Blue and Orange Square Baby Quilt Finished.

I finished sewing down the binding and the label on this quilt last night. There are so many documentaries on the Titanic at the moment on telly, I have been watching and sewing.

It measures 32 x 44 inches. I am a bit dissappointed with how the quilting has dragged down that strip of light blue at the top. Its not so noticeable in real life, but as always photos make it look worse than it is! Makes me wonder if I had just stippled it would it have been like this?

It has been a great stash buster quilt.

Best get it in the mail before this baby gets any bigger!

Photos of a hard day in the Kimberley from yesterday can be found here.

Mary Poppins.

With the pink and purple zig zag quilt folded away it was time to turn the attention to a new project. One without white fabric. One not intended for a baby! The sister of the Miss C who got this quilt last Christmas is 14 and she likes green. She babysits for us when we need it and I'd like to make her something, she's lovely. The kind of teenager I hope my girls will grow up into. So I pulled some green from the stash, even broke into some of the fabric purchased over the holidays. Added some yellow because I couldn't do it all green. I have been admiring Lynne's "Pick Up Sticks" red cross quilt as she has sewed it. And I have had this photo in my favourites for ages, so I had a rough idea what to do.

Within a very short time I had half of the first seven blocks sewn and with a quick cut in half again....

All these blocks started tumbling out of the sewing machine! I didn't have time to stop and take a progress photo for the blog! Milly commented "You making a windows quilt Mummy?" Ummm, I thought it was "modern liberated improv crosses" Milly but windows works too! I've moved the machine onto the dining table to spread out and the ironing board is just to the left outside this photo to save me walking back and forth to the laundry.

So now I have all these and more cut ready to sew. I'm aiming for double bed size. And what does the lovely Mary Poppins have to do with this quilt? Well she has been a Nanny to the girls while I have sewn this. Mum sent up the DVD for Grace's birthday and they have been absolutely captivated by her and watched it twice allowing me to sew in peace! Thanks Miss Poppins!

Pink and Purple Zig Zag Quilt Top Finished!

I finished this quilt top yesterday just as the sun was setting so I could rush out and take some photos. It measures 90 by 120 cms which maybe is a bit big for a baby, but they grow so fast! And up here quilts are more for playing on rather than snuggling under. I did unpick that row although I did appreciate the comments that it added some visual interest. Thanks ladies. :)

Grace likes it which is good as it is for her ex teacher that is having this baby.

Some points don't match and some are perfect. Thats the way it goes! I'm waitng on some thread from here so for the moment it is folded up and packed away and I can start on the next project!! I don't know if this tree in the backyard is dead or its going to spring to life as the weather starts to cool. Looks great in the background though.

Half Square Triangles.

Sewed all the half square triangles together yesterday. All ready to trim tomorrow and sew into strips. Love school holidays! We have eased out of birthday celbrations for Grace into a balance of sewing and whatever else the family wants to do so I can keep on sewing!

There has been a lot of pinning... a lot! Pressing seams open, trimming and pinning. Its all a bit too precise for my usual style, but the end result will be worth it.

And here is my d'oh moment. Just when I am getting into the groove of it, thinking how clever I am, how all this trimming and pinning is paying off when I flip open the seam I have just sewn to realize I have pinned it wrong and created a row of squares instead of my zig zag. That to me indicates its time for a coffee and blogging break before I reach for the unpicker.

Happy 9th Birthday Grace!

Grace celebrated her ninth birthday today. I have spent the week leading up today wailing "Nooooo! You can't be! Stay eight please!!!" To which I would get either a roll of her eyes and a reply of "Mummy! Please!!" or sometimes a hug and "It's okay Mummy, I'm still eight for a few more days." *sigh* Growing up too fast Gracie Lou, but you still call me Mummy! Today we did what ever you wanted which involved eating potato bake for dinner and going on the boat to Sandy Beach for lunch. In the words of a nine year old going to bed tonight, "It was awesome Mummy!"

Pink and Purple Strippy Square Photo Shot.

I realized earlier this year that I hadn't sewn a label on this quilt, nor had I taken any photos of it finished. I rectified both of those issues today. After the label was sewn on, it was time for the photo shot. Miss C is a friend of Milly's, in the same year at school, they were both the new girls in class on that first day of pre primary two years ago. Her family is lovely, we socialize with them a lot, it's great.

Standing outside, trying to get it to hang straight, just one more photo, it doesn't matter if you arms are killing you, hold it still! Nearly done...

I lay it on the grass for the last shot and Miss C came running over and said, "You can't put it on the grass! It will get dirty then we'll have to wash it!" I look at her Mum and ask "Haven't you washed it yet?" She got it for Christmas!! We have had this conversation before, she think it is too precious to throw in the washing machine, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm chuffed that they think it is too precious to wash but the greatest thing I love is the fact that a quilt is washed as then its loved and used. After quilting the blue square baby quilt yesterday and blogging this now, I realize that I do a lot of quilts with white sashing around squares of colour..... Good thing or bad thing?

Easter Quilting.

Staying at home this Easter holiday. Planning a few day trips out on the boat with friends, a bit of fishing, some play dates for the girls and lots of sewing!

Inspired!

I decided to start a new quilt for my friend who is not having a boy! I took some inspiration from Liberated Quiltmaking II, sketched up some possibilties from this block as I just love this quilt.

I selected my fabric and went to sew a block for a trial. And it didn't even get to sewing a block! It just wasn't going to work. Too many prints, spots and not enough colours to contrast like my inspiration example. So pondering what to do now... And then I saw this quilt on Jacqui's blog and it was like ohhhhhhhh! I knew the direction to go now. So how many ever half square triangles later, I could start to play.

Something like Jacqui??

Or flying geese this way? No, not quite.....

Or squares? Making a sort of zig zag in the white space? Getting there.....

Then I settled on coloured zig zags. I still have more half square triangles to go. My maths is terrible, I sew like about 15, then lay everything out and double check I'm still on track. Holidays are in three days, so should be able to get into the swing of it then!

In other news, check out here how we have been spending our last few weekends.

A Baby Quilt Top.

I finished this quilt top last night. I am pleased with how it has turned out. The friend it was for is now having a girl, but I love how the way things turn out, just recieved news on Facebook that another friend has just had a baby boy, so I'll finish it and mail it her way.

Hindsight is always great.... I should have maybe moved the third row, second block in, to the left, so the orange is balanced out a bit more. But..... I always seem to sew them in the wrong layout anyway!

This is the back. All those loose threads, dark blue against white. Ekk, I'll have to cut them as they will show up. Wish I had some black batting!

March Block Obligations Dusted!

I am finding I don't get much time to sew in the week. But I can stand at the sewing desk and cut. So this week I cut all these 2.5 inch squares for Ad's block for her round of the EB 2012 Quilting Bee. She requested Granny Squares.

They came together very quickly. It's going to look great when they are all put back together.

I also whipped up these two blocks for Karen. She wanted double four patch blocks for her 10 year old son. I dusted off the small seletion of brown, cream and black to sew these. Hope she likes them!

A Star Table Runner.

Is table runner two words or one? I finished this on the weekend. This is a detail of the back. I made one extra star for the back.

I added some extra stips and a fat quarter of a print in the same range. It measures 15 x 46 inches.

On the table in action. Can you spot the fault? No? Good, cause I'm not telling you!

The flat againt the door shot. Still not seeing that fault? Good! Next photo....

Just a simple stipple all over, easy, effective and fast quilting. This one is a "just because" present for a friend up here who has helped up recently with some teaching stuff for Grace. She is in her late 50's, the more subdued colour scheme will suit her house. You know what I mean!

Blue and Orange.

My friend who excitiedly told me a few weeks ago she was pregnant, has now told me that the ultrasound shows it is a girl! And here I am making a blue quilt! I am determined to finish this one before starting on a pink version. Having a baby quilt in the cupboard is always handy and I just have to finish things, don't like the idea of leaving these blocks in a zip lock bag for whenever.

So here are 24 sqaures trimmed down to 5 inches. It was going to be 5.5 inches but a few were too small and so rather than sew more to them, thought I'd just reduce the size. The fabric is all from the stash, haven't brought any fabric since the Christmas spree. I'm going to sash these with 1.5 inches of white and then either smaller squares around the edge or just crisp white. See how it looks.....

Milly's Persuasive Argument!

Is Homework a Good Thing? by Millie Simpson

I believe that homework is absolutely fantastic becasue it can get your Mum and Dad's atenchen.

I think homework is really cool because you are learning and when you grow up you will probley be a teacher and how can you teach when you down't no eney thing?

I think homework is grat for kids because if you are learning it is verey good because it stops you from wouching T.V.

I totally absoluldy completely belive that evreyone should have homework.

There you go! No arguments from me on this one! Go Milly! The first merit certificate of the year. Congrats Milly Moo.

Another Tablerunner!

Have finished the top of this runner. I am impressed with how quickly it has come together but really it should come together quickly as its such a simple design! Still trying to find a place to photograph stuff in this new house. On the laundry door here!

I have it sandwiched, ready to quilt. Milly has been spending too much time on the wii this weekend, so I booted her off and she came and drew at the table while I pinned away.

Stars, stars, stars!

I finished these on the weekend. It was a three day weekend, so I got a lot done! Wouldn't it be nice if every weekend was a long weekend?

So these stars are for AJ. After I completely stuffed up the first lot of material she gave me with these odd looking stars! These ones look much better, I am sure she will like these better!

She sent me enough for three blocks which was very nice of her!

And she inspired me to make this star block. It is the start of guess what? Another table runner! I'm using from the stash a Kona solid called Honey Dew and the prints are from a range called Filigree which I brought mid last year and have sat in the green drawer since then. It feels good to be using from the stash.

The Orange Runner Finished!

I made the deadline! Had a binding issue as I didn't have enough of that deep orange, so had to break it up with some spots. It measures approximately 30cms x 80cms.

I peiced the backing too. I'm hoping she likes it as she didn't open it there and then..... guess I'll find out tomorrow.

The Orange Runner.

Okay, the challenge of sewing a table runner in 5 days... easy! I knew the birthday girl who it is intended for likes orange and I knew it had to be a quick design, so I selected some orange fabrics and made these little squares. The brown peice of paper underneath had a rough sketch on it of how many squares, their position and size. Once they were made, then I added the orange to the sides of each square.

And then more orange to the top and bottom to join them all up and I got this!

Let the quilting beginning! I popped the ipod on to ignore any demands by the children as I have till 6 tonight to have the binding on, label, wrapped and the card written! Time to stop blogging and get back to it!