WIP: the one with broken dishes

It's been a crazy busy week for me, so not much progress at all.

Some USA Hurray!

HSTs waiting to be paired and have the lines drawn, so they can become Broken Dishes:

Lines drawn and ready to be paired for sewing:

Broken dishes, laid out:

I think I'm going to have to put a lot more effort into this. A lot more spare time to quilting!

Wonky Farm

And we have the blocks done!

I only got that done this morning, so there was no time to lay them out properly. It's not as effective as I'd like, although nicely bright.

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What have you been doing this week?

WIP Wednesday: the one with red, white, and blue

back from the quilter!

Aunty's Quilt

Front, with Smokey:

Back:

The Half-Square Harvest

Front, with Mal:

Back:

WIP

USA Hurray!

Got all the HSTs sewn together and cut at the Sit 'N Sew for the Sydney MQG meet on Saturday - I love hanging with my sewing gals! (For more details of the day, check out the post on the Sydney MQG website!)

Big pile here.

Cut and pressed, and ready to be turned into hourglasses, just as soon as I have the time...

Wonky Farm

Getting the nine-patches together:

Laying out some of the blocks:

other things

Kona Stash

Ordering my Kona Stash by colour card:

I'm not convinced that all the colours are correct - there are a few shades that just seem marginally 'off'. Very annoying.

Otherwise my quilting life has been fairly quiet since work has been ramping up again. I'm going to have to finish 'USA Hurray' and 'Wonky Farm' before I go off to the US, though!

What have you been doing this week?

WIP Wednesday: the one with beermats and baklava

Finished

Buttercup Beermats

I spent pretty much the better part of Saturday getting these done. I'm not sure that I like the black edging so much, but the friend I gifted them to loved them. So all's well that sews decently!

The design is pretty enough that I'll probably make more of these - and maybe a matching set of placemats to go with?

Ultimately, I'm very pleased with how bright and cheerful they turned out!

WIP

USA Hurray!

Lots of HSTs. Lots and lots and lots of HSTs. And I haven't even gotten around to turning them into Broken Dishes! The trimming down is going to be slightly nightmarish, I think...

I'm not sure I'm going to have time to finish, quilt, and bind this before I go away on holiday and gift it to a friend I've been staying with while on most of my US trips. But I'm damn well going to try!

Other Things

I made Pomegranate Baklava and it was pretty amazing.

Recipe post is soon to come.

Warning, there are crazy amounts of butter and sugar in this; it is not 'healthy' by the standards of any nutritionist, dietician, or medical quack in the known universe!

However, I firmly believe that taking pleasure in food is an important part of food consumption - not eating a whole pan of these, but having one square slowly and pleasurably, and with great mindfulness and sensual enjoyment! I recommend with a big glass of milk or water (or tea or coffee if that's your preferred beverage).

quilted quilts

I'm due to receive a couple of these back later this week - and I have a whole bunch more to send off to the quilter! Wait for pretty pictures!

Instagram

Are any of you on Instagram? I tend to post more pics of my WIPs (and my cats, and my food, and panoramas) there as seldear so if any of you guys would like to come by and check me out - I rather enjoy flicking through to see what other people have done!

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What have you been doing this week? Have you linked up at Freshly Pieced?

Buttercup Beermats for a BIrthday!

I've had these HST cutoffs for at least a year, possibly more. Ever since I made the quilt top 'Build Me Up Buttercup!' (Yes, earworm. I apologise!)

Finally got around to collecting them together, squaring them up, and setting them out. And a friend's 30th Birthday was the perfect opportunity to get them done!

I settled on a pattern of off-centre concentric squares because I liked the look better than the 'coil' for something this small, and the quilting is simply stitch-in-the-ditch.

They're backed with medium-weight interfacing to give them a bit of stiffness, but they should be quite washable.

And they look so pretty with the black-and-white dishware!

I still have a heap of these HSTs, so I guess another set will be forthcoming - perhaps with a slightly different layout or quilting design, and maybe with a set of placemats to match? We'll see.

Food: Pomegranate Baklava

I found this dessert in the book The Lost Recipe For Happiness by Barbara O'Neal. It's a work of fiction, but all through the book are recipes menioned in the story.

The story's pretty good - very evocative and sensuous and a little bit haunted.

This one is created the night the heroine challenges her rival to a cookoff - a three course meal with entree, main, dessert. The prize is the position of 'head chef' in the restaurant they're both working at.


The pomegranate baklava recipe is actually her rival's creation, and it wins the competition for 'best individual dish', although she wins the overall menu.

Having made this, I can see why!

May I suggest you don't read this book while hungry? It's full of delicious things that make me want to fly immediately into the US to get all these foods that you don't get in Australia. (Of course, once I'm in the US, I always want delicious things from Australia that are hard to get over in the US. Like Vegemite on toast. Australian toast, not that cakey thing Americans call toast.)


There'll be a full post with the recipe later - I've decided to make it a second time this weekend now that I know what it entails.

Finally, I've changed the header on my blog, because I've been staring at the old header for a couple of years and all I can see is the imperfections. This is a little better, I think.

What do you think?

WIP Wednesday: the one with breezles and superfast

Finished:

1, 2, 3, Go Momo!

The top is complete and ready to quilt!

This was a superfast quilt to put together - great for a mix of fabrics with large and small prints - although next time I might pick a fabric line with more solids or reads-as-solid fabrics.

And the weather was a touch windy when I was photographing it outside...

The pattern was 1, 2, 3, Go! from Modern Basics - a book that looks like it's going to become one of my staples for simple-yet-fast quilts.

I'm going to send it off to the quilter next week, along with California Girl and possibly a couple of other old tops. (Blocky Heirloom, Modern Maze in French Lace Batiks, and Build Me Up Buttercup!) I've had a lot of tops lying around for way too long and I want them done and out of my workshop!

Works In Progress:

Wonky Farm

The name of this one keeps changing because I couldn't remember where I got the pattern from. I finally worked out that the book is Fresh Fabric Treats - the Summer Sorbet Quilt by Rachel Griffith of ps. i quilt.

'Summer Sorbet' is not really a name that suits the colours or the fabrics I'm using, so I'm going with 'Wonky Farm'. (Even though it's just chickens.)

These pieces have sat around for at least a year - I cut them up and started piecing them while we were renovating in 2012...and then I got a job. And they got tucked away and never touched.

Now to do the nine-patch blocks and put the quilt together.

USA Hurray!

Blocks cut and diagonals drawn.

(picture c/o Sydney Southern Cross Quilters)

Now it's just the slow process of making up the HSTs, and then the broken dishes.

Buttercup Beermats

Well, coasters, as we call them in Australia!

All trimmed!

These are teeny-tiny HSTs - 1.75" square - and I'm going to make little coasters from them - kind of mug rugs, but only about 5" square.

Thinky Thoughts:

A name for my Honey Mermaids quilt (Mendocino Mermaids in Elizabeth Hartman's 'Honey' pattern): A Madness Of Mermaids.

Still need a design (stylised, bold) for the Egyptian fabric - quilt name: The Black Land. (It's a worry when I have a name for my quilts but no actual pattern or work done. :(

And I just realised it's less than 2 months to my trip to the US/Italy! I gotta get a move on with these!

What've you been doing this week? Have you posted a link over at Freshly Pieced?

FINISHED: 1, 2, 3, Go Momo! (and photography issues on a windy day)

Aaaand that's a wrap for 1, 2, 3, Go Momo! A nice fast quilt, cheerful and bright!

Discovery: it's really difficult to take photos when the wind is playing with your quilt!

And even if it's not, the quilt is pretty long anyway and trails on the ground!

But I'm happy with how it turned out. I thought it might be a touch busy with all the blocks - and it is - but it's a happy busy, I think.

Now, do I bind my 'Dead Simple in the Forest' quilt tomorrow at Sydney Southern Cross Quilters, or do I draw diagonals for my 'USA Hurray' HSTs? Maybe both?

WIP Wednesday: the one with actual progress!

We've had a ridiculously wet weekend:



Followed by a ridiculously sunny week:



But the native birds have been out:





And I've made progress on my quilting projects!

Finishes

Classic Baby Quilt

Bound and finished!



Now to roll, wrap, and give at church this Sunday!

WIP

1, 2, 3, Go Momo!

Sewing, sewing, sewing...



Blocks done and laid out!

It's very busy - busier than I expected. I tried to pair the more busy fabrics with the less busy, but the resuls are mixed.



USA Hurray!

Started cutting up a quilt for my friend Alli, with whom I play to stay later this year. She's big on patriotism, and her preferred colour/style matches this, so I'm going with scrappy red, blues, and neutrals in Moda Bake Shop's "Charm Crossing quilt pattern:




I made the blocks a little larger - the raw squares are 6.5", which means the broken dishes should be 5.5" finished.




Farm and Chickens Quilt

I found these pieces sitting in a box somewhere...and I can't remember either the fabric set or the pattern for it!


I have this feeling that it's supposed to be nine-patch wonky stars, and then nine-patch neutral blocks. Possibly?

Does someone with a better memory than me recall either the fabric or the pattern?

So what have you been doing this week?