Mother In Law's Quilt.

We are still in Rottnest and still waiting on the call for Daz's placement..... but the sewing goes on in the meantime, well a little bit of sewing. I sewed the binding on this quilt and brought it over to do the hand sewing in time to finish it for my Mother In Law's birthday on the 3rd. I have finished ahead of schedule!

I really like the back of this quilt. I used some green left over from this Christmas runner. And I was short just half a metre of the Amy Butler print so the lovely Cass posted me some over and it was enough exactly!

The binding was from half a metre that the lovely AJ posted over awhile back for my birthday I think. From the Soiree line, so pretty, perfect for all the colours in this quilt. MIL has a habit of waking at 3ish and reading on the couch cause she doesn't want to disturb FIL, so I thought this quilt would be the perfect size to snuggle up on the couch with.

She was there when I opened up the envelope from Sheridan with all the finished blocks and I explained the swap to her but not being a quilter I don't think she got it. So with that in mind I didn't put on the label that it was part of a swap. If it was a quilt intended for me I would have though. Hope that doesn't offend any of the ladies involved in this swap. Don't think it would, just wanted to explain though.

Here it is on the line. I think about 150cms square? Maybe a bit bigger. I have no tape measure here to check.

For the quilting I just did a meandering stipple with some loops thrown in. Thanks to all the girls in the Chalet Girl Block Swap that made this quilt possible.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas.

This years Santa photo.... I don't like it! Santa has weird eye's, his hands are hovering over the girls shoulders, it was rushed, I should have insisted another set was taken to choose from, Daz said naaaaa, this one is okay. Lesson learnt, never let a man pick the Santa photo!

That aside, Merry Christmas to all my readers on my humble blog. Thank you all for your lovely comments. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Santa brings you something quiting related. We are away on holidays for a few weeks, I don't know how great the magic stick will be in it's coverage, so I'll say Merry Christmas now and see you next year!

Table Runners Received!

We had Christmas celebrations a few days early with my side of the family as we will be here with Daz's side of the family on Christmas Day. So Mum and Andrea happily received their table runners! I must say both ladies were slack and didn't keep up their end of the Christmas Table Runner deal.... but I felt pleased I had finished all mine. :)

Now back to the binding on the MIL's birthday pressie....

Christmas Runner #6 Finished!

The Christmas Table Runner madness started here and now 6 weeks or so later, it is over! Yahhh! I'm a bit over Table Runners at the moment I must admit. Here is the last one, #6.

Another Disappearing 9 Patch Block. But this one is small! I cut the squares 2.5 inches and they are from my stash, well some are and some are from Mum's stash. This is her runner and she giggled on the phone the other day that she hasn't even started mine, typical! They have just brought a new caravan and so Mum wanted a runner for the table in that. The table measures 20 inches wide and 40 inches long, so not exactly a large table!

Matilda snapped this shot of me putting on the binding. Not looking to bad for a girl who has sewn six table runners in six weeks! That is my in-laws bookcase behind me, if it was my house that bookcase would be packed with fabric! Note the two lovely dolls quilts received in the background as well. :)

So here is runner #6. 18 x 13 inches, more a placemat size really. But seeing as though the interior of the van is hues of blue and cream, this should match perfectly. I hope.....

Matilda Graduates from Kindy!

Matilda graduated from kindy this afternoon. Seems only like yesterday she started the year. You don't really get a report as such in kindy, just a big scrapbook with all the work done throughout the year. The teacher writes a wrap up paragraph on the end page. Matilda's was glowing about her lovely manners, excellent fine motor skills, her eagerness to complete all tasks to the best of her abilities, her social nature. All stuff we knew about her but lovely to see in writing from her teacher. She has had a wonderful start to her education, couldn't be more proud of her. :)

Christmas Runner #5 Finished!

I have finished Christmas Runner #5!!! Which is good as Matilda finishes school this coming Tuesday and this one is for the Teacher's Assistant in her class. Teacher's Assistants are the forgotten helpers at school sometimes and they are really the glue that hold the class together. I let Grace choose between this one and Christmas Runner #4 for her teacher and she choose #4 so this one goes to Milly's Teacher's Assistant.

Simple Disappearing 9 Patch Block on the front, two fat quarters sewn together for the back. But I am proud of the label.

I got Matilda to draw a picture of her teacher, photographed it, imported it to Photoshop and added the type, then printed it out and sewn on like described here and wolah, fancy label I know the teachers will ohh and ahh over!

And I have just one more runner to complete! Hate to say it, but it's another D9P block, small 2.5 inch squares though and cut from the stash, no charm squares for this one!

Sheridan's Blocks.

I have given myself a little break from my Christmas Table Runner Marathon and spent the last few nights working on Sheridan's blocks for Decembers round of our Around The Block Swap.

The above block is my favourite, love those ladies playing tennis! It's the largest block at 9 inches.

Sheridan choose squares and sent a lovely selection of grey and greens to play with. I haven't sewn much with grey but these were so much fun to whip up! Her specifications were to use both grey and green in each block and any size from 7 t0 10.5 inches which was perfect guidelines for me. I like sewing a bit and then seeing if it needs a bit more or not. The above block is just under 7 inches, squeezing in at 6 and 9/10th's..... Is that even a fraction I wonder? I am hopeless at maths.

And the top block is 8 inches square. Bit of a plainer block but sometimes you need the plain blocks to make the others sing! So I hope you like these Sheridan!

Disappearing 9 Patch Table Runner Tutorial.

This is such an easy runner to make. I'll do a tutorial here to show you just how easy lemon squeezy it is! I made this one with 27 charm squares, these ones are 5 inch squares. So lay them out into 3 groups to form a 9 patch block. Keep in mind that the squares in the corner of a 9 patch block will not be cut, so make sure that is a print you really like. The square in the middle of each 9 patch will be sliced twice, so keep that in mind too, busy prints or a neutral work best for the center square.

So once you are happy with the placement, sew them into 9 patch blocks. Hopefully they will stay in order! I always seem to get one row mixed up along the way.

And this is the fun part! After ironing your 9 patch block, slice it in half, rotate it and slice it again. So your block now becomes 4 blocks.

After you have cut all 3 of the original 9 patch blocks together, you now need to arrange the 12 new blocks in a pleasing manner. For this one I regrouped 4 little blocks to make one big block again, so I had 3 large blocks to make the runner. I tried to have 2 little squares in the center of each block facing the same way for each of the 3 larger blocks. Does that make sense? But you could really arrange the blocks anyway you wished. That's the joy of a Disappearing 9 Patch block, it doesn't really matter!

So once you have sewn all those blocks together you are on the home stretch! To make this runner just a little bit bigger and to frame it, I added a border of 1.5 inches as above.

Quilt as desired. I just did a meandering stipple all over the D9P blocks and an echo stitch just inside the border. Binding is on and pinned in place ready to hand sew down for this one.

See? Easy! Let me know if you make one, love to see.

Christmas Runner #4 Finished!

Despite a busy week outside of my blogging life, I finished table runner #4! Just a simple Disappearing 9 Patch block with some Moda charm squares I have had since.... who knows when! These runners have been great for stash busting!

The binding was left over from this quilt. And the backing was a perfect half yard cut from equilter earlier this year too. I just did a quick stipple over it. I can't emphasis enough these are quick, easy and simple runners! I am making the exact same pattern for Runner #5, nearly ready to sandwich it. I think I'll do a tutorial so you can see how easy peasy it is!

Christmas Table Runner #2 and #3 finished....

I have finished two of the table runners for the girls teachers Christmas pressies. The end of the term is sneeking up on us!

I think this one is my favourite so far. This is the back. The binding was picked out by Ads and Emma on a recent Adelaide shopping spree!

And another from the same Twiddletails pattern.

And the back again. I used a Micheal Miller daisy vine print that I have had for years and wondered if I would ever use it! I now have half a meter left! Actually these runners have been great for stash busting, haven't brought any new fabrics to make them.

And this is where I am up to on runner #4. Sewing down the binding. My arm has been aching as it did here. I am recognizing that this happens when I have done too much. Too much mouse clicking, to much hand sewing, too much bauble writing. I am about to give up the least important thing, the bauble writing! Yahh!

Lynn's Blocks.

Another round of blocks for Around The Block. These are for Lynn. She requested zig zags. I hope these fit the bill Lynn!

If you love a good Flea Market Fancy Giveway, check out here.

Chaletgirl Block Swap Quilt being Quilted!

Well I finished the top for Chaletgirl Block Swap last month here, and took it up to Mum's to pin on her frame. She finally bit the bullet and brought a new machine for the frame, one with a big throat! The Janome 1600 Professional. This was the first time I got to use it!

I don't know if it was just getting used to a new machine, or cause I haven't done any machine quilting on the frame for over a month, but I found the flow of stitches to be jerky in places. Once you got the speed up and into the flow it was good, just had to get there..... I think that is just practice, if you were doing it everyday there wouldn't be that factor. But because in some area's there are sharp curves and sudden changes of direction, I don't know if I'll give it to my Mother In Law now. I used a dark to light pink verigated cotton which probably wasn't the best choice as in places the wonky quilting stands out. In hind sight a lighter pink would have been better.

For this quilt I sewed a 2 and a half inch strip to the top and bottom of the quilt top. So I could quilt up to the edge. When it is pinned on you loose about an inch of quilting space. I wanted to do swirls and loops to the edge.

It does look great spread out though. So another quilt for the girls bed? I'll do the binding and then make the final decision.

Christmas Table Runner #3..... Sandwiched!

I have an outdoor studio today! Used the outdoor table to sandwich Christmas Table Runner #3. Made a change from doing it on the floor.

Here it is all quilted, ready to be trimmed and the binding on. This one is for Matilda's other teacher. She has two teachers, one for Monday and one for Tuesday! I noticed the other week that this teacher had a stylized rose print similar to the black print third from the top, on the hem of her skirt. So thought I would match this runner to her taste? I don't know! It's hard to guess what they would actually like, I can't go in and quiz them, do you like brights? Amy Butlers new range? Log cabin or bento box?? So I am making things I hope they will like.

Christmas Runner #1 Finished!

Watched Miss Austen Regrets tonight on the ABC and finished sewing down the binding of the first of the Christmas Runners. This one is for Milly's teacher Miss B, she announced at the parents info morning back in term one, that she just adored Christmas! So perfect for her, I hope.

I went for the green in the end. I used some of my Soiree by Lila Tueller for the backing. Next!

Highlights Quilt Finished!

I have finished sewing down the binding and sewing on the label to the quilt that is known as the Highlights Quilt. It is so massive, 230 cms square massive to be exact, I struggled to get all of it in a photo. Had to take it up to the folks house and drape it over the pergola and even then I didn't get it all in. So above is the artistically hanging shot.....

And here it is hanging. I am missing a good 30cms from the photo as its drapped over the top, but its the best I could get and I'm sure you get the idea.

And here is the back.

And the label. It is our quilt, for our bed. After how many years I finally have a quilt I made on the bed! Started back here in April, finished in November. It is so nice to snuggle underneath. We are in a pokey little bedroom in this house so I won't post photos on the www of it on our bed just yet. ;)

Christmas Table Runner #2 - Twiddletails Denyse Schmidt!-

Well I have got the binding sewn on for Christmas Table Runner #1 and so it was time to turn my attention to Christmas Table Runner #2! Something a bit more funkier for this one. I have raided the Denyse Schmidt stash and found my copy of the wonderful Twiddletails pattern. You can find a PDF copy of her pattern here. I have made this pattern before, here. Honestly it takes more time to ponder over the fabric choice than to sew, nice and simple which is what I need as although I may seem like on a roll with the Christmas Table Runners, I'm not at the halfway point in the list to complete yet....

But today was productive, I cut, sewed together and have it all ready sandwiched ready to go for tomorrow! Just planning on doing a straight stitch 1/4th an inch on each side of the seam.

EB DQS #3 Received from Lily.

Well today was the opening day for the 3rd Annual EB Quilters Dolls Quilt Swap. I was the lucky girl to receive this stunning beauty from the talented Lily. She has taken all my likes and combined them in one beautiful quilt. I love brights, I love white, I love wonky houses, just perfect!

Here is the house....

A detail of the amazing quilting. The stitches are so perfect!

A butterfly is just flying by.

And the back is as perfect as the front!

Lily was also sweet enough to include a pin cushion made by her, stuffed by her daughter! One of my daughters has claimed it as a new pillow for Barbie's head! I'll let her play with it for a few days and then nick it back for it's real purpose!

Thanks so much Lily, I love my new quilt! It is just lovely. I am very lucky. :)