woohoo

I have finished the blocks! I will trim them all later (I am a bit scared at how much I will lose of some of them, fingers crossed!) then I need to work out the sashing and discover whether I have enough left over geese for the border...I do hope so!

Block Seven

Block Eight

Block Nine

DQS 9

You may have noticed a certain (ahem) button on my sidebar? Yes, dear reader, you are correct, I am one of the lucky ones to make it into Doll Quilt Swap 9. As a relative Flickr swap newbie I was very pleased to be accepted and I am really looking forward to finding out who my partner is and stalking away!

I've had a lovely day today, my best chum and I were planning on taking her son to the seaside but when we woke up the weather looked a little iffy so we decided to go to Camden instead. I've had a little snooze and a looong catch up chat with my sister on the phone (must've been, ooh, at least 24 hours since we last spoke) and now I'm going to watch the end of One Fine Day (George Clooney...rrrrowr) while working on those last few blocks - I will try not to drool on them.

six down, three to go

Here's block number 6 - I am about half way through cutting the pieces for the last three blocks. I haven't been cutting in bulk all the way through, I have been cutting then piecing but now that the end is in sight it is much easier to think through the fabric options and much more bearable to cut it all at once - having said that, all that is left is to cut all the small white blocks and that is when I suddenly though 'well, I really must update my blog'. Mmmm, cutting those 2 7/8" squares is not my favourite part.

fun finds

I was out for lunch with my Gran today (a weekly occurrence; I take her to the supermarket, she takes me to lunch or a variation on the theme, e.g. I take her to the doctors, she takes me to breakfast, I insist on paying, she then buys me a gift. You get the idea!) anyway, we had gone somewhere different than usual and I remembered that last time we had popped into Oxfam in search of hidden treasures and I had hit the jackpot in several packets of bias binding. Ok, I admit, this might not be EVERYONE'S idea of a jackpot but I imagine that if you are reading my blog then either you share my fondness of things of the haberdashery persuasion or you know me personally and my excitement will not surprise you. So, back to today, of course, I suggested we return to this source of textile goodies and here is what I gleefully took off with.

the black roll is satin binding....not what I would normally use but impossible to resist and how much room can it take up? There is 20m on that baby! Then there are 3 30cm zips and 1 20cm, 3.6m of white bias binding (drool) and 10m of a flat tape - somewhat like a shoelace, I think it will be perfect for drawstring cord. I was very happy to part with just under £10 for this little stash :D

spot the mistake!

I just had to post this before correcting it because I didn't notice what I had done until I looked at the picture on my pc! How on earth I didn't notice while I was pressing it I will never know....anyway....here is block 5...kinda!

Fourth Block

One yard update

One yard wonders decided against using my fabric for the bag I designed and sent me some instead. I do love it though and I spent yesterday morning putting a bag together in it to send to them.

Cute? You can only just tell in the picture below but I used a silver bell instead of a bead to keep the toggle on this time. I keep imagining it jingling all the way to the states!

I also just finished my third block for the quiltalong - I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly these are going together - the bulk of the time is taken cutting but I cut all the pieces for this block while watching Junior Apprentice last night so when I woke up this morning I could get stuck straight into sewing. As I make each block I am also making up 12-20 extra geese depending on how many I can squeeze out of the piece of fabric - these will be the border + I will have extras to add to the back and other projects. It works for me to do lots at the same time so I can string piece them.