Acorn in Canada

Krista has emailed to say my Fall Quilt Swap has arrived. I'm so please that she is thrilled with my quilt and she's taken some lovely photos of it. Her blog is stunning and she makes wonderfull projects so check out Poppyprint now!

Fall Quilt Swap

What a lucky girl I am - look at what the postman brought me! I took part in the Quilting Gallery's Fall Quilt Swap and Michi from Austria sent me this beautiful quilt - I absolutely adore it! The stitchery design is by Ursula Schertz and it so neatly stitched. Michi added hand quilted leaves in the corners and lovely wooden buttons as well as the appliqued leaf. It will take pride of place in my sewing room - thank you Michi! Take a look at Michi's blog too. (this only seems to ne working in IE to day and not in Firefox)

I sent my acorn quilt off to Canada at the beginning of the week - hope the recipient likes it!

It's Finished - well nearly!!

Here it is - the acorn quilt I started last weekend. I've cheated a little because the binding is pinned on the back but I couldn't wait to take a photo of it. I have sooo enjoyed working on it and I'm really pleased with the finished result! I can see me using the layout with the woven sections again using different applique pictures and different colours. It could become a regular thing.....

One Quilt Leads to Another!

My woven quilt sample

It started withsome paper weaving at college before Christmas and then Anne-Marie made some wonderful sample quilts using fabric weaving. She'd used techniques from this book:

 

I went home and put it on my wish list and Santa duly delivered it on Christmas morning. On Friday evening I decided to have a go. The result was the sample above which I was really thrilled with. I decided to use the technique in a slightly larger quilt so set about weaving some more! Here is my progress so far:

I made a larger panel of weaving and cut it into sections to surround the acorn applique. The acorn pattern came from 'You Can Make This'. This morning when I looked at it again I decided it needs something in the corners so I'm now cutting out oak leaves. I'm just making it up as I go along and it's great fun!

Free Projects

I'm back on track this week with my Wednesday Web to bring you links to some great sites which offer free quilt projects. First You Can Quilt This which offers this gogeous table runner design to download and several other free projects too. The site has hundreds of patterns for sale at very reasonable prices which are available as downloads so you don't have to wait for them to be sent in the mail. The sister site You Can Make This has other crafty projects such as children's applique designs, clothing and bags.

Another site with 24 free designs to download is Quilters Online Resource which features designs for applique and piecing. You can subscribe to the site for a year for only $15 and get access to all the beautiful and unusual designs.

Of course bloggers are very generous with their tutorials so I have to mention a couple of my favourite blog projects:

This Rocket Ship design from Don't Look Now is on my to do list for my nephew. Kelly has other fab tutorials too.

Kim has lots of great projects on her blog Bitty Bits & Pieces including this 'Itty Bitty Keeper' which is ideal for my new camera.

Kim has several of her patterns published on Moda Bake Shop too and that is definitely worth a visit. In fact it should keep you busy browsing  for the rest of the day if not the week!!

A Winner and Two Quilts

And the winner is.............

Happy Cottage Quilter!

Congratulations - I'll email your prize details soon.

I'm sorry I can't send everyone a prize but thanks for your comments and for entering the draw - better luck next time!

I kept busy at the weekend finishing my rag quilt with the flannel squares with fringing cut on the Go cutter. Here it is:

I'm pretty pleaserd with it although I realised part way through I'd originally planned to have this side as the back! Oh well no-one else will know I got it wrong will they? Here's the back:

 

 

 I also finished a UFO started last year. This is going to Project Linus and I just decided to add another row of blocks before quilting very simply and binding.

 

This project was great for using up scraps of bright fabrics and should have been quick to make if I hadn't put it aside part way through. Still 2 finishes aleady this year can't be bad!! 

 

I am determined to make better use of my time this year and try to spend a little time on the sewing machine each evening after work. This week I'm sewing together the apple core blocks I cut last week and they are going together nicely. I'll post a photo of my progress later in the week. So I'd better go get busy.........

New Year Giveaway - The Quilt Show Subscription

Yesterday I renewed my membership of The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson and, as a bonus, they sent me a free 6 month gift membership voucher to give to a friend. So this is my first giveaway of 2010. If you haven't already subscribed to The Quilt Show and would like to try it for 6 months then leave  comment on this post and I'll enter you into the draw. I'll be picking the winner on Monday 4th January so you only have this weekend to enter!

The subscription will enable you to view all the shows in series 6 of the online TV shows featuring the following quilters:

Jan 4:     Jinny Beyer
Jan 18:   Carol Doak
Feb 1:     Karla Alexander/Gayle Hillert
Feb 15:   Linda Taylor
Mar 1:      Kate Cox
Mar 15:   Philippa Naylor
Mar 29:   Rami Kim
Apr 12:    Pat Holly/Jennifer Forest
Apr 26:    Bonnie Browning/Judy Woodworth
May 10:   Cynthia England

There are also loads of good things to browse through on the Quilt Show website. Some of the good stuff is also available free to non-subscribers who join the site as members so if you haven't visited before click here

Remember the giveaway finishes on Monday so leave a comment below to have a chance of winning!