Moving Time!!!!

I am in the process of moving my blog over to http://www.iamacraftykat.com (self hosting - i know fancy!!)
My goal for next year is to blog a bit more (it is hard using blogger on an ipad - hoping wordpress is easier) and do some tutorials and possibly some patterns! All while probably returning to work full time - sleep is totally overrated!

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Sunday Sewing

I think the best decision I made this year was to join my local modern quilt guild - the Greater Western Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. I have heaps of fun at the sewing Sundays and meetings. I think the idea of talking fabric and techniques are lost on most of my friends so finding a group of like minded people is so exciting. 

We had a sewing Sunday today and I worked on a few different things. First up was my Quilt Con Charity blocks. Not the greatest picture but here they are. The top block is my own design, which it drew up in the iPad app Quiltography. The bottom block is a bit of improv left over from the top block.

We are also doing a Teeny Weeny Swap with the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild and the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. The idea is that the piecing is teeny weeny. For my partner I have made a mini Dilly bag with some churn dashes. I originally made 6" blocks but then decided I could go even more teeny.   So the 2nd lot I did were 3". And as I didn't want to waste the 6" they went on the base and back.

Now onto the winner of the Gypsy Wife QAL. It must be getting to the busy part of the year as there were only 2 entrants. 

Drumroll please .... Congratulations Rachel at  Farm Gal Designs 

October Gypsy Wife QAL and link up

Welcome to my turn on the Gypsy Wife QAL for October! I am loving the pace of doing this quilt a little at a time. My quilt started out with a fat quarter pack of Sarah Watson's "Indian Summer" fabric range and I started to develop my palette around those colours. I even had a trip to Amitie Textiles (home of the Gypsy Wife!) last month when I was in Melbourne to start collecting fabrics for the strips.

For October, you should have the following plus now a love/hate relationship with triangles.

1 Nurses Cross (and I just had to fussy cut the word "Gypsy")

2 Old Maid's Puzzles

5 square in a square blocks 4" finished (4.5" unfinished)

I think my top tip for this quilt is to use glue to baste your pieces. I am a big fan of using glue in quilting, especially with tiny triangles. I use Elmers's liquid glue with the fine tip and I find it works a treat with keeping everything straight and not warping.

So if you are playing along with the Gypsy Wife QAL please link up your October blocks for a chance to win a $25 Fat Quarter Shop voucher. 

I will keep the link open until next Saturday morning (Aussie time!)

An InLinkz Link-up

Finished Dilly Bags

Hi and welcome back to the Dilly Bag Along hosted by the wonderful Angie at GnomeAngel - for the finished products!

Here are my two versions of the bag. The first is my bag featuring the gorgeous Australian fabric from Emma Jean Jansen's Terra Australis range which was my first attempt at fancy fussy cutting. I can't wait to do more of this style of fussy cutting in the future!

The second bag is my daughter's, who picked out most of the fabric. When I gave it to her this morning she said she didn't want it as it is not purple - her favourite colour. Anyway we got back on track and now she loves it and has already stuffed it full of toys! And how many toys can we fit in it....

Dilly bag-along

Hi and welcome to my stop on the Dilly Bag Along hosted by the wonderful Angie at GnomeAngel!

I am a fairly recent convert to hand sewing and the hexagon but I am totally addicted now! I think the thing I love is having something portable to take each day and force me outside to eat lunch and sew hexies in the sunshine (well that is the aim)!

Now onto the Dilly bag! I am actually making two versions, both fussy cut but completely different. The first is using some gorgeous Australian fabric from Emma Jean Jansen's Terra Australis range which is my first attempt at that lovely fancy fussy cutting where you start to make secondary patterns.

The second (well there had to be a second as I knew my 4 year old would totally covet the first bag and want one of her own) is done with some fun fussy cutting of animals, mostly picked out my little Miss.

I have used English Paper Piecing to join my hexagons together instead of free-form hand sewing like the pattern says. Now I am going to be completely honest - I have no idea what templastic is or where to buy it! Instead I used the plastic base out of one of my green environmentally friendly bags. It seemed to do the trick!

The other handy little shortcut I did was to glue down the top section on the inside of the bag. I am a big fan of using glue in sewing and I use liquid Elmer's Washable glue with a special fine tip. I put a fine line of glue under the inside seam, then heat set it down with my iron. This meant that when I stitched in the ditch on the outside of the bag, I knew I was going to catch the inside hem (without using any pins!) I also used glue for the ends of the ribbon.

 So I hope I have given you a few tips - It is such a fun bag to make and it really holds a lot of stuff. Come back on the 17th October to see my finished bags (I reckon I can even persuade my daughter to show you how many stuffed toys it holds.)

Check out some of the other stops on the blog hop and there are a few more stops to go before the final linky party back at Gnome Angel! I believe there are some awesome prizes!!

Wednesday 23 September: Sharon @ Simple Things

Friday 26 September: Sharon @ The Projects of My Life

Wednesday 1 October: Judith @ Just Jude

Friday 3 October: Progress link party here @ GnomeAngel.com

Wednesday 8 October: Kate @ Stitched with Love

Friday 10 October: Kathy @ iamacraftykat ----------------that's me!----------------

Monday 13 October: Barbara @ Sunflower Stitcheries

Wednesday 15 October: Rachel @ Little White Dove

Friday 17 October: End link party here @ GnomeAngel.com

September Gyspy Wife Blocks and Creativity

I love this months Puss in Boots block! and oops made an extra square in a square! It will just give me a few more options when I put it together.

I  listened to a fantastic webinar over at the Modern Quilt Guilds website from Anne at Playcrafts on the theme of "creativity" and her Quilt Design A Day (QDAD) group. I never really considered myself as "creative" - certainly crafty and productive but creativity was not something I thought of. So I decided to set myself a little challenge, there may have been a smack on mid-thirties birthday for me at the start of September and I thought it would be nice to start recording my something creative I did each day - whether it be designing, drawing, sewing etc. I also thought it would be awesome to see the evolution of projects I work on and it kinda shows how many things I work on at a time! Hopefully my failed #blockadayjuly blocks might reappear! So this is my Creative September - only missed one day even though I was in Melbourne for a few days!

 

Supertoting

A while back I made myself a supertote - perfect for hauling projects around and I even take it to work if I have paperwork to haul around! (might need a second ...)
I made it using my new favourite block "Fox and Goose" and used some awesome fabric from Jessica Wheelahan called "texttype". I think it is available from Material Obsession but I have her email if you are interested! It is is perfect mustard fabric and it is a little heavier than quilting cotton so it was perfect for my bag!

Well I also had a conference in Melbourne in September and decided to make a long weekend of it when two of my girlfriends also decided to tag along and make it a super long weekend! One of them lives in Perth so we don't often all get to catch up. Both my friends are quilters (or learning) so fabric shopping was certainly on the agenda. Therefore they both needed supertotes as well - how else where we going to carry fabric around??

And here were my fabric purchases... Amitie Textiles on the left and GJ's Fabric on the right. Supertotes did well :)

G + Y Wedding Quilt

I get very excited about making wedding quilts - there is just something special about making something celebrating such a beautiful event. My friend G from Melbourne recently got married so of course I had to make a wedding quilt. We had only met Y a few times as we live in different cities but I knew her favourite colour was green and I wanted to keep it masculine and minimalistic as I know G likes that style. After searching Polka Dot Tea for some perfectly yummy green and grey fabrics and playing around with a few designs - I decided that a simple plus quilt was the way to go. The green is a Michael Miller Cotton Couture in "Turf" - my new favourite colour!

I was really hoping to get a pic with a tram in the background but they ended up all too shady!

I used 4" squares and once I had laid out the quilt used this fantastic method from Poppyprint to sew it together.

It was really quick to sew together! I quilted it in a square random grid kinda way using a few different shades of grey and green aurifil thread across it diagonally.

The back is a light grey and a panel from Jeni Baker's Nordika range - it matched perfectly with the grey. I also embroidered a "G + Y"  into the panel but forgot to take a photo!

I was in Melbourne over the weekend so I got to hand deliver it to the recently wedded lovebirds!

Dilly Bag-a-long

Have you heard about the Fussy Cutters Club hosted by Gnome Angel - there is going to be a Dilly Bag-a-long using Judy Newman’s Dilly Bag pattern. 

As a recent convert to hexies I am going to be part of the blog hop so watch this space! I had my orange fabrics out the other night so I may have already started...

You can purchase the PDF of the pattern from Gnome Angel

Where did August go?

Wow, what a quick month! It was quite a productive one for me!

First if all, my Gypsy Wife blocks



I really cannot wait to put this together! Though the thought of cutting all those strips has me a bit scared!
I was super lucky to win last months gypsy wife QAL giveaway over at WIP Girl - a $25 Fat Quarter voucher. Very pleased to report this went on a bloc-loc HST ruler (plus then I had to fill the cart so I got a few backing fabrics)

I was originally down for November for Stash Bee but swapped with one of the other members. I have been thinking about this quilt for a while now - a bookshelf quilt for my little girl. She turned 4 the other day and is a massive book fan! You can see my tutorial over at the Stash Bee blog but here is my block!




Xx

Gypsy Wife QAL Progress

Well I have been plodding along with my Gypsy Wife each month. I am loving how much this quilt is making me think and challenging me.
Here are my July blocks



And my June blocks

Block a Day July

I bought some new tubs to start sorting my scraps in colour order the other day. I grossly underestimated how many scraps I had! One out of the 4 boxes kinda got sorted. When I say scraps I mean like 1" squares and tiny odd shaped scraps. Some got sorted into a box to take to childcare for collage but some I could not part with! I was thinking I needed to do something improv to start actually using them. The lovely Adrianne from On the Windy Side then decided to set herself a Block a Day July challenge - so I decided to play along. I decided to do QAYG mainly because I think it will be another for of scrap busting all those odd sizes of wadding I seem to accumulate. I will be putting them together using the Pile O Fabric method from the 2013 Skill Builder which I finished at the start of the year.
This is my first batch - Rainbow!!!!




I am also practicing my free motion skills. I am making great use of the online tutorials from the Free Motion Quilting Project by Leah Day. I am using the very sophisticated method of sorting it alphabetical and choosing the first design from each letter. I think it is pushing me to try something that I perhaps would not have usually tried.

I am hoping I can keep the momentum up for the whole month - along with my other projects and work and kids etc yikes I also have a conference paper to write!!!

Guess who got a quilt frame!

ME!!!
I have been toying with the idea for a while now and then a friends mother was selling one... it happened to be Mothers Day... well it happened! It is quite large and I am still playing around with it. I really need a new machine to go on it as my Janome just does not have the throat space to do the designs I want. Seriously considering a Juki and saving up! It is funny when I go shopping now as I constantly ask myself  - new machine or new {insert random object here}.


My first go - not too bad!


then my first big project

This quilt is for my friend Kristy (or Kiki as my kids call her) she asked me to make one in red and aqua - not usually my colours for quilting and she gave me free reign over the design. I decided I wanted to do a half square triangle quilt with all different designs. My almost 4 yr old daughter wanted to design one of the blocks (can you guess which one) which made it a really personally quilt for my friend who loves my kids so much!


I quilted it fully on the frame - in a scallop all over pattern. I broke the thread so many times in the middle of the quilt it was starting to drive me crazy! Maybe it is a tension issue? I had a little issue with the quilt bleeding when I washed it (even with using 2 colour catchers) - just two fabrics I used in the centre panel bled. No too noticeable but I think I will be more careful using red and white next time.

Of course the backing had to contain shoes for the shoe lady - lucky i found this awesome print.

Outside my window: Twinkle Twinkle

The Quilter's Guild of NSW and Quilters Companion Magazine and Brother International (Aust) Pty Ltd are running a under 35's quilt competition with the theme "Outside My Window". I only JUST fall into that age bracket so I decided to enter *bites nails*. I struggled with the theme for a few weeks but then decided to make some stars!

With my bundle of Kona Summer 13 colours I won from the Feather QAL, I took out all the bluey colours and matched them with another fabric in my stash. The star blocks are a paper piercing pattern from Ula Lenz called Foldstar. I enlarged them and decided to use a LV background. I also decided to add some interest and use a black star and yellow star in opposite corners (OK that was code for I didn't have enough blues..)

I bought some Lizzy House Constellations fabric to back the quilt and while i was pondering the plain border I had planned decided I should try to replicate the constellations fabric. Lots of tiny equilateral triangles. But I am so happy with how it turned out!

I actually thread basted this on the quilting frame which was an interesting exercise. Was not quite confident enough to do the quilting on it though! For the quilting I did a falling star sort of pattern. The border is done in a milky way sort of vortex swirly pattern.

GWSMQG and a Sew Together Bag

I have been a part of the Greater Western Sydney Modern Quilt Guild for a few months now and am absolutely loving it! I love being part of the sewing community online (how great is Instagram!) but to part of a group that meets and sews and talks about fabric is amazing! Plus I get to escape the kids for 1 day a month just to sew!
Last weekend we made Sew Demented's Sew Together Bag led by our guild leader Lorena. Now the bag looks complicated but as long as you are used to zippers (and even if you are not) it isn't that bad! I am trying to keep all of my little sewing supplies in mine at the moment because I am constantly losing them.

I did the QAYG method and used some scraps left over from by Tsuru Quilt which is still unfinished! I made some flying geese and randomly put it together.






While I had the pattern fresh in my mind I decided to whip up another for my Sew Sew Modern partner in her favourite colours. I am not usually a pink person but I am super excited how this came out!

Blogger's Quilt Festival May 16th-30 2014

Welcome to the Blogger's Quilt Festival - May 2014 hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side

Well my blog has been very quiet of late but man have I been busy! The quilt I am entering would almost certainly be my most favourite quilt to date (and it is all mine, I ain't sharing!!)

The pattern is awesome Feathers by Alison Glass and Nydia Kehnle and the fabric is the gorgeous Koi fabric from Cloud9 Rashinda ColemanHale, plus a few Alison Glass fabrics thrown in and Essex yarn dyed linen in black. This was my first time quilting with linen and I am totally in love with it!

 

With the quilting I tried to echo the patterns in the Koi fabric. So I did some circles to kind of make a ripple effect. I used freezer paper to cut out enough circles for one line then free-motion quilted around them. When my freezer paper no longer stuck I used glue instead! I also did some feathered arrow ends in between in the ripples. The texture on it is just lovely.

The backing is one piece of Alison Glass fabric (can you tell i kinda have a crush at the moment) and I used glue to match up the pieces so you cannot seen the join.

I think I am a little proud of this quilt - I even entered it in Australia's First Modern Quilt Show  - white gloved ladies touched it!

Thanks for visiting and be sure to drop by some of the other amazing quilts at the festival.

Details
Size: 55"x 66"
Pattern: Feathers from Alison Glass
Quilting: Free Motion Circles and Arrows
Category: Modern Quilts

Bye January

Well January, what a random productive month!

My Finishes...

My Bees and BOMs...

In Progress...

And I have been eyeing off the Gypsy Wife pattern by Jen Kingwell for AGES! Then I discovered there was a year long QAL. I am certainly a sucker for a QAL so pattern has been ordered. I have done a quick fabric pull of some items I acquired in the Great Aussie Destash - Indian Summer bundle and some Nordika. I am loving the icy palette so I think that might be my base fabrics and the rest will be supplemented from my stash.

Skill Builder BOM 2013

I finally had some time to try to photograph my Skill Builder BOM in the daylight! I say try cause this quilt is BIG! We made great use of the kids trampoline and my tall hubby on a chair. Still the wind decided to pick up, then the dog tried to photo bomb - I think this is the closest I am getting to photograph it!

I started the Skill Builder BOM last year as I mainly wanted to "try" free motion quilting and develop some other skills. Well I can say I am thoroughly addicted to it now (and glue basting!). I was only using scraps for this quilt as my main aim was to develop skills. I used a palette of pinks, blues, yellows and greys. Now I am certainly not a pink fan so I originally never intended to keep it. Now I cannot part with it! It is like a catalogue of free motion stitches for me, as every block in the border is done differently. You can certainly see how my confidence was built throughout the quilt.

It was mostly all scraps - the exception being the grey and backing which was yardage in my stash. I got to the border stage and I almost didn't put it on as I had run out of the grey yardage. I was visiting my hometown over Christmas and I knew I had originally bought it from Spotlight, and they were having 40% off so I bought some more yardage. Then got back to Sydney to discover that it was a different shade of grey! I ummmed and arrrred and then decided to continue with the border. I made the joining binding strip a different colour to seperate the greys. I love how it looks now!

I had so much fun making this quilt. I definitely think the Quilt As You Go method is great for larger quilts that I find difficult to quilt on my little janome. Big thanks to Alyssa for such an awesome pattern! Now bring on the Skill Builder 2014!

Yellow and Grey...

Sometimes you just need a quick and simple quilt to do. I think as I get more confident with different skills I just focus on the more complicated piecing (which is fun but certainly more time consuming!). I had just got back from a mothers group playdate and cursed myself for still not having made a quilt for a new bubba of one of my group who I had promised one to. I was scrolling through bloglovin and saw the As Easy as ABC QAL from Blossom Heart Quilts. Instant inspiration! I would spell out his name with the blocks.

I knew the colours of his room were yellow and grey so I dove into my stash and found some cute contenders! I trimmed all the blocks to 8" x 10" and quickly pieced the top and back in one night! 

I quilted it in a wonky chevron, marking the lines with my Hera marker ( which is my new favourite tool!) and bound it in a light grey.

I love a quick finish! Now I can't wait to see them again to give it to him!

A + A Quilt

Finally a quilty finish for me! It was a few months late for the actual wedding but I was determined to finish my sister-in-laws wedding quilt before the end of the year - and I did!

I started doing the Sew Mama Sew Modern Block of the Month2, designed by Alyssa Litcher from Pile O Fabric. It was always intended for my sis-in-law but I needed an extra 3 blocks to make it big enough. So I did my favourite "A" "+" "A" blocks. Purple is their favourite colour and I had somehow amassed a lovely array of grey fabric. Each block has a different grey in it. While the A + A have all of the colours I used.

The back is an appliqued heart on top of 4 fabrics which I think represent the couple perfectly. Mrs A - loves life and elephants, so she got little hearts and of course little elephants. Mr A is a bit of a computer....errrr....gamer so he got keyboard and he also loves photography so he got some cameras.

I free motioned the  heck out of this baby and I love how nice and soft it washed up! I still haven't given it to them yet but I hope they love it!

And of course I need to include a photo of the lovely flowergirl and her spunky brother (not that I am biased in the slightest). Both in handmade outfits. Miss E is wearing the Peekaboo Dress (pattern from Betty Kingston) and the pettiskirt from hell containing 90 yards of ruffling. Mr C is in a re-purposed mens dress pants turned into the Quick Change Pants (pattern by Anna Maria Horner) and appliqued vest and a sewn on bow-tie.

And extra bonus is that I actually had a finish on my FAL Quarter 4 list! Yay! My original list is here.