OMG for June

I have five new patterns that I purchased during the recent May is for Makers campaign that I’m itching to start!

But I’m trying to behave and have chosen a current WIP as my One Monthly Goal for June.

Last year I participated in the 2015-16 Midnight Mystery Quilt Along, hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. I finished my quilt top in March and it’s been sitting folded up in a cupboard (like many others!) since then, waiting patiently to be quilted…

You can read more about this quilt in my post here and see some of the other amazing finished quilts in the Reveal Parade here.

Cheryl was the mentor of my group “The New Bees” when I participated in the 2015 New Quilt Blogger’s Blog Hop. She is a quilter and blogger who I very much admire and she very generously donated two of her digital quilt patterns as a prize for the Mystery Quilt Along. I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of her generosity so I think that it’s about time to finish off this quilt and feel worthy of her prize. (Also, the 2016/17 Mystery Quilt Along is just about to start and I’m yet to finish the 2015/16 quilt!)

So, my goal for this month is to baste, quilt and bind my Mystery Quilt. Wish me luck!

Incredibly, I seem to be on a lucky streak and have just found out that I am one of the winners from OMG May. I have won a $25 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop. I feel incredibly fortunate and I’d like to express a huge thank you to Heidi from Red Letter Quilts for hosting OMG and to The Fat Quarter Shop for donating this fantastic prize.

Linking up with Heidi @ Red Letter Quilts for OMG June

 

May is For Makers Week 5

May has come to an end and my last purchase for the May is for Makers campaign is the Courtyard Tiles quilt pattern by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation.

I purchased this pattern as I’m always thinking ahead to possible future projects. I think this pattern would be the perfect opportunity for me to use some of the large scale prints from my stash.

I’ve really enjoyed participating in the May is for Makers campaign and admit to having a large number of other wonderful indie patterns on my wish list!

Here is a wrap up of my five purchased patterns:

• Week 1 – Spinning Quilt Pattern by Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
• Week 2 – The Snazzy Slouch Handbag Sewing Pattern by ChrisW Designs
• Week 3 – Modern Sorbet Quilted Pillowcase Pattern by Seraphym HM
• Week 4 – Hexie Framed Quilt Pattern by Quilty Love
• Week 5 – Courtyard Tiles Quilt Pattern by Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

I’d better get sewing!

Deb 🙂

Sewing Table Topper

It’s the start of two weeks of school holidays down here in Tasmania, Australia. While the kids were playing happily together outside, I was able to find a few hours yesterday afternoon to finish a new cover for my sewing table. (Up until now, my sewing table has been covered in a beach towel!)

When I first began sewing in 2014, I discovered a wonderful local fabric store Frangipani Fabrics and signed up to be a member of their Fabric Club. Each month, members receive in the mail 10 x 6½ inch squares of the latest fabric collections. Although no longer subscribed to this club – I visit the store regularly – I have collected quite a pile of these lovely little squares.

I sorted through what I had and pulled out a variety of greens, yellows and a few blues.

The plan was to sew these squares together in random order. However, I don’t do “random” very well, so after much deliberation, I finally settled on a 5 x 10 arrangement which would result in the perfectly sized table topper with no overhang.

I didn’t want a binding on this table topper, so I created a quilt sandwich with batting and backing fabric and quilted diagonal lines through each square. I chose not to mark any lines and am happy to say that the lines turned out pretty straight.

I created the back for this table topper using some green fabric from my stash. I just love the Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow fabric and am a little sad that this is my only piece.

I cut the backing fabric to the same size as the quilt top – 30 x 60 inches – and sewed the two pieces right sides together, leaving a large gap for turning out.

After turning out the right way, I gave the quilt a good press with a hot iron, making sure to carefully tuck in the edges of the opening. I then top stitched around all edges of the quilt, which closed the gap and gave the quilt a nice finish.

I am so happy with how this table topper has turned out.

This really was a spur-of-the-moment project idea but the end result has already made my sewing space a much nicer place to spend time in 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

2016 Finish Along Q2 Goals

The 2015 Finish Along was a great motivator for me. I was able to cross many projects off my UFO list and discovered some fantastic blogs and endless inspiration along the way.

I don’t feel as though I am lacking motivation this year with my sewing projects, just time. However, the Finish Along holds such fond memories for me so I  have decided to make a Quarter 2 list. I may or may not make much progress but I’ll certainly give it my best shot!

This is my proposed list of finishes for Quarter 2:

1.  Colour Happy Quilt – basted and ready to go!
2.  Off Kilter Quilt  
3. Midnight Mystery Quilt
4. Zen Chic Reel Time Quilt – pieces cut and a few blocks made. 
5. Cotton & Steel Quilt #2 – fabrics and pattern chosen, pieces cut…
6. Scrapper’s Delight Quilt – need to make 32 more happy blocks!

It will be interesting to see how many of these projects I manage to finish by June 30.

Wish me MUCH luck!

Deb 🙂

Scrap Play

With my decrease in quality sewing time due to an ever busy life schedule, I’ve taken to doing a bit of sewing here, a bit of sewing there… basically whenever I can find a spare five or ten minutes!

I have a few finished quilt tops – one that is basted – ready to be quilted. But finding a decent chunk of time where it is worth the effort to move my old Janome, from it’s small table in my “sewing room” out to the larger dining table, with more space for quilting, is proving quite difficult.

So I’ve been playing with my scraps and having a lot of fun doing so.

(That’s my rolled up and basted Colour Happy quilt at the top waiting to be quilted!)

This is what my little design wall looks like this week.

On the top left is some paper pieced economy blocks I made using my Amy Butler fabric scraps. The template for this block by Lynne Goldsworthy @ Lily’s Quilts can be found here. Unfortunately, I misjudged the amount of  large AB scraps I had and had to compensate with a few other fabrics.

The wonderful and popular book Sunday Morning Quilts is also providing much inspiration for me at the moment.

I’m using my black, white and colour on black scraps to make my version of the Candy Coated quilt pattern from this book.

I’ve also made several blocks for another pattern in the book Scrapper’s Delight.

It’s fun to see some of my most loved colour fabrics in this one. It’s going to be one very vibrant quilt. Only 32 more quadrants to go…

I do get quite concerned sometimes that I am starting a lot of projects but not finishing many. However, I am loving this craft and learning so much so I thing that’s what really matters 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Off Kilter Scrap Pillow

This week I added the sashing strips to my Off Kilter quilt top.

I made this quilt using a pattern from one of my library book loans Jump Start Your Quilting. The pattern – “Off Kilter” is by Konda Lockau of Moose on the Porch Designs.

For this quilt, I used a Tula Pink Elizabeth Layer Cake.

This beautiful fabric and the Bella Solids grey background fabric were a pleasure to work with and I didn’t want to waste a precious inch!

While making my large blocks for this quilt, I made HST’s with the offcuts,

and played around with a few ideas for a pillow top.

The first option is (on a smaller scale) from the pattern Dizzying Diamonds by Melissa @ Sew BitterSweet Designs. I won this great pattern in A Lovely Year of Finishes 2015. I really like this Layer Cake-friendly pattern and plan to make an entire quilt using it one day.

However, for this particular pillow project, I decided to go with Option 3.

For the back of the pillow, I chose some gorgeous Tsuru “Old Lace” fabric in cerulean by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

I followed a Zipper Pillow tutorial that I have used once before but I had to modify it slightly so that I didn’t lose the points on my triangles. Attaching a zipper with a quarter inch seam resulted in some very wobbly stitching! I ended up unpicking these stitches and re-sewing it with the pillow front and back flat and the zipper open. The result was much better although if I make a pillow like this again, I’ll probably make an envelope enclosure for the back instead.

The pillow top finished at 15½ inches square and I used a size 16 cushion insert to fill it, resulting in a nice plump pillow!

We are enjoying our Easter long weekend at home this year. The kids are overdosing on chocolate while my husband and I are knocking down some internal walls ready for a future kitchen renovation.

I really hope you and your family are enjoying a relaxing long weekend.

Let’s hope no one ends up in a chocolate coma like our kids have 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Small Plates Quilt

Isn’t it funny how a particular unfinished and abandoned project from the past can once again get your attention and enthusiasm?

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had tidied up my sewing space and sorted through my many WIP’s and UFO’s. Some projects saw the light of day for the first time in years, while others were put away in a box for another day…

This particular quilt top – a smaller version of “Small Plates” from the book The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman – was completed some time ago, possibly in 2014. Now, I have only been quilting since that year so I suspect it was one of the earliest quilts I made. For some reason, I didn’t feel like completing it so it was put away in a box with other UFO’s…

But it grabbed my attention again during my tidy up and I’m pleased to be able to finally cross it off my list!

The fabrics are a colourful combination of a Moda Simply Color  charm pack and assorted fabrics that were purchased as a scrap bag on ebay.The backing was a bargain buy from my local Spotlight store. I paid only $3 a metre which was a lucky find by me!I quilted it with a diagonal crosshatch and the funky backing fabric influenced me to use my walking foot to quilt some circle “plates” on some of the blocks. I thought about quilting every one of the white background blocks but eventually decided that “less is more”.I originally intended to use a multi coloured chevron fabric for the binding but changed my mind after the binding was made and instead went with a soft grey shot cotton that almost perfectly matches the grey backing colour.

I am surprised at how much I love this quilt and think it will be my favourite couch quilt for the approaching Tassie winter.

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Simple Strip Quilt

I had recently borrowed this book from the library and yesterday afternoon I found myself with a few spare hours and an intense need to create something!

These fabrics – Moda “A Stitch in Color” by  Malka Dubrawsky – were one of my first online purchases and I had been struggling to find an opportunity to use them.

They were the perfect fabrics to use for this project.

After some simple cutting and chain sewing,

I had a 40″ x 40″ quilt top completed in only a few hours.

I love making more intricate quilts but I think you’d all agree that a quick finish feels pretty good!

Linking up to Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts 

Midnight Mystery Quilt Top Finish

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged about my participation in the 2015/2016 Midnight Mystery Quilt Along hosted by Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs.

I signed up for this, my first ever Quilt-Along, in May last year. In June, we were given our fabric requirements and selected our fabrics. Our cutting instructions were given to us in July and then we were ready to begin sewing!

The first few months of instructions saw us making flying geese, square-in-a-square units and courthouse steps.

But unfortunately that’s where it stopped for me…

…that is, until this week when I decided that I just HAD to make the deadline of March 8th to complete our quilt tops!

So I used every spare minute I had playing catch up and completing the November to January instructions.

The large blocks measured 24 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ when finished.

After that, it was a simple process of sewing the 8 full blocks and 2 half blocks together to complete my quilt top.

I’m still yet to choose my backing fabric and decide on how to quilt it.

But I’m very pleased that I didn’t put this one in the UFO pile!

Deb 😉

 

 

Colour Happy

After two months away from my sewing machine, I’ll admit that I have found it very difficult to find any motivation to sew again.

After a very busy Christmas holiday period, which included an extended camping holiday and visits from family members, I have managed to reorganise my sewing space and sort through all of my various WIP’s.

I even found a shelf to store my finished quilts 🙂

But after this process of tidying (or maybe procrastinating?), I still wasn’t able to muster a single ounce of enthusiasm for any particular project. And I have plenty of existing unfinished projects to choose from…

Anyway, while tidying and reorganising my sewing supplies, I came to realise that I have quite a large fabric collection. While making no promises of a 2016 “fabric diet”, I have decided that this year will be a year where I will try to use existing fabric from my stash wherever possible. (Of course, there will always be that extra yummy fabric that I won’t be able to resist… 😉 )

I also discovered that I now have a fairly decent stash of fabric scraps which gave me some much needed motivation for a new project – a rainbow scrap quilt!

I followed the pattern – “Pride Flag” – in the fabulous book Modern Quilt Perspectives by Thomas Knauer. I want to make ALL of the quilts in this book!

With the exception of red and purple, of which I have a limited stash, all of the fabrics used in this quilt were from my scrap bins.

The blocks went together surprisingly fast and in less than a week, I had a completed quilt top.

This quilt makes me very cheerful when I look at it so I have decided to call it my “Colour Happy” Quilt. The quilt top measures 65″ x 73″.

Life feels pretty hectic at the moment and I doubt I have any chance of producing this year the number of quilts I completed in 2015.

But it sure feels good to be back sewing again and that’s why I’m linking up for the first time to Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Deb 🙂