Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm excited to be part of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Twice a year Amy's Creative Side links up heaps and heaps of bloggers who nominate one quilt to go into the Festival.  To see some fabulous quilts and get really inspired, click on the link:

My quilt is one that I completed not long ago.  I made this quilt for my daughter Indy to take with her to University.  I made her one last year as well but she said she'd like a larger quilt.

She tells me this size is ideal for using to make a 'human kebab'.

I have another quilt which has this block design around the edge of it, I have tried to find out what the name of the design is but I haven't been able to.  I'm sure it must be a traditional block as it is simply another way of laying out half square triangles.  I've called it 'Scrappy Sparks'.

The colours Indy chose were orange, aqua, pink and purple.  I wasn't sure how they would work together, and I added a couple of warm browns to give the quilt more depth.  I also included some prints that I knew she would like, such as some bikes and some hedgehogs.  The border is a Denyse Schmidt print.

It's a simple design that shows off the colour and fabric prints really well.  I was surprised that the colours all look great together!  I am really pleased with it.  There is something so amazing when you hand over a quilt to someone.  Indy was so grateful, she says she loves it!

Fun and a new skill

These two purses are just so cute!   I also made these while on sewing retreat.  The first one was a project that was brought along for all of us to make by Denise.  She even ordered the gorgeous purse frames (from Etsy) and gave us a choice of beautiful Echo designed by Lotta Jansdotter fabrics which she'd precut out for us.
I'd never used purse frames before but I am definitely ordering some!  It was so quick and the finished item looks so smart.

I have a stash of half yards of Echo, not the complete collection but quite a pile.  I haven't cut into it at all yet, still searching for the 'right' pattern.  It's such beautiful fabric.  Very different to most fabric I've seen (and let's face it, I spend alot of time researching!).

This little zip up bag has pleats along the front, it is from my new book 'Bags A Modern Collection' which I wrote about in my last blog.  I think my combination of fabrics doesn't show it off very nicely, I love both of them but they are too busy together here.  Also my zip ends are not crisp, you would think after all this time of using zips I would get it right but I still have zip issues from time to time!

A quick photo of a heat bag that I made my Dad.  I love making heat bags, but as we have a mouse problem here in town it is wise to use up all the wheat that you buy as soon as can rather than have it sitting around.  So I made this using some cheap drill, lining it with flannelette to help keep it warmer for longer.  I  had to make it it a bit cute so added a 'wise old owl', from an Alexander Henry print that has lots of these sweet guys to choose from.

Catching Up!

This cute rail fence quilt top is another that I finished at Sewjourn.  It's not very big, the blocks I think are about 8 inches square so only a lap quilt.  The aquas, browns and creams are very cosy and since I took these photos I've quilted it and it is now ready to bind!  I love the uneven strips that make up the rails.  

I wondered about adding a border but I decided not to.

You can see the construction of the block better in this photo.  Some of these fabrics are the very last of old favourites, so it was nice to put them all into a quilt together.

I made a few more blocks for quilts at Sewjourn, however I haven't looked at them much since I've been back to work!  I did make some bags, these two are different shopping bag styles.

Another Jane Market Tote, without the panel on the front as I wanted to show off this great Heather Bailey fabric.  Sometimes it's difficult to make a feature of such large scale prints, but I think this works well.  The fabric is an old one, from her Pop Garden line.

The fabric for this bag is a Lissette drill that I got at Spotlight.  It's a fabulous weight for a bag, I lined it with plain cotton and it is a great bag for taking to the supermarket.  The pattern is from a great book I bought, again at Spotlight, called 'Bags the Modern Classics' by Sue Kim.  I've made a few of the bags in this book now and have found the patterns easy to understand and fun to make.  The link I've pasted goes to Amazon so if you click on it you can have a look at some of the pages of it.

Our Spotlight doesn't have many of the Lissette fabrics which is just as well for me as I'm sure I'd have to get more.  They are so fresh and fun, and colourful.   The book was a bargain too, as I had a 20% off coupon and it has so many great patterns.

Scrappy Sparks Quilt

I got the binding on this quilt only a little while ago after a few hours work on it today.  I'm down to the wire as I am entering it into Canoe Ridge Creations Festival of Half Square Triangles.

It's a quilt for my daughter, she chose the pattern and most of the colours.  I don't know what the name of it is, so I call it Scrappy Sparks Quilt.

The background is white rather than the usual off white I prefer.  The mixture of colours in the half square triangles really stand out next to it.  The border and binding are DS Fabrics.

I made the half square triangles using the method described here so I had lots of bias edges to try and keep from stretching.  It's quilted with swirly diagonal lines, I wanted to keep the quilting fairly simple and not overdo it so that it will be warm and snuggly for Indy.  I'll be handing it over to her later this week!  

I'm really excited to be linking up to Megan's party!

Lots of quilting to do!

I met a friend for coffee and a trip to Spotlight today.  So I thought I'd better make a list of all the quilt flimsies that I've made, check what size wadding pieces I have at home and work out how much I am going to need to buy.  I was amazed to find that I have eight quilt tops waiting to be quilted!  I have three pieces of wadding that are the right size, so I need quite a few metres of wadding for the remaining five!

We got to Spotlight and were very happy to find that they had all DS Fabrics 50% off.  So after enjoying the thrill of the hunt to get a few that I didn't have, I completely forgot to get any wadding.  I've got plenty to do so it's not really a problem but I do wonder about how easily distracted I am when faced with pretty material!

I finished up these two quilt tops at Sewjourn, one is a long term WIP and the other I started from scratch and finished the same day.

This quilt was started at Sewjourn about 18 months ago.  It's a pattern by Ashley at Film in the Fridge which she made to showcase Tufted Tweets fabric when it was released, called Unfurnished.  It is available free on the Robert Kaufman website.  I call my version my Sweet Unfurnished Meadow, as the print fabrics are all from Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet and Farmer's Market lines.  Meadowsweet has long been a favourite of mine, and I have quite a stash of it!  Making this quilt has not made much of an impression on it. I also used some lovely shot cottons, and the background is an off white Kona I think.  

The pattern was much harder than I thought, and as you can see it still doesn't lie very flat.  I'm hoping that quilting it with a stipple pattern will improve it.  

The fabrics are actually brighter than these photos, very citrusy and fresh.  I've made it for myself and I'm happy with the design and my fabric choices.

This quilt is a pattern I've made before that is so much fun to put together, especially as it uses on only 8 fat quarters of fabric and the equivalent of a background. You can see my previous one here.  The pattern is Through the Trees by Kate Conklin.

I chose my fabrics around the four prints from the line Too Muchery by Helen Dardik.  The warm chocolate brown background is a Spotlight Prima.  I've used Prima solids for a few projects now and really like them, they are soft and not too thin, and they are available in a good colour range.  

I think I will put a border on this, maybe 5 or 6 inches of the background so that the coloured fabrics are not on the edge of the quilt.

I'm hoping to get some binding onto a quilt tonight so I can enter it into the Festival of Half Square Triangles.   The binding is all ready cut out, just have to put it together.  There is also a bit of quilting to unpick on this particular project, so I'll be busy!

Stitching with the gals!

I am lucky to have a few friends who I go to a sewing retreat with a couple of times a year.  Last week we again went away to beautiful Sewjourn in Lancefield.   We sewed away the days and evenings and had a great time. 

Four of us were there for the six nights, and two were able to join us for three nights.  Our seventh girl chose to do some beautiful embroidery and didn't bring her machine.  

Here's most of what we created.

We were amazed when we put everything on the table to photograph it!

I'm going to post photos of what I made while we were there over a few posts.  This lovely lap quilt flimsy is from a pattern by Anorina that appeared in Homespun recently.  Anorina was a member of a bee I was in, and she sells pre-cuts at great prices through her shop which you can find through her blog.

Called Step by Step, it came together fairly quickly although I was glad to have the use of a design wall to lay it out as I sewed the rows.  It helped me to keep the 'step' pattern working.  This quilt pattern uses a couple of charm packs and two different solids.  I was given a charm pack of Salty Aire for Christmas so ordered a second one, and I matched it with a warm eggshell and a light blue.  

I am really happy with this, it was a great way to use these special charm packs.

I'd done a bit of sewing before we left, and got this quilt top together.

I finished the blocks at least 12 months ago, I don't know why I can get quilts to that stage and then put them aside for so long!  My sister had dropped around and made me drag out all my UFO's, and when faced with them all I realised that I had a few that wouldn't take long to get together, and this was one of them.  Of course laying out the blocks so that the colours were distributed evenly was a big challenge as it usually is for me!  It's called Paintbox, and is a free pattern by Elizabeth Hartmann.  It was originally a quilt along Elizabeth's blog, Oh! Fransson.

This close up shows the white fabric I used in the blocks, and the kona champagne that I sashed it with.  I wasn't sure using these colours would work but I think they look really lovely.

I have heaps of quilting to do now!

   

Lots of UFOs

I've been a bit unmotivated lately, and my lack of anything interesting to say here is proof.  My daughter has left after her holidays to go back to the city to university, and it's taking me a while to adjust.  I have been sewing, but I have to admit I've been going from project to project, doing a bit on lots of things and not completing very much!

I've joined the Granny Square fad and have been loving putting a few of these simple, sweet blocks together.  

Although I'd sworn off swaps for a while, I joined a small table runner swap and have posted off my wonky and scrappy log cabin table runner.  I have also been working on the quilt top made of half square triangles I blogged about here.  I finished it last week but unfortunately the borders are not sitting nicely enough so they will be unpicked and re-stitched.  The half square triangles have bias edges and I think this is the reason behind it.  

I don't have any photos of these projects because I can't find my camera cable!  I took the two photos that follow here with an old camera, the other camera needs to be charged.  It's so frustrating that the cables are different.  

I've also been working on my mother's quilt, Improv By The Sea.  

I'm liking it more and more, especially the larger blocks and areas of pattern.  To me it looks a bit like pixelated rock pools.    

I have a long weekend starting, so I hope to get a few things finished and find my camera cable!  Some fun fabric parcels have arrived too, and Spotlight has a new range of Denyse Schmidt fabrics which I've purchased a few pieces of, it is quite retro.  I'm also going to blogger's meet up tomorrow, that's why I thought I'd better blog something so that I don't get fired from the group!  It's a few local women who have blogs so it should be fun.  Some I don't know, and some I've been reading for a while.  It's always good to expand the blog list!