...EPP kite pillow

In the last few months - actually since the beginning of this year I think - I have been on a bit of an English Paper Piecing bender.

It started about September or October last year I think and took hold in errnest during Stitch in Color's Scrap Attack challenge. 

I surprised myself.

You see several years ago when I was staring to sew more and more I went to a craft show in Homebush. It was the first one I had ever been to, I had downloaded the program from the website and highlighted a number of different activities I wanted to go to during the day. I was obviously a little excited. 

One that was coloured had caught my eye because in the description it spoke of 'take anywhere' sewing. It was one of the short 15 minute presentations at a booth set up down one of the aisles. I don't think I stood there for longer than 5 minutes. There was needle and thread and neither were attached to machine. It looked slow. The first stitches needed to be pulled out after you finished sewing. That just seemed like a fantastic waste of time. I headed off to the next highlighted activity before seeing the next step in the process.

That was my first introduction to English Paper Piecing. It was not an auspicious start.

Since then I dabbled in sewing some hexagons for a week or two but without much conviction. I had no idea what I was going to do with the little paper covered discs when I was done. This little kit is still in the cupboard much the same as the it was years ago.

Fast forward to last September/October. I went interstate for two night to attend a conference. I bought some fabric and a pack of paper pieces. I had grand plans that I would whip up the majority of a quilt top in those two nights. I had obviously forgotten the 5 minutes of the presentation I attended years before. I remembered pretty quickly but obviously forgot just as quickly because come January I decided that was the go to technique for the Quilt-Along.

Clearly I remembered a little more because I bought larger shapes.

It seems to have stuck - not only did I finish the quilt top (and the quilting is coming along) but I have started and even finished a few more since then.

This pillow was made to co-ordinate with N's Cog + Wheel quilt.

There are 72 kites shapes in here and it is then appliqued to the background.

I bound the edges like this one and lapped the zip using this tutorial.

Given the EPP bug seems to have bitten a number of others I have been planning a post on how I EPP, hopefully I will have that done by the weekend!

Cog + Wheel - the Blogger's Quilt Festival Edition

I have mean't to link up with Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival the last few times and kept missing the cut-off. This time round I am just sneeking in!

I stared making this quilt at the first Sit and Sew day I attended with the Melbourne Modern Quilt   Guild in April last year. I had lived in Melbourne only about 6 months at the time and it was great   to start making some friends in my new city who share my stitchy interests!

I made this quilt from my partner N - although he sort of knew it was coming I worked on it mainly at the Sit ans Sew days in an attempt to keep it a bit special. The fabric choices, Cogsmo by Cosmo Cricket from a few years ago, seemed to match the pattern, Cog + Wheel by Denyse Schmidt and N perfectly. 

Although had various opinions about the quilting during the piecing phase I decided to quilt the design as written in the pattern, but use my walking foot to stitch along the marker curved lines. Although I am generally happy with the result I'm coming more and more to realise there are limits to what I can achieve with my machine. 

As we head into winter here in Victoria it is folded up in the corner of the lounge and has been snuggled under on a few occasions. You can't as for more than that!

...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.

...Salty Air at the Bakeshop

I can't stop making Bakeshop quilts! 

I have this one up over there today. It comes together surpringly quickly considering the number of pieces that it looks like it has. 

And because we are talking about it being constructed from traignale rather than diamonds there are no y seams!.

Please pop on over and have a look!

...fixing it

Can you spot the difference?

before

after

Some time with the quick unpick, a 45 degree turn to the right and it sits flat!

One down, 11 more to go. 

...of the weekend

Lots of sewing and a little (unphotographed) sewing and baking.

Nothing finished though so no pretty and polished pictures to show. How about some unfinished and unpolished progress ones instead?
 At the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Sit and Sew day the first of the cogs for Nik's Cogsmo Cog and Wheel Quilt that I cut out at the last SASD. It was all going well until I sewed on the background  and it all went out of shape. I think I may have got some of the 5 and 5R pieces around  the wrong way. I'll work it out after I've unpicked a few stitches...

And because I haven't got enough projects on the go I started sewing some strip sets for the Postage Stamp Quilt-Along hosted by Rachel I missed but bought the supplies for in January.

Fabric: Giddy by Sandy Gervis

And I cast on some socks, inspired by some on sale wool with a pattern on the band and out cold temperatures last week. I have got this far and it seems a bit beyond my limited knitting abilities so I am keeping this one to keep trying at and sending the other ball for the second pair to Mum to finish. When she visits in another couple of weeks she might get this one too :)

I have made some great progress on the bakery project. Ready for basting and quilting. I have plans for the latter that are a little different than other projects featured on that site.

A new project - Moving on up the list

Do you ever find a pattern and a fabric range that have probably never met but couldn't be more perfect for each other?

I bought the Denyse Schmidt Cog and Wheel pattern a few weeks ago and then walked into the sewing room and saw my collection of Cogsmo prints, a 2008 or 2009 collection from Cosmo Cricket.

If I had been in a cartoon a lightbulb would have lit up above my head and I would have stuck a finger up in the air.

I have added the last couple of prints I didn't have to my collection after some careful searching and can't wait to get started after I finish of another couple of almost complete projects.