A New Project!

Today I have a new project to share with you.

(Like, I really need a new project, hey? 😉 )

These blocks are a free charm squares pattern Ocean Breeze (by Susan Emory) for Michael Miller Fabrics.

I was given a pack of Moda Simply Colorful II (by V & Co.) charm squares for my birthday last year and have been on the hunt since then for a suitable pattern.

I’m not 100% sure at this stage whether I will follow this pattern as written, although it is very tempting. An “on point” quilt is on my quilting bucket list!

Instead, I’m thinking about making either a table runner or altering the pattern by adding extra sashing strips and thereby increasing the finished quilt size. Any thoughts?

I love the colour palette of this collection and am especially enamoured by the following two fabrics:

I hope you’re having a wonderful Monday. It’s the start of school holidays here in Tasmania, Australia and the kids and I are enjoying a wet weather pajama day at home!

Deb 🙂

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

 

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More Log Cabins

I have plenty of WIP’s that I should could be working on but instead I have been spending my recent sewing time making colourful log cabin blocks.

These blocks are for my new project from the book Modern Log Cabin Quilting. The project, called “Modern Crosses”, is featured on the book cover.

I wrote about this wonderful book in a previous post and showed you the log cabin pillow I recently made using strips of my cherished Carolyn Friedlander Doe fabric.

For this new project, I have used solids leftover from bunting I made for our Guild’s booth at the local Craft and Quilt Fair last year.

If you’re interested, the bunting pattern is a free tutorial by Jeni Baker @ In Color Order.

There wasn’t a lot remaining from the original fat eighths after the bunting was made but I’ve been holding onto these small scraps just waiting for an opportunity to use them.

I can honestly say that there was just enough leftover fabric to make my Modern Crosses blocks and I literally sewed right up to the selvage edge (as shown in the photo below).

I did have to make a few changes to the original pattern as 2 inch strips were required for the “logs” and I only had enough coloured fabric for strips 1¾ inches wide. So, as a result, my blocks measure at 8½ inches square instead of the 9½ inch size in the pattern.

Each block is made up of four log cabins:

I used various low volume fabrics from my stash for the background .

And as I had five varying shades of seven different colours to begin with, I only made 35 blocks (as opposed to the 60 in the book pattern).

I’m really looking forward to sewing these blocks together and discovering what size quilt I end up with! 😉

In support of the current May is for Makers campaign, I have purchased another pattern from an indie designer this week.

For week 3, I have purchased a quilted pillowcase pattern – Modern Sorbet by Seraphym Handmade.It’s no secret that I love making pillows and as Drunkards Path blocks have always been on my bucket list, I thought this small project would be a great way for me to try curved piecing for the first time!

Deb 🙂

Linking up to Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts, Design Board Monday @ Bits ‘n Bobs, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation 

 

Pattern Play Quilt Block Tutorial

About a month ago, my family and I visited our State Museum. There is a current exhibition there called Pattern Play, which showcases a variety of patterns, including those found in nature and kaleidoscopic art images.

I found this exhibition really evocative and it inspired me to create my first ever quilt block design “Pattern Play” which I would like to share with you today.

What you will need for one 12½ inch (unfinished) block:

• 4 x 3½ inch squares (feature fabric – in this tutorial blue)
• 4 rectangles 3½ x 2 inches (feature fabric)
• 8 x 3½ inch squares (background fabric – in this tutorial white)
• 4 rectangles 3½ x 2 inches (background fabric)
• 4 x 2 inch squares (background fabric)
• Use a quarter inch seam

The method:

1. Sew a 3½ x 2 inch white rectangle to a 3½ x 2 inch blue rectangle to create a 3½ inch square. Press the seams towards the darker fabric. Make 4 of these units (A)
2. Draw a diagonal line across each of the 2 inch background squares
3. Place one of these squares on a corner of a 3½ inch feature square RST. Align the sides as shown and sew along the drawn line
4. Trim off the excess fabric as shown, leaving a quarter inch seam
5. Press towards the darker fabric. Make 4 of these units (B)
6. You should by now have the following block pieces
7. Sew each pair of the white background 3½ inch squares together to make 4 rectangles, each measuring 3½ x 6½ inches (C)
8. Sew an A unit (step 1) to a B unit (steps 2-5)
9. Make sure the colours are aligned and use a pin to carefully match the seams
10. Make four of these units (D)
11. Sew a C unit to a D unit as shown
12. Make four of these quadrants
13. Sew these four quadrants together, rotating each one as shownAnd there you have it – one completed Pattern Play block!Try swapping the feature and background fabrics for an alternative result

Let me know what you think of this block and my tutorial. I’m currently working on a project using this block and hope to share it with you real soon!

Deb 🙂

Linking up to MCM @ Cooking Up Quilts, Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and (for the first time) Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation!

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 😉

 

 

More Vintage Blocks

A little while ago, I told you about my recent purchase of the 2013 book Vintage Quilt Revival. This was my first block from the book – Geometric Star.

I have become completely hooked on paper piecing and have been intermittently making blocks over the past few weeks that I wanted to share with you.

Red Cross (my absolute favourite!):

Wheel of Fortune:

Dakota Star:

Riviera:

Exploding Star:

And here they are all together!

I think you can see where I’m heading with the colour scheme!

I’ve been planning to make a navy and pink quilt for a while now. I even had a practise run with my Eight Point Star Mini Quilt.

For the quilt I have in mind, I will need four more blocks so I’m more than halfway done 😉

I’ve also joined up for yet another Quilt-Along/Blog Hop with Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts. Lorna has a created a wonderful Dog Gone Cute pattern that I, as a major dog lover, couldn’t resist! You can read more about it here.

I’ve purchased the pattern, and although the Quilt Along doesn’t start until September 1, I couldn’t resist making my first block:

How cute is this puppy??

Deb 🙂

A Few Bumps in the Road

This has been a STRANGE week for me…

With the onset of winter down here in Tasmania, Australia, my car decided to NOT start in the mornings due to the cold.  It is still currently at the mechanics and I have been without a car for the better part of a week. Thankfully, we have the school bus at our doorstep but I have missed several appointments and my monthly Modern Quilt Guild meeting-Arghh!!

Also, we were without home internet connection for four – repeat, FOUR!! – days! (Not a good start to the New Quilters Blog Hop) By Friday, after two days sans internet, I was ready to call the whole thing off!

So we took our little old caravan and family away for a long weekend to Bruny Island and “got away from it all”. We went on a 14km bushwalk which took us nearly seven hours to complete. And when we got home, the internet connection had finally been restored!

On a positive note, while I have been “house bound”, I have managed to get quite a bit of sewing done. I finally finished my Swoon Quilt top.

I will admit to feeling relieved that this quilt top has been completed.  I had some trouble with bulky seams and my little machine really “clunked” over some of them.

Anyway, this pretty green and yellow quilt is not my usual style but I am happy with the chosen colour palette.

A lot of the fabrics are by Joel Dewberry and mostly from my stash.

I hope to get it quilted within the next few weeks but have a long list of must do’s before then!

Finally, I want to say a big hello to all participants in the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Hop!   I am excited about my involvement in this group and really look forward to visiting everyone’s blogs in the coming months. Thank you to those of you who are following my blog either on bloglovin’ or by email. I really hope that I can entice you to visit again soon!

I also want to say a HUGE thanks to our wonderful hosts:

Cheryl@Meadow Mist Designs

Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl

Stephanie@Late Night Quilter, and

Terri Ann@Childlike Fascination.

I know we are all incredibly grateful for the generosity, support and encouragement these lovely ladies are providing to us newbie bloggers/quilters.

I’m hoping this week will be a great one, Deb 🙂

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

Amy Butler Quilt Update

Hi all, I thought I’d give you an update on one of my 2015 Finish Along projects.

I am ready to start quilting my Amy Butler Quilt, FINALLY!

When I first began quilting last year, Amy Butler was the first designer whose fabrics I craved.  With my small but varied collection of her beautiful fabrics, mostly purchased on ebay, I decided to make my first quilt. (Obviously, this didn’t end up as my first finished quilt, LOL!)

I decided to make a Garden Fence Quilt using a free tutorial by Hyacinth Quilt Designs.  I chose a navy blue solid as sashing to really make those bright colours pop!

For the backing, I pieced together all of my larger pieces of leftover fabrics. This is definitely the most time consuming backing I have ever made.

This quilt is very important to me as it holds so many memories of my early days as a new quilter/fabric lover.

I can’t wait to show you the finished result soon!  Deb 🙂

P.S. – Happy Mother’s Day to all of you lovely mums out there. I do hope you had a relaxing day like I did. I even managed to finish off a project but I’ll tell you about that next time! Deb x

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

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