Milly's Wonky House Quilt - Bloggers Quilt Festival Time!

Here is my submission for the Spring 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival! Milly's Wonky House Quilt. It was sewn as part of a block swap with 11 other ladies around Australia as part of the flickr group Around the Block.

I sent off my fabric back in August 2009!

I requested wonky house blocks. This one I sewed as a trial one.

And then over the next few months the blocks came back in the mail.

Here are all the blocks I received back (minus two that were still in the mail when this photo was taken) plus my block. I was so pleased with them all!

I then sashed it with 1.5 inches of yellow for some zing leaving 3 blocks to work into the backing.

Then added a red wedged kinda border....

Then I sent it away to be quilted by Kathy. Wrestling with it under my machine didn't fill me with joy, so I mailed it away and I was so pleased I did! It looks fantastic. Really stunning.

I choose a simple swirl and stars all over pattern. In yellow thread.

The back looks as good as the front!

And the photo that sums up why I quit! Here is Milly snuggling with her new quilt that she sleeps under every night. I gave it to her just before her 6th birthday, that was in November 2010. So it took 14 months and the kindness of 11 ladies to sew the blocks to make this quilt. Thank you again to all the ladies involved, you know who you are! The joys of blogging and flickr!! Now to sit back and go through all the other amazing quilts in the festival.

Blogtoberfest Day 25 - Milly's Surprise.

I originally planned to give Milly this quilt at the end of the month as it is her 6th birthday on the 1st. But...... I finished sewing down the binding last night and thought it would be a nicer idea to just place it over her as she slept so in the morning she gets the surprise of being under her new quilt! I had been sewing on the binding for the last week in secrecy every evening while the girls were asleep, so she had no idea it was getting close to being finished. So that's what I did. This morning I was woken by her standing by the side of my bed whispering "Mummy, the houses quilt was on my bed, its finished!" I asked "Do you like it?" She replied, "It's beautiful." I took this shot for the label.

Blogtoberfest Day 15 - A Quilted House.

Milly's Wonky House Quilt arrived back from Kathy today. I am so pleased! It looks fantastic. Really stunning. Can't wait to show her! I'm keeping it a surprise till the end of the month for her 6th birthday.

I choose a simple swirl and stars all over pattern. In yellow thread.

The back looks as good as the front! I am sooooo glad I sent this away to be quilted.

And this one is still one of my favourite blocks. Look at the star and swirls on that light blue in the bottom left! Lovely!!! I have 6 strips from my Kona Jelly Roll in different shades or red which I am going to use for the binding. Just have to do it all at night while Miss Milly is asleep!

Wonky House Ephinay.

I had an epiphany earlier this week. I don't want to quilt this quilt. I don't want to kneel on the floor for a few hours and sandwich it. I don't want to wrestle with it under the machine and quilt it. Even though I have Mum's lovely wide necked machine. I finished this back a few weeks ago and I am all ready to start just lacking the drive. And then it hit me. Get someone else to quilt it Helen! Send it away!! Usually I love the quilting bit but for this one, its filling me with dread! So I am posting it off tomorrow to this lady here. Yahhh! It feels good to have come to that conclusion.

August Around the Block.

I'm just scrapping in with the blocks for the August round of Around The Block. It's the last block of the round. Some of us are playing again in September. I have enjoyed this block swap as I sewed with colour combination's I wouldn't normally use and I sewed blocks I wouldn't normally sew. So it was nice stepping out of the sewing square. August's block from MJ was a good example. She wanted an Indian Star block with blue and cream fabrics that she supplied. As it is the last exchange of the swap, she requested that we use a scrap of our own fabric, so that each block has our unique stamp and served as a quirky reminder of the fun we have shared during this block swap! Cool idea! So I used some of my Katie Jump Rope which seemed to go well with the floral brown and cream theme. Hope you like it MJ, I was pleased with how accurate it turned out.

Around The Block Progress.

Our Around the Block swap is drawing to a close. These two blocks are for Annie. Annie wanted circles. She added my Squid Eye Quilt to her gallery of inspiration so I found these blocks easy to do. I hand sewed the blanket stitch for some texture, so these took longer than usual, they were due last month. Sorry Annie, hope they are worth the wait!

And these two are for Jan. Jan sent the borders cut to size, so it was just following her guidelines of making the centres as simple or complicated as we want. The top one I decided for a mini stacked coin look but then it got really busy so I added some white to break it up but got all my measurements out of wack. I am hopeless at maths..... The second one I went for a simple square in a square.

Becky's Blocks.

June is Becky's turn for our Around The Block swap. She requested Wonky Log Cabin and/or Wonky Square in Square style blocks. My style exactly! Only thing is I got so excitied and carried away I forgot her request of adding some fabric of my own. Opps! Sorry Becky, hope you like them anyway.

Blocks for Rita.

May for our Around The Block swap is Rita's month! She requested blocks created out of half square triangles and squares, pieced as you desire, preferring small blocks that are more heavily pieced rather than a large block with minimal piecing. The top block measures 8.5 inches and the bottom pinwheels are 4.5 inches. Hope she likes these!

WIP Wednesday - A Wonky House Village.

I have had just two strips to sew on this quilt top and it was all finished and I got around to doing that today. Hadn't touched it since back here! Naughty Helen, too many lovely swaps getting in the way. Lynne's quilt should be arriving at her place soon and Kim's is ready to post tomorrow. I declare May swap free. That will give me plenty of time to get enthusiastic about the next round of the flickr swap.

I'm really happy with how this top turned out. Love the red wonky wedges. Milly is going to love it. I have a few houses left for the backing.

See the quilt featured today at Sew Mama Sew's blog? My rainbow circular flying geese dolls quilt made it to "Quilt of the Day!" here. How cool is that? I feel really humbled, so many beautiful quilts and talent.

Susie's Blocks.

With April nearly over, I thought I better turn my attention to Susie's blocks for this months round of Around The Block. She requested a wide variety of block types, I went for squares within squares and wonky stars. Hope you like them Susie!

Rachel's Blocks.

I have finished all the quilting on my quilt for my swap with Lynne. Now I am debating the purple or the pink binding? Or the lime green with white polka dots? Normally I'd post a photo for some help but I know Lynne is watching so I'll make a corporate decision myself! While I'm pondering that though, I turned my attention to some blocks for this months Around The Block. We have two rounds this month, these are for Rachel. She wanted "improvised piecing – square with in square or block with cross cut fabric “crosses”. A bit of wonkiness is fine, and squares that are not central are preferred". I can do that! What I like about this swap is that I get to use fabric colour selections I wouldn't choose for myself. Sewing outside the colour comfort zone. And liking it! Hope you like these Rachel. (The bottom block is square, its just my terrible photography that makes it look like its on an angle!)

Bron's Wonky Star Blocks.

Its Bron's turn this month in Around The Block. Wonky Kaffe stars for her in any size we wanted. I followed these instructions here. Nice and easy! I whipped these up this morning. Hope you like them Bron!

WIP Wednesday - Some Tiny Houses.

So Sarah's Baby Quilt is drapped over the ironing board waiting for a few quiet hours when I can start quilting it. The baby is due any day though..... But in the mean time I have turned my attention back to Milly's quilt and I made these smaller wonky house blocks for the corners of her quilt top. These were all made from the scraps sent back with the blocks the girls from the Around The Block swap. Another stash busting tick for me. These will trim down to 5 by maybe 6 inches, so not that tiny really, but a lot smaller than the other blocks!

WIP Wednesday - Wonky Houses for Matilda.

Despite the new job, the anniversary (thank you for the lovely well wishes too) and visiting the amazing countryside around this corner of Australia, I have been doing some sewing! All the recent blocks I have been doing for our Around The Block swap, it has inspired me to get mine out that I have recieved back from the girls and work on them. I have made a few more, just for the fun of it, from the scraps posted back. The one above....

And this one here. Loving the pointy trees. This one isn't ironed, hence the wavy grass.

Laid our on our bed it looked like this. The plan was to make two more blocks but then I started to think what is this quilt for, our bed? Or something else? There are enough hanging quilts in the house and we have the Highlight Quilt to snuggle under, which you can see peeking out from under the blocks here! Grace has her Rainbow Log Cabin Quilt, but poor Milly Moo has nothing! So I decided to make it for her bed.

This is how it looks now! I sashed it with 1.5 inches of yellow for some zing! I still have 3 blocks to work into the backing.

It sits nicely on her bed as is, but I am thinking of a red wedged kinda border....

Dear Donna.

February is a double month in our Around The Block swap. After finishing Amy's blocks the other week, today I turned to Donna's blocks. She requested blocks of simple shapes, looking at "Dear Jane" blocks for ideas. We were to think squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, stars etc. I must admit I felt daunted. I am not good at at maths and accuracy, I felt scared. So I went the easy path of squares. The above block is based on one of the blocks in the bottom row of this quilt top here that Donna had featured as inspiration. I spent a lot of time looking at that quilt top, pondering which one to do!

I like this one. It is based on this block. I did the one second, more in the swing of it. Hope you like them Donna.

Amy's Blocks.

February is Amy's month for our Around The Block swap. She asked for a teeny weeny village. These were so much fun to sew! Those with sharp eyes would have spotted the house on my noticeboard in yesterdays Self Portrait Friday shot. I really enjoyed doing these, the material arrived Wednesday, they were sewn up within 24 hours. Hope you like them Amy!

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!

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!

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