WIP Wednesday: the one gearing up for the show sprint!

Finish!

Oh My!


Just the top completed! But I need to get this quilted and bound in the next week, so it's going to be a bit close-cut. And I still have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. It's a picnic quilt, so it would need to be fairly lightly quilted... I don't know. Choices, choices!

WIPs

Walkabout

Top is nearly together!


Again, the prospect of quilting this is just slightly daunting. I'm making crazy sketches on scrap paper at work, trying to get my hand into the design aspect of FMQ.

At this point, the big decision is whether the quilting should follow the piecing, (ie. the arrows are outlined 'over' the design I have in mind, consigning it to 'background'), or whether I should just ignore the piecing, and put together a design that gets quilted across the top.

Mondrian's Nine-Patch

Um, yeah. Not much change here!


Millefiori Passacaglia

Sewing lots of little pieces this week - trying to finish Rosette #3, and then I'll focus on the 3 Rosette #2.

Have a quick pic of Rosette #3...


When it's done, I'll sew it on to Rosette #1 to free up a bunch of paper pieces for other segments.

I have no idea where I'm going to store this - it's going to be huge and slightly delicate and not easily stackable like blocks. I think I'm going to need some very large plastic seal bags to fit these things in with minimal folding.


To Do

Pull out my batik collection for the Supernova Friendship Block Swap, pick a palette and start taking photos to check that my swap partner, Sandra of New Bedford, is okay with the choices! Ooh. I should probably get some cream/white batiks from the LQS while they're on sale in May, right? Saturday. Must do Saturday...

I'm eyeing off the Edeweiss Bag by Sara Lawson at Sew Sweetness: I need a new backpack for my laptop - not a shoulderbag, a backpack - and while it's nice to have a purely functional backpack, sometimes one wants something just a little more...decorative. And this is the only pattern I've found with an 'across the top zip' (although I don't think it's a double-tag opening zip that she has listed, which is the kind that I want - heck, I don't even know where to find those), although it doesn't have enough pockets. (I'd probably do some heavy modifications after I bought the pattern, because I always want more zips and pockets and pouches and padding...)

Anyway, that's my week. what about yours?

Linking up at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday and possibly other places as I spot them!

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I apologise for turning on the word recognition for comments. I've started getting spam comments again. It's a tough balance - risk not getting any comments on a post, or risk getting comments + umpteen people asking you to 'click this link to find out [insert thing here]!'

Supernova Friendship Block Swap

I decided to join a friendship block swap - just one! Make six blocks for them, receive six blocks from them, meet someone from far away, get a quilt out of it!

Sandra of One Million Stitches has joined up with Stephanie of Late Night Quilter to start up the Supernova Friendship Block Swap and I've joined in.

The pattern is the Supernova Quilt from Lee at Freshly Pieced, which I've already made once. However, I think I'll probably use the 'shortcuts' provided by Riddle and Whimsy to do the blocks, with my swap partner's agreement!

WIP Wednesday: the one with visible progress!

Visible progress! What a novel idea!

It's been a slightly busy week, what with the Mendocino Mermaids giveaway for Giveaway Week, and the Blogger's Quilt Festival (which I haven't entered because I don't think I've finished anything in an age and a half) and all those pretty pretty pictures from Quilt Market.

(I'd like a fat-eighth of everything Cotton + Steel is producing, kthx. Actually, I'd like a fat-quarter, but there are limits even to my fabric budget!

WIPs

Walkabout (the quilt formerly known as "Do You Know Where You're Going To?")

I've got a plan for this quilt regarding the layout and quilting - hence the name change. However I suspect my vision seriously outstrips my capabilities in this matter...I guess I'll find out when I start quilting this...


However, it's nice to see some visible progress! I've got everything laid out, and am filling in the spaces, block by block.

Once again, awful photography. It would probably help if I actually held the camera steady!


Mondrian's Nine-Patch

Yeah, nope.

Millefiori Passacaglia

So, I finally had that moment where I realised just exactly how crazy I was to be doing this project. You know? The moment when you look at how long it's taken you to do as much as you've done, and you think how much further there is yet to go? And you hit the panic button?


Yeah, that moment.

It's not as spectacular as the other ones I've seen being made, but I like the visibility of the geometric patterns, and the way the colours interact with the low-vols and the Kona Steel.



You can follow my progress at Instgram, my username is seldear over there.

Oh My!

Coming along! Decided to put it on point. Prepare for more bad photography:


Doesn't have quite the effect I was hoping for - the bigger prints end up blending into the background fabric. But it's pretty and bright and just what I need right now - something that doesn't take detailed thought.

And, of course, now that I've decided that it's going to be on point and that I need setting triangles, I can't find the background fabric. I'm pretty sure that I didn't cut it all up for this!

To Do

1. finish the 'Oh My!' top, book some time on a longarm and quilt it.

2. finish 'Walkabout' top, panic about how I'm going to quilt it.

3. get started on Mondrian's Nine-Patch.

So much to do, no time to do it all!

What have you been working on this week?

Giveaway Day: Mendocino Mermaids - winner!

And the winner is... Number 55!


Which turned out to be mean sarah jean:


Congratulations, mean sarah jean! I'll be getting in contact with you over the next few days.

Thanks so much to everyone for participating, and if you didn't win this time, there'll be more giveaways later this year since I have another Heather Ross fabrics quilt in the planning stages!

SMQG May Sew-In: Millefiori Madness - Rosettes 1 & 3

I love days with the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild - it's nice to just sit down, no distractions, and sew. I may not have kids or a partner the way others do, but when I'm at home I feel vaguely guilty about all the things I could/should otherwise be doing.

Anyway, here's the work done on the quilt of Millefiori Madness!

Rosette 1 is complete.



I was iffy about the 'rose collar' for Rosette 1, but I figured I'd sew it together and take my lumps. As it turns out, they're not quite as lumpy as I imagined they'd be - I rather like the rose collar with the black and the silver star! It'll make it stand out, at least - all the other stars will have low-vol collars, although they might have some 'outer orbit' pentagons in various colours. We'll see how that goes.

Rosette 3 is starting to get its 'outer collars' assembled, too.



Again, uncertainty about the dark green ring while sewing it all together. But I think the effect is good, and the result will be pretty spectacular!

There's another ring of low-vol pentagons, and then some handfuls of stars yet to go on Rosette 3, but I'm getting there slowly! And it's nice to have a glimpse of what it's all going to look like:



I do need to fix up some of my whip-stitching on the collars: it's not as tight as it should be - you can see the cracks between pieces. *winces* I shall have to remember to stitch a bit more tightly, and make sure I affix the ends firmly when I'm basting paper pieces on the way to work!

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Giveaway nearly complete! I think I'll draw it tomorrow afternoon (Sunday pm, Sydney time) which should be middle-of-the-night in the US. Although later tonight I have to go through and weed out all the no-reply bloggers who haven't left an email address. After I make meatloaf. And do some writing. And start getting my show quilt ready to go.

SO MANY THINGS TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME.

Maybe one of these giveaways I'll feel brave enough to offer bonus entries for following my blog, or following me on Instagram. See? All the cool kids are doing it! (On the other hand, I was never one of the cool kids at school so, maybe not.)

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Looks like much fun is being had at Quiltmarket. And just about as much chaos and crowding! Have you seen the new Cotton + Steel lines? (Okay, correct that: do you like them? Because I imagine anyone who knows anything about Quiltmarket has seen them! :D)

WIP Wednesday: the one with minimal photography

Quite a bit of progress, but few photos, because my days are long and the light is always gone by the time I get back home to take photos of my progress!

WIPs

Do You Know Where You're Going To?

Filling in the spaces between the blocks is hard. There's going to be at least one Y-seam I think...


Mondrian's Nine-Patch

Still a pile of squares on the sewing table.


Millefiori Passacaglia

Sewing, sewing, sewing...


Right now I'm sewing like crazy to have the pieces for 3x Rosette2 and 1x Rosette3 ready for the weekend so I can sew it all together at the Sydney Modern Quilt Group sit-and-sew this Saturday. That's a lot of little star-point pieces, and low-vol pentagons!

Sometimes I wonder what the commuters on my train think I'm doing. I get a few sideways glances, but very few questions. People are generally very polite on the lines I frequent. Or maybe we're all weary of the rat race and just can't be assed. Entirely possible.


Oh My!

I've made progress, I just haven't got photos. The blocks are sewn, they just have to be pressed and laid out. (And, of course, I'm not liking the design now. I wish my brain could make up its mind.)


To Do

Uh, everything? :D

Still trying to destash on Instagram and Facebook.

Giveaway Day: Heather Ross Mendocino Mermaids!

My sincere apologies for the crappy photo: working hours this winter mean I leave the house just as the sun is rising and get home after it's set, and I'm not set up for night shots.

My giveaway this year is some scraps of Mendocino Mermaids by Heather Ross:


I had the exact measurements written down somewhere, but the largest piece - 'Mermaids In Gold' - is a Fat Eighth (22" x 9") and the smallest - 'Octopi in Natural' - is around 6"x 8".

I'll post to anywhere in the world, and all you have to do to enter is tell me what you'd use these scraps for! The winner will be picked by random number generator on the 18th May (US time).

If you're a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address! Last year, a no-reply blogger won my Mendocino Mermaids giveaway and I couldn't contact her because she hadn't left her email address. This year, if you're a no-reply blogger and you don't leave an email address in your comment so I can contact you, I'll delete your comment.

The supplies give-away link-up is here at Sew Mama Sew, who has organised and run this give-away for several years now. If you have something to give away/share with people, join the link-up!

Blogger's Quilt Festival oops

Every year Amy at Amy's Creative Side holds a Blogger's Quilt Festival where people post their finished quilts, there's lots of oohing and ahhing, people admire, desire, and inspire, and all is happy fun bright things and rainbows and impressive works of art and quilting.

Right now, I am seriously trying to remember the last time I finished a quilt. It might have been as far back as the one for my aunt. And that was last year. Lots of quilt tops, but no quilts.

Result: I don't think I have anything to enter in the Quilt Festival.

Oops.

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During last week's WIP Wednesday, I was contacted by a blogger who said 'thanks for the instructions on how to make the snowflake block! Would you like to see what I've done with it?"

I would. I did. And I was impressed!

The snowflake star!

I admit, I've been thinking that I should really make some more snowflake blocks and put them together in a kind of hexagons quilt. Or something. I'm just hoping that, what with all those people and corporations running around stealing patterns, blocks, ideas, and trying to submit them as their own right now, nobody's submitted the snowflake block in the AccuQuilt Block Challenge (unless it's the blogger who first designed it, who wasn't me, btw - I don't have that kind of creativity; I just put up a tutorial for it).

WIP Wednesday: the one with so many teeny tiny pieces!

WIPs

And again, work on the Passacaglia, and the Oh My! None on the Quilt Show Quilts.

But I have to start, because I got my acceptance letters and they have to be done and to the collection point by the start of July.


no movement

Do You Know Where You're Going To?: I've started drawing up layouts, working out which blocks need to go where to fill in the gaps. Exactly how I'm going to match it all up and get it flat I don't know.

And then there's the quilting.

I have a basic design in mind, but I'm going to need something considerably more detailed than that when I actually get around to it.

Mondrian's Nine-Patch: Six nine-patches a week and two on Sundays?

Millefiori Passacaglia

I got some of the colour schemes worked out:


Debating the rose-coloured circle again. I think I'll leave it - just this one rosette. It's the only 'complete' rosette in the quilt - Rosette 1, as Willyne calls it - the others are all part-rosettes in various ways, shapes and forms.



Two Rosette 2s, which aren't really needed until later in the piece - I'm going to try to make one 'corner' of the quilt for putting together, since I'm not sure how far the pieces are going to stretch - I only got the Partial Millefiori Pack from paperpieces.com, not the complete one.

Lots of centre stars and white pentagons needed. And star-points.

Oh, so many star-points.



Those thirty-two points were done during this morning's commute - 3x 10-minute blocks of travel.

You know, if I had all day to do this and I was focused enough - I could probably get this quilt done in a couple of months. But I don't, and I'm not.

Next year's Quilt Show is soon enough, I think.

Oh My!

Starting to sew the blocks together and iron them. I think I'll make several borders for this quilt - one in the background fabric, and one in the colours.


To Do

The Great Aussie Destash

Sold some on FB, but not as much as hoped. Australia Post is, unfortunately, prohibitively expensive, and I don't know if I can cut down the price.

Still destashing. Lots of fabric to go!


Will have to sit down, measure, label, catalogue, and photograph this lot. *sigh*

So I shouldn't be looking at the fabrics at my LQS sale, should I?


*sighs again*

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It's Mother's Day this weekend in Australia. Happy Mother's Day to the mothers reading this! (Australian or not. :D)