A Rainbow Whirlygig.

I took a break yesterday for all that pebbling and took 30 minutes to finish the little bit of binding left to sew down and wolah, this quilt was finished. I've said it before, but I'll say it agian, I love the Whirlygig block!

I used some Prints Charming fabric for the backing and the binding was a stripe print from Micheal Miller. Thats Grace on the label holding the child the quilt is for.

Quilting with My New Spool Holder!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions over to add another row or not. I went for the opinion that matters the most.... the husbands! LOL He took one look at it lying on the floor laid out and said "Nope, its finished." So I peiced together a backing from the stash, sandwiched it, loaded the FMQ foot and started quilting. I was thinking stipple, nice and quick and easy but ended up doing largish, loose pebbles. 8 bobbin changes later and the green was done!

Then for the row of yellow. I didn't have enough yellow cotton in the stash so I decided on white. Trouble is I am sewing back on my little Brother Super Ace 3 and it doesn't have a large upright spool holder. Nothing some bluetack, a pencil, cardboard and some masking tape can't fix though! I'm half way down the second side of yellow and Its working perfectly.

More Scrappy Squares!

An action packed day of sewing yesterday, I got all these blue squares done and just have 16 to go. I like to cut a bit to make say 30 - 40 blocks, sew those but with a third of the fabric not used, then cut some more fabric, sew another thirty and mix the first batch of fabric in with the next. That way I can keep a tab on how many blocks I have to sew, I don't want to be left with any spares! And also it mixes up the colour range, I don't want  one section of the row to be all the same floral and spots, KWIM?

So is this quilt finished with two rows of blue? Or does it need another row? It measures 56 x 56 inches. I shared a photo online last night with some quilting buddies for opinions. One vote for another row of green. Two votes for another row of blue. Three votes for leave as is and then an unexpected one vote for another row but of red! I think I like the red idea.......

Green & Blue & Yellow Scrappy Squares

I started this quilt back here in August. It got folded up and pushed to the side while Christmas table runners and baby quilts got in the way. I have unfolded it though and am determined to finish it before the year is out. The yellow strips weren't sewn on, 15 minutes of sewing fized that!

 

Now the plan is to add two rows of blue. I have calculated I need 112 squares, I've done 36!

Christmas Day 2012.

Merry Christmas dear blog readers. (I know there is at least one! Thank you Ruth for all your lovely comments on my blog throughout the year.) I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday. It started very early in this house with the girls up at 5.00 already having tackled their stocking and standing by our bed side at 5.15 asking when they can open whats under the tree. I stretched them out till 6am! We opened our presents, chatted on the phone to family over the other side of Australia then packed some drinks and snacks and headed out in the boat.

We went to our favourite destination, Sandy Beach, a 30 minute boat ride up the river. Its a popular spot but for the whole three hours nobody was there which was fantastic! We put the gazebo up, had a coffee, had some gingerbread and fruit mince pies, went for a swim, watched the grey clouds roll over the range in front of us. It was beautiful, very lucky and thankful to be here for Christmas Day.

I did have some quilting related presents under the tree which was wonderful. I had purchased them for myself (except for the fat eighth bundle from my sister Ad, once again spoiling me with beautiful fabric) so it wasn't a total suprise but lovely never the less. The Skinny Quilt book looks really good, inspiration for more table runners for 2013! The material is from the Fat Quarter Shop, I love the little mini charm packs, super cute! I brought them in multiples of two so I can make whirly gig runners easily. And yardage of plain solids, the dusty blue to go with the Kate Spain fabric and the green to go with the other pack. Time for some serious sewing!

This is my greatest gift though. The affection these two girls show towards each other is heartwarming. For all the yelling at them and nagging I do throughout the year, no more or less than any other parent I am sure, and here they are with grins as wide as the watermelon slices they are eating. Life is good.

A Finished Table Runner.

I don't know what to call this runner, the red Kaffe runner? I finished it today. Enjoyed listening to a podcast of Pride and Prejudice on the ipad while sewing down the binding. I don't think this photo does it justice, its so long, it measures 13 by 44 inches. I love it, I want to sew another!

A detail of the quilting, wonky straight lines. So now just the label to sew and then to wrap and present to the new owner on Tuesday. Hope she likes it. Next sewing project!

Summer Sewing!

I feel like I have Christmas under control, so today I turned my attention to the sewing machine. I wanted to sew a table runner, I know, typical Helen, sewed a billion table runners this year, but I like sewing something little and giving it as a gift. I have a few birthdays in February so thought I'd get in early. So I pulled some fabric from the stash with the floral fabric from Kaffe being my feature fabric.

I wanted to go the square in a square, wing it as you go technique like I did for this runner and this one. I had a piece of wadding left over from another project so I was sewing to fit that. Five squares seemed to fill the space nicely. Then the day unfolded with everyone in the house happily doing there own thing and leaving me to my sewing.

I got it quilted and the binding on, all ready to hand sew down tomorrow night. Interestingly enough my walking foot was not smooth, the stitches were inregular and it ws glinding through. I took it off and put on a normal foot, increased my stitch length up to one notch below max, and perfect lines were the result. I so need a new machine though!

Red Squares Runners.

It's nearly Christmas and its the season for bringing out all those table runners I made earlier this year to give away! I had forgotten about these two, they were cut from the quilt that wasn't meant to be, back here.

I quilted the lines with the free motion foot for a bit of extra waviness. That and I didn't fancy turning it around at the end of each line if I had used the walking foot. I used white thread for the white background but a verigated thread of different shades of red for the red area.

I'm happy with how they turned out. Christmas looking but not enough to be used at other times of the year I hope.

I like how the non quilted areas pop. I have already given one away and the other is wrapped under the tree waiting till we see the person it is intended for.

And at the final whole school assembley, guess who picked up the Art Award for Middle Primary? Grace! Go Gracie! Working at the school I knew about it in advance but said nothing to her and the look of amazement on her face when her name was called, was just priceless! So we are on school holidays now till the end of January. I hear my sewing machine calling me.

Lynne's Butterfly.

I sewed a butterfly earlier this week. Lynne sent me an email asking if I would be a tester for a tutorial she has written. I said yes of course and as a result I now have this beautiful butterfly!