Sunday Stash – visiting at my place!

 Fiona from Finding Fifth is on a holiday with her gorgeous family this week, so Sunday Stash is being held at my blog, just this once!

Thank goodness I had some fabric arrivals this week to share – despite my self-imposed fabric ban, fabric keeps finding its way to my door. I am not complaining!

First up, some lovely fabric I received from Sew Me a Song as part of my prize from the Texting While Sewing competition. Look at all these gorgeous text FQs!



Ooh so much potential for fabulous paper piecing in this mixed bundle – newspaper print, advertisements, sewing and gorgeous script.

My parcel from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics arrived too! This one was the result of a gift certificate I received – also from the Texting while Sewing competition. It’s been the prize that just keeps on giving!



Perfectly Perched! How cute is this line! I’m really loving the aqua, red, grey thing lately. I know I’m late to this colour palette party but I’m making up for it now!



A few “filler” FQs just to add to the stash. My black and grey section of the stash needs a bit of building up. These fit the bill perfectly. And the needle and thread? Who could resist?!



And lastly (for today anyways – I’m holding back some to share when it’s a leaner week fabric-wise!), these three fabrics are from my lovely quilty girls! Birds from Marieka, chameleons from Jane and flowers from Fiona. Aren’t quilty gals the best?

So how about you? What have you added to your stash this week?

TGIFF – it’s here!

My turn to host TGIFF! How exciting! Hope that you’ve been madly working on a project to finish in honour of the occasion ;) Or is that just me?

Happy to say though, the madness paid off. I finished my paper pieced Iris Garden wall hanging!



Ahhh. I thought I was in love before, now I know I am. I think this is one of my most favourite projects. Ever. My favourite colours, my favourite flower, my favourite quilting technique. Lots of favourites make this a special project!



Excuse the bright sunlight highlighting each pieced section – it was the only way I could get a photo that comes even close to the vibrant colours of this project. I used four different shades of green, four shades of purple (a mix of Kona Cottons and Bella Solids– shame I can’t remember all their names hehe!).

This is the reference chart I needed to keep track of what colour went where:

As you can see – it was much needed!!

Despite having lots of pieces, no seam allowance included in the pattern (Iris Garden by Eileen Sullivan – I’d highly recommend her patterns!), and using freezer paper for the first time, it actually went together quite easily! A few unpicked seams – particularly at the end to line all the sections up but that was about it. The hardest part was deciding on the quilting!



At first I stuck with my usual straight line quilting – adding a bit of green to the leaves.
But then… I got brave.



I added a little bit of FMQ around the border. That’s right, I said FMQ. Something I am terrible at. I traced the design onto some paper and pinned it to the quilt then sewed over it. It’s still not terribly neat, but I think it passes muster. Barely.



I think the border adds a nice little touch! My Wombat Stew girls helped me pick the colour for border and binding – and as usual, they were spot on. Thanks gals!

It finishes at about 23” x 30”. I added some hanging triangle sleevey things on the back. Now to just find somewhere to hang it. Currently it’s on the door of my sewing room so I can admire it.

So now it’s your turn! What fabulous Friday finish do you have to share?



Link up here, and make sure you pop around and visit some of the other fab finishes this week (and leave a comment, because really, don’t we bloggers just live for comments?!).

WiP Wednesday – In love

 Only another quilter would understand. I’m in love with my current project. It is coming together so beautifully, and I just want to keep sewing and sewing! Know the feeling?

It’s my Iris wallhanging. Paper pieced irises. What’s not to love?!



That’s part of the centre panel. I’m using all solids - four shades of green, four shades of purple and some gorgeous aqua homespun as the background. The photos don’t do the fabrics justice. They are much more vibrant!

I love that when you’re paper piecing – it looks such a complete mess. Like really – how can this turn into something pretty?!



And yet – it does! Just have to wait to see the bigger picture once you put all those pieces together. I have to say, this is one of the most complicated paper piecing projects I have done but there’s quite a sense of achievement when the pieces go together just so. For the curious – not my pattern this time (I wish I was so clever!) - the pattern is Iris Garden by Eileen B. Sullivan. I bought my copy on Ebay.



It’s my first time using freezer paper for paper piecing. To be honest, I haven’t noticed that great a difference to using regular paper. I don’t bother ironing my starter pieces on so that hadn’t made any difference to me. It was nice to have the pattern already printed and ready to go – though there are no seam allowances added so I have had to make sure I remembered to add that crucial 1/4” overlap. To be safe, I’ve been using wildy oversized chunks of fabric.



So far so good! You’ll have to pop back on Friday to see it all finished! It’s my turn to host TGIFF – hope you’ve got a finish you can link up!

I have a couple of other WiPs – of the bloggy kind! I’m participating in two fun blog hops next month!

First up is Donktober – celebrating all things ridonkulous. What?! You haven’t heard of Donktober? Clearly not donkey mad like Erin of Missy Mac Creations. It’s a month long celebration to party your ass off. Honestly, the name alone lends itself to so many terrible jokes, can’t help myself. 



My day is 5th October – will be sharing something fab and donkey like! Here’s a hint! 



Then there’s also a fab blog hop coming up all about those gorgeous mini charm packs! You know, all those 2.5” squares. Ever wondered what to make with them? Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts did hehe! So clever girl set up the Sweet Treats blog hop for loads of ideas!



My day for that one is the 11th October. Can’t wait to share my project! Ooh and there’ll be giveaways for each day of the hop – who can resist that?!

Whew! That’s enough to keep a girl busy! Linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. Are you?

The 100 Day Hustle

I need to get organised. I know I have projects that need to be done, but I don’t have any record of them and let’s be honest, my memory’s like a sieve. So I don’t think it’s wise to rely on my mental list of projects that need to be worked on before the end of the year. So ! I am signing up for Kelsey’s fabulous idea – The 100 Day Hustle.
 

 The idea is to list the projects you have to work on before the end of 2012 – which is now less than 100 days away. Does that scare you? Yeah me too.

So here’s my list of things I’d really like done before then:

1. Iris Wallhanging
Madly in love with this and desperate to finish it. Currently it looks like this. Wish I was kidding. I am not a tidy quilter.



 

2. Diamond Stars
Still a quilt top. Needs borders, backing and the rest of it. Motivation, please return!





 


3. LEGO quilt for preschool
It’s my son’s last year at preschool so I thought it’d be nice to make them a quilt. Currently they use an old sheet for the LEGO – clearly they need a quilt!




 
4. Christmas paper piecing patterns
No picture because I have done nothing on this one yet!!
 5. Glasses case for Mum
Again, no picture, no plan, no idea.

6. Polaroid Block I-Spy quilt for kidlets for Christmas
The swap is under way – will I get it done in time? Who knows!




And my list of Who am I kidding projects – but it’d be nice to at least have started these before the new year:

1. The big family 90th birthday quilt for Nan
I probably should finish ordering fabric for this one,huh.








2. Seaside Cottage Spanish Tiles Clearly Needs a Better Name Quilt
I have the fabric, waiting on the book. This quilt is for me – no real timeline but I’m just itching to do something with this gorgeous fabric!



 
So having laid all these out, two things are apparent. One I need a whole lot more batting. Who knew I had so many quilts planned?! And second, I have a very poor concept of time management if I think I’m going to get these done by the end of the year. Hahahaha yeah wish me luck!

Sunday Stash Slacker

I have been very slack on sharing my recent stash acquisitions. Mainly because it was a bit crazy how much fabric I had arrive all in a very short amount of time. A little embarrassing perhaps. However my fabric bender is pretty much done (I say pretty much as there is still a parcel or two on its way!). Now I really have to get busy and use up some of this fabric!

Here’s my Fabric Shack order:



I love Fabric Shack. Half price international shipping! So we Aussie girls really make the most of it (there are another 5 FQs that belong to Kelly that were packed into this parcel!).
All the solid fabrics up the top are destined for the big 90th birthday quilt for my Nan – though I have pinched a few for a current project. And some novelty prints for upcoming bees and some that are just because I couldn’t resist! Mostly 1/4 yard cuts but turns out 1/8th cuts are pretty fun to get a little sample of fabric too. Plus – you can fit more variety into a package with smaller cuts!!

I have been good on my charm pack indulgences of late and only added one new to the collection!

No plans yet but it’s so pretty!

I also received some of my prize fabric from the Texting While Sewing competition! Some fab alphabet prints from the Summersville Line from Marmalade Fabrics. They were so prettily wrapped too!


And then my Seaside Cottage bundle (which I posted about the other day but it deserves another look!!) which I got from Sprightly Fabrics. There was a bit of a muddle up with my order so Monique kindly added a little bonus for me too (thinking new ironing board cover with the chevron?!).



So whew! No wonder my fabric cupboard doors won’t shut. Mr 5 attempted to close it and I explained it wasn’t possible as I had way too much fabric. His reply “But Mummy, you make such beautiful things with your fabric!”. Yeah his future wife is going to thank me (plus he changes the toilet roll with no prompting! I’m raising him to be one of the “good ones” hehehehe!). Right well that’s enough fabric sharing, now for more sewing.

Too early?

I know – it’s still September and too early for Christmas, though I’m sure it’s not long before we start seeing Christmas decorations popping up in the shops. But! My lovely friend Jane is hosting TGIFF this week so I wanted to make sure I had a finish to link up on her blog. But what?! I didn’t have anything to finish quickly.

So instead, I started something, purely to have a finish. That’s logical isn’t it?! I had this little Christmas mini quilt kit that I received from Sew Lux Fabric (bonus for spending x amount of $$ – love freebies like that!). It’s such a sweet kit and I have to say, my first quilt kit! Just a few hours and I have a very cute Christmas themed mini!



My appliqueing could definitely use a little more work, and I probably should have followed the directions to make sure everything was perfectly placed before I started stitching. But we’re going to pretend I meant for the bauble to be slightly crooked – it does look more joyful that way after all!



I did consider doing some fabulous FMQ around the mini but I only had 40 minutes til I had to do the preschool run, so straight line it was. We’ll pretend it has nothing to do with my FMQ chicken-ness and entirely to do with my lack of time.



The binding went on beautifully – all machine stitched. It does mean an extra line on the back but I’m good with that. The top looks tidy and pretty and that’s what counts!

The only thing I did differently to the kit was to add some little hanging corner thingies so this can be hung up as a decoration. The fabric cuts were generous enough that I had enough of the binding fabric to make the corners. Love!



I quite enjoyed making this little mini! Sometimes it’s rather fun and refreshing to make a quick little project – oh and look, it shows that occasionally I do something other than paper piecing! I know, amazing, right?!  Though don’t worry… more paper piecing projects are planned

Speaking of planning… I recently got a bundle of Seaside Cottage by Heather Mulder Peterson from Sprightly Fabrics.


I am seriously in love with this line of fabric. I really want to make a quilt out of it – but I couldn’t decide on a pattern that would show it off beautifully.  Until I discovered this pattern -  Spanish Tiles by Heather Peterson from her book Living Large 2. (I didn’t get a chance to ask to post the quilt photo on my blog so you’ll have to click through the link instead to see, but trust me, you want to see this!!) I rushed out (okay I was in my pj’s and I ordered online from Etsy, but you get what I mean!) and ordered it and it’s currently in the post on its way to me. Yay! I think this will look so gorgeous with my Seaside Cottage fabrics! I can’t wait to get started on that one!

Have you got something in the planning stages? Link up with Diane @ From Blank Pages


Oh and for the fabulous finishes – pop over to see TGIFF at Where Jane Creates!

Finally! A Diamond Star Quilt Top

I feel like my Diamond Stars have been a WiP for ages, but really, it hasn’t been that long. I just kept getting distracted with other fun projects! But I got busy today, decided that 7 blocks were enough, and put it all together in a little quilt top.



That sounds all nice and easy doesn’t it? Like I just sat down at the sewing machine, threw a few bits of fabric at it and voila, a quilt top! Yeah I wish. I think I broke my brain trying to work out this quilt top.

I sat for ages trying to figure out how to do the side set triangles, and then, wait, I don’t actually have typical corner triangles? So what do I do now?! I went back to my original design on EQ7:



Huh. I originally planned 8 blocks. That would have worked well if I had remembered I had Marieka’s block to add in. But did I think of that? Nope. Fortunately a little bit of rejigging on EQ7 gave me the layout I had in mind – and I was able to match my layout to the one on the screen. Notice I didn’t add those originally planned cornerstones? Yeah that was too much thinking for my already over taxed brain.



I did however find a fabulous resource for working out sizes for corner and side set triangles. There’s even a little chart at the bottom! Awesome! Of course, the chart does work a LOT better if you can follow directions well (let’s just say I have 16 triangles of the wrong size to add to the scrap bin – wait no, planned for another project, yeah that sounds organised!).

So that’s it. Finally some progress on the diamond stars. Now to make a back (which will have to feature Marieka’s fab block!) and get it done – perhaps for next week when I’m hosting TGIFF! Oh and if you’re keen – the Diamond Star is a free paper pieced pattern that you can find here.
 


Also wanted to say a big thank you to all those lovely bloggy types who responded to my call for pattern testers! I have a fab list now for future reference. Thanks also to those who have already tested blocks for me! I have now added the Sushi block to the Craftsy shop, and will have a few more patterns added soon.



Pop over and see Heidi  and Kelly’s versions of the sushi platters too! They both did a great job on this pattern!

Right now to go do something fun and relaxing while my brain settles down after all that strenuous quilt layout and triangle stuff it had to do!
Linking up with WiP Wednesday