on the horns of a dilemma

Man, it's been a busy morning!



I went up to the mailbox and found a package waiting for me - hurray! The Imperial Collection #6 that I'd been waiting for so I could finish my mum's quilt!

Except it wasn't Imperial Collection #6. It was Imperial Collection #7. In a very different, non-matching colourstory.



RATS!

I went back and looked at the listing - the description of the item says Imperial Collection 7, but the picture is definitely Imperial Collection #6. I ordered on the basis of the picture, only glancing at the description. *sigh*

I spoke with the proprieter of the shop, who hadn't realised. But now I have a fabric collection I didn't really want (it's pretty and I can eventually use it, but it's not what I wanted to get), and still no fabric for mum's quilt.

I'm not sure anyone sells Imperial Collection 6 anymore - maybe people have it in their stashes or quietly on the side, but it's tricky finding anyone who sells it anymore. I thought I'd hit the jackpot in this small Etsy shop, but...obviously not so.

If the worst comes to the worst, I can use some of the Imperial Collection 7 fabrics in Mum's quilt - some of them will work, although others may not so much:

I won something!

I never win stuff! Except that now I can't say that any more!

Quilt Inspiration ran a September Giveaway with lovely things (aren't they always) and I although I never win these things, I thought I'd give it a go!

I admit, I was hoping for the Batiks or the Kaufman fabric, but I expect that my being international meant posting them wasn't an option. Still, winning is winning and I'm happy!

It certainly makes up for not being fast and smart enough to buy up all the Momo 'Just Wing It' fat quarter bundles on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop last night. I'm kicking myself - at the reduced price they were $6/yard and I've had a yen for Just Wing It since I saw it. But I balked at the shipping (as so many have done before) and lost the opportunity! Drat!

And there will be photos of the blocks of the Gothic Sampler shortly - I finished the last block last night!

WIP Wednesday #19

Busy week! Busy busy week!

Took three four quilts off to the quilter today: The Colour Of Magic, Sanctuary Kaleidoscope, and Central Park Boxes (below).

It was originally three, but the quilter pointed out that the backing intended for Central Park Boxes could be a quilt in its own right.

Evidence A:


I spent yesterday and this morning frantically piecing this thing together so I'd have a back for the front of the Central Park Boxes:


The blocks for the back were simple enough (yay hourglass blocks!), but it was the additional troubleshooting that wore me out!

"Uh oh! Not enough hourglass blocks...uh, just make some nine-patches!"
"Uh oh! The columns aren't wide enough...uh...just add some extra patches at the top and bottom of each column!"
"Uh oh! The backing we cut isn't enough...uh...just cut some more!"

Anyway, I decided it's going to be a quilt all its own. It's not exactly my idea of 'pretty' but...it'll do, I guess! I should think of a name for it - no idea what.

And now I have three returned quilts from the quilter to bind!



They are really very pretty. I love this quilter's work - although I did end up spending 2 hours at her place this afternoon, chatting and picking out patterns for the next four quilts...

I also pieced together a backing for the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope:


That was mostly Monday and Tuesday, too. A lot of trying to get disparate fabrics to play together without hitting, and I'm not convinced they do!

Binding to do
- Shaz and A's quilt ("sunshine and lollipops")
- postage stamp (from ps. i quilt's QAL in January this year)
- supernova (from freshly pieced QAL in April this year)
- modern rail fence

Quilting For Kids project
Finished my blocks!



I don't think the extra colours in the purples show up too much... If no-one complains, I think I'll just leave it that way!


Mum's Impstar Quilt
I got tired of waiting for the rest of the fabric and started making the stars:



Could do with more contrast for the black star on the chrysanthemums or the green star on the fireworks, but...maybe those can end up on the back of the quilt or something!

I like the design. It'll show off the fabric, while still upholding the pattern. Now I just need to find something that will do the same for the Australiana and Valley Of The Kings sets that I have...


Gothic Summer Sampler
Slowed down on this something dreadful, although I got the Minnesota block done!


And the set so far!


Working on the Evening Star now, and I have a list of blocks that I'm going to use to finish it and make it a decent size.

It has to be posted by the 3rd October. Here's hoping I can get it all done by then!


Planned Works

The Dead Simple QAL
Still thinking this one over. I like the theory, not sure I have time for it in practise.

I'm going to put the Harvest Fabrics Quilt into this pile as well, because...well, I'm trying to decide what pattern to do...

Gothic Summer Sampler - finishing off the top

Confession time! I'm not really eager to do the Kansas Dust Storm - too much paper piecing. So I'm skipping that and replacing it with others. I actually want a 4x4 block quilt for the squareness and to make it a little larger - hopefully I can still complete it in time for the craft swap!

So, with 9 blocks, here are the remaining 7 planned blocks for the Gothic Summer Sampler:
1. Evening Star
2. Rocky Road to Kansas
3. VOS Denise's Star
4. Pennsylvania
5. Texas Rose
6. Bear Tracks
7. All Hallows Variation

That'll make it a 4x4 block quilt, of around 50 inches square.

Or I might decide that enough is enough and just stop here at 3x3...

I'm debating whether or not to give it a 4" black framing border, or just bind the edge in red. Or perhaps a thin black border, a wider skull border, and the edge bound in red.

Not sure what I'll do for the back. Maybe the skull fabric?

One thing I can say about this quilt, though: no careful sewing of the binding! They're going to get zig-zagged scarlet thread sewing! And they're going to like it!

I'm hoping to get them done this week, and then sew it all together on the weekend. We can hope!

Busy Day, Busy People

I've been very busy today!

Started my mum's quilt. I cut the fabric I already had a couple of days ago, and was only going to piece two blocks this morning. Then I figured 'oh why the heck not' and pieced another two blocks!



I think I'm going to call this this Imperial Stars Quilt. Colloquially known as the 'Impstar' quilt, thereby giving Star Wars nerds a chance to geek out. :)

Actually, that design would be quite awesome if they made Star Wars fabric for quilting... *coughs*

Right. So. Anyway...

Gothic Summer Sampler



Finally did the Minnesota block. I'm a little disconcerted that at least two of the remaining 3 blocks require paper-piecing. While paper-piecing is rather nifty for fine designs, it's a bit of a mess. Plus, the templates waste so much paper! In fact, I so disliked printing out each template individually that I downloaded a PDF editor so I could copy and remap the templates - why print four templates on four sheets of paper when I could print four templates on two sheets?

And so we have the Gothic Summer Sampler as it stands so far!


Not the best photo. I may have to start taking photos with my regular camera again, and not with the phone camera - at least, not at night and in questionable light.

Tomorrow is the Southern Cross Quilters meetup at the local pub. Looking forward to sitting around for a slew of hours, chatting away, and starting the binding on Shaz and Drew's quilt!

WIP Wednesday #18

A little early this week, because I'm headed out this afternoon.



Colour Of Magic quilt
Top and backing done! Now to quilt!

I'm going to see if my usual machine-quilter will do this one - the backing may not have enough leeway for her requirements. If not, then I guess it'll be up to me to do the sandwiching and quilting...

The front:


I like the simplicity of the border - more squares, to give it a nice framing. Not sure what colour I'm going to bind it in - may have to hunt up some jelly roll strips in black and purple and greenish-purple-black.

The quilt name is a reference to the first book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - thereby betraying my geeky origins. 'The Colour Of Magic' there is described as a colour called octarine which is a greenish-purple colour.

And here's the back!



Gothic Summer Sampler


Not much done on this quilt this week - my attention was mostly taken up by The Colour Of Magic.

The Lucky Pieces block was pleasantly easy, though - just a load of HSTs!




Quilting For Kids
I answered a call for quilters to make blocks for some quilts being put together for a couple of girls in foster care.

The flickr group is called Quilting For Kids:

A star block in pink:


The makings of a star block in purple:


Not sure if the purple is 'purple' enough - most other people seem to have monochrome fabrics for their backgrounds (the stars must be white), while mine are 'mainly purple with a little bit of extra colour'.


Mum's Imperial Quilt
This quilt has been on the 'to do' list for a very long time. And as of yesterday, it moved to the 'WIP list' - so hurray for that!

I promised Mum a quilt a few years ago (oh, heck, I hope it wasn't as far back as when she got married, because that was about 7 years ago...) and found the material a couple of years ago...but never knew what to do with it. I've been through a dozen different possibilities for making up the quilt and discarded each one by one.

Finally, I settled on the Moda Bake Shop Charming Stars Quilt by Stefanie of Little Lady Patchwork - but with more of a deliberate design feel rather than a patchwork feel.

Each block will be a single fabric, and the stars will be a contrasting fabric to the background. I may end up using the panel in there as a highlight - or the panel may end up on the backing. We'll see.



I cut these out and then realised that I needed another FQS of the Imperial Collection to have enough fabric for the design. (One of the reasons why I now by half-yard sets, not FQSs.) So that's on order, and this is on hold!


Harvest quilt
This FQS was bought at least five years ago and has been sitting around, waiting to be used. (I started off buying lots of traditional fabric sets.) My thought for the last few years has been a Scrappy Mountain Majesties as described on Quiltsville, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go for a large-sized hourglass quilt?



Thoughts? Ideas? Advice?


Still to bind
- Shaz & A's "Sunshine And Lollipops"
- three quilts that are coming back to me from Jo of Thirroul Custom Quilting
.

Planned Works

The Dead Simple QAL
Haven't even started looking at fabrics for this. I'm hoping that they'll hold off until, oh, about October, by which time I'm hoping to have a lot of this stuff done and complete.

And th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

If you have the chance (and aren't already doing it, which I suspect most people coming here already are), check out the other WIP Wednesday links over at Freshly Pieced!

Tuesday is...fabric day!

Joel Dewberry's Aviary II!



I know everyone's gaga over the Heirloom collection right now - and I totally plan to get the Sapphire colourway (just as soon as I have a job and money and...) - but I love the muted colours of this: grey, black, white, and that dull yellow-buff colour that adds almost-warmth, with a dash of dove blue-grey to add almost-cool.

It goes into the stash to be used together, I think. Something simple - perhaps the Modern Basics cover quilt?

I bought a bunch of batiks, but don't know that I like them enough to use them in the covers of my quilts, so I'm presently using them in backings:


I have several WIPs in the works as of tomorrow, but that'll all go into WIP Wednesday, complete with pics. :)

WIP Wednesday #17

Having finished my writing assignments, I've been very productive this week!

Apart from finishing my own personal quilt, I've made significant inroads on the Gothic Summer Sampler and the Octarine Batiks!

Gothic Summer Sampler


The Flower Garden Path
Not quite what you like to see in your garden, perhaps...

...but those bow skulls are really quite sweet!

The Mosaic came out beautifully:

Look at those HSTs! And the points that actually match! (Forgive me for being excited, I'm not known for my precision seams.)

And the paper-pieced Star...which worked out fine on the paper-piecing front, except for the part where I forgot to change one of the colours in Template B. Oops!

No way am I doing that again, though!

Then there's the Arkansas Traveller:

Yeah, I, uh, made a few miscalculations on how much fabric was actually needed for the pieces. Note to self: remember that the seams take up fabric, too!

And finally, the String Star!

I didn't do it the way Kate suggested because I wanted the full hexagon in the middle. Too late, I realised my error! Too late, I discovered the pitfalls inherent in piecing it this way!

*shudder* Y-seams. Horrible, horrible, horrible things. I never want to do them again. Ever. I mean it!

But the bow skulls do look awfully cute. (For a given value of 'cute'.)

I debated whether to introduce another colour, but I might stick with the (somewhat rather stark) palette of red, black, and white. And perhaps introduce a little alternative colours in the borders?


The Colour Of Magic
a.k.a. 'Octarine Batiks'.

Laid it out again, and am sewing the rows together now.




Still to bind
- Shaz & A's "Sunshine And Lollipops"


Planned Works

The Dead Simple QAL
- Mum's Imperial quilt (I should get on this first)
- Harvest Mountain Magic

My Quilt!

Okay, so it's just big enough to fit on a Queen Sized bed, so it's not a little quilt, but it's mine, all mine!



I got the design from Karla Alexander's book 'Stack A New Deck' - a very simple but effective 'stack-and-whack'. I picked the batiks because they were beautiful, vibrant colours that really jumped out at me.

IIRC, I picked most of them from a fabric shop in Alexandria, VA while visiting some friends in DC circa 2005, and it took me a couple of years before I did anything with them.

It was computer-design quilted in a tropical/hibiscus pattern by Joanne of Thirroul Custom Quilting, who does awesome work for me every time. And in spite of the fact that it hadn't been finished, it's been in use for the last two years, helping keep me warm in the chilly winters.

And here commenceth the quilt porn!





Two of my three finished quilts this year!


Both batik quilts - I know they're not 'fashionable' or 'modern' but I do hold a particular fondness for batiks. I sure have enough of them in my stash!

51st Post!

So I just went to my dashboard to put this post together and realised that this is my 51st post. Hurrah!

I only started blogging this year to keep up with all the blogs I was trying to read since I'd planned to make 12 quilts this year. I think I'm a bit behind right now, actually - only 7 quilts and we're coming up to September!

So, back to the Gothic Summer Sampler.



Does anyone else feel like it needs something else in there? A really strong, viscous purple, perhaps? Or a midnight blue?

Alas for I messed up the Star block. I forgot I had to change colours for the long triangle, and started doing the whites again. (It was even marked 'red' on the templates!)

I figured I'd just keep going anyway.

(ps. Tearing the paper off the pieced blocks is horribubble!)

I'm halfway through the Arkansas Traveller...just printed out the templates for putting my sewn-together diamonds on in fact!

--

Last night, I was weak and bought about 6 charm packs from Green Fairy Quilts. White, Cream, Black, and Rainbow Kona solids, a Lily & Will II, and a Riley Blake. $7 USD!



*coughs*

I've been thinking about HST quilts of late - the Warm/Cool HST QAL, and the Shattered Rainbow Quilt at Quilt Story. Such a simple block and yet so effective!

I'd like to do one with charm squares - actually, I'd like to do one with all-dark charm squares and call it 'the many shades of night'. I got the idea while laying out for the Gothic Summer Sampler - this pic.

Lots of darks, shading gently from absolute black to murky shades of blue and green and red. And possibly a design in there, barely visible to the glancing eye.

Life Contrasts: The Gothic Summer Sampler progress!

Two more blocks done! Fairly simple ones today - mostly HST work while watching Sense and Sensibility (BBC series - Part III: very enjoyable, although I still retain a soft spot for the Emma Thompson 1997 version) and Inception (awesome movie, and one that you can watch several times because it's so wonderfully intricate and layered).

If I stop and think about it, that's quite a contrast in viewing options - like quilting a Summer Sampler in black, red, and white to make it 'Gothic'. Or like playing hockey and going out for a beer with the girls at the pub, but also enjoying coffee and banana bread while quilting in a local cafe.

Contrasts.

Like the blacks, reds and whites in the Mosaic block!



This Flower Garden Path block, however, is neither floral, nor reminiscent of the garden!


I found the fabric with the bowtie skulls on it at Spotlight (like a JoAnn's Fabric, only Australian) and bought a metre of it. Some of it will almost certainly get used on the backing, because I'm unlikely to use it for anything else! :D


I think that tomorrow will be spent mastering paper piecing and The Star. I won't try more than one block on a day when I'm paper piecing - too complicated!

WIP Wednesday #16

Thanks to my stepdad, his new Blu-Ray DVD player, and his desire to watch 'The Sound Of Music' on Saturday night while we were over there for dinner...can you guess what song I've got in my head? *points at the number on her WIP Wednesday*



Once again, an exceedingly unproductive week, quilting-wise.

Partly because I bought new bookshelves on which to keep my fabric collection (now how am I going to keep it all free of dust?) and partly because I've been writing like a crazy writing thing.

Don't ask.

Anyway: to start with - a WIP, although not the usual kind!

The Sorting Of The Stash
(Like 'The Taming Of The Shrew' but with less screaming. Possibly.)



I have a question if you're reading this: How do you sort your stash?

Because I tend to sort by type and style of fabric, with some exceptions for precuts. I have several FQSs that I want to keep together (eg. RK Jewels Of The Nile, Riley Blake's Pirates, and Lumiere De Noel by French General), but I also have 'the batik collection' and 'the FQ solids' collection.

And then there's the 'probably backing' collection, which are usually fabrics of which I've bought anywhere between 3-6m thinking they'd be good for backings or borders or...

Help? Organisation isn't my forte. I'm good at planning to be organised, but actually organised? Somewhat beyond me...


Kaleidoscope QAL.

Still doing the backing of the kaleidoscope QAL. I had to tidy it up so I could bring in the new shelves, so I've still got to sew the last section on..


Crooked Summer Sampler (at Freshly Pieced)



First two blocks made!

The West Virginia Star


I went with the black background, and found this gorgeous scarlet batik with white hearts on it. The cracked wax pattern left on the hearts kind of look like the heart is breaking, doesn't it? Perfect for a gothic quilt!

The Greek Cross


This one, I'm wishing I'd gone with a white cross on a black octagon with red corners. But it still looks pretty stunning, I think.

There's a part of my creative psyche that's scolding me for such pure, saturated colours. 'More movement! More colour!' I don't have any red fabrics with small colours on them yet.


The Colour Of Magic

Also known as 'Octarine Batiks':


Hasn't moved since the last time I posted about it, but I'm going to start piecing it again.


Binding
- My quilt. (90% done!)
- S&A's quilt. (Needs binding put together and sewn on.)