Dots on Dots Blog Hop

It's my turn - whoo hooo!

How much fun has this theme been! Have so enjoyed myself although I did lose my mojo half way through (and also had the children at home and went away for a couple of weeks) so I didn't produce as much as I thought I would but I am still pleased with my creations.

Firstly I made this:

my plan was to make about a dozen of these and make them into a quilt but I didn't like this in the end so didn't make anymore.  I am not sure whether it's the colours and there is too much white (I then went out about bought all the grey and blue spot you can see on the flowers below but never regained my mojo for carrying on with these blocks!).  Or whether it's because I am too fussy and can't get perfect points:

see in the middle there and to the bottom left of the bottom left spot?  Am I just been too fussy?  I used a template to cut out all the pieces and 1/4" foot so in my eyes they should all be perfect.

Anyway with that project now cast aside I decided to do some beach scenes (having just come back all inspired from our lovely Devonshire coast), and made these:

The beach material is a fat quarter I have had sitting in my stash for ages and the blue sky is an old shirt! Like a bit of upcycling me!  and then here is one done in my bright materials:

Then as I am going through a flower making phase (see previous post) I made this:

and then I completely lost my inspiration and couldn't muster up the energy to produce another beach quilt (was planning one with a row of beach huts and another with a boat on the sea in my mind) so I did what always cheers and motivates me and got my sizzix dies out:

these are from T!ms tattered flower die.  I was going to put all the rolled rose flowers on the top but decided it was all too bulky so opted for buttons instead.  I have also made another quilt but have decided to try and see if I can get it published as I haven't been showcased in a sewing magazine yet and there is a new one produced here in England - but again that's a job for another day!

All blocks are left unfinished as I loved the idea of Madame Samms of joining them all into a quilt although knowing me they will be added to the UFO pile for a while as I am in the next two blog hops too!

Anyway if you have perserveered through all my ramblings to here - well done! sorry for whittering on but to reward one of you I would like to do a giveaway of 20 handmade flowers - in the spotty colours above or I could swap a few for crocheted flowers if you prefer.  Giveaway is open to anyone who comments on this post and I will pick a random winner on the 22nd (day after the last day of the hop) and will post anywhere in the world.  You don't have to be a follower but I would love it if you were!

Thanks for joining me on my blog hop day the rest of today's schedule is:

September 11th
Why Knot Kwilt

Stitchin by the Lake

Beth @ Plum and June

The Recipe Bunny

Sunshine Girl   This is me!

Aunt Marti

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

Cliodana

and the full schedule can be found here on the lovely Corrie's blog.  A big thank you to both Madame Samm and Corrie for organising this hop.

Thanks for looking - Definately dotty from Solihull

edited to add a tutorial for the kites:

Step 1: Get some lined paper and draw a straight line vertically on the page, use a 2B pencil as these show through your bonding paper well:

Step 2: Next I estimated approximately how big I wanted my kites (I don't do strict measuring - far too time consuming!) and I decided I wanted the long sides to be about 10 lines in height and 2 inches wide at the widest point, so I draw a horizontal line across at the 10 line height

Step 3: then positioned my ruler like so:

where the 1 inch cross square met the line is actually 11 lines up from the bottom point and the ruler is angled so that the inch point hits the 10th line, then draw your next line from the bottom point up the 10 line mark.

Step 4: Reposition the rule on the opposite site and match up exactly as before and draw your line:

you are left with this shape:

which should be perfectly symmetrical!

Step 5: reposition the ruler to the height you would like the top part of the kite to be - I decided up 3 lines high:

and draw your next line:

repeat for the other side:

voila - a perfect kite!

Trace this through onto Bondaweb (the English version of double sided heat and bond I think) and then iron onto four pieces of material, position on your block and iron in place.

I then simply sewed around the outside of the whole shape starting at the top point, when I returned there I turned the quilt and sewed a line from top to bottom directly through the centre, turned the quilt again and retraced the line up to the widest (10th line) position (this was all done by eyeball no strict measuring involved!) then I sewed across to the left, turned and sewed all the way over to the right, turned again and sewed back to the middle.  Then I sewed back up to the top and all around the whole kite again.

To add interest I sewed wiggly lines from each deckchair to a kite - the children can now play the game where they have to find out which kite is being flown from which deckchair.  To finish I cut strips of each fabric approx 1.5" x .5" sewed up the middle by hand and gathered it so it looks like a bow, then sewed it on a flag bottom - normally I would do three bows per kite but as I have made my quilts into little puzzles I decided to stop at one otherwise the quilt would be far too busy.

Hope this helps! sorry its all written in a rush before my school run so I hope it makes sense!