modern quilts

Way back in April I purchased the spring issue of Modern Patchwork magazine and as soon as I saw the Lava Lamp Revisited quilt by Jacquie Gering I knew I had to make it !  Lava lamps are way cool and this quilt was very quick and easy quilt to make.

When it was finished I was a little shocked at how washed out it looked - I don't think I've used so much white in a quilt before !  I'm planning on using a bright varigated thread to quilt with or maybe using a few different colours to put a bit of colour in that white !

Of course its not at the quilting stage yet as I haven't organised the backing - I'm thinking of using this fabric from Emily Herrick's Technicolour range - I think it may have been made just for the Lava Lamp quilt !

Also in the magazine is the Retro Rubies quilt by Alyssa from Pile O' Fabric.  Alyssa used Oakshott fabrics in this quilt and as I have a big box of Oakshott I thought it was about time I cut some of it up so I made the Retro Rubies as well.

I was kind of making both quilts at the same time and I didn't read the instructions fully for putting the rubies together so I ended up sewing half of them the wrong way !

lesson learnt to make sure to read the instructions every step of the way !!  lucky I love my quick unpick - lol ! apart from my little mistake, the quilt went together really quickly and I really like the design.

I've ordered some thread to quilt the Retro Rubies and as its a wall hanging I'll just use a solid for the backing.

Hope to show these quilts all finished sometime in the near future - I think my free motion quilting is improving a smidge :)

quick charm pack quilts !

back in January this year I decided to tackle free motion machine quilting so I thought I'd buy some charm packs on sale and make up some practice quilts !

my idea was that charm quilts would be quick and easy to make and wouldn't cost that much !  I wasn't really thinking about the added cost of the batting, backing, and bindings !

I purchased 5 lots of 3 charm packs and after searching for patterns for a while at the Moda Bake Shop I finally did some mockups in EQ using different solids so I could see what the final quilts would look like.

This pattern is called Honey Honey Layer cake.

I decided to go with the poppy as a solid for the Tapestry rather than the snow but when the solids arrived I discovered the poppy was entirely the wrong colour so it was back to the drawing board !  I finally found a solid from the Tapestry range which was double the price of the kona solid I chose for the others so there goes my idea of a cheap practice quilt !

Thankfully the other solids seem to work well - I purchased Ash for Kissing Booth, Carrot for Serenade, Charcoal for Odds and Ends and (not shown here) Chocolate for Oh Deer.

I still haven't worked out which pattern I'll use for the Serenade charms - my first choice was this giant star that I'd seen on Jeni's In Color Order blog but using half square triangles instead.

when I ordered the carrot for the background I didn't order enough so I've come up with these other two patterns !

 

the one above is based on a pattern from the pillow I received in The Pillow Swap - I can't seem to get away from half square triangles - which I love to make but they are time consuming - and these were supposed to be quick and easy !

for the Odds and Ends charms I'm using another Moda Bake Shop pattern - Happy Weekender quilt.

 

Hopefully when I start this quilt it won't take too long to put together !

I'm going to use the garden fence pattern by Hyacinth Quilt Designs which I love for the Oh Deer charms but as it only needs one charm pack I'll have to find a use for the other packs.

I chose the chocolate for the background of this quilt - it seems I like bold colour rather than light backgrounds !

I'm using another Moda Bake Shop pattern - charming stars - for the Kissing Booth charms with kona ash as the background.

After 6 months of searching patterns, getting the right backgrounds, and generally stuffing about - a few weeks ago I finally made the Tapestry quilt and I love the celery solid !

Unfortunately I only have backings for the Serenade and Oh Deer charms so I'm still no closer to having some quilts for practice!

At this rate I think that 2014 is going to be my year for free motion machine quilting - LOL :)

a few wins !

I can't believe its July and I haven't posted about my lucky little wins from earlier in the year - oops !

In the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day in December last year I was the lucky recipient of a fat quarter bundle of Bella by Lotta Jansdotter from the wonderful Leanne of She Can Quilt so my year got off to a good start.

photo from Leanne's blog - I couldn't get them to look this good !

I've finally decided to make a square in a square quilt with this bundle with some coordinating solids.

Then I won a gift voucher from Pink Chalk Fabrics as part of a giveaway by Rachel to "Celebrate" do.good stitches, the charity group I sew for.  I decided to purchase some solids to use with some charm packs I have.  I didn't see the email that I'd won until I got back from the cruise so it was a nice surprise when I got back home !

Kona Poppy, Charcoal, Ash, and Carrot

In January I entered Felicity's giveaway over at Felicity Quilts and won a copy of Modern Quilting by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen, a book that's been on my wish list for a while.  Its a pretty amazing book with some wow factor quilts !

I joined Kristy's And Sew On paper pieced BOM this year and linked up my first block and won a fabric scrap pack from Fabricworm.  Wow - their scrap pack is the most amazing stack of fabric - I received almost 3 yards of amazing organic Birch fabric - they are mainly from the set sail range - and just the other day I saw the square knots quilt by Amy Smart that uses the same fabric so I'm going to make that quilt - it will be perfect !

and this week I discovered I've won a double wedding ring template set from Emily through the NYC Mod Quilters EZ double wedding ring challenge blog hop !

photo from NYC Mod Quilters website

I've had a pile of Lost and Found fabric (by My Mind's Eye) put aside for this project for a while - I saw the pattern in an old Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine when I was moving last year and haven't been able to find the magazine since !  I thought I'd put it in a safe place but I'm sure it will turn up.  Anyway now that I've won the template set I've got no excuses !

### updated - yesterday I received an email from Amy Smart to tell me I'd won a DWR template set from her as well - two wins in one blog hop - unheard of !!! I'm sure Amy will do a redraw :)

I feel very lucky to have won these fabulous prizes - thanks to some very generous bloggers !

the pram cover handover

I finished Lucy's pram cover at the end of January and in early March finally caught up with Lucy and her mum to be able to give it to her !

so of course we had to have a photo of Lucy with the pram cover - I love how she's gripping hold of it !

I also bought a little tropical dress from Vanuatu while I was on the christmas cruise - its just a few sizes too big (lol) but she might fit into it in a few years :)  I think pink might be her colour !

Hopefully it won't take as long to get the quilt to her !

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 :)

yoo hoo !

well hi there :)

I can't believe its been soooo long since I last posted.

I had a bad case of tendinitis at the beginning of April which kept me off-line for a few weeks - it took a couple of weeks to find out what was wrong but once I got some good drugs I was fine.  But having the sore shoulder kept me away from sewing as well - I actually spent a week on the couch as I was in quite a bit of pain as I couldn't sit up but I did manage to get a few hexies done that week - I'm now 1/3 of the way through my Hexy MF quilt-along!

I obviously got out of the habit of blogging fairly quickly but I have so much show and tell I'll probably be posting every day this month !

I signed up for the A Lovely Year of Finishes this year to get some of my UFOs done and I've only completed the January project - I did list an old embroidery to be made into a cushion for my February project and I didn't get it completed until May but I'm happy to report that I got all three UFO cushions done - better late than never :)

I'm hoping to link up with A Lovely Year of Finishes for July - just need to find one project that I can get done in a month !

Its also time for the final of the 2nd quarter of 2013 Finish-A-Long.  I have made progress on my projects for that but I still don't have a complete finish - I'm off to finish the quilting on Lucy's quilt as I promised my mum that I wouldn't show another photo of that quilt until it was done - I was hoping to have it totally finished but the hand binding will take a little time so I'll have to settle on having that done next week.

I'll be back later today (eek two posts in one day!) with my Q2 wrap - see you then :)

hoping for a second quarter finish !

Its almost the deadline for the second quarter of the 2013 Finish-a-long.

I've got an easier list this time with most of the first quarter attempts repeated in the hope of actually getting some finishes done.

First up is Lucy's hourglass quilt - it just needs to be quilted and bound.

Next on the list is the Mod Pop quilt - I'm pretty confident in my quilting design for this one so I just need to get the back made and its ready for quilting - I'm going to piece the back using the mistake blocks from the front although I'm not quite sure how yet !

Then there are the two whirlygig mini wild things quilts from the first quarter that didn't really get a look in although I did finish unpicking all of the blocks :)

and just to add some interest I have listed these blocks that I've made recently that I'd like to do something with - I made one while I was making the mod pop blocks and now I've made a few more - they seem to grow like topsy :)  just wish I had more of the fabric as I'd love to make a quilt with them !

Linking up to

no finishes

its time for the first quarter finish-along finishes post and I'm a bit sad to report that I don't have one total finish !

having said that I am pretty happy that I have three tops finished and two of those were big projects for me - the first top to be finished was my totally groovy quilt-along quilt - the post about that finish is here.

The second top finish was lucy's hourglass quilt which I loved making - I was really hoping to get it quilted and bound by today but alas I've had a very sore shoulder for the past week so I haven't done much sewing at all !

I sewed the top up and then when I looked at it thought that it was a bit skinny.

so I unpicked the last row on the bottom of the quilt and used those blocks for the side - then I decided it was too square !

so I unpicked those blocks again and put them back on the bottom - so this is the final layout :)

can you see why it takes me so long to get something done !!

I'm going to do straight line quilting on this one in a diagonal grid so I'm going to list it again for the second quarter of the finish-along and hopefully it will be a finish !

The third top that I finished (well started and finished) this quarter was my mod pop quilt - I have a quilting design worked out that I should be able to do but I need to make the backing - I really want to use up the curved blocks that didn't work out for the front so that might take me a little while but I think I should be able to get it done in the second quarter.

I've also made progress on my fourth and fifth quilts on the list - I have all of the pieces cut out - now to sew them up !  I'll list them for my second quarter as well - hopefully I will have some finishes then :)

My 1st quarter finish-along list post is here.

Linking up to Q1 FAL finishes !

april care at do.good stitches

its my month for the care at do.good stitches quilt – I’m very excited to be a quilter and stitcher this year!

I was having trouble thinking about what block to use as I hadn’t worked out a charity to give the quilt to so when Kristy (our team leader) suggested Angels for the Forgotten I was really happy to see that it’s an Australia-wide charity based in Wagga Wagga which is about an hour’s drive from me.  They do great work helping children in care or living in crisis.

"Angels for the Forgotten is dedicated to giving dignity, hope and joy to our community's most vulnerable who are entering foster care or living in crisis.

Our aim is to put a little bit of Sparkle in to otherwise bleak and traumatic situations, to instill the feeling that "somebody does care" in to the hearts and minds of those who feel alone and isolated in this world and with your help we can all make "real change", "a real impact", and "a real difference".

They ask for blankets and quilts around 70 x 70 cms so I’ve decided to use our 20 blocks to make two quilts – one for a girl and one for a boy and I’m imagining their ages to be 6 – 8 years old.

When I suggested to Kristy that I might do a plus sign quilt for the boy and a star quilt for the girl she gently pointed out that it might be simpler to have one design only :) thanks Kristy!

As I didn’t really want to use a star block for the boy quilt I settled on the plus sign.  I had resigned myself to having to use a 9 patch block for the plus as most of the plus sign blocks I’ve seen are interlocking which doesn’t work for group quilts, then yesterday while visiting the new members of our little care group I saw Rachel’s plus block and knew I wanted to use that one so I emailed her straight away to ask if I could use the block but with bigger dimensions.

Rachel has a fabulous plus block quilt in progress using a low volume background which was inspired by a quilt from Ashley at Film in the Fridge who in turn was inspired by Alexia Marcelle Abegg's Marcelle Medallion quilt, from her book 'Liberty Love'.  The blocks are used in the 7th border of this quilt.

Rachel has very graciously allowed me to use the block and so here it is with the cutting dimensions.

click on the photo to enlarge !

The blocks will finish at 12 ½ inches square which means I can make two 3 x 3 quilts.

I’ve decided to use two fabrics rather than the low volume background – one darker colour for the plus and a lighter shade of the same colour for the background.

 

its a pretty simple block to put together - sew the two smaller blocks of the top and bottom rows together and then sew the small blocks to the centre strip.

then sew the large squares to each side of the small blocks on the top and bottom rows

then sew all three rows together

The block should come out a smidge bigger than 12 ½ square but don’t worry about squaring up as I might need the little bit of excess :)

Oh and they don’t take too long to make either !  choosing the fabrics took me the longest as you can see by my first choice for the girls block – crickey - those spots were just way too dominant !!

I'm happier with my second fabric choice !

 

I hope you like my block for april and I look forward to receiving your blocks and making two very cute quilts :)

ps - please email me or post on the flickr group if you have any questions.