Red and White Dresden quilt - finished!

This quilt kickstarted in June 2015 at a camp in Bordertown with my Adelaide stitching friends.  Ingredients were a store homemade red "jelly roll" and a Moda Primitive Gatherings jelly roll for the neutrals.

This pattern came from a class I did with quilt teacher and friend Heather Ford (Adelaide).  You make lots and lots of pieced blades and then make the Dresdens. 

Then you dither for months about buying a fabric to use as the center circles.

Then spend an hour in Quilters Harvest (Warracknabeal) pulling out every bolt to find the perfect background fabric - thank you Dell!

And then slowly hand stitch them down to the background fabric.
Allow to mature in the cupboard, until taking top to Periwinkle Patchwork (Warrnambool), to find the perfect red for the border/binding - thank you Ann!  Mind you it matured a bit more before I got the border sewn on.

Then bundle off to Vicki Jenkin, long arm quilter extraordinaire, and allow her to work some quilting magic.  I wanted some thing fancy but edge to edge, so Vicki recommended these feathers.  I have never had feathers before and love them :)

Yeah my first finish for 2017!  

Happy quilting Sue.

My UFO list 2017

One more UFO ready for busting! My Red and White Dresden is already in the queue at the LAQ.

 Not really a UFO, given I made the Barcelona single bed sized top in 2016.  Still it is basted and ready for quilting, so needs to happen soon...so it doesn't become a UFO!

My Circa 2016 is a bit more advanced then this photo, but still is a long way off being finished. So its on the to do list for this year.

Again this sweet quilt is not that old, but its just needs quilting.   I had been thinking about making it bigger (and into a lap quilt) but now I just want to finish it as is and enjoy it on my wall!

Some of my "use up the scrap strips" projects are close to being finished, this scrap string lone star just needs borders to make it child size.  

The log cabin in red and green I made last year, is  ready to quilt, once I find a backing.

 I am exhausted thinking about all this potential quilting.  

Oh, goody I have found the photos of the projects that still need piecing!

 

I had to go back to June 2015 to find a photo of the Midwinter Pinwheel Churn Dash quilt.  I made all the blocks and haven't touched it since!  So just need sashing fabric, and it get worked on NOW!

Finally the Woolly basket wall hanging, also needs sashing and potentially a border.

Perhaps I might do a recap in six months time....to keep myself focused.

Happy quilting Sue.

Red and White Dresden flimsy finish

There has been a fair bit of denial happening in my sewing room.

 Denial that I had lost my tape measure.  Denial that I would be stupid enough to leave it in a cupboard!

Denial that I had an hour in my day to sew on a border to finish this quilt.

 Sew I stopped fighting the negative thoughts and just got on with it. 

To say I am fairly happy too finish this top is an understatement.  I have had a burning desire to make a red and white Dresden quilt for a long long long time.  And finally here it is.  

Unfortunately there are two quilts ahead of it in the queue at the long arm quilters.  So until there is more cash to be had it will stay a top for awhile longer.

Still it is finished!  And I have "found" my tape measure.  So all is good in my world again.

Happy quilting Sue.  

Piecing in Portland 4

In order to finished my Autumn Star quilt I needed to buy some fabric for a final border.

We had a road trip from Portland to Warrnambool to visit Ann and Barbara at Periwinkle Patchwork.

Duh, I didn't take any photos of the shop, sorry!  Hmmm, might have been because I was too busy talking!

Anyway I got this great stripe (bargain it was on sale) which was perfect for this quilt.

I managed to cut and sew on the two borders for this quilt while we were away, so it is now a finished flimsy.

Then a few days later in Adelaide (at Widebacks) I got this very appropriate fabric for a backing! 

Ann from Periwinkle pulled all the reds off the shelf from me until we settled on this lovely fabric as a border for my Red and White Dresden plate quilt.  But I haven't cut or sewed the borders yet.

However that didn't stop me buying the perfect backing at Widebacks.  This red is a Primitive Gatherings print and all the "white" prints in my Dresden plates are from a Primitive Gatherings jelly roll, so very pleased with this match.

Happy quilting Sue.

Quilt Camp - Part 5

Phew, you finally made it to my work from  quilt camp!

I wanted to get this top sewn together, so started off sewing the backgrounds above the flowers and the sashings to join the columns. I was very lucky to get some neutral fabric donated to me, to enable a scrappy pieced background.

Alas once I was done we decided the quilt was plenty long enough but not wide enough!

Searching through the box I found plenty of left over blocks, but not necessarily in the colour I wanted.  So we fiddled and I made a few new blocks to make a sixth row.

I also wasted time making four patches for "dirt" at the bottom of the sprouts and then decided to not use them.  The Scrappy Sprouts quilt finished so much bigger then I expected (88x88") so I sent it off with my friendly long arm quilter.  It was also too big for a good floor photo!

I am really happy with this quilt and cannot wait to get it on my bed when winter arrives.

I couldn't come to a decision about sashing, none of the colours I had with me worked.  So I sewed all the Dresden blocks together and I am nowt contemplating what to do for a border instead.

These half square triangles needed an injection of red.  

But when I went shopping I came home with a red and orange

stripe and a blue and orange stripe instead.

I made triangles from the red/orange stripe and was happy with the extra colour.   Equally excited that I got all the blocks stitched together before I went home from camp!

Now just need to see if the blue/orange strip looks OK for a border : )

Happy quilting Sue.

Where does time go?

Honestly I wonder where the days and weeks disappear to sometimes.  

It only seems like yesterday that I sat and sewed these Dresden plates with my Adelaide stitching friends at camp.  

 Then there was a great delay before I made the effort to shop for the background fabric and got them hand stitched down.

Another shopping trip was required to find the perfect red for the centres!  Finally they are all stitched on and I just have to stitch the blocks together....just in time to go sewing with my Adelaide friends again!

Do you think six projects will be enough to work on?!  I always over pack in my pre trip preparation and then on the morning of departure I cull down to a sensible size.  Well I try. This time I am not bothering to try, because four of these projects just need minimal work but maximum thinking/decision making to get the tops finished.   So I am hoping six heads are better then one, and therefore I might get several tops done! 

I like to be considered optimistic, but in reality I might be just unrealistic!

Happy quilting Sue.

Red and White Dresdens are stitched

My favorite WIP, the Red and White pieced Dresdens, are all stitched down onto their backgrounds.  

Trying to get a good photo was tricky. And yes, I probably should have ironed them first!

This is a better shot as the true colour comes through, but I couldn't fit all the blocks in the lens!

Still you get the idea.  I cannot made up my mind about the colour for the centres.  I thought the choice would be between white/cream print or red print.

But it turned out that the 2.5" strips were not wide enough to make a centre from, so I couldn't use the left over light strips from my dresden's.  Instead I tried some French General reds.

The red print is a bit distracting, but I like the size better then the plain red.

You can see the size difference here.  I am not going to have enough of this solid red - I cut into a layer cake square to get it.  So I am either going shopping or finding another suitable fabric, perhaps a red with a very small print out of the same layer cake.

Happy quilting Sue.

What have I been working on?

This should be a much longer post.  But alas despite several hours work from DH, pulling apart the computer, printer and non ergonomic desk and then reinstalling computer and printer on an old unattractive but perfect height laminex table - my computer still has issues.  

Well really only one issue, for some reason the software that downloads my photos from camera onto the computer isn't working AND all the photos that were on that software have disappeared.  I have lots of new quilting things to show you....but the pictures are stuck on my camera, so frustrating :(

 Still I have one photo you haven't seen previously, an updated shot of the pieced red and white Dresden's.  Now that I have stitched eight down onto the background, I have started to think about what I am going to use for the centers.  I have four more to applique on before I am ready to do the centers, but going to start auditioning reds.  I am leaning towards using different reds for each center, but we will see.  

Life is getting busy here with all the Christmas associated social functions starting to kick in, as well as usual preparations for the 25th.  I hope to fix this IT issue (well DH is the IT Fixer!, not a job title he relishes) soon before we hit the madness that always happens in the last five days before Christmas!

Happy quilting, Sue.

There has been an unexplained break in transmission

 There has been an break in transmission from this blog, which is too boring to explain, but needless to say it involved kids, life and priorities.  

While I have been off air I have hand stitched a few of my Dresden's down to the lovely mocha striped background I brought at Quilters Harvest in Warracknabeal.  Three down, nine to go!

 I also quilted this child's quilt with snugly flannel backing.  I am just sewing the binding down.  The biggest delay on this project was finding the perfect red for the binding...it's not perfect, but it will do and I don't think one small boy will care...so long as he gets it this weekend!

I have been waiting on a parcel from Ann at Periwinkle Patchwork.  What I didn't expect was these lovely fabrics, scraps from her own scrap bag.  I have dived in and started using them already as some of the colours were perfect for a WIP that needed a small push to finish.

 I found this half started wall hanging (Reproduction Print Table Topper from American Patchwork Quilting website go HERE) when I was looking for something else.  And because I wasn't in a mad rush/panic, I was able to calmly evaluate the problem (ignore the three extra flying geese made, just cut four rectangles and four squares) and get on with finishing the top.  I am not so sure about the border print (only because I have used it on so many things)  but it did need a dark colour and I have lots of this sweet brown Jo Morton print.  

It took a while but I actually found the project I was looking for.  It is 3/4's quilted now...now that I have had a chance to spend some time in the sewing room.  But I will show you that on another post. 

Happy quilting Sue.

Progress on my Red Desdens

Last Friday I spent most of the day sewing with my new group.  I was very unorganised and forgot a few important things....like thread for  my machine!

Luckily Lisa came to the rescue and I was able to keep piecing.  I sewed half of the Dresden's together, but needed to cut some more wedges before I could finish them.  I did finish 11 of them that night at camp.  The next job is to find a background fabric...although the cream carpet looks better than I expected!

August's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge colour is Indigo!  Yep I have stitched all my dark blue/purple scraps up already.  You can do grey and black as a substitute.  I am still thinking about that...black is not my thing!  I have made a few more red blocks, as I did not achieve as many as I had hoped in August.

My hand stitching project for the last month or so has been these pears.  I finished all the pears and stems this week, now starting on the leaves - one is done, the rest are just pinned.  I need another chrome green, but alas I didn't find any at the quilt show.    

Happy quilting Sue.

Red and white rocks!

I have wanted to make a Pinwheel in a churn dash quilt - as demonstrated by the gorgeous Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company - using a Midwinter Red layer cake.  My weekend in Bordertown was the perfect opportunity, or excuse to start a new quilt!

 

Firstly I matched up lights and darks and made big pinwheels.  Then cutting in a similar fashion to split nine patches, you end up with the final pinwheel inside a churn dash block.

I think these blocks will benefit from some sashing but as I don't have any in the Midwinter Red range, I set these blocks aside for the rest of the weekend.

My long hoarded red jelly roll (not a Moda one, was made by a quilt shop) came out for some fun.  Because I had the red roll in my stash I brought a neutral roll - which was from Moda - Floral Gatherings shirtings by Primitive Gatherings ages ago to accompany it.

I stitched and cut, stitched and pressed and then we ran out of time in Bordertown.  A busy week didn't see me enjoy any quilting until Friday.  But it wasn't until Sunday that I had the beginnings of a final dresden to show you.  

And guess what....yep I am short, only have 11 Dresden's, so back to stitching to make up the 12th!

But on the bright side, for the month of July in the Rainbow Scrappy challenge the colour is RED!  I will have no problem this month, lots of red scraps floating around my sewing room :)

Happy quilting Sue.