2nd Quarter Finishes - proposed

A selection of proposed 2nd quarter finishes

Finish number three

African Angles

This is a repeat finish but it was added to another post so for the purpose of the Finish Along here it is again. For further info see first post and scroll down.

A round up of finishes for first quarter

Yay!! After a stitching marathon last night to complete the binding (I wasn't going to bed until it was done) - my Swoon quilt is finished.

Bella testing out the new quilt

And now it's Bowser's turn

Full inspection and approval has been made

This is the back of the quilt - a rather frugal attempt to use up fabric in my stash instead of buying more. What started off as a quick idea in my head turned out to be quite a long winded project as I made cutting error after cutting error finally managing to piece together something big enough. It wasn't square however and was a nightmare for the quilter. Thank goodness for machine quilters! Love the giant baptist fans.

So below is an update on my first quarter finishes -there have been a few set backs but all in all it is nice to see a couple of projects off the list. Will keep plugging away the following quarter.

A round up of finishes

Spin Cycle Progress

Just loving making these fun little blocks from my latest splurge fabrics - 9 blocks down - 14 to go!

Much brighter in real life

A little more orderly - Spin Cycle Blocks from a pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew

A bit of a splurge

Maggie, Mum and I headed off bright and early for the Brisbane Stitches and Craft show last Saturday morning. We had a lovely day oggling all the latest fabrics and patterns and hoping to re ignite my smouldering flame of creativity I splurged on some beautiful new fabrics to make Spin Cycle by Cluck Cluck Sew. These are a mixture of Tula's Chipper range and others from Carrie Bloomston's Paint and Collage ranges with a little Kaffe thrown in for good measure. Went to Spotlight this morning and purchase the background fabric (pale aqua solid) and the accent solid (silver grey). Ready to start cutting!
I know there are still many projects on the "to finish" list - guess I will just have to add this one too.

Inspired! - Should have chosen 13 fat quarters - ended up with 15 - think I have a problem!

Bareroots Stitchery Quilt - another finish

Bareroots Flower Quilt

This quilt, like many of mine "finishes" for 2016 has been in the cupboard way to long waiting to be quilted. Believe it or not it only need three of the outer borders quilting and the binding and it could have been finished long ago. It is a sweet little quilt with many hours spent on each little embroidered block and surrounded with my favourite old fashioned florals that I was absolutely smitten with at the time of conception. Yay - nice to see it finished.

Another Finish - my African cushion

My African Cushion

 Put the zipper in and finished off with some stuffing today! Love all the copper, grey, brown and tan prints mixed together. I wanted something to go on my new grey quilt and unite the other colours in the room. Years ago Maggie and I went to a couple of quilting retreats in Coffs Harbour - I think they were called Creative by the Sea. On one of those trips I purchased the African ladies print from a Coffs Harbour store and it has been on my bedroom wall ever since.

The print that has inspired my bedroom decor for about 8 - 9 years

                                                                                                                                                                                

The new cushion at home on my bed

A long time between posts...2 Finishes

Due to a combination of starting a new full time job and a pesky elbow, quilting progress has been somewhat slow of late.... Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things soon.

However the last two weeks the machine has seen a little action ....

Bluebird Park Tumbler Cot Quilt

As March fast approached and the arrival of my nieces baby boy was getting closer, I knew I had to get on with this little quilt. I used nuwool wadding and a really speedy echo quilting to retain the softness. It came together in a flash and is now ready (all bar the quilt label which I will personalize with baby's name and DOB etc once that is revealed).

Next up is my Tube Top quilt (a Cozy Quilts pattern), beautifully quilted by Maggie from Maggie's Quilting Treasures. I originally made this as a raffle quilt to raise funds for National Breast Cancer Foundation and my Trek for a Cure, however as always I underestimated what I could actually achieve in 24 hours a day and with other fundraising events taking up time, this idea got shelved. 15 months after the Trek it is now finished. I think I will have to keep it now, it has taken on a whole different meaning for me now. Love the waving quilting and despite a brain freeze whilst cutting my binding ( I cut it 1 3/4 inches wide - I normally cut 2 inches which made stitching down rather tight) I love the finished quilt.

Think I will call it - Peaks and Troughs

Love the quilting

Made entirely of batiks

So I am feeling a little more motivated and have enjoyed having binding to stitch down at nights .... will have to get another one ready for binding - should have enough time this afternoon to do a bit of quilting - happy days!

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.

Christmas Tree table runner

 Last week I went to the Spotlight sale where not only were there Christmas fat 1/4's for half price - but I got a VIP membership scratchy ticket for an extra 20% off. I wanted to make a Christmas table runner for a gift, a friend that likes the Scandinavian/Shabby Chic sort of Christmas vibe, but didn't have any Christmas fabrics left so.... I bought three fat 1/4's and a half metre of one print for the backing and binding all for only $10. I had the solid in my stash. I didn't have a pattern in mind and the fat 1/4's sat there for a couple of days before Diary of a Quilter  posted this cute little Christmas Tree block tutorial.. What a cute fun little block to make. This thing was finished in no time.... and the quilting took about an hour, full steam ahead I stitched the binding down by machine (instead of by hand). Haven't done that in a long time but surprisingly with the help of  my wonderful little Clover clips it was a breeze.

The result is very subtle and with very little contrast but I think it's quite cute in it's own way

The front from both ends

 I made six blocks as per the tutorial, resulting in a positive/ negative kind of look. I added a three inch strip to the bottom of a couple of blocks and 1 1/2 inch strips to the top and bottom of the other blocks to create a staggered effect and then added a final 1 1/2 inch strip to each end

The back

 For the backing, the 1/2 metre wasn't quite wide enough so I free cut one block (no double up of fabrics as per the tutorial) and inserted it into the middle. There was enough backing for the binding
 The finished runner is 11 1/2 inches wide and 22 inches long....super quick to make....

I still have heaps of my fat 1/4s left so
I made 8 little scent sachets, cut 5 1/2 inch square, quilted the pattern side with straight lines, backed them with solid, filled them with dried wood shavings scented with essential oil - a mixture of clove, vanilla and cinnamon for a spicy Christmas scent (they smell wonderful)
Little gifts for the girls at work with some mini Christmas puddings which I will make this weekend.

Cinnamon, Clove and Vanilla scent sachets

Bundled with red ribbon and cinnamon sticks

And there is still some fabric left!

Dotti Angel Frockalong

I am a new blogger but am really enjoying the inspiration provided by all the other creative souls who choose to blog and of course I haven't found them all yet. How exciting.

Cassandra Madge and Scrappy N Happy are hosting a frockalong using Simplicity 1080 Dotti Angel frock pattern, so I thought I would give it a go.........now it has been sometime since I sewed a garment for myself but having miles of fabric in the cupboard and only having to outlay for the pattern I thought it was worth a try and if I hated it I could always wear it round the house....

Actually the lemon Moda fabric was a bargain from a bolt clearance sale (you had to buy the rest of the bolt for $20) This bolt had enough for a double bed quilt backing, this dress and I still have about 1/2 metre left ..... BARGAIN! Chez Moi pockets and scraps for binding

Dotti Angel Frockalong

I still have to hem the dress and I think I will make a couple of extra pleats in the shoulders. Getting my Granny Chic on!! Thanks Cassie and Jess for hosting this frockalong and making me step outside my comfort zone....... looking forward to seeing the others.

More Christmas gifts ....

Made these quick little pouches from Noodleheads open wide zippered pouch tutorial. Super quick, super easy and I think would make great little gifts anytime of the year. Good way to use up scraps, piece the outside or use one fabric. You guessed it these fabrics haven't seen the light of day for many years and now the are ready to be useful as these little pouches. Noodlehead has lots of other great tutorials too.

These are the 12 inch version 

Christmas Topper.....quilting practice... true blue progress

I can only guess how long this poor little topper has been in my cupboard waiting to be finished ( well over 10 years). What would have started off as a quick project has been years in the making. As Christmas is nearly upon us I thought I should finish this and gift it to one of my friends who loves the country look. As simple as it is, I know she will love it .....
Quilted it in about an hour and bound whilst watching telly last night ....not sure why I didn't do that over 10 years ago.
Been quite some time since I have free motion quilted too ... did the reversible table runner a month or so ago but that was echo quilting, anyway didn't get too crazy just a bit of stippling and some cross hatching and free motion an extra holy leaf in each corner - had fun

Also have been progressing quite nicely on my true blue quilt (Norfolk Island Quilt by Brigette Giblin)

Am in the midst of hand stitching the pieced hexie centre to the frame border. I am liking the way it is coming together. Once I finish the centre, there are more borders to add and lots of scrappy orange peel shapes to applique, yay - get to use my scraps!!

Looking a little scrunched - still appliqueing hexies to frame border

Have been inspired by Wendy's Quilts and more blogging her 2015 quilting achievements and thought what a great idea. So over the next few days I would like to put together a list of quilts I would like to make for 2016 and give myself some goals to achieve.

My Swoon Quilt

6 of the nine blocks that make up the Swoon Quilt

This quilt started with me buying fat quarters and the Swoon pattern while in Toowoomba in September from the beautiful little but well stocked shop Precious Time. I couldn't resist it and couldn't wait to start it when I got home. Unfortunately when I visited I had limited time and hoped I would get back there before I departed to buy more fabric but unfortunately not. I purchased a couple of pieces of Persimmon from Basic Grey and thought the would be easy to match or find further pieces from the range. I had a image in my head of how I wanted it to turn out but struggled to find the fabrics that I wanted, even after going to the Brisbane Quilt Show. Never mind I had fun making it just the same. I think I will make another one - one day.  I can't say that I am in love with this one but will reserve full judgement until it is quilted!

I have just pieced a backing so this along with 5 others is ready for quilting.....

Fresh start .... Blue and White Norfolk Island Quilt

Medallion centre - the aqua fabric is 15 years old and from Dutch fabric shop Den Haan en Wagenmakers, looking perfectly at home with Amy Bulters not so old checkered spots fabric

I know I know, I am supposed to be finishing projects not starting new ones, oh well I did have a blue quilt on my list and this was to be using a huge lot of old blue fabrics that have been sitting in my cupboard for way too long. After finishing my mammoth hexie quilt (must think of a more suitable name), I found myself missing my hand work. I fiddled around with my "this goes with that" pieces (was going to make Kerry Dear's Candied Hexagons)  and made a few blocks but the colours weren't enthusing me - too many decisions - just wanted to sit and sew.

A few blocks from Candied Hexagaons 

 Anyway I have picked up Brigette Giblins Feathering the Nest book many times and dreamt that one day I would make one or more of the lovely quilts within. So above is progress of my centre medallion so far. I will have to buy some fabrics to complete this because although I have many blues I don't have big pieces for borders, but I will do my best to use what I have and I know I will have heaps of blues still left to make another quilt.

Norfolk Quilt

Have included a few pics from Brigette Giblin's book for inspiration.........love the way she uses her fabrics, they all sing so harmoniously together.

Stay tuned for more progress, this one is coming together pretty quickly considering they are 3/4 inch hexies.

Connections

This is about as excited as Roger gets........

It is a rainy day here today so no beautiful outdoor photos unfortunately but I have just finished pattern testing this colourful quilt pattern by Fresh Quilts and Roger my supervisor (the cat) has given it his seal of approval. Roger has to leave his mark (namely- cat hair) on all quilts made in this house.

So given that all normal procedures have been followed it is now time to put it on my blog.
  The background looks grey but is actually white, not the best photo taken in my lounge room. The pattern is not yet available to purchase online but I will let you know when it is.
Otherwise it you are dying to make this fun, quick and easy quilt you can contact Maggie (Fresh Quilts) through her blog.
Now what is next.....