WIPS-B-GONE

Devoted Quilter is hosting a finishing challenge: WIPS-B-GONE! A 100 Day Challenge

I have WIPS all over the place in boxes, and I'd like to get a few done and out the door.

1. Mum's handbag (for Christmas)

2. Stepbro's wedding quilt (only the binding needed)

3. The Laidback Plaidish

4. 3:10 to Mendocino (only the binding)

5. Rainbow Swerve (rainbow batiks in the 'placid curves' pattern from Modern Neutrals

6. Scrappy Bard of Avon

7. Rainbow Selvages

8. The Quilt Is Lava

9. Dark Drunkards Block

10. Scrappy Postage Stamp

11. Kitchen Curtains

12. Log Cabin:

...golly, that's a lot of WIPs...

Guess I'd better get started!

2019 Q3 Finish: Soroptimist Raffle Quilt

The only finish I actually managed this quarter, although I have made a start on the Cousin P quilts at least!


Finish Along Q3 Goals

Four: Soroptimist Raffle Quilt


Fabric line is Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill, I didn't use a pattern, I just made blocks and fitted them together.

Done and raffled and the person is apparently very happy with it.

100 Kona Tula Blocks | 100 Days, 100 Blocks

I joined in on the 100 Days, 100 Blocks Challenge for 2018.

So far 56 blocks and going strong!

The challenge is to make the 100 blocks of fabric designer Tula Pink's "City Sampler". I borrowed the book off a friend and have been steadily making blocks for the last two months. Every block is 6.5" square, and you can put them together straight or you can sash-and-post them. Some people colour-scheme theirs; I haven't, I'm just making it with whatever I can throw together. And at the end, there will be a quilt.

I'm a little over halfway through the book, and it's pretty slow going...







It's actually been really helpful to have the challenge on to instagram one block a day for the last two months. It's a routine - something to do, a standard to meet. I find the regularity of "one a day" also helps keep me from falling behind. Although, as we head into the second half, the pressure is going to build, both to avoid just letting it all go ("I've done so much, I can afford to relax") and to avoid feeling overwhelmed ("I've been doing this so long...").

At this point, I also need to start looking more at which colours I'm using to make sure I get a reasonable spread across the quilt.


And then the final questions of sashing/posting or just leave them straight...

Expect another post sometime in October!

WIP Wednesday: the one with lots of stuff

I swear my titles are getting worse!

Finished

Sydney Modern Quilt Guild - The Rainbow Connection!

Based off Tacha Bruecher's 'Over The Rainbow' quilt in her 2012 book 'Hexa-Go-Go', this was collectively made by a dedicated dozen or so members of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild, put together by Guild President Penny Poppleton, and quilted by me!

It's big. Very, very big. And beautiful!

It's due to go into the Quilt Show at the Sydney Quilt And Craft Fair later this year, and afterwards will be sold and the money donated to a women's shelter organisation, for women escaping untenable domestic situations.

I have a more detailed post here. The Sydney Modern Quilt Guild has an update post about it here.

Harvest Windows

(I finally thought of a name for this!)

For my aunt and uncle on my father's side who've been very good to my sisters and I over the years. Very traditional, richer, darker colours, and I really hope they like it. :/

And the back:

Ready to be sent off for quilting!

Fuller post here.

WIPs

Baby Quilts

I've been a bit busy to get on with these. And I'm deciding whether to do backs in the cotton I usually use, or some flannel which I have, which is wonderfully soft.

Quilt backings

Needed for:

1. California Girl
2. Santorini Sun and Sky
3. Honey Honey
4. HST Harvest

Some new photography of these in early morning light:

California Girl:

Honey Honey:

If I get at least a couple done I can send them off to Jo for quilting.

Diamonds Dancing In Rainbows

I haven't touched this since I put it up on the design board. Really need to get a move on with it!

To Do

Scrap Attack {String Fever}

This is going to happen. IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

It is Going To Happen because the other night I pulled out my big box of string scraps...and my little box of string scraps...and my small cloth baskets of string scraps...and my plastic trays of string scraps...

And realised just how many I'd collected over the last four years of quilting.

My plan so far:

1. sort strings into selvedges/non-selvedges
2. sort selvedges into neutrals/colours
3. sort colours into warms/cools
4. sort warms/cools into specific colour groups
5. ...

After that I'm not 100% on exactly how this is going to work!

BUT IT WILL!

Gift Quilts
Alli: red, white/neutrals/low-vol, blue - American patriot theme - possibly Sisters Ten BOM? Alt: "low volume" quilt?
Jo & Amy: Valley of the Kings - design not yet certain. It's a hard fabric line to design for!

Ideas for future

• 1:3:2 in A:B:A fabrics
• broken dishes (in Cuzco or Terrain?)
• "low volume" quilt

Anyway, that's me! How about you? What have you been doing this week?

Hump Day Handover!

Why yes, I do believe it's Wednesday once more!



HUZZAH! (ie. finished)

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner (a.k.a. "Scrap Attack Quilt", "No Problem, Bitches!" - NPBITC) is done!



It's laid out on what space there is on the lounge room floor and I can't stop staring at it. It looks pretty good, don't you think?

But that border!

There was angst. Angst, and HSTs. And HSTs. And more HSTs. And still more HSTs! I was practically drowning in them. But I got them sewed, snipped the corners, pressed them, and then sewed them in long chains of flying geese...

eta: After I posted this, I hassled the stepdad to hold it up for a better pic:

Most of them came from the Supernova Quilt Along I did last year - those itty bitty corners that got cut off and which I started hand-sewing before I got into making Drunkards Path blocks.

Now I just machine sew them. Faster, neater, more convenient.

...and that's about all I've done this week!

Except receive mail:


At least now I can really get into the Books And Bees Block Party!


TO DO

Floating Wildflowers: having all kinds of trouble getting the yardage for the backing. I haven't heard back from the shop I found on the internet at all...

Disappearing Square Harvest: Binding. Uh, yeah... *shifty eyes*


ON YOUR MARKS...

Birthday Blocks: There were three for march and I haven't managed to do any of them, although I've let the people know it'll be late.

Books And Bees Block: I owe at least one block (she's been notified of my tardiness) and April is swiftly soaring in. (OMG. It's APRIL??)

Commission - Baby Quilts: a friend of mine asked me to make a couple of baby quilts for her niece and nephew who are to be born in May-June this year. We've done the fabric shopping already, and now it's just the putting together! Which, of course, is the tricky part!



Festival of HSTs:
From leftovers of the HSTs I used above. I seem to have HUNDREDS of the damn things - all of them from making this Supernova quilt last year:
They are cut, they are bright and pretty, and I still have a whole bunch to sew together! So I have plenty of stuff to work with for the HST Festival!

BACKBURNER
New York Beauty: I want to do this. I really really do. But I don't really have the space or time right now. And I'm intimidated by the so-beautiful work of others!

And the kittehs say "hi!" Well, one kitteh says hi.

You all know Maladicta, right?


Now that my random yardage has the Mal buttstamp of approval, it is acceptable to snooze upon!



Ah, cats!

So shall we take a squiz at what other people have been doing this week over at WIP Wednesday?

To B(order) or not To B(order)?

I always hate getting to the part where I have to add borders in to a quilt. I can never decide whether it needs a border or not. Or even how much border it should have.


I was going to leave it like that. Nice and simple. Focus on the blocks and the layout and the piecing and not complicate it with borders.

But I have a bunch of HSTs, some of which are roughly hand-sewn and which need using, and which are the right colour and suitably scrappy...

Which then brings up the question of the type of border it should have.

These things are never easy to decide!

Boxes?


Blocks?


Zig Zags?


Or Flying Geese?
Ugh. Choices. I am chronically indecisive....at least, I think I am. Am I? Or maybe I'm not?

Ultimately, I picked the one with the least sewing - the Flying Geese. Because the least effort for the best effect is always a good way to go for me!

Plus, I like the 'blank space' effect that the flying geese blocks produce.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner!

Isn't it preeeeetty? So so preeeeeetty!

It was still a lot of sewing, mind! Two episodes of Castle - the one with the handcuffs and the 2nd half of the one with the national security threat - and three episodes of Sherlock - the one introducing Moriarty, the one with Irene Adler (*OMG LOVE*), and the Hounds of Baskerville.

My day is done. (And nearly gone the sun!)

And that's #5 for the year! And it's not even April!

I even have HSTs left over for the Festival of Half Square Triangles being put on by Megan over at Canoe Ridge Creations!!



HOWZAT?

Modern Quilts with Traditional Fabrics?

Is it possible to do Modern quilting with Traditional fabrics?

Or does the fabric chosen for a given project necessarily feed into the definition of modern vs. traditional?



The plan for my friend's wedding quilt was to develop an abstract look: the floating dark squares in the yellowish background. (What colour is that, anyway. Mustard? I always thought mustard would be more green or more brown...)



There was much angst and worry over cutting the jelly roll up - would I have enough? What if I didn't - where would I find enough fabric to make up the difference?

I made 81 blocks for a 9x9 quilt...only to discover that I didn't have quite enough fabric for the last block and had to piece together some ends...

Only, as it turned out, I'd made 91 squares. *facepalm*

So the quilt is now 9x10 blocks.



And in the process of putting blocks together, sometimes you do something amazing:


I swear, I couldn't have done that if I tried!

I really do wish they all could be California Girls...

I actually hate that video. Both of them - Beach Boys and Katy Perry. I have a horror of videos where all the women bounce around half-naked and the guys are fully dressed. Probably because it happens so often in music videos while the converse almost never happens. (Except in Bananarama videos. There's got to be some GenX quilters who remember Bananarama, surely!)



That was the first CD I ever owned. Looooong ago. :D

So, let's pull ourselves out of Memory Lane, and get back on topic...

Regarding the topic: I really do wish all my quilts would turn out as fast as the California Girl quilt has!

I pulled out the fabric on Sunday...


Had the pieces cut by Monday...


Sewn on Tuesday...


Arranged by Wednesday...


Added the setting triangles Thursday


And was all ready to sew it together today...except that my stepdad needed me to do some work.

Maybe I could fit it in tonight? Oh wait, I'm going to dinner with friends, so that's not going to scan. Bother!

Tomorrow morning, then. Before the Sydney Southern Cross Quilters Guild meeting at 10am. Whew!

Also, there's a competition going on over at the Moda Bake Shop: Sliced.

I really need to make a quilted sleeve for my laptop - Ever since I lost the padded sleeve it came in, I've been carrying it around 'bare'. Which probably isn't doing it any favours.

Really must back it up soon! Imagine if it failed on me! *shudders*

But, yes, a quilted sleeve for my laptop, and maybe one for my e-Reader (which has been travelling around in a shoulder purse I bought while visiting Paris in May last year).

Summary of 2011 & Plans for 2012

A mosaic of my sewing projects through 2011!


1. Modern Rail Fence. 2. Amazeing French Lace. 3. Autumn Cushions. 5. Steampunk Victorian Dress. 6. Gen X Charmed Prints QAL. 7. DCMB Kaleidoscope QAL. 8. ps.i quilt Postage Stamp QAL. 9. Lily's Quilts Dead Simple QAL. 10. Messenger Bag. 11. Freshly Pieced Supernova QAL. 12. Gothic Cushions. 13. Sanctuary Kaleidoscope. 14. Mum's Imperial Stars. 15. Hidden Harvest. 16. The Colour Of Magic.

So: this year, I got serious about sewing.

Apart from the 12 Quilts of 2011, I participated in various exchanges - fabric and craft, started making clothes again (I haven't made dresses for some twenty years now), and joined the club of People Who Make Gifts.

Highlights of the year include:
- making RL friends who quilt
- discovering internet friends from before this year who also quilt,
- joining two regular quilting groups - Sydney Southern Cross Quilters, and the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild,
- joining online QALs,
- starting a handsewing project,
- purchasing enough fabric to make a year's worth of quilts,
- participating in a birthday block swap,
- having a great deal of fun!

It's been a learning experience all around, and great for my colour-and-shape creative side: the part of me that likes the joy of picking fabrics, choosing a design, and seeing the finished product.


Plans for 2012

In 2012, my goals are to:

1. Finish another 12 quilt tops.
2. Make at least 1 quilt from go to whoa - including the quilting stage, which I usually fob off to someone else.
3. Start making quilts and patterns with an intent to sell.

I don't know how feasible these will be, especially since I hope to get a 9-to-5 job in 2012 and between the job, writing, sewing, and the hope of a social life, it could get very tiring very fast! But it helps me to set goals, even if I don't achieve them. (I've been planning to finish one of my novel-length stories every year for the last five years. I still haven't.)

12 quilts in 2011!

My goal at the start of 2011 was to make 12 quilt tops. Not finished quilts, since I didn't feel I had the skill then (or the machine), just the tops.

I believe I've succeeded!

2011 Quilt Top Roll-Call
1. Penny Batik


2. Modern Rail Fence


3. Central Park Boxes


4. Supernova


5. Sanctuary Kaleidoscope


6. Santorini Sun And Sea


7. The Colour Of Magic


8. Gothic Summer Sampler


9. Go Back To The Jungle, Turn The World Around


10. Dead Simple QAL


11. Mum's Imperial Stars


12. Amazeing French Lace


It was close. I still haven't finished Harvest HSTs or the Charmed Prints QAL, and there are a lot of tops yet to be quilted!

Also, I feel compelled to add that I was aided and abetted by the lack of 9to5 work I had during the year, and my friend Jenn, who's been an invaluable source of encouragement and corruption since June!

I'll put my 2012 goals in the next post.