nicely again thanks to a second tune up by my sweetie yesterday, he opened it up and removed the stopper for the tread tension weel so now I can decide exactly what tension I want without opening it up ^^

I spent some time last night making more apples and fine tuning my pattern, testing different leaves and such - the last two came out really nicely if I may say so myself =)

 My 12 days of Christmas apples:

 Christmas decorated

Now I have to get back to the nightmare that is cutting my rag quilt, the SECOND I get a chance to get high quality spring loaded scissors specifically for this purpose, I'm jumping on it!

My Christmas Rag Quilt is moving along again!

Andreas manged to put Emerald back together! Yay! Thank you sweetie! <3
And while the thread tension now is very off, it's sewing and at least the back of the fabric looks quite nice, stitch wise =)

So I managed to put together the last pieces of my rag quit and it's now fully sewn together! Now I just have to clip the seams, wash and tumble dry and it's DONE!

And no, no worries - it's not all wonky, I just rotated the picture so it would face the right way for you ^^

He's broken again...

Ok, so my poor little Emerald is broken again in case someone is wondering why nothing is happening over here. Andreas has been picking him apart and hopefully he'll be able to put Humpty together again since clearly the machine fixing guy here in Malta apparently didn't really know what he was doing...

On a happier note, my Aloe Vera is blooming for the very first time! It's always been growing like crazy, but it's never gone into bloom *is very happy*

Making Christmas apples

So, I spent my first advent making Christmas apples of the 12 days of Christmas fabric I have left from making the rag quilt. The quilt will soon be put together (if I can get my sewing machine to work again) and I can show you =)

In the mean time, my first apple, I've plans for a few  more. The picture was taken with my cellphone so the colors aren't the best, it's much less gray in person =)

I have a "design wall"

Or maybe more correctly, I have a very temporary but oh so useful piece of batting pinned to my wall ;)

I figured it would solve the problem of getting cat hair on all my fabric pieces while I was arranging them, so I bend down to pick up the camera and voila, there's cat hair getting on my fabric anyway since I looked away ^^

So without further ado, my not so fancy design wall and Diana, who's very, very quick: