...paper pieced octagons

I can't remember if I have blogged about this quilt before so please forgive me if I am repeating myself.

Some time ago I decided that I would use exclusively Heather Ross prints (with a preference for Munki Munki, West Hill and other early or whimsical cotton base cloth collections) to paper piece a quilt of a size that is still to be determined.

I wanted to use 2" Octagon papers with 2" squares in the filling gaps. In addition to the HR prints I planned (and am using) scraps of various white and grey solids.

This is where I got a little stumped. I wanted to use some 'solid' octagons and piece some. I went looking for co-ordinating shapes, first from Patchwork with Busy Fingers where I got my first lot of papers from and then Paper Pieces where I got extras. Unlike for hexagons there seemed to be very few - in fact I used this and this shape from Busy Fingers and could find no more that would work without me cutting some shapes of my own.

So a few weeks ago I emailed Paper Pieces on on the strength of their reply took to a piece of paper with a ruler and a pencil.

These arrived in my mailbox one morning early last week, eight different pieced octagon options finishing with 2" sides and available to order from them should you also want to paper piece 2" octagons from smaller shapes.

I have sewed some together already

Variation 1

Variation 3

Variation 5

Variation 6

Variation 8

There is one more still just basted...

Variation 7

And a couple more cut at and waiting for some stitchable moments...

Variation 2

Variation 4

...on a whim

A couple of weekends ago, on a whim, I bought a 90 degree triangle ruler at Spotlight with a 25% off voucher.

When I got home, on a whim, I got home and used it to cut up a 1/2 yard bundle of spring theme prints I bought ages ago from Sew Fresh Fabrics when I got free shipping.  Cutting them into strips and then cross-cutting with the new ruler.

On a whim, by sewing the triangles into pairs, the squares and trimming to 12.5" I made this quilt top. 

It isn't huge - the blocks are 12" finished - which if my maths is having a good day means that this is 49 x 61" in the current state.

I'll need to wait for another whim to help with finding a backing, basting, quilting and binding but even without all that yet this was a pretty satisfying evening of sewing. 

...a winter of hand quilting

Very early this year I posted about my desire to finish the quilts I had at the stage that were waiting for quilting. I left the tops to be hand quilted off the list, however, as the Australian  summer is not conducive to hand quilting the list of them is here now (and expanded with early year top finishes) to give me a Winter of Hand Quilting.

1. Bee A Little Bit Japanese Fairy Tale Quilt

2. Bee Seam Piecing Down Under Circle Quilt
I'm sneaking this one in here a bit as it will have both hand and machine quilting. I will be machine quilting 1/4" inside all the sashing strips and with an X through all the border squares. The hand quilting will add a little to each of the blocks and secure the three layers inside the block dimensions. 

3. The hand pieced Star Quilt

4. Flurry Baubles Christmas Quilt
Course I need to finish the top first!

...knitting

As the season is changing my thoughts have turned a few times to knitting. Over the last little while I have been trying to remember if I learnt to knit or sew first. I can't. I remember learing to cross stitch when I was about 8 or 9 and I am sure I knew how to machine sew and knit before that but try as I might I can't put the arrival of these implemements in a better time context than that.

I am almost 100% sure these were given to me by my Grandma, as opposed to my Nan, which is a little strange because Nan is the 'knitter' and Grandma is the weaver, spinner, gardener and general tryer of many things (must be where my craft and home skills ADD comes from). I'm also almost certain that it was actually Mum that taught me the basics and I know it was her that had to fix all the mistakes cause I'm still not confident with the unpicking side of things when it comes to yarn stitches. I do know this was my first 'kit' of yarn tools.

Over the years I've chosen sewing more often than knitting and I have not developed any skills at all in crochet. I don't really have the patience to hand knit a garment - takes too long and I too easily loose my place. With some thought I could probably list everything I've ever finished knitting, a few scarves, some baby socks that I had to start again from scratch everytime I made a mistake (see unpicking issues) and one jumper, sweater for all the Americans with very fat wool and needles. I did this one in four days/sittings (front, back, sleeves - see losing my place issues). There was also that sock effort that was abandoned last year and the yarn sent of to Mum for completion.

None of this has put me off completely and I'm planning the Honey Cowl and a pair of Pom Pom Peds this winter. Never mind that this is the umpteenth cast on of the Honey Cowl and I am trying to convince myself I don't actually need to pull it off the needles and start yet again to fix the pattern repeat issues. The bit that really cuts me about this is I acutally finished it earlier this year and something went wrong with the casting off and it all fell apart.

I've tucked this aside for the peds - along with the hope the bamboo needles are a little more friendly and this lot does not have to be sent on to Mum as well.

...have batting, batting - must quilt

In the not so distant past, but much nearer to the time a was beginning to make a lot of quilts I was in a quilt store and heard another of the customers mention that she and another quilting friend had a made a pact that they would only start new quilts at the beginning of the year and use the six months after July to finish everything they had started from January to June. At the time I naively couldn't see a reason for a pact like that. Why start so many things before you have finished some?

I have lost count of the number of quilts that I have started this year. Some of them are well and truly still towards the beginning of the piecing stage, for some I have almost completed the top and their are others, and not a small group, that are just waiting for the quilting and the binding.

I like to quilt my own quilts, either by machine or hand. And for the size of the quilts that I often choose to make that means moving a lot of furniture to get it basted and a lot of heavy lifting and turning to get it though my modest sized machine or many hours bent over the quilting frame.

All this, and the relative ease that cutting and beginning to piece a new quilt top, means that I seem to have ended up with quite a pile waiting to quilt.

So I am not saying that I will not start anything new before these are finished because that I just a recipe for failure but I will say that by April I will have quilted all these. It isn't the entire list of all the ones waiting to be quilted, just the ones I will quilt by machine. Summer in Australia is NOT a time for hand quilting a large project!

Wish me luck!

Cogsmo Cog + Wheel Quilt

Single Boy/Rings of Saturn

Same But Different Twin Quilts

 BSPDU Circle Quilt

 Six Minute Circle Sample Quilt

...WiP Wednesday

This Week
Curclicue Crush Quilt
After the marathon cutting last week I needed to sit on this one a little bit. I have worked a little on the layout to try to get a good but not too regular distribution of colour. I have ended up with two options. 

I'm still deciding but I have started piecing. I can see already that I am going to really really  wish for a design wall soon. I was dreaming of a roller blind style one to hand above the cupboard doors in the shower this morning. 

do. Good Stitches Animal Quilt

DELIVERED! It is kind of cheating having this on here again I think but I photographed and packaged it the other day and that took a little while. I have a post scheduled for the next few days that details all the wonderful and generous work that went into this quilt in the next few days. 

The Circle Game

Block 1 - Done!

The third method was the charm. I traced around the template (that doesn't include seam allowance), used the template with method 1 (that had the seam allowance on it) then pinned carefully and sewed on the line).  I am machine piecing this quilt and I can see I'm going to have each block slow and steady but I am really enjoying the challenge so far!

November Blocks for Sew Australia

Alissa asked for Kaleidoscope blocks made using this and this tutorial from Don't Call me Betsy. 

X & + blocks for a Special Project

This one has to have a little secrecy attached at the moment but they have made it where they need to go. 

handprinted: fabric

I joined a swap recently - printing a fat quarter of fabric for four others so on Sunday I got printing. There will be more on this later in the week too, as soon as I get them all fixed, packaged and in the mail. 


In the tubs 
Whimsy Hexie Quilt
Curclicue Crush Quilt - All cut out and ready to sew
Blue and White Quilt
Grey Tone Kaleidoscope 
Postage Stamp QA Quilt
X Marks the Pirate Quilt
Farmers Wife QA
BSPDU Quilt - Just waiting on a backing!

New projects (started anything new?)
Nope, none that I can think of just now. Well nothing that isn't already finished!

Finished this week
Quilted Snap Pouch - Started at the craft show. 
I quite literally had to press and sew two seams and then insert the snap closure to finish this one. Done now!

... from blocks to a quilt top

...and back again.  Or a quilters prerogative to change her mind. 




I put this together awhile ago and thought the top was done. But I couldn't get around to finishing the back and sandwiching. And in the last few days I worked out why. 


I don't like the way the sashing make it look. The blocks, each different and wonderful in their own way and made by the lovely ladies in Bee Seam Piecing Downunder, don't pop in this layout. The sashing takes away from the massively. 


So I have ripped all the seams out and and back to blocks (with a little sashing on the edge ones) and have some more decisions to make. 

The plan when I decided to make changes was to sew all the blocks together without sashing and to use the sashing (plus a few extra squares for a 3 square deep border.

And then as I was pressing all the blocks again last night I wondered about a Kona Coal border /sashing around each of the blocks to frame them and then attach the border. 


Decisions ....decisions


What do you think?