One Monthly Goal - February

 One of the small adjustments to my goal setting list this year is to nominate a Key Goal for the month.  This really just started because there was a space for this on my planner page and I though... Ok, well, might as well fill it in.  This also seemed like a good opportunity to join in with Elm Street Quilts who hosts One Monthly Goal (after reading about Raewyns adventures for the last few years 😉).  AND  super excited to have been  a January prizewinner on my first linkup!  THANKS to Fat Quarter Shop!

So my February Key Goal is to quilt Dylan's Hawthorn Quilt.  See other participants monthly goals on Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up.

The Hawthorn Quilt is from Sharon Holland's book Utility Quilts and is big bold blocks with strong fabric choices.  I love it.

The backing is pieced from an assortment of stash fabrics... including a little applique block Dylan designed and we put together about 8 or 9 years ago (and it's finally finding a home).

January had a mini goal to get this all basted... which was done.  Now to quilt.  As I am a notoriously slow quilter... getting this finished will be a real challenge.

On a side note, I have chosen the Patchwork City quilt top to baste this month... and so the cycle somewhat carries on... fingers crossed!

On another side note, I have found my WIP list enormously useful as far as plotting which quilts have backing fabric... and taking advantage of fabric specials as I find suitable matches.  This also goes for binding options.  AND also choosing what project to work on next.  With a free day on Friday after completing everything on my January to do list I chose the Avalon Quilt to sew together the blocks.  This quilt was chosen as with 16 blocks it was relatively quick, and it was started in December 2012... high time for it to get finished.

Yay... another top to add to the quilting pile!

Things to Think About

Pondering the next quilting project, I pulled out all the quilt tops that were waiting patiently for their turn.

I thought I'd do a bit of a vote, and see which quilt was the most popular to get to the finished pile first.  So check out the following, and feel free to leave a comment or send me an email to vote for your favourite:

Giant Star:

This one even has a gorgeous bundle all put aside for a backing.

There's a square in there:

Oh Eiko... I love you.

And this one has backing and binding!  This is the joy of finding fabric on special and just buying it.  It also shows that you never know what you're going to get until it arrives.  This fish fabric was described as a "feature fabric" - so I imagined the fish would be large.  I didn't expect them to appear in rows and be in this scale (ha! pun alert!)  But as the backing, I'm not too worried either way.

Rainbow Modern Sampler: OK, no backing or binding on this one yet, but with that rainbow gradient going on, I don't think it would be hard to find "something" amongst the stash.

Avalon Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman (will need to go and investigate what this one was originally called): now this one is not quite a top yet - but the finished blocks just need to be sewn together.

Right, time for some fabric.  My delicious little fat quarter purchases from The Country Yard.  I may or may not be a sucker for florals... This large floral is from Tilda - Flowercloud dark slate.

And even a smidge of sewing.  What I love about this star block is the lack of commitment required. I can make progress without even really trying. Cutting two fat quarters simultaneously sets me up to make two blocks.  Then with a little bit of sewing, I have the block units pieced.

Then with a little bit more time... or another day... those little units get pieced into a pretty easily put together nine patch.  So as one gets finished...

Another gets to the pieced units stage...

And this little skerrit of space provides the visual "this is how it's starting to look"

Don't forget to vote!

Avalon continues to grow

Sorry for the rather brief post yesterday.  It seems when I combine lengthy posts with lots of photos, or even not really all that many photos, I have problems trying to get it to publish correctly.  Looks like I might have to adjust my posting regime, from roughly once a week covering everything since the last one, to a shorter post, about one specific topic, more often.

OK, so Avalon had a bit of a breather when I ran out of background fabric.  Then once I had more background, I sort of decided I didn't like the way it was heading... it just bugged me.  So I waited, sewed other things, and pondered.  Finally I unpicked the fabric that I really hated, decided to alter the layout, and decided on a replacement fabric for that patch.  Still didn't like it.  But now I had to try to work the new blocks I had made into the grand scheme, and it all became a bit too much like hard work.

Over the last few days, I've rehashed the layout, played around with fabric ideas for the remaining blocks, crossed my fingers it was all going to work, and continued piecing.

Today (with three blocks remaining partially pieced) I could finally see how it was all going to look on the design wall.

It's hard to see what was causing all the problems - but it seemed like there were too many florals, too many dots, too many greens, and too many pinky oranges all in the same place.  I've added in another blue fabric, and some yellow, which has helped to solve some of the layout problems.  The rest I can live with.

Just a bit more piecing to do, then I can call this top finished! 

WIP Wednesday, Friday - tomato, tomatoe...

As we rock along with another holiday day, could be Wednesday, could be Thursday, but I'm pretty sure it's Friday today.

Progress in the sewing shed.

Avalon Quilt - ran out of backing fabric.   As the pattern says you need over 3 yards, it was unlikely I would have been able to squeeze by with 1 metre.

On to project number Two.

Made In Cherry quilt - currently being quilted.   You know, I probably started this top sometime about a year ago.

Following Leeann's inspiration, I have quilted the orange peel pattern around the squares using a khaki/cream variegated Gunnold thread - I love the secondary pattern you get from this design.

Unlike Leeann, I have begun quilting feathery and swirly designs in the background areas - a good chance to practice my feather quilting and work out how to use a feather to fill an area.

From the front

From the back

For the backing, I used a selection of metre and half metre pieces of these related floral fabrics from one of Robyn Pandolph's lines, then threw in a piece of a khaki heath fabric I had picked up as an oddment to fill a little gap.  I couldn't really get a photo that I was happy with.

Love this quilty texture

Bluebirds & berries...

Finally, it is all one piece!

Now I need to decide whether to add some extra borders to make it more of a bed size.  Why is it that I find it impossible to make quilts that are small??

Some of my favourite little snippets.

Mysteriously the box of scraps that I accumulated to create this masterpiece is just as full as when I started.

The fabric play I had earlier this week has resulted in the following blocks.  The Avalon Quilt repeats these four blocks... I went with donkey as the clear winner in the voting poll... and matched it with a black and white Spotlight print for the feature strips.

I'm really enjoying the process of cutting each block... and following a complicated set of simple steps to get it constructed.  I added a few extra grey prints to the mix and left out some of the full on florals... hopefully making an interesting as opposed to manic collection.  I just need to decide now whether to repeat the blocks with the same fabrics, or attempt to mix it up a bit.

Wishing all my friends a very Merry Xmas, and I look forward to catching up, whether in person or online, in the new year.

Week One - Wednesday WIP

 After a pretty promising start to the holidays our weather decided to pack a sad on Sunday, and we've had dreary rain ever since.  It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't also humid beyond belief - so hot, sticky rain + two kids =  lots of lego creations.  This is a jail... don't ask me what they watch on TV??

Today I used the get out of jail free card and we disappeared into town for the morning.  A visit to the library has restocked my reading material because shock/horror - the library is closed over the entire two week Xmas break!  Unheard of!

And then we had the icing sugar incident - lets just say Dylan, icing sugar, big mess.  Connect the dots.  I needed to clean that drawer out anyway.

On the crafting front, I have been making progress.  Woohoo!  Block Seven of Gail Pan's Bluebirds and Berries BOM is coming along nicely - I've got the applique done and just need to piece together the bits.  Block Eight is also slowly appearing from the scraps.  I love watching applique blocks appear:



Taking the lead from Charlotte I reassessed my sewing space - and decided that the only thing that really twisted my undies was the bookshelf in front of the design wall - it limited my access and just blocked up that wall.  The books have been reinstated in the house, and look at all the space I've gained!  Enough room to swing maybe two cats and a guinea pig!

After all that progress, I just felt the need to have a bit of a fabric play.  This quilt has always been on my list of One Days.

It's an Elizabeth Hartman pattern from this magazine:

 There are also some other projects in there that I gaze at longingly...

Except I have a bag phobia

Wouldn't this be great out of Xmas fabrics?? 

So out came my fat quarter bin, and I pulled this delicious selection of fabrics, now to decide on a background fabric - we have light grey solid, a darker slightly khaki sort of grey solid (I just want to call it donkey OK?), and then a white on white print.  Do you have a favourite?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, and Lyn at What a Hoot