...current affairs

At one of the recent Sit and Sew evenings Chris was talking about dating quilts and said that antique quilts are dated from the most recent fabric included in their construction.

When I thought about it later I wondered what happened with the quilts made many years after the fabric for them was purchased but that is a different story.

I was reminded of this bit of information recently when I was ironing some new newsprint fabric picked up from Spotlight.

Some headlines and story content caught my eye....the print is made up of 'clippings' of actual articles that have appeared in the Australian press in recent times.

This one will date on only a quilt but also the fabric that was included in the construction. And will the quilts that this end up in be akin to finding an old newspaper under the lino when renovating.

...down the plughole

Yes, it is the middle of winter in Australia, and yes, it is actually cold. So cold, in fact that N is taking an impromptu ski trip tomorrow and expects snow to fall while he is there.

So I made a beach blanket. Of course.

I used a pattern called Down the Rabbit Hole still in the production phase from Angela at Cut to Pieces. I found it again when looking for some quilty inspiration for a baby gift having first seen it posted last year during the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I don't think this pattern will end up in that gift but I do love it generally. It is a great larger small quilt - perfect for beach days and picnics. Plus I think it is a cool shape.

I used three Spotlight Prima Solids, in Peacock, Marine and Aqua - like waves! The binding is another Spotlight Prima solid in, appropriately named, Sand.

I thought long and hard about what to put in the middle of the quilt - in the end I went with these bikes, with the blue one almost exactly matching the Peacock solid. If I had planned a little better I would have included a picture of the quilt rolled up on the basket of my bike!

As Angela suggested in the pattern I quilted with lines parallel to the outermost edge of the triangles. The only modification I made was to quilt lines 1" apart at the middle, 1.5" apart in the middle section and 2" in the outer ring - like ripples on the water.

I'm calling my version 'Down the Plughole'!

...N's quilt - Cog and Wheel

I took the fabric and the recently cut templates for this quilt to the first Sit and Sew Day for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild I went to last year, in April.

A year later I have finally finished it! After I was inspired by this stack of fabric sitting on the table near this pattern and coming to the impossible to forget conclusion that this fabric and this pattern were a match too good to pass up I worked on the top almost exclusively at the sit and sew days over the next few months. I finished the top in about September but was stalled there for a little while as I tried to find the right green solid for the back. My Kona Color card said Bayou was what I needed but it was a discontinued colour by the time I started my search and I couldn't find enough.

In the end I have gone with a different shade altogether - Green Tea from the Spotlight Prima Homespun range - but N seems to like it. There are a couple of extra scraps from the front fabric in there too to bring it all up to size.

I chose to quilt it as described in the pattern - this was not my original plan but I think if a quilt designer goes to the trouble of suggesting a design there must be good reason for it. I know when I plan a quilt I almost always consider the quilting design at the same time as I plan the patchwork and fabric choices.

The one change I did make was to follow the marked line with my walking foot rather than hand quilt the design. Despite the need for some fairly heavy duty pushing and pulling through the rather small throat of my machine, and the related puckers on the front, I think this was the right choice for me.

I like to quilt my own quilts (like in the planning I think all the stages of making a quilt are equally important and I'd feel a little like I cheated if I got someone else to quilt my top for me - but I know and respect that is not the same for everyone) but sometimes my lack of machine space is a little annoying, especially as I usually choose to make twin or queen sized quilts. However, unless the machine fairy decides to come along, these are the parameters that I need to work within.

...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!

...Valentine's Swoon

* I'm posting this today, the day before Valentine's Day, because N and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We believe that everyday should be a day for 'I love you'. So I've made a Valentine's Quilt that isn't really a Valentine's quilt. 

On Sunday I went to the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild's Sit and Sew day, weighed down by three projects I am really enjoying, the Giant Grandmother's Flower Garden, the Scrap Attack Quilt and my slow and steady Munki Munki EPP quilt.

But I couldn't get into it. You see that morning I had found a panel in the sewing room cupboard that I never would have found if I hadn't started the big clean out. I had bought it a few years ago at one of the open studio mornings at Prints Charming in Sydney. It gelled in my mind as needing to becoming the centre of the Swoon quilt I had decided to make. One block, 80" square. A quick look in the cupboard yielded the second fabric and what I thought was enough Kona White for the background.

So, sitting at the sewing day I decided to duck home a little early, swing by Spotlight for the red solid to match the panel print and do some washing while I got sewing.

Three hours later I almost had a quilt top. I am two 11.25" squares short of the Kona white and 6 squares short of the red.

A quick trip to Spotlight later in the week should yield the red and an OK white substitute.

In the meantime I have knocked up a quick baby quilt (35" square) with the flying geese unit off-cuts. Feeling very virtuous using these up right away!

...Scattered Showers in Spotlight solids

You could be forgiven for thinking I had disappeared. It is for sure that I haven't been here for several weeks...as so often happens life has gotten busy and my evening priorities have had to change a little. I have been given a temporary promotion at work, it means more work and responsibility but it is a challenge that I am enjoying.

It means though that most evenings I must choose between blogging or sewing. Sewing has been winning of late! I am hoping that now Nik has returned from five weeks visiting relatives overseas things will settle down a bit and I can do a little more of both in the evenings.

One of the things I have sewn in the last weeks is a sample of Kate's new pattern, Scattered Showers. I made it up in the Spotlight solids I mentioned in this post. Including the backing and binding the whole quilt cost me less than $30 and I think this design in the solids is really striking - and would be great for a little boy.

It is a great, quick sew. I made the top in about 4 hours, it was over two evenings after work and they were not late ones!

The backing is mostly a solid the same as the background with one strip of leftover units from the front.

The quilting took a little longer, I chose to hand quilt around each of the coloured squares, once 1/4" around the outside of the larger squares and twice, also spaced 1/4" apart around the smaller squares. I used a DMC No. 8 Perle cotton in almost exactly the same shade as the background.

The binding was prepared and waiting for machine sewing for days before I got to it but the hand sewing to the back happened the same night.

I really love how it turned out. I have a couple of work colleagues currently pregnant that might get it, although   I have a different plan for one I hope to put into action tomorrow.

...solids at Spotlight

Have you seen the Homespun solids at Spotlight lately?

I ducked in during my lunchbreak at work yesterday to make use of a 10% off voucher and didn't find what I was looking for but did come across some solids that I picked up to complete a quick project.

And I was really pleasently surprised by the quality and what seems to be a new range of colours. And all for only $6:95 per metre locally.

The feel of them is so much better than they used to be and when I prewashed, as I do all fabric they didn't really run - even the red only gave the hot water a very pinkish tinge.

I still can't quite believe it!

Note: Colours featured Prima Homespun Crimson, Brima Homespun Bonnie Blue, Prima Homespun Apple, Prima Homespun Slate

...the pirate quilt

I finished this last weekend...finally. 


I say finally because this was cut out about the time I made my first two deliberate quilts almost two years ago. An earlier version of this quilt was the first I cut out and the first top I finished but the second quilt I finished. 

The fabric is a collection from Spotlight, the find that was featured in the catalogue and had a pattern sheet that went with it. The solids are all the Homespun range. It really is just a twin size square within square design. 

I made the original as a practice quilt before I started a baby quilt to give to a friend for her unborn child. The second, this one was made with the scraps (plus a few centimetres extra of one or two of the fabrics). That is right I had almost enough scraps to make another quilt. 

I machine quilted Mark II .25" each side of the seam lines of the larger block and the Xs in the smaller squares and rectangles. The original was quilted in much the same way, but by hand. 

The backing is one of the wide backings in a mottled grey, also from Spotlight. 

Now I just have to work out what to do with it. We don't need two the same in this house and I don't know any pirate mad little boys at the moment. Ideas?