FWQ February blocks ...

I've made all the blocks for the month of February in the Farmer's Wife Quilt sow-a-long on Randy's blog.  Used a consistant background and a variety of recycled shirt fabrics.  The nice thing about this project is because there are 111 blocks involved, I found I didn't have to stress too much about each one looking fabulous in it's own right, they will blend into a whole as the project progresses :)

Farmer's Wife quilt ...

Sorry to hit you with 3 posts all in one day, but I wanted to catch up with where I'm at!!

I follow Bonnie Hunter's blog and she recently posted about starting the Farmer's Wife Quilt (FWQ).  Bonnie said that Randy was hosting a quilt-a-long on her blog for the FWQ where she would be helping people who didn't want to use the templates the FWQ book used, but rotary cut their pieces.  Bonnie is doing her version in shirts with a bright tangerine as the background!  I've never done a sampler quilt before and the idea of joining a sew-a-long to do this one appealed to me.  I wanted to use a consistant background on this one and, after a rummage in my stash, found an ivory with a subtle tan spot to use as the background.  This will be a long term project (6 blocks a month) and will be ALL FROM STASH :)

Bali Sea Star update ...

The blocks for this quilt are all made.  They need stitching together and I need to decide if I want to add a border or leave them going right to the edges, so at the moment they sit on my design wall, waiting :)

Stamped cards ...

Can't believe it has been over a week since I last posted.  It's not as if I haven't been busy, so here's some cards I created with Hobby Art stamps - Anna's Collection Just for You.  The backgrounds are all random colours washed onto watercolour card, then stamped images added.  The greetings are from seperate sets - the circular one from Mixed Sentiments by Paula Pascual and the 'Happy Birthday' by Clarity Stamps.

Monkey Business Finished.

Here it is bound and finished.  I used a much lighter colour for the binding than I usually do, but I think it suits this quilt.  Pattern by Kim Brackett in "Scrap Basket Surprises" :)

Monkey Business Quilting ...

The brushed cotton was washed and ready to be the backing ... I just needed to decide what pattern to quilt.  I knew I wanted something curvy and something easy.  I browsed through books, I looked at stored inspiration, then I started searching online and I came upon Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project.  Now, I have seen this site before, but hadn't really explored it fully - WOW what a resource and not just the 365 quilting patterns, but lots of tips and tutorials too!!  I decided to use the delightfully titled "Stomach Lining" and here it is quilted, although I don't think I'll be sharing it's official name with the recipient of the quilt :)

Oops ...

I was happily sewing on my new project and I realised that I had gotten a little carried away in my desire to use up all the terracota/orange fabrics.  I used almost all of them to cut the pieces for this quilt, totally forgetting that I planned to do a scrappy terracota/orange binding on my Orca Bay.  Oops!!!  A quick scrabble through my pre-cut strip bins (I have a modified version of Bonnie Hunter's scrap users system) and I think I've found enough to do it.  I didn't want to have to buy new fabric just for a binding and I think I'll be alright, but it was a close run thing :)