22 cupcake blocks

Well, I worked hard at quilting group this morning and now have a total of 22 cupcake blocks completed for the 4th bushfire comfort quilt.

Yesterday I went to the local H & M shop to buy single doona covers at $5 and $10. This soft cotton fabric is perfect for backings, sashings, bindings and it works out at $1.25 per metre or $2.50 per metre. 

This is how the first pieces joined, and I don't normally use black, but it works really well with these blocks.

And this pretty print arrived in the mail. It was a preorder fabric, and now I have time to make something in time for Easter.

And lastly, here is our second kinder painting. What do you see?

Busy week!

It's been my son's first week in kindergarden, and what does a mother do to distract herself from the separation, especially when he is the one with separation anxiety at morning dropoff?

She joins quilt group for the second day in a row. A different store today, I cut out batting, and basted backing onto the back of 22 blocks (need backing for another 13 squares).

It was raining hard, and I needed to stay in town in case the road was cut off from home to the kinder. At least I could pick up my 4yo, even if we couldn't get back home.

But no worries, it did not turn into the monsoon we had last year.

These were the first 2 blocks. Finished and trimmed, and then suddenly it was time to pack up. Unbeknownst to me, the shop was closing at 12 noon, Dang it! I was settling into a full day of sewing!

So i sat down in a shopping centre coffee shop with some hand stitching working on this Raven block.

The first one is not quite finished yet. It just needs berries. These blocks are huge, about 50cm square, so they are coming together quite quickly because they are so large.

And at night I sat and stitched a whack of cupcake blocks. This is what they look like untrimmed.

The cupcake fabric is being used in most blocks (if not all), and is the one that will tie these scrappy blocks together.

And finally, here is my boy's first kinder painting. What do you see?

Flower Fairy children's quilt

Quilt number three for the year, and number three for the bushfire quilts drive is complete.

 Oh! These blocks were so fast to make! Now I understand why they are so popular for making quilts to be donated! Quilting them at the same time as constructing means less stitching to do.

And they are strong, pretty, and use up your scrappy pieces because the strips are diagonal, so you can always find something the right size, even for a small corner.

This is my 3rd completed quilt for the bushfire recovery quilt drive.

I am particularly making children's quilts, because I feel the trauma of the bushfires will impact their lives significantly, and these quilts may bring comfort for an entire lifetime. I recently heard of a 6 year old boy overly concerned with having the wrong shoes or clothes on when the bushfire returns, and I don't think a child should have to be thinking that constantly.

You can join the Oz Comfort Quits bushfire quilt drive. You can join the facebook group at this page here. 

The rains are here

It's suddenly cooler here in Townsville, and the rash on my body is subsiding! Woohoo!

The centre panel on the flower fairy has been quilted. I placed this tea towel as part of the backing, because I do not know where this quilt will end up within Australia, and I wanted the person to know that up here, we have been thinking of them.

This is where the panel joins sides.

I have finished the entire top, just the binding to go.

As I was saying, the rains have set in, and we spent the morning running around the yard collecting what we don't want to wash away, weighing down items or moving them to higher ground.

Tomorrow school and kindy are supposed to start. If the rain eases up overnight we should make it to both on time in the morning.

Another large quilt finished

Ah, this Dick and Jane quilt is so magical! I have placed the motifs in multi directions so it doesn't matter which way it is placed on a bed or couch, it will be just right.

This is what I got when I asked the beloved to turn it around for a photo of the back. Hahahaha. He cracks me up!

And the label for the quilts has bene provided following Jan's directions.

To join these blocks, you can see a strip on the back also, I used a 2 inch strip folded in half on the front and a 1 inch strip on the back using quarter inch seams to join the blocks.

No reduction in size of the blocks, they are all butted against each other.


And what's this?

Well, it turns out that those strips really are the absolute fastest way to get a quilt together, and i have been doing rounds, and basting all these blocks and centring them. Gah.

The first 2 rows of the flower fairy QAYG are also made, and with a panel in the centre of this one, it shouldn't be too long until its finished.

Oops

Oops! That's the word I use when I go to the quilt shop to buy 2 cans of spray baste for the next Oz Comfort Quilt drive, and I come away with these fabrics. 

Yess... they were a bargain... and oh so pretty! But goodness, really did I have to buy enough for a QAYG quilt and one for us as well? I do love them so much... 2 panels, and what a stunning quilt they will make!

Ssssshhhh.. I will make the rest out of scraps, I promise!

Another little finish

Progressing on the Dick and Jane QAYG as my second quilt for bushfire recovery... it's taking quite a long time to baste, quilt, and trim these blocks... But I have about half the quilt assembled now...

So I took a break to make these gorrgeous magickal creature altar cloth

There is so much to love, from it's Egyptian eye, and horn on the 3rd eye, to the mushroom type plants in the picture.