The year that was - 2016.

In 2016 I made one wall hanging, 

and 2 cot quilts.

I have no idea why I have started a blue and orange theme - this was not intentional!

Then there were three table runners completed; 

a citrus coloured one, a Pineapple themed one, 

and there is not photo of the 3rd, oops!

I finished one single bed quilt - for Aussie Hero quilts.

I finished 3 large quilts of which 2 were old UFOs - Farmhouse Basket quilt and

- Scrappy Sprouts.  Which was also my leaders/enders and Rainbow Scrap challenge project.

 I ignored the rest of my UFOs to start and finish Autumn Star quilt in the same year!  My excuse is that it was a stash buster and cleaned out a large portion of my autumn toned quilts.

 Finally towards the end of the year I made two mini quilts (what only two?!),

sadly there is no photo of the second one :( 

Two dolls quilts (plus a mattress/pillow)

and two teddy bear sleeping bags were made and posted off, 

but again, I am missing a photo of the second sleeping bag. I am going to try and obtain pictures of the missing items - but 2 of the 3 items have been gifted, so no guarantees.

In 2016 I started a new job, had  IT problems (they seemed endless but been fixed now) and DH continued to travel regularly for work (despite advise his travel was to be reduced) and I started travelling for work!

So while I initially thought my overall output was down compared to 2015,  I am now just happy I got to finish anything!

Happy quilting, Sue. 

Scrappy Sprout and Rainbow Scrap challenge finish

Ta da!  Finally a finish to celebrate!

I started Scrappy Sprouts in  August 2014 when Lisa and I were looking to replicate our leaders and enders project/challenge. Lisa found this pattern for the spouts (leaves) online HERE at Traceyjay quilts blog.    I love leaf prints, using scraps and rainbow colours - which is how I ended up with this pattern.

I started making leaves, slowly but the output doubled when I started following the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy blog online HERE .

The original pattern for the leaf, was just that.  But Canadian designer Krista Hennebury published a pattern in the June 2015 issue of Homespun magazine.  And that helped me enormously.  Because I had a great stack of leaves and no idea how to get them to look good together.  I followed the colour graduation in the Homespun pattern and added the flowers. 

 I deviated from the pattern by adding an extra row on the end - to get the width for it to hang a good distance over the side of my bed.  

My friend Elaine Kennedy from Pine Grove Quilting (Adelaide) quilted the top in vertical sections, so the pattern over the sprouts is different to the pattern in the sashing between the sprouts.  

I love this bright, fun nature of this quilt.  It is out of the box for me in terms of colour - but I enjoyed every minute!  I made a lot of the leaves as leaders and enders and got to use up a big stash of 2.5" squares.  I used loads of left over binding scraps.  But do admit to having to beg lovely scraps of orange from my good friend Lisa - who gave me a generous collection of beautiful fussy cut prints, thank you Lisa!

Perhaps my most favourite bit, is the genetically modified leaves, where I unpicked blocks and added in fabric squares with bug prints on them...no garden blooms without them ;)

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.

Wacky summer sewing

I am enjoying summer holidays with the kids and to keep them entertained I bought some grey fabric and zippers to make a shark pencil case I pinned ages ago by Patchwork Posse .  DS2 enjoyed cutting with my scissors and the straight sewing, but in the end Lego was more exciting and he disappeared when it all got tricky...which was lucky as I was mumbling unlady like words, as I inserted the zip.  I wont be making another one in a hurry so was pleased DS1 wasn't interested!

I started to clean up in my sewing area and unearthed a pattern for a pieced pineapple block that Lisa had given me.  We were out sewing for the day and the cutting instructions were a bit wrong, so it got dumped in favour of something else.  But I just needed my pre cut bin of 2.5" squares and pre stitched half square triangles - and of course they were on hand now!

I already have a watermelon table runner, so a pineapple table runner was perfect for a new summer look!   Simple Love Quilts and Jackie Padesky Quilts created this pattern.

Lisa gifted me that cute caravan, I couldn't resist including it...along with some favorite cherry fabric.  And the best bit is this all came out of the stash!

In the "clean up" that became a sewing session I found the missing page of instructions on how to make thee flowers for my Scrappy Sprouts quilt.  

I decided to just get stuck into those curves and they turned out just fine!  So I must be cured of my curve piecing fear, thanks Ann!

Now I just have to finish hand sewing the tops of the flower and this UFO is back on the top of the pile....I think that qualifies it as an upgrade to WIP!

Happy quilting Sue.

Works in progress are slowly moving foward

This is a table runner l started and finished without showing you progress, to use up some left over charm squares.

I have been working on my Scrappy sprouts and got them all pieced into rows.

Sew now to make some flowers for the top of the plants!

Happy quilting Sue.