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 16 - Binding.

Binding and more binding today. 300 inches of red all rolled up ready for action on Milly's Wonky House Quilt.

And orange for this hanging. Christmas present #1 nearly struck off the list.

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 Bolster.

Bolster! What a word! According to Wikipedia it is from the Germanic word bulstraz and is a long narrow pillow or cushion filled with cotton, down, or fibre. Well yes, that describes the calico made and stuffed long cushion that Mum made Milly hmmmm, three years ago for the side of her bed to go in that gap between mattress and wall. Three years and still waiting for a nice cover to go over it, until this morning! I figure with her quilt top in the mail to be quilted, I should get started. I woke inspired and got started. So we had this...

And then this.... And I am feeling some grass coming along as well and maybe, even maybe my first attempt into free pieced letters like Lynne for her name.

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.

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.

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....

Day 30 of Blogtoberfest - Wonky Houses Part 3.

Sewing Lara's blocks earlier this week made me think of my own blocks that I have received, my wonky houses. And I realized I hadn't posted photos of them all.

This one is from Donna. It is the only one that is horizontal, I'm thinking I'll add it into the backing for some interest.

This one is from Louise. I like how she has the house material is graduating from dark to light. And the tree, love the little tree!

Nice and simple this house from Susie. The girls love the zebra!

This one is lovely, from Lynn. Who wouldn't like to live in a four storey house?

Part 1 saw me receive these beauties and part 2 I got these lovelies! So combined together is all this! There are still two more to come, I'm happy to wait. Thanks girls!

Day 6 of Blogtoberfest - Wonky House Part 2.

Still feeling a bit meek after my "tutorial" yesterday. Thank you all for your comments though, glad some of you got a giggle. :) I'm going to play it safe for day six of Blogtoberfest and blog about other people's sewing that has arrived in my mailbox for the Around The Block Swap. Part 1 was fantastic! Part 2 is just as impressive.

This one was from Lara. She based it on a photo of her house! Pretty cool.

This one was from Becky. Great swirls in the roof and windows here.

And this one is from our leader, Miss Sheridan! Love the cute puppy waiting for a home.

And here is what they look like all together. Thanks ladies, looking good and still more to come!

Wonky Houses, Part 1.

Last week was a fantastic week in my mailbox! The blocks for my round of Around The Block have started to trickle in.

This one is from Kate. She said that wonky is not her forte but it looks pretty good to me!

This one is from Annie. I love the green swirls for the grass and the gradation of the greens light to dark.

And this one is from Rachel. A four storey house, wouldn't that be nice? I love the trees in this block. Reminds me that Christmas is nearly here.

This block came from Rita. Reminds me of a Swiss Chalet with the big window.

And this fantastic one looking like it is straight out of a Dr Sessus book is from Amy. The veranda looks great! This one is Daz's favourite.

Here they all are added with my block. They look great together, thanks so much girls. Can't wait to add the rest when they come in this month.

The House that Helen Built.

I have joined in the fun of a 12 month block swap over at Around The Block. My month is September which is only days away, time to get organized! I have choosen wonky houses as my block. This is only one way to sew a wonky house. There are millions of ways to do it! One great links on how to do it is here. Amazing work. This is how I made mine.

Here is the fabric I pulled from the stash to get started. I didn’t end up using that blue after all! Something else grabbed me by the time I got to that stage.

First up, the door. Two wonky rectangles sewn together.

Sewed another wonky rectangle down the other side of the door. Then a window. I thought some contrasting cyan window panes would look funky. To do the window, a square, slashed in half, a scrap 1 inch wide strip sewn inbetween the square halves to make it a whole square again. Pivot, cut in half again and sew another scrap one inch strip in again to make the square complete.

So then you want to build the house. Rectangles above the window pane, one down the side to make a wall, one above the door. Sew them together and you have the body of a house.

Here is where the fun starts though. You could put the room on now or make an extra level. I wanted a larger house, always wanted an upstairs sewing room, think of the light! So I made two more windows.

Rectangles on either side...

And a rectangle to join the levels together.

And wolah, the house is build. Well this one is, you could go another level if you wanted! Now two strips to the side of the house for the sky.

And I called in the carpenter to put the roof on. Looks a bit like a mushroom. Two scraps on each side of the roof.

Then the roof is sewn on and at last minute I think oh a little chimney would be cute! A perfect way of hiding that I didn’t have enough blue fabric to go across the width of the block!.

Then trim the bottom and sew on the grass. Ready to move in?:)

And here is all my fabric bundled up to post out. Happy sewing ladies!