Pictures from All Day Quilting

Sam worked on foundation piecing arcs for a quilt by the talented team at Material Obsession. Love that fabric! Last year Lisa kindly made me a bag from this lovely floral print.

 Brenda finished all her blue log cabin blocks.

Shez showed us her big Twister top, made from a layer cake.  This has been a popular quilt in our group recently and I think this Shez's second one?

 Erolyn stepped out of her comfort zone and stippled the border on this cute wall hanging.

 Yvonne completed this looooong Dr Seuss quilt for her grandson,

 which she cleverly had thought to buy a cute matching panel for the back.

 Yvonne also worked on this Leanne Beasley quilt.

 Therese was one of the many that pinned quilts.

Which is going to be a warm and much loved quilt for a boy in the UK.

Heather hand stitched stunning Celtic blocks.

 Another quilt that Therese has in progress.

 Elaine has been busy making lots of these beautiful big blocks to use up her strings.

 Stacey worked hard to piece all the blocks for a quilt for her niece.

 Therese was really busy, cos she also started quilting this Heart Kids quilt.

 Jill was really really busy as she made about six of these Chinese coin cot quilt tops, from a very bright, fun jelly roll.

I thought about pinning this quilt, but it didn't happen....I did piece the backing, LOL!

Instead I pinned the Red Cowboy Heart Kids quilt and got about half way through quilting it.

And I pieced some more Scrappy trips blocks.

And played with the layout options. 

What do you think, lots of squares or barn raising? 

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

Seven Sisters unstitching progress

I have been working on my hand stitching project since Christmas.   I brought some new fabrics to make more starts and started tacking diamonds.  I carted it all the way around western Victoria, laid out all the pieces, admired it and then started unpicking!

 So the stars had been looking like this - this is a "sister", seven six pointed stars laid out in a hexagon  shape.  Dont ask what I am going to do about the missing triangle..havent figured that out yet!

I was going nuts trying to pick seven stars that didn't clash, had the right mix of light and dark and didn't replicate colours.  I am not great at true "just throw it in, random scrappy" even though I am a big Bonnie Hunter fan.  There is no pattern for this quilt, I am just making it up as I go (a sure fire remedy for disaster!) using a traditional pattern.

Recently my friends at After Dark Quilters approved my desire to give up scrappy and colour coordinate my reproduction stars.  Oh my heart is singing now, I did a little happy dance all the way home and couldn't sleep that night due to over thinking about colour.  All this week I have had  the lounge room floor covered in diamonds to mix and match them, even deciding to cast off completed stars that no longer appeal to me!  And I have been unpicking the completed "sisters" and the shirting diamonds that where the wrong pattern/colour combo.  But what fun I have had!  And boo hoo I have to go off to purchase more fabric as I don't have enough purples, such a hard life!!!
Happy quilting, Sue SA.

Two finished Heart Kid quilts

 These are the two quilts I finished this week, the one on the right is a panel, so I only had to quilt and bind it.  I donated these quilts today when we went back for the final Heart Kids quilting session.

I used the flannel backing left overs from the panel quilt,  to make a binding and machine stitched it on....both sides!  I never totally machine stitch bindings, but Heather told me that they are more durable, so I thought it was appropriate.  My free motion quilting needs some work, but it got the job done. I though big stipple would be easier, but it wasnt!

I am really pleased with the Blue Eye Spy quilt now it is finished.  All the fabric came from my stash, except the backing and wadding - so love the fantastic volunteers that pinned it for me two weeks ago at the last Heart Kids quilting bee.  I decided that stitch in the ditch was boring, so I quilted grids through the blocks, just eyeballing it.  Hmmm it is a bit wonky in places, but I still like the effect.  Next time I am going to trial the curved zig zag stitch on my machine, as some of the other ladies used that and it looked awesome.  I used variegated blue/yellow thread and thought it turned out well, much more fun then just blue!

  Today we had lots of ladies who bravely sweated it out in the back shed at Tricia's Discount Fabrics and many took home tops and sandwiched quilts to finish at home.  I purchased some cute red fabric to finish my other quilt (red cowboy) and one of my After Dark fellow quilters - Therese, put the borders on it for me today.  I had a full house of six ladies piecing and they all finished a top - or just needed to add borders to finish.  We pulled up stumps at 2pm due to the extreme heat, so I was very proud of their achievements given they had less time.  We also put together a seventh quilt top that had been part finished from the previous sessions, so a total of eight tops finished = well done to my 8" square team! 

Happy quilting Sue SA

PS apologies for no photos of today's achievements, I forgot lots of things this morning (apart from the camera) cos I was out trying to take quilt photos in between packing and filling buckets of water - they turned our water off at home from 9am....not quite the day to be without running water, but lucky me it was back on by the time I got home.  Now I am off to lug the unused buckets around and water the garden.  Hope its cooler where you are!

Abundance

I am linking up to Lori's blog Humble Quilts to share my version of her reproduction project, Abundance.  I was going to be slack and not quilt it, but thought better of it after seeing everyone else's completed quilts.  And I am glad I made the effort as it took such a short time to quilt, bind and label.  I also made good use of the other ladies hints, including an easy version of rod pockets, made from 3" squares folded on the diagonal, and stitched into the two top corners on the back.

 Now I just need to decide if I am going to hang it on the wall or let it live with the teddies in my vintage pram?

 I don't like making half square triangles, so I made flying geese instead using flippy squares.  Not sure which bit of my brain was working when I decided that those tiny left over triangles were worth keeping?!  I stitched them together to make a little block to sit on my vintage machine.

 Bet you didn't know I had a vintage machine did you?!  Well to be honest it has been hidden away in its lovely wooden case for three years, to save little fingers.  The boys still have to have a turn of the wheel when they go scooting past, but there is no needle, so I figure it cannot hurt.  I haven't investigated the age of this machine nor how to use it....I will get to that one day soon, now that it is finally out on display and I can enjoy looking at it. ;)  I will have to mind my P's and Q's...the dealer that sold it to my mother (she brought it as a gift for me - did I mention I am a spoilt only daughter!) told her that it was owned by two NZ sisters who were nuns....who knows if it sewed habits or hobbies, but it has seen its fair share of work.

 Finally I indulged in some retail therapy this week...someone has to prop up the economy!  And because I got some bargains elsewhere (end of summer sales) I indulged in non sale fabric, to make some more Seven Sister Stars.  I wanted more blues and some brighter colours. 

It was only after I got them home that I realised I had brought the same prints in different colours..twice! LOL I am sure if I go look at my small (but growing) repro stash I will find some more of these prints...oh well, it is likely that I am also going to be tempted into another free project going on over HERE and will use them somewhere!
Happy quilting Sue SA.

What do you mean its February?

Jeez Louise where did January go?  Back tracking a few days (that I lost somewhere) this is what I have been up to...

Adding an extra row to the Blue Boy's I Spy quilt.

cutting up more 1.5" strips ready to be made into spool leaders and enders blocks,

Adding a border to the Blue Cowboy quilt top. 

Unpicking leaders and enders blocks, because I was obviously not paying attention?

Then attended the Heart Kids sewing session with my mother yesterday.  I was a team leader and our mission was to use novelty 8.5" blocks to make some quilt tops up.

 Sandy and Denise were on my team and they knew each other.  Together they made the cute cowboy quilt blocks with log cabin sashing.  Rose Marie then added the red sashing and borders.

 Then team Sandy/Denise worked on this wonky log cabin version.  It still needs a external border, but was looking nice and colourful. 

Lyn worked hard all day to get this cute Maisey quilt top made.  Sorry you cannot see the right hand border, but it is attached!

Mum worked on a sweet baby's cot quilt (oops sorry no picture), made out of a donated charm pack and got all but the final two borders on, before she started quilting a top.  Lyn took over the piecing of the baby quilt, but her bobbin ran out as we were packing up, so she took it home to finish.  I spent the day, cutting, measuring, finding fabrics, ironing, unpicking and generally encouraging my great team - thanks ladies you all did a great job!  I brought home two tops to quilt (one is my own Blue Boys I Spy - which another band of volunteers pinned) and two partially completed quilt tops that the team started.

I think that's enough to keep me out of trouble for the month of February!

Happy quilting, Sue SA.