A Pink and Purple Finish.

I made it! Finished the binding at 11.30 the night before the baby shower.
It ended up measuring 40 inches square. The Mum to be who received it, loved it.
A nice way to end a quiet quilting year.

We are leaving tomorrow for a four week holiday.
I hope I am blogging more in 2014 as I do miss it.
Merry Christmas everyone.

Another February Finsh.

I finished the binding and label on this table runner yesterday, a few hours before the birthday girls dinner. Was very happy with how it turned out. The girls and I had to do some chores at a friends house out of town, so I took the runner and camera for a photo shoot in their overgrown paddock with the beautiful boab trees in the background.

This is the back, almost as good as the front!

Grace's was happy to be photographers assistant, "Mum, my arms hurt, can we go home now?" Another Febraury finish, have to be happy with that.

Ready to Quilt....

 I have finished the top for this sunny runner, it is the one on the right. Ended up being four squares. I had one extra so I have put that on the backing, which is hanging on the left. Its very bright!

I haven't brought any fabric so far this year, but I have brought thread from here! This is what 10,000 yards of King Tut looks like. Love the names. Papyrus. Desert Wind. Baby Moses. Angel Yellow and Angel Green.Think I'll use Angel Yellow to quilt this sunny runner.

A Sunny Table Runner.

Well, the next runner is underway! I pulled a selection of red, orange and yellow fabric from the stash and started sewing squares in squares. I had an extra long peice of wadding I was sewing to the width of. I started with six blocks but they are 18 inches wide so I think it will be five blocks and I'll put one with the backing.

Now that I have sewn them, now I am going to slice them in quarters and rearrange them! Like these two quilts here.

Pink Askew Squares Finished.

I finished sewing the binding down on this little quilt the other night while watching a certain bike race on telly. :) It measures 29 by 37 inches. Grace had to kneel to hide herself in this photo.

I backed it in an old print of ummm, I don't know! I have had this meter of fabric sitting in the backing box for ages! Someone famous like Valori Wells or Anna Maria Horner. I threw the selvage out. The business of the print did seem to match the business of the squares on the front. I looooove the binding! That was one of those prints you see and love but never know what to sew with it.

Just straight up and down quilting here. My favorite quilting technique at the moment.

Grace getting restless now and about to wave the quilt around like a superhero cape. Time for the photo shot to wrap up then!

Pink Askew Squares Finished.

Finished the pink askew squares quilt today, all ready to sandwich. It measures 29 x 38 inches. I did plan to sash it with white as usual, but then thought this pale pink Kona solid instead. Its called very suitably, Baby Pink.

More Pink Askew Squares.

Thank you for all the lovely comments about my finished Blue and Green Askew Squares Quilt in the last post. I finished sewing the rest of the pink squares yesterday. These ones I aimed to make at least 9.5 inches square. I'll admit I am sewing these to fit a piece of wadding! Not too sure about that extra pale pink one at the bottom but hopefully it will blend in.

So here I have sewed one up, four quarters cut and sewn back to make a square. Thanks to my macro lense on the camera, you can see the center doesn't match up! I took this photo for the lovely Lynne though. She was asking about the size of the inner most square. Not big enough now I say Lynne! The little one above is now half an inch, so an 3/4ths and inch before it got sewn together and 1.5 inches before it got slashed in quarters. Too small I think for next time, learning curb as always, 2.5 inch minimum for the center square on the next one!

Blue and Green Askew Squares Finished.

I feel like I should rename this blog the Weekend Quilter. The only sewing and blogging action seems to happen on the weekend. But I suppose that is better than no quilting action at all! I'm happy with the quilting on this, but next time I think I might try a white thread.

I did get the binding on this quilt though! I used Kaffe's blue and green cabbage print for the binding. At first I though nooooo, can't bare to cut it up. But then I thought if I don't use it in this quilt, it will just stay folded up in a drawer where no one will see it. Why not use it on a quilt where it will get seen and appreciated. So I sliced some strips of it!

I asked the girls to help me take the photos. We went across the road where there is a patch of tamed wilderness. Pink socks and thongs, nice look Grace! I'm going to enter this one in the local agricultural show which is on next month and then pass it onto it's new owners.

Pink Askew Squares.

I started another Askew Squares quilt on the weekend. Just for something to sew. :)

A Quilting Weekend.

Daz has worked all weekend. One word to say, reports! Ewww!! As a parent, love getting them to read, as a wife of a teacher, well I can say goodbye to seeing my husband for the next few weeks. But on the plus side, I have lots of time on the weekend to sew and Daz actually said to me during the week that he was lucky I had my quilting to keep me amused. He is the lucky one??! *ahem!* Okay, I'll let him think that! So I used my time on the weekend to do some quilting. I have had the above mini quilt pinned up on the felt wall for months, just waiting to be quilted. So I started on that. White thread on top and pink underneath which is creating a shimmering effect. I always used to swear on same thread top and bottom, but for this one, hey living on the edge in quilting land!

Then I put the walking foot and got started on my Askew Squares. Just straight lines here. Up, then down, snip the thread then up and down again. Took 4 bobbins of thread and this time I did use the same thread top and bottom. I measured my lines by eye and the seams of the piecing, I didn't mind the wonky look. So hopefully during the week I'll get the binding on. Hopefully.....

Askew Squares.

When I was sewing squares for my Rainbow Squares Quilt recently, I sewed a few extra for an idea I had. I'm sure it has been done somewhere before in flickr or blogland, but this is something I thought of while sewing all those squares, sort of a wonky Bento Box but all the Bento's coming from a different box. I don't know what to call it. I've just spent the last 20 minutes googling other words for wonky and square. How about Askew Squares? I've had the idea since the start of the year to make a blue and green quilt for friends who have left town, green to symbolize where they used to live, and blue to symbolize living by the ocean where they are now based.

So I took 9 squares, sliced them into quarters....

Then rearranged them back together in pairs and sewed them back into a square. Maybe next time instead of cutting them into quarters, it could be cut on another angle? Possibilities!

Then wolah, 9 new different blocks trimmed down to 13 inches.

I decided to sash it with white and wolah, lap sized quilt top finished. Milly came in as I was loading this picture and I asked her "What does this quilt look like to you?" Her answer, "A square quilt that looks like green patchy grass and blue sky." Which is perfect.