Uglies tumbled!

Isn't it amazing what a looming deadline can do to productivity levels? Having cut out my tumblers for the In the Bag Ugly Fabric challenge, my normal activity would include a bit of procrastination and diversionary tactics before knuckling down to finish a quilt. With an end of the month deadline looming and a road trip to France and back to fit in before then the usual activity levels just wouldn't cut it. My sewing machine didn't know what had hit it, the tumblers were pieced before I knew it. Not exactly according to my original layout I have to admit, as the plan got lost in a couple of places with all the twisting of pieces back and forward. With these fabrics though that was never going to be much of a problem :)

I went with echo quilting for all of the tumblers except for the flash of pink which I quilted with a varying horizontal zigzag. The quilt was backed and bound with a plain rust cotton. I had thought of piecing the back but decided that would take up too much of my already limited time.

I have never put together a quilt (even a mini!) in such a short time, so I have definitely learnt that sometimes it is better to just go for it than to spend too much time procrastinating (sorry planning). One other lesson I have learnt from this challenge is that if it says ugly in the title it probably means it :)

I must have had these fabrics on my mind on our recent trip to Helsinki as this shop display took my eye!

Much classier!


It has been a while since I looked at my WIP list so this is what it looks like now

Completed projects

• Shades of Green, Fleur Bleu, Checkered Heart, Orange, Sunflower and Reindeer cushions
• Orphan Block needle roll, Pieced Arc Tea towel, Purse and 
• Padded Hangers, Key/Coin tidy, Babushka backpack and Nautical Pillow tutorials posted
• Sunflower, Sew Happy QAL and In the Bag Ugly Fabric quilts, Play  and Christmas mini-quilt challenge quilt 
• Patchwork Block, Dragon and Fashionista Bags

Ongoing

• 7 blocks of In Color Order HST BOM (1 block behind schedule)
• (Almost) Irish Chain quilt basted
• 9/24 Zakka-style SAL projects completed
• Teatime quilt pieced, backed and basted 
• 5 blocks of NY Beauty QAL completed and fabric cut for remaining 5 blocks
• 14 blocks of Craftsy BOM completed (1 month behind schedule) 
• 10 Summer Quilt Bee blocks completed (on schedule)
• 3 Star of Africa Bee blocks completed and sent (on schedule)

Waiting

• Indigo and violet rainbow cushions
• Last block of Sampler quilt
• Amy Butler bag
• Travelling Pic Stitch Blog Hop project 

Maybe it is not looking so bad after all!  Looking forward to seeing how everyone else is progressing.

Don't forget to check out this week's blogs on the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop and Beth's
great giveaway.

Sep 18
       Lina from Smultronbo's Pieceful
       Chase from 1/4" mark

Sep 20
        Jen from Closet Quilter
        Anna from Pink Padme

Linking up to WIP Wednesday  and We Did it Wednesday

Tumbling Uglies

A long time ago, or so it seems I signed up for the In the Bag Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge and duly received these fabrics in the post for my Challenge.

Well they have been hanging around waiting for inspiration to strike with very little result I have to admit. I have trawled through all of my books and quilting magazines looking for a pattern that might suit such a diverse set of fabrics. I tested lots of patterns in my head but nothing enthused me enough to get out the rotary cutter and start slicing up the fabrics.

I had thought that the final date for submissions of the finished quilts was the end of October so was happy that I still had plenty of time to finally come up with something. Well, you can imagine my horror when I re-read the challenge rules and discovered that the date was the beginning of October not the end! Cue a frantic search for something quick to do as we will be travelling a lot over the next couple of weeks and my time for quilting will be minimal  :)

Out came the EZ Dresden ruler and with the addition of a couple of fabrics from my stash this pile of blades were soon cut up to make a Tumbler quilt.

The rules of the challenge are that I must use 90% of the fabrics in the resulting quilt and this is all that is left of my Ugly Fabric.

Throughout all of my deliberations with this quilt the pink and blue flower fabric (just seen at the bottom left hand of the photo) has been the hardest to work into any arrangement, but I have decided to just go with it and hope it works.

So this is the arrangement I have decided upon.

I am calling it Flash of Pink!

I don't know if I will be able to get the entire quilt finished in time, but certainly hope to have the top pieced at least so that I won't have completely chickened out of the challenge.

Hope you have all had a great weekend.

Linking up to Manic Monday

Bees and Black Cats

The absence of Zakka SAL-related projects in the last couple of months might have led you to believe that I had well and truly fallen off that bandwagon. I would have been inclined to agree with you, until I saw this week's project - the Garland message board. Having already bought dinky pegs with this project in mind and seeing reports from Fiona  and Wendy that it would only take a couple of hours of my time, it seemed a shame not to have a go!

The original project was designed as a sort of shopping list organiser, but my shopping lists are generally way too long to be contained by a few pegs! So I tweaked the board a little to have the bunting spell out a welcome message.

Our son and daughter-in-law are coming out to visit tomorrow, so they have the honour of being the first names attached.

And here it is hanging in the guest room ready for their visit.

The reports were true, it is a really quick project and would, I think, be a nice gift for a new house or baby maybe with the appropriate letters in the bunting. I have missed my Zakka moments (although I haven't missed checking for all the mistakes in the book!), so it was nice to get back into that groove. This is the second last project in the book so being back in the groove will be a short-lived experience. This is the 9th of 24 projects from the book that I have completed, and there are still a couple that I will get around to it at some stage. I don't think I have ever completed that many projects from a single book before, so although I haven't managed all of the projects the SAL has definitely been worth it for me, in terms of getting value out of my book purchase. At times the project a week schedule has been impossible to stick to, but I would definitely join another book SAL in the future, what about you?


Asides from Zakkaing ( the spell checker does not like my new word!) I have also been sewing up and sending Bee blocks before we take on the role of tour guide for our son and daughter-in-law. First up, the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee block colour for September is red, and with my new colour-coded, zip lock scrap system (thanks all for the suggestion!) sorting out the scraps for each block takes no time.

The theme for the Star of Africa Bee block this month was animals. Jen intends to put the blocks together as a book for her children to use for animal spotting on trips to the zoo. My block is not of an exotic animal, however, although there are plenty of those mentioned in the Bee discussions, instead I have produced for Jen a humble Black Cat.

Not just any Black Cat though, the Black Cat of the house of the same name in Riga Old Town. The legend goes that a wealthy merchant sought to join the Great Guild of Riga and was rejected by the worthy citizens. Being a wealthy merchant though, the man (surprise, surprise!) did not take kindly to this rejection and as his house was directly opposite the Great Guild hall, took an unusual form of revenge for the snub. He placed a statue of a Black Cat on top of the tower nearest the Guild Hall, with the rear of the Cat facing the Hall. You can imagine the reaction of the worthy citizens! Several years and a lawsuit later the wealthy merchant was admitted to the Guild and the Black Cat statue was turned to provide a more fitting view for the Guild members!

And here it is! You can see why the view from the back might have upset the worthy citizens :)

Linking up to TGIFF and BOM's away

Hope you all have a great weekend.