I already know about Ula's Free NYB patterns. Please do not direct me there. I'd like some more elaborate ones that I've seen around - a variety, if you like.
I'm absolutely happy to buy the patterns (at a reasonable price), the problem is that the sites that used to 'sell' those block patterns for foundation paper piecing are ancient (at least in internet terms) and many of them don't actually exist anymore.
My two quilts for the Blogger's Quilt Festival are the Eternity Quilt and the New York Cat Mat.
Eternity Quilt
I made this for a creative project my church service was putting together. It was ridiculously complex, and only after I finished it did I realise there was a much much MUCH easier way to put it together! *facepalm*
However, it was also my first wholly self-quilted quilt using the quilting machine at my LQS (The Avanti HQ at Hobbysew Top Ryde). And, of course, it had to be a complicated design. The quilting I had planned for this baby was not only not rectangular, it featured negative space, and the need for some very fine stippling to bring out the negative space. Never let it be said I'm not up for a challenge!
The Eternity Quilt
Quilt Measurements: 94" x 94"
Special Techniques used: Quilting around negative space.
Quilted By: Sel @ Mad Quilter's Disease (a.k.a. me!)
I'm quite pleased with it, even if it's not technically perfect. It's going in the Sydney Quilt Show 2013 - my first quilt show!
The New York Cat Mat
The name of this one is both true and slightly humourous, since it was intended as a 'mini quilt' but the cats have ended up colonising it.
It was made during the New York Beauty Quilt Along by Sew Sweetness back in February last year. I started in jewel-toned batiks, but then found I didn't like the colours quite as much as I thought I would. So I only ended up making 6 blocks - two of them the basic "Block 0".
I quilted it with Penny Poppleton's machine ("Thor", a Bernina 400) and it turned out rather better than I expected. I wanted to practise some of the FMQ techniques in Angela Walter's famous book "Free-Motion Quilting" on a home machine, and although it was a little small and fiddly to undertake, Thor never failed me!
I left the 'spikes' unquilted, but closely quilted just about everything else in the quarter-circle sections, including the centre dots which were close-quilted spirals, and then did a mini version of my standard 'fiery curls' FMQ pattern (also visible on the Eternity Quilt).
The New York Cat Mat
Quilt Measurements: 11" x 28"
Special Techniques used: Paper-piecing, free-motion quilting.
Quilted By: Sel @ Mad Quilter's Disease (a.k.a. me!)
I’ve been a bit slow with this post – the recap of 2012 and the goals for 2013. Partly because I was away in Vietnam during that week when I usually do all my “past year, next year” organisation, and partly because my computer died at the start of December and I didn’t get around to replacing it until last week. I’ve been doing everything off my work computer which, while sturdy, makes me a bit antsy at times.
And it’s so much easier to 'do' than to 'recap'!
I'd have done a collage of my projects, only I don't have the time right now.
My goals for 2012 were:
My results for 2012 were:
2012 Works
California Girl: A very quick project that turned out rather nice. More pastels than I like, but it'll be to someone's taste, I'm sure! (And the photography doesn't help.)
Charmed Prints: A quilt-along with Anne-Marie of Gen X Quilters.
HST Harvest: Using up the FQs of a "harvest themed" fabric collection I bought four years ago and which I don't like anymore. (The colours are Not My Thing at all!)
Floating Wildflowers: For the wedding of a friend in April. Another fabric collection I bought four years ago and hadn't yet used. I like this one better - the dark jewel tones, the design - much more to my tastes!
New York Beauty Blocks: Was to be for a huge NYB quilt-along, but I didn't like the colours I chose. I worked in mostly-solid or monochrome batiks and it just didn't work for me. So I'll make a small hanging from this and do a fullsize (or bigger size) quilt in some other fabric collection.
Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner - Scrap Attack: Definitely a pattern to do again in future - love the scrappiness, and the off-white 'backing'. It would be interesting to do this with a layer cake (or jelly roll) and a background fabric...
Azerbaijani scarf for Eurovision: For my friend's Eurovision party back in May!
Two baby quilts: a commission by a friend for her nephew and niece.
mug rug: Part of a mug-rug exchange. Only mine was a bit large - it's more of a soup-bowl rug!
Heirloom: I was trying to do this in the manner of a quilt I saw online, but I think that one was more of a 'coins' style design, which makes a difference - this design is a little too rich for my eye.
Build Me Up Buttercup: I love the fabric, but I don't think the design quite hits me. Yellow (it's actually 'Kona Daffodil' not 'Kona Buttercup' but the name stuck) is not my favourite of colours - I prefer it as an accent, not a theme.
Snowflake block: My first block tutorial! Design is by Madame Parfait, but she never posted the tutorial. This one's a bit rough, and I really need to make a whole quiltload. Perhaps in 2013?
Stepdad’s Cushions: Commissioned by my mum for the stepdad, oh, two years ago. Finally finished this year. Along with her quilt. They now sit in pride of place on their bed.
Batman block: A block tutorial for the Wicked! bloghop in October 2013. I need to use this block - perhaps in a cushion cover?
Eternity: My 2013 nemesis, dreamed up for a church project and completed in a ridiculously short time given its complexity level. Four months from inception to completion, and I did every inch of it, from design to cutting to piecing to quilting.
So that’s 2012, done and dusted!
Up next, 2013 goals.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Not much progress this week; I think I'm going to have to accept that pretty much nothing more is going to get done this year on the quilting front. I just don't have the time.
Well, maybe the family's Christmas presents...
Finished
Birthday Block: December - Goose Creek
Finally finished the last of the LJ Birthday blocks, albeit extremely late. I won't be participating next year - I have two quilt tops from this block swap (last year, and this year) and haven't yet put them together. Both will need extra blocks from me, I'll probably make them in January.
Scrappy Goose Creek block, for a boy's quilt.
We were asked not to have any pinks, but I figured a single splash won't impugn his masculinity.
Disappearing Charms quilt
Finally bound!
This one has been sitting around, unbound, for the last, oh, year. Possibly more. I just never had the impetus to finish it until now. A friend had a baby shower on the weekend which I couldn't attend, so I finished it up on Sunday and sent it along with another friend.
One baby down, two to go! I'll make a quilt for one, and a bag for baby things for the other. Hopefully before the children turn two! (They've just been born...)
WIP
New York Beauty
I only ended up doing six of the ten paper pieced blocks. (Actually, it was only 5, with block #0 being done twice.)
I'm not sure what this is going to be once I quilt it (at home) and binding it - I think It might end up being used as Something For The Kitteh To Colonise. Don't really have anywhere to hang it just yet.
Sydney Modern Quilt Guild - Hexa-Go-Go
Still sewing hexagons!
And adding scraps:
If you would like to contribute a block to this quilt - whether you're Australian or an international - it would be wonderful if you would mail us at the Sydney MQG (sydneymodernquiltguild at gmail dot com) and we'll send you one of the kits (if you want a particular colour, we should be able to accomodate that). Check this post for details!
In Conclusion
It's been quite a year in my own personal quilt blogosphere - many new subscribers/readers, several new experiences, and a new appreciation for how much time quilting can take from your life!
This will be my last WIP Wednesday - this time next week I shall be leaving on a jet plane to visit my dad in Viet Nam. Looking forward to it. :)
A "best of 2012" post is coming up...just as soon as I sort out the small matter of a graphics editor. (My computer crashed a month ago and I've been working with my business laptop but it's not exactly portable.) I prefer doing it on a graphics editor because I can adjust things like colour and layout and all kinds of things.
Oh, and have some very un-merry kitteh (with cameo from sis):
In the meantime Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers!
love,
Sel.
It's been a blocky kind of week. And still rather crazy busy.
On the personal front, it was my birthday on Monday and I...didn't celebrate it. :) Not for fear of age or growing old; mostly for lack of time, space, or inclination. Actual party-ish and gift-ish things will mostly happen on Saturday with the family, although I 'celebrated' with a donut of Evil and some Lindt hot chocolate:
Not as good as home-made cake, but we suffer as we must!
And my lovely friend Jenn gave me these rainbow-chicken cloth baskets as a birthday gift!
Aren't they beautiful? Handmade! And useful! They're going to be pin containers and scrap baskets and all kinds of useful and helpful things in my new sewing space:
Yes, it's still a mess. Yes, it's less than optimal space usage. Yes, that's a Barbie doll in a pink bikini on the railing. (I've had her, oh, 15 years now, and still haven't gotten around to making her something more covering. Poor girl must be stone frozen by now.)
But see out that window? See how clear the yard is? WE GOT RID OF THE JUNK! No more old cabinets, old oven, old stove, old sink hanging around, messing up the space. But clean yard! (Until the trees leaf all over it again, but nobody could stop that.)
And there'll be more rearranging and sorting and working out come Saturday when the parentals are coming around for a day of organising. :)
Finished!
New York Beauty
The original plan for the NYB was to do a full set of blocks, only I didn't end up liking the fabric or colour choices I made.
So I planned to finish all the ones I already had cut and ready to make and put together a mini quilt/table-runner/wall-hanging/thingamawhatsis.
Block 7:
(too dark on the 'inside curve')
Block 8:
And that makes 6 blocks (only 5 individual blocks of the NYB 10 block collection):
I'm saying it's 'finished', because, well, I did what I set out to do, right? Only, I'm not sure it's what I actually want. Wall hanging? Bench runner? Cat mat? Bother the choices!
The Snowflake Block
My project of sekrit sekritiveness!
This block was originally designed by Madame Parfait who does the most ah-may-zing blocks. She called it the "Rainbow Blossom" block and posted pictures back in October last year, promising a tutorial on how to make it, although she hasn't updated with the tutorial yet. Hopefully everything's okay in her world. Anyone know? She’s been quiet for a while.
In the meantime, I'm putting a tutorial together at the behest of Penny Poppleton, quilter, mum, friend, and evil enabler extraordinaire! Currently, the process involves strip piecing, and a need for really accurate seams. (My seams are most commonly describable as 'inexact'.)
Tutorial coming later this week. (I promise!)
WIP
Snowflake Block tutorial
I'm halfway through putting together a tutorial for this - I just haven't had the time to focus my attention on it. Also: I will need to run it past at least one 'recipe tester' to make sure that my instructions make sense to 'people who aren't me'.
I think I'll have to divide the tutorial up into three sections: strip-piecing, assembling the panels, assembling the block.
First part to be posted tomorrow, and then the second section hopefully on Monday.
Mum's Impstar!
Finally started sewing the binding!
It's coming, Mum!
Waiting In Line For Something To Happen
Le Petit Poulet
- still in blocks
Go Back To The Jungle, Turn The Quilt Around
- still waiting for binding
- I picked out the binding fabric, though!
Build Me Up Buttercup
- still waiting on borders
- Penny Poppleton handed me a bunch of extra Sanae to put a border on it, but I think I have to wait until I work out what fabric I already have...
What have you been working on this week? There's a Linky Party over at Freshly Pieced, with lots of lovely lovely WIPs!
