Granny's Square Garden

My final quilt finished for 2012 - my granny squares quilt.  This quilt has been a work in progress since I started my blog, and I guess it would be fair to say I have taken my time with it.  This quilt represents a few firsts for me - it is the first quilt I made using an online tutorial (this one), the first quilt I blogged about, the first quilt I used a solid background for, and the first quilt I free-motion quilted.

I am very very happy with how this quilt turned out.  The design has transformed fabric that I wasn't really in love with into something very charming, and I think the large meandering quilting adds texture that really works with the shabby chic look of this quilt - and I haven't even washed it yet so I am sure it will crinkle up more.

I also love the backing and binding - both from Lecien's flower sugar range.  I took this quilt away on holiday with me to hand stitch the binding on, and it was really nice to be able to take the time to do some relaxed hand work.

I hope your end of year finishes have been as satisfying as mine!

WIP Wednesday

It's been a while since I did a proper wrap up of all my current projects, so thought I would take the opportunity now.

Existing WIPs

Granny Squares Quilt - I finished quilting this one a while ago, and last week I trimmed the quilt and machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt.  Even though it's very tempting just to finish this quilt up, I am leaving the handstitching for the Christmas period, when I will be taking a break from my sewing machine.

Giant Star Quilt - all of the star sections are quilted, and I have started quilting the background.  I am doing large-ish pebbles so that I can practise my newly acquired FMQ skills and so both parts are quite densely quilted.  I might finish the quilting before Christmas, but I suspect I will run out of thread first, and will need to get my LQS to order some in for me.

Dat star cushion - I haven't really progressed on this one.  It was going to be one side of a cushion for my brother.  I had a complete disaster trying to machine stitch around some appliqued words on the other side, so I had to start again.  Now I think I will do two cushions, with different designs but similar colours and fabrics.  Its quite annoying to have had to start again, but I should be finished this weekend.

Equilateral triangle quilt - I need to baste and quilt this giant thing, but I am avoiding it, because it is ginormous.  I really want to quilt this quilt myself, but I am not at all sure my little sewing machine can handle it.  I have heard there is a place in Wellington where you can hire time on a long arm quilting machine, and I am thinking that might be the solution for this quilt.

 

New WIPs

Feeling Festive Table Runner - I just need to get the binding on this one.  I think I will give it to my grandmother for Christmas, so this is definitely one to get done soon.

Oakshott scraps project - I saved all the teeny tiny scraps from my Rubies in the Rough quilt, and I have used some of them in a small project.  I am planning to give this as a Christmas gift, so I will only show a sneak peek now.

Other Christmas gift  - this is another gift project, so I won't show a pic at this stage.  What I will say is that it caused me some grief over the weekend.  I used store bought bias binding to finish this project, and then caught it with my iron, and it melted instantly.  In one sense, I glad, because it means the binding was totally unsuitable, and I only singed a small bit and could remove it without lasting effects on the project.  The downside is that I will have to make my own bias binding, something I have been avoiding!

I have a few other small projects that I want to get wrapped up before Christmas, so it looks like I will have a busy couple of weeks ahead!  Are you scurrying to finish a few things off before Christmas?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced (check out this lovely new button!):

P.S. - Don't miss out on my giveaway as part of the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop.  It's super easy to enter and I am giving away four DS Quilts fat quarters.

WIP Wednesday

From last week's list:

Granny squares quilt - I have now quilted around 9 of the granny squares (up from 6 last week).

Giant star quilt - no progress. I am still thinking about how to quilt this one.

Equilateral triangle quilt - I have pieced three rows of a total of 14.  Piecing and pressing each row wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it is pretty slow going.

New project:

Dappled sunlight - another baby quilt.  This time, half square triangles, using a charm pack of Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda, and this grey fabric (I am not entirely sure, but I think it is Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Fog, available at Hawthorne Threads).  I am still working on the layout - I think I will decide once all the half square triangle blocks are made.  I have pieced and pressed all of the half square triangle blocks, and am in the process of trimming them.

Incidentally, I read on someone's blog that she had asked an online fabric shop to label solid fabrics so she would know what they were when they arrived.  I think this is a brilliant idea.  The alternative is to order a swatch card, but honestly, they are expensive, especially when you want to order solid fabrics produced by several manufacturers (I like Free Spirit Designer Solids, Michael Miller Cotton Coutures and Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements, and could see myself ordering Moda Bella Solids as well).

Has anyone asked for fabrics to be labelled before?  Do you think the colour swatch cards are a worthwhile investment?

Linking up at Freshly Pieced:

  

Granny squares are go

I put the top for my granny squares quilt together last weekend, and put the backing together and basted it at the same time.  I really wanted to do a quilting pattern that would bring the sashing and borders together so that they appear to be a single solid piece of fabric, while making the granny squares really stand out.  Time for some free-motion quilting.

I had done a bit of free-motion quilting practice on scrap sandwiches before, with limited success.  This was my first "proper" FMQ project and I was quite nervous to start.  The quilting is definitely not perfect, but once I got my sewing machine set up on the dining room table and my quilting (aka light weight gardening) gloves on, it went quite well.  The fact that I used white thread on white fabric helps hide the wonky bits.

I used a large meander type pattern to fill in the negative space but didn't do any quilting on the coloured parts of the quilt (that is why there are still basting pins there).  I will stitch these in the ditch to give the quilt a bit more structural integrity.  I never realised how quick FMQ would be - it only took me a couple of hours to do the whole quilt.  I expect that the straight-line quilting will take me at least as long.

This is the backing fabric - I wanted to use something bright and cheerful that generally went with the fabrics on the front, but that wouldn't show through in the white negative space (for example, I have found that when backing a light coloured quilt with bright red backing fabric, the colour can make it look a bit pink on the front).  This is a large rose print fabric from Lecien's Flower Sugar range.

It has the Ivy seal of approval.

All the Grannies

I was sick last week and had several days off work.  I cranked up the heater and camped out in the lounge with the Olympic Games and my sewing machine.

I had a quilt to bind, but was feeling too low on energy to try and wrangle binding onto it.  So, instead, I worked on my granny squares.

There are a lot of small pieces in each granny square, and a lot of seams.  Because I was working with charm packs, and wanted to keep these scrappy, I didn't really have the option of strip piecing these (although, if I made them again, I would be tempted to follow this method).  In other circumstances, the time consuming nature of this project might have driven me a bit batty.

I have cut quite a few of the sashing strips I will need to put this quilt together.  I have made them quite wide so the coloured granny squares will look like they're floating.  Now to trim all 25...

Grannying along

Made a few more granny squares. Would have liked to do more but I have been busy at work lately. Never mind, grannies aren't usually known for their speed.

Granny squares

Made some granny squares following this tutorial from Blue Elephant Stitches.

I am using a couple of charm packs of Moda's Rose Parade and trying to keep it a bit scrappy by using different prints in the same colour for each ring.

Not thrilled with how the bottom one turned out, but maybe it will add to the scrappiness of the final quilt.  Two down, 23 to go.