I've been busy...

As mentioned previously, my quilt is a finalist in Melbourne, and here you can see all 27 of them! I won't get much sewing done next week as I'm away for work and then to the AQC, so I have worked ahead this weekend:-)

I have been very intrigued by some of the complex quilting designs I have seen in blog land. Judi Madsen's work for example is stunning and here she posted a tutorial how to quilt diamonds in borders and sashings. This is my attempt at it:

Like Judi recommends, I marked the straight lines with that blue washout marker - just magic how a squirt of water lets it disappear :-)

For the horizontal sashing I chose circles instead of diamonds as my vertical sashings don't quite line up - that way it's less obvious I hope ;-)

My orange peel / postage stamps aren't as regular as I would have liked, I hope the flaws disappear in the overall picture :-)

This is where I am up to so far, two more pairs of vertical sashings and one more horizontal one to go.

The blocks have no quilting except the stitching for the applique. There's so much stitching in the sashings I don't intend to add any to the blocks, otherwise it will simply get too stiff for a lap quilt. When it's finished I'll see if the blocks look to puffy, I can always block it if it shrinks too much (seems to stay within reason so far even in the block that's completely quilted in above).

I was pretty sick of micro stippling by the end of this, so I went and cut up some of my fabric for the Bag Along:

I have cut everything for the straps and the bag exterior, (just remembered, I still need to go off and find some batting scraps), it's quite a pile! Above you can see my feature fabric (handles, outside pocket lining, feature for outside pockets), then the black denim for the outside (body) and the white drill/duck? for the interlining. I invested in a pack of jeans needles, I'm bound to go through a few! Suz is quite a bit ahead of me, here you can see what she has been up to. Remember, if you feel like getting (any) bag (or two or three) done, just join us through the linky in the Bag Along Page!

On a sadder note it's bee a week since our lovely cat Tigger has been seen - we miss him!!! While all 4 of our cats roam, he has never been away for that long, and there's lots of things that could happen to cats in the rural areas... I just hope that he has gone on a big adventure and finds his way home soon!

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Friday (a bit late again, I know!). Happy Sewing!