January Bee blocks and your money saving tips in action

These are my bee blocks for Jen this month. I finally got in the swing of making them and got some great tips from Melissa who has made her own tutorial. Thanks Melissa! Lets hope next months blocks wont take me as long now I know what I'm doing :-)



So, lets talk backing. I just LOVE Kona cotton but its so expensive to use as backing. A large single quilt would cost me around £45 to back and this Kingsize 100% cotton sheet was a mear £13 from tescos. I have taken all your advice and stuck to a sheet where the thread count is uder 200. Initially, I planned to get one from Ikea having read about the Dvala bed sheets they sell but I was really disappointed with the colour and quality. Ikeas version of white looks more nearer cream to me. This one from Tescos is as white as Kona white, looks and feels so much better.

I will let you know how I get on when I use it:-)

my lame attempts at the FMQ Challange

So one of my resolutions for the new year is to get better at free motion quilting. This months practice design is this leaf motif. Ok so my version looks more like hearts then leaves.

First, I practiced the design on paper (I am clearly not at artist):

Then I attempted on a quilt sandwich....WARNING this image may make your eyes bleed at its ugliness:

It pains me to put this on my blog BUT this is my first attempt and if I want to see improvement, I'm going to have to a keep a record.

Come on over to sewcalgal if you want to join in.

My sewing room, picnik and a winner

As promised, here is a picture of my sewing table that my husband has modified. I cant wait to quilt a large quilt on this table to see how smooth everything flows. If you want to do something similar to your table, there are some pointers here.



Whilst I'm giving you a tour (and the sewing room is unusually tidy) here is where I keep my fabric. The bottom drawer is where all my fat quarters and larger fabric pieces live. I'm very careful not to let this get out of control. Apart from anything else, my house just isn't big enough to have a huge stash.

The next drawer up is my scrap drawer, up from that, one of my batting scrap drawers and the top drawer is where I keep all my interfacings, adhesives and spray baste.

The fabrics on the shelf are all the mens shirts and tops I have cut up for my friends memory quilt.



To the left is my design wall, perfect for auditioning fabrics and swopping around blocks.



and finally, this is one of my shelves. There are normally loads of books on this shelf but I'm looking for some inspiration and they are all next to my bed.

I'm hoping to add a bit of character to the room before the end of the year, but as it remains messy most of the time I thought I would keep it relatively clutter free for now.

Moving on, I have to say, Im really sad about Picnik going. Since I began blogging, I've used it a lot to tidy up my images so I really hope that whatever Flickr decideds to switch to will eventually have just as many features. Although I have already heard on the grapevine that it will be very basic which is a huge shame. Will you be editing your pictures elsewhere from now on? If so, where?. Are there any other free sites you can recommend for me to edit my photos?

Thanks so much for giving me your thrifty quilt tips. There were loads of great tips and idea there, all of which, I will be using in future to help me save money.

The random number generator has spoken and the winner of the Christmas fabric scraps is:

no 27 - Archie the Wonder dog!

Well done! I'm thrilled to have you win. Your frequent comments and constant support has meant so much to me. Please email me with your address details and Ill get them out to you asap.

:-)

New things happening

First up, I have completed the first 6 blocks for the bust yo! scraps quilt along. I've enjoyed seeing my scraps being used up and all the space its created in my scrap drawer.

I have also been busy recreating my sewing room. You might remember a while ago we had a conservatory fitted which I had hoped would be a lovely bright place for me to sew. Sadly, the hot summers and cold winters make this impossible and I was terrified that the cold would affect my machine what with all the condensation it accumalates.

So I'm back in the spare room but its had a bit of a revamp. The double bed has now moved to my daughters room as she has outgrown her toddler bed, and my wonderful hubby has cut a hole in my desk so that my machine can lie flush with the work top. If anyone has seen the video on utube about quilting ergonomics you will understand how important it is to have your work station at the right height so you dont get all sort of aches and pains in your back which I was getting before the home made sewing table.

I was unable to find a fold out table with adjustable legs (that would adjust to the recommended height) in this country. So a hole in my desk was the way to go.

I'm delighted with the results and saved myself some money in buying a cabinet. I now have loads of room for peicing and quilting larger quilts. I will update you with a photo on Monday.

I have also been asked to join a quilting bee, which is something I've been wanting to try this year. Plus, this one involves paper peicing which is on my new years resolution list.

This is my test block:



I would love to say it was easy peasy but I found it all a bit backwards and awkward. The trickiest part is making sure the fabric is orientated the correct way so that when you flip the fabric the right way it covers the part that it needs to. Lots of unpicking and restitching but I have until the 15th February to complete the six blocks so I hope to have it down by then. I have worked out my fabric measurements for each peice to make it easier and am also peicing one part of the block on all six planes first so I remember where to align the fabrics for the next plane. I have no idea if I'm doing it right but it seems to look right when its completed!

Theres still time to enter my giveaway, if you havnt already done so, I've loved hearing about all your money saving sewing and quilting tips which I will definitely use. I will draw a winner on Monday morning.

Thrifty Quilt Tips :Giveaway

Oooh look at me, two posts in one day!

Remember me gloating about how I finally got round to sorting my scraps?

What I failed to mention was that I hadnt sorted out my Christmas fabrics, and seeing as I didnt use many Christmas fabrics this year I thought I would give some away.

There are fat quarters, scraps, some large some smaller. and I think some half yard fabrics included aswell, basically everything thats in the picture above.

I can foresee myself making a few quilt tops over the next few months but not being able to finish them. Whilst the festivities are now over, its left a huge dent in my bank balance so purchasing things like batting and backing fabrics is going to have to sit on the back burner for a while... But I dont want it to!!

Most of the battings I use are 100% cotton, as are my backings and whilst I've seen sheets and blankets in stores like Ikea and Primark I've always been a little warey of using them in my projects.

What I want to know is; what have you had success with? I would love to know exactly what YOU use in your quilts to save money. If you use sheets for backing then which ones?/where from? I would also like to know if anyone uses anything other then official quilt batting for their quilts and what sort of results they have had when quilting them.

If you dont make quilts thats ok you can still enter the giveaway. I'm quite keen to learn how to make my money go further when sewing anything! so any tips on anything sewing related will do.

I have tried to shop in online stores that are cheaper but find that they dont stock everything I want so end up going somewhere more expensive to save on postage costs.

This giveaway is open to anyone whos a follower of mine. To take part just leave a comment with a tip on how you save money when making a quilt. For an extra entry please mention this giveaway on your blog and come back and tell me you did.

One comment will be chosen at random and the winner notified by email. So please remember to include an email address in your entry if you dont have one on your blog.

TTFN

Dana x

Bust Yo! scraps quilt along

Because I cant begin without a picture, these are my peices all cut and ready for the Bust Yo! scraps QAL going on at Just a Bit Frayed. Which is coincidental as my scraps are certainly just a bit frayed. Forgive me, but I have had some of them for a long time and they have not so neatly been stuffed stored away.

My scrap heap is thankful as I have now stored my remaining scraps neatly (all ironed) in zip lock bags and colour coordinated. AND I'm no longer arguing with my scrap drawer which wouldn't close.(go me!)

This QAL arrive just in time as getting rid of those scraps was on my To Do list this year. That, and I thought the Bust Yo! scraps button would look cool on my blog :-). This will be my first QAL so I'm just sticking with a baby quilt.

There's still time to join in, as the first tutorial begins on the 12th January.