Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2013 Last Saturday for March and Orange

Happy Easter to you all!   It is the last Saturday for Orange and by the skin of my teeth (do teeth have skin?) I finished my blocks for this challenge.

Here they are:

First up my little orange cross blocks (does anyone know their proper name?)  

Here is how they look together with the last two months’ blocks:  Can you see the mistake I made with the orange cross blocks?

After seeing Linda’s wonderful D4P quilt here which she finished recently I thought I would make extra D4Ps to go with the ones I made last year so I would have a bigger quilt.  So I made a couple more orange ones and a couple of neutral ones.  I need to make extra pink and purple to catch up.

Also looking orangy-ish  is the long wash cloth for my DH who’s birthday it is today.   I was up until 3am last night getting it finished!  It is done with Tunisian crochet and I’ve mixed up the stitches a little.  I had no pattern I just made it up as I went along  played.   It is very stretchy.   DH likes long cloths and usually uses bar towels.  It has orange, yellow and dark red in it and is about 24 x 7 inches.

Lastly, a picture of my bunny Princess Penelope:

I think that’s it for now :)  Pop over to Soscrappy and see what everyone else has done for their last Orange Saturday. 

Have a great weekend!!

Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday (a little late)

Here are my ‘Aqua’ offerings for this week’s Rainbow Scrappy Saturday.

First up my Aqua D4Ps which I just finished sewing today:

I really, really, really, LOVE these in this colour.  I think they have to be my favourite.   Also, I feel an aqua quilt may need to be considered at some point for my bedroom.

Next up is a ‘here’s one I done earlier’ mainly aqua quilt.

I made this a few years back as part of another challenge.  There was a bundle of fabrics to be used in it.  All except the orange/red which I added for contrast.  The design is my own which I made in EQ.  It is hand quilted.   I feel this would have been better had I made it smaller.

I may have then got it finished in time for the end of the challenge, LOL.

If you’d like to see more aqua offerings then hop on over to Soscrappy’s blog here.

I have a couple more posts I will be making sometime this coming week.  So I’ll leave you with one picture of a bunny and his poops.

Meet Rex and his poop friends Oopsie and Poopsie.   Flat Bonnie plushies.   My DD bought these for my birthday which was yesterday.   They are so cute!  20% of the sales of these went to Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation. 

Every good bunnymom/dad will know that bunny poops are so very important in indicating the health of a bunny.  If they become very small or bunny stops producing them then something is up and you need to get bunny to a vet asap!   So they are VIPPs.

Okay, my dear readers I will be back soon so stay tuned ;)

Happy Stitching!

Ellyx

Last Rainbow Scrappy for July and Blue

By the skin of my teeth!  Here are my D4Ps in blue for the month of July:

Not a lot to show for July but between learning EQ and gardening when it’s fine I don’t seem to have done much stitching!

To see what everyone else has been doing with their blue scraps go take a look on Angela’s Soscrappy blog  here .

I gathered my little crop of blackcurrants before the birds got them this year.  Here they are in a small blue colander:

Quite a yield!!  One whole cup full! LOL… They are in the freezer and will get used together with some Bramley apples for a pie one day.

To close here is a picture of our very first bunny Rabbi.  She came to live with us one day when my DS Lewis turned up at the door with her followed by her hutch, which his pal was carrying.  It was nearly Lewis’ 14th birthday and despite being told no pets… he had other ideas.  Lewis’ pal’s mum had decided that since her son wasn’t taking care of Rabbi properly that she could be given to Lewis as a birthday present.  When we took her to be neutered (thinking she was a he) we discovered that she was female.  She came with the name Rabbi and she lived until she was about 10 and was Biscuit’s bunwife.  Sadly she passed away a few years back now.  Although she came into our home as Lewis’ bunny she very much ended up as my bunny.  RIP little one.

Hope everyone is fine and having a good summer.

I’m going to go do some EQ now and catch up on the lessons from Quilt University.  Or I may sew some more ;)

hugs

Elly

Rainbow scrappy Saturday

The new colour for this month is BLUE so I’ve been playing with my blue scraps this past week.   I haven’t managed to sew much but I have caught up with my Building Houses and have finished the neutral and yellow ones I started last week and also made my blue one for this month.  So at least I’m caught up with one project… my Rainbow Scrappy Building Houses  :O)

Anyway here they are:  First up my new blue one

and my completed Neutral and Yellow ones:

 

And here they are altogether so far:

Also, I have a charity shop find to show you.  As it happens it too is blue :)

A plate from The Spode Blue Room Collection  “Georgian Series” called Floral.  This is a reproduction but this design was first introduced in c1830.   I love Blue Spode!! So when I saw it I knew it just had to come home with me :)  At £6 I thought it was a steal.

Finally, I just have to show you a cute picture of Mila.  The bunny which DD found in a cardboard shop outside the shop where she works, just before Christmas.   DD keeps her in her room and she is her bunny.  

She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her little mouf but she’s a wee rascal.  She has just discovered that she can jump onto DDs bed, even though she is tiny.  She may have been abandoned but she certainly landed on her feet when DD found her and brought her home.

If you’d like to see what everyone else has done for their first Blue Saturday go to Soscrappy’s blog here

 

Have a good weekend,

Happy Stitching!

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy sort of and a day late

We’ve been back from holiday/vacation for a week now and I’ve still got a lot of catching up to do.

This month’s Rainbow Scrappy colour is purple.  Yummy :)  yet I’ve still to play with my purples and I still have a yellow house block to make from last month, not to mention several BOMs to catch up on, LOL…   Anyway, here are a few finishes I managed before I went off.

First up, I finished the crochet edging on DD’s doll’s quilt.  I learned quite a lot during this process and if I try it again I will certainly know better.  If anyone would like to have a go at this, Heidi of Speckless blog shows you here. (part 1, 2 follows on from that)

While visiting mum, I finished off her crochet cover for her foot stool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a “make it up as you go along” project.  First I did a granny square for the top and then using SC (DC UK) I proceeded to turn it into a cube shape.   However, I got a bit fed up with the SC so near the bottom I changed the pattern and did what I thought I remembered from the lacy pattern on the doll quilt. The yarn from this was from a very old poncho that had seen better days.  It was at least 40years old ;)

Another project that bites the dust is an apron made from an old dress which belonged to mum.  Here is a picture of the old dress and the new apron.   Another “make it up as you go along” project for me as I am not a dress maker and hadn’t much of a clue of how to do most of this.  There was a lot of frog stitching in this apron, but, I learned a lot during the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is more of this dress left to use but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything just yet.

Okay, so I’m behind on a number of BOMs and in particular on Kathleen Tracy’s Quilt a Month challenges.  I still have to finish March’s baskets and to start April’s and May’s challenges.   And yet, I’ve made a start on October’s challenge which hasn’t yet begun.   Can you make any sense of that?  But I am enjoying the process.   The challenge for October will be the little hexagon flower quilt in Kathy’s book “The Civil War Sewing Circle”.  The size of the hexagon is .6 of an inch and I did start to make the templates from card stock with the aid of a hexagonal graph paper pdf generator from Incompetech.com  here.   However, as I was cutting out the templates I got to thinking about the fabric and how I was going to cut those.  I thought about printing out the Inklingo .5 hexagon shape onto the fabric and perhaps using those to squeeze around the template.   Then I wondered what on earth I was thinking!

To cut a long story short, I’ve printed out a heap of .5 hexagons with the Inklingo collection and will be hand piecing those, minus the card templates and making the blocks to fit them.  After all what’s in 1/8th of an inch?  Not a lot at the end of the day.  My quilt will be a tad smaller that’s all and the prep time cut in more than half.

Anyway, here is a mock up of the pieces I’ve printed and cut so far, placed over the background fabric I plan to use… unless DD manages to change my mind since she doesn’t like the brown background.  But the quilt is not for her.  There won’t be as much background as it appears here.  Oh and the picture doesn’t show the true colours on my screen but there are a few purples in this ;)

To end my post, here is a picture of Biscuit cuddling up to Penny.  They finally bonded!  I missed the moment Penny gave Biscuit a thorough grooming of his back end (which he can’t manage for himself because of his lameness).

He’s becoming quite frail now but still has a lot of spirit in him and can some how manage to get down 3 steps and up another to go onto the lawn to munch the grass and weeds very quickly.  He’s on pain meds for arthritis.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  If you’d like to see what all the other Rainbow Scrappers have been up to, go take a look here on Angela of Soscrappy’s blog.

Happy Stitching!

Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday but not so happy with some sad news.

The good news is that I finished my neutral table runner for one of my Rainbow Scrappy challenges.

I did all by machine, except the mitred corners on the binding which I hand stitched down.  I was brave and did a stipple over the whole quilt and machined down the binding using a decorative stitch.   My DD took this photo with her ‘new’ camera.

I also made a little progress on my poncho CAL from Le Monde de Sucrette’s blog. Pictured here in my garden over a conifer.  It actually looks bigger than it is and more pink than it is.

The sad news is that one of my bunnies, Malachi, past away this past week.  He had become ill last weekend but did not recover :(   Here he is in a picture, taken a few years ago, with his misses Chichi.

Malachi is the black bunny.  R.I.P. bonnie lad you will be greatly missed by all of us but especially by your love Chichi.

Bunny hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday on Easter Sunday :)

Happy Easter to everyone and everybun!!

This month’s colour for the Rainbow Scrappy is Neutrals.   This is quite a challenge but I’m hoping to meet it.   I’ve collected together all my neutral scraps smaller than 1/8th yard (plus a couple of rough 1/8ths I had to steal from a couple of bigger pieces) and cut them into 5inch squares and strips and also 2and half inch pieces…. leftovers were cut to 2” if possible and the remainder lumped together in a plastic box.

I selected 8 different 5” squares to make my D4Ps to go with the others.  Then I selected 12 5” squares to make another project with.  This project will be amalgamating two different challenges.  One challenge is to make a quilt to the theme of a song, the other to try out a new ruler, and of course to meet with the Neutral Challenge for April.

Here is a picture of the 5” squares.A mix of beige, tan, taupe and greys.  

With some of the scrappier pieces, those smaller than 2” pieces, I will be making my neutral house to go with the others.

Here is a small quilt I finished in the last couple of weeks but haven’t posted a picture of yet.  It’s the Quilt of the Month for Kathleen Tracy’s yahoo group Small Quilt Talk.  The challenges are also posted on her blog.   This one is from the February challenge.

It is currently hanging just above my sewing table.   Now if I could just make some decisions about border fabrics I could complete the one for March before embarking on the challenge for April which is pretty cute too.

Well I had better go and get another Dear Jane block made before the day has gone.   Now which bunny shall I leave you with this week. hmmm…

Here is Chichi, taken a while ago, sitting on my windowsill thinking she’s a cat not a rabbit.  Clearly her mother didn’t tell her that bunnies don’t like heights!  She jumped up there from a footstool, just below the window, out of shot.  

Enjoy these next few weeks of Easter!!

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday and so on and so forth.

I haven’t done much sewing this past week for a real contribution to Rainbow Scrappy Saturday.  I’ve done a little crochet but not much sewing. 

If you’d like to see what others have done this past week for their Rainbow Scrappy challenge this week go to Soscrappy’s blog here.

However, I do have some pictures to share with you this last Saturday of the month :)  Some are pink too ;)

First pink related item 2 blue bowls/dishes purchased at a local charity shop for £1, sitting on my April Calendar quilt.

Next up, same wallhanging with another charity shop find:

  

 

 

 

 

 

A little heart shaped crocheted container.  It was only 50pence!!  I couldn’t leave it on the shelf.

Next find is a little cut glass candle holder plate for £1:

These were all bought on my day out with DD on Tuesday.  I thought a couple of them would make great pincushion bases.  The small blue glass bowl and the cut glass one.  Now as to when I’ll do these well… LOL.

Here’s a clear picture of the April Wallhanging (revisited) ready to put up above my sewing table tomorrow.

Now I did accomplish something yesterday evening.  I added sashings to the first row blocks of my Dear Jane and sewed them together :)

The row is so wide it extended beyond the width of my design wall where I pinned it up on to take the picture:

This should be clickable for a bigger picture.

I’m hoping I can keep this up and stitch rows together as I complete them.

Oh there is one more thing that I sewed up this week.   It was DH’s birthday yesterday but he really didn’t want much except he had asked me to make him a simple coin bag…. a very simple coin bag.  He even told me what fabric he wanted it in…. plain old heavy weight muslin. AND he also told me how to go about making it LOL… speak about telling your granny how to suck eggs!!!  Oh well I humoured him.  However, I drew the line at an absolutely boring plain bag and added a little machine embroider and his name. ;))

He has now caught up with me in age :))

Finally, I can’t leave without showing you a picture of our black bunny Malachi aka Bun Bun.  He is such a sweetie and as daft as a brush :

This is a picture taken just the other day in the garden… when we had summer visit us.  He is Chichi Bun’s Husbun.

 

That’s all for now ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday, yarn and a bunny

Good afternoon from sunny north Scotland.   Unusual weather for this time of year but I’m not complaining. 

I’ve not done a lot of stitching this past week as I’ve been called by fabric’s rival yarn to join in with  Sucrette’s Granny Poncho CAL.

It’s taken me all week to figure out colours and positions of them and I’ve had a couple of false starts and pull outs…

Anyhoo!  Here is the one pink thing I sewed up this week… a pink Dear Jane block.

G-3 Four Leaf Clover

BUT!  I do have one pink finished quilt which hasn’t yet been shown as finished.   I finished her way back in January but forgot to post a picture to my blog. 

  Chawton Cottage design by Tilde 

I love this little quilt and she sits on my coffee table so I can see her every day.   Thank you Tilde for the great pattern and the charm pack to make her using Jane Austen collection of Inklingo.  I hand stitched the pieced diamonds while at my mum’s so there is a memory of that time in this quilt.

Now I wonder if you’re wondering about the diversion to yarn?  I have pictures.  Do you want to see?  Well if you do then here they are ;)

My yarn.  King Cole Merino Blend DK 100% wool…. anti tickle ;)

My DD helped me sort out the colour order and I think I’m now happy with it.  Here is a picture of the first few rows:

That’s all for now, however, I can’t leave this post without a picture of Biscuit my oldest bunny who is nearly 11 years old (this July) but has been a little off his food.  He was at the vet yesterday and has medication to hopefully get him eating properly again. However, if this doesn’t work then I’ll have to take him back.  He may need a dental but the vet is reluctant because of his age.  He did look at his teeth but couldn’t see too much that may be bothering bunny though there were a couple of small spurs.  Fingers crossed he’ll start eating.

Biscuit Bun   

Well that’s me for today.  Now should I sew, crochet or go out and do a tiny bit of gardening?  Hmmm…  Maybe I’ll have another coffee while I think about it ;)

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Quilty Hugs

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy Saturday

A little late this week but here are my updates on March’s Pink Challenges.

I’ve finished the 4 pink Disappearing 4 patch blocks for my Rainbow Scrappy project :

Here is a picture of how they fit in with the green and red blocks from January and February:

I also completed another house for my hamlet ;)  in pink:

and here it is with the other housies:

 And to add to my pink collection for this month I also completed a Dear Jane block last Sunday which was in pink :

C-7 Megan’s Mountain Laurel

Finally, for this picture laden post, here is a picture of Chichi and Malachi (black one).    “Bunny Love”

Going to go and finish another Dear Jane block now and maybe get to a ufo.

Happy Mother’s Day! (It is here in the UK)

Ellyx

Rainbow Scrappy 2012

I finally got my green Mug Rug completed and I’ve put away my green scraps and fished out my Pink ones :)   I hope to make 4 D4P blocks and a pink house this month..   Also, I have a repair/operation to perform on DDs pink teddy which she’s had since she was 2!  She is made out of a shell type synthetic fabric (remember those shell suits that were all the rage way back in the 80s/90s) well it’s made of that type of fabric.   Teddy was DDs security toy… couldn’t go to sleep without it…. up until very recently and she’s 22 now! LOL…

Anyway, she has requested me to fix teddy…. Wait until I get a picture of her and you’ll see the task at hand… I’ll keep that for Saturday.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the finished mug rug.  It is double sided.

The front I designed using EQ7 and I used the pieced shamrock block at 4 inch finish.  If you’d like the EQ file don’t be shy, just ask ;)

The back is an adaption of a tutorial I saw on Missouri Quilts on YT.  Thank you to Connie for the link.   I say adaption since I used 1.5inch strips cut from my green scraps.  It was a very fun technique that I’d like to repeat one day.

It measures approx. 15inches by 9inches.    I used a decorative stitch on my Bernina and a variegated green Aurifil 40/2 (#4653) to do a simple cross hatch machine quilting.  

To finish I’d like to show you a couple of pictures of Princess Penelope after I had groomed her the other day.   

She does have ears, they are behind her head dress. :)  She is such a petted bun!!

Now I just have to wait for the Internet to stop playing silly beggars so I can publish this post ;)

Happy Stitching!

Ellyx