Firecrackers Quilt - a Fat Quarter Shop pattern

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR ENTRIES - THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Today, I'm delighted to be sharing my version of Fat Quarter Shop's newest quilt pattern, the Firecrackers Quilt!

If you're interested in making this quilt yourself, all the resources you need are right here:

Firecrackers PDF pattern
Firecrackers video tutorial
Firecrackers quilt kit
Firecrackers backing set

 

This quilt uses two jelly rolls, and a background fabric.  I was super lucky and managed to get my hands on not one but two fabric collections I've been jonesing for - Modern Background Paper and Modern Background Ink.  Although these fabrics have been designed as backgrounds, I wanted them to be the stars of my quilt, and chose Moda Grunge in Duchess for my background.

 

I'm really pleased with how this quilt top has turned out.  I really liked the angles in the pattern design, and I wanted to keep the graphic nature of the quilt with my fabric choices.  I think the black, white and grey achieves that perfectly.

 

I had a nice time making this quilt - there are a few steps to it but they are all pretty simple and perfect for doing while watching a TV show or listening to a podcast (lately I've been listening to and really enjoying Reply All).  If you're going to make this quilt, I totally recommend this rotating cutting mat for the trimming stage.  I actually bought one when I was holidaying in Auckland last year.  I was making a quilt with lots of half square triangles, and I forgot to take my other rotating cutting mat with me.  I found the Matilda's Own one in a shop up there and I haven't looked back since - it's that good.

 

I really like the subtle texture of the Moda Grunge fabrics.  I have a few stashed but I think this is the first time I've actually used one! It has reminded me why I stashed them in the first place!

It was a pretty windy day when I took these photos - it always makes photographing a quilt top challenging!  Here is my tip for anyone making this quilt: once you have finished assembling the quilt top, stitch a line about 1/8" from each edge of the quilt.  This will help keep the edge stable and prevent it from stretching.

I can't wait to see the quilts made by the other bloggers who made quilts from the Firecrackers pattern!  You can find the other quilts here:

Ants to Sugar by Daisy

Silly Mama Quilts by Brooke

Happy Quilting by Melissa

627 Handworks by Julie

Must Love Quilts by Corinne

Mommy Sew by Jenn

Little Bunny Quilts by Alison

Fly Away Quilts by Lauren

One of the things I really enjoyed about making the Firecrackers Quilt was the opportunity to use the Creative Grids 30 Degree Triangle Ruler for the first time.  I'm already a big fan of 60 degree triangles, and the 18 degree wedges that are typically used for making Dresden plates, and this ruler hits the gap in between perfectly!  I've already started a little project using some of the 30 degree triangle scraps from this quilt, which I hope to share with you soon. 

Fat Quarter Shop is very generously letting me give away a Creative Grids 30 Degree Triangle Ruler to one lucky reader.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment letting me know about your favourite ruler or other quilting gadget - I'm just curious to know what people have found and love.

You can get an optional extra entry for each of the following (just leave an extra comment on this post for each that applies):

 - following my blog (through google friend connect or a feed reader like Bloglovin' or Feedly); and
 - following me on instagram (I'm there as @adrianneonthewindyside).

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants), but if I can't contact you, you can't win.  If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.  If you're not sure whether you're a no-reply blogger, check out my tutorial on how to stop being a no-reply blogger by clicking on the button below.

The giveaway will stay open until around 6 pm Tuesday 17 November at 6pm (New Zealand Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick a winner then.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR ENTRIES - THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Follow

A quilt for a kid

This weekend I quilted up a little quilt top that has been sitting in my cupboard for I-don't-know how long.

 

It's a cousin of the first finished quilt I ever blogged about.  I bought the fabric, a couple of charm packs of Moda's Oasis collection, before I really knew where to find modern fabric.  I wouldn't say it's exactly to my taste but I do like how soft and pretty the floral prints are. 

I took the opportunity of only having a small area to quilt to play around with a few different quilting designs.  I really wanted the quilting to emphasise the distinction between the cream background and the coloured chevrons.  Quilting the background more densely makes it recede, and this back and forwards wiggle adds some movement an directionality to the quilt.

 

The coloured sections are not only quilted less densely, with a reasonably loose stipple, but the much more curvy quilting also contrasts nicely with the quilting in the background.

You can see that I experimented with a different quilting design in one of the coloured sections - rather than the stipple I've quilted little flowers on a meandering path.  I wasn't very happy with this design when I quilted it, but looking at the photo it's growing on me.  I'd like to try this design again when I'm not so constrained for space - making the flowers that small was a bit tough.

I'm really pleased that this quilt top is now out of my cupboard and in a usable state.  I'll take it along to the quilt guild meeting this weekend and hand it over to the lady in charge of collecting quilts for donation to the neonatal ward of Wellington Hospital.  They are always in need of more quilts so I'm sure it will be useful.  

I'm linking up to 100 Quilts for Kids at swimbikequilt.  It's heartening to see over 100 quilts linked already.

Quilt Stats
Pattern: half square triangle chevron quilt

Finished Size: 28" by 32"

Fabric: Moda's Oasis collection, very subtle cream floral 

Backing: white on cream print from Spotlight

Binding: DS Quilts print from Spotlight

Pieced and quilted by: me.

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP Wednesday

These are the first four blocks for my Cherry Christmas Scrappy Trip Along quilt.  I made a beginner's error for one block and put green fabric at either end, so I was left with a double stripe of green.  I'm going to see how it looks once all the other blocks are made - if it's still bugging me then, I'll unpick it.

I have to say, I am not regretting the decision to hunt these fabrics out - I love working with them and I can't wait to make more blocks.  I'm going to try and finish up a few long-standing WIPs first, but then it's straight back to these lovelies.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

 

P.S. My giveaway to celebrate my first year of blogging is still open, so don't miss out! 

Letty's Quilt

I recently finished this quilt for my maternal grandmother.  My family is not all that traditional, so my siblings and I call most of our grandparents by their first names - hence the name, Letty's Quilt.  (Incidentally, Letty is a twin, and her twin sister's name is Betty.  I'm sure that was really fun when they were growing up!).

 

Letty lives in Tauranga, so I don't see her all that often.  Despite being in her mid 80's, she is still fairly independent and travels around the country visiting friends and family quite regularly.  Letty was staying with my parents a couple of months ago and I asked if she would like me to make a quilt for her.  We looked through a few of my quilting books together, and she picked the Shoeman's Puzzle pattern from Denyse Schmidt's book Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration. I've stuck to the pattern pretty faithfully, apart from making fewer blocks to end up with a single bed size quilt. 

 

I even used templates (i.e., you trace a shape off a sheet and then use that to cut your pieces) as instructed by the pattern.  I have to say I was pretty nervous about using templates.  They don't seem like the most accurate way to make a quilt (for me, anyway), so I have avoided using them in the past.  However, I was inspired by what Denyse wrote in the book about using templates:

"In the end, try not to get hung up on making everything perfect. Take a good long look at those antique quilts that have so much life and warmth. You'll notice that most often they are not the most perfectly constructed quilts with tidy, matching seams and corners. What I like best about these beautiful quilts are the so-called mistakes. Accidents and imperfections never look right when you do them purposefully, so celebrate them while they're happening naturally."

It's very encouraging, right?  There are certainly plenty of imperfections to celebrate in this quilt.

 

I quilted this quilt with an all-over flower design from Angela Walters' book Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters.  I really like how the quilting design mimics the bubbly look of the print in the solid sections, but seems to disappear in the print sections.  The quilting also made my piecing look much better than it did before - when people say mistakes "will quilt out", this is what they mean! 

I backed the quilt with a fabric from Bari J's new collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, Bijoux.  I love the colours in that fabric and I thought it complemented the quilt top without being matchy matchy. I hope my grandmother will like this quilt - my mum is planning a visit soon so I will send the quilt with her.

My final thoughts on templates - I could have made a much more accurately pieced quilt using paper piecing, but it would have taken longer and used more fabric.  In the end I'm happy with the piecing, even though I wasn't very pleased with it before quilting.  I'm definitely not ruling out using templates again, and my decision will probably depend on the project (do I want a high degree of precision, how much time to do I have, how much fabric am I willing to commit to the project).  What are your thoughts on using templates - do you love em or hate em?



Quilt Stats
Pattern: Shoeman's Puzzle from Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration
Finished Size: Approximately 54 inches by 75 inches.
Fabric: Moda Bella Solid in White, Kaffe Fassett Paperweight in Yellow
Backing: Divine Gypsy in Ivory from Bari J's Bijoux collection for Art Gallery Fabrics
Binding: Kaffe Fassett Paperweight in Yellow
Pieced and quilted by: me, on my domestic sewing machine.

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP Wednesday

This week, I am working on finishing the quilting on this quilt I'm making for my grandmother.  I haven't blogged it yet, because I haven't had a chance to get good photos, but I will definitely take photos once it's finished.

 

I'm using the Flower Power design from Angela Walters' book Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters, also covered in her Craftsy class.  Honestly, I can't recommend this class enough.  You do need to know the basics of free motion quilting to start, but I am still using the designs 6 months after I watched it and I will definitely keep using them in the future.

The difference between my flowers and the ones Angela does (apart from my rather wonky quilting!) is that my centres are a bit more of a swirl.  I'm finding this design really easy to do and it adds a lovely texture to the quilt, which is just what I wanted.

This is the back.  I absolutely love this fabric - it's from Bari J's Bijoux collection for Art Gallery Fabrics.  I'm glad I'll be able to keep the left-over backing fabric - expect to see it in a project soon!

I've been working away on my Sailboats quilt too - more pictures to come soon. If you follow me on instagram (my user name is adrianneonthewindyside), you might have seen some progress shots already.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

By the way, some of the links in this post are affiliate links (if you click through and buy something, I get a teeny tiny payday).  I only link to products I've used and loved myself and would recommend to friends and family.

Birds on a wire quilt

Have you checked out Le Challenge yet?  It is the brainchild of Lucy at Charm About You and Nat at Made in Home, and is a monthly challenge and link-up.  The challenge for May was "wings".

I had a lot of half-rectangle triangle scraps left over from making my Paper Petals quilt, and I used them to make up this little baby quilt top.  It was very simple - I sorted the triangles into warm/cold pairs, and then stitched them together before trimming the resulting rectangles to a uniform width (I think about 9").  I then laid the rectangles out in random order, stitched them into columns and sewed the columns together so that I had a quilt top about 27" by 30".

The picture about isn't great anyway, but I think you will be able to tell why I thought it needed something extra before I added the appliqué.  One of my favourite prints in the Noteworthy collection by Sweetwater for Moda features birds on a wire. Appliqué wasn't really part of the original plan, but when the idea of little appliqué birds on a wire popped into my head, I knew I had to do it (and, it happened to fit perfectly with the theme for Le Challenge!).

 

I couldn't get my sewing machine to co-operate when sewing on the birds (I was using polyester thread, and the tension needed to be different depending on how many layers I was sewing through), so I stitched the birds on by hand using blanket stitch.

 

Simple serpentine quilting and a crisp grey backing (DS Quilts from Spotlight) finish it off.

This quilt is about 27" square, and I donated it to the neonatal unit at Wellington Hospital.  I think it will be perfect for a little baby boy or girl.

Linking up with:

and finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

Paper Petals Quilt

I am so pleased to finally be able to share this quilt with you!

It is featured in Issue 13 of Fat Quarterly, out now!

I designed this quilt back in December 2012, and made it up over January and February this year.

I really enjoyed using the Noteworthy collection, by Sweetwater, for Moda, to make this quilt.  It was really hard not to share progress pictures and the finished quilt once I was done.

Apart from the back and the borders, this whole 90" square quilt was paper pieced.  No way could I have done this quilting - it was done by the talented Sue Burnett.



So, if you are interested in making your own version of this quilt, check out Issue 13 of Fat Quarterly - and do let me know, I'd love to see it made up in different fabrics!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: my Paper Petals pattern, available in Issue 13 of Fat Quarterly

Finished size: 90" square

Fabric: Noteworthy by Sweetwater for Moda, Moda Bella Snow

Backing: Text print and floral print from Noteworthy by Sweetwater for Moda, both in Cloudy

Binding: Assorted green prints from Noteworthy by Sweetwater for Moda

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Sue Burnett on her long-arm machine.

Linking up with Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts.

An improv cushion for Gran

Do you know what you get from paper piecing?  Scraps.  Lots and lots of scraps.  Last weekend I decided to crack open my full to bursting box of Noteworthy scraps and have a play around.  Once I started pulling scraps out, I knew I wanted to make something for my grandmother Heather (Gran to me).

This is basically improv piecing - I just started with a piece of fabric and kept adding bits, trimming it down to a regular shape as necessary, until I had a decent sized block.  You might be able to see that there are a couple of more deliberately pieced areas (the pink at the top and the bottom of the pillow), where I wanted to include some pink but all my scraps were too small to be able to add a single piece. This 16" square pillow is made up of four improv pieced blocks, stitched together and then trimmed down to square.

 

I wanted the quilting to contrast with the crazy and wonky piecing, so I quilted a reasonably dense cross-hatch grid (I marked at 1" intervals down each side of the quilt top and used a hera marker to mark each diagonal line before quilting).  The 50 weight cream cotton thread I used just melts into the fabrics, so that the texture is the main feature.

Both the backing and the binding are from the same fabric collection - I was able to use a single fat quarter for the backing, with a simple envelope style pillow closure.  I think I might need to get more of this bird on a wire print - it makes a really great binding.

This pillow will be in the mail to Gran this week - she lives in Auckland, otherwise I would deliver it personally.  Hopefully she likes it!

Linking up with:

and finish it up friday with crazy mom quilts.

Momentum

Momentum might be my word for 2013.  I have realised that I really thrive on momentum - it's why I often like to make a quilt top in a big burst over a few days, and struggle with slow burning projects.  

It's something I plan to harness to my advantage this year, and also something I plan to work on, to make sure when I get stalled in a project, I don't give up on it altogether, and so I can take on some more complex projects that will I inevitably have to work on over a long period.

This week, work has picked up after a rather quiet period, which I am loving.  Behind the scenes, I have been working away on a quilt using this stack of the lovely Noteworth collection by Sweetwater for Moda (supplied by Moda - thanks!).

This is something of a slow burn project - I need to make 64 blocks, and I am working on making 16 blocks a week over 4 weeks.  I have made 12 of my 16 for this week - keeping up momentum.  I really like the Noteworthy collection - it is brighter in person than the online swatches may lead you to believe, and there are several really nice designs that I will be buying yardage of once it is available.

Do you have a word for 2013?

Giveaway Day!

UPDATE - GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED

I am linking up with Giveaway Day over at Sew, Mama, Sew!  Click on the button to find a whole heap of other bloggy giveaways!

This is my first ever giveaway!  Up for grabs is this very sweet charm pack of Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda - 42 5 inch squares of light and airy sewing-themed fabric.

If you are new to my blog, please feel free to take a look around!

I want to keep this super simple, so all you need to do to be in to win is leave a comment.  I really want to give regular readers an extra chance, so if you are a follower, leave me a second comment letting me know that for a second chance to win.

You can tell me anything you like in the comment, but to give you a start, I would love to know if you have ever been to New Zealand (kiwis, just let me know that you're reading!).

The giveaway is open until 2.00pm Saturday 8 December New Zealand Daylight Savings Time (5.00pm Friday 7 December Pacific Standard Time).  I will then use the random number generator to choose a winner and post the results shortly after.  I will ship internationally, but I can't guarantee it will arrive before Christmas - just think of it as a New Year's present!

Good luck everyone!

EDIT - there are a whole bunch of no-reply bloggers who have left a comment without an email address.  If I cannot contact you, you cannot win.  If you are a no-reply blogger, please make sure you leave your email address in the comment.  Thanks!

UPDATE - GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED