Rainbows on Grey–finished!

 The big collaboration quilt is done! Tada!

Like literally. Just done. I whipped that baby off the sewing machine so fast and chucked it on the fence so I could get a photo before the sun went down. I risked leeches for these photos! Leeches!

Okay so I could have waited til tomorrow to share photos, but where’s the fun in that? Plus I wanted to have a Friday finish. It would have been done earlier if it hadn’t been for phone calls. You know, ones like from my sister telling me that she just got her commercial helicopter pilot’s licence. Yeah now phone calls like that make you stop sewing so you can cheer and dance about ridiculously while your children wonder if they are actually related to you. I’m stupid amounts of proud of my little sister right now.

Okay enough sisterly cheering for right now, back to the matter at hand. Quilting I believe we were discussing. I did some very basic straight line quilting on this one. It gave it all a kind of cool basket weave look so I left it as is. Minimalist quilter, that’s me. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The gorgeous Fiona from Finding Fifth made the backing for this. That row towards the bottom? All fantastic fussy cut I-spy fabrics. I had so much fun looking at all the different things included while I was quilting!

Oh and I’m a bit pleased with the binding. I think this is one of my best binding attempts yet! I machine bind (like the tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts) but I have discovered one little tip that makes a world of difference. After sewing the binding onto the back of the quilt, I’ve started ironing it to fold it over to the front. No pins, just a nice crisp crease. I got some really tidy mitered corners too. I used to pin and even with constantly measuring, it was often a bit more wonky than I’d like to admit. But ironing, made a big difference.

So this quilt has been made for Collaborate for a Cause and will be auctioned off next month to raise money for Angels for the Forgotten (they help kids in foster care). Hope it raises a nice little donation for them!

Thank you Fiona for agreeing to team up with me – it’s been such fun planning this and making it with you! We make a good team! You are five kinds of awesome. (Honestly, Fiona didn’t pay me to say that – not even with a little charm pack of Summersville that somehow got mixed up in her parcel to me hehehe (P.S. thank you lovely lady for the gift! )).

And after risking leeches for some photos of this quilt… I”m definitely linking it up to TGIFF. It’s over at Sparrow in Flight this week

WiP Wednesday – a quilt top and some blocks

How’s that for an original blog post title? Yeah I’m feeling the creativity today! Yes, total sarcasm. I have yet to do much in the way of creativity today. Although I did flip through my copy of Shape Workshop for Quilters. Does that count?

So let’s revisit some old friends who have progressed somewhat since last they cameo-ed (Is that even a word? I seem to make up words as fits anyways) here on my blog.

First up is the quilt top for a collaboration project. I talked Fiona (of Finding FIfth) into joining me in making something fabulous for Collaborate for a Cause. It’s all about handmade businesses on FB coming together to collaborate on something fun, then auctioning it off to raise money for a charity. We are hoping to raise oodles of dollars for Angels for the Forgotten.




So here’s my part so far! A quilt top. We decided to base it on the Zakka quilt, but sized it up a bit to use charm squares. Rainbow and grey – doesn’t it work beautifully?

My resident Chief Quilt Inspector provided a quality control check. Happy to say it passed her stringent criteria (it made her point and say “oooh” in delighted tones – I think that makes it a winner).



We used a mix of fun I-Spy fabrics with some great dots and stripes. You can pop over to Finding Fifth to see Fiona’s contribution – a fab pieced backing with some awesome I-Spy blocks mixed in. So it’s going to be like two quilts in one – bonus!

The backing is on its way to me now and I’m going to put it altogether, quilt it (straight lines will be the order of the day!) and bind it, ready for the big auction next month!

I have also finally gotten around to making the June Craftsy blocks! I have really lost motivation to continue. I couldn’t figure out why it’s not really doing it for me, until Jane at Quilt group pointed out that I’m a finisher, not a WiPer hence BoMs are not fun for me. They make me crazy because I can’t just whip them through and move onto another project. Thank goodness for my support group on FB otherwise I would have abandoned ship long ago! Right, enough blathering, more photos.





I have to say – they really were very quick to make. I think I spent more time choosing fabrics than actually sewing them. This line of fabric is Moroccan Mirage btw – isn’t it gorgeous? Even the orange is nice!

And here are my blocks together:




Why yes, there are two blocks missing. I skipped Hexagon month as I hate hand sewing. Oh and please excuse the large expanse of floor showing in my photo. New computer, new programs and I’m still trying to figure out how to edit and resize photos.

One more block for the road. This one I loved making! Lara (from LuellaBella) is Queen Bee for July (that’s right – I’m early!) and is making a gorgeous reverse rainbow star quilt, just like this one designed by another member of our Quilt Club Australia – Kat from Mumma’s Time to Create! I had the light green block. Lots of fun pulling out light green fabrics! I tend to have a few as green is a fave colour of mine. Can’t wait to see all the blocks together – it’s going to be a stunning quilt!





As for Peacocks in the Garden, it still looks like this. That’s right. Zero progress. Maybe today.





And that’s all folks! Enough wip to keep me going while I decide on what to work on next! ;)

Peacocks in the Garden

 My Cuzco Garden Fence quilt top has a new name – thanks to Taisia of Piecing Light. It’s now named Peacocks in the Garden – thanks Taisia! Perfect name for it. :)

Oh and yes, it’s now a quilt top, not just blocks! Progress! And of course there have to be photos as proof. So here you go!

Okay so that doesn’t really show off the quilt top, but it does show the pretty colours! I’m all about the pretty in my quilts.

Here we go! Peacocks in the Garden – still a work in progress, but oh how i”m loving how it’s coming together!

I have to say, I didn’t picture quite how lovely it would be when I was just looking at a stack of blocks. Pretty though they are.

Oh and I have to share this little picture. It should be titled “This is why you need to square up your blocks”.

That’s right – that’s all the scraps leftover after I trimmed my blocks back to lovely 10” squares. I don’t know about you but when I’m finished sewing up my blocks, I’m so tempted to just sew them together. Squaring up is soooo boring. So this pic is a little visual reminder to myself why that squaring up is necessary. That’s a lot of excess cut off! But worth it – as it makes sewing the blocks together and lining them up so much easier.

So – still to go. Quilting. I’m thinking straight line quilting echoing the white sashing. Simple, and easy. I’m still not game to try my FMQ skills on an entire quilt top. And I need to decide on a backing and binding. Or do I skip the binding all together? Decisions decisions!

But while I decide, I’m just going to enjoy the pretty. This is what Cuzco plus Bella Solids look like as a Garden Fence quilt. Definitely pretty.

Linking up on a Monday with:

Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon

Is that song stuck in your head yet? Yes? Good. You’re welcome! :) It’s my theme song for this post. I’m listening to it as I type, so I like to think that it’s on replay in your head too (“you come and go, you come and gooooo” – is that enough o’s?). Right, if that hasn’t shown my age yet, we’ll move right along.

Wondering what my random tangent about Boy George and the Culture Club has to do with anything quilty like?  This little happy chappy put the song in my head.

My second chameleon paper pieced block! And look! He’s in orange! Amazing isn’t it, considering my aversion to orange. But I had a plan for this little guy and he needed to be orange.

I made him into a little bag as a surprise pressie for my good friend that I roped into sewing for Collaborate for a Cause. Figured she deserved something for signing on with me ;)  (Btw that lovely friend is hosting a Blogiversary giveaway – check it out here!)

As she loves orange, and blue, and Denyse Schmidt fabrics… well you see where I’m going. Those ideas all put together resulted in this little tote bag! It’s now arrived at its new home so I’m free to share pictures.
 
Look, I even put orange fabric on the inside! That’s how much we’re friends. I used orange, Fiona, orange!! It went against every quilty instinct I had, but I did it! I’m not sure I can say orange is my new favourite, but I was able to sew it without shuddering.

So details – fabrics are mainly Denyse Schmidt – I don’t know the specific names but I bought them at Spotlight. I’m sure that’s very helpful information.The pattern is by Joanna of Shape Moth and is available for purchase here. I love it. It’s a fun pattern to make and very cute. I don’t normally like making patterns more than once but I love making this chameleon. I’m even thinking about another one! This is my last one so you can see how cute he looks in green.

And that, my quilty friends is my finish for this week. Even though I actually finished it ages ago. I’m pretty pleased I managed to keep it a secret all this time! Linking it up with the other fab Friday Finishers at TGIFF - it's over with Gemma at Pretty Bobbins this week.



Oh… and here you go. Go on. Click Play. You know you want to.

A Cuzco Kind of WiP

I have made progress on my Cuzco Garden Fence quilt! That clearly needs a better name. Any thoughts?

Last you saw it, it looked like this:
Now it looks like this!
Love love love. Of course it still has another two colours to be added to the mix which will give me another two rows for a nice square quilt. I will be adding white sashing between the blocks too to break up all that solidarity. I know, I’m completely using that word in the wrong context (in the words of Princess Bride, “I do not think that word means what you think it means”)  but you get what I mean, right?

So details – if you haven’t worked them out yet. Central fabric is a charm pack of Kate Spain’s new line called Cuzco. Seriously, soooo love this one. The solids are Bella Solids that I tried to match. Some are spot on (thanks to the great listing on the United Notions site), some aren’t quite but will do in a pinch. The pattern is Garden Fence by Hyacinth Quilt Designs – freebie and fabulous. Thank you Marieka for inspiring me to try one of my own!

And because I love it and that small photo doesn’t do it justice, here are a couple of my favourite blocks.
Isn’t that peacock sweet? Shame it’s missing its tail! The Bella solid is Azalea. Gorgeous pink.
Loving those flowers. This Bella Solid is Amelia Lavender.Which I luurrvvveee (or love if you don’t speak “ridiculous”).
This solid is Amelia Purple. I think I luurrvvveee it even more than the Lavender. Are you sick of looking at blocks yet? Okay just one more. 
  One more peacock – this one with its tail! The solid for this one is Turquoise.
So I have 17 squares done, 8 to go!

Oh and one last thing… go cast your eye over the gorgeous quilts up for voting at Ellison Lane’s Summer Sewing Contest. My gorgeous friend Fiona from Finding Fifth made the top 12 with her Fussy Fairytales quilt! So exciting!

Well that WiP is calling my name. Must be time to sew.

My sewing machine is happy

After being my sewing buddy for over a year now, my sewing machine now has its own fancy-pants cover!



So much better than the lousy flimsy plastic sheet thing that came with it! Let me pause here to say… I think it’s ridiculous that the sewing machine I bought, which is clearly geared towards quilters (it’s even called a Singer Confidence Quilter) came with a flimsy light plastic cover. Quilters go to quilt group. That requires taking your machine with you. Surely a hard cover would be a necessity? It came with an extension table and a heap of great quilting feet, but no hard cover? Really? At $500, I would have liked a hard cover for my sewing machine! What’s the deal?

Right. That’s out of my system. And there I will end my little rant on sewing machine covers. Because the lack of a proper cover led me to make this one and it’s pretty. So I’ll enjoy the pretty.



Plus I am happy that a UFO is no longer a UFO. It can now be happily added to my finished projects list. I started this one back in April and it stayed just a block while I pondered how to go about turning it into a sewing machine cover.


The block is paper pieced and believe it or not, this is a free pattern by the very talented Charise of Charise Creates. I so love her work.  This is probably the hardest paper piece block I have tackled yet so I am thrilled with how it turned out.


The fabric is Purple Fan Flower from the Good Fortune range by Kate Spain. I used up the last I had of it on this sewing machine cover. A good use I say. Look, I even had the perfect sized strip to line up the back!

 
Originally I intended to make sides for the cover but I ran out of fabrics. So ribbon ties it is! They work perfectly though :)


So yay! A happy sewing machine. A happy me. Finished projects make me happy.

While I’m on about UFO’s becoming finished projects… I must join Fiona in pointing you over to Local Honey Crafts UFO Challenge. There are some amazing prizes up for grabs and all you have to do to enter is finish off a UFO that you started before June and finished during June. Easy hey! You really ought to check it out, not many entries yet!

Sunday Stash - Cuzco

I couldn’t resist. Look at these colours. And those flowers. And that peacock! How could I resist?! Cuzco by Kate Spain is gorgeous. That’s all there is to it.
This is a picture of the layer cake, but I only bought a charm pack. Would have loved more but the fabric budget only stretched to a charm pack. I bought it from the lovely Anorina at Fabric Buzz – fab little shop for Moda pre-cuts Aussie and Kiwi gals!
So then I needed some solids to go with it. Did you know that United Notions not only shows pics of all the fabrics, but also the Bella solids to match the line?! I didn’t. Until now! Makes it a lot easier to do online fabric shopping! This is the pdf that shows Cuzco in all its lovely glory.
Next stop was Fabric Patch – an Aussie shop that stocks a nice range of Bella Solids. Not all the ones I wanted, but I was able to get some exactly right and some that were pretty close.

I already have a plan for this fabric. So unusual for me! But it helped to work out how much of each solid I needed to order etc. I bought 1/4m cuts as I’m planning to make the gorgeous Garden Fence quilt.  I had a little taste of the block design back in March when Marieka requested this pattern for her Bee blocks. They are fairly quick to make. Something I plan to take advantage of at Quilt Group this afternoon. Hope to blitz through quite a few squares!
These are the colour groupings I’m thinking of:

And then I have all these leftover:

Not sure what I’ll do with these yet, maybe something for the back of the quilt? Or just let them absorb into my stash to be used up in projects in the future.

I’m a bit excited about this project – can’t wait to see how the blocks come together! For now though, better make tracks. Quilt group awaits! :)

Linking up with  Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth :)