Blocks and Bees...

 The rushed end to 2011 got in the way of me finishing the November block for the Canton Village Bloggers BOM. ...Eeek.... I didn't want to get behind because I know it would be too easy to just let it go...Then the December block came out...gadzooks...two block behind..
Never fear, Summer holidays, hot day, airconditioned room, cricket on TV and at Marisew's place...the perfect sewing catch-up day...

November Block

December Block

 The first 4 month's blocks all done...

I think I might do two of each now to make a bigger quilt top, because, some how, quite a few more metres of Saffron Craig fabrics made it into my stash over Christmas...

ONLINE SEWING BEE

I've joined in with my very first online sewing bee - Sew & Bee Happy

FluffySheepQuilting is first off the mark in January, with a block from the Modern Blocks book (and I now have this book - thanks to my in-laws who have learnt to tolerate my obsession passion...)

 I was a bit scared when I first saw Stargazing and wondered if I could actually make something presentable and accurate enough to send off to someone else.

Cindy kindly told me not to worry, telling me to have a practice go and see how easy it really is

...so with nothing to lose and everything to gain,

and a very persuasive excuse to hide away in the sewing room, 

I cut up some scraps...

pieced the baby star...ok that's not so bad... 

 pieced the middle sized star...quite happy with this...

  and finally the Mumma star...block all done!

I had three little 'wrestles' with the unpicker...drats! 

Cindy, I almost made it through the whole block!

I did notice that I need to be careful trimming the block back and remembering to use the white block as the as the template for trimming, not the bits the star arms are made of...

I get to keep this one, but I'm a lot more confident that when Cindy's parcel arrives, I'll be able to knock out one or two of these little babies pretty quickly...
Since my turn isn't till August, I've plenty of time to work out what I should choose...I'm thinking I'll pick a block that would suit a quilt for the BaTH (Boy about The House)...in the mean time I've got a few more Bloggers BOM blocks to make...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Clever?...blogtoberfest Day 23

Not Clever:

and it took me one and a half sides to realise the binding was on the wrong way!

Clever:

I did redeem myself by doing a nice mitred join at the end of the binding!...when I finally had it on the right way.

The finished swap ready to be posted tomorrow:

Not Clever:

I thought I'd be very clever and use a nice stiff pellon to line this bag

however, the sewing machine protested and the tension was all over the place...

All the seams have white or blue threads showing ( I tried to go over the white with blue...even bigger disaster!)

and the pattern wouldn't join up at the sides (but I cleverly took the photo so you can't see the ugly thread showing through!)

Pellon and threads...not one of my most clever choices...I'll use the bag, cause I won't really care about the stitching...but now I need to start again for the person it was meant for...

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...