Drunk on blue and green

A few weeks ago I shared this blue and green drunkard's path quilt top.  I think I got it basted pretty quickly after that but it has taken me a while to get it quilted.

 

For this quilt I used a kind of batting that I haven't tried before, Quilter's Dream Green Batting which is made from recycled bottles.  How cool is that?  I thought it went pretty well with the theme of the quilt.  I got this batting from Massdrop and a twin size package was more than enough to baste this quilt.  I used my usual pin basting method and I didn't have any major issues with it, although I use a hera marker to mark my quilts and I found this batting didn't take the crease as well as cotton batting usually would.

I decided to quilt a cross-hatch grid on a slightly wonky angle.  I wanted to keep the quilting simple but slightly off key.  I used about 5 or 6 different blue and green threads, including Wonderfil, King Tut and Mettler.  The colour differences are pretty subtle in the finished quilt.

I'm pretty delighted with how this quilt has turned out.  It was a surprisingly easy, quick make, and the pieced back is a bit of fun.

This quilt was actually on my Q2 FAL list!  I think this is my first finish for this quarter - I need to get back to that list and make some progress!

Hopefully everyone else is doing better than me with their Q2 FAL lists!

Lunar Glow - the start of a new quilt

So I'm having a bit of an obsession right now with drunkard's path blocks.  The big ones are so easy, especially if you cut them with a die cutting machine, and they look so effective.  It's a pretty satisfying combination.

 

I cut a bundle of Amy Butler's Glow collection into drunkard's path pieces a few weeks ago, and since then I've been itching to start sewing them up.  A couple of weekends ago I was unable to resist the temptation and started making blocks.

 

I wanted to keep this quilt simple (since the fabric is super busy) and just use two fabrics for each block.  I love how it's coming out so far.

 

I ended up making nine out of the total twenty blocks I'll need for this quilt, which was pretty good going for about three hours sewing time.  My favourite at the moment is the block with the very dark outside and the pink in the middle - such great movement in the prints.

I have a fun idea about how I want to quilt this quilt - now to make the rest of the blocks and see whether I can pull off the quilting I'm considering.

I'll be linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

At the Beach Pillow

It's always exciting to see what you're going to receive as part of the X-Factor Swap.  A parcel arrived for me at the end of last week and I was delighted to open it and find this pillow inside.

 

It was made by fellow kiwi quilting blogger Deb (from Deb's Doodlings) and it's so bright and gorgeous and beautifully made.  Deb used loads of my favourite fabrics in this cushion and the colours are so vibrant. 

 

Deb called this pillow "At the Beach" and I think it's just the perfect name.  The quilting really looks like ripples on water - perfect for the theme.

This cushion is now sitting in my lounge and I'm loving the splash of colour as the weather starts to turn cool and grey here.  Thanks Deb!

Blood Moon Pillow

I have participated in the last couple of rounds of the X-Factor Pillow Swap - the premise of this swap is that each round, you make a cushion based around a theme, and send a photo to the group admin, who posts it to the group (so you don't know who made which cushion). After the deadline for entries has passed, everyone ranks the entries in order of preference, and the person whose cushion got the most votes gets their first choice, the person whose cushion got the second most votes gets their first choice (if it's still available), and so on.

The theme for the most recent round was drunkard's path, and this is the pillow I made.

 

It's a pretty literal interpretation of the theme, but sometimes I think simple is better.  I cut the drunkard's path blocks using my friend Anne's Accuquilt machine and a die I bought, and used a selection of Umbrella Prints fabrics, solids and Essex linen.

 

With fairly simple piecing, I thought I should add a little bit of interest with the quilting.  I stitched in the ditch in grey thread to stabilise the piece, then hand quilted about 1/4" of an inch inside each circle. I used a variegated 12 weight thread from Wonderfil - it's one of my favourites at the moment.

 

I nearly stopped quilting there, but then I thought it would be fun to add some little quilted crosses a la Jen Kingwell (you can watch how she does this quilting here).  I'm really happy with how they turned out and I'd definitely put them on a quilt again.

 

This pillow is finished using the method set out in my covered zipper cushion back tutorial, using a slightly heavier weight fabric my dad bought in Japan. 

This pillow is heading off to its new home very shortly, and then I will wait with bated breath to see which pillow lands on my doorstep.

Blue and green quilt top

I'm working on pulling together my Finish Along Q2 list, but in the meantime thought I would share this brand new quilt top with you.

 

I cut the drunkard's path blocks a very long time ago using my friend's Accuquilt (no way could I be bothered to cut all those curves by hand).  Over the long Easter weekend, I stitched them together to make this quilt top.

This quilt really came out of my desire to conquer curves, and the need to use navy and green together in a quilt after seeing Anne's lovely Modified Urban Lattice quilt.  Despite the curves, it was super speedy to put together and I'm really happy with the result.  I even whipped up a backing so perhaps I will find some time this weekend to baste it.

If you're looking for the 2015 Finish-Along Q2 linky, it's here.