...a window to summer on the Moda Bakeshop

I had hoped to post this two days ago but some technical difficulties that I have been trying to fix for the last two days prevented me. Frustratingly N fixed it tonight in two minutes. But at least it is fixed.

So this quilt was posted on the Moda Bakeshop - I made it during a really cold week in winter and hand quilted it in another. Taking some inspiration from the fabric line used, Summersville, I called it a window to summer.

This weekend N and I took a trip to the Mt Hotham - a ski resort in the north of the state. And I got to take some extra pictures of the quilt in the snow, and I think it provides a great juxtaposition for the quilt.

The trip was great too - I have some more pictures I will share in the next few days.

The post can be found here on the Moda Baksehop.

...Kaleidoscope Christmas - in July

Remember when I made this cushion? I put a few pictures of it up on my flickr page as well, like I usually do, and I got so many comments, including one suggesting I submit it to the Moda Bakeshop and I thought, "why not?".

To me I could see it in nothing but Christmas fabric, cause that is what I was thinking of when I designed and made it but I'm sure others can come up with other versions that will point out how versatile any design can be. 

I also up-sized it from the original and added a border and some cornerstone, so it will be the Christmas quilt on our spare bed over the season. I have another design in the works for our bed. 

The recipe is already up on the Moda Bakeshop - it was a nice surprise when I woke up this morning. 

I was really hoping to take some pictures of this one in the snow - but our holiday there isn't sorted yet so it's a Christmas Quilt at the beach. Pretty Australian really. 

...a finished top - entierly by hand!

I almost can't believe that I had the patience and persistance to finish this quilt top - and that I still am enjoying it so much that I am already planning the quilting to be done soon - and by hand as well.

There are 32 'star' units in the quilt as well as 6 half 'stars' at the edges, 62 hexagons, 16 half hexagons and 10 half diamonds to form the edges. Each one was basted by hand and hand sewn into the top and then all 304 paper shapes removed. Well almost all, I have left the edge ones in for now and remove them at basting time.

All that adds up to 1592.5" of whip stitched seam. I was glad of a thimble.

The top measures 45" x 56" so it it pretty firmly a baby-lap sized quilt - and leaves me with nothing but admiration for people that can made a full sized quilt in this way - and using much smaller shapes!

I've started on the backing - ready for basting soon. There are 'spare' hexies (basted when I was going to make a multicoloured bacground) joined and then hand appliqued to the backing to hide the seam joining the two backing pieces together. There is a random spare star to be appliqued on the back as well - but I need to wait for after basting for placement. Confused - I'll explain in pictures later!

 

The next job will be to prepare the batting - as this quilt is part of the Scrap Attack Quilt Along I thought I would continue with the scrap theme. I have an (overflowing) box of reasonably decent sized batting scraps and will piece two of these together to get the batting for this quilt!

...finally finished... something

This is not my longest standing work in project - I haven't even really been working on it officially of much more than a week but I have been planning it for almost exactly a year. And it feels like absolutely ages since I have actually finished anything so this is incredibly satisfying.

That isn't even all of them!

This cushion cover is made from 14x14 1.5" finished half square triangles that were the trimmings from the star corners that I had made saved from when I made this quilt over the same long weekend last year. That is 196 HST units and 392 tiny squares of fabric. Why did I think that this would be a quick project when that is more seams than some bed sized quilts have?!?

I trimmed them all to 2" - which in most cases was very little fabric indeed but I ended with with quite a pile of sneeze inducing scraps!

I quilted some zig zags into the white areas - the cushion front is simply the panel on a batting scrap - there is no backing.

I made the cushion back using about 1/2 yard of the central park trees I had and  used this tutorial for a concealed zip back - a slight error means the zipper flap faces the right way or the trees do. I chose the trees.

I love the look of cushions with a piped edge but don't think I do it well enough so this time I tried binding the pillow as I would a quilt and I quite like how it has turned out - with the frame. I might be a convert to this method.

The binding is the leftover quilt binding, the backing some fabric bought for the quilt and never used and the story of the blocks is already told! So in the end I have a 21" square cushion completely from scraps!

A-mazing quilt

Try as I might I couldn't think of a less self congratulatory title for this quilt so that is the name it has.

Directions for making it are up on the Moda BakeShop site today.

I almost didn't think this quilt would happen, the first lot of fabric has disappeared in the mail black hole, the replacement took ages to arrive as part of the recent mail delays and when it did arrived I had just got a promotion at work that ate up a lot of my mid-week quilting time for the first few weeks.

But it is done and I was really lucky to be able to take the pictures for the post at Hedgend Maze in Healsville. We got there early in the morning pon one of the lastr wintery weekends when the mist was still rising.

Some of the initial pictures were taken from the lookout (can you believe not every maze has one of these?) and this one is the result of me tossing the quilt onto the edge of the maze. Apparently I thought that the maze was not as far away as it was and it would artfully drape all by itself. Luckily there was a stick nearby to assist with the rescue.

So after the pictures were done we had a game of frisbee golf, mini, golf, a wanter through the maze and a puzzle through the coloured maze.

A pretty great morning, all done by 11:00am!

Charming Stars in the Park

I started this quilt with 5 charm packs a little solid and a little print for the border. The top was pieced in a (long) weekend. 

Basting required the movement of the dining room table and the whole of the floor. The quilt measures almost 90" square.

I initially quilted 1/4" inside all the sashings and borders. I then hand quilted with No. 8 Perle cotton in variegated blue inside each star to give some definition.

And now it's finished.

The stars look great I think.

The binding is the bricky print in stone. 

The backing is the large flower print in blue. I love how the sun gives a see through stained glass effect while it is hanging.

I can already say it is cosy to sleep under!

Pattern: Charming Stars from the Moda Bakeshop
Fabric: Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

A weekend of almost dones....

I've been really busy this weekend and have made a lot of progress with nothing finished to show.

So a series of progress shots

Claire's quilt - do Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}

This one was basted with a Ikea fabric backing, quilted in a grid pattern with horizontal and vertical lines approximately six inches apart.

The binding (Kona Coal) has been machine sewn to the front, just waiting on the back to be hand stitched.

Doll Quilt
I finally finished the hand quilting 

and this this was bound using a voile - Pastry Stripes in blue.

A label has been made using printable fabric and just waiting to be stitched on.

Charming Stars in the Park quilt
This was basted and then machine quilted 1/4 inch inside each of the sashing lines and borders.

I have started hand quilting inside each of the stars in a variegated blue perle no 8 cotton.

Charming Stars in the Park

I don't really set myself New Year resolutions, partly because I don't see the point of committing yourself to a new goal on one arbitrary day of the year and partly because I know my attention span is not generally long enough to follow a new idea or goal though for too long. Actually more precisely it has more to do with another new idea I just have to try NOW coming along with quite regular frequency.

But one thing that I have been thinking about for a little while is making more things for us to use in our home spurred on by the comment that inspired these pj pants. And I'm starting with quilts for our bed....and later for the spare bed spurred on by this discussion thread at the Doll Quilt swap.

Are you getting the picture about how easily inspired I can be?

I started this last weekend (the sewing at least, not the planning) with the Charming Stars quilt by Stefanie Roman from Little Lady Patchwork via the Moda Bakeshop and used Kate Spain's Central Park and a Bella Solid in Ivory. I made it a little bigger than the pattern so it will finish just over 80" square, perfect for a colourful layer over our plain doona. The idea is that the quilts will act as toppers and can be washed and changed around reasonably regularly. 

Each block measures 13.5" finished and all the sashings and borders are 2.5"

It still needs to be basted, quilted and bound but I have all the bits for that, save the batting, and hope to get it all completed by the end of March. Fingers crossed I don't get distracted by something else! 

A Quilt Block weekend

I've had a very quilt blocky weekend. I got a lot of thing finished so I can move on to my Doll Quilt and Scrappy Mug Rug Swap item this week.

1. Bee blocks for Kerry for Bee (a little bit) Japanese.
She asked for Floating Brick blocks with freecut wavy lines from her tutorial. A little scary but I like how they have turned out, a little short from lack of solid notwithstanding.

2. I also caught up on the first four Quilt Bloggers Block-a-Palooza blocks.

Block One - Geese over Fields by Quilt Dad 

Word Search by Oh Fransson!

Shoofly Geese by Sasikirana Handmade

Gingham Pinwheels by Cherry House Quilts 

3. And I make all of my blocks for this quarter of the 3x6 Bee Sampler Mini Quilt Bee.

 And just for fun a travel mug from the very first Moda Bake Shop Tutorial

And some great fabric in the mail on Friday!

I'd call that a productive weekend.