Thursday 31 December 2015

2015 Finish-Along - Q4 Finishes

Woohoo - it's the end of Q4 and time to link up your finishes!  I hope you've had a productive quarter and I can't wait to check out what you've been making.

Here is a quick reminder of the rules:

The Rules:

- At the start of each quarter there will be a linky party for you to link up your proposed list of finishes. You must link up in order to be able to be eligible for those prizes at the end.  Please only enter ONE blog post or flickr photo or instagram photo at this starting link-up.

- In order for your projects to be eligible, they must at least be a tangible project at the start of the quarter.  That means, at the very least, a pile of fabric pulled along with a pattern, or a quilt top needing to be quilted, or a half knit jumper. I love seeing your bee blocks, but they won't count unless you happen to be turning them all into a fully completed quilt!

- As you complete each of your projects on your list, write a post all about it, or a description of a Flickr pic.

- At the end of the quarter, link up each individual post/Flickr pic (please link back to your original list in some way). For each finish/link you complete, you get an entry into the draw, and therefore it's in your best interest to write up a separate post for each!

- A finish is defined as a completely finished project, eg a quilt, quilted and bound, a bag that's fully lined and functional, or a jumper that one could wear out in public. I'm happy for you if you get a quilt top completed in one quarter, but hold onto it for the next quarter and see if you can get it quilted and bound before entering please.

- You won't be punished if you don't finish your entire list, so feel free to make a big list and roll projects over from one quarter to the next if you need to.

- All qualifying finishes will be put into a prize draw, and the names drawn at random for each of the prizes donated by our sponsors for that quarter.

- The finish link party will be open for a week, and then the next quarter will open on the following day.

- During the week that the finish link party is open, there will be a series of tutorials appearing here on the blog. If you'd like to contribute a tutorial, please drop me an e-mail at adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com.

- The FAL is open to anyone, anywhere in the world.

I'd love if you'd spread the word about the FAL by popping my button in your post or on your blog.  You can grab the code for a large button or a small button below:

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

The awesome prizes for Q4 of the 2015 Finish-Along, provided by our wonderful sponsors:


Rachael from imagine gnats is providing a $30 gift voucher.


Sara from Sew Sweetness is providing 3 patterns of the winner's choice.



Becca from sew me a song is providing a $25 gift voucher.


Green Fairy Quilts is providing a $25 gift voucher.


Mad About Patchwork is providing a $30 gift voucher.


Juliet from Tartankiwi is providing 3 patterns of the winner's choice.


Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts is providing a copy of one of her gorgeous patterns.


The team at Make Modern are providing a copy of the current issue of their magazine for two winners.


Jennie from Porch Swing Quilts is providing three lucky winners with two patterns of their choice each.


Laurel from Laurel Bee Designs is providing two pin dot magnetic pin bowl in the winner's choice of colours.

On the Windy Side

And finally, I will be providing a copy of each of my self-published patterns to a winner (full disclosure - at the moment there is only the one!).

So, start linking up.  The linky party closes on 6 January at 11:00 p.m. PST - if you're in a different time zone, please check and make sure you know what time that is in your part of the world so you don't miss the close.  World Time Buddy is my favourite time converter.  I'll remind you closer to the closing time.

Please make sure you link up a separate post for each finish.  If you need a refresher on how to link up, Katy from The Littlest Thistle did a post which explains how to use the link-up tool really well - you can find it here.

Using instagram to link up

If you're planning to use instagram to link up, Katy from The Littlest Thistle has done another tutorial on how to link from instagram using your computer (here).  If you are working on your phone or your tablet, Rhonda's tutorial on how to link from instagram (here) is for you.

How to delete your own links

If you add a link with an error or that wasn't on your original list and you want to delete it, you can do this yourself.  Hover your mouse over the thumbnail image of the link you want to delete, and a grey bar will appear at the bottom of the image.  On the right hand side, there will be a small rubbish bin / trash can icon - click on that to delete your link.  You can only delete your own links and it generally works best if you delete a link using the same device you used to add the link.  If for some reason, this is not working for you, let me know and I will delete the link for you - but please have a try at deleting it yourself first!


Sunday 27 December 2015

Anna Maria Horner swap quilt

Many months ago, my friend Anne and I agreed to do a private swap. We had seen the Anna Maria Horner swap being organised on Instagram but wanted a longer deadline (as it happens, this was a good idea because it took us the best part of a year to get organised!).


This mini quilt is what I created for Anne. Her favourite colour is grey, and I knew I wanted to get lots of different AMH fabrics into the quilt.  About halfway through the year I learned how to make yoyos / Suffolk puffs and I wanted to incorporate them into a quilt that was modern and a bit different. Thus the idea of this round mini quilt was born.


First I made many yoyos using a wide range of different AMH fabrics collected over the years. For the detail people, I used a Clover yoyo maker in size large (45mm). I arranged them in a rainbow-ish way, in a large hexagon shape.


Then I created the background by quilting a solid grey fabric with grey thread (I used a rayon thread on the top because I wanted a bit of shine, and trusty aurifil on the back). The grid is reasonably dense, spaced about 1/2" apart, but was freehand quilted using my walking foot (no marking lines!). Once the quilted part was done, I hand stitched the yoyos to the background, just catching the top layer of fabric.


The fabric on the back of the quilt is another AMH design, which I had stashed for a while. I added a wee hanging sleeve and even got a batten cut to the right size and added a hanging loop for easy display.


Finally, my fairly tongue-in-cheek name for the quilt, and a label. This was a really fun little quilt to make and it definitely hasn't cured my yoyo addiction!


Saturday 26 December 2015

Christmas Caturday!

It was time to take another Christmas Photo and it went about as well as last year.


Didn't quite get the shot before Ivy decided to leave


Ivy was happy to have her photo taken as long as no one else was in it


Adrianne got bored


The winning shot. Merry Christmas! From Ivy, Ralph, Adrianne and Jennifer.

And after all that, when Ivy thought I wasn't paying attention, she tried to take out the angel


Guilty.

Wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season.

Saturday 19 December 2015

Caturday Wisdom #151

Falling asleep on the hand that feeds you is just as effective as biting it. Ralph

Ralph and Ivy have been enjoying the sun that we've had lately but there's still no better place for a nap than on a human.


Saturday 12 December 2015

Caturday Wisdom #150

Go in the shade, feel dismayed. Ralph
 
Ralph know's what he's about here, there's only one good place to walk down the stairs and that's in the sunny part only. Not sure this weekend is going to be a good one for sun but we can hope.

Saturday 5 December 2015

Caturday Wisdom #149

It's ok to look however you want. Even like a cow when you're a cat. Jackal

Continuing with the theme of "cats I'm going to visit", Jackal belongs to my friends in the Wairarapa who I'm going to see tomorrow. Here's hoping for some nice weather!

Thursday 3 December 2015

Squid Ink and Sorbet Quilt

I keep feeling like I haven't been that productive this year, until I remember that I have a backlog of quilts waiting to be blogged...

First up, this one which I'm calling my Squid Ink and Sorbet Quilt.  Back at the start of the year, we decided to do a group challenge to celebrate my local guild's 30th anniversary, using the bear paw (or hand of friendship) block.  All the lovely scrappy bear quilts on instagram might have factored into the decision as well...

Squid Ink and Sorbet 

This is my version - I wanted to work with a colour scheme I hadn't tackled before, and chose darkish grey prints for the background, to contrast against a bright selection of pink, aqua and mustard feature fabrics.  

The idea was to make one block a month for the first nine months of the year, but I have to say, it didn't work out that way for me.  I've discovered, through trial and error, that I really prefer to work quite intensely, almost in a production line way, on one quilt at a time (which is not to say that I don't have lots of quilts on the go at once, but rather than I'm usually actively working on only one of them at any given time).  It just feels more efficient to me!  In the end I made the last five blocks and assembled the top in a burst of activity at the end of September, and then sent the quilt out for long-arm quilting.


I spent a bit of time agonising over the quilting pattern for this quilt, and in the end went with Anita Shackelford's Modern Eccentric design.  As usual, Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilt Shop did the quilting for me, and I talked her into using a pink thread on the front of the quilt and an off-white on the back (it's generally not a great idea to use different colours in the top thread and the bobbin, but you can get away with it if they're close in colour).

Squid Ink and Sorbet

I just had to use this lovely Tula Pink Freefall fabric on the back of the quilt.  It's sateen, and has a lovely hand.  It's hard to see in the photos, but the quilt is bound in a grey and white striped fabric - gotta love those striped bindings.

Lots of people in the guild made quilts using this design - you can see a nice selection of them here.

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