work in progress on a Friday !

Tuesday was the Australia Day public holiday and I also had the Wednesday off work so took the opportunity to do some catch-up sewing.

I made the last scrappy nine patch blocks so I managed 56 blocks in 56 days ...

when I decide what sashing to use I'll sew the top together - I don't want to use white sashing in this quilt - I'm thinking charcoal but I'll probably end up using a silvery grey!

I've also finished one of the pillow tops I'm making for mum and dad - hope to get it quilted this weekend.  I'm using 6" jacks on six blocks for this little pillow - love the secondary star pattern - mum and dad picked out the fabrics when they visited last November.

and I finally sewed together the Pack Patch Mini Quilt Along blocks into a top - it was a Flickr quilt-along hosted by Chase of Quarter Inch Mark and I finished the little blocks almost a year ago !!

I'm going to hand quilt this one so it will be a while before its finished.

I also came across a mini charm pack of Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky so on the spur of the moment decided to make Moda's Love Quilt - its only a 12 1/2" block so I'll probably add some borders and make it into a pillow.

have a great weekend !

aussie aviatrix quilt-along: border 5

almost the end of the Aviatrix quilt-along ! are you up to date ? I’m so looking forward to putting my quilt together over the Christmas break!
 
I’m going to share a few tips about sewing Border 5 – it’s the log cabin blocks and they are so fabulous!


I shared my progress up to border 4 last week – and I still haven’t finished the border 3 and 4 blocks but I have finished all of the border 5 blocks!

Linden of Vine Lines Quilting, the host of the quilt-along, is doing interviews on her blog with all of the girls doing the blog hop !! if you want to see the first "big" quilt I made, my sewing space, or a photo of pippi in the snow then head over and have a read ! 

I was so thankful that I cut all of the blocks out at the beginning of this quilt-along – its been so easy to sew each of the borders and its especially wonderful for this border as its made up of strips.

I spent a morning putting all the pieces together for each of the blocks and then I sewed them together – after doing the first couple of A blocks I decided to chain piece by block number as each block is a different colour and it was very quick.

I have a couple of tips for making this block:

• make all of the A blocks then all of the B blocks as the pieces sewn off the centre are joined in different ways and this stops any confusion and unpicking – ask me how I know !! 
• always double check that the block is sitting the right way up before adding your next piece !
• press as you go and make sure you press – not iron - as they are small pieces of fabric and you don’t want to stretch them
• measure each of the blocks and trim if necessary before sewing them together into the border – this ensures that your blocks fit together !

I hope you have fun making these blocks ! Next week Jenn who blogs over at PennyPoppleton will have tips on the final border – the fabulous butterflies !

The Aussie Aviatrix quilt-along is being hosted by Linden at Vine Lines Quilting. We're using Elizabeth Hartman's Aviatrix pattern.

If you’re on IG hastag #aussieaviatrixqal to see other blocks and quilts being made.

aussie aviatrix quilt along

Earlier this year on instagram there was some talk of doing Elizabeth Hartman's Aviatrix Medallion quilt.  I'd bought the pattern but hadn't yet tackled it and then a few months ago Linden from Vine Lines Quilting decided to start a quilt-a-long and asked me to join in - it was the perfect opportunity to make this wonderful quilt with a heap of other Aussie girls !

The quilt-a-long started in mid-September and as is usual with me I started a bit late - originally I was going to purchase Kona solids to make my quilt in Elizabeth's colours but in the end decided to shop my stash and I'm so glad I did !  I grouped my colours like Elizabeth's choices in green, orange, blue, and violet ( well mine are more pink !)

I started by cutting out all the pieces - this is a very piece heavy quilt and there is a lot of cutting - I think it took me most of the weekend to do the cutting.

Then a few weeks ago I finally got to courage to start the medallion centre - sewing the pieces into quarters then a week or so later I finished it !

the medallion was fun to put together although it was slow sewing - with stories from the others about blocks not lining up I was making sure all my templates matched - sewing the four quarters together was a challenge and its still not perfect but I'm calling it done !


the first border was a breeze with my favourite half square triangles using the neutral colours and I really love how it looks.

the second border was just as fun - of course having all of the blocks cut previously is an inspired idea as you can just put fabrics together and sew - it took me most of the day to get to this stage though!

I've made a start on the third border by marking the 160 tiny squares on the diagonal - I used to think doing sew and flip was fun but after doing so many in the Quilty Fun sew-a-long and now these, my love has turned luke-warm !

I've also made the strips for the fourth border which looks like another fun border.

While I haven't quite finished the 3rd and 4th borders I have almost finished the 5th border - here's a sneak peak !

If you're on instagram hash tag #aussieaviatrixqal to see all the wonderful quilts being made - they look so amazing in all of the different fabrics !

My day is next Monday 1 December  Tuesday 2 December - I'll be showing my finished border 5 blocks and sharing some tips!

2014 finish along - my second quarter list

I had six hopefuls on my first quarter list for this year's finish-along and I got two quilts finished - quite an improvement on last year's efforts - and I did make progress on most of the others too so I'm rolling those over to the second quarter list.

I straight line quilted Through the Trees and also sewed on the binding - it just needs to be hand sewn down.

I also sewed the rows together on the double wedding ring quilt so now its ready for quilting.  I'm planning on hand quilting it so it might just go over two quarters but with winter fast approaching it will be nice to sit and sew with a warm quilt on my lap.

I cut out half of the single girl quilt pieces and sewed up quite a few of the arcs so hopefully some more progress this quarter too !

I sewed together the backing for the pink spiderweb quilt so I just need to baste and quilt it - its a charity quilt made by members of the do.good stitches care circle and as its my month again in May I'd like to have this one finished by then !

I'm adding the spinning stars quilt to this quarter list - I sewed all the pieces of the blocks together over the last couple of months so it would be good to get a quilt finished within six months of starting it !

I'm also adding a couple of tops that were made and then put in the cupboard waiting for the quilting - well quilting time is here !!

box of chocolates is a quilt that I made in April 2011 - when I put a photo of it on flickr I had a comment that it looked like a box of chocolates so that's its name !!

another top is my wonky max and whiskers quilt - this one was made in August 2011 and I'd love to be using it this winter - I love the max and whiskers fabric - I did put this one on my 3rd quarter list last year and I said I was going to hand quilt it - well that plan is out the window !

my last one for this quarter is my summer house hexy quilt - the pieces were cut out in September 2011 and the top was finally sewn together in September 2013 - it was on my 3rd quarter list last year so hopefully I'll get the quilting done this quarter - talk about a drawn out finish !

that's eight quilts for my second quarter list - better get started !!

3rd quarter to-do list

after just posting about non-finishes for the 2nd quarter of the 2013 finish-a-long its time for my list of hopeful finishes for the 3rd quarter!

of course my first UFO on the 3rd quarter list is Lucy's quilt which I am 100% confident of getting done as its already quilted and the binding is sewn on ready for hand sewing - yes, I almost got it finished for the second quarter but missed it by a whisker !

and my poor old Mod Pop will go on my 3rd quarter list as well - I managed to make the quilt top in the 1st quarter and I pieced the back in the 2nd quarter so I'm really hoping I can quilt and bind it in the 3rd quarter - I'd love to see this on my bed while its still winter :)

I'm adding just one more UFO from my previous lists and that is to finish the whirlygig mini wild thing - I managed to get the top done last quarter.  As its only a small quilt I'm going to try some easy (LOL!) machine quilting so I hope to get this finished as well.

and now for a couple of totally new UFOs that I'm hoping to get done this quarter ...

Last year I was in a flickr group - Design Camp 2 - and for my month I requested mod mosaic blocks based on a tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman and I can't wait to see this put together - I only received the final blocks at the end of last year so I'm happy to get these out of the box and onto the design wall !

I have already started trying to work out the placement and how to cut the background - I think I'll do a two sided quilt like Elizabeth as some of the blocks are quite big.

In October 2011 I decided to do a hexagon quilt using Julie from Jaybird Quilts Hexagon Quilt-a-long.  I cut most of the blocks and even blogged about it and that's as far as I got !

I'm using Summer House which I got as a fat quarter bundle through the Fat Quarter Shop Blogger's Choice club way back in September 2011 - the colours are a little different from what I'd pick for a quilt now - no pink - but I've since bought some pink roses from this range for the backing !!

it would be fantastic to get this quilt done in the third quarter so it would only be two years in the making!

well, that's my list for the 3rd quarter - hopefully its do-able !!

linking up to the 3rd quarter 2013 Finish-a-long over at She Can Quilt

almost a finish !

its down to the wire for the second quarter finishes of the 2013 finish-a-long over at she can quilt and I'm not going to get the binding finished on Lucy's quilt...oh well, there's always next time !

the results of my second quarter list are ...

Lucy's quilt - just needed to quilt and bind this to finish but I only started the quilting yesterday so I'm pretty happy that its at least quilted and the binding is sewn on - just needs to be hand sewn down which we all knows takes more than a few hours :)  I'm hoping to get it finished this week though.

I promised my mum that I wouldn't show another photo of this quilt until it was finished so here's a quick sneak peak with the quilting done and the binding on ...

as its an hourglass block I straight stitched either side of the seam lines on the diagonals and I've only just realised this afternoon that this is my first "big" quilt that I've machine quilted - I was pretty happy with my set up - the ironing board was a big help

but I'm going to have to find somewhere else to quilt my Mod Pop as Lucy's quilt is only 40 x 50 inches and the Mod Pop is 60 x 60 inches and I want to do a bit more quilting so I think it will be a bit too much for my small sewing area - I think I'll give the dining table a try and see how I go !

speaking of the Mod Pop - no I didn't get it finished but I did get the back sewn together so that's one more step done - I decided to use some of the mistake curved blocks from the front and piece the back - it took quite a while to decide on the design and as I didn't want to make more blocks I went with the flower block - I'm thinking they are retro looking flowers so they should look ok !  (there aren't marks on the fabric - I've got other blocks on the design wall underneath)

and my other projects listed were my twin whirlygig mini wild things - I actually finished the top of one of these which was a pretty good effort since only some of the blocks were cut - I still need to get the other one done though (sigh)

I did have another project listed but I've realised that its not really a UFO - its a block I cut out after seeing some fabric (that's been in my stash for over a year) while I was on the phone a few months ago and it was like I hadn't seen it before and immediately had to make a dresden plate (as in as soon as I got off the phone) !  I'm intending to make a quilt top and have found some other stripe fabric to join these blocks - I'm also going to piece the plates rather than applique them but I've decided to put this project on the backburner until I get my UFOs done so maybe next year or maybe the 4th quarter !

well - that's my unfinished second quarter of the 2013 finish-a-long ... the next quarter has to be better doesn't it ?

there are some amazing finishes over at the linky party so if you need some inspiration you should take a look :)

just a little pink pez !

I've been a bit busy for the past week - starting and finishing my mod pop quilt top !

As soon as I saw Leanne's mod pop quilt-along last year I just had to join in - I LOVED Julie's pattern and immediately thought of using the pezzy print in pink - I'm in love with that sweet little pez :)

At the time of the quilt-along in September last year, I'd also recently joined the totally groovy quilt-along and had purchased a couple of the new Kona colours that Kaufman had just introduced which included azalea - another colour I'm just a bit partial to so I just had to mix them - I actually thought of using some bright pink solid by Moda for this quilt but I wasn't convinced and when I tried out the azalea I thought it was a match made in heaven - well my heaven anyway :)

The totally groovy pattern uses curves as well so I thought I'd be fine with the curves in the mod pop - well a few curves is one thing but 120 curved blocks is quite another!!

Of course, at the time I signed up I didn't really think about how many curved blocks there were - I only just counted them yesterday which I'm thinking was a good idea !

so I'm officially no longer afraid of curves :)

while the quilt-along was underway I managed to make one block - I was making the lap size which requires 8 blocks - I used the curve master and managed to make a couple of ok curves although there was some unpicking involved but I was pretty happy with the block.

Then of course I was behind in other projects I had deadlines for - an excuse for not wanting to sew curves perhaps !! so this quilt was put on hold. When Leanne introduced the 2013 Finish-along I was determined to get this quilt done so put it on my first quarter list!

I spent most of Sunday and Monday week cutting out all of the pieces

and then last week started slowly sewing the curves and blocks together

of course I hadn't sewn a curve since October when I made my first block so when I tried to sew them on the Janome I had all sorts of issues - I sewed up 12 blocks and unpicked 10 ! so quickly decided I had to try something else so I started pinning the blocks which was a bit slower but way better than sewing and unpicking :)

I think the issue with trying to do it on the Janome is that the needle is at the back of the machine whereas on the Elna its at the front so I got the old faithful Elna out and tried again ... what's that saying about a poor tradesman always blames her tools - lol ... it seemed that I'd just lost the knack of being able to sew curves - the ones I sewed without pins all came out uneven as well as a smidge small and didn't lay flat and the blocks that I pinned all turned out the right size and laid flat so I just kept going with the pins.

I also ran into another issue that I hadn't really thought about (I've learnt some great lessons doing this quilt !) that the way I cut the pezzy fabric made a difference as its directional !

When I started to sew them together I noticed that a few of the pez were going in the wrong direction which would have made the quilt look quite different so I needed to re-cut some of the pieces.  I'm planning on having some crazy curved blocks on the back to use up those pieces :)

after sewing most of the weekend I finally pressed the last seam at 10pm on Monday night - I'm so glad its finished as I just love it :)  Hopefully I'll get to take a half-decent photo of it this weekend in the daylight but until then I'm showing the just finished night shot !

I've already worked out the quilting that I'm going to attempt to do which amazes me but of course it won't be quilted by the first quarter of the finish-along deadline which is in a couple of weeks as I have some overdue blocks, some other projects with deadlines, and a mini quilt for a swap that needs to be started !

I'd really like to thank the amazing Leanne of She Can Quilt for the inspiration and Julie of Distant Pickles for the ab fab Mod Pop pattern :)

if you're looking for a fun pattern maybe you should try it too - if you have a fear of curves this quilt will definitely cure that !

conquering those curves!

on the weekend I decided to tackle the curves of the totally groovy quilt.

amazingly, the craftsy bom blocks for September were drunkard's path too so I thought I would practice on those first.

I have a curvemaster foot and was pretty confident that I knew how to use it - I'd watched a few video tutorials and it looked kind of easy .... I should have known better !

So I cut out the pies and crusts of the drunkard's path craftsy blocks and started sewing them together and had issues straight away - none of them were ending well and I kept catching the inner circle when I was sewing.

the first one will be interesting as I try to sew it together - as not many of the seams line up !

hopefully they'll sew together ok though !

doing the blocks for the second one I actually did one almost perfect block !

and the rest turned out a bit better - at least I didn't catch the bottoms

but I'll probably still have issues trying to sew the block together !

when I cut out the totally groovy blocks I noticed that the inner curve template was way smaller than the craftsy one so I was a little worried with that - I think I'd heard somewhere that starching the fabric would help with stretching so I starched all of these blocks - I sewed a few and while one turned out ok the others were wonky and had seams extending - oh well - there's always tomorrow !

so I went to bed on Sunday night thinking that I couldn't do curves with the curvemaster !

anyway, not to be outdone by a sewing foot, this morning I tried again but it wasn't pretty !

they either didn't sit right or I was catching the inner curve !

So it was time to do something else !

There were a pile of papers on my cutting table that I needed to sort through so I started that - about half way through I saw a curvemaster tutorial that I'd printed out and read through it and discovered what I might be doing wrong - I think instead of holding the top fabric straight up I was kind of holding it to the side so I jumped on the machine and tried another curve as I still had about 18 to sew !!

well the first one turned out not too bad - the difference between these two is quite amazing !

the final lot that I sewed turned out really well too - I was very happy - I think I might have conquered the curvemaster - yippee !!

hope you had a great weekend !