These fat quarters from Melanie to add to my stash for my round robin quilt. She was very thoughtful to add some quilting needles, never have enough of those! Thanks Melanie.
And these goodies from AJ. Not 1 but 5 new blades! Wohooo! Some scraps for Milly's quilt and some Soiree charm squares and a yard of the Soiree stripes for binding. I'll just have to make a Chinese Coin quilt now! Thanks AJ, a lovely parcel indeed.
I have always admired the table runners made by Twiddletail and when she made a pattern in a PDF file, I saved it away as a favourite for when I needed to whip up something special. I actually finished this in May but the lady who now has it on her dining room table reads my blog so it was hush hush, top secret. Meredith is such a lovely friend, I meet her through my Mothers Group set up by the local Early Childhood Nurse when Grace was 8 weeks old, so we have passed 6 years in our friendship, lots of cups of coffee and tea and "mummy snacks". She has been of invaluable assistance in helping Daz at Uni too this semester, being an ex primary school teacher herself. So, I made her this runner to say thanks. Thanks Meredith!
I actually had the fabric sitting in the stash purchased back here on our Sydney spree! Just waiting for the right project.
I didn't want to use wadding as it would be too thick. And I didn't have enough pellon, so I got crafty and used some flanelette I had one of my tubs of fabric. Except it wasn't long enough, so I butted two pieces up together and zig zagged them together and wolah, perfect.
Quilting was a simple straight stitch about 1/4th in from the seam. My walking foot was out of action so I used my normal foot with success. Nice and simple quilting both starting and ending outside the edge of where the binding was to be, so once again no loose ends to tie.
I pieced the back too just for some interest.
This shot and the very first one with the vase of flowers where taken on Meredith's table. It looks right at home.
I have finished four more blocks for Milly's Quilt. I think though they need another round of logs added to them though, just to make them a little bigger. And I have to order some of this white as I don't have enough in my stash. Looking good though. When I was laying these blocks on her bed for the photo, Milly walks in and says "what you doing Mummy?" and I replied "seeing how your quilt will look on your bed." And she answered "your making a quilt for me?" The element of suprise and amazement in her voice was like but you never sew quilts for me?!! Well Milly Moo, this one is for you!
I had a great suprise yesterday morning when I went out to pull the recycling bin out to the kerb after hearing the truck in the next street and realizing Daz had only put the normal rubbish bin out. A parcel from The Fat Quarter Shop had arrived and the dog hadn't barked to alert me! They had 40% off Kaffee the other week so I got 5.5 yards of the above. Just in time for me to use the deep purple in Milly's quilt maybe.
And a magazine and a Swanky honey bun roll. 40 x 1.5 inches wide strips. So nicely packaged, I'm not taking it out the plastic till I sew this one. I have it earmarked for a Chinese Coin quilt for a friends baby coming out later this year, make a change from all the pink and purple happening around here lately.
Mum's Happy Jack Quilting Frame has finally arrived! And today I finally got to see it set up in her front room. Took Grace to school, did reading duty, popped into Spotlight to get some more thread (20% off all thread at the moment Australian readers!) and then headed up the hill. I was hoping to be child free totally but I had my trusty assistant with me, Miss Milly who woke up this morning and declared she didn't want to go to school today. Her normal teacher has been away the last 2 weeks and the relief teacher is a child herself at 22, and I'm getting snippetts from Milly about Charlie not playing with her on the bikes, Tyler knocked over her block castle, Spencer kicked her during quiet time..... I think she is over it all. She only goes two days a week, I want them to be good days! She usually loves going, so something is up. Last week of term next week so I think I'll let it go till then. That was bit of an off topic ramble, sorry!
It's actually going to take awhile to get used to it. It took Mum and I a few hours to get the rods set up and the top and backing pinned on ready to go. That's the long part. Quilting will take practise, lots of practise. The lady made it look so easy on the DVD. And then Mum had tension issues. By the time it was sorted, time to go back down the hill and get Grace from school. I'd like to try my machine on it......hmm, it is school holiday's soon!
At last I have started sewing a quilt for Milly's bed. It has been on my To Do List for awhile and now I have officially started. I was originally thinking a Stacked Chinese Coins, simple but effective, have never sewn one..... But then it all changed directions and I thought wonky log cabins? The girls will be in bunks soon and then they'll sort of match, both having log cabin quilts. Note the word sort of..... rainbow colours and 2 inch strips for Grace's verses pink and purple on with wonky strips. But they are at least log cabins!
Something like this? These are the first 4 blocks. There will be 8 for the top, about 16 inches square each, roughly. I'll frame each with a white border, about 4 inches? Not the most practical colour for a 4 year old but I love the crispness of white.
Here's my favourite. Onto the next four!
These ones are for Miss Thornberry. The black print really pops in this photo, it isn't that bold in reality. This was nice fabric to match, so many possibilties with the dots from the flowers centres. Hope you like them Lara!
And these ones are for Lynn. I'll admit I was scratching my head when I saw this print. It is beautiful but busy! I went for the neutrals in pairing them up, I liked the dots especially.
And my goodies from Kelly arrived today. Prints Charming made the softest fabric, one could stroke it all day. Thanks Kelly. :)
It is an open swap meaning we are paired up and so we are making and recieving from the same person. I was lucky to get Annieshouse. She has been wonderful! She is fine on whatever colours, loves bright and modern stuff, so a perfect match. I picked out these from the stash. The fabric on the left is from one of my Amitie scrap packs I got at the fair last month.
Because Annieshouse may read my blog, only sneek peaks...... Here is one block.
And wolah, here it is sewing down the binding. The girls think it is hilarious I use these clips to hold it down as I use blue ones in their hair for school! And in my usual style I have made two.... but they are pretty much the same so I can't show that one either.
I have finished sewing the label on the Candy Stripes quilt. Yahh!
I am happy how the wavey line quilting turned out. It's not perfect, but not bad for a first effort.
It was actually a quick way to quilt, as all the start and ending points where over in the wadding where they will get trimmed off, so no loose threads to sew in!
The backing fabric is pretty and by adding a peiced row in I managed to save a little strip for the stash.
Another close up of the quilting. It's all packaged up now and ready to post on the way up to do the school pick up this afternoon.
Lots of hand sewing going on it in this house at the moment. The weather is getting colder, we had 18 degrees celsius today! That is chilly enough for me! I'm finally sewing down the label for Sarah's quilt as part of the KQI Swap. Will hopefully be in the mail by the end of the week.
And I am doingthe binding on my Candy Stripes quilt. That should hopefully be in the mail by the end of the week as well. Notice how my needle is bent? I somehow poke it through so hard it has bent a bit. Cheap needle = thin metal I suppose.....
Today was exciting, I got to use a real long arm quilting machine! The bloggless Geranium Queen, Ad, Milly, and I meet up for a class on how to use the LAQM at Cockburn Sewing Centre. That's Lyn the teacher on the right, I don't think she knew quite where to look when I pulled out the camera!
Here is Ad showing her new skills. It was interesting to learn how to set it up to do the actual quilting, a lot of pinning in preparation, a lot! It took us an hour to get everything ready before actually threading the needle. Due to having to dash off and get the kids from school, didn't get to play as much on the actual quilting side as I would have liked. I actually found it quite hard to control, something that practice brings I suppose.
I also brought a new walking foot there. My old one has been lazy and just stopped walking. I have been getting by, by just using my normal foot, but now I can go back to the proper way. Ad and I popped into the local Textile Traders before the class and I got this selection of fat quarters and half metre lengths. The red and blacks are for my round robin quilt and the others fall in that ever expanding "just because" category.
I picked up a metre of this fabric. I thought it looked like it belonged to Michael Miller's Pod Posey range, it has that same rich chocolate coloured background. Either a skirt for one of the girls or a funky feature print.
Well I have finished the top for the Candy Stripes quilt. I ended up going 5 rows of 4 blocks thanks to Lily's tip of an uneven row. Thanks Lily! I have it sandwiched and I'm going to try a different style of quilting. I love the random wavy lines on the quilt Sarah sent me recently. I'm using a peice of ribbon to guide my line with the blue pen. It's one of those pens that washes off, at least it is supposed too, part of me is always a bit fearful it won't.
I peiced the back too and used a length of Sandi Henderson's Farmer Market for most of the backing. Think I like the back as much as the front.
I seem to have a weakness for pastels at the moment. The green spots on the left I nabbed from Ads on Sunday as my payment for sewing down the binding of a sweet little chinese coins quilt she made for her cat! The others I got from Spotlight this morning when I went to buy the blue washable pen. Usually Spotlight fabrics I can't justify waiting 20 minutes in the que to get cut, but these were worth the wait. The one on the very right is Lakehouse, its like a metallic. I have the same in a darker pink and two purples. Just handy additions to the stash.
This is not really a mini quilt, it is a cushion, but you wouldn't really know that unless I told you, would you? And it is no longer a cushion now, I am converting it to be a mini wall quilt! I'm dragging it out for Mini Quilt Monday.
