Le Jardin Block 6

I finally got Block 6 finished for Le Jardin. This block gave me fits. My machine kept skipping stitches and breaking the thread for the greys. I'm going to have to go back and re-do some of the applique because the stitches are so messy.
I also managed to be absolutely brilliant! I appliqued everything on to an upside down background!! I think it looks ok still though.

I'm glad I kept going and just changed things a bit. The embroidery took me a while but it's done.

Here are Blocks 5 and 6, which share the clothes line.

I also got the rest of my placemats finished.  I love these!

I got 5 out of the one charm pack and about a yard of fabric. This was one challenge I'm thrilled I tried.
LOL this was a Rouenneries weekend...and I still have Rural Jardin charm packs! muah haha....so much French General goodness.

Le Jardin Block 5

So while you were all lighting up my e-mail with comments from the giveaway I was working on Block 5 from Le Jardin. This block is another multiple in one and is super cute. I can't embroider the clothesline until I have block 6 done, and the middle dress' bow gets added on after quilting so here is block 5 as it will be for a while.

I had trouble getting a good picture but I'm very happy with the block. It's very cute and turned out well.

Fabricland has it's member's save 50% off sale until Saturday.

I picked up Cuddliscious for the backing of Little Bit's quilt. It's pink and red hearts and super soft and snuggly. It's sewn up for backing and packed up until I can take it to mom's and get it basted.

Le Jardin Block Two C'est fini!

 I finally got Block two all finished up. This one did not go together without a little bit of oops.

I accidentally cut through one of the flower fabrics when I was cutting out leaves. Luckily because this is from FQS there was lots of fabric so I still managed to cut out my two tulips from this.

Here's all the pieces waiting to be glue basted and then them just waiting to be placed and sewn down.

 

I ended up taking a picture after each group was sewn down. It looked cool flipping through it on the Windows Live Photo.

 

Looks pretty good doesn't it? It's about 1/8" too small on the one corner, which is fudgable. I know that's not a real word but today it is!

Oh, oh! Guess what I saw had arrived at FQS! Le Jardin, the fabric line! At least precuts...which seem to arrive a month or two before the yardage, and the due date. Which irritate me in some ways, especially with the Moda Sampler box. They claimed the lines wouldn't be out until Spring, as late as April, yet they are all now out, again at least the precuts, and many with yardage. I don't think I'll buy the box again. Not when if I wait a month or so I can get charm packs etc.'
So while I'm happy about getting my hands on Le Jardin earlier, hopefully, I don't like these false release dates, or they feel false to me anyways. And I love my Moda, I just dislike anything dishonest, or misleading, and that's what it feels like to me.

Anyhoo, I promise you won't have to see Rouenneries for a few weeks as other things must be worked on. Unless I get Duma worked on, but I doubt it.
 I need to baste, quilt and bind Tumbling Dino's, finish the Verna mini and get and start/finish February's Schnibble, Sunday Best. Which means I have to order it, and figure out what fabrics to use.

A sort of finish

 I finished the block from Le Jardin BOM.

I only stretched the blocks a tiny bit. I don't think you can really tell. It measures just a hair off the 16 1/2" it should so goodness.

I hand embroidered the ribbony thing on the bunny. I oopsied the the ribbon a bit but I think I fixed it enough. The ribbon was supposed to be higher on the bunny and hit the neck straight on...I don't know if that makes sense but it looks ok to me and that's all that matters, right?
 I'm not the biggest fan of the red and white side fabric but the overall quilt looks so cool I don't care.

I wasn't going to finish it today but I kept looking over and seeing this.

 Who could resist?
I couldn't find the pattern for Duma today but I knew I needed a bunch of berries so I grabbed the scraps of my Magic Fuse and made these.

I used a 5/8 punch for scrapbooking to do the "berries" for Chateau Duma. Much easier then trying to cut out a gazillion of them with scissors.

 It is super cold here. Little Bit wasn't happy about having to stay inside but this is 20 minute frost bite weather. We played lots of Wii and "Scooby-Doo Ball" which is just hall soccer with a rubber ball. Hopefully it warms up a bit soon. My puppies may have me arrested for cruelty if they have to do their business outside much longer. Oh, and the looks I get. Both adorable and funny.
Did you know a dog can say all sorts of things with their eyes? Like eat sh**? Or I'm going to bite you in your sleep? Along with the required I love you and come on...you know you want to give me that food you have. Don't let those cute faces fool you.

But then there is a reason we call them fur-babies.

  I'm waiting for a several things in the mail...a few ordered back mid December. I'm starting to get annoyed. LOL and I'm sure you'd all like to see something besides Rouenneries.

Go Bama! Roll Tide!

Tonight is the BCS National Championship and DH's Crimson Tide are playing the Texas Longhorns. I could care less to be honest but he's so dang excited it's infectious, lol and the idea that football is getting closer and closer to being over for a few months.

I'm pretty woozy from the lidocain infusion but feeling nicer then I did before I had it so hopefully it'll be better each time.

  I've got the rest of the leaves for Chateau Duma prepped. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the circles.
 And I got half of block one done for Le Jardin.

The parts of the block are completed. And half the applique is prepped and waiting for me to finish the other pieces so I can get it sewn down. The stuff in the plastic baggie is waiting to be glue basted down.
 I don't want to sew the block together until I finish the applique just in case I stretch it when I'm sewing them down. It's easier to cut down a single piece of fabric then unsew and then trim.

 I have to say this about Fatquarter shop. They always include way more fabric then you'll need. You have oops room. I super appreciate this because I'm more relaxed when cutting, which for me means less mistakes. I'm putting all my scraps, and they're definatly big enough to be scraps and not cuttings, into another baggie. I'm hoping by the end I'll have enough to try and make  a mini antique-looking Canadian flag.

 Which I really want now, seeing as the US beat us in the World Junior Finals. In overtime! The ended Canada's 5 year run of gold. As DH (an American) crowed all yesterday "silver's not bad eh?"
Hopefully the big boys do as well or better in the Olympics. Another Torino will get a hell of a lot more response then Harper proroguing Parliament again has so far.

 I try to avoid politics here but this I have to say to my fellow Canadians. Our Parliament, the only part of our governement that really answers to the people, is under attack and few seem to care. This is an attack on our democracy, and freedom to be ruled by people chosen by us. I don't care what your leanings. You should be very worried and upset by this. Many important bill, some even put forth by the C's, are dying on the floor because of this, and several VITAL inquiries are being shut down in hopes people will forget. This is bypassing the whole point of having a body to hold accountable the ruling government. Opposition is as vital to our way of government as those ruling. Get informed. Please. This will matter even more if this becomes a regular thing, which Harper is saying he may do. Do not give more power to the PMO.

Productivity

 I can't believe it but I have posted every day for over a week! WOW. Considering I stopped for many, many months for no real reason this is very impressive.

I must have just gone through a dry spell. I feel like I have accomplished, and learned, more lately then I ever have previously. And this is in part due to a person who is no longer a friend. Crystal and I became best friends in a counseling class. We stayed good friends, the doing everything kind, for about a year. I taught her to quilt, which got me back quilting. Then she disappeared. The reappeared. Then disappeared. This both confused and hurt me. Until I started thinking about it and then it made perfect sense. Crystal had a very hard childhood. The write a book kinda bad. She has been on her own since she was 17 and has more or less flitted from one person to another, getting what she needs and then moving on. She doesn't do it consciously or intentionally but it is what happens, and she is too nice to end relationships so she just lets them lapse. Ok I can deal with this. It is her problem or whatever, not mine. But thing is she has a BUNCH of my quilting things, including a sewing machine, and my 6x24" Olfa ruler, travel cutting board/iron that was a present from DH. I am not happy about this. But she has moved, and I no longer has her cell number so there isn't much I can do about it.

  Something about me is I don't make friends easily. In fact I'm fairly bad at it. I have millions of acquaintances, people who you talk to wherever etc but outside their "area" I don't do well. I have so little self esteem sometimes that I can't shake the feeling that people are only being "nice" or polite and don't really want me around. This is a left over from childhood. I know this intellectually but can't shake the feeling. The whole episode with Crystal hasn't helped this obviously.  She abandoned me when things got bad health wise, and only showed up again when she needed something. And I really thought she was a forever kind of friend. Those kind you just click with instantly and seem to just get each other. I'd never really had that before so this was odd and great.
Anyway, I don't really know why I'm sharing that now. Maybe just knowing I owe my re-entry into the quilting world, and the blogosphere, to her strikes me as ironic. And the blogosphere is where I find more companionship then anywhere.
Which leads me to the generosity of bloggers. Nancy offered her gorgeous self-designed pattern "Chateau Duma" on her blog because we asked. Isn't that great? I couldn't wait to start and have already got to here. My base turned out 17" square, instead of 16 but it hasn't mattered so far.

I still have 10 or 11 leaves to finish prepping and all the berries/circles but I think it's looking good. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to arrange all the leaves etc but pretty much I think I'm assured of a good result.

The fluer-de-lis, a traditional symbol of the French, and in Canada Quebec, got me thinking about how this line could be used to make an antique looking Canadian flag. Which would be historically inaccurate as the Canadian flag only became official in 1965, though the emblem has been used in various ways since the 1890s. Still I think it would look cool. I just don't know how I can justify more Rouenneries.

  

Especially since this came today.

Literally as I was finishing there was a knock on the door.  And the mail lady handed me my block one of the Le Jardin BOM from Fatquarter Shop! YAY!! You know I have to cut into this right away. Or at least read the instructions and pet the fabrics. I should put this away until I finish Duma, and perhaps if Madeline gets here too. But I doubt it will happen. ;)