AJ's Antics

I don't have many photos of the next few steps...sorry...got carried away sewing it together and forgot....so you will have the use the last photo as a guide.... Take the flying geese with wings and sew four together into a row... you will end up with 6 rows of 4...make sure all the flying geese are going the same way when you sew them...I didn't...got carried away with what I was doing and had to unpick...opps! Sew 4 of the pin-wheel/flying geese together in a row...giving you two rows of 4...making diamonds in the middle... Feature Fabric/hourglass blocks sew them in alternating sequence into 3 rows of 3 then on the right hand end of each row sew the feature block/flying geese and on the other end the spare flying geese giving you three rows of FF/hourglass alternating with a flying geese (goose??) on each end. These photos are not the right colours scheme but are of a second quilt I'm making in the same pattern. Then sew the rows together as pictured....so that each feat...

Meg and Mick on the birth of their second son!! Born last night the 25th of February (5 days late by my calculations) at 9:04pm. Weighing in at a perfect 8lb 6oz and measuring 52.5 cm long. He is yet to be named as I think Meg thought she was having a girl and had a girls named picked out. Lucky I started on that 'I spy' quilt...should be finished in time. This is the quilt I made for their first born, Patrick .

I started this quilt ages ago...too long to actually remember when...I'd have to check the bank statements to see when the payments started comming out. It is a Block-of-the-month quilt from The Apple Backet Patchwork Shop in New Zealand. They have some cute kids quilts to make. I saw this one in a magazine and had it sent over. I started the applique by machine as I had already done hand appliques and I wanted to try something new....big mistake...I think it has taken me soooo long to do it becuase I wasn't enjoying the machine applique...and everytime I got it out I wished that it was hand appliqued! Then I ran out of some colours of cotton for the machine and have actually used a poly-cotton for the lime green as I couldn't find a 100%cotton in that colour. And DH whinged every time I worked on it becuase of the noise the machine made zipping back and forth in zig-zag stitch. Anyway all the blocks are now finished and trimmed to size. I just have the cut the shashing and...

This is the final set of sewing instructions before laying out the quilt for its big reveal... Feature Blocks On the right hand side of 9 feaute blocks sew one hourglass block with the B (lighter) triangle against the feature print. On the remaining 3 feature blocks sew a flying geese (goose??), again onto the right, with the B (lighter) triangle against the feature print. Mini Pin-wheel blocks To each side of the pin-wheel block add a flying geese. This time the flying geese are pointing in towards the pin-wheel. A Summery of the pieces you have 24 flying geese with wings (sqaures sewn on either end) 8 pin-wheel blocks with flying geese attached to either side 9 feature/hourglass blocks 3 feature/flying geese blocks 3 flying geese - not attached to anything 4 dark squares - not attached to anything 5 border strips of feautre fabric

We got up early this morning, to beat the heat, to take Jester to the beach....he loves the beach but is not a big fan of swimming yet. We had to wait for another dog to come along to fetch the ball that accidentally got thrown too far out in the water....that was after said rescue-the-ball dog peed on my bag which was sitting on the sand. YUCK!! We haven't had agility training these past two weeks because of the rain so hopefully this week we can go. I'm not sure who enjoys it the most...me or the dog!!

A Quilt Sandwich!! It's been ages since I made one...I hate working out how to back the quilts...I don't mind the quilting part...but the 'finding and making the backing big enough' part makes me hesitate every time. I decided I better do something though cause Meg is due any day....well she has probably already had bub but she is a slacker with the phone call....anyway she didn't find out what she was having in advance so I need to be ready with either a boy or girl quilt... the tops are done for both but still need to be quilted...I will be visiting in about 6 weeks...so I better get a move on!!

from experience!! pulling the fabric to make it work doesn't always help....stretched fabric is harder to work with go S.L.O.W!!! just beause the first one worked out doesn't mean the next one will puckers add character (!!) use small stiches but not too small because there will be unpicking fudge it as best you can don't get cocky - see second point a good iorn will hide a multitude of sins don't do these when you are tired - they look worse when you get up in morning when pinning don't make puckers don'tgive up easily - walk away and then come back and try again when admiring you work stand back form it and don't use a maginifying glass make sure the templates are the right way up!! leaving the needle down and lifting the presser foot to re-arrange the fabric underneath is allowed and it works wonders cheer yourself up with a little 'yessssssss' everytime you get a seam right - it amuses your husband don't get cocky - did I ready mention that!?...

And more butterfly fabric (actually now that I look at it I think they are dragonflies...opps!!) again totaly different...but still wonderful!! These are from the tanlented Car I'm hoping all the girls let me show off their finished quilts here too!!

Going with the butterfly theme is Bee . More great fabric choices!! I love the chocolate colour with the pink!

These are the materials I have come up with...It didn't use much to make the block so now I have to decide how much to send on with the quilt and what to keep back for finishing it off when I get it back...might have to ask the others for their opinions. And then the fun began...also some unpicking but not too much. I've decided I'm not very good at curved piecing...but I still have lots to do so I might get better....maybe?!?! Pieces cut out...layed out to see how they look... In pieces...starting to take shape The first finished block... Here are the rest of the pieces cut out ready to join...after this picture was taken, I tried to sew piece number 8 on....I then realised that I'd cut them out backwards....the template must have been flipped over but I didn't realise cause an 8 is an 8 backwards too!! So I had to trace and cut the pale blue circles again...bummer This is two finished triangles sewen together

and loving it!! I've joined a Round Robin with some other talented quilters and the centre block is due by the end of this month!! (I thought I had til the end of March) So with the rain and drizzle hanging around I decided it would be a perfect day for quilting otherwise it won't be finished on time. So about a month ago I decided on the centre I would like. The quilt(at the moment but subject to change) will become a wall hanging for my sewing room. I love bright colours but wanted to try something different so had pale, soft pastels in mind when I began...... After over an hour of looking through all my materials and deciding I can't really afford any new ones this month (well DH said I/we can't!!)and not having many pastels to choose from it has, of course, completely changed tracks...I have used this material as my inspiration (purchased from The Humming Mini ) and am now back on to the bold and bright that I love!! With that the way-out-of-my-depth part began. The...

This is what the wonderful Ads has used as her fabric...I love the bold choices and the way the fabrics work together...they should look stunning!!

This is what the lovely Helen has chosen as her fabrics...look out for her WIP's posts on the Mystery Quilt

I've had some requests to slow down and some requests to get the next step ready....I'm really just doing them when I can fit them in!!! So for my lovely WA friends here is the next bit....enjoy! Mini Pin-Wheel Blocks Take two of the DHF units and join them together with the light traingles at right angles to each other. Then join two of these units together to make a mini pin-wheel block...not sure if this is the actual name....just what I call them! This is may favourite block of the whole quilt...They look so cute and really make the quilt....in my opinion!! You'll end up with 8! Sew a D square to each end of 24 flying geese. I've added links in the side bar on all posts about the Kings Mystery Quilt, including fabric, cutting and sewing instructions.

Had a nothing day at home today...so I got some crafty things done.... Remember way back when I said I would be making an album for Mum's birthday well it is fast approaching so I thought I'd make a start....Each of her children will have some pages dedicated to them....these are her first born's...my big brother I also had a play around with these charm squares today....I was sick of them lying around and they would've ended up lost or wrinkled....so I sewed them into a square....can you see the mistake I made when I was putting the layout back together....not sure I can be bothered fixing it...I will have to keep an eye out for some more material to go with this to finish off the borders....I was thinking flying geese??

CBC Unit (Flying Geese) Attach a C triangle to one of the short sides of triangle B. Lay Triangle B right side up on the table with the right anlge pointing away form you. Lay C down on top with the right anlge clostest to you. You will be sewing along the bias of triangle C, so becareful not to stretch them. Press seam towards dark colour. Attach another C triangle to the other side. Again press seam towards dark colour. Make 46 CBC (Flying Geese) Units Links to Sewing Instructions 1a Sewing Instructions 1b

Sitting at home today feeling sorry for myself...Had a tooth pulled yesterday and then last night the pain medication made me vomit....yuck!! I'm silly though took a look at it in the mirror with a torch this morning and the sight of the clotted blood in my mouth nearly made me vomit again.....Yuck!! But it means I get the day off work and will hopefully get some quilting done while I rest my jaw....a hard thing for me to do....as I LOVE talking!! But with no-one here to talk to, it should get enough rest!

This year the kids have to take the Garden Buddy, ie the tog dog named Rover, home to explore their gardens as part of our Science Unit 'Plants in Action'. So setting the example here is Rover visiting our garden. Do you think Noodle liked having an intruder in her garden?? Jester...what do you think he is thinking?

Due to my other photos becoming red x's in the cutting post I'm posting these sewing instructions in smaller chunks...hoping to avoid the problem. EB Unit Join 18 E and B triangles together, to make a new triangle.Sew each pair exactly the same way ie the same colour on top each time. Join two EB units together to make 9 hourglass blocks.