Circles!!!

Well, these might be the smallest circles I've ever appliqued!

Circles were definitely the hardest thing for me to master in my applique, and now I feel back to "square one" looking at this wee beasties!

....but as you can see by the dime these are quite small, so I'll just decide to be happy with them. I have to admit that after the third one I had the thought to search my stash for some polka-dot fabric that could be fussy-cut for these bits!

They do look better now they are actually appliqued onto the quilt....

After this morning's coffee and applique I have all the pieces appliqued that I had had prepared. I hope to find an hour of time today to get some more pieces ready.

Here's how Auntie Green looks this morning on the design wall, I think I will try to pick a perfect colour flower for the bottom right-hand section today. I am worried that the greens I've chosen for that section are quite dark, so I want to balance it out with a good fabric choice for the flowers.

I'm still concerned with the pale yellow flowers on the upper left border. I think they look better now that there is more going on around them, but I'm still not sure. I think part of me just doesn't want to take them off and do them over, to be honest, but in the grand scope of this quilt it wouldn't really take much time.

I don't see many Auntie Green's Garden quilts so it was so odd when in the space of half an hour I spotted one on Pinterest and then the same exact quilt on a blog I came across! This one is done in all neutrals and is exquisite!

Here is a picture.....
....and another....

 
I encourage you to visit Hilda at Every Stitch to see more of this beautiful quilt (the quilt shows better in the pictures on her blog). You will also see the lovely quilting she has done on her Auntie Green!

I came across Hilda's blog thru' the Linky for Quilty365. Her take on this project is done in indigo fabrics and you can be inspired by her post HERE. 

I think on my Quilty365 for today (aka A Day in My Life) I'd like to try to be a bit more creative. I do have some precious time available for sewing today (woohoo!), but with Allietare, Border Creek Mystery, fabric bowls needed for Christmas presents, will there be time?.....oh, yes!!

Have a visit at Kathy's Quilts to see what others are taking time to poke at today!

Have a great day!



 

A Mini Mystery

So for those of you who don't have time/are intimidated by the Quiltville mystery, Allietare.....how about something on a smaller scale?

A much smaller scale?

There is a twelve-day Christmas mystery being offered at Temecula Quilt Company, which can be viewed HERE.

A friend of mine had told me about this a month ago, and I thought I would take part instead of doing Allietare. Well, looks like I'm trying both!

Here is the first block, offered yesterday, measuring 2-3/4" unfinished.....

Not bad since I find mini-blocks a wee bit difficult (pun intended).

I don't usually work with white fabrics, so I'm glad I thought to watch out for this.....

A tip for beginner's - See that little sliver of red that the arrow is pointing to? I am going to press toward the white fabric and if I leave things "as-is" that bit of red will shadow through once this is quilted.

So I did a little trim with my rotary cutter and ruler.....

 It would be a pain, I guess to have to do this to many, many blocks, but in this case it was a quick little trim. Even if there are many blocks it is worth taking the time, or that pristine white background will potentially have all kinds of dark bits showing through once the quilting has been done. Believe me, once quilted this problem is much more pronounced, I've seen it time and time again.

I'm looking forward to today's mini mystery block! I hope it is another two-colour block as I would like to use just these two fabrics, if possible.

Have a great day!

A Day in My Life

I wonder how many people are taking part in Quilty365?

Today is the first "Linky" with Audrey over at Quilty Folk, so maybe we'll get a bit of an indication on how wide-spread this project is becoming. I have a feeling it's quite popular.

The concept is to make a little circle block each day for a year, picking fabrics which may reflect your mood of the day, etc.

Here is a picture of my progress so far with the last two days still needing to be sewn on.....

My starting day was November 12th, with the circle block. By the next day, obviously I had switched up to doing hearts for my Quilty365, and mine is called A Day in My Life. The circle block will end up as part of the quilt, but I think it will probably be a label.

The last six days or so, I accumulated blocks that were ready, thinking it would be nicer to sit down and actually applique them only once or twice a week. Well, I don't really like that, afterall, so I will complete one per day or just save up two or three at the most.

Today is the first day of omitting cream from my coffee. Not bad, but I'm wondering if this will ruin the whole coffee-drinking experience for me?! I'm sure if it's a good quality coffee then it shouldn't need anything else! Well see!

Visit Audrey at Quilty Folk to see everyone's Quilty365. This project can start any day, even the first of the year if it's too much to think of with Christmas fast approaching, so I hope you will consider joining in the fun!

Have a great day!