Nothing like a deadline...

This strange photo is evidence that I have finally finished hand stitching the binding on my "Echoes of Log Cabins at the Beach" quilt (note the slight name change - nice aye??)

 
Those of you who also follow Monika's blog will already know that we have both had quilts accepted into The Big Quilt Exhibition at Northart in Northcote, Auckland (3-23 November).  Woot!  For those of you who don't follow Monika's blog - well, we've both had quilts accepted in The Big Quilt Exhibition - double WOOT!! So getting it finished had been on the top of the To Do list.  I need to make a recording of "but I still need to attach my label" - but I have discovered that I can actually attach a label in the time it takes to get the kids into the car!

I have also been busily quilting away on the cat quilt - as another deadline looms for The Country Yard exhibition towards the end of the month.  I'm not sure if I'll get it completely finished in time, but I'll give it a damn good go.   Each cat and flower block is being quilted identically, in the interests of getting it done - however I am using two different threads depending on the colour of the block.  So far, I've almost finished all that I want to quilt in the first thread. 

A bit of nose detail

The cat backgrounds have a forwards/backward/side to side sort of thing going on.

The dets on thread number one

A lovely variegated Gunold thread - 40wt polyester

We have zigzag details on the stripes...

And a bit of swirly hmmm echo quilting around the flower centres... excuse the echo that runs off the edge of the applique - once it's been washed the edges should fluff up nicely and hide such "variations"

the flower backgrounds have what I call caveman echo quilting...

and the bodies of the cat have a narrower echo.

Ellison Lane Quilts is running a scrappy log cabin quilt along... use your scraps... make it up as you go along sort of thing.  Quite a loose set of guidelines, but there is a deadline - and would mean making 11 blocks a week (what!  don't they realise I have other important deadlines to meet) - but I really like the idea, and I did have "log cabin QAYG" written on my list, after being inspired by Melinda who blogs at Quirky Granola Girl.

Shamelessly stolen from Melindas blog

I pulled a bundle of green and white scraps from my scrap drawers, and quickly laid out a rough draft... I definitely think it will work, although comparing it to Melindas, I need to make my block bigger, and give myself the opportunity to use a whole heap more fabrics.  I also want to have an element of calmness, so on reflection, add more whites/neutrals and have the green prints more as accent pieces.  The technique Melinda uses involves sewing the log cabin directly onto the batting.  Then as each log is added, straight line quilting is added to each piece.  Melinda also added hand quilting which looks really nice - and could be a good way of getting started into the whole hand quilting side of things.  I really like the effect of straight line quilting - but seem to be more of an organic quilter in real life.  I'm hoping this will help me to achieve the look I want.

Can't wait to get my teeth into this although judging from the mess I've made so far, and I haven't actually sewn anything yet - it doesn't bode well for the state of my studio!

In other news, I was a very naughty girl and added these lovely, drool-able grey fabrics into my cart... but this left room in the international postage bag!

Sew Fresh Fabrics is an awesome Etsy store to deal with and put together this custom bundle for me.

 Luckily these Bella fat quarters filled the gap just nicely.  The devil made me do it.

My precious...  no dribble made it's way onto the fabric.