marney's quilt

eeep - a second finish on my first quarter list in the 2014 finish-along and just in the nick of time !!

yes, I finally finished Marney's quilt - this little quilt was started back in March 2011 and the top was finished in August of that year and then it was put in the cupboard where it stayed until earlier this year.

The issue was the quilting - having no idea how to quilt the top was a bit of a problem - in fact I made quite a few tops in 2011 that are still waiting to be quilted but now that I have the Bernina I'm just going for it :)

last weekend I sat down and swirly circle quilted it - it didn't take too long and I was pretty happy with the result then I sewed down the binding in a few sessions during the week and finished the last few stitches this morning !!

I'm sure lots of people would be able to see issues with the quilting but as they say better done than perfect and I know Marney will be happy just to receive the quilt ! 

it was her birthday on Thursday and I hope to be able to give her this little quilt soon:)

Quilt Stats
size:36"x42"
pattern: pint-sized wild thing by Thimbleblossoms
top fabric: Max and Whiskers and orange grunge background - both by Basic Grey
backing fabric: Max and Whiskers
binding fabric: black grunge
batting: Warm and White cotton 
quilting: swirly circles by me
thread: Masterpiece #119 by Superior Threads

april goal for a lovely year of finishes

after missing out on linking up my March finish I'm hoping to be a bit more organised this month!

my April goal for finishing is the happy weekender quilt.  Its a moda bakeshop pattern by Kim who blogs at my go go life  - its an easy pattern and as Kim says can be made in a weekend or two - that is unless you run out of fabric like I did and it gets put into a cupboard even though the fabric I ordered arrived quite some time ago !

at the beginning of last year I bought a pile of charm squares with the aim of putting together some quick quilts so that I could practice my free motion machine quilting !

the result is one finished top, two almost finished tops and two charm packs still waiting to be made into quilts - oh and no free motion quilting practice !  This happy weekender quilt is one of the almost finished tops that was made over a weekend in August so it really is quick and easy to put together.

I'm going to aim high this month and finish the happy weekender quilt which needs the borders and quilting and binding.

linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes

catvent - a first quarter finish !!

I put six quilts on my first quarter list in this year's finish-along - I know it was a long shot but as a few of them were close to finished I decided to aim high !!

I'm pleased to say that I finished the Catvent quilt and even entered it into our local show in the middle of March so its been finished for a little while !!

The Catvent quilt is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman - Elizabeth decided to make it into a quilt along in December last year by making one block a day from the 1st to 25th December.

I didn't get the background fabric to start on time but I did get the top finished just after christmas.  It has some of my favourite fabrics include a piece of corduroy that is quite a few years old !

After lots of umming and ahhing about what to back it with I finally decided to use the same grey solid as it was going to be hanging on the wall so the backing wasn't going to show !

I quilted it with a crosshatch about an inch apart which I think looks good and allows those cute cat faces to shine.

Its also got a hanging sleeve and is now hanging happily on the wall in my lounge room !

Quilt Stats
size:30"x34"
pattern: catvent quilt along by Elizabeth Hartman
top fabric: grey prima homespun and fabrics from my stash
backing fabric: grey prima homespun
binding fabric: grey prima homespun
batting: Warm and White cotton 
quilting: by me - 1/2 inch cross hatch
thread: So Fine 50wt #504 by Superior Threads

so there you have my first finish in this year's finish-along !

show winners !

I managed to get mum's cushion (pillow) made by the deadline to enter it into the local show a couple of weekends ago.

I started it on the weekend before so it didn't take that long to do.

 

I love how it comes together in stages :)

I did a bit of quilting on it - both the centre pieces as well as around the outside of the points and geese and love how it turned out.

As I also got the binding done on the catvent quilt I decided to enter that as well, along with Lucy's cot quilt that I made last year.

I went to the show which was held on Saturday 15 March and was amazed to find a second prize ticket on Lucy's quilt ! I couldn't believe it - I thought that having the binding machine sewn would automatically mean it wouldn't get a look it but not so !!

I walked along a bit further and saw my catvent quilt (the little multi-coloured cat faces in the bottom left of this photo) - its really quite exciting to see pieces you've made on display with heaps of others :)

No ticket but I love it - the one that won that section is up above it to the right - the one with the NY Beauty and Brolgas - a stunning quilt !

I found mum's cushion a little further along and nearly fell over when I saw the first prize ticket on it !! oh my goodness I was just a little excited :)  turns out that the section I'd entered it in came with a first prize of $10 - woo hoo - most of the other sections pay $2 for first and $1 for second (entries are only 50 cents) so I scored really big with that one !!

When I went to pick up my entries I discovered I'd also won a digital radio in a raffle and later that afternoon I found out I'd won a $30 voucher to GnomeAngel fabric shop through Instagram - so all in all a wonderfully lucky day !!

not so lucky that I'd got mixed up about linking up to a lovely year of finishes in the last seven days of the month - not the first seven of the next month !! but hey - I got my finish done and that's the main thing :)

so I'm off to find another long overdue project to link up to A Lovely Year of Finishes for April !

It's a pantone finish !!

Meet my newest mini quilt - Pixelated Purple Heart !

I decided to join in the Pantone Radiant Orchid challenge as I have quite a few purples in my stash - originally I made another small quilt for the challenge but I ran out of a fabric and I'm having issues trying to replace it - but that's a story for another day!

On Monday I saw a photo by @thatswhatlindseymade on Instagram and immediately thought of doing the pixelated heart but as a mini - I just reduced the size of the squares from 5 inches to 1 inch!

 By Wednesday night the top was pieced 

on Thursday night I sat at my machine for a wonderfully therapeutic matchstick quilting session - the mini is 15 inches square - it took around 3 hours to quilt and with stitching about a 1/8 inch apart its got around 20,000 quilting stitches ! love that my sewing machine counts the stitches for me !

I wasn’t sure about using the dark thread on the background but decided to just do it and I’m really happy with how it turned out !

and it took me a little while to work out that I could just move the needle over rather than cut threads at the end of each line !!

I finished off the binding earlier today.

Quilt Stats
size: 15” square
pattern: Pixelated Heart – free pattern from Robert Kaufman
top fabrics: various prints and solids from my stash – Kona Snow background
backing fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics – Oval Elements in Prune
binding fabric: Kona Snow
batting: Warm and White cotton

quilting: matchstick straight line by me
thread: King Tut #948 by Superior Threads

The challenge was organised by Adrianne over at On the Windy Side and Anne at Play Crafts and its been fabulous to see the different quilts being made over at the flickr page

I’m so glad to have made the challenge deadline and I’d best be off to upload the link - it closes soon ! 

** edited to add that I missed out on getting my link on the challenge page - I've had issues my laptop and the internet most of the day which is a bit of a bummer (must learn how to do a blog post and add photos on my ipad) but at least I have a sweet mini for my wall :) ** 

a lovely year of finishes

2013 was supposed to be my UFO busting year but unfortunately it didn't happen like that - way too many shiny new things to distract me !

I did get one or two UFOs off my very long list but I haven't really put a dent in.

This year I'm a bit more determined - I think the new sewing machine and a confidence that I can machine quilt is helping !

So I decided I'd join in A Lovely Year of Finishes again this year - its a one finish a month project and here we are in March and I'm only just getting started - oh well, at least its a start.

I'm going to list smaller or almost finished projects on my monthly ALYoF lists so that I might actually get some finishes !  For my March project I'm going to list a cushion that I promised my mum I'd make for her over Christmas and I haven't even started yet - I did order a little fabric for the background and backing which has arrived and now I need to get on and make it !

Mum fell in love with this cushion I made for the Christmas Pillow Talk Swap at the end of last year (not sure that I've even done a post with that finished pillow!) and I said I'd be happy to make her one too !

Our local agricultural show is on next weekend - that's about 10 days - and I'm going to challenge myself to get this cushion done so that I can enter it into the show and  then send it to mum - people who know that I quilt often ask why I don't put things in the annual show - I'm not sure non-quilters understand the UFO list!
 

A Lovely Year of Finishes is run over at Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bitter Sweet Designs and you can join in by linking up a project in the first seven days of the month and link up your finished project in the last seven days of that month - they have some wonderful link-up prizes so that's an added bonus to your finished project !

first quarter list!

so I've had a few comments about all the things I want to do that I listed in my last post - that certainly wasn't a list of things for this year - unless I can stop working :)

I'm just going to plod along and see what I can get done - the thing that's different this year is that I should be able to quilt a top when I finish it instead of putting it away in the cupboard - thanks to mum and dad and the new bernina :)

so onto my first quarter list for the 2014 finish-along and I'm hoping to quilt a couple of already finished tops before I make anymore this year !

Marney's quilt - I made this for a girl I used to work with - she has now left work but thankfully is still living close by - I'm going to do loops and hearts all over !  Its her birthday in early April so getting a finish this quarter will be fab :)

through the trees - this is another quilt that I made in 2011 but its been sitting waiting for quilting - originally I was going to hand quilt it but I've now decided to straight line quilt it - not sure if its a quicker method though !

Pink spiderweb quilt - it was my month in October for the care at do.good stitches group and all the members made a couple of spiderweb blocks - in pink of course!  I put the top together in the christmas break and I really want to get it finished this quarter.

I also made the Catvent quilt in December - it was a quilt along by Elizabeth Hartman making one block a day from the 1st to 25th December - I didn't have any background fabric to start on time so its another one I finished over christmas.  It just needs some simple diagonal quilting.

so onto the tops I'd love to get done !

I started the double wedding ring quilt in late October as I'd won the templates in a blog hop for the NYC Metro Mod Quilter's Challenge - the challenge finished on 1st December but I was happy with my progress - I now have all the rows done and they just need to be sewn together.  I'm not sure this will be a finish this quarter as I've decided to hand quilt it but if its all together with the quilting started then I'll be happy !

The other quilt I'd love to get done this quarter is the single girl quilt - as I mentioned in my last post I'd decided that it would be one of my passion 48 quilts - working on it for one hour a week - well of course as soon as I started cutting I couldn't really stop and I've now cut out half of the pieces.

I think I might do better if I just concentrate on one project at a time rather than switching over as I currently do !

so I'll see how I go - no pressure - just one stitch at a time as this is something I love doing not something I have to do !

linking up to the 1st quarter of the 2014 finish-along with Katy over at the littlest thistle 

2014 - a sort of plan !

so I've been thinking about all the quilts that I want to make and all the tops that I want to quilt and wondering when I'll get them done!

I'm joining up with the 2014 Finish-Along again this year (which is being hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle) and I really hope to do way better than last year - I only got one finish done last year - having said that I did get a few tops done !  I'm also going to try and join up each month to the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes to try and get a few smaller projects done.

I also read on Carrie's lavieenrosie blog the other day about Passion 48 - it was something that was started by the staff of American Patchwork and Quilting last year and it involves working on one project for one hour per week (with four weeks off for holidays etc - hence 48 !)  I have a few quilts that I want to make that will take a while to do and I thought that concept was a great idea - slowly but surely they will get done !

So the projects that are going into my Passion 48 list are...

the Single Girl Quilt...

the Polka Dot Dresden...

and the HexyMF quilt...

I'm in no rush but I'd like to get them done !

I also cleaned out my linen press over Christmas - its where I keep my finished and almost finished quilt tops as well as backings for quilts yet to be made.  I counted 15 tops finished and ready for quilting, 2 tops that need borders, and 10 backing and binding fabric sets for quilts that are waiting to be made - that's not including the three mentioned above !

I'm a third of the way through straight line quilting this one - "through the trees" so that leaves only 14 still in the cupboard !

I also have other fabrics put away in plastic tubs waiting to be made into quilts but they will have to wait until later (much later) !  there are two exceptions - the Spinning Stars quilt and the keep calm quilt, both of which I'd like to get done this year.

of course, today I just discovered the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge and having quite a few purple fabrics it does sound interesting ! 

I'm also currently doing a weekly sew along (Quilty Fun) that finishes in March, and a continuing bom (Modern Blocks QAL) that will finish mid way through the year.  I've also decided to do four other boms (including a paper pieced bom by my friend Kristy at Quiet Play) - its a good way to get some of my fabrics off the shelf and into a quilt !  I also think that doing boms are a bit like the Passion 48 project - you just work on one block a month. Of course I'll still be doing blocks and quilts for the Care circle at do.good stitches.

I made two of the January blocks this month - the first one is the large centre block for the Globetrotting mystery block of the month by Pat Sloan.  I'm using some yellow and grey floral fabrics I bought in a bundle from Spotlight a while ago that I really wanted to get rid of use up and pulled some coordinating fabrics from my stash !

I also made the January block for the 2014 Aurifil Designer Block of the Month - I am using fabrics from some blogger's bundles that I get each month from the Fat Quarter Shop - I find that a lot of the bundles play so well together !

It was also handy to get these blocks done so I could use them for blog buttons - I find it so much easier to have the links on my blog so that I don't have to remember website addresses each month - I just link direct from the buttons on my sidebar !

so my plan is just to plod along and try and get as many projects done as I can !  I've got a long list for the 2014 Finish-Along already but I think I'll try and keep it to only a few projects a quarter and try and get them done - I really got sick of seeing the same projects in each quarter last year.

actually, I was rushing to get a quilt bound in time for the link-up for the last quarter and discovered that I hadn't even put it on the list - I had listed it for Q1, 2, and 3 so I'd obviously decided to forget it !!

I have to put this cute little quilt on the first quarter list - I made it over the christmas break - the catvent quilt along by Elizabeth Hartman !

but for the next little while I'll be finishing the Doll Quilt Swap 14 quilt that is due to be posted in 11 days - as I'm wanting to get so many of my ufos and other projects done this year I've decided not to take part in any more swaps!

hope you have your plans for 2014 sorted !