The Craftsy Block of the Month

2014 Quilting New Year Resolutions

I’m not normally one of those resolution-kind-of-setting people making plans at the beginning of each New Year and then failing two weeks later…

So when I made up my mind to set out some quilting resolutions for 2014, I made sure I would choose goals that I knew I would happily follow through on.

(I may regret this!)

I start so many new projects each year, each month, each week, each day that it’s absolutely ridiculous!

Worse yet, three quarters of these projects don’t get finished or are ever seen again!

This year, that changes!

I have a total of six quilts that I’ve ‘started’, all at different stages of the quilt-making adventure, that I resolute to FINISH over the course of this year.

I may even go to the point of saying that I need to get all these finished before I start a(nother) new project! (Oh no! Can I take that back??)

So, there are four quilt tops that are ready to be sandwiched and basted ready for quilting and two stacks of completed blocks that need to be pieced together.

Some of these quilt tops may seem familiar…

From top left to bottom right –

This is a small lap quilt or baby quilt I began two years ago using the Rail Fence block along with some sweet polka-dot fabrics that I was madly in love with at the time. I’m thinking, once I’ve finished it, I’ll put it up for sale in my madeit store. Watch this space!
The next one is my Scrap-Happy String Quilt! I accidently made this quilt a whole lot bigger than I originally intended to last year after ‘trying’ to demolish the never-ending growth of my scrap fabric! I freely admit that the size put me off from ever wanting to get it finish. And yet, I know that when I do get around to finishing it, it’s going to be B-E-A-utiful!
Two years ago, I tried the endless struggle to not let my fabric scraps overwhelm me! (See previous quilt top!) So when I discovered an awesomely scrappy-kinda-quilt PDF pattern by Anna Maria Horner, I sung out loud the Hallelujah Chorus and pressed print! I have no idea why I didn’t get the chance to finish this little gem: the size is like a lovely cozy lap quilt and I simple adore the crazy mix-match of the prints together! (Hmm, that’s a head scratcher!) But the ball has been set into motion again and this little sweetie will be finished!
This would have to be the BIGGEST quilt I have pieced together! Seriously this quilt will be a beast when it’s finished! I remember I found the pattern to this quilt when I had a craving to tackle a quilt featuring curved piecing as well as one where I could only use block colours. Bingo! This quilt was perfect! The original design for this quilt came from Jen Carlton Bailey and her quilt 5-HTP Squared. I started this quilt (named Colourplay) this time last year (January 2013) and I distinctly remember that as it got to the part where I needed to baste and proceed onto quilting, the harsh Australian Summer decided to get even. In that week alone we suffered through 40-45C+ heat. Every. Single. Day. Because of this, I was put-off from quilting it (which I was also internally dreading because of it’s size!) and conveniently forgot all about it until a few weeks ago when I decided to commit to some silly New Year resolutions lark! I know completing this quilt will challenge me. I know that I’ll need to be as strong as an ox to quilt it. And I know that I’ll need to be so much more patient than I already am to reach that moment of completion! I say: bring it on!

And now onto the quilt blocks that are ready to be pieced!

At the top is my stack of Craftsy’s 2012 Block of the Month blocks that have, so unfortunately, been sitting on my sewing table over the past year, yearning out to be finished! This was and still is my very first Sampler slash Block of the Month type of quilt. It symbolises a lot of new skills that I learnt along with some simply wicked modern fabrics that I do and will always love!
Although I identify myself as an Australian, I’m also a self-obsessed Anglophile and absolutely adore the thought of quintessential British living! If given the opportunity to live in another country apart from Australia, I would choose England hands-down! From Sydney to London is my ultimate dream. Full. Stop. Thank you very much! So to help immerse myself into that dream, I started to make some Union Jack paper-pieced blocks with the intention to make a tip-top Britishy quilt all for me! Yeah…obviously that hasn’t happened yet. My quilt in progress was inspired by this quilt made by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter.

Alternatively (833 words later!), you can watch me display and chat about each of these quilts here…

Other Quilting-related New Year Resolutions I’ve got in the bag include –

Entering local quilt shows, in particularly the Sydney Royal Easter Show (application form submitted this morning!!) in April and the Sydney Quilt Show in June.
Challenging my quilting skills by attempting block patterns that force me into a spinning vortex of stress and anxiety!! *Falls into a foetal position*

Sooo, watch this space for these WIPs or ‘Works-In-Progress’!

I’m pumped and ready to get going!

Have I inspired you to get your unfinished quilts and projects out and onto the road of completion? Let me know and we can discuss our progresses together!

Happy Sewing Friends!! xx

PS. Happy New Year!

The Queen of Piecing!

I’m so happy to proudly announce that I am no longer a machine paper-piecing virgin! Yay!

October’s Craftsy’s BOM where all about machine paper-piecing, making the Friendship Circle Block…

And the Circle of Geese Block…

I was always a little wary of how machine paper-piecing worked. I had watched countless Youtube videos without an ounce of understanding of how or what to do.

And yet, this past weekend, I put my sewing-thinking-cap on and the technique finally clicked in my head and I successfully completed these two sweet little blocks.

I now feel more confident and less wary to tackle a project that features the machine paper pieced technique and will definitely go out of my way to find a suitable one to start very soon! Like this one that I’ve been dying to know how to make (but with cuter fabrics!)…

Getting back to the topic, here all my of 20 BOM blocks together!

Today in Sydney, the weather is coldish and overcast with a little peek from the sun: perfect to wile away an afternoon on the sewing machine. After completing some of my heavy loaded uni work this morning, I’m treating my self to an afternoon centred on my darling sewing machine! I need to get started on the backing for my Jacob’s Ladder quilt so I can baste it and start quilting it. I’ve almost convinced myself to give hand-quilting a go on this quilt. It’s a technique I’ve never attempted before as I’ve always machine quilted my quilts. I know the basics of how hand-quilting works in my head and have all the accessories to start but haven’t quite perfected it in the actual ‘doing’ bit.

Here some hand quilted quilts that have been inspiring me over the past week…

Spinning Stars by Anna Marie Horner

Prism Quilt by Sundance

Pillow by Sunny in CAL

Come to think of it, I really should give hand quilting a go. I love a challenge as well as the thrill of learning something new and accomplishing it!

The decision has been made! Stay tuned!

Happy Sewing! xx

Hello Neglecterino!

Aww, my poor neglected blog! It’s almost been a whole month since I last posted! Whoopsie-daisy!

I believe there has been quite a considerable and understanding reason why I’ve been so neglectful. I’m four weeks into my uni studies and I’m finally beginning to feel like I’m back on my feet, knowing where I’m going and settling into a comfortable routine.

However, it’s hardly given me any time to devote my self to my sewing machine.

Last week I purposely took off a few afternoons to complete my September Craftsy BOM. I admit, even now, I’m procrastinating from finishing an essay that’s due this coming Monday, but I’m aiming to get that finished by tomorrow night – which will be quite a simple thing to do! (Knock on wood!)

This months Crafty BOM were focusing on curved piecing, something that I’ve never-ever attempted before – mainly because I had no idea how to as well as feeling a bit hesitant in my sewing skills.

Although being quite a fiddly and time-consuming technique, I generally like the concept and end result of curved piecing. I’m not sure whether I’d like to do a whole quilt using this technique!

Last week I received in the mail a very happy surprise: a copy of the magazine I used to work for with one of my projects on the front cover along with a charity article I wrote while I was there.

My project is the cushion on the front – Stacked Coins

While the article I wrote was about Pillowcases for Oncology Kids, a charity run by a wonderful teenager (a cancer patient herself) giving the gift of handmade pillowcases to children suffering from cancer and related illnesses in hospital.

The magazine is on sale until mid October (I think?) so go buy a copy and be inspired by such a wonderful young lady!

In news unrelated to sewing, it was my 25th birthday this Monday just past and I wanted to share with you the birthday cupcakes I made, in which I’m very proud of. Apologies: there’s none left!

There’s more big news to come, but I won’t spill the beans yet as even I don’t know the finished outcome of said news! All will be revealed early next week!

Stay tuned!

Happy Sewing! xx

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

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

Hooray for the weekend!!

What a week! I’ve been so overwhelmingly busy these past few days that I’m so glad it’s the weekend!

The last two days I’ve spent at the Craft & Quilt Show at Darling Harbour where I helped man our stand full of our latest issues and associated quilting products.

Of course I took full advantage of my time there to go shopping and spend a ridiculous amount of money on fabric. I mainly bought fat-quarters in mind of a new quilt idea bubbling in the back of my brain. Let’s just say, for now, it will feature the use of a lot of spotty fabrics!

I also bought a beautiful Amy Butler fabric which I’m thinking I could use as a feature print in a quilt sometime in the future.

I also found the sweetest Babushka Sailor Doll, who is now a new addition to my sewing table.

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So one of the biggest thrills (as well as the most loserish in the world!) a quilter can get is the purchase of a brand new, shinny, fang-dangle iron! And I, as a quilter, had one of these wet-your-pants-with-excitement moments last weekend when I bought our new iron.

It’s just so pretty and fancy! And yes, I understand that I am the dorkiest, most insane and weirdest person ever in the world to be so excited over an iron. Everyone in my household thinks I’m crazy, and you know, I don’t blame them because I would think the same thing if the roles where reversed. But for a quilter, without an iron you can’t get clean precise lines to match up or have all your blocks lie flat resulting in a flat pristine quilt top that will obey your every command. In patchwork and quilting, an iron is just as important as your sewing machine, fabrics and threads! Hence, my giddy excitement and wet pants.

So of course I had to find a legit reason to use this new piece of appliance that had come into our household and my June Craftsy BOMs where the perfect excuse! Plus I knew I could get them done in a few hours, curing me of my sewing addiction for the day.

With a twist to the old nine-patch block, I’m really pleased with how my fabric choices work in these blocks, especially the Greek cross – the bold pink print fabric really makes it pop!

I’m about to get started on quilting the Butterfly Cot Quilt, where I’m going to take a big bold step and stipple (or free-hand machine) quilt around the butterflies. I haven’t done very much free-hand quilting before – let alone on an actual quilt – but I’m all for taking on challenges; doing it, learning from it and loving the result! How will you grow in your skills if you don’t give new things a go right? I hope to get started on it this weekend as I’m so anxious to get it finished as I think it’s going to turn out really sweet and charming!

I’ve begun the first steps of figuring out how to create my How does your Garden Grow? quilt competition quilt by mocking up a smaller scale of the quilt design and playing around with a few of the techniques I mentioned in my last blog. I think I’ve come to a conclusion of which direction to go in to construct this one: English Paper Piecing. It’s going to take a while and require a lot of patience but I think it’ll be worth it in the end!

So there’s a lot to carry on with during the weekend and maybe, just maybe I can hopefully squeeze in an extra few hours at the Craft & Quilt Show and explore its inspiring goodness and tempting products in my own time, at my own leisure. Maybe. If I have the funds to spare it!

Happy Sewing!! xx

My Manic Month of May

After such a busy and hectic month of May (new job, farewell parties, congratulation parties, birthday parties, and long awaited trips into the City) I finally got around to making my Craftsy’s May BOMs (with three days to spare until the end of the month!). I vowed to let my sewing machine sing again this past weekend and I did to my much satisfied delight!

Based on the Log-Cabin block design, these little babies have that modern scrappy twist which I’m all in to! One is more traditional in design, yet modern and the other is known as a crazy Log-Cabin block design – you sew in any and all degrees with stripy bits of fabric.

I really enjoyed sewing these blocks up as it involved a completely spontaneous method in how they were constructed – which in turn is always a nice change from having to measure and cut pieces out exactly while making sure you sew a ¼ inch seam allowance etc. I was so giddy with excitement and happiness when I had them complete, I was dancing around the lounge room with a smile ear-to-ear!

This weekend I’m hoping to visit the Regeneration Contemporary Quilt Textiles Exhibition at Manly Art Gallery and Museum (the last weekend it’s on!).Hopefully it’s a nice day as it’s a ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly and they’re never fun trips when the weather’s rainy and yuck (maybe yes, when the harbour is choppy and the boat is bobbing up and down, back and forth like it’s nobody’s business!)

But visiting Manly is a highlight in anyone’s day whatever it is that you’ll be doing there – swimming, shopping, browsing, picnicking or (like me) for the ferry ride!! The shops along the Corso sell the best fish and chips, pizzas and award winning ice cream!

I also hope to check out the weekend Markets at The Rocks, something I’ve wanted to visit in a very long time! Plus, there’s this awesome button shop where the walls are packed with 1000’s of different buttons! A crafter’s heaven!! I always spend way too much money in that store – as one does! There are so many other crafty stores there like: Craft NSW Store, The Ken Done Shop, Parkers – Sydney Fine Arts Supplies and lots of little boutique art and textile stores as well as fashion, food and souvenir stores.

Gosh, I love visiting The Rocks!

Over the weekend I bought a new quilting book – Modern Blocks, compiled by Susanne Woods with well known quilter’s contributing their extrordinary talents in sharing new and modern quilt blocks. There are some really great designs in here that I can’t wait to get stuck into!

I particularly like this Union Jack one – Just Jack – as it satisfies my current obsession with all things British. I think it’s the whole Queen’s Diamond Jubilee fever that’s in the air, along with the Olympics as well as the fact I’m now saving to travel over there! Plus I have extended family in the UK who I’m dying to meet!!

This block is made with the paper-piecing technique – something that I’ll have to learn before I tackle this little jem. I can image a beautiful ‘Ode to Britain’ quilt being constructed with this block; maybe with a Pop Art colour palette or more subdued traditional colours. Hmm…the mind ticks over!!

Happy Sewing! xx

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