Unwrapping Bliss - is pure bliss!

So I finally managed to unwrap my pretty Bliss jelly roll and the feeling was fantastic, out spilled all these amazing fabrics!

I sorted them into color groups and paired them up into the strip sets described on Rachels blog. I have so far managed to finish 10 strip sets, only 6 to go! Sorry about the poor quality image below, it was really dark when I was finished. While the bliss colors are not my normal colors I think it will make a lovely "snuggle under me" quilt for the couch in our living room, which is brown and off white, see there is some brown in there ^^

My first quilt along!

So how lucky am I? I turns out that Rachel over at Ps. I Quilt (one of my favourite bloggers!) is hosting a quilt along and as it turns out, the fabric I bought a while back from Fat Quartershop for another project will be perfect for this quilt along. Hence I will be joining my very first quilt along, I'm so excited! =D

My fabric choice:

 

You can read more about the quiltalong here and here is the Flickr Group.

Look what an adorable little thing kept us up all night!

Two days ago our friends found a little kitten we'd been planning on rescuing since before Christmas but didn't manage, it was so weak and skinny and dirty then that we thought it had passed away but luckily that wasn't the case! Two days ago our friends called and said they'd found and caught it in the engine of their car! Could have ended very badly this story if they hadn't seen him run in there.

The kitten is going to another friend who moved to Malta recently and really needs some company as he works from home all day and is all alone in his flat

Anyhow, this is Pjutin (not 100% that will be the final name though), will call him a "he" even though I don't know the sex for sure yet though as I haven't wanted to scare the daylights out of him by handling him yet. He's roughly 14-15 weeks based on the look of his healthier litter mates, haven't checked his teeth yet either for the same reason. For a street cat who's lived outside all his life and was just brought in  he's very calm and does let me pat and stroke him a little and when we leave the room he cries for us poor baby. Though if we move to quickly or make too much noise he will hiss a little. He lives in the bathroom for now, until we've taken care of all his infestations from fleas and mange to worms. He'll move to his new permanent home once all his treatments are done and he's a bit more relaxed with people as his new owner hasn't had cats for a few years.

 

I've worked  at a cat sanctuary for many years in Sweden (and a dog sanctuary here in Malta) so I'm very used to taking care of these little unfortunates luckily. We'll see if we can get the vet to come home to us on Monday to give him a checkup and let us know what we should treat first and give us prescriptions and meds. Didn't want to start out with that and risk the little thing having a heart attack.

Order placed at QuiltDirect

We've started to settle in our new apartment, still have some stuff left in the old place but we and Diana have slept in the new place for 3 nights now and I'm starting to really like this apartment.

So since I'm starting to settle and soon have set up my sewing "room" again I've started to think about quilting and I found what appears to be a great UK online quilt accessories store with really low prizes (half Swedish prizes on rulers and stuff),  so I made an order there for mainly some inch rulers, two omnigrip ones, one 6x24" and one 12 1/2 square, some basting spray, starch and something I'm really excited about testing, a Micro Stitch Kit:

 

The reason I'm so excited is because on Malta everything rusts, so all my basting safety pins get rusty in between quilts so I always have to buy new ones, it gets very annoying. These plastic little tacks hopefully will do an excellent job with the basting for me. I'll let you know how it works out. =)

Moving - I hate it

So we're moving to a new apartment since our current one was sold. We knew it was up for sale when we rented it but we where still hoping this day wouldn't come quite so soon as we love this place. The new one is very nice but completely without views, something I will sorely miss...

Anyhow, so it might take a little while before I can set up my sewing area again sadly but it's got highest priority after the cat tree and the computers =)

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: