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 !

happy new year !

hope you all had a really fabulous Christmas and new year :)

one of my new year resolutions was to blog more and its now 7 days into the new year and this is my first one !

I do have a lot to catch up on but my biggest news in the past month has been the arrival of a new sewing machine.

my mum and dad are my biggest fans and supporters of my quilting - my mum is also a quilter and its so great to be able to talk with her - in fact sometimes dad doesn't get a word in on our hour or so long telephone conversations as we're too busy talking quilting !

Anyway, I'd been dreaming about a buying a Bernina 550QE for a little while and in early December I sent mum an email that I'd received from a friend who recently purchased one.  Bernina has big sales in December and May so I said to mum that I might look at buying one but probably in the May sales.

a couple of days later I received an email from Mum telling me that she and dad had decided to buy me the sewing machine for christmas - you can imagine my shock and surprise to get that email.

I think it might just be the best christmas present I've ever received - at least on par with my pushbike when I was 7 !

and my mum not being one to dilly dally it arrived a week later !

I was a little bit intimidated by it and it took me about 3 days to even turn it on - normally when you buy a machine from a dealer you get at least minimum instruction but as I didn't have that I didn't even know how to thread it !

but once I got going I haven't stopped - I thought I might use this machine for free motion quilting and still use my old Elna for normal sewing but the old Elna is packed up - there is just no comparison - this machine is a dream !

I've already straight line quilted two quilts on her - the walking foot is fabulous !

one of the main features of the 550QE is the BSR - bernina stitch regulator - which is used for free motion quilting and makes your stitch length the same no matter how slow or fast you go !  I think its a fabulous foot for beginner free motion quilters and as I've now got nearly 24 quilt tops to quilt its going to be fabulous for me :)

I free motion quilted my first quilt over the christmas break and as I'm just finishing the binding I'll do a post very soon!

thanks again mum and dad - love you both :)

some new flickr swaps

So after everything Halloween has consumed my time and my blog recently, it’s time to start work on a couple of flickr swaps that are due at the end of this month.

The first one is The Down Under Doll Quilt Swap (round 4) – this is a fun doll quilt swap just for Aussies (and New Zealanders!) and is the second round I’ve participated in.

My partner loves colour and pattern, and improv or wonky so I’m hoping she likes my plan so far.

I’m doing 21/2 inch blocks – half square triangles with wonky bits at the bottom!

I was totally inspired by a photo I saw on instagram by Heather of a la mode and I discovered that she was inspired by a technique by Katie Pedersen in Quilting Modern – so I found my copy of this book and yes, there it is!  I don’t think I would have ever seen the connection between the two though and I’m so glad I saw Heather’s photo!

I've finished piecing the blocks so just need to get the top sewn up.

The other flickr swap I’m in is The Pillow Talk Swap {holiday edition} – I took part in round 10 of this swap earlier this year and received an absolutely wonderful pillow from Christine at owenjulesmommy - pippi wouldn't get off the couch while I was trying to take the photo !

I don’t think I blogged about this swap at the time - here’s a photo of the pillow I sent to my partner, Karen at Sew Peachey.

I appliqued the leaves with zigzag, hand quilted the leaf blocks, and straight line quilted the rest - the pillow is adapted from a pattern in Issue 8 of the Fat Quarterly magazine.

For this round of the holiday edition I’m making a New York Beauty with a winter theme - using a pattern by Janice at Better Off Thread - I've done two blocks and hope to get the other two done this weekend !

Oh and I’ve signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap Round 14 but thankfully this isn't due until the end of January so plenty of time - I received my partner info this week which I'm really excited about !

we have a winner !!

thanks so much to everyone for dropping by during the Wicked blog hop last week - it was such fun to read everyone's comments and feel the love for those crazy batty bats !

I think I've finally worked out Mr Random Generator too - well I can't seem to get the button happening but it does show all the details !  Houston - we have a problem !!  seems that my cut and paste doesn't actually work - there were 103 comments and comment 82 was selected by the Random Number Generator !

drum roll please..... and the winner is ...

comment 82 - Crickets Corner

thanks to the Wicked Hop you have a new follower.....me! All of your projects are so cute and I can't wait to see more from you. I just saw the Barn Bats pattern the other day and have to admit that they make me smile. I really like the red/orange bats. 

Congratulations Rina - thanks so much for visiting and becoming a follower too - I'll email you shortly :)

On a whim last Friday I entered this mini quilt into the Show and Tell over at The Quilting Gallery - I just happened to notice a call for Halloween quilts and thought why not !

Its open to public voting and I think there are a couple of judges too - I think voting may still be open so I'm not sure of the result but it was fun just to enter :)

will you vote for the batty bats ?

At the last minute (today) I decided to enter my batty barn bats quilt into the Quilting Gallery's weekly show and tell - they were calling for Halloween quilts - this is the first time I've entered something like this so its just a tad scary !!

if you like this quilt and you'd like to vote for it you can visit The Quilting Gallery and if you leave a comment after you vote - on the Quilting Gallery - you could win a copy of Michele's Aiming for Accuracy booklet !!

Voting is only open until Monday 6pm (USA time) - there are some other wicked quilts there too !

double, double, toil and trouble ...

Hi there and welcome to my day on the wonderfully wicked blog hop !  thanks to Madame Samm and Wicked Wendy for hosting and organising this hop.

after joining in The Ghastlies blog hop a couple of years ago I had some fabulous ghastlies fabric left over and I always wanted to make a quilt so when Wicked Wendy started talking about this wicked blog hop I jumped on board with the idea of making a quilt.

while wondering what kind of quilt to make I discovered that alexander henry had produced some new gorgeous ghastlie fabric and when I saw the web fabric it was love at first sight !

so that put a halt on my plans to make a quilt for this hop as I just have to include this fabric ... but I have made a mock-up of the quilt I plan to make soon - maybe in time for next year's hop !

Inspired by the web fabric I've decided to make a spiderweb quilt and here it is with the web fabric in natural as the background

and here it is using the mauve web as the background...

 

of course loving pink as I do I'm leaning toward the mauve background.

Then again, I might just end up using black for the background and use the web fabric for the quilt backing !! but enough of my dream ghastly quilt and onto some wicked things I made for this hop ...

earlier this year I made this halloween house quilt block for a flickr swap

I loved how it turned out so I've made a mini quilt for me - its 12"x14" - just the right size for a table topper quilt holder!  its based on a quilt by Stephanie Sims for Clothworks

I also made a hexy mug rug ...

and I just had to do spiderweb stitching on it ... it shows up a little better on the back - especially with the special effects !

while I was searching for another little project to make for the hop I came across a tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman for a barn bats mini quilt - it seemed perfect so I had to make one ! I made it in yellows and oranges with grey and black.

I had such fun making it and I fell in love with those little bats ...that I just had to make a another one - this time in orange, green, purple, and black

they are both echo quilted around the bats and have black and white polka dot backings and bindings.

what do you think - aren't they just the cutest !!  so would you like to win one ??

I'm actually going to make another one in the purple, orange, and green colours to give away as the one in the photo isn't actually square - one side is 1/2 inch shorter than the other ! obviously I didn't square up the bottom properly and I only just discovered it when I went to take the photo !

the remake will be very similar but of course not identical and I might change the colour layout so that there is a green row in the middle rather than two orange rows !

so if you'd like to win one of the barn bat quilts then just leave a comment letting me know which one you'd choose, either yellow and orange or purple, green, and orange :)

if you follow my blog or on instagram you get an additional entry! Just let me know that you do by leaving a separate comment.

I'll get the random generator to pick a name next Tuesday 5 November - Melbourne Cup Day in Australia - at 6pm (Australian EST) and I'll announce the winner here and contact them by email too.

oh and be sure to leave an email address if you're a no-reply or an anonymous commenter so I can contact you !

its the last day for this hop so make sure you visit the other wicked witches bloggers ... I'm certainly in wonderfully wicked company !

DreamWeaver's Quilts  

My Quilt Infatuation

Just Keep Swimming

Quilts From My Crayon Box

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Tomorrow's Treasures Today

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Just Let Me Quilt

Sew We Quilt

and just before I go I want to wish my mum a happy birthday for tomorrow - love you and kisses from pippi too ♥♥♥

fun mail !

I've been a bit remiss in posting about some amazing mail I've received recently !

I've received three blocks in the Star of Africa bee ... this is a bee with participants around the world and we're making country based blocks - for my month I asked for postcard blocks !

this one is from Fiona over at CelticThistle who made the most amazing postcard block of a bridge - seriously if it wasn't for the size and the fabric I'd think it was the actual postcard - I'm just blown away by this block - even the colour is an amazing match !  and when I saw it I was thinking it looked a bit like the Sydney Harbour bridge and as Fiona explained our Sydney Harbour bridge was based on this actual bridge - lost for words really !

Fiona also made an absolutely cutie needlecase with adorable ladybugs fabric - its just so darn cute !

my friend Nicky who blogs at Mrs Sew and Sow made me a gorgeous nessie block - Nicky had made this block for another bee member and I asked her to make one for me for my month too - isn't it just so sweet - love the tartan tam !  I was also in a swap with Nicky last year - Wonky Houses - and Nicky sent me a couple of extra tree blocks too - they are such fun :)  along with some english money tissues just to make me feel rich !!

Benta of SLIKStitches lives in Windsor and made an embroidered block with the Windsor Castle, a gorgeous swan, and even a bearskin guard (found out the correct name from Benta!) - wow what an amazing area to live in !  again, the block looks just like the postcard !  Benta also sent a super cute windsor bag and some fabric with double decker buses and black taxis - I've been totally spoilt :)

I've also recently received a fabulous coffee cozy and mug run from Jana who was my partner in the RATZ coffee cozy swap - I sent Jana this coffee cozy back in May this year...

and the cozy my secret partner sent me ended up lost in the mail somewhere in the world !  so Jana stepped in as an angel and made me a cozy as well as a mug rug !  I'd told my swap mama not to worry about a replacement so I was totally shocked when this little parcel turned up - I love the hexies and the stitching and those little mice are just adorable :)

I love being in these swaps with such a generous and talented bunch of quilters :)