Quilting Expo | The Low Down

Quilting Expo was yesterday! Yay! 

I had a wonderful time teaching, chatting, eating (and sewing!) with a lovely group of ladies.

I showed them how to make four classic quilt blocks paired with some yummy and fresh modern fabrics.

Four Classic Quilt Blocks
Four Classic Quilt Blocks

The big block winners of the day would have to of been the colour-blocked Log Cabin…

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and the Lone Star block (my personal favourite!)

A Pretty Lone Star!
A Pretty Lone Star!

With the Lone Star block, I’m planning to make a sweet lap quilt out of it – stay tuned for that idea to hopefully come to life!

The other blocks we tackled were a Flying Geese variation and the-always-easier-than-it-looks Dresden Plate.

Patiently Machine Appliquéing the Dresden Plate
Patiently Machine Appliquéing the Dresden Plate

There were a few other projects that had been planned but time got away from us and they went undone…*insert sad frowny face*

The view of my very messy work space! Oh dear...
The view of my very messy work space! Oh dear…

It was a great day all around and I was definitely warn out by the time I got home! (It was a rare early night into bed for me!)

This coming week I’ll be working on a side commission for the BFF and then I’ll get back into piecing together my Mini Double Wrench Block Quilt as well as the many other numerous things that need to be planned and done! 

Happy Sewing Friends! xx

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I AM THE PREP MASTER!!

Whoa. Whoa! WHOA!

Let’s just slow down a bit…

This year is just flying past way too quickly!

I mean, holy-moley it’s October already!

Here in Australia, we’re well and truly into our spring season (YES! *fist pump*) with temps reaching up to 30+ degrees already! I love it but can only imagine what summer will be like! (I’ll be living in the pool!)

But moving on from my random weather update ramble thing…ahem..my days have been so jammed packed of doing so much stuff!

And of course the most important stuff would be sewing – duh!

Over the last four days I’ve been prepping, prepping and prepping some more (phew!) all to be ready for the Spotlight Quilting Expo on the weekend.

And if you can believe it, after all that prepping there’s still more to do! (Will it ever end!!)

Prepping fabrics before ironing, cutting and piecing.
Prepping the fabrics before ironing, cutting and piecing.

But there’s no need to panic just yet…I’ll leave that until Saturday morning as I’m rushing out the door! eek!

Amongst all my prepping for prepping (huh??), I squeezed in some time to make some little mini quilts for a warms-the-depths-of-your-heart kind of cause.

Remember the mystery quilt I showed you at the end of my last post?

Well here it is in all its glory!

Mini Quilt Donation | No.1
Mini Quilt Donation | No.1 | 70cmx70cm

And here’s another…

Mini Quilt Donation | No. 2 | 65cmx65cm
Mini Quilt Donation | No. 2 | 65cmx65cm

These mini quilts have been specially made as part of a donation drive at my local Spotlight for the Neo-Natal and Maternity wards in one of our local hospitals. These little quilts will help brighten up the wards and add a homey touch to what can be a very stale and clinical environment. I think it’s such a wonderful idea and these hospital wards are always so thankful for donation drives such as this!

*Oh, I’m getting all emoch*

So, I shall continue on my way, prepping for Saturday and keeping the rising panic at bay while I inhale an unnatural amount of Raspberry M&M’s!

Why are you so strangely addictive and yummy?!
‘How can you be so strangely addictive and yummy at the same time?!’

Diet starts Monday! (Maybe…possibly not…no it won’t.)

Happy Sewing! x

Unexpected Starts

It’s gone. Posted. Ready to be hung and judged by strangers….

It’s actually quite a nice feeling to finally sit back and not have to worry about getting it finished before the cut off date.  Ah, relief!

However, this does not mean I haven’t been doing anything. On the contrary I’ve started, unexpectedly, another new quilt as well as completed my August Craftsy BOM.

I’m currently taking another class on Craftsy called Magical Jelly Roll Quilts. Although I’m not using jellyrolls, charm packs or layer cakes, I’ve been able to finally find the perfect project to break into my luscious Denyse Schmidt fabrics. The first project is making a Jacob’s Ladder Quilt. This is what the block looks like…

It’s made of five four-patch units and four half-triangle units. It’s quite an easy block to make up but is time consuming to put together (cutting, sewing and pressing). Here are the stats for this quilt:

  • 320 (2.5inch) squares
  • 64 half-square triangles
  • 80 four-patch units
  • 16 blocks
  • 1 quilt

IMG_1168

I am happy with how it’s coming together. It’s looking very scrappy, which I intended it to be, and have only four more blocks to make to complete the quilt top. I’m thinking of adding a flying-geese border with the left over 2.5inch squares to frame the main quilt design – I think that might look good. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it when it’s finished; I might stash it away and enter it into a quilt competition some time down the track.

[CLICK HERE] To see my Jacob’s Ladder Quilt Finished!

[CLICK HERE] To see my Jacob’s Ladder Block video tutorial!

It’s August! (Winter’s almost over! Huzzah!) Which means I had two new Craftsy BOM to make. Stars are this month’s theme and I learnt how to make the Ohio Star Block and a Double Star Block.

I like the Ohio Star Block best (the top one), it’s simple yet has character.

Any-who, I’ve got four more Jacob’s Ladder blocks to make up and then some much needed crashing-on-the-couch-and-watching-mind-numbing-tv to do….

Happy Sewing! xx

It Shall Be Called: A Summer Bloom

It t’was a glorious day yesterday – at around 7.30pmish last night I finished my How Does Your Garden Grow? Competition quilt!! It was a very happy, happy moment…. stepping back and admiring the long hard hours I put into making it. And yet, strangely, all I could make myself see were the faults and mistakes I’d skipped over and tried to ignore. Apart from that, I’m very pleased with the end result and hope it does well in the competition – fingers crossed!!

So, here’s how I made it…

To start the paper piecing process, I bought four large pieces of poster board and sticky taped them together in a very professional manner (sprawled across the floor, butt in the air, tape hanging out of my mouth while my measure tape, hanging around my neck, tried desperately to strangle me to death!).

I made a 1m ruler out of a wood stick I had floating around (I’m a poor artist and can’t afford to buy a real 1m ruler stick) and drew up a 1m-squared square, cross-sectioned it into fours etc. and then drew in my petal blades and stem. I made a few adjustments here and there until I was satisfied with the final design. I numbered each piece in a clock-wise direction so I wouldn’t get lost and befuddled with all the different pieces. It more or less became a big number puzzle for me to cut up and then stitch back up again.

So that I wouldn’t be too overcome by cardboard everywhere, I cut and sewed back together the pieces in quarters; the first quarter of the flower design, then the second, third then fourth which then completed the quilt top.

I chose randomly which petal blade got what purple print fabric because – well – because that’s just how I roll.  I like to be spontaneous and try (very hard, with little success) not to over think things.

Hand basting was a slight nightmare. You see those pins? Well, let’s just say many cuss words came out of my mouth thanks to those sharp little buggers. (Please understand my meaning of cuss words: crap, poo, sonova biscuit, far-out and [oh] flip it!) Once basted, I patiently whipstitched all the pieces together, in their correct order, while watching a fair few classic episodes of Friends.

Spray Starch became my best friend – my crime-fighting buddy (no, more like my seam-flattening buddy! Ha!) and my quiet achiever while I untact all the paper pieces away from their fabric companions. I steamed ironed the hell out it and then became stuck on what to do next for two weeks.

Do I put a Dresden Plate Wheel on it to create the illusion of it blooming? No…

Do I use a browny/earthy centrepiece? No…

Should I put both of these together to see if they cancel each other out to make something better? Ew. No…

Do I break my pact of not resorting to making a typical flower with a yellow spot in the centre? Yes. And it works. You know why? Because purple and yellow are matching opposites on the colour wheel and so naturally work and look well together. (Ha! See I told you I don’t over think things!!)

After making such a crucial important simple decisive essential boring time wasting decision, I got on with the job! I hand stitched the centrepiece onto the quilt top and then got onto setting up ready to quilt it.

To shake off the tag that Gen Y (which is me) are a throw away generation, I recycled the idea of the Dresden Plate Block and the browny/earthy coloured centrepiece and appliqued it onto the back of the quilt – just for the sake of it. (And for the fact that I really didn’t want to throw it away after all the effort I put into making it.) I’m changing the world one quilt at a time!!

Once basted and ironed (for about the tenth thousandth time), I spent three days quilting. Three whole days of sewing line after line after line after line after line after line after line… It was fun – for the few minutes. I had to force myself to go to a happy place for the sake of my sanity. But, you know, this is what you do for your art, your passion and for your living.

Next came the binding and stitching on the rod pocket while watching more classic Friends episodes.

And then – tah dah!!! Finish! Fin! Finito!

So, that’s my very first self-designed, hand pieced, machine quilted competition quilt! Hoorah!

It shall be called: A Summer Bloom (as the photo I took of the inspired flower was blooming mid summer this past January).

And so I say: Bring on the next one!

Happy Sewing! xx