Grand Illusion progressing

I have a helper with this mystery quilt. It's hard to see but I assure you my blocks for clue 5 are under there. 

Grand Illusion step 2 in progress

Grand Illusion

Bonnie Hunter's 2014 mystery quilt Grand  Illusion starts tomorrow. Excited to see how it will come together with these fabrics. 

A bunch of swap blocks

Look what was in the mail for me on Saturday. I've been taking part in a block swap and these are my blocks from the other members. I sent the yellow floral which I've had in my stash do as long as I can remember and asked for any block for a sampler.

Red, red wine

No red wine for me today as I have a migraine but here are my latest two blocks.    These were all made from scraps, HSTs that were sitting in the scrap box.  I think I just have one more red block to catch up on on.

I see red, I see red, I see red

I went to the beach last week with my good friend and although I was quilting I didn't work on my 6 inch blocks.  Today I thought I had better spend some time on this project.  I had a lot of fun with these two block.  The Wonky Goose Star is made of tiny scraps of fabric that are full of memories so it was a lot of fun to put together.

Just installed sculptures of Godwits which migrate between Foxton Beach of Siberia each year.

On the first day I whipped up this little baby quilt for two colleagues who are due to have a baby soon.  I adapted this pattern at Bloom and Blossom by cutting smaller strips to make better use of the left over pieces I had from an earlier baby quilt. This was the only pattern I could find that didn't involve sewing 1/2 square triangles.

And lastly we decided we needed coffee one day and visited  a cafe where I ordered Banana Cake.  Have you ever had Banana Cake like this? 

A Modern Tradition

Today I went to Wellington with DH to see the Capital Quilters exhibition, entitled A Modern Tradition.  The venue at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt was a great setting; a lovely modern venue with 3 different areas to display the quilts.  There was a great variety of quilts, lots of different styles of both piecing and quilting, and lots of fabulous use of colour.

I had lots of favourites,and these are some:

Zebra Crossing by Sheryl Anicich:

Garden for Birds 2 by Adrianne Reid:

Adrianne blogs at The Windy Side and her quilt won merit ribbons

for first time entrant and small bed quilt

Shirt Tail Series No. 23 Back to Square One by Heather Harding:

56 Stars by Jill Nickel:

I loved the quilting on this quilt - 

something different in each area of background

Barbed Wire for Barb Dwyer by Ronnie Rutter:

Deep red (and a diversion to other colours)

I'm still loving playing in the red scrap box. Today I made the latest two red blocks for the RSC Sampler and caught up on some of the blocks I has missed from other months. Now I only have a couple left on my catch-up list.  I had been procrastinating about making the Le Moyne Star but it went together really easily.  I think that using a batik helped with the pressing and keeping it square.  I liked this theory and applied it to the Broken Dishes/Green Star which is much more square than it looks in this funny photo.

I love playing in the red scrap box

I made three red blocks for the RSC Sampler this weekend.  When I did the catch up photo earlier in the week I realised that there are a few blocks that I've missed so I have to catch up on those as well.  The green Boxed Kite is one of those.

Half way point

This week was the half way point for 2014.  And so the participants in the in Rainbow Scrap Challenge are posting a progress photo for their blocks.

Here's mine.  No fancy layout; I took them to work today to photograph during daylight hours but my day wasn't very conducive to creativity.

The colour for July is red

Angela has posted that the colour for the RSC Sampler for July is red... I should be able to find a few red scraps.

I found more yellow

More mellow yellow June blocks for the RSC Sampler. I made these today along with carting a couple of boxes of books to the studio.

I love the Alamo Star, and think it's my favourite block so far. Why?  Not because my seams are perfect because they aren't.  Because I got to use my new Tri Recs ruler to make it, and because when I first started quilting I joined an online group called Southern Cross Quilters, and this block is their logo.

I had loads of trouble with the framed 4-patch which should be really simple.  I had the wrong dimensions, then I adjusted them, but it still turned out too large.   Nothing a little trimming wouldn't fix though.

Mellow yellow

The colour for June's blocks in the Rainbow Scrap Sampler quilt is Yellow.   At first I didn't think I had any yellow fabric. But a bit of a rummage through the scrap box turned up something to work with and I've made a start on the blocks. 

I'm still working on finishing the green blocks May too.  I have over 50 blocks completed now.

Green green blocks

Catch up time again.  Four more green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler.  Check out what everyone else is doing at SewScrappy  

Catch up time

Going green

May's colour for the RSC is green. I found lots of little strips to and scraps to put these blocks together.

Purple time

I finally got round to making purple blocks for the RSC Sampler today at quilt group.  Thanks to one of my buddies I was able to liven these up with some pretty fabrics from her stash.

The colour for May is green... it will be fun to see what interesting new blocks Sew Scrappy comes up with.

Pondering

I've been pondering this.

I bought Kathy Doherty's Making Quilts at the Quilt and Craft Fair in February and I've been pondering the Fractured Quilt ever since.   It has to stay a contemplation for a while because his project would definitely need a design wall and I still have Shimmering Triangles on the design wall.  Though that's an exciting development - I actually have a  design wall up in The Quiltery now and every time I open the door I see the bright and beautiful fabrics of my  Shimmering Triangles   I've recently added some more fabrics included really bright orange so it really pops.

Bye bye teal & aqua, hello purple

I've been playing catch up this week and finishing off the last of the March Teal & Aqua blocks, then making the first purple block for April.  I was rummaging in the scrap box for a feature print for the Corner Frames block and I came up with the little 9 patch which worked perfectly.


 I was really surprised by how many fabrics I could find in the Teal & Aqua colour range.  I ended started a separate box for them in the stash.

I'm really going to enjoy working in Purple throughout
April

What I've been up to

Making another teal block for the RSC Sampler and some 12 inch blocks for a real life swap for an online group. I see there are 4 more teal block patterns available since Sunday when I made this so I will be onto those next week.  I'm excited that April's colour is purple.

The 12 inch blocks seem huge after working on 6 inch ones for a while.

Playing with teal

Today I spent some time in The Quiltery playing catchup with this months teal and aqua blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler organised by Sew Scrappy

These are the five blocks so far. 

I was being so frugal that I misjudged the amount of fabric required for the Friendship star and had to piece the corner squares because I didn't have enough of my light.

I realised that I like these colours when they are batik or hand dyed fabrics, but when they are prints I think they are ugly.  What's wrong with that logic?

And here are all my blocks together

Autumn means apple season.  We have baby fruit trees, just planted two winters ago.  These are our first apples.  Can't wait for the pears.

A big quilty weekend

This is the last weekend for link blocks for the RSC Sampler. I've made three more blocks including a basket because I loved the one ?? Had but couldn't find the pattern.

Only half as many pink blocks as blue... Wonder why?  Of course I also wonder what colour will be next.

 These past few days the Quilt and Craft Fair has been in town.  Yay.  I went with a list!  And I managed to get everything on it, and more - a  copy of Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty just had to come home with me.  I was very pleased to get the batiks for my  New Zealand flag quilt, inspired by Marina's Australian flag quilt and have been sewing this today.  The colour is off in the picture - these are more blue than they look.

While pressing backing for this quilt for my friend I couldn't help but notice how well the colours went with the borders of the quilt on The Quiltery wall.  I was really pleased to find this backing on sale at the Fair yesterday!  The colours are perfect and it is now on the machine.

Pink catch up

This week's pink work was to make these blocks for the RSC Sampler Quilt. Aren't they cute?  I am loving working at this size, it's so much fun.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend has been productive.  As well as the teeny tiny pink 9 patches in the previous post I made a block for a sampler quilt project that is lurking in the cupboard.

That ironing board cover doesn't really work with this block does it?

Then I made the second block for Sew at Home Mummy Erin's Classic Meets Modern Quilt Along

And I persuaded The Quilter to quilt this little baby quilt.  This is hot off the machine with leaders and lots of extra batting still in place. 

Tiny little bits of pink

These are such little squares...

I had a sewing day today with my informal quilt group so I checked for the first block pattern of the month before I left home and spent the morning making this.   Then in the afternoon I reacquainted myself with an old project started in 2008 (I think)

I still got the blues

This is the last of the blue blocks for the Rainbow Sampler because the end of the month means a new colour. Can't wait to see what it will be, though I've enjoyed the blues.

Blue weekend update

I've made good progress this weekend.  My batik quilt looks pretty good for a bunch of left over strips that have have been lurking in the cupboard for 6 or so years.  Though I have to say, it doesn't really look very blue now that it is together.  I made another Tic Tac Toe block and caught up on the other blocks for the RSC Sampler.