Tidbits from my weekend

I had a very nice weekend, which included a haircut, a quilt guild meeting, and lots of time sewing with my friends.

I had hoped to have this quilt finished to show you today but I'm still finishing the last of the binding.  It will be my last finish for the 2013 Finish Along.  Are you ready to link up your projects?

I also went shopping for fabric to make my Ruby Dress. I wasn't actually terribly successful on the dress fabric shopping, but this lovely knit caught my eye and I had to get a metre of it.  I think I'll just sew it up into a simple cowl, and it will make a lovely soft spring scarf.

Sew Sew Modern Received

A couple of weeks ago I received the most wonderful parcel in the mail - my amazing swap goodies from Cindy, who blogs at Adventures of the Singing Quilter.

 

I asked for a few different swap items - to give my partner options (I know I like having options when making for a swap partner!).  But what I was really hoping and crossing my fingers for was a sewing machine cover.  Cindy really pulled through for me!

 

Isn't it gorgeous?!  Cindy used linen (love) and lots and lots of different text fabrics (more love) and that fantastic measuring tape trim (so cute).  Linen is not that easy to work with on this scale, and Cindy did a fantastic job.  It fits my sewing machine perfectly and I absolutely adore it.  Even the lining and piping fabric (Cindy made piping!!!) is beautiful

 

How cute is this little thread catcher?  I love the little bits of Flea Market Fancy and there is even a smidge of text print here too.  I cleared it out for these photos, but I have already been using it - there are far fewer threads on my sewing room floor thanks to this little basket.

Finally, how sweet is this little pincushion?  It's filled with what feels like sand, which strangely enough makes it really satisfying to stab pins into.  What can I say - it's the little things!

Cindy also sent me a lovely note, a cute postcard and a spool of Aurifil!  So generous!  You can believe I am excited to start sewing with that Aurifil - I've read so much about it online but never used it myself.  It's a light grey - a perfect all purpose colour, and I'm going to save it for quilting to really get the most out of it.

After quite a lot of swap activity over the last three months, I think I will take a little break for a while, but I will definitely sign up for the next round of Sew Sew Modern - it's a fantastic swap group!

Linking up with:

Nearly finished and some favourite fabrics

I am hand-stitching the binding to the back of this quilt, and it is very nearly finished.  You can catch a glimpse of the binding clip in this photo below.

This quilt is made from scraps and left-over blocks from a quilt that I made as a wedding present.  The fabric above (from Valori Wells' Nest line) was the inspiration for all the other fabrics and colours in the original quilt.

The wedding quilt was only the second quilt I made, but I ended up with some fabrics that I think will be long-term favourites - like the blue fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line above.  If I could easily get more of this, I would.  As it is, I do still have some scraps left but mostly binding strips (2.25 inches wide) and squares for the nine patches used in the original quilt.

I also love this herringbone print from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow line.  I have it in a couple of other colours for other projects but I am tempted just to buy some in each colour just in case.  Will post pictures of the entire quilt when it is finished.

Fandango quilt

A follow up to the sneak peek a couple of weeks ago.  I bought a number of fat quarters of Kate Spain's Fandango line for Moda off TradeMe last year, and started putting them together into a quilt early this year.  The white sashing is a white on white print from Spotlight - I was not quite ready to go the whole hog and use a true solid.  You can tell by the granny squares that I have moved on...

Because there are quite a few different colours in the various print fabrics, I wanted to keep both the block design and sashing nice and simple.  Chunky squares surrounded by a (mostly) contrasting border keeps things pretty simple.

Initially, I wanted to quilt this myself, even though it is quite large, at approximately 82 inches square.  I even got as far as basting the whole thing.  However, I really wanted denser quilting in the white areas and minimal quilting in the blocks.  I have done a tiny bit of free-motion quilting, but really need more practise and this was not the quilt for that.

In the end, I had the quilt long-arm quilted by Sue Burnett with a light feather design in the sashing and a heavier feather design in the border.  The inner square of the block is stitched in the ditch to keep everything stable.  I have used Sue's long-arm quilting services before - she lives very locally to me and is fantastic.  I will definitely go back if I have other projects that I think would benefit from long-arm quilting.

The quilt is backed with a striped fabric I picked up at Spotlight.  I think it works really well with the colours in the Fandango line.  It is bound with all those fat quarter strips I cut up.  Because this quilt is so large, and I have other projects on the go, I decided to finish the binding by machine rather than by hand, using this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts.

Overall, I am really happy with how this quilt turned out.  I am particularly happy that I decided to go with the feather pattern for the quilting - I think it really brings the quilt together.

Linking up with the Kate Spain Blog Hop at Blossom Heart Quilts:

 

A sneak peek

I have a finished quilt but no photos yet.  I had it long-arm quilted and got it back this weekend. So I was forced into a task I was not much looking forward to.

I used Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda to make this quilt.  However, I didn't have any yardage - only fat quarters.  Therefore, since I wanted the binding to match, I had to make the binding out of fat quarters as well.  SO. MANY. BIAS. SEAMS. By some miracle, none of them ended up on a corner when I bound the quilt.

You can see another shot of the binding pieces all stacked up behind Ralph,

Ralph and his sister Ivy love "helping" me quilt.  They usually like to test fabric by rolling all over it, to make sure it is nice and soft.

Binding is sooo tempting for little cats.

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.

Blue baby rainbow

I wanted to make a fresh, modern, baby quilt for a colleague who is pregnant with her first baby.  I did not want to include novelty fabrics with trucks, cars, or sports references.   Rita's Indian Summer Quilt provided the inspiration.

This quilt uses fabric from a number of ranges.  I love the raindrop fabric on the back and used for the binding which is from Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection.

Also included are a number of other fabrics from Tula Pink's Prince Charming range, some blenders from Riley Blake, a Michael Miller check, one of the Floral Elements fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics, a couple of prints from Valori Wells' Nest collection which I had left over from another quilt, and an indigo japanese quilting cotton.

I cut the fabrics into 8.5 inch long strips ranging in width from 2 inches to 3.5 inches.

  

Simple straight line quilting randomly spaced in a turquoise thread that blends with some fabrics and stands out against others completes the look.

Modern meets traditional

This is the first quilt I pieced, basted, quilted and bound myself.

I had two charm packs of Oasis by 3 Sisters for Moda and combined them to make this quilt and a scrappy chevron quilt top using half-square triangles.

I do like the fabric, even though it is not terribly modern.  Although the top is simple patchwork, it is quite busy, so I wanted to keep the backing and binding simple.

To up the modern factor, I decided to use solids - the quilt is backed in a white cotton fabric that I bought on special at Spotlight and it is bound with FreeSpirit Designer Solid in Sand Dune which I bought online from Hawthorne Threads.

I stitched in the ditch and then diagonally in every second diagonal row.  I like the pattern it makes on the back.

This quilt does not have an intended home, so it will either be sold or wait until the right recipient comes along.

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.