Friday Night Sew-In

Its that time of the month again. It's time to join up to Friday Night Sew-In being hosted by Heidi and Bobbi. Where has the month gone???

I've got some great plans to achieve some finished quilt tops. How about you?? Let's hope that I have a good run at the sewing machine.

I hope that I can last some distance. Early mornings are a killer and I've had lots recently. Lets just say it is still dark when I'm up for the day. 

Anyhow, I'm hanging out for Friday night. DH returned to work this week and is working nights on this Friday. I have the lounge room/sewing room, TV and the evening to sew till I drop.

W.I.P Wednesday

It's that time of the week again. Bloggers from all around head over to visit Lee at Freshly Pieced for W.I.P Wednesday.

I have a confession. I am completely exhausted this week. Master L has taken to waking early again. So from 5:30am onwards our day (or should I say Mummy's day) generally begins when my darling cherub wakes up. Oh how I miss my sleep in. (I can call 7am a sleep in at our house)

So moving along...this week there has been a W.I.P finish. Yes that's right. I have finished another completed quilt. It went to its new owner on Sunday. The little girl in question celebrated her 5th birthday. This W.I.P started out as a challenge set by Moda Bakeshop and I never finished it until now. You can read more about it here.

I finished off Rose Star 4 using my 1800 reproduction fabrics. I have more cut but not basted.

With all the early mornings, DH was kind enough to let me go and have a lesson on a new project. I had so much fun. Now I have another W.I.P. Thanks to my special friend Michelle who hosted the lesson. You are the best and I just love your sewing space. Super jealous.

I spent the morning with Miss A at Kindergarten. It was my turn to help out. I cut up some hexagon shapes Tuesday afternoon for make some hexagon flowers. The little ones had fun pasting the material shapes into hexagon flowers on paper. Not everyone joined in but there was much enjoyment had by all who participated. I had fun too.

Playing Around with Funky Monkey

This week has seen another quilt finished and off to its new home. There is a bit of history to this one that I'm happy to share.

When Moda were having their challenge last year, I decided to give it a go but I never finished the entry and missed out on meeting the deadline. The unfinished quilt went into my UFO pile to be remembered every now and again.


I decide when looking at my UFO projects what could be achievable to finish as a birthday gift. This one popped into my head as it was mostly finished and had some great colors for a little girl. The Tractor Derby quilt was made for her little brother. It was only fitting that his big sister get one of her own.

It was really easy to piece together and the quilt top is made from charm squares cut into tumbler blocks. The pattern came from the Moda Bakeshop blog of course. I used Erin Michael's Funky Monkey range for Moda fabrics. There are 5 charm packs in this quilt top.

I just followed the pattern and Eco quilted the quilt using the edge of my walking foot around all the tumbler blocks. My binding was a candy pink solid.

Playing Around with Funky Monkey

Finished Quilt Size: 52" X 54"
Fabric:  Funky Monkeys by Erin Michael for Moda fabrics in charm squares. Backing was a floral design. Binding a candy pink solid.

Pattern:Moda Bakeshop Original Recipe A Sweet Baby Quilt by AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilting: Eco quilted the tumbler blocks in candy pink Aurafil thread.

Made for: Miss Charlotte Worner for her 5th birthday.

Completed: March 2012

A quilt lesson with friends

Saturday was a great time out for me. I had some me time and a lesson from a great friend. I learnt to make or at least start a scrap basket lattice quilt.

It was super nice to have a day sewing with no mummy duties. DH your very lovely to give me some time off. The kids were well behaved as well.

I have wanted to make this quilt when I first saw it but its not for beginners. It requires lots of sewing and following instructions closely.

I raided my stash. I'm using 25 FQs of Rural Jardin by French General and a natural homespun as my background. I spent Friday cutting my material.

My mum and friend Meryl also joined in the fun. It was a great day. Fun had by all. Thanks Michelle. Your the best.

Mum hard at work

Me

Meryl

W.I.P Wednesday

Today is Wednesday and instead of being away on my family holiday, we are at home as our holiday was cancelled due to floods. Not at my town but where we were planning to stay. So some parts of Australia are experiencing flooding and parts of US have experience tornadoes. For all my friends out there, I'm thinking of you and hope that you are all well and safe.

So I've decided to hook up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for W.I.P Wednesday. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Lee in being a finalist for the Modern Mini Challenge that was hosted by Ellison Lane Quilts. Your mini quilt is beautiful. You definitely deserved to be a finalist. Good luck in the votes.

Now for my week. 

I managed to finish off my Modern Mini Challenge quilt too. I made the Octagonal Orb block using Tula Pink fabric with Kona solids. You can read about it here. I had fun making this challenge and I pushed myself to think outside of my box.

I also managed to finish off another Rose Star Block in civil war fabrics. I have completed 3 now and number 4 is nearly completed. 

 

Miss A has a birthday party to attend this weekend, for the big sister of the little man who received Tractor Derby. I have a W.I.P quilt just waiting to be finished off and be given as a present. Keep posted for further pics and another finished quilt.

So head over and visit Lee for W.I.P Wednesday and see what else she has been up to over the past week.

Modern Mini Challenge

Have you seen this around blog land??

What an opportunity to try out something new. I decided to join up but have keep it pretty hush, hush in case it didn't eventuate. It has been hosted by Jennifer from Ellison Lane Quilts

This was just the chance I needed to pull out some of my modern fabric collections and play around. I was inspired by the Octagonal Orb Block that appeared in the Modern Quilt Guild's 100 days - Weeks of Blocks that appeared on my Facebook. I am a fan of Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson and she adapted this block from a pillow design. You can read more about it here.

So the fabrics I decided to use were Tula Pink's Prince Charming Range. I purchased some of her 6" charm packs. Six to be exact. I also have some yardage tucked away for just the right project.

I added some Kona Medium Grey into the mix as my background. It was a super easy block to put together. There is a bit of preparation work to have all the fabric cut. But the block sewed together quickly. I put it together in one evening. Elizabeth's instructions and pictures for the block are very well done. I didn't find myself having to go over instructions to make the block.

I decided to play around a bit with what fabrics I would use in the rings. I didn't use any of the aqua/pink/red range in the mini challenge and stuck with the greens, olives, aqua, teal and yellow. I am really happy how it turned out.  I added 2.5" border around the block.

I used my walking foot to complete some straight line sewing. I wanted to keep the pattern of the Octagonal Orb in the quilting. Around each ring I used my walking foot as a guide and quilted next to the seam line. I used a matching grey thread as the dark thread did nothing for me. I decided as I quilted the mini quilt that I wanted the Kona background to have some more feature. I used more quilting lines keeping with the Orb pattern to complete this.

The binding is Kona Coal. I thought that by adding the dark solid, it would frame it more. 

 

My backing is an aqua and white check. Can you see the detail of the quilting???

 

Modern Mini Challenge

Finished Quilt Size: 21" X 21"
Fabric:  Tula Pink's Prince Charming 6" Charm squares, Kona solid in Medium Grey and Coal. Aqua and White check for the backing.

Pattern: Oh Fransson's Octagonal Orb Block

Quilting: Straight line quilting.

Made for: The modern mini challenge with Ellison Lane Quilts
Completed: March 2012

So what do you think?? I have a new modern wall hanging for my house. Don't know where it is going yet but there is opportunity everywhere. Or it happens to be my sister's birthday this week (6th March). What a birthday present!!

Small Blog Meets

I was perusing some of my favourite blogs and came across this in the land of blog.

I am considered a small blog with under 50 bloggers. Lily's Quilts created this to encourage new bloggers or even bloggers with a small list of followers to get out there and meet other like minded people.

So I am putting myself out there as a small blog. Come and check me out. 

I'm also adding my link to Lily's blog. There are others out there just like me. So check them out as well.