Orange Crush in Person

These are my fabrics for Bonnie's *Orange Crush* mystery quilt. I had such a lot of fun choosing these fabrics. The blues are for the accent - I bought several because I couldn't narrow it down to just one choice.

The scrappy 4 patches look quite co-ordinated here but they are actually just a mix of scraps. The only effort I made to match them was to include some dark browns and blacks in the last few strips.

I'm looking forward to the next clue :o)

Look - pictures!!

As you can see I haven't got the hang of cropping images on the new camera software yet but here is the bargello quilt. So far it only has 2 outside borders on because I miscalculated the fabric I needed and I was short by 7 inches which is kind of crazy!!!

Thinking I was being smart I scanned a piece of fabric and phoned the store to get their email address so I could order more, only to be told they don't have email and could I "just post a piece down". I will just have to be patient and wait for it to come.

Doing the Orange Crush

I'm working on Bonnie's *Orange Crush* mystery quilt. I couldn't resist! Last weekend DH and I went on a shopping trip to the big smoke in search of fabric. I bought the most beautiful fabrics. The shop staff were really understanding - they left me alone to play until I found the perfect matches which was just what I needed. I wasn't going to use Bonnie's colours until I saw the range of oranges in the store and fell in love with them.

I have made all 150 scrappy little 4 patches. I think I might make some extras though so that I have a better mix of fabrics and colours (and cos they are so much fun to whiz up).

While I was at the store I also bought some very funky fabric for the borders of my scrappy Bargello quilt. The best part was that I chose fabric that was completely the opposite of what I had in mind. Instead of something quite solid to try and subdue the piecing I went with a wild print that just makes it buzz even more. Getting these on is going to be my very next project.

Daylight Savings finished overnight thank goodness. I'm convinced that shorter evenings will mean more quilting - LOL

Tired

I'm really tired at the moment. It's partly because work is busy - there are lots of events coming up and none are going as smoothly as they should. In particular those ones where there are lots of people involved - "too many cooks spoil..." etc etc. I think the other reason is because it is so dark in the mornings now that getting up is really hard work. This is the first year that we have had extended dates for Daylight Savings. Normally we would have wound the clock back by now but we still have another 3 weeks to go. It is hard to get out of bed when it is still grey out the window. What a silly idea. I wont even mention the problems it caused with Outlook calendars. There's a patch, but it's only so good.

My weekend was lovely though and I put the borders onto the Jelly Roll quilt from the 60 degree ruler class last month. I love the blue fabric (it's Moda Shangri La) - it's got depth for a light colour.
I'm off for an early night!
Lisa

Who makes my day

My blog has been so quiet that I missed seeing that I have been awarded the You Make My Day Award by Mary over at Stitches and Ditches

How exciting! Thank you Mary!!!!

The rules for the "You Make My Day" award, are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know through an email or posting to their blog so they can pass it on.

I'm not sure that it's going to be easy to choose just 10, but I'm willing to give it a try. So I would like to award the following people:

This is when you realise that you don't always know the names of people whose blogs you visit. Chooky Blue - she quilts, she stitches, she bakes...

Corry at Dutch Quilter - because her blog is beautiful, as are her senses of colour and design

Queen Helen of Quiltland - Helen writes really dry, witty observations about quilting and the quilting community and I love her blog.

Rene at Fembellish - for her fabulous tutorials and arty ideas (which I must try more of)

Sandy at Comforter Quilts - 'cos she's my friend :o)

Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting - she has a great sense of colour and design, freely teaches others, she's funny, she lives in Paris so her blog is littered with gorgeous photos... what more could you want in a blog? Especially check out her tutorials on making letters!

Kim of Kim's Big Quilting Adventure - Kim's blog is a really good read, and she makes great quilts

Tracy at 'Tis the Gift - Tracy shares her gentle spirit and her journey adopting her son from China

Finn from Pieces from my Scrapbag - I love Finn's blog because reading it makes you feel like you have visited an old friend

Nancy at Not So Fancy Nancy - colour, glorious colour - across a range of crafts, not just quilting

Thank you guys for making my day with your great blogs!

Lisa

A better picture

That photo really doesn't show much does it? Here's another one, this time from the scanner.

I'm Still Here

It has been a while hasn't it. The camera problem is still... well a problem. Mostly because just after the camera broke, the washing machine broke and died. That had to be a priority to replace. So the camera has had to wait. I took a couple of little projects to work though, and photographed them so that I would have something to show.

This is my February journal. It's called Long Hot Summer. The technique for Feb was collage or layering with scraps. I had no ideas for this, so I decided to just "play". I made a background sewing strips of black and dark blue marbles and batiks and I sliced and resewed these. Onto that I ironed lots of leftovers from applique projects - those shapes that are left with steam-a-seam on after you cut out your applique pieces. I just kept sticking and ironing these on until I had a colourful busy piece. At this point I was back to square one - no ideas about what to do next - so I left if lying on my desk for a few days. One evening when I strolled into the quiltery a spiral design of the background black caught my eye, so I started to work with that. I cut felt pieces to give texture to the black, beaded, couched, stitched (hand stitched even!!!) with lovely hand dyed threads that have been lurking in my drawer ever since I fell in love with them at a show... and eventually along came *Long Hot Summer* The centre spiral is copper wire with orange beads that move around (DH says it's like a round abacus).

I had lots of fun with this and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I used lots of scraps - the fabric, the felt, the yarn around the edge - so the technique is covered. It has some good texture and dimension (though it might not show in the pic cos it's not great quality), which is a step up from my usual attempts at arty projects which tend to be quite flat.

The weekend looks like being very relaxing... the borders of the Jelly Roll quilt beckon and the garden needs some weeding.

Cheers