WIP Wednesday: the Placemat Finish

I have a finish this week! I started these place mats for my Mum's birthday earlier this year, but I was so busy that I only got to make 4 of them in time.  I finally finished the other 4 this week so that she has a full set of 8.

They have a little band of aqua or green contrast at the base of each place mat, which I think gives some variation to them.  There's 4 each of the green and the aqua, so Mum can either mix them up, or have a matching set of 4.

I also managed to talk her into some outdoor photography!  My love of all things photography definitely comes from Mum (and I love that it is something we still share) so it was really nice to do a little mini photo shoot together.

Next time I visit with her I will take some quilts and get some more shots!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...??

It's been an awfully long time since I blogged. A couple of people from the "real" world have even asked me what's going on over here. Time just got away from me a bit! 

I don't think I even told you all that I broke a bone in my foot! I tripped over and slammed my foot into the bedroom door - yes, I'm THAT girl.. the one who trips over her own feet! All healed now, but that was a week in a moon boot that I didn't need!

The best part is that while the blog has been quiet, I have been busy sewing away.  There has been a finished quilt, a finished top, a cute accessory, I received some swap fabric and have a couple of other quilt designs floating in my head that I have to get down on paper and into fabric :)

Up first a little run through of what I've been up to, but I will be back with more details on each of them later!

Sunset + is now a finished top.  I've basted it and now I just have to decide how to quilt it.  I really love the colours, and want to get it done soon so that it can be my "winter TV quilt".

Square Dance is a finished quilt, I love how the design came out, but I want to do some more quilting in the "negative space" to really make the coloured sections pop.

 

My key ring has been gradually falling apart for weeks, so on ANZAC Day I whipped up a new one.  A number of years ago on Valentine's Day Sir Pinkying took me for a shopping session at my LQS which is when I bought this fabric.  I like to think of it as my "Valentines Keyring"

 Finally, I got very happy mail in the post last week.  I did a swap with Kati over at From the Blue Chair which was a 5 yard rainbow charm swap!  We each sent in 5 yards of fabric in our colour group, and what we got back was 5 yards of charms!

I already have a plan for these - but the drawing out is quite complicated and I haven't quite worked out what size I want to make it yet - but I'll have it sorted out soon.

I'll be back with more later this week!

 

Nicey Girls Finish First

A little while back I showed you this stack of fabrics.  The fabric is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey.  Even though I only just became the proud owner of some of this fabric, but it's actually been around for quite a while.  Just in case you missed them here they are again!

The reason why I wanted needed some Nicey Jane was because of a super cute quilt that I saw over at Simplify (Camille Roskelley's Blog) and after I saw the photo I just HAD to have some! 

Jenn and I went halves in some fat eighths and now we're all ready for our mini challenge.  So here are the rules for the Nicey Girls Finish First mini challenge:
1) All print fabrics for the top and the binding must come from our fat eighth set.
2) The only fabrics we can add are solids
3) No more than 2 solids can be added*
4) The big reveal will be at our quilting group in April (full quilt!)

*I'm pretty sure that it was right around this rule being added that we both ran off to get pull out our Kona colour cards to check our choices!!

I've been kind of planning an idea in my head for a while - so I sort of knew what I wanted to do, although I have amended that slightly since we agreed the rules!  I spent a little time yesterday with these guys

and drew up a block and an overall design.  Here's a sneak peek of the design

anyway - if I'm going to meet this deadline, I better get started!!