CHARM ABOUT YOU

I'm recovering from the horrible vomit bug that totally kicked my a**e and had me exhausted last week.
I haven't been able to keep up with blog reading, so sorry for the lack of comments but I'm back on track now!

It is officially a week (right?!) until the Fugly Fabric Party kicks off!! If you don't know what I'm talking about click here.

Thanks so much for all of you who've given it a mention on your blogs and there's been some great button grabbing!

Here it is again, just in case you missed it!:

<div align="center"><a href="http://charmaboutyou.blogspot.com/p/fugly-fabric-party.html" title="Charm About You"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6723225913_dc59644156_m.jpg" alt="Charm About You" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

So with one week to go:

- Collect some fugly or unwanted fabric to rid yourself of!
- You might want to think about how you're going to offer it on your blog (giveaway, postage paid, etc.) and let people know via your blog that it's upcoming.
- If you're super organised (unlike me) you could even get your post written in preparation.

If you're not sure what a link party is or you've never done one before, head over to the The Barefoot Seamstress and check out her easy guide to linking up so you can play along!

Remember there's a bribe involved ;)

I need to get the house cleaned and boring stuff like that today but hopefully I'll have some actual sewing to show you tomorrow!

I'm joining in with the Winter Stitching and had to check back to see what was on my list!!


Here's my progress:
Dead Simple Quilt - done




Drunkard's Path QAL - done




One baby quilt, which became Diagonal Stripe HST Quilt - done




2 quilts for my nieces, which became the Terrain Lattice Quilt and Terrain Lattice Quilt 2.0 - done





Does Not Compute Quilt - done





I've also managed to do a whole bunch of other makes that you can see here!

Blogger's BOM, keep up to date - done


Owl quilt - I have the fabric but it is creeping down the list of priorities so I'm not sure if this will get done this winter:


Secret Quilt - I've done nothing on this one and I'm not sure whether to abandon it.

Do more fmq practice and try to do some on actual quilts - done. I didn't remember I'd even put this on the list and it seems very serendipitous that that's what I'm currently working on!!

Love of Rain Quilt - the fabric is sitting staring at me:


Vintage Inspired/Modern Quilt - I am going to do the Across the Sea Quilt Along pattern for this. I have yummy repro fabric ready and am planning on hand quilting it. This quilt will be ALL MINE! I will start work on it soon though I hope. I'm wondering if I want to make it so much that I'm putting it off because I'm worried it won't be as good as it is in my head. Do you know what I mean?



So all in all I'm doing OK but I still have some really big projects to do...

I'm still a bit rubbish at not getting distracted and need to focus to finish something . I also have periods of doubting myself, which I hate because it makes me feel so useless and that's not really me. I'm battling through it though and my husband is wonderfully reassuring, always telling me just to do it and reminding me that most of what I want to do will only be living at our house and how will I get better if I don't keep working at it. I love that attitude. So I will continue to challenge myself and work at getting better, whilst having fun and sewing with abandon :)

I'm linking up to T.T.T. because it's Thursday!!

I'm linking up to:

completed:

Today has been a total sofa day. Me being ill was not fun, the little girl being ill is even less so :(
She had very little energy so blankets and Snow White were the order of the day. It also gave me an opportunity to finish my second rose and star block:


Don't they look pretty holding hands!!


While she was napping I also managed to make this quick camera case:


I used this simple tutorial, the only difference was I hand sewed the closing rather than using the machine. I'm trying to improve my hand stitching and this tutorial really helped, the seam looks great (you can't see it but that's the point!)


It helps that I now have a thimble. My finger was getting so sore but no more!
I decided the thimble needed a special spot in my sewing case, the pockets were just a little too big and I didn't want to lose it. So I cut a bit of fabric, pressed and top stitched the edges and then hand stitched it onto my case:



Cute and handy!

ongoing:


I'm hoping to maybe try to get some more fmq done tomorrow because there's been no progress on the 'Not So Charming Rainbow Stars Quilt'.

I've also cut pieces ready for my next rose and star block (I think this might be a regular Wednesday thing!!)



no progress: everything else but I've done enough all things considered

So here's my stats:
completed: 3
new: 0
in progress: 2

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I've finally caught that horrible bug going around and feel totally lousy today :(

Just wanted to remind you the the Fugly fabric party starts a week fortnight today!! **thank you Erin, I'm such a ditz!!)**

To say thank you for linking up I'm offering a prize to one of the linkers (you can call it bribery, I'm going with incentive!!)

I don't have a big stash and very little fugly fabric! So you'll be pleased to know my giveaway (open only to those that link a post with fabric offerings) will be this delicious charm pack!!

again not a sponsored giveaway, bought by me!!

Yes this time it's only one charm pack! What can I do with that I hear you say?!
Well by amazing coincidence look what's just come up on the Moda Bakeshop... this fantastic pattern by Sunflower Quilts, using only one charm pack and some solid yardage!

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/01/follow-pezzy-brick-road.html

So what do you need to do to win? Just come back on February 7th and link up! After a week, once the linky is finished I'll pick a winner using random.org.

You must link up with a post offering some fabric to your readers (and hopefully visitors!!). Be it fugly, ugly, not your taste or just fabric you're not likely to use. You can have a giveaway, competition, swap or offer it to anyone who'll pay the postage!

Please make sure it is cotton fabric suitable for quilting and a decent size, feel free to offer scraps if they're useable (no smaller than 5x5") but make sure it's clear in your post.

Thank you to those who have already helped spread the word! Remember we want some takers for the fabric so please encourage people to come and blog hop starting Tuesday 7th and spread the word on your blog. Grab a button and stick it on your sidebar:

<div align="center"><a href="http://charmaboutyou.blogspot.com/p/fugly-fabric-party.html" title="Charm About You"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6723225913_dc59644156_m.jpg" alt="Charm About You" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Off to completely veg and feel sorry for myself (while amusing a 2 year old with as many puzzles as I can find!!). Yucky, yucky illness :(

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Manic Monday:



I'm not normally smug... rarely do I feel completely happy with something I've sewn but this time I really am! Excuse the ensuing smugness...

I have been working on my 'Not So Charming Rainbow Stars Quilt', which wasn't turning out exactly right. This has become a slight comedy of errors. Anyone spot the mistake??:


Yeah, see the middle block at the bottom - it's the wrong way round!! Whoops. I only noticed it when I was basting and at that point could not be bothered unpicking. It'll just have to stay that way!

Then when I did some straight line quilting and the bobbin ran out I stupidly put the wrong colour in - I was using a different thread to match the backing and out of habit used the top thread colour. A bit of unpicking later (I couldn't leave that - it was too obvious and annoying!!), the right thread in place and the straight lines were done.

So with renewed confidence I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and practice my fmq - Nicky will be proud :)

I had a gander at Leah Day's designs at the Free Motion Quilting Project, just the beginners ones obviously!! There's so much choice but I wanted something that would counter the pointy stars and also a design that would suit the backing fabric.

I went with the Echo Shortcut:

first and second attempts

third attempt!

My tension was all over the place and the first attempt was with the feed dogs up. I thought since this was a function of my new machine it would make it easier. I hated it, so feed dogs back up and attempt 2 and 3. My design looks less curvy and more like mussels than Leah's but I really like it!!

Happy with the pattern, I switched to the thread I'd picked for the quilt to try and sort the tension out and had another go:

from the lovely folks at Patchwork Corner