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.

2014

2013 has been a fun year for me in terms of social sewing! BOM's, QAL's and Bees!

So to start off 2014 ....

 

that should keep me out of trouble for a while! (and 2014 is going to be the year of FINISHING all my other WIPs!!!!)

New Cushion for ME!

My 11 month old is mobile and he has discovered my little stash of fabrics that I keep in the dining /sewing area. I mostly keep fabric for current projects and the last fabric order or two cause I am a bit lazy. As I started to pack it all away I found my three waterfront park fabrics and decided to do something with them before they get absorbed into the stash! Oh and there was a lovely low volume pack from pink castle fabrics as well...

Teeny log cabins with strips just 1 1/2" wide with some sweet carrot Essex linen (which is being used for another project) as the centre. I made all the log cabins and could not decide what to do in the centre so I winged it. As math was not my strong point it failed so I sliced and diced and it turned into what it is! 

If I had more waterfront park I think I would have kept going as I think this would look awesome as a quilt - but then it would probably never leave my WIP pile so it turned into a cushion. It is fairly big and fits a size 20 cushion nicely.

I followed Adrianne's lapped zipper instructions and I will certainly be doing more cushions like this!

I feel very satisfied with getting this completed and am one more step into making my home reflect me as a crafty artist. Is there anything wrong with giving myself a cushion for Christmas? Let's say it is from the kids!

Linking up with Ms Midge and the Christmas Cushion Blog Hop . There are certainly some lovely cushions to check out here!