New projects and rediscovered UFO's

Looking for something else I found my mini dresdens (7") in rainbow colours, from Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I had made January (purple) and February (teal) but missed March and April, which were multicoloured and Red.  So I did a bit of catching up!

Green was lots of fun - May.  I am skipping the multi coloured, that does my head in with such tiny pieces.

 I brought a new pattern from Ann at Periwinkle Patchwork.  Honestly this pattern is not that appealing to me in these colours (and its red, go figure) btu Ann's shop sample was on linen and in lovely scrappy colours.

The really fun thing about this pattern by Hugs N Kisses, is that the clamshells are included (AND they are new to me product, where you just iron them onto the back of your fabric and they become your foundation) and so is an iron on transfer for the design.  Both should make the applique a lot quicker.  If I love the iron on applique stuff (???must have a proper name?) then that is going to become my go to way to applique.

OH and the other nice thing about this bag....it has a vinyl back, so pretty one side, and you can see the contents in the zipped bag.  Perfect for those of us who have lots of WIP!

This is my friend Lisa's quilt hanging at the Horsham Quilt show.  The pattern is called Tic Tac Toe and is free from Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts.  

I have been keen to make this quilt for at least a year.  I am now committed after seeing lots of versions of + quilts at our exhibition.  

Just got to buy the fabric, now I have downloaded the pattern!

Happy quilting Sue.

Chooky Blue Chook shed party

I am linking up to Chooky Blue's chook shed party and Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.   I spent half of my day and then some of night (while DH was watching Aussie rules footy) sewing up some yellow 2.5" squares for June.  Mind you this was after I cut a bazillion more neutral triangles to make more HST.  I seem to only have white neutral scraps left.  I have plenty of cream/beige yardage but not scrap.  Perhaps I have made a dent in my scrap stash!

 Then I realised if I didnt go back and sew some more of green and red left over squares I was never ever going to get this box of scraps under control...so I cut loose!

 Happy quilting Sue.

Vivid Grid Quilt = Finished!

The pattern for Vivid Grid by Sharon McConnell (ColourGirlQuilts.com) was published in Quilts and More magazine, Spring 2017.  I started making the blocks in February and finished sewing the binding in May 2017.  

The red fabric came out of my stash, the teal tone on tone dot was a wide back left over, the white polka dot backgrounds were all left overs from another quilt.  I confess to buying 30 cm of hot pink and bright orange from Spotlight.  Kicked myself later as I found some hot pink yardage in my backing stash!

Basically the bulk of fabric for this quilt came out of my collection of 2.5" strips - many years ago I cut up my stash and scraps into strips.  There are a few pieces that were actually left over binding I simply ironed flat again!  I did buy this cute aqua with a white spot for the backing, given most of the fabric came out of my stash.  And there was sufficient to use it for the binding as well.

My LAQ Vicki Jenkin always has a good sense of what works on a quilt.  And as I am predominately a traditional quilter and this is very modern I just thought/said "bubbles?" and Vicki guided me to a pattern that looks good stitched out.  To be honest I find it hard to pick a pattern off a picture, but I trust Vicki and I am really really happy with this quilting.

 My quilt finished at 69 x 59" because I made it 6 x 7, the published pattern was 6 x 5 blocks.

I love this pattern so much I have plans to make another one in a different palette.

Happy quilting Sue. 

Woolly Basket wall hanging finish

I cannot believe that I forgot to show you the finished Woolly Basket wall hanging (pattern by Dawn Heese).  After all the excitement of our local quilt exhibition and preparation (sewing hanging sleeves) I forgot to post photos on my blog.   

 Simple stipple in the linen backgrounds.

Machine quilted a stencil pattern that fitted onto the border, this is my favourite stencil our group owns, as I know I can do it on the machine....but I do get lost trying to see the pen markings (must get my eyes checked) sometimes when the fabric is dark.  I used a Frixon pen, which is great, as the line is thin but clear.  However when I ironed it out there was a faint loss of colour.  Not a lot, but I did notice it.  So I will be a bit more paranoid about where I use this pen in future.  

The combined quilting was sufficient to make the sashing pop, so I left it unquilted.  Really happy with this wall hanging and the wool applique was perfect for winter nights stitching, so I will be doing some more this winter.  

AND the bonus is that my father made me this lovely shelf/quilt hanger, which I made sure was the exact size to fit this quilt.  Now just got to get hubby to fix it  the wall!

Happy quilting Sue.

Applique table runner flimsy finish

I have had this needle turn applique table runner, (Spring Blooms pattern by Norma Whaley) on the go for two years.  Its fine to have a cart around project, but I seem to forget to cart it around!

 All I needed was some leaves on the border.  So after one day at my sewing group I had stitched on 23 leaves, leaving just one more to stitch down later in front of the TV.  

 I trialled a scrap of purple for a circle flower and that worked well. 

So I have continued the scrappy theme and got to work on the rest of "flowers".  

Sew it wasn't much of a leap to piecing the blocks to get a flimsy.

Happy quilting Sue.

Out of the deep dark stash

I have come to the conclusion that when fabric has been in your stash for more than ten years, using it somehow is better then not.  I won this fabric....I know that was more than ten years ago.  

 The prints are on the bigger side, so I figured showcasing them in a snowball block was a good idea.  Plus it is a quick and easy block to make.
 The camera doesn't do the colours justice, they are olive green not grey blocks.  

I have a few stripes of the tan fabrics I used in the corners left over, so will try and make a simple border, then look for a print to buy as a border.  There is nothing suitable in my stash, but thats OK, it was free fabric!  It is already a nice lap sized quilt, but would like to make it a bit bigger if I can find something I like. 

  

I found this Dresden mini in a box.  It only needed the centre appliqued on, so I did that.

Then quilted and bound it. I am keeping this one for myself!  

In another box (can you tell I am cleaning up!) I found 16 spool blocks left over from my Bonnie Hunter leaders and enders spool quilt.  I couldn't bring myself to throw them out.  

So I quickly quilted and bound them, now I have a little table runner and a mug rug :)

Happy quilting Sue.

Sew Together Bag

I brought the Sew Together Bag pattern from Periwinkle Patchwork .... dont remember when, but hoping it was only last January!

Anyway Ann was on her way to town, bringing her shop for our local quilt show....and a pattern I had requested from her.  And the lovely fabrics I had purchased at Quilters Harvest were staring at me!

SEW I knew that I had to get that pattern made up!  Plus I had finished all the boring stuff (binding, quilting, hanging sleeves) for the quilts going on display.  So I deserved a treat.  

 I was warned this isnt the easiest pattern, but I didn't find it too bad.  The pattern its self is really really well written but you have to have your thinking cap on - I made it over two days, which I think really helped - making this in a rush would be a recipe for disaster.

 I was lucky in that I also only used interfacing (thank you Lisa for introducing me to the joys of interfacing!) and not wadding.  Mind you I still broke a needle :(  when I was sewing it all together.  I do not like machine sewing binding on, but I did do it on this project - because there was no nice soft wadding to make hand sewing easier.  It went OK, not fantastic, but acceptable.  I like this bag so much I am thinking about making another one ;)  
Happy quilting Sue.