First finish

Yay! First finish is my little charm square quilt. Not sure how why or when I came across these charm squares, not really colours that I would normally choose to work with. Anyway just a quick little quilt that had been waiting for quilting. I was originally going to straight line quilt it then I realized that my rows weren't exactly straight. I saw this quilting pattern in the latest Simply Moderne
 magazine (50 shades of geese quilt) and thought I would give it a go. Although the quilting in the mag is obviously done on a longarm and is perfectly symmetrical and even, mine is alot more organic and a little wonky in spots and I chose to run the pattern on the diagonal instead of vertical. Considering I haven't quilted on my domestic machine for a couple of years I am happy with the pattern and the final finish. It does add a lovely texture and movement to an otherwise rather boring quilt.   For a close up of my quilting inspiration click HERE.

 Now that the animals have all checked it out and given their tick of approval it is safe to say I can move on to the next one!

A close up of my quilting 

Sidetracked

Participating in the Finish Along 2016 and having a rather ambitious load of quilts to get through, I thought I would tidy my sewing room and in particular my cutting table. My cutting table is very large which is great except that it also becomes a dumping ground at times and can have several projects, books, patterns, piles of fabrics etc on it all at the same time I am working through the project of the moment.
The aim was to put away anything that wasn't on the list, tidy it all up so that I would be orderly and ready for major progress.
However I wasn't expecting to find a charm pack of Moda Bluebird Park hidden in the mess. I had long forgotten about this. I had cut a cardboard template for a tumbler and this was with the pack.
In March my niece is having a baby, so I put two and two together and ended up with the above little quilt in progress.......

I didn't quilt have enough in the charm pack but did find a couple of strays in my stash that fitted in perfectly. I have scoured the internet for metreage to complete a little border in the teal hedgehogs (se above and binding in the teal linen look Thankfully Fifi's Fabricology are able to supply me. Great online store with heaps on sale at the moment. I was good and stayed focused!!!

So a slight deviation from the plans but this was only a quick little project, back on track now - well until me package arrives....

Here's my list - Finish Along 2016

 A selection of projects to be quilted in the 1st quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. Check out the rest of the list and projects here . I have linked up with Archiethewonderdog

It is wonderful seeing everyone WIP's - I look forward to seeing them finished.

Finish Along

I have joined the 2016 Finish Along with Archie the Wonderdog.....I have scoured my cupboards and found some projects that have been waiting all too long for some attention ( and some I can ashamedly say have been waiting for over 10 years), compiled a list and are ready for the challenge.
So far my list includes 3 WIP's and 9 finished tops in various stages of quilting.
Here is a snippet of what's to be finished in my first quarter

Aussie Beauty - partially hand quilted

Made from beautiful Reece Scannell shot cotton and feature Aussie flora prints, I started this back in 2012 after purchasing the fabrics at the Queensland Quilt Show October of that year. I didn't use a pattern I just worked around using the prints to their fullest. Where this project that started relatively quickly came unstuck was the on set of summer weather. I am hand quilting this one with pearle 8 cotton so having a quilt over me in the Queensland summer heat just wasn't going to happen. Poor thing has been in the cupboard ever since. Still this one will have to wait till the end of the quarter for some more attention unless we get a cold snap, but it is out of the cupboard and in the pile of to dos.

New York Beauty - Karen Stone's Pattern

I started this at the end of 2006 - yes 10 years ago! Again my quilting has been my down fall. Love the quilt and all the work I put into it but I chose the wrong batting (way too thin) and have been disappointed with the result. However, finished is better than perfect and this year I will finish this one and move on.

Peppermint Candy Canes 

This one was only found about 2 weeks ago, and what I found was heaps of strips of reds and creams, the feature sashing fabric and piles of other fabrics that I had pulled together to complete this quilt.I had just watched scrap extraordinaire Bonnie Hunter in action on the Quilt Show and inspiration took hold. I had completed about 1/2 metre of one cream braid but having the strips ready to go was just what I needed. Being that Christmas was fast approaching and that I had just finished the little red and white Christmas tree table runner, I think the red and  cream quilt seemed appropriate to work on.

After a sewing day with Maggie earlier this week and a few more hours yesterday, this one has now moved from box of fabric and not even a 1/3 complete to in the quilting pile ...yay! I know this one was started out over 10 years ago, I don't know why it was lost for so long....

Feeling positive that 2016 will be the year of finishing, but hopefully time for a few new projects too.