My wall hanging (Hookers Hat Patch from Carol Hopkins book Civil War Legacies) has been sitting neglected for months.  I originally quilted it with Stitch in the Ditch around the blocks and simple straight lines on the border.  But I was really disappointed that the borders went wavy.  I am not sure if I blame the mitered borders or the quilting.  I am thinking blocking will potentially fix it...but I have never blocked a quilt before, so not confident of my skills.

With this minor dilemma I was tempted to just wack on the binding and claim it as a finish!
Of course after it sat neglected for months I changed my mind!  That is a quilters prerogative isn't it?  

 So I am not sure if you call this echo quilting, because it reflects the zig zag of the sashing or just chevron?  I had to make a choice at the end of the row, how to finish the pattern,  which I just made up as I went (and involved a little unpicking) but I am pleased with the end result.

Mind you the borders still ripple!

Now just need to bind it and then I can investigate blocking, to see if it solves the rippled edges.  It would be nice to call this project finished this month!

Happy quilting Sue.

Wool work for Winter

A little road trip occurred (Quilters Harvest in Warracknabeal) to secure a greater selection of wool for my 

Little Wooly Basket blocks from Linen Closet Designs

The green wool was off the bolt, but the rest came from the dwindling stash the shop purchased last year from Debbie Busby (USA) when she presented workshops here.  Buying wool is expensive, so being able to buy the big squares of different colours is a great idea. 

Block 3

I love this sweet basket with buds and flowers.

Block 5 Strawberries
This is my favorite basket!  I am still trying to find a way to make little knots small enough on the berries so they look like the seeds on the outside of the strawberry.
I need to get a wriggle on, so I  can get it all together while its still winter : )
Happy quilting, Sue.

Circa 2016 little blocks

Yes I started a new project and its a BOM!  I know your suppose to sew along but I am a bit slow on the uptake - better late then never!

These are not in the order I have stitched them nor the order they were posted by Temecula Quilt Company.

I have been driving myself nuts trying to keep a record of what I have made and which blocks I still need to sew.

 Further more I drive myself crazy popping back and forth between the desk top computer, which is in a different room to my sewing machine.   

 As I cut fabric, pop back to check the measurements, cut more fabric, pop back to work out which ones need stitching first.  Lay the design out on my small design board and then go back and sew them!

 And I consider this all fun!  And potentially I get a bit more exercise!

If you saw me in action, some people would consider this nothing short of crazy!

I now have a little tin full of cute 3.5" blocks.

And plenty more to make, I am going to be boring you silly with these for awhile yet : )

Happy quilting Sue.

A snippet of wool

I have been following various bloggers who have been appliqueing Little Wooly Basket Blocks, as part of a free BOM by Dawn Heese who blogs at Linen Closet Quilts.  I had gone so far as printing off the patterns but they had been collecting dust in my sewing nook for some time now.

Block 4 - Tulips

Fast forward to panic stations prior to going to Portland for a sewing weekend.  I searched the house from top to bottom for my wool stash.  I knew it wasn't very big, but it was disappointingly small when I found it!  For some reason I thought I had lots of colours and I don't :(

Block 8 - Chives

So while we were visiting  Periwinkle Patchwork in Warrnambool I brought some more wool so I could start my blocks.  And more importantly I brought some gorgeous linen to stitch them onto. And then I didn't touch anything for a few weeks!  However as the weather declines into chilly and wet, I have been busy tracing patterns, choosing colours and stitching in front of the TV.

Block 7 - Cone flowers

Block 2

So now I have three blocks made and another three traced out.  This block is being held up by my lack of satisfaction with the colour and size of the leaves - I will either make the leaves larger or a different colour, so they stand out more.

AND

I might go shopping for more wool!  A girl needs a decent sized wool stash...well this wet windy winter I do at least!

Hope your surviving the start of the snow season in front of a heating source of some sort and with some form of stitching, 

Happy quilting Sue.

Brrr its cold inside!

Poor Tiger, 

he is very cold, despite having a lovely new hot pink mattress and pillow!

So he tried out a lovely scrappy chevron doll quilt, hmm that is warmer.

But this winter has been very cold in Western Victoria and a second quilt was required to keep tiger warm on those frosty nights!

As much as Tiger liked the Ohio Star quilt, he decided it wasn't suitable to go to the snow for the weekend.

So a Tiger sized sleeping bag was whipped up.  All out of the ever dwindling collection of pink in my stash!  Luckily there was just enough of the pink spot in the scrap binding collection.

Unfortunately for Tiger, all of the new bedding was posted off to keep the teddies and dolls warm that belong to a little girl in Adelaide South Australia.  

So he had to go back to sharing a big bed with my "little" boy ;) 

Happy quilting Sue.

Piecing in Portland 5

Another UFO that has been sitting in a box waiting for attention.  Really all I did was sew four seams and this was a finished top!  But I had been deliberating about offsetting the rows.  In the end we decided the straight setting was perfect. 

This is a big quilt.  Too big (and white) to take out into the winter wind on the rocks.  And so big it drapes nicely over the bed, but not so great for photos. 

 I might have finished this quilt top and found yet another perfectly matching backing for my quilt!  

(I tell you Widebacks has a great range!)

BUT this one is going to sit awhile before I come to a decision about how to ask the long armer to quilt it...and find the money!

This neglected wall hanging got dragged to Portland.  I loved the pattern but didn't read it before hand and just assumed it was a little wallhanging.  But it is not.  So the temptation to make it bigger, eg lap size was great.

Vicki helped me with the maths to get the Raspberry flying geese to work.  I had cut them all out with the Go cutter, so I was sure they were correct.  But let me assure you I spent a lot of time unpicking and re sewing seams to get them to fit.  Obviously my original quarter inch seam in the first place was not true.  So after a fair bit of mucking around it all worked out just fine.

I am in love with this Raspberry shade of red.  

But this project is going back in its box for me to contemplate its future eg. does it get another border and if so is it flying geese?

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.