A Finished Quilt!

It may be August but I am super excited to be able to show you my first quilt finish for 2017. 

This quilt was made using my leftover Cotton and Steel fabrics – I guess I could call this one Cotton and Steel Quilt #4!

(You can see my previous Cotton & Steel quilts by clicking on the following links: Cotton & Steel Quilt #1; Cotton & Steel Quilt #2; Cotton & Steel Quilt #3)

Cotton and Steel Quilt August 2015

Plus Plus Quilt October 2016

Cotton & Steel Quilt #3 November 2016

 

For this latest quilt, I made super sized economy blocks – a pattern in Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine Issue 46. For the first time I tried QAYG and was pretty happy with the end result. I didn’t struggle with the actual quilting process quite as much and think this technique may be my method of choice for future projects.

After joining the blocks together, I used a much loved Cotton & Steel fabric – Study Hall in black and white by Alexia Marcelle Abegg – from my stash for the backing. I joined the quilted front panel to the backing by stitching along the seams and around the grey background squares, both vertically and horizontally.

I’m very happy to finally have a quilt finish for the year and am now feeling quietly optimistic that my quilting –  and blogging – will continue, albeit less frequently than previous years 🙂

Linking up again (after a long absence!) to Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation

 

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Finally…Some Sewing!

It’s mid-year school holidays and after a LONG hiatus, I’ve finally found some time, and more importantly some motivation, to sew!

I’ve been whipping up some supersize economy blocks using my leftover Cotton and Steel fabrics. By now, you all know how much I LOVE these bright and beautiful fabrics.

These 16½ inch (unfinished) blocks were a joy to make and I made twelve of them in a matter of days.  I found the pattern for these blocks in Issue 46 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine (the cover quilt). I only had a small amount of white fabric left in my stash so I decided to pair it with some Bella Solids grey for the background to make the centre square of these blocks really “pop”.

In another first for me, I have decided to try QAYG (Quilt As You Go) to hopefully avoid my usual frustration when quilting on my small domestic sewing machine. I chose to quilt several diagonal lines through the centre of each block in an “X” pattern.

I had some initial concerns that the blocks might not match up neatly when I joined them together, but with plenty of pinning, I achieved what I think is a good result. I’ve ended up with a decent-sized 48″ x 64″ quilt top.

It’s been very quiet on my blog this year and I’m still unsure whether I have the time or commitment to sew and write regularly. I will see what this second half of the year brings.

Thanks for visiting!

Deb 🙂

 

 

November OMG Goal Success

With only one day remaining of this month, I am very happy to have been able to sneak in a finish and achieve my November goal for OMG (One Monthly Goal).

This quilt, the third one I’ve made using vibrant Cotton and Steel fabrics, was made following the wonderful quilt pattern “Over the Rainbow” by Keera Job of Live Love Sew. I used a Cotton and Steel jelly roll made up of fabrics from a few of their different collections and a “Slate” Homespun solid background fabric. You can read more about this quilt here and here.

With my previous two Cotton and Steel Quilts, I used Cotton and Steel fabrics exclusively for the quilt front, quilt back and binding.

Cotton and Steel Quilt August 2015

Plus Plus Quilt October 2016

This time, in accordance to my recently self-imposed not-buying-any-more-fabric-just-using-what-I-have mind set, I chose some very cute Foxglove poplin fabric by Aneela Hoey (Cloud9) for the backing. 

After some initial uncertainty as to what to use for binding fabric, I was fortunate enough to find what I think was the perfect choice hiding in my stash! This fabric is by Michael Miller Fabrics for Vera Bradley. I purchased it such a long time ago that I can’t remember from where. I do suspect is was one of my early ebay purchases.

I straight line quilted in an echoing x pattern, with lines all two and a half inches apart. The dark backing fabric made it difficult to photograph but the quilting design is similar to the echoing x design you can see here. My quilting however is completely symmetrical with the centre of the x in the centre of my quilt.

I do like this subtle quilting effect that is more visible on the back of the quilt.

This quilt finishes at 56″ x 85″. As well as my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for November, it is also my third finish for Quarter 4 (#4) of the 2016 Finish Along.

I can say with absolute certainty that this will be my final quilt finish for 2016. From this point onwards, in the lead up to Christmas, life will become even more hectic than usual. In a few weeks time, my sewing machine will get packed away until the new year to make room for our annual Christmas visitors.

Of course, that’s not to say that there won’t be a possible small project finish in the next few weeks so stay tuned… 😉

Incidentally, this is my 100th post on New Creative State! I just want to say thank you for joining me on my quilting journey and taking the time to leave me such encouraging and supportive comments along the way. I appreciate it more than you realise!

Linking up to OMG (One Monthly Goal) @ Elm Street Quilts, MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts and Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Another Cotton and Steel Quilt Top

This week has been a good week. After a miserably cold and wet start to Spring, we have finally experienced some warmer weather. It always amazes me how a few rays of warm Spring sunshine can instantly lift my mood and clear away those winter blues.

I am also doing a little happy dance because I have finished my Cotton & Steel #3 quilt top!

As mentioned in a previous post, I used a wonderful jelly roll-friendly pattern by Keera Job of Live Love Sew. This particular pattern was published exclusively in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine Issue 31.

Keera is a talented designer of many wonderful quilt patterns. After emailing Keera about the availability of her Over the Rainbow pattern (prompted by a comment on my last post), I received a kind and gracious reply from her informing me that she is currently in the process of converting the pattern back to her original format. It will soon be available as both paper and pdf pattern in her online store.

For increased contrast with the vibrant Cotton & Steel feature fabrics, I chose to use a denim blue Homespun solid as the background fabric. The homespun colour is in fact “Slate”, not “Oxford Blue” as stated in my previous post. I do sincerely apologise for this mistake and will strive to be much more careful with my colour names in the future.

Although the warmer weather may lure me outside more often in the coming weeks, I hope to be able to start quilting this flimsy soon. In fact, I’m going to set myself the goal of finishing this quilt by linking up with Patty @ Elm Street Quilts for OMG (One Monthly Goal) November!

Deb 🙂

Linking up to OMG @ Elm Street Quilts, MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation!

Plus Plus Quilt Finish

I cleared off my rather overcrowded sewing room table this week to create some much needed space to quilt and finish my Plus Plus (aka Cotton & Steel #2) Quilt.

For this fun and cheerful quilt I used various Cotton and Steel fabrics from my stash and used this wonderful pattern by Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs.

For the backing, I pieced together some larger pieces from the Playful and Spellbound collections. I quilted it in a simple grid pattern using a beautiful golden thread (Guttermann Col. 956).

I had initially visualised a chartreuse or green fabric for the binding but didn’t have enough of these colours leftover. (I was determined not to purchase any more fabric for this project and only use what I had!) So instead I chose to use navy and think that it frames this quilt quite nicely. I was a bit short on Mesa Fern Book so added in a strip of navy Basics XOXO.

This 64 square inch quilt is my first finish for Quarter 4 (#1) of the 2016 Finish Along.

I have also made significant progress these past few weeks on Cotton & Steel Quilt #3. I have managed to complete all thirty nine blocks and now just need to piece them together. Fingers crossed that I’ll have a completed quilt top to share with you soon!

It’s weird because it sounds like I have done heaps of sewing lately but this could not be further from the truth. My mood’s been low – still waiting for that warm spring sunshine which has been delayed by what seems like constant cold rainy days- plus we’ve also been super busy trying to finish our kitchen renovation in time for the annual arrival of Christmas visitors.

Thankfully it seems that even a few minutes sewing here and there can result in some progress 🙂

Deb

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation

Cotton & Steel Quilt #3

It’s no secret that I love Cotton and Steel fabrics. I have amassed a reasonable stash over the course of my two year quilting journey and have completed two quilts made entirely from these fun fabrics.

Although I haven’t made any many recent purchases, I still own enough Cotton and Steel for at least one – or maybe two 😉 – more quilts. For my latest Cotton and Steel Quilt, I am using the pattern Over the Rainbow by Keera Job of Live Love Sew. This pattern was published in Issue 31 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

Some time ago, I purchased a Cotton and Steel jelly roll – strips of fabrics from a few of their different collections – collated by the lovely ladies at my local fabric store Frangipani Fabrics. I decided, instead of white, to amp up the contrast with these glorious Cotton & Steel colours and use a Slate blue Homespun solid as the background fabric.

I really like the clean lines and angles of the log cabin block (this one really a quarter log cabin block) and it seems to be a design I find myself making again and again.

Is there a particular quilt block that appeals to you and that you have used a number of times?

I had this particular project listed as one of my goals for Quarter 3 of the 2016 Finish Along. I wasn’t too successful and only managed to finish four (out of 39) blocks.

In this past week however, I have made the most of every spare moment and am happy to report that I have made another fifteen blocks! Only twenty more to go…

Deb 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation.

Churn Dash Finish

I finished my Churn Dash Quilt over the weekend.

From start to finish, this quilt took me under two weeks to complete.

I am so happy with the way this quilt turned out, from the fabric choices, to my first beautifully mitered corners (I’ve never been really successful with my corners but seem to have turned a corner…hahaha, couldn’t resist that one!!)

I followed the Churn Dash Quilt Along by Amy Smart on We all Sew. As a new sewer/quilter/blogger, I was thrilled to get a comment by Amy on my previous post.  Diary of a Quilter was perhaps one of the first quilting blogs I ever read!.

I have never really favoured the colour green when it comes to fabric, but feel as though this quilt has ended up as a “green” quilt. Maybe that is due in part to the feature fabric, Mineral Forest by Lori Mason for Andover fabric.

I originally bought two metres of this fabric on sale ( I rarely ever buy more than a half metre cut) and decided to splurge the rest on the pieced backing, which I particularly like.

The quilting was simply straight line quilting with white Gutermann thread. I echoed the centre of the Churn Dash block both vertically and horizontally using the edge of my walking foot.

I decided to bind this quilt in one of my favourites, Basics Green Stripe by Cotton and Steel. Chartreuse is definitely my fave at the moment!

This is definitely my most favourite of the few quilts I have made so far in my short quilting life.  I enjoyed every step of the quilting process!

I hope you like it too!  Deb 🙂

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