Wild and Woolly

Since yesterday morning weather conditions have deteriorated at our place and up and down the east coast of Australia. The wind and rain were shrieking outside last night and I found it very hard to sleep. That and the frightenned children who snuggled in and forced me out from about 4:30am.

A wet and bedraggled rooster yesterday

I have been worrying about our chickens and hoping no large trees or branches fall on their coop. Fortunately the roost is brick and there is access to a run and a couple of nesting boxes, however it is wet. Unfortunately we have re-scheduled our plans for a BBQ and backyard cricket lunch with friends until next weekend. Conditions on the road would be hazardous with fallen trees and large volumes of water. We've had 70mm of raing in our gauge in 24 hours.

Fran was drying the hens but it was a fruitless task given the
weather conditions and that the chickens would wander out into it.

But it has forced me to finish a few sewing projects I have been avoiding. I did some alterations and repairs to clothes and then labelled all of the kid's school uniforms, swimmers and towels. There was no fun in that but a tiny amount of satisfaction.

I did manage to complete some paper piecing blocks including my own version of the 'Measure Twice' block. If you plan to join us for the Quiet Play 'And Sew On' paper pieced Block of the Month - you have only three days to get FREE January pattern. And the same amount of time to enter your block in the fabric give-away.

Sad to hear that the folks of the Lockyer Valley have been evacuated last night and that Ipswich and Brisbane are expecting moderate floods again. It seems that the floods of 2011 are NOT a distant memory. The weather is just crazy! We still have bushfires in Western Australia and some folks in Bundaberg got hit by five tornados. I hear that the northern hemisphere is experiencing freezing conditions right now. So keep safe people.

Update: 10am - We have whole trees and lots of branches down around our 5 acres. The gusts are increasing in velocity - some clocking 100km per hour.

That's our house and in the foreground is our driveway.

Measure Twice Block

Welcome to my tiny contribution to this fantastic Paper Pieced Block of the Month/Sew Along @ Quiet Play called 'And Sew On'. If you are new to Foundation paper piecing never fear...this block is a gentle introduction.The pattern is super simple and comes from a conceptual photo that I sent Kristy back in November.

That's my daughter's cute tiger measuring tape. 

Tips

Freezer Paper

Rather than use A4 copy paper, I trace all of my paper pieced patterns onto freezer paper. That makes piecing easier to see as you sew and less messy when tearing it away at the end.

Audition Fabrics

This block is so easy to do this with. Gather the fabrics that you plan to choose and then fold them over and fan them to re-create the design. It supposed to look like a few fat quarters from your stash. Photograph your ideas and then compare them.

Think about the rest of the fabric blocks that will come later - especially the gorgeous final 'Sewing Room' block that becomes the focal point of the 7 designs. I tried to find similar colours and fabrics to match Kristy's block and Marieka's 'Seam Ripper' block. See photos of these two blocks at my previous post here.

Text Prints

These fabulous fabrics are just awesome for paper piecing and add a distinctive look to a  block. I will point you to a couple of talented folks on Flickr to highlight what I mean. Check out ElnoraC and PaulaPatchwork. I love their work.

Ruler Prints

You might want to beg, borrow or buy some kind of ruler/measuring fabric to use for the ruler otherwise you could find something that symbolically represents it instead. I had some very quirky Japanese ruler fabric that was just perfect for my version but in order to get the text placed properly, I had to reverse the pattern to be a mirror image.

I hope that you have fun with this block. I certainly did. 

Fabric Give-Away

I felt it important to sponsor my block by offering some fabric as a give-away. Check Quiet Play's post today for how to enter and to qualify you to win this Flower Fairy tote and Autumn Flower Fairy panel. 

There are two other fabric give-aways for the January linky so, all the best.

Block of the Month (BoM) with Craftsy

One of my goals in 2012 is to challenge myself with quilting blocks. I have never signed up to a 'Block of the Month' challenge BUT this one from Craftsy BoM comes with video lessons. Being a visual learner I was happy to sign up.

My online 'Quilt Club Australia' group has set up a QCA 2012 Craftsy BOM support page where we can create and share. It is open to other Aussies too. Feel free to join up at any time.

January Blocks

Asterisk
It was easy to follow the instructions (once I could get a computer to liaise with our new modem - that's still an ongoing problem btw) with the online tutorial.

Wonky Pound Sign

Now even less cutting and sewing for this block.

The hardest decision was whether or not to use white or jade for the solid fabric. Most of the samples I have seen use white but I decided that the jade would tie my various fabric together more successfully. It was a relief to see a great result.

Until next month (you can't actually get ahead with the online tutorials).