It's almost Christmas (wall hanging)

i don't know why, but the other weekend when i was looking for a project to work on this little wall-hanging took my fancy!  it is now all finished and sitting with my other seasonal wall-hangings just waiting for it's turn to be on show

 i recently joined in a swap at the quilted table (theme: spring), here is the wall hanging i received from my swap partner in Canada...

i have a new camera on my wish list... i wonder if it will help me take better photos???

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

this is a bit late but my internet wasn't cooperating this morning.

weekend progress...
- i got my christmas wall-hanging almost finished (i just need to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt)
- i have chosen a pattern and some fabric for my swap table runner

and a random cute animal photo...

QAYG blocks

 i have had a few health issues during the past month (thankfully they are all resolved now) so my blogging has been very slack, and i have done very little sewing.

i have made a few quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) blocks for a challenge that a friend gave to me late last year

this first block is a technique that i have wanted to try for a while.  2 fabrics were cut into 9" squares, then starched.  i then used my rotary cutter to free-hand cut curved lines in each square (first square i cute left to right, second block was cut right to left) the squares are then woven together and fused onto some light-weight fusible interfacing.  i added the wadding and backing and used a zig-zag stitch to sew over the cut edges, final step was to trim the block to 8.5"...

next block is fairly simple (but still pretty cute!!) i fussy cut the flowers from my fabric, added some 3/4" stems and some free-hand leaves....

a variation on the traditional Chinese coin block

crazy patch block made with some of the random size scraps that i had left from the first 3 blocks...

and my final block.  i had plenty of the blue floral and a couple of scraps of green, so i played around and came up with this graphic block...

today i am working on a Christmas wall-hanging UFO and i will hopefully get a start on a table-runner for a swap that i am participating in.