Fireburst – A quilt top

I’ve been friends with Tish of Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland ever since the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers hop when we were in a group that critiqued the look of each other’s blogs. This was a while back and I take no credit for the made over look it has now. So I was never not going to join her first ever Mystery Quilt Along and it turned out to be a great one.

I did several fabric pulls before deciding I should do a scrappy background so that I could use what I had on hand and still end up with the larger size of 64” square. It’s my first ever time at doing a fully scrappy quilt like this and while I think there’s room for improvement I’m really chuffed with the way it turned out.

It’s a stroke of genius to time the parade of finished quilts with New Year’s Eve when fireworks are everywhere so head over to have a look and also to wish Tish a happy 40th!

You can find the instructions to make one of your own in two sizes here

It was a great pattern, Tish! Thanks for hosting this quilt- along.

Happy sewing everyone and happy new year.

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter and UFO Busting at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Kiss-cross Quilt Top

I’m not sure why this quilt top has been hanging around finished, photographed and not blogged about for so long. I sometimes think I’ll hold a finish, or semi-finish for a slow news month and I must’ve forgotten completely about it.

Excepting for now when I’m making my goals for 2019 and it comes up on my (long) list of quilts to be finished.

This quilt is made from a pattern from an Australian Handmade magazine issue and is designed by MsMidge. Her version can be seen here.

The pattern is designed for charm squares which suited me down to the ground and I teamed them with an indigo chambray background that I found locally.

The quilt top finishes at around 42 x 48 inches.

Happy sewing

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Letters from Australia – a top!

A little while back I saw a blog hop featuring the ‘Bush Gum Blossoms’ line from Amanda Brandl Designs. 

Amanda specialises in Australiana fabrics and her designs feature Australian birds, animals and plants. 

This line reminded me of the May Gibbs Snugglepot and Cuddlepie series of kid’s stories from my childhood and I’m a sucker for my own personal nostalgia so promptly bought a fat quarter bundle.

When I was rummaging through my stash to see what else might work with it I came across a yard of chocolate brown solid and a charcoal text print and went to work to make the You’ve Got Mail quilt by Missouri Star Quilt Company. 

The tutorial shows how to make it using a layer cake and there is a charm pack version as well, Love Notes.

The quilt top finishes at 40 by 48 inches and is made up of 4 inch finished half square triangle units. 

Finally, in an already photo heavy post - the real thing.

Happy sewing

Sue

Linking up to Lorna atSew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Pantone Challenge 2018 Neighborhood Quilt – a top!

This is the third year I’ve entered the Pantone Color of the Year quilt challenge (other posts are here and here) and I admit to being a big fan of the process.

Putting a quilt together using a colour you wouldn’t ordinarily choose is often a stretch but I’ve always been surprised at how much I like the finished result.

This year’s is no exception. I used the Neighborhood pattern from Elizabeth Hartman’s book Modern Patchwork.

It feels good to actually make something from the books on my bookshelf for a change and I will definitely attempt to do more of it, since I’ve got a stack of them.

I had the quilt magnetted (is that a word?) to the shed for at least half a day while I waited to see if the light would be just right for the photos. Eventually my patience was rewarded but I kind of like the ones with the dappled light playing on them too.

I was hoping that this quilt would suit my sewing room as a wall hanging so I taped it up on the wall and, yep, it got the big tick of approval. The quilt top finishes at 45 inches by 60 and is now placed somewhere amongst the others waiting to be quilted.

Many thanks to Sarah and Rebecca of No Hats in the House and Bryan House Quilts for making this possible. To assist in putting me into the right prize category - I'm in Australia.

Once the link up closes you get a chance to vote for your favourites so head over and have a look!

Happy sewing

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Making Progress #1

I have made a start and finished the flimsy for my Regatta Quilt Along project. The QAL is being held by Roseanne over at Home Sewn By Us. This is a Quilt Along with a start date but no set finish so you can pick it up whenever you like. I need a seaside inspired cushion for my front lounge room and this is the perfect design (front lounge sounds very formal but it functions more as a casual neat (rarely used) study slash storage room than lounge since it has only one over-sized lounge chair in it, a desk and lots of shelves). I downsized the pattern by making the strips only 1 inch wide finished and reducing the number. I love the stripe variation this pattern gives. The free pattern is by Block M Quilts and is available here.

Modern Plus Sign Quilts book, co-authored by Paige from Quilted Blooms and Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is out NOW(!!!) and I can show you a smidge of what I’m working on for an upcoming blog hop. Yep, it’s got plus sign blocks in it. I love them! And if you do too, you should definitely check the book out.

I have made another two Hold the Pickle Quilt blocks. 

I’ve had a bit of interest in these blocks and I’m in the process of writing a tutorial. I’ll be posting that next week.

I’ve included a photo of the pattern for my latest knitting project to avoid confusion ;-). So far the shaping (I think it’s the rabbit’s stomach) is looking very suspect and I think by the time I come to knit the head and nose area it should be hilarious. I’ll keep you updated. My aim is to finish this by Easter which should be very do-able even for someone who knits as little as I do. The pattern is available for free here and uses DK yarn.

And finally. I have a product recommendation for you if you come across fabric that bleeds. This stuff, Retayne, really works. I had some dark purple good quality well-known brand solid that was bleeding like a haemophiliac (yes, I’m a confirmed pre-washer). I was thinking I was never going to be able to use it until I came across this product – it really works wonders! In Australia I bought it from Punch with Judy. You can buy it from a lot of on-line stores but you can’t post it internationally, well not to Australia anyway. Perhaps it’s explosive.

Happy sewing

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Wayward Transparency Quilt Top

It’s time to link up our quilt and quilt top finishes for the Wayward Transparency Quilt along.

This is mine. It turned out pretty well in the end, after taking out and replacing my original fabric choice in the ‘darker’ sections. I think the scale of the prints makes it difficult to see the transparency effect. Yvonne warned me about it and I should have listened.

The layout of the blocks is the result of a mistake I made in sewing them together and it's one I'm more than happy to have made.

The blocks have been down-sized from the original pattern and I also used flip and sew techniques to avoid too many seams through the daisy print. Changing the fabric in the overlay section after piecing the blocks meant that I was able to slip half square triangle sections in making me look outstandingly clever ;-).

The finished size is 30 inches square and I’ve photographed it hanging on my garden shed using whiteboard magnets. Nifty! Now to find other places to use them...

Happy sewing

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Space Time Continuum Top Finished!

Subtitled Whatever Happened to Dave the Engineering Quilt

Unbelievably I’ve had this quilt top sitting around for 6 months already. You might remember back in March I posted some blocks I was making for this and chuckling away to myself about the working title of Dave the Engineering Quilt. No? I won’t go into it here but refresh your memory by all means. I'll wait...

You're back! Anyway, I decided on the change of name because hourglass blocks, space ship fabric, how could I not. In my never ending series of lists I still refer to it fondly as Dave though.

The design for this may seem eerily familiar if you have seen Cheryl at Meadow Mist Design’s Chronograph block and I freely admit that it started from an idea simply to upsize that one block. Then I had to tweak it a little to make it rectangular and so we get the finished quilt top we have today.

Everything about this design seemed all good on graph paper. Construction provided a challenge when I realised I’d given myself a partial seam. I watched this video tutorial on sewing partial seams on YouTube by Donna Ward and it all turned out pretty well I think.

Still it wasn’t my only problem. I’d originally planned on making it bigger but part way through I ran out of background fabric. I should be able to get a bit more I thought so I headed up to the local fabric store and came home with what I thought was the same colour and sewed it in. It wasn’t until I took it outside in daylight to take these photos that I discovered to my horror that they weren’t a match. 

Looking at this photo that seems unlikely I know but it’s true! I think one’s white and one’s snow and different brands as well.

Anyway that meant I had to sacrifice some of my border fabric to finish the centre. I have since bought some more (and checked for a match in daylight… several times!) and I’ll be able to add extra length and width before I finish. And I’ve learned a lesson – I now label my whites so I can tell at a glance if they will match in or not. It also explains, if you look carefully, why the fabric print has changed in the block between the first progress photo and the second.

Here’s the stats so far: finished size is 56 inches by 69 and it took 1 metre of print fabric! Pretty good huh?

 ‘til next time

Ooroo

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Somewhat Positive Quilt Top #2

It’s been a year to the day since I posted my Somewhat Positive mini quilt (no really! I checked). That means this larger version has been on my to-do list since then.

This time I’ve widened the sashing and gone for a 3 x 3 block layout ending up with a quilt top that is 48” x 60”.

And while I’ve been making this quilt I’ve refreshed my memory on how it was done and I’ve FINALLY written a tutorial – that’ll be out next Tuesday. Come back then!

Cheers

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Inside Addition Quilt Top Finished!

Back in February I was queen for the month in the Bee Inspired group. I chose the Inside Addition block that I upsized to 12 ½” (the tutorial is here). 

It was like Christmas once the blocks started rolling in, and coming home and checking the mail box was full of anticipatory excitement. I made some extra blocks and now we have the big reveal – tada!!!!!

The top finishes up at a fairly decent size of 62 ½” by 75”.

Getting the colour shading layout to my satisfaction was a little difficult for me. I haven’t ever attempted this technique before and I struggled to find any sort of starting point. Hindsight and photos are a great thing and I think I can see where I would swap some block placements if I was doing it again. If I have a tip it would be to allow yourself plenty of time to work on the layout (I didn’t so it was a case of frantically trying to get it laid out and watching the clock at the same time).

Thanks so much to all my Bee mates, all of whom are former participants in the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers group, for contributing to this project. You all did great work!

Till next time

Ooroo

Sue

Linking up to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Black Jack – a finished flimsy

I’ve adapted the Double Fat Jack tutorial over at Lily’s Quilts again . This time it was doubled (original cutting sizes minus ½” multiply by 2 and add ½”) to make a quilt that finishes up at 44 x 58 inches

I used two batiks along with a newsprint fabric from my stash (yay!) to make this version (see the others here). 

Summer is definitely on its way – the days are longer and we had our first scorcher on Saturday. Here in Western Australia we don’t have Daylight Saving so mornings are perfect for a pyjama-clad photo shoot in the backyard. Or anywhere else for that matter, since it appears wearing pyjama tops is a current fashion trend, just not teamed with slippers and pillow hair.

Later that day I took it out for a shaded lunchtime photo shoot, carefully hanging it on a brick wall. It looked perfect! And then I realised I hadn’t brought my camera or phone… dammit… I threw a minor tantrum and didn’t go back for another try.

 Linking up with Lorna for Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Facets Plus QAL – the top is FINISHED!

My Facets Plus quilt top is finished! For those of you who haven’t been following its progress, this is the quilt I’m making to participate in the Facets Plus Quilt Along hosted by Amanda over at This Mom Quilts. I’ve adapted the pattern slightly while keeping the same block design.

Did I tell you I was going to make it big enough to fit my king single bed in the spare room? This is the biggest quilt I’ve made so far finishing up at 70” by 80”. Whew! I was originally going to add borders but in the end I went with extra blocks to increase the size and I’m happy that I did.

Today’s photos are taken at my place; since it’s so large I had to stand on a teetering crate to stick it to the wall and that means convenience reigns when choosing a photo location.

Here in Australia it is the beginning of spring and the quilt makes a superb backdrop to the peach and plum blossom. I kind of wish it was there all the time.

I’m not looking forward to quilting it – keeping it simple will work best I think. I might just take a breather and whip up a couple of smaller more manageable pieces before I start in on that long and arduous journey... or is that the wrong attitude?

I’m linking up with Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabrics and Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She.