Quilting FG table runner

I had purchased a French General jelly roll only to discover it was Christmas prints.  I used all the red and cream prints in a French General quilt, but still had oodles of green fabrics and wanted to try out a pattern I had that included instructions for a table runner and two different sized quilts.  I think adding instructions for a table runner is a genius idea - certainly get more bang for your buck!

Sewing the blocks did not require too much concentration but I did dither a lot deciding on fabric placements.  I used a nice neutral (also FG) that I had yardage of and was really happy that enabled me to use the lighter prints as well to get some contrast with the green patterns.

I stitched in the ditch, then did some orange peel quilting motifs in larger spaces. I used left over strips for binding - and was hand stitching the binding down at my group one afternoon.  One of the ladies asked to see the table runner and I explained that I was making it as a raffle prize for the Christmas tree at our "local" (where I grew up)  hall.  She said she would buy some tickets and purchased $20 worth to my delight.  The raffle is our main profit making process, as we aim to keep cost of events cheap so families can enjoy.  Anyway because she was not attending, we wrote her name on her tickets and she won the table runner!  The main prize was a hamper of Christmas food, but I think she is going to be thrilled with her table runner.  And I might need to make another one in this pattern for myself, but perhaps next year!

A friend gifted me two dozen eggs and suggested I make a 8 egg pavlova, which I did and it was very successful!  This will be dessert for my December birthday (gluten free so ticks all the boxes for a easy family dessert) and I think I will make another for Christmas.  Anything that doesn't need refrigeration is a good thing, as we are in midst of a heatwave.

The paving still needs some finishing work, but the section that touches the lawn is done, yippee.  Hubby has taken "cores" out of the existing lawn and planted in the empty section and we are now watering twice a day to get it growing.  The heat this week is attempting record breaking, so keeping the garden alive this summer is going to be a battle.  

Happy quilting Sue.

French General Frivol

Moda Frivols tin #5;  Atelier is the pattern and the fabrics are  Petite prints Deux - French General.

I pieced this little quilt (33 x 30") while I was on camp in March.  I then came home and quilted it very simply while I was in the mood for quilting.  It was great to get a quick finish on something that had been sitting in my sewing room (in its lovely tin) for too long.  

I love growing African Violets, they are the perfect house plant for a "fair weather gardener" like me - someone who likes minimal effort gardening.  I subscribe to having house plants to clean the air and add some living colour, but keeping them alive has been a challenge!  My success is down to the pots, Decor brand, which have a reservoir of water underneath and the plant sucks up the moisture as it does in nature, through its roots.  The bonus is that African violets don't mind a period of dry, so if I forget to top up the water it doesn't seem to stress the plant, but more importantly I cannot overwater them.

Happy quilting Sue.

Three tops and a block

I had my annual long weekend away with friends in March to sew and catch up.  Life is busy was chaos and I didn't do any pre cutting before going away.  But I had the Mini Quick Curve ruler, Mini Wonderful Curves book and fabric I purchased from Periwinkle Patchwork packed together and I made this pattern called Sea Glass.  I love this book, but a lot of the quilts are wall hanging size, and this pattern size is a modest 28" x 35".  I brought extra fabric though and so far I have added a extra row on one side and bottom.  They are four inch blocks, so need to add more to make it a large lap sized quilt. 

Anyway that is on the to do list - as I girl cannot work on one quilt alone while on camp!  And there was only so much laying out room I could hog!

 

Sea Glass was only on my "to do list" since Christmas.  But this cutie has been waiting patiently for several years!  Vicki gifted me a Moda Frivols No. 5 tin - French General print Petite Prints Deux, and the pattern is called Atelier - finished size is 30 x 33".

Frivol tins hold pre cut 7" squares of fabric and the pattern warned that you needed to be very careful to not make a cutting mistake with the red....but I used every skerrick of the indigo & white and had red left over...go figure!  I love this little quilt and looking forward to having it finished so I can display it on my sea trunk coffee table.  

For my third project I had sewn an extra seam on all the flippy triangle corners for my Kim Diehl Warm Regards border and collected all the half square triangles in a little bag.  I trimmed them and sewed them into Broken Dishes for a new mini.  I didn't take any extra fabric to make a border and I am still debating if it needs one or not. 

During the weekend I made one block from the Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern Posh Petals.  I had all the fabric I had purchased in January at Elm Grove Quilts, but had not brought sufficient stash to supplement the scrappy look I wanted.  These are large blocks  at 16" square, but my sample was quarter of an inch too small.  So I need to either make it into a mini or unpick and reset my seam allowance...we will see which one wins!

Happy quilting Sue.

French General Moonlight - sounds like the name of a race horse!

Ta da ... I am finished!

Made with French General fabrics (more then one line) and using the Moonlight pattern by Gerri Robinson, from her book A Cut Above.  Quilted by Vicki Jenkin.  (78" x 78") 

This is such a fun pattern, made with squares and stripes it was very easy to cut out and make.  All the time I was cutting through I was worried that with the beautiful patterned fabrics I wouldn't get a good contrast.  However I am delighted with the end result.  I love two coloured quilts and red with cream is a great combination.  

My favorite part of this quilt is the pieced border!  My friends know that I normally use a 2 + 6 " combination border...everytime!  I cannot think of another quilt where I actually pieced a border, so I am very pleased with myself.  Although it felt odd to not be putting the big stars into the centre of the quilt!  To ensure I didn't change the pattern I made the stars first!

The other reason to celebrate this quilt finish is the fact that it used lots of lovely gifts - my friend Ann gave me the book, Sharryn gave me a layer cake of French General and my mother gave me some FG yardage.  

Happy quilting Sue.

Progress finally

This quilt (Moonlight by Gerri Robinson in her book "A Cut Above") is made with French General fabric and has been back from the lovely long armer Vicki Jenkin for weeks!  Finally I found my box of left over FG to cut and sew the binding.

  

Its such a treat to have a lovely quilt to hand stitch binding down at night, when its still cool enough to want a quilt on your lap.  The weather has warmed up but a lack of rain has caused me to hold off planting much in the garden, and I have had to start hand watering it is so dry.

Having said that it was freezing cold over the weekend and I just hid in the house as much as I could.  I have been frustrated for months that I couldn't find anything in my sewing nook so I attempted a clean up.  I moved fabric from box to box, upended cupboards, whined about the lack of space and project boxes and made a big mess. I say attempt, because I am so easily distracted that when I found some projects I stopped cleaning up!  I did some unpicking and sewed borders on two projects then dumped them both in a box that I promised myself would be my go to UFO box.  LOL will see if that makes a difference in finishing UFO's!  

This mini cake stand quilt (12") was not a UFO, just a favorite orphan block.  I added two more rounds, quilted it minimally and put the binding on. While I think it deserves more quilting then it received, I am happily calling it a finish for now!

Happy quilting Sue.

French General finish

Firstly the exiting news in my house is that I am a winner! A prize winner :) Judy sent me a lovely box of sewing goodies for guessing the closest weight of her new grandchild! 

Second exciting news...the budgies laid eggs over Easter....so we will have babies of a different kind at our house in a few weeks!

Third exciting news...

French General flimsy finish...these are the centre blocks as I was sewing it together!

Clever trick from the author - make simple blocks in a large size, to form the border.  I say this because I always stitch on plain borders, because I am too lazy to piece something.  But when I was busy piecing the body of the quilt,  I didn't think anything of making these easy star blocks.

Finished flimsy front.  I promise that I did iron it before I took this shot!  But admit to not picking off all the threads...way too many threads on this top, not sure where they all came from!

from the back :)

Happy quilting Sue.

Fabric shopping spree

We had a long weekend camping trip to the beach in January and I managed to schedule some clothes shopping and more importantly fabric shopping!

My friend Ann owns Periwinkle Patchwork in Warrnambool and she has lots of lovely bright prints, but I hunted out a few reproductions and this gorgeous bird print...which I think it will become a bag.  I also got some bargains from her sale bin ($5 a metre if you brought the rest of the bolt!), which I don't have a photo of, but brought  a nice yellow and a blue tone on tone, which I will use in my charity quilts.  

Ann helped me pick out these modern prints, but I had to nominate the colours.  I was a bit stuck and so decided to stick to just two colours for my Plus quilt, along with some low volume backgrounds.  Bit excited about having some white/grey based low volumes as I have been admiring them from a distance in everyone else's quilt for a long time now!.   

Some of these French Generals came from Periwinkle and the others came from Elm Grove Patchwork  all of which will go towards finishing my Moonlight quilt - from the book Ann gifted me, A Cut Above by Gerri Robinson.

My long term love affair with reproductions has been tempered lately with the closing of two bricks and mortar stores.  I am not an online fabric shopper, I need to touch, feel and see in the daylight before I buy. So I had lots of fun at Elm Grove Patchwork, buying these bright reproductions for my Warm Regards quilt.    I will definitely be finding excuses to return to this shop, especially as she is not far from Warrnambool, which we love to visit anyway.

Happy quilting 

Red and Cream quilt at Christmas time, not for Christmas!

The lovely Ann from Periwinkle Patchwork gave me this book back in May.  I have read it several times and changed my mind about which quilt to start several times!

When the moons of time, motivation and organisation aligned, it was this pattern I chose.

I have made the chain blocks. 

 And started piecing the stars.

Then distractions crept in, in the form of Christmas baking, 

 and decorating!

As enthusiastic as my boys were, finishing the decorating of the tree is not their strenght!

The bigger issue with this project is that I am in danger of running out of fabric...shock horror! One assumes that a personal collection of French General fabric is endless, but when it is squirrelled away for long periods of time, you forget how much you actually have.  My bad, not checking measurements (of patterns or requirements) is my weakness, but starting new projects is my strength! 

Having said that its just a red/cream quilt.  I am sure there is more red fabric in my stash, somewhere!  And if there is not, well more shopping required?!

Happy quilting Sue.