Friday, May 31, 2019

End of month roundup

It wasn't until today, the last day of the month, that it seemed at all possible to get some of my monthly tasks finished. 

The month started with 6 tasks:


I made great progress with the Meadowland blocks... Love this floral and neutral spot!



And to top it off I got these bonus units sewn... not quite finished, but a good start for next month.



Huge news is that I finished off the last of the FMQ on Loosely Woven... so I'm all ready to start binding over the weekend.  Finishing this corner was the best feeling ever!


I wanted to get one more Dash to the Finish block done...


And almost  finished a bonus second one as a leader ender project!


And finishing two Patchwork City blocks seemed impossible on Monday, but a few seams here and there... and the addition of a sneaky stripe in this block...


... meant I got all the units finished today for block 24...


... to add to block 23...


... and June is going to be a busy month finishing the last block - 25, a little bit of sashing, borders and finishing touches and this one will be a top!

Wiggly quilting...

... and binding... this quilt is so close!



So yeah... 5 out of 6 and it felt so good to get those stickers on!


Monday, May 13, 2019

Almost All the things

I've been doing a little bit of not quite everything... but certainly lots of things.

Like Meadowland blocks...



Walking foot wiggly lines on my modern applique Buggy Barn Blooms quilt...

That was after this diy attachment of the seam guide to do my straight zigzags... good old sticky tape!



Then wiggle wiggle I went!  Discovered that your organic lines still need to be somewhat horizontal, resulting in some fix ups along the way 😤.  Also that while they may seem wiggly while you are doing them, sometimes they come out pretty straight.


 After that I developed a method which seems to have worked well for me, stitch lines that are relatively straight about 3 or 4 inches apart to use as guidelines, and work from the centre out to the edges (I did end up marking a starting line and using the seam guide to do these).  Then go back and fill in a straightish line between each of those lines, but having a lot of variety in their widths (this line I just eyeballed and didn't worry too much about)... then finally, doing wiggly lines in each irregularly spaced gap, using wiggles of different wiggliness!

I've only got a strip about 10 inches wide left to quilt on this... woohoo!!

And finally back to some good old free motion as I start the border on Loosely Woven.


With an 8in border, it is going to take some time!


Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Alert! Alert! Quilt Finish!

Super excited last week to finish the binding on my Sugar Club Sampler quilt, and get the makers label attached over the weekend.


Then it kinda rained and was gross... but today the sun is shining... the grass is dry and my kids agreed to hold it up for me!


I was trying to work out why this photo had a blue band across the top... its the sky!  Duh!  And today has been truly beautiful.

This quilt started life back in June 2014 as part of a BOM run by Amy Gibson from Stitchery Dickory Dock, and I used my stash of Bonnie & Camille fabrics with Bella solid 'Feather' and a beige Moda crossweave.

The 12 blocks morphed into a 9 block setting with this interesting half square triangle frame arrangement.  The blocks upsize from their original 12 inches, to a massive 30 inch with these additional frames.  Combined with sashing this resulted in a quilt close to 100 inches square.



I made the decision to have this long arm quilted by Leeanne from Quilt Me Kiwi.  She did a wonderful edge to edge design.


I also experimented with a flange binding using a mix of leftover fabrics, but instead of machine stitching along the flange, I used a large running stitch and 12 weight thread.  It is a subtle feature but I really like it.

Interestingly both children were wondering if it was there's!  So maybe not a totally feminine quilt 😄