Dresden applique WIP, a Shoo Fly flimsy and a quilted finish!

I have slowed down in the hand stitching department, but this is the progress I made early on in our Covid19 lockdown.  I tend to sit and watch too much  news when something "big" is happening, but after awhile I get overloaded and stop.  

Still it was a good opportunity to get those tiny circles appliqued on.  I have two left to do, but the prep takes awhile and I need to motivate myself again. The weather is cooling off more and more, so tends to lead me to undertake hand stitching at night - no idea why!

I finally pieced all the Shoo Fly blocks together and added a border to make it the prefered size of the charity.  I have used lots of a Jodie Carlton sea gull print in these blocks and the colours are nice and bright so I hope it appeals to a child.  I will make more of these blocks but pay better attention to the ironing of seam allowance as these were all mashed together and make for lumpy intersections.  So not looking forward to quilting it! I was thinking that it could look quite nice with sashing, but again, will need to plan it so I can use a coloured sashing I think - too much white on a child's quilt is never a good thing!

I have finished hand stitching the binding down on the first of three four patch leader and enders quilts I have made.  This one used up all the pink and purple blocks and some of the light blue.  I decided using white with red print sashing would work well on this top and get it out of my stash!  There is quite a lot of it, as its left over backing.  I was going to make a scrappy pink binding, but accidently used the 2" die on my Go cutter instead of the 2.5".  In hindsight I could have tried the smaller size, apparently Lisa Bongean prefers this size for binding, but I was so cross with myself that I threw it in the 2" scrap bin and found something else. 

I have been very glad of my mothers stash during this lockdown as she has a good collection of fabrics big enough for backings and is happy to share!   I am in love with this fun backing and managed to make it stretch to one more quilt and it will feature in a few more tops to come as borders.   I did run out of wadding though and had to piece large left over pieces for this quilt.  Honestly the term "frankenbatting" was very appropriate in this case, it was very wavy!  Being mindful this is a child's charity quilt that would get lots of washing I choose to heavily quilt it, using a 2" grid.  Luckily the design made this very easy and I have a very large spool of white thread.

Happy quilting Sue.

Two more bright fun kids quilts finished

I finally got the binding on two quilts I quilted a little while ago.  I normally enjoy binding at night, but a hand stitching project had distracted me.  I briefly lost my piecing mojo but had lots of energy for quilting - a very rare thing indeed, so I ran with it while it lasted!

The next quilt is decidedly girly with pink, purple and green blocks...and a pretty backing of mermaids - sorry it is a bit hard to see here with the light shining through the quilt!

The sun was shining briefly but it was bitterly cold this day, so I didn't hang around for better shots!

 The rosemary is flowering in our garden making a lovely splash of blue.

And then a few of the flag iris have also started to flower, creating more splashes of colour around the garden.

 

There is one more kids charity quilt pinned and another top to be pinned, but they will be waiting awhile now as I have started a new quilt and have plans for a second.  I am finally using some fabric I won several years ago (in our local quilt show), in conjunction with the yardage I won recently.

Happy quilting Sue.

Four patches and kids tops galore!

I started making four patches as part of Rainbow Scrap Challenge many years ago.  And I am still making them, it just took me until June to get back on track this year!

The problem is you think you have oodles of blocks and then when you lay them out, at 4" finished they don't go far enough for a quilt!  So after racking my brain and cruising images on the internet, I came up with a plan to make them stretch a little bit further..

Which resulted in lots of sewing of sashing onto blue four patches. Which turned into this rainbow!  Blue is Junes colour but I do have way more blue scraps then any other colour.  As I am loving this look and love the simplicity of  using my 2.5" scraps and sewing four patches, I am just going to continue sewing.  No reason to try and make this into a top anytime soon, just enjoying the process!

While I was on a sashing roll I got together these purple and pink novelty four patches.  These blocks (and fabric) were mainly given to me last year from my friends at our Robe retreats.  There has been quite a few kids charity quilts made and donated by me since then but not necessarily from the fabrics they gave me.  Which is silly because it was all pre cut! 

Sew I have been working my way through the bag, sorting blocks into sizes and colours.  Sewing up small squares into blocks and then laying out on my lounge room floor (aka design wall).  The second top missed out on sashing because I thought all that lovely colour needed to shine undiluted!

I am happy with these two purple n pink tops, just need to consider borders and find some suitable backing fabric.  I have already pinned two kids quilts this week, so I am back to having a "to be quilted" pile, only one month after clearing the decks!  

Happy quilting Sue.

RSC cot quilt finished

Sew I finally got the quilting and binding done on this cot sized quilt. It all came out of my stash, apart from the cute dot border fabric I brought on sale at Periwinkle Patchwork when we were on summer holidays.

 

I just quilted diagonal lines in the bocks and stippled in the border.  This quilted used up some of the Rainbow Scrappy challenge star blocks and four patches that I have been making for the last few years.  

Somehow for no apparent reason I have not made a single RSC block this year.  When I think it through its because I dont have any neutrals cut.  I do have a small collection of stash left (that is not reproduction fabric) but the majority of the neutrals are very cream/.tan and I was enjoying the white neutrals in this quilt with the clearer colours.  However scrap reduction must continue, so cutting some more 2.5 inch strips in neutrals is getting bumped up the to do list priority, so I can reduce my scraps and make some more charity quilts.

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.

Kids Quilts

Not quite sure what has driven this recent obsession with starting more kids and cot quilts, but I can assure you I am not pregnant/nesting! I have precut a large amount of squares out of my novelty stash.  When I want some "mindless" piecing I open the box and go for it.  

I love four patches, and even though the animals heads sometimes get cut off, 2.5" squares in the smaller prints looks effective.  I didn't have enough of the little squares to make a whole quilt, so I teamed them up with the 4.5" cut squares.  While I like this layout and it uses up some more stash, it is a very busy pattern.

So I thought I would make one in a split nine patch format with some colour to break up the pictures.  But I couldn't work out how to make "the pattern" AND keep the animals up the right way.  I am not sure that this layout is anymore soothing to the eye!

SO I found one novelty print (which I swear I did not buy - must be from Mum?) and teamed it with some left over pinks out of my stash.  There is not a lot of pink in my stash so I was pleased to have a "girl" quilt.

AND THEN I found my 2.5" strip and square box.  There were some orphan pink and white four patches in there.  That started a whole new sewing session of four patches.  Which then lead to this quilt top!  So while I now have four new WIP, I think will consider it a glass half full - because there is a whole lot less fabric sitting in my stash!  

Next step is to find them all borders and backings....from the stash!

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

Aussie Hero Quilts and Laundry bags

You have seen this quilt before.  But I didn't tell you that I decided to donate this quilt to Aussie Hero Quilts and Laundry bags, to a serving member of the Australian Defence Forces.  It is now in transit overseas and hopefully when it reaches its its owner they will know that I appreciate their service, keeps them warm and is a reminder of the hard job they did and the sacrifice their families make while they are away.

 It is accompanied by a matching laundry bag.  Matching only because I had some of the left over backing fabric, which ironically has army jeeps on it and has been in my stash for a long time.  I originally brought this fabric because it was navy blue and on sale...it has been a great backing.border for several boys charity quilts.  It was only fitting that the last of it went into a quilt and laundry bag for a soldier.  

Through this donation I have met a whole bunch of new quilting friends and yesterday four of us got together in Adelaide to sew.  I had not had time to prepare anything, so I found the scrap 2.5" block box and started making more four patches.  A little pile had grown into a big pile by the end of the day.

 During the day Mary (who hosted the day at her lovely home) gifted me this block so I could work out how to make one at home.  I love scrap quilts, but never thought to use blue and green together, this is now my new favorite combo!  This block is 12" so perfect for scrappy charity quilts.

 When I got home I couldn't resist trying out the method she showed me to make the two coloured wedge bit out of scrap 2.5"strips I had sitting by my sewing table.  

 But the real temptation was to find a suitable background fabric for my scrappy four patches so I could keep sewing. I wasn't sure what size to cut the triangles, but cut a 10" square, cut twice to make four triangles, still too big, so I cut them in half and they were perfect!  Sew a new quilt is underway!

This is the loot I purchased from The Quilt Basket at Victor Harbour last weekend.  Some Aussie novelty fabrics, which I want to use in a Aussie Hero quilt, one lovely reproduction, giraffes cos they are my favorite (and the kids are still made keen on African animals) and the birds just because.  

These matching panels were irresistible, they will make a good boys quilt one day for that budding astronaut!  My first "real" job was with DSTO (Defence Science Technology Organisation) the research arm for Defence and I have long standing joke with friends about my time working with the "rocket scientists".  

Perhaps these are going "straight to the pool room"!

Happy quilting, Sue SA.