Mashaa Monday: "She will Be Mine"

It's been a very busy first week of the September school holidays here, but I somehow managed to get even more sewing done than usual!

My Little Quilts book arrived and I immediately was drawn to the little bee quilt so I grabbed some of my fabrics (did I mention I love having a little "stash" now? :D) and began planning.

Having the book made it even more difficult to choose which one I wanted to make for my partner for the swap, as I even loved a couple that I'd previously thought weren't my thing. 

I think I've made a good start on the colour palette, though and decided on "Pretty Little Half Hex" even though (or maybe because) it has inset seams which I've never done before. Scary canary!

I hope my partner likes it. Sewing for someone you know next to nothing about is more stressful than I expected!

I visited Ikea on the weekend to help with my need to organise the house before I end up a crazy old lady who can't find anything. I fell in love with this chair that would be perfect for a sewing chair, and felt like Wayne in Wayne's World. "She will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine". :D
She might even be able to be a reward to myself when I've got my sewing room in order and can actually sew in there again.

'Black, Blue, Shark!' is all bound and washed! And just sitting around waiting for me to save up enough money to post it (I may have spent too much at Ikea). :P
I can't show the whole quilt until it reaches its home, but I can show some sneaky previews from when I took it outside to take pictures.

I love that backing fabric so much. I didn't even buy enough for leftovers, though. Past me sucks. :P

X marks the spot!

Eek! A spider!

I appear to be raising a quilter/designer. My five year old son is constantly designing quilts for me(I haven't actually made one yet, he's always too specific about what colours he wants so I'll have to take him shopping :D) and his latest looks really fun.

Argh, those pudgy little hands of cuteness slay me every time! He's wearing his favourite pants, too. :D

 And when we were out at the shopping centre having lunch, he made me take a close-up of the table we were eating at. "Look at the texture, Mummy!". My kids are awesome. But then, who doesn't think that about their kids? :D

Wish I hadn't taken this close-up...it looked clean before I saw this pic! :P

Here they are at the bus stop the other day. My daughter is unimpressed with me taking photos of her but it means I don't get to show her off much, and I don't want her looking back later thinking I thought she was unimportant. So unimpressed or not, I'm going to keep taking pictures.

Let's see...what else? Oh! I've done some more joining in. I've joined in on Heather Bostic's #scrappypostagestampQAL where we make at least three little nine-patch blocks a week with our scraps. I've decided to do mine every Monday if I can, to get the week started off with a sense of accomplishment.
I made mine 1 3/4" because I had loads of tiny little scrap pieces, and I also chose to make a diagonal row of solids to help the final design because I imagine it will get quite busy with all those tiny squares!

When this is finished it will be like a piece of every quilt I've made and given away, just for me. A great memory quilt.

This week I also completed my first ever cushion for myself, completed the top for another one, and started quilting the top for a third one. All for me! *giggles maniacally*
Oh, I suppose I'll have to share them with the family, but mostly for me. :D

The first one was made from my test block for a quilt I have planned. It has my first ever envelope-closure back which was kind of fun. Usually I just stuff the cushions but it's more practical if you can wash them. Maybe one day I'll try zip closures, but not today, or probably even this year. :P

This next one is a six pointed star appliqued onto a background. I stopped being stubborn and studied up on how to needle turn applique properly and I love how it turned out. I'm still kicking around ideas on how to quilt it.

This last one is actually the inside (because the outside was faded and brown) of the cushions I'm replacing. The white stitching is part of the original cushion and I'm just quilting over it with bright colours to make it more exciting, considering I'm sick of these cushions, having seen them every day for many years. 

I actually think I like the back of this better, so I'm thinking when I do the next one I'll put all the pretty colours in the bobbin when I stitch over the original design, and have that be the top. I'll have to be super-careful with thread tension, though!

Okay, I think that's it for this week. Phew! I sure did start a lot of things, good thing I'm not planning on starting anything else. Oh wait, I am...more on that later....

-Strange.