Algiz Studio

It is time for yet another tell me a story swap. The theme is free this time.

Here are the stories:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. My dear quilting friend Mary sent me this doctor fabric all the way from Canada.

It is time for another tell me a story swap. The theme is free this time, so I have sent some of the blocks I have made just for fun when I got a new idea.

Here are the stories:

The horses were frolicking in a field of summer flowers.

A little poem block. Her heart was a secret garden, and the walls were very high. The fabric around the poem is a vintage floral, each is unique as these vere fabric swatches.

Penny sold eggs from her geese at the farmers market.

Old Mc Donald had a farm, and on that farm there were geese, and it was one goose here and two geese there and goose, geese, more geese and eggs galore and after a while there were geese everywhere. But all he was really interested in was his brand new tractor.

Harry went to the wild west to work as a cowboy, he sends letters home telling about his adventures every month.

In May, Harry was riding his horse, Blister, it was branding time for the cows.

We had homemade lemonade on the veranda, and all the bees came to join the fun.

Lola is helping oversee the apple picking, making sure every apple is in the basket.

On Sunday we were flying kites, Patras kite broke free and sailed into the clouds an a new adventure.

Today we had vegetable soup with fresh food from the garden.

Lou is the king of the forest, he is especially fond of nuts.

In every house there is a very special teddy bear that keeps the kids safe at night.

And it is time for another round of the tell me a story swap. The theme is beach. I took a slightly unconventional turn, but it is definitively beach themed.

The blocks are aptly named "My very own private beach" and "X marks the spot". I went with more of a title than a story this time, but you can definitively see the stories in the blocks.

So, I have these two center motives for the TMAS swap, and I have no idea what to put as a border fabric. I went to look for fabrics yesterday, but all I could find was spacemen and pinecones, so of course I grabbed those two fabrics, but only the pinecones go with the autumn theme and I have no idea what kind of story apples and pinecones makes. Anyone have any ideas?

All I have is: Even for spacemen an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I wish I had a doctor fabric, if something like that even exists. It sounds pretty far fetched to me. But it would be great for the apples.

Anyway, here are the rest of my fabric collection. I am quite proud of having managed to collect so many different fabrics, novelty prints are not easy to come by in the stores here. Florals, dots and checks are the norm. Quite a lot of the very fancy fabrics have been gifts from swapees around the world. A big thank you to all the lovely ladies out there who share my passion for fun fabrics.

Checks, dots and animal prints.

Florals, vintage, travel, night, skulls, cartoon vintage, clothes.

Can you believe that I have saved some of these vintage fabrics since the 70-ties?

Florals

White on white and low volume, farm, sewing, construction, edibles, patterns

These are the available blocks for side swaps:

Cat blocks:

Hiding among the sunflowers makes the best place to catch flies. 1 block left.

Peekaboo! 1 block left.

Every day is a good day when you are wearing your favourite vintage dress and have cats in the house. 1 block left.

Wild cats and wild flowers, these are two of my favourite things. 1 block left.

Oliver likes to stick his nose into books and lazy walks in the flower garden. 1 block left.

The ginger cat likes to sleep on hus mistress' vintage dresses. 1 block left.

In the secret garden the cats enjoy the flowers. 4 blocks left.

In the tropical garden the cats enjoy the dazzling sunshine. 1 block left.

While I was busy sewing, my cat drank the tea. 2 blocks left.

A cat for every house and a house for every cat. 2 blocks left.

Brown print of a naked cat. 0 blocks left.

When I die I want to come back as a cat. 1 block left.

Travel blocks:

This summer we traveled around on our bikes collecting ephemera and sent it back home. 8 blocks left.

Going camping in a vintage camper and sending postcards from all the places we visited was so much fun. 7 blocks left.

We bought last minute aeroplane tickets for cheap and sent surprise postcards to all our friends. 6 blocks left.

Garden blocks:

In spring the swallows move in and flies around in my garden. 2 blocks left.

The new neighbours bunny escaped and came into our garden, her name is Millie, we still do not know the name of the neughbour. 1 block left.

We had so much cherries this year that we sold it at the farmers market, it was such a success that we rated it five stars. 4 blocks left.

Old Mc Donald had a farm, and on that farm there were geese, and it was one goose here and two geese there and goose, geese, more geese and and eggs galore and after a while there were geese everywhere. 7 blocks left.

Autumn blocks:

The hedgehogs are preparing for fall and are making nests in the midnight garden. 0 blocks left.

I took my cat mushroom picking in the woods again the autumn, we found so much chanterelles. 0 blocks left.

Beet and mushroom soup is absolutely the best. 0 blocks left.

Getting things done! Tackle that WIP 2nd quarterly update.

I have four finishes and four new projects, one of which is finished. And the Dear Jean is almost done, it was a mess to quilt because it is so big and heavy, but I did it!

I still can't decide what to do with the Gayle Lorraine fabric, that is a hard one to crack.

Mariposa is up next, lots of straight line quilting on that one.

I received the most wonderful gift today from Elizabeth Chappell. I participated in her health and fitness challenge and won a fat quarter bundle of the Gayle Lorraine fabric she has designed. It is the first time ever I have a bundle like this, and I am not quite sure what to do with all this lovely fabric. I have made a selection of pattern that I like, but I am having a hard time choosing the right one. Feel free to chime in if you have an opinion. because I can't seem to make up my mind. Top row are blocks I like, I really enjoy bear paws, some old fashioned patterns on the third row, modern ones with larger pieces on the fourth and modern with smaller pieces on the bottom row.

It will end up being a scrappy quilt I assume. I am willing to find a matching background fabric if needed. Midnight flower is a little fiddly, Garden harvest has a sewalong going, I have made Nightingale before and know I like the pattern, I have made Silene and it has a lot of seams meeting in places, I am collecting fabrics for a Bad girl in red and pinks.

For my potential extra cat block swappers, these are the blocks I have finished at the moment. I can make more of the following:

Black and white cats with moon border

Black and white cats with skull border

Tossed cats with house border

I completely forgot about the temperature/diary/daily prompt quilt I am thinking of doing, but that shows it is just a thought so far and not really a project.

I participated in a mug rug swap hosted by Christen Phillips from I see stars quilting. https://iseestarsquilting.com/ My parcel went to Nicole in Australia and I got a lovely parcel from Joy in New Zealand. It is amazing that we can swap like this from one end of the world to the other.

More blocks for the tell me a story cat block swap by Amy Friend of during quiet time. https://duringquiettime.com/2022/12/tell-me-a-story-block-swap-21-cats.html It is too late to join this swap, but Amy will be hosting more later in the year with themes like dogs, beach, sewing, baking and garden.

I tried a few different things this time. Fabric pen, just because I got myself one and had to use it. Stamping, love this, but I think I need some better paint and more exciting colours. Thread drawing, not the most successful, it goes much better when it is a quilt, a single layer of cloth is too flimsy. Paper piecing and applique, works fine, but I need to change the colours, that black cat is hardly visible at all.