Flimsy finish - Hookers Hat Patch

I faced my blocks in a different direction, but the instructions for this quilt came from Carol Hopkins book Civil War Legacies.  The pattern is called Hookers Hat Patch - named after the red patches General Hooker gave his troops to wear on their hats.

I cut lots of red triangles and made rows.

Stitched the rows together.

Admired the zig zag setting - which is something I have longed to do.

And bingo it was done!  Hmm not quite as easy as it sounds.

 I will be celebrating mitering the final border for a long time to come. 

I would attempt a mitred border again, but first rule, forget measuring, just use the whole strip of fabric and trim later.  I wasted good time unpicking borders because the strip wasn't long enough...I did this several times before I got my brain around the fact that you need lots of overhang to mitre a border!  I only stitched the actual mitre once...that was easy!

End result, three out of the four corners the stripes meet perfectly.  That distracts me from the points I cut off when setting the blocks.  And the fact I should have pressed open every seam on this quilt - because there are lots of lumps and bumps to deal with when I come to the quilting.  That said,  overall I am a happy quilter!

Happy quilting Sue.

A new quilt is born!

These sweet little blocks came alive in my sewing room.  I had spent a very long day making apricot jam, my first ever solo effort!  As a reward I needed to stitch something "easy". With all the lovely books I have received lately these ones spoke to me the most....after turning my bookshelf inside out and failing to find a pattern for a basket block I loved.

 What intrigues me about this block is how different it looks depending on which way you set it.  The pattern I found (by Carol Hopkins in Civil War Legacies - quilt pattern is called Hookers Hat Patch!)  is what I would call a anvil block and it sets them in a vertical zig zag - which I love, but don't think I have ever done before. 

Working from my reproduction stash I am using red, brown and gold fabrics as suggested by the author.  It is not a combination I have used before and suddenly I feel that my past use of colour has been very repetitive and safe.  So here's to interesting and new colour combinations in 2016 using new to me layouts.

Is that a sufficient excuse to be working on a quilt that is not on my wish list...when its only January?!  Some people wait til February to break their NYE resolutions!

A dive through my sewing bin uncovered enough selvedge to make a jigsaw.  I think there are enough clues here to track down some more of the lovely shirting I have been using.  The pattern calls for 28 x 3" blocks.  so I am nearly there.  Not sure I want to stop really, even though this size will make a stunning miniature.

Madness really.  Perhaps the heat has got to me?

Happy quilting Sue.

Flowers and fruit in my stitching

I have been enjoying the new globes DH installed in the lounge room, they make it bright enough to hand sew at night with ease.  So I have a few finishes to share!

This little door hanger is by Kim Diehl from her book Simple Graces' and is called Welcome Wagon.  It is suppose to have "Welcome" embroidered onto the top, but my yo yos are too big and there wasn't room!

 I finished my appliqued Pears by Gail Pan Designs, with some echo machine quilting.  I changed the dimensions of the pattern by trimming the blocks back and making them rectangle, its now 16.5" x 19.5".  I left off the leaves on two pears on purpose.  I couldn't find a leaf colour I liked and thought it looked fine without them.

Happy quilting Sue.

Blue sails away - a finished mini quilt

Ta dah, a mini finish, using bonus triangles! 

Its ironic I have used the bonus triangles and not yet finished the wall hanging they have come from!

I stitched in the ditch around the triangles but borrowed a lovely narrow cable template to machine quilt into the borders, 

I just thought it deserved something a bit special in the borders and I am very much in love with this design.  I will be using it again, as it was super easy to do using my walking foot.

Happy quilting Sue.

A few finishes from the pile

This quilt was made by someone else for Heart Kids SA and I just had to quilt and bind it.

 Ditto with this one.  But I wish I had made it, The scrappy log cabins were gorgeous.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  I still have a log cabin on my to do list.  Please note the kids took these photos, but it was my dumb idea to stand with my back to the sun!

Finally finishing the binding on these two in front of the TV at night prompted me to finish some other tops so I had more binding to do!

This orphan block became a FMQ practise piece and is now going to find its way onto my wall of miniatures....when I get enough mini's and a bigger wall!  

I hand stitched the binding down  yesterday while having a relaxing stitch and chat session with Shay but it still needs a hanging sleeve. 

I love making kids cot quilts, they are quick, easy, no think, mojo boosters.  I have a huge pile of novelty fabric and every bit of this quilt came out of stash.  The border fabric is left over from my pieced Dresden and the backing is also left overs from another child's quilt.  

I love scraps, but using scraps makes me even happier  ; )

Happy quilting Sue SA.

Blue and white stars, nearly a flimsy!

I wanted to show you the progress I made on my blue and white stars.  I had intended to work on them while in Bordertown, but spent to much time unpicking! So I pressed and trimmed the blocks this morning.

 Then kicked myself into gear and cut the sashing out and sewed it all together!  The top is now 74"x74" square, so I think I would like to make it a bit larger. I think I will add a small white border and then a blue border.  Just not sure if I will piece the blue border or not.  I do have left over blue squares and considering a piano keys border.  If I find the right blue I might just add a solid border.  Any ideas?

I just realised that I never showed the finished pumpkin table runner, with the binding on.  Not long after finishing it my son knocked a glass of water over on the table and the orange fabrics bleed in two spots onto the white.  I didn't do anything about it immediately but when I washed it with a colour catcher a few days later the bleeding all came out - yippee!  Can you tell I am completely out of the habit of washing new fabrics?!

 I have given up moaning about the return of footy and resigned myself to stitching alone while all the male members of the family watch footy.  Don't worry the kids come in to tell me who is winning at every opportunity, so as to spread the "footy love"!  On the upside all this stitching time means I have finished all the applique on my log cabin miniature.  Quilting and binding come next!

I also made my April Sugar BOM and unpicked March's block as it is too small!

And finally I had to show you another teddy sleeping bag, that I made a couple of weeks ago, its a special request by a friends son, to fit his very small teddy.

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

Sewing weekend at Bordertown

I had a fantastic fun long weekend away sewing with my Mum and two friends.  I managed to start and finish piecing two miniature quilts/wall hangings, which I am thrilled about.

This pattern is called Sugar and Spice by Rhonda McCray and was published in the Special Winter 2013 issue of Quilt Mania and is 12" x 16".  I need to applique the gingerbread men in a bowl (in wool) in the bottom right hand corner, hence the different layout of the log cabins.  The logs are cut at 1" and the pattern would never have worked if Vicki hadn't pointed out that my quarter inch seam (I was whinging about it) was a tad too wide and I could rectify it by moving my needle position.  SEW glad she told me that as it solved all my sewing problems and provided a huge "ohhh, duh!" moment!

This pattern is called Rolling Stones and was designed by Ann Hermes and was published in the February 2008 issue of BHG American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  However I have recently seen it advertised on their website, so you could possibly get it for free online.  It is 14" square.  This was a lot more work then the log cabin, but that was just because of the cutting.  I think I am still sold on making miniatures as they are so quick!

 

These basket quilts were NOT quick!  I thought that I had the required number of baskets made and would just be sashing them and fiddling with a few handles and the appliqued fruit.  But alas due to my inaccurate seam allowance the blocks were all 1/4" too small.  I unpicked more then I would care to share.  Then I discovered it was quicker to just make new ones, especially those with triangles, which stretched when I unpicked and resewed them.  I did manage to redeem a few that  I had unpicked though, so I decided to sash all the blocks that were correct.  That way at least I felt like I had made some progress.  The benefit of sewing in a group is to get everyones ideas.  So I am going with a layout quite different to the pattern, which I am really pleased about.  Lots more to do, but very happy all the boring unpicking was done in the good company of friends!  

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

PS also had a teeth grinding moment of terror, which Mum and Vicki rescued me from, when I managed to jam my needle down in the machine.  Due to some long thread ends getting sucked down and caught up inside.  At a later date I ran over these pins.  

I plan to be much nicer to my machine in future, as this bent pin going into the inner working of my machine would have been very very ugly and expensive!