Sunday 9 January 2011

New Year & new challenges

Today we had the first thaw since November. It is raining now, and the snowy pavements will be ice and awful for a long time. I prefer -10 C and dry snow anytime between November and March. The apple tree picture was taken a few days ago when the air was curiously red.


I used a lot of fabrics last year, but I hope to use even more this year. I have started with a big plastic bag of strips in any colour, length and width.


 I'm sewing them together to make 10.5" blocks with the QAYG technique, so I can use leftover bits of batting as well. The blocks - 10 ready by today - will go to Jan Mac in Australia. She will join them with other blocks from other places of the world, and deliver them to the Queensland flood area, where families have lost everything.



Jan has a tutorial showing how to make the blocks on her other blog, and her address is on the Oz Comfort Quilts blog. Every block sent to her will find its place in a quilt, every block counts. The postage of a few blocks sent in a big envelope is not too much, if you want to help. Or maybe you have a group of quilters who could share the mailing costs and send more blocks together? They are in fact fun to make, and it takes about half an hour to make a block. It takes 35 blocks to make a quilt.

I have joined another challenge as well already: Anne Marie from Norway is challenging other quilting bloggers to make a Nine-Patch quilt from stash by September 1st. It is not a swap, you can do anything you like with the quilt, and there are no size limits either. Your quilt just needs to have a Nine-patch block or many of them.


Both these projects suit perfectly my efforts of reducing the amount of fabric I have laying around the house, mostly folded in boxes and sorted by colour but also in plastic bags, baskets and just free-standing piles. If you have the same sort of a problem, these are two nice ways to help you towards your goal.

I wish you all a happy new year, with lots of inspiration and lovely projects!

10 comments:

  1. What wonderful projects for your stash! I had not seen the QAYG technique before; thanks for sharing it. Your string blocks are so colorful!

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  2. Thank you so much Ulla for supporting me and joining in my new challenge..
    Good luck with your charity quilt block, you are a very sweet person Ulla,,

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  3. Australia has had terrible tragedies the last few years. Fire and flood. There are always ways to help those in need.

    I joined Anne Marie's challenge. This will be fun.

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  4. hi Ulla, that's wonderful of you to make so many quilt blocks for the Queenslanders in need. I make 4 at a time and it takes about 2 hours, so very satisfying and my stash pile is slowly reducing.
    That's a very strange light on the apple tree, quite spooky.
    enjoy your day/evening...kaite

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  5. A beautiful picture, I thought you had played with your camera!
    I've also joined Anne Marie's Challenge, a simple and nice idea.

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  6. God bless you Ulla! Thank you so much for adding the posting to your blog about the QAYG blocks. The situation is becoming worse as people have now died in the floods and still they are spreading. They had 8 metres of water come from a river and people had no warning. I can use any blocks that people donate and will keep showing photos of finished quilts on my blogs.
    Hugs Jan Mac
    Aussie

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  7. What a lovely idea to make blocks for Australians. This is the first i have heard about it.

    Yes I have joined the lovely Anne Marie's 9 patch challenge too. No big ideas yet but I will try to do it from stash.

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  8. Yay, an ozcomfortquilts button, just what's needed to get the message around about the comfort quilt blocks for the Australian flood survivors. k.

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  9. Se ilman punaisuus johtui auringonpimennyksestä. Terveisin
    influenssainen pikkusisko.

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  10. Happy New Year to you as well, Ulla! How strange to see the apples still on the trees - and very beautiful in the red hues!
    And what a perfect way to help others in need! I've joined Anne Marie's challenge, too, and almost have my first one finished!
    Cheers!

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