Happy New Year and what's on the machine

Happy New Year from the Quiltery!   It would seem that I hardly blogged in 2017, perhaps because I hardly quilted for a big part of the year.  I'm planning this year to do more of both; quilting and blogging.  I think for blogging to work for me I have to keep it simple.  While the Finish A Long (and others like it) encouraged me to set goals, it was all about finishes, so when I didn't finish I got discouraged that I didn't have anything to share.  Really I want my blog to be about what I'm doing, and most of the time that is not finishing.    So I'm going to try and blog once a week about what I'm doing, connect up with Julie and Linda in their Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share get together that embraces blogging and sharing work in progress.

For the past couple of weeks I've been quilting this quilt, made from the Project 48 Quilt blocks I made.  The quilt is square and I'm quilting a continuous spiral on it.  The outer spirals are a long way around but I love the effect.  On the down side, some of my blocks are bit on the big side, and I've had to do some gathering to get them to lay flat.  I must have skipped the step of measuring and trimming the blocks before I put the top together.  It has been a good lesson for me to remember these simple steps, especially with this much quilting. 

Talk next week.

Sunday Sewday

My Project 48 Quilt has been languishing over the past month or so.  I had spent quite a bit of time on other projects with deadlines so this took a backseat, and  though I normally try and keep up to date with these blocks there seem to have been issues with recent blocks.  Some blocks have needed more thought than usual around fabric choice and placement, some needed alternative techniques to be found, and others that just took a long time to make.  I'm still not up to date, but I feel like I've made some good progress with these.

With deadlines met I've also got back to making my Wonky Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and will be linking up with Angela at So Scrappy for her weekly check-in.  Angela's blog is wealth of pattern and project ideas based on using your scraps by colour.  The link ups give you a chance to see what everyone else in blog-land is doing.

Now what about those deadlines?  Here's one.  This is a 12 x 12 piece for the Aotearoa Quilters yellow challenge.  I had lots of ideas for yellow, but none that really formed into a plan.  Then I found a pile of doilies with yellow embroidery and I figured I could do something with those.  My favourite shirt provided the inspiration I needed.  It is a really graphic print that makes great use of colour, and I love the way different designs flow into and across each other.  I stamped and stencilled some background fabric, and found a graphic print, and a retro floral (a sheet) to add the different patterns.  I quilted it in a variegated yellow, and then stitched in black, cutting across the yellow quilting. 

I'll blog about the other deadline project another time.  It will take a wee bit of explanation.

Feet up

I have my feet up for a few days with a sprained ankle so I'm binding a quilt and listening to podcasts. This project is a long time UFO. It's a scrappy Bargello using Bonnie Hunter's free pattern. 

History never repeats

I used to have two lovely golden retrievers, one of whom loved to be the star of my quilt photo shoots.  The moment I got out a camera, Oscar was on, or in front of the quilt.  Well my golden stars have moved on, and now I a wee tabby cat called Tillie to keep me company on my quilting journey. 

Today I trimmed by quilted Grand Illusion quilt and put it outside to photograph.  Who should pop right along  but Tillie.

 

I didn't get a very good photo.  I need to get up higher.

I love the backing fabric, an Ikat style print on sale from Hawthorne Threads. 

It's going to be a long way around this one with the binding.  

Cruisy last day of holiday

So how have I spent the last day of my summer holiday today?   I've taken a very cruisy approach to it.   A little (emphasis on little) household organisation, interspersed with a little reading, and a little quilting.  3 more blocks for the sampler...

There is a bunch of blocks that are orange.  I'm not sure how I'm going to go finding fabric for those...  I have plenty of orange hand dyes because I love muddling with red and yellow, I can think of only 2 orange print fabrics I've used in quilts. 

And some reds and neutrals for the border of Double Delight.  

These units are at a REALLY boring stage to sew so I am using them as leaders and enders.  This has somehow stopped me from having to focus on them and it makes them a much more manageable task.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Let's do the time warp - old and not so old projects

I've been doing a bit of a stock take. Overdue for new year perhaps?  I wasn't in time to sign up for Adrianne's Q1 Finish-Along, but these are the 3 projects I'd like to work on finishing during that time.

I've checked off the list of 6 inch sampler blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The 2014 challenge that is. It seems I stopped after July's red blocks and didn'tmoved on to greens of the light and bright variety.  So I have a few blocks to catch up on.  Well 29 to be precise.  Except that now it's 26 because today I made these 3.  And the title of today's post came from the background fabric which I decided while playing with these today that  I LOVE.  It really is a time warp moment because it is and old print that I picked up at Fabric-a-brac last year.  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make these little blocks.  They work up largely from scraps - and I mean little scraps like left over binding strips, charm squares, those little giveaway pieces of fabric you get in goodie bags at shows...  you don't need a fat quarter bundle of an entire fabric collection to put together some little squares. 

Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion.  The top is finished, and the backing is sewn together ready to go, so this "just" needs quilting.

And another mystery from Bonnie.  This one has been around for a few years.  I got stuck trying to find perfect border fabric and when everything seemed to look a bit flat I decided to piece one instead.  So  I am working on making a pieced red and white border for this, in the style of Andee at The Modern Diary

So I have some goals.  What fun!

A Madden Brothers Moment

... Otherwise known as... We are done 

It's a bit breezy here today and this is a big quilt so getting a good photo was trick but here is my version if Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion. 

Tinkering away with Grand Illusion

I am making progress. Many people seem to have finished already. I had a little set back when I discovered that I hadn't made enough sashing  blocks. Back to clue 3 and the green and neutrals for the afternoon to fix that oopsie. Here are the 2 rows together. 

Grand Illusion revealed

The mystery quilt was revealed on New Year's Day. I have the first row together and have been piecing more blocks today. I love this quilt design. Bonnie Hunter did a great job of this one. The pattern is available for a little while on her blog www.quiltville.blogspot.com

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. 

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. 

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.

Options

This is like one of those picture puzzles where you have to spot the 10 differences.  I'm trying to work out the best layout for my floral fabrics in my Shimmering Triangles quilt (started at Symposium with the fabulous Jenny Bowker).  What do you think?

 

I've been thinking about what I'm going to work on for the year ahead.  I want to use some fabrics that are in the cupboard.  I like the look of Auriful's Designer of the Month quilt, and  Sew at Home Mummy's "Classic Meets Modern QAL".  It's a while since I've worked on a block of the month type quilt and I miss them.  They're fun to have on the back burner and watch unfold during the year, and they are really handy to have up your sleeve to  use for gifts.  I have a another couple of ideas too that I'm mulling over but haven't settled on.   I bought plenty of solid white fabric today so that I can make a start.

Who am I?

I've been away from my blog for such a long time that anyone reading might well be wondering who this person suddenly posting is.   Thanks for sticking with me.  The lure of study has been strong and I've had my head in the books for much of the last 18 months.  And it will continue for the next 6 months too, but my goal is to be finished by July, in time for Quilt Symposium in Taupo.  I have my fingers crossed that I'll get into a Gwen Marston class, and am very excited about the idea of that.

I have done some quilting over summer.   This is a quilt for friend who is having her third child soon.   The greens with a bit of blue are my attempt at neutral.  I bought the fabrics in Taupo during my Christmas holiday and they just glow against the white.  Big shout out to the Janome shop in Wanganui where I found the beautiful white - they have a great selection of fabrics and had three plain whites for me to choose from.

Adapted from a Moda Bakeshop pattern, ready to bind

The back is actually light blue, with left over squares - love the effect of the sunlight making the pinwheels come through.

And these are the colours of my next project, for a colleague who is having a baby girl. 

Keep dropping by, to see if I'm here, I can't be a boring swot forever.

Potted colour

A gift for a friend, thanks for something generous she did for me.  I planted these petunias in an old copper kettle.  Very pretty.

And another block on my star BOM.  This is block 7 on the pattern.  I skipped ahead because I was impatient to use the green.

Progress and something to make you smile

I have made some progress on the forgotten star quilt.  These are the next two blocks.  They are interesting blocks to make.  3 down, 10 to go!

Last year I participated in a Quilters Christmas Stocking Swap and one of the gifts in my stocking was this pansy pincushion made from felt.  It makes me smile, it has such a cheerful look.

How did this happen?

Whilst I've been on holiday I've attempted to do some tidying up.  In the process I found an interesting bag in the back of my quilt cupboard, neatly packed with fabric and some printed intructions.  It puzzled me for a while until I unpacked enough of it to realise it was fabric for a queen sized quilt.  I bought this fabric around the time we moved house, which was a little over 3 years ago. This wasn't a simple kit purchase, oh no.  This involved trips to quilt stores in Wanganui, Upper Hutt and Wellington, and I had to print out the instructions from a Blog over the course of a year.  How could I forget this?  How indeed?

About a year ago my friend Sarah (who accompanied me on the Wellington trip) asked me... "Don't you have another quilt that you're making, remember, we bought fabric in Wellington?", and I said "NO" because I couldn't remember what she was talking about.  Now I do!

This project is now top of my list for 2012

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting her Fourth Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival.

The quilt I've chosen for the festival is one I made as part of an online class with Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting. This is the first quilt I've designed from scratch, I had so much fun doing it and it brings me great joy each Christmas when I hung it up.
Tonya had us choose a Christmas carol and extract elements about the holidays that we liked and turning them into a design, and then we used her tutorials to piece the various elements. I love the two colour combinations of purple and orange, and raspberry and lime, so it was a double the fun to put them together. Because it was my world I got to put New Zealand at the centre, and then I used a little old scrap to make Australia and put it off to left - VBG!! Making this quilt has given me a lot more confidence

Do check out the link above to Tonya's website, she's very talented and has lot's of tips and tricks to teach. I'm off to check out all the other quilts in the festival.