buttons, buttons, buttons

I have a huge list of projects I'd love to be working on, new projects I'd love to start, and a few things that need to be completed, like really, really soon.

I've even somehow ended up with a bag of mending from a friend. (I know, I really should just say no - I don't even mend any of our clothes!) 

Sadly this seems to be the extent of my recent craft finishes.

 

At least they are cute. And finished.

Finished is good. There should be more of that around here.

The ricrac button and a twin went to Quilt Market with Ms RicRac herself.

You know, that's practically just like being there myself. 

Or not.

A quilt for Heath

A new nephew arrived 2 weeks ago. At the time he was born I was working on this:

I finished it in time to deliver on Mother's Day.

I even remembered to label it:

Quilting was inspired by Red Pepper Quilts:

I love the back as well. Just a couple of prints I picked up from Spotlight during a sale, but they look so good together:

Thanks to my Instagram helpers who told me to go with the red binding. xx
Now to make a quilt for this baby's big brother who doesn't yet have one of his own.

I blame Instagram

I've really been quite a terrible blogger this year.

I squarely put the blame on Instagram.

I'm sure that the moment that app came into my life, my blogging rates started declining.

Instead of combining a few snaps and thoughts from the week into one decent blog post, I find that I tend to share moments at random times, leaving nothing significant to blog about.

Maybe life as a single mum is just becoming more and more hectic and blogging has dropped a long way down the list of priorities.

Or maybe my blogging journey has just run its course?

Anyway, here's a few of my favourite quilts from AQC.

I'm bronbeazley on Instagram if you'd like to follow me.

Ribbon Star Block Tutorial - QCA Bee #2

My month in the QCA Bee #2 has come around very quickly. After a bit of fast searching this week, I found a block to suit the project I have in mind. This block is called 'Ribbon Star'. I've found 3 other blocks that also go by the name ribbon star, but this is the one I have chosen:

These blocks will go towards making a quilt that I promised my sister quite some time ago. The colours and style she likes are quite different to what I normally work with, so I've struggled a bit to get started with this project.

Based on the colours she has described to me - 'dusty' antique-type colours - this is the collection of fabric I have gathered to use. Dusty pink and dusty mid green, navy, creams, tans, and browns. Some of the fabric I have gathered is from 1800's reproduction collections, especially those with small prints and floral motifs.

Fellow Bee quilters: if you don't have these type of prints, don't stress about looking for them (unless you especially want too), just send me your address via email or Facebook message and I can post some fabric out to you.

I was hoping to find a tutorial for this block that someone else had written, but the couple I found were made a little differently. So, I've written up the method I used to make my Ribbon Star block. The block finishes at 12.5 inches square. Please just ask if anything doesn't make sense, it is most likely my explaining at fault. :)

You will need two prints - a background print, and one for the star.

- From the background print, cut 4 x 3.5 inch squares and 6 x 4 inch squares.

- From the star print, cut 6 x 4 inch squares. 

Match all of the 4 inch squares up, one background to one star fabric, right sides together.

Draw a line from one corner to the other (on the lightest print is easiest). It doesn't matter what you use to mark this line - I just used an ordinary black pen.

Stitch 1/4 inch either side of this line.

Now cut along the marked line.

Open out and press gently. You will now have 12 half square triangle units. Trim these down to 3.5 inch squares. I don't have a photo of this part because I made my blocks to the correct size. I find it is more accurate to make oversized HST units and then trim down. This is a good description of how to trim HST units if you are unsure: http://www.quiltuniversity.com/squaring_up.htm

Lay the 16 squares out in the correct design and stitch together.

Ta da! All done and hopefully it all came together nice and fast for you.

If you have any questions, just let me know. :)

I hate Valentine's Day

I'll spare you my list of reasons why I dislike Valentine's Day so much. 

Last year, I created my 'Grumpy Single' mini quilt to rebel against all the sickly saccharine Valentine's Day projects flooding Pinterest and the rest of the internet.

Later in the year, I made the 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' mini quilt.

This week, I was sketching ideas for my anti-Valentine's craft project, but decided the tone of my ideas was a little dark, and really, I wouldn't want to hang any of those potential projects on my wall. I decided to give this year's project a miss.

Until...

Yesterday morning, the perfect idea came to mind. Partly inspired by my dislike of Valentine's Day, but mostly inspired by a certain crafter/blogger/Tweeter who received a double lung transplant last week after being on the waiting list for 18 months.

It came together fairly quickly (especially considering I was called into work unexpectedly for a few hours in the afternoon) and amazingly, turned out looking remarkably like I had envisaged.

I present to you - 'Lungs':

A reflection on the fact that even though the heart gets all the attention on Valentine's Day, there are other perfectly lovely organs that are just as deserving. (We all know the conversation could take a dive for the worse here, but let's not!)

I'm registered as an organ donor and my family know my wishes. Are you an organ donor?

I'm keeping them!

I think I've written this post 4 times. The internet dramas continue here, and Blogger seems to be not autosaving my posts like normal. I did see that Blogger kindly put this up for me as a blank post, probably one of the many times that the internet dropped out on me. 

I got a giggle out of the whole thing though when I got a lovely spammer telling me what an interesting post it was and how much they learned. They seemed not to have noticed the absence of words. Either that, or it was a very tongue-in-cheek spammer!

I'm sure that each time I have written this, the word count has reduced. Now all I'm going to say is: I made some cushions, intended for the kids lounge room, but I loved them, so I kept them. Here they are:

52 books in 52 weeks

I randomly came across the hashtag #52books whilst procrastinating on Twitter the other day, and based on my vague understanding of the purpose of this project (read 52 books in 52 weeks) I bravely committed myself to undertaking this noble quest.

It is entirely possible that my bookshelves contain 52 books that I am yet to read, so a little motivation to get through them would not be unwelcome.

Upon conducting a little more research, I found the website '52 books in 52 weeks'. Now, I don't know if there are other similar projects around, or indeed if this has anything at all to do with #52books on Twitter. I probably could look into that a bit more, but actually I don't really care. I just like the idea of committing myself to reading more this year.

And also, the glorious list of rules for this challenge and the weekly linky party doesn't really interest me that much either. (I'm feeling very contrary this week, in case you hadn't picked that up.) I've had enough experience with internet projects, memes and challenges to realise that I tend to fall off the wagon very quickly. So in the interests of me actually having half a chance at reading 52 books in 52 weeks, I'm not going to bother with any of that extra stuff.

If I remember, I might tell you what I'm reading, or tweet when I finish a book, but that's it. Or I might post an image of the book I'm reading, you know, so I don't have to type out the title and spell the author's name correctly.

Book #1 - 52 books in 52 weeks

Also, what's another word for 'contrary'? I've a feeling I'll be needing more words to describe this current version of me.