Hello Hadley!

Fell in love with Hadley. Badly.

I also have been in love with the Buzz Saw block lately. Thought I would add a little text print (some Chicopee and other friends may have demanded their way in there too...), cut right in and make me a new quilt. Free - style, from the notes I made in my head when I researched this block, like 2 months ago. 

Funny though, I kept thinking to myself while chopping fabric and moving colours around on my wall - 'These Buzz Saws sure look pineapple-ish.Who named this block anyways??!!'.

Jokes on me - if you want to make a Buzz Saw, you really should read the directions again before you begin and not just wing it...or you end up with pineapples.

Good thing I sure do fancy these pineapples.

Forging ahead and adding lime green - cause lime green goes with everything these days.

Happy weekend all!!!

~Lisa

Back Into the Sew-ing of Things...

Hey all...happy summer days to you! I have had some sewing time this past week and it has been GRRRREAT (I just had this visual of Tony the Tiger...80's child anyone?!)!!! I am sewing a quilt for a dear friend who has moved away. I just love her to bits and want to show it, ya know? A quilt is just so good for that.

I decided on a Wonky Star quilt, as I find them to be a very satisfying sew. I haven't made one yet that I wasn't in love with, so the likelihood of being pleased with my finish is high. This was important to me right now because I finished a top in June that I am only so-so on and that is such a BUMMER.

I have had fun pulling and mixing some of my fave fabrics. I really let this quilt speak to me as I have added colours and fabrics and played with the low-vol background. Hopefully tomorrow will find me some more sewing time - I am itching to see this one complete!

Hope you are all having some fabulous summertime fun and enjoying every moment!

~Lisa

Something New

I have been busy in the late night hours pulling all fabrics loud and bright and some fabrics soft and sweet.

I decided on some HST's in the shape of this quilt. And have since been moving them up and down, round and round all over my design board. Such fun I have been having looking for that 'right' placement! Do you have that moment when you know it's just right?!!! I love that aha moment. When all the colours seem in harmony to your eyes. It's interesting how a colour can look so wrong in one placement and so right in another.

Take this block for instance - many times I tried the lighter Chicopee print as an 'inner' circle part of a block - but nooooo, that was all wrong. Finally I tried it as the 'outer' background of this block - and yay, soooo right! Crazy but true!!!

Hello strawberries. Hello mushrooms.

And HELLO my-all-time-favourite-stick-it-in-every-quilt Chicopee print. I fear using you all up. Every time I talk about this print I have to go to Etsy and order more.

Up next - actually sewing some of these together. Have a good week all!

~Lisa

Addicted

I took these...

And I added these...

And then I CHOPPED THEM ALL UP (you guys wouldn't know anything about that, now would you??!!!)

But not to worry 'cause I sewed them all back together...

And I made some of these. And they are ADDICTIVE. So I made some more.

And now I have enough of them for a quilt.

Yay me! How's your week been?? Happy Friday all!!!

~Lisa

Creating

Hey all! Still creating away (slowly, very slowly) over here in the beautiful weather that we have been getting. For the moment, creating is stuck in between all the back to school rushy type activity that September always holds for us. New clothes, cleats, shin pads, newspaper route, skating, new teachers, packing lunches etc etc. It feels strange to be tied down to all these schedules after 2 months of FREEDOM. But we always adjust and soon it will be smooth sailing and lovely Fall will arrive.

I have been humming and hawing over these...

And then I did this to them....

Then I hummed and hawed some more. And then I did this to them...

And all that colour made me stop humming and hawing. And then I found some superb sashing fabric from this Canadian Etsy shop (Canadian = save on shipping charges - yay me!!!) and I am sewing it all together as we speak (haha, now that would be a feat we would all like to accomplish...sewing and blogging at the same time - imagine the work we could get done...)

Update soon! Hope you are all in fabric heaven sewing your hearts out this week. Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced and WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network.


~Lisa

A Quick Hello

I have been doing lots of this...

and spending time with my favourite machine making these together...

I moved each of those little suckers all over my design wall about a billion times...well, it felt like a billion...and then happily settled on this arrangement.


Though I did decide to add these in the corners...

These tiny triangles are very reminiscent of the original star quilt. I like the way the diamonds make each block stand out for themselves, rather than blend in as a background.

I am off to Hawaii tomorrow (woohoo!!!) and besides the sewing above, I have been busy busy busy packing and gardening (I didn't want to leave the blueberries for the birds to eat!!!).

Check back in with you all in a week! Hope you all have a good one.


~Lisa

PB and J - a New Adventure

I work with a woman who is just amazing. And to thank her for sharing her amazingness with me and the kids (I am a teacher) each and every day that we work together, I want to make her a (surprise, surprise!!!) quilt, of course!!!

What better fabric than a little PB and J?!!! Exactly - just perfect, I thought so too. You see...it has the alphabet, which is soooo fitting for what we do (we work with little people). But it is not kids only fabric - it has grown up elements too, like its lovely flowers and patchwork and really great colours (love the denim blue). So I chopped up a pile (and added a few from stash)...

Did some chain piecing...

And ended up with a log cabin-ish type of block. I just went with colours and proportions that looked good to my eye.

Now I have this vision for a scrappy, tone on tone, herringbone sashing of sorts. Not sure how I am going to make this happen yet - going to sleep on it.


What are you working on lately? Hope it's making you smile like these did for me today - this was some much needed sewing time - always relaxes the soul.

Linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

~Lisa

Progress

Aaaahhhhhh...the sweet, sweet sound of progress. Back at the K quilt.

Though, I have been having some troubles with skipped stitches. It's a first for me. I have fiddled and I have faddled and the skips will go away for awhile and then reappear. Have you had this problem? Any suggestions? A magical cure? Please share your spell! I would love some help.

Happy weekend all.

~Lisa

K Quilt Revisited

Alas, it is time to return to the coveted K Quilt. I shared my creative process here when originally planning this quilt. I packed the K Quilt up into numbered baggies when I needed my design wall to plan and complete my Night of Hope Quilt. The K Quilt is for a friend's B-day at the end of June - so it is not a finish I need to rush. I can just pull out a  little baggie anytime I feel the need and sew up one of these:

3 down, 9 to go. Been having fun with it. I sure am looking forward to seeing it all stitched together. I decided on a small, evenly laid out polka dot for the corners of each block. Gives the quilt a nice overall cohesive look.

Happy sewing all. Hope you each have a wonderful week. I have some new life plans on the horizon and a girls trip coming up next week, so life is pretty exciting around here! Linking up with the 'Let's Get Acquainted' party hosted by Kirsten at Gemini Stitches.


~Lisa

Posy Progress

My weekend sewing involved this...

I went with the scrappy-ish background - it truly makes the stars the centre of the show. I also added some 'Daisy Bouquet' from the Posy line to the backgrounds...the flowers adds just enough girlie to balance out the Architextures. I do after all, want this to be a baby quilt!.

Isn't the 'Bouquet' fabric from Posy the best! It is definitely my favourite. See the wonderful chartreuse colour in those willowy looking flowers? Oh ya, I am so adding that colour into this quilt. That colour rocks. 

First it rained today and I sewed and then it got sunny. My son and I went for a walk in the sun and ran into a neighbour that is interested in Astronomy. He brought out his special 'sun telescope' (so not the technical term) and set it up in his driveway. I looked at the sun through a telescope - ever done that??!! I could actually see the FLAMES. Total highlight of my weekend. Amazing.


Linking up with the 'Let's Get Acquainted' Monday link up - hosted by Kristy at Quiet Play.


~Lisa

A Little Posy

Oh how I loved Posy (Designed by Aneela Hoey) when I saw it....I think it had to do with the chickens....darn those bunnies are pretty cute too! I ordered two charm packs with no real plan in mind, only to play.

Posy by Aneela Hoey

In the 'K Quilt' that I have been working on recently, I really enjoyed using the Architextures greys - which actually have white backgrounds - and decided that I needed to have the Posy and the Architextures play together! I figured some Wonky Stars would be a nice change and had this tutorial from the Silly BooDilly bookmarked and went for it.

This was my first full star sewn together. I plunked it up on the design wall, fell in love and proceeded to sew a few more points. I plunked the star pieces up on the design wall before they were sewn together as a block and began to think maybe, just maybe I might want a more scrappy background like this...

(which is truly entirely against my usual grain, so I am quite proud that I MIGHT want to do this!). I promptly decided not to sew any more blocks together until all the star points are made and I can play a little on my wall and see which way my eyes prefer. I did have to put an order in to Etsy for some further yardage of the background fabrics - so this may be a few weeks until I can get back to it.

Hope you are all having a fabulous week - we have a little rain around here, but it sure makes for guilt free sewing weather! Linking up with 'Work in Progress Wednesday' over with Lee at Freshly Pieced.


~Lisa

PS. These pics today are taken with my very first ever SLR camera that my hubby gave me for my Bday well over a month ago. I have been too chicken to take it out of the box until now! Finally today was the day and I am happy with the results - MUCH more to learn of course but thrilled to have it and be using it!

Sneak Peak

I'll give you three guesses what I have been up to...

YEP!!! You got it...trimming HST's. And then of course...SEWING HST's. Been making these...

Who knew HST's make HEARTS??? Certainly not me. And let me tell you, there may have been a party in my sewing room when I discovered this.

Happy Friday all! Linking up to 'The Let's Get Acquainted' linky party, hosted by Deborah at Simply Miss Luella.

~Lisa