Chevron quilt

A few days ago I posted about the latest quilt that I am making.  It's a Chevron quilt using this here tutorial bee square fabrics - how to make a zig-zag quilt without piecing triangles I don't think it will be finished before my days off are over as I start back tomorrow :( however I have made some progress with it. 

 

I have completed the blocks for five rows (only four shown) and while I like it, I think it needs a contrast stripe to break up each purple row.  So off the Spotlight I went and purchased a metre of this here (on the right) gold fabric

 

And also a metre of this gorgeous printed number.  Unfortunately I think the brightness of this will overpower my purple flower fabric, which I want to be the hero of the quilt. 

 I will definitely get use of it though, maybe make a bag from it! I hope to get some blocks made up with my new gold fabric today so I can get a real feel for what it will look like.  Wish me luck!

Warmest wishes

Kristin

Bloglovin

Some of you fellow bloggers have been posting about Google friend connect ceasing in March.  This seems a bit scary to me so I have been checking out Bloglovin to follow blogs and it seems pretty awesome!  It tells you how many posts you've missed from the blogs that you follow, which I think is fantastic.  I haven't quite finished listing all of my fav blogs on there yet (that's my next job!)

I will admit that I am completely behind the eight ball with most things Internet related, and I do tend to get things muddled up often.  I kind of get by using the try it - fail - try something else until it works then if it doesn't - give up! method.  I think some things I do I go about the complete long way around, example - To get to my dashboard on Blogger I go into new post then press on Dashboard!  If anyone could help me with a direct way I would greatly appreciate it :) also i have no idea if you can or how to put a button in a blog post???? like when you link up to a party or something? Also while I'm at it can anyone point me in the right direction for setting up categories (probably not the right word...oh....like headers so people can go to only my embroidery posts or whatever their interest may be!)  I would really appreciate any help you can give me either by comment or if its really involved (hoping) you can email me to gkristin@y7mail.com... yeah see complete nufty!

So to claim right to this here blog on bloglovin I need to do this
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3336060/pritty-tings?claim=td5bxtn3rtb">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Lets see if it works :) Oh and if you want to follow my blog by this method, that would be super awesome!  I just have to figure out how to put a follow button on the side hmmmmmm help please!
Kind regards
Kristin

Building

Safe to say that I'm fairly excited!  Our new house will hopefully get started this week, feels like it has been a long time coming............. We purchased our land back in July last year, started the drafting of the house plans in early August and just now are we ready to go!  So for the next 3-4 months that it takes to complete our home, I will be posting a pic (or two) a day of the progress, don't worry if there's no change (like on weekends) I won't bother you with having to look at repetitions of the same photos:)  So here goes, the block as it is, right now

This is the house we are having built 

As you can see our home is to be built on a hill, which means nice view but big-arse retaining wall :(  Anyhoo I hope you enjoy watching along with us!

So onto craftynessness, you might remember this lovely fabric I picked up from the thrift store a couple of posts ago, I have started a project with it. 

 No It's not a lovely headband that I am sporting ;) It's the zig zag quilt without triangles by Amandajean from Crazy Mom Quilts.  I love the look of chevron quilts and this tutorial looked easy enough to follow for an amateur like me!

I'm hoping to have the quilt top finished by the end of my days off.  That's probably me being a tad bit optimistic, wish me luck!

Painting by numbers

I wanted to share with you all a project I completed some time ago with my 14 year old cousin for her IY8 (Inspire Year 8 assignment).  She had to choose a mentor as such and work with that person for a period of ten hours on it.  The options were endless really, from designing a website to hosting a dinner party!  As long as the student adequately used and documented the hours spent. 

Our project was a portrait of my baby boy.  It now hangs on the wall in his bedroom.

We used a photo that we loved and played with it on the computer to make it black and white, enlarge it to the size of our canvas and grid it up (that is the technical term for it!)

So when we printed it off (on four pieces of A4 paper) it looked like this

We gave each square from top to bottom a letter and numbered along the bottom.  Then we drew a grid on our canvas with the same amount of squares (this part was not fun) and numbered them also.

We started with the black squares firstly then progressively got lighter.

We tried using a template to paint the tiny squares but found it easier to just do it freehand.  Having the graph made it easier initially to make sure we were painting the right squares.

This project was very time consuming and a tad frustrating but overall well worth it.

I love the finished product and I recon it will hang on our walls for many many years to come!  Oh and my cousin got top marks for her project = win win!

Pretty little salvos finds

I read an awful amount of blogs who's authors are avid thrift store shoppers (try saying those three words, three times fast!).  They post regularly of their finds ranging from canisters and tins to cutlery and crockery, always seeming so excited by their finds.  I too, today felt the excitement of thrift shop discovery.  Oh my goodness, I now know what I have been missing out on!  I picked up these little beauties

 This one is a single sheet and it is lovely ($1.99 = bargain)

 This is a double quilt cover, so that means heaps of fabric and cost $3.99

 And this one is four meters of soft heavier weight knit fabric $3.99, who gives this stuff away???

I am so excited about these and the possiblities.... I am also very open to suggestions????
Take care
Kristin

The Typography Challenge

So those clever girls Keren and Rikka have announced the latest challenge.  Its the   Typography Challenge
 go on, press the link and read all about it!!  Then join in, if your game!  I personally find these challenges so enjoyable and I take it many others do also as there are a fair few repeat contestants. 

Also while I'm at it please go here Naughty Notions Finale and Voting and vote for your favourite clutch from the last challenge.  The voting will close at the end of the month!

 I am a little excited about this challenge as I just love putting words on things,

My first quilt

Screen printed Mother Teresa cushion

Partially finished quilt top - 'Baby Life Quilt' by V and Co

Sam's bedroom door plaque

 

 

 

So I can't get this to left align now grrrr, so I'll say goodbye from here the middle of the page

!

A little bit of embroidery

I remember when my mother was pregnant with my younger siblings, I was around 10-12 at that time and she would spend hours upon hours on these large cross-stitches.  The one I remember clearly was of a duck with a ribbon around its neck.  It was nice but so so much work went into it.  I must confess I don't think I will ever have the patience for a job that involved.  However lately I have developed an interest in doing a little needle craft, embroidery in particular.  Just wanting a little practice, I drew a picture of a little girl in her nighty, coat and boots.  I taped her to the window in the light and traced her onto some linen with a water removable marker.  I backstitched the entire picture with black embroidery floss.

 I decided she would look gorgeous in red boots and red jacket then in contrast a pink spotted nighty.  This is as far as I got............

.......when I found and joined in the 'twelve dancing princesses sew-a-long' the brain child of Kate at lilipopo if your interested in having a look at some of the other princesses check out the flickr group.  I strongly suggest you check out Kate's patterns, they are gorgeous.  My favorite is the Daisy Girl, which I just picked up on her Etsy.

I set my girl aside to complete my first 'princess' so I'm not too far behind the rest of the group.

The lilipopo princesses have gorgeous striped tights and sleeves.  I chose pink and blue as predominant colours of my princess.

She has french knots on her hat and dress and metallic silver thread on her shoes.  She is not quite finished at the moment so I will have to get back to you with final photos.
Anyone else started something completely new to them lately?  I'd love to hear about it.
Take care now
Kristin