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.