Star Light Star Bright Half Square Triangles : :

The next assignment we have been given in the Happy Quilting Quilt-a-Long, is the half square triangles.  Nearly there!! YAY!!

I cant wait for the next assignment! My favourite part about quilting is putting the blocks together. I changed the layout ever so-slightly that Melissa gave us. I really hope it turns out well!

Something that I have never done before I started following Melissa's blog, is trim my half square triangles. As you can see above, most of them have been trimmed, but some haven't (I will remedy that before I sew them into the blocks!). Since the first time I trimmed them with her last quilt-a-long I have always trimmed them!

I'm always surprised that no matter how carefully I cut, and how precise I try to be with my 1/4 inch seam, they are nowhere near perfect!! Trimming not only makes them the perfect size, but gets rid of those annoying dog ears, that get in the way when sewing the blocks together!

If you want tips on how to trim your half-square triangles, Melissa has a fantastic tutorial over on her blog.

Jessica

Flying in Formation : :

After all the renovating work we have done this last week, (we have removed 3 walls, painted the exterior, and put some of the new timber floor down) I decided that I wanted to play with some fabric I've been dying to use for about 6 months now!

Its an organic cotton called Tsuru, and I really love the oriental feel it has! Ive been hoarding it for long enough now! Its time to bring it out so I can use it!
I chose a BEAUTIFUL linen for the background! Its really really nice and I think it lends itself to the oriental, natural feel I'm going for.

I was going to be really boring and just copy a quilt design that I saw recently, which IS nice, but I decided to go out on a limb and take my first stab at designing my own.

I wanted to keep the design simple, and not overly crowded.
After trying out a few different designs on paper, I have decided on this one :

Or something like this one anyway! I really enjoyed making all those flying geese last week, and I still want to make more.

I'm going to call my quilt 'Flying in Formation'. (Is it weird to name a quilt before its even made?)

If it turns out any good perhaps I'll even write the pattern up and share it here on my blog.

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Flying Geese : :

The next step in the Star Light Star Bright quilt-along is the flying geese. I love love love the way Melissa does hers. I do them this way every time.
However everything was combining against me making these flying geese last night!
After first realising that I had done all my cutting wrong last week,  re-cutting everything, sewing my fabric together the wrong side down, then having to unpicking it all and sew them again, I finally have my super-sized flying geese to show for all that frustration! (I was seriously thinking of just giving up on this quilt-along...for like half a second. So glad I didn't!)
So here they are....flying in formation!

I am LOVING these colours. SO fresh and lovely.
Be proud of me. Seriously. I did all of my trimming by torch light last night after the power went off for 8ish hours! Pretty much as soon as I had finished ironing my last 'goose', off it went. Thank heavens I didn't need my sewing machine or iron anymore!

Hope next weeks assignment runs a lot smoother than this one!

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Cutting : :

As part of the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long that I've joined I have to post a photo of my weekly process and link it up on the Happy Quilting blog.

I decided to go with the Just Wing It fabric. I also completely changed my mind and I am now making a 2x2 block quilt. Each block will be 40'' x 40''. I'm using Kona white for the background which Im excited about as I don't have any white quilts yet, and I'm hoping it will have a lovely fresh-modern look to it.

So here is my progress thus far...

Last time I did a quilt a long with Happy Quilting, I chose a 4 x 4 block quilt. It looked fantastic, but it was soo much work making 16 blocks. I'm very happy to be making only 4 blocks this time!

Jessica

Reversible Oliver + S Bucket hats : :

One thing that I cant stand about getting the kids ready is looking for things. Hats, shoes, sunglasses, clothes, you name it. On a hot sunny day its nothing short of a miracle if when we leave the house everyone has a hat, sunglasses and thongs.

So as the twins are starting 4 year old kinder this year (where is the world did the first 4 years go?), I decided to save myself the stress of looking for hats and make them a second! If they have two hats each, then Ive just doubled my chances of finding one when I need it, right? fingers crossed...

Yes, my kids are in their pj's. I have been doing loads of sewing lately but not much blogging, so last night I decided to remedy that and got all three of them on the verandah for a few quick snaps.

These hats are super great for children! They have a wide brim and are reversible, which is fun for matching outfits, but lets face it, its also great for turning it the other-way out if they get one side dirty while out and about (which they do).

To make these hats I used the free pattern found here :