Quilt-a-long Geese : :

Quick update on my last post,  I have finished my flying geese for the Happy Quilting quilt-a-long.



I'm really loving the fabric that I've chosen. I cant wait to sew it all together!!

I have to work this afternoon, so I have a couple of hours with the kids. I might see if i can finalise my fabric choices for the quilt!

Jessica

Happy Quilting Quilt Along # 3: :

Well, the tumble weeds have been blowing in around here.
There has been lots of sewing going on, but unfortunately not much blogging.

Ill try to catch up on that later, but for the minute, I am joining in again with Happy Quilting's quilt-a-long. YAY! This will be my third happy quilting quilt, and they are always lots of fun. (Check out my first and my second) You can check it out here if your interested in joining in on the fun! 

I wanted to make a big quilt. A 4 by 4 layout, in king size. I seriously spent hours last night pulling fabric from my stash. I honestly pulled nearly all of it out, and I'm just not feeling it. I just cant seen to get the right combination of fabric!!

It was doing my head it, so I crammed it all back in my cupboard (folding is for the weak!) and I decided to at least start with a cushion!

I'm making a single block, in the smallest size (20 x 20 inches). Something is better than nothing right?  And it lets me still quilt-a-long while i figure out what I'm doing with the quilt.

The blue/grey upholstery fabric, and the brown velvet are actually left overs from an Amy Butler ottoman I recently made, more about that later.

The navy floral is from happy-go-lucky, Moda, and the others are just randoms from my stash (I think the script is from Michael Miller).

So that's the cutting done!

Cant wait to put it all together! (and figure out my quilt!)

Jessica

One For Me : :

I have decided a few things of late.

The first being that I'm going to participate in the "Splendid Sampler".  If you haven't heard of it, I'd highly recommend a look.

I love that its slow place, and I'm also enjoying the surprise.

Instead of picking specific fabric for this quilt, I'm just going to use what takes my fancy at the time. No theme, colour scheme, or anything! (I'm not even going to use all quilting cotton!)

My fabric scraps are also going to be my first port-of-call when looking for fabric.

Ive actually found that I have memories associated with my fabric scraps. Weird right?  I remember what I made from them, and some of things that were going on while I was using that fabric.

While the dresses, bags and other things that I made may have long since worn out (or been donated or gifted), I still remember those things with the scraps that I've collected.

So this quilt is purely for me. For fun. To make a quilt that may or may not be pretty, but will incorporate those memories.

Im putting no limitations on myself. I simply will select the fabric that takes my fancy for the day, and make the block.




So for the first block, it was these fabrics. The toadstools was from a backpack I made Little Miss I when she started 3 year old kinder. The blue/gray dots, and mustard solid where I dress I made her when I was pattern testing for "sewing in no mans land", and the red polka dot a left over from two baby quilts I've made, one for my sister, and one for my sister in law.

So all those memories have now been captured in this block.




I'll share my progress on this quilt with updates through out the year. Im interested to see where it takes me.

The second thing I have decided is that I'm no longer going to feel like I 'have to' sew things for others, esspecially when I dont want to.

Ive made so so many things for family and friends. Quilts for babies, bags, costumes, mending, big quilts, you name it, I've most likely sewn it and given it away. 

Some times I enjoy it, most often not so much. So this year, Im not doing it anymore. If someone has a baby, and I dont want to, or have the time to make a quilt, Im not going to feel like i have to.
I can be completely ok with buying baby stuff for gifts, same as everyone else.

Im also not doing anyones mending (seriously, I hate doing my own), nor any other type of sewing that i dont want to.

This has kind of come around because Ive been so busy making things for everyone else that I never even made Little Miss S a baby quilt, and she is turning one next week.

So hears to a year when I only use MY hobby, for things that I want to use it for!!

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright!!

If you follow my blog you will know that I am doing the Happy Quilting Quilt-a-long!!
I chose to do the 4x4 Queen layout, each block in this layout is 40'' square!!
I love love love the large blocks!! After finishing all four of my blocks, I realised that I don't really need another queen size quilt....

But what I DO need is about 4 baby quilts!! I don't know if this is allowed (sorry Melissa!) but I *think* I'm going to just leave the large blocks as they are and turn them into baby quilts!!

I'm not 100% decided with this..I may use one of two as a baby quilt, and then whip up another few blocks and turn the whole thing into a quilt after all....or I was even thinking of backing it in laminated cotton and making a picnic quilt......or using 1-2 for baby quilts, then making little picnic quilts for tea parties for my girls...

Ha ha, as you can see, I'm not 100% yet what I'm going to do with these beautiful quilt blocks! I love how they are just so darn versatile!

Sorry for my lack of ironing.....My twin girls have to go to see the speech pathologist this morning, and I didn't want to be running late, so I had to just take a quick snap. I'm also working tonight (I'm a nurse), and I wouldn't get this up in time for the grand prize ...*fingers crossed*!
Ill take some better photos in the coming days and show you my other four blocks!

Jessica

Block Corners : :

So...I finally caught up with the Happy Quilting quilt-a-long. I was soo far behind! There has been so much happening here lately, some good, some bad.
Good news is our house is sealed up! We pulled down all the internal walls that needed to come out (we are renovating) and then had to lay the floor. Its been a trying couple of weeks with birds coming in and out of the house, but its finally all closed off!!

I have finished this weeks assignment (just in time too!) ...so here are my block corners for my quilt!

 

I cant wait till its all sewn together! I haven't used the BSR on my new Bernina 440QE yet, and I really plan on putting it to the test on this quilt! (By the end of quilting a queen quilt, one would hope I would have the hang of it!)

I have lots to put up here and now I have found my charger to my camera, I can finally take some photos of the things I have been making!

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Half Square Triangles : :

The next assignment we have been given in the Happy Quilting Quilt-a-Long, is the half square triangles.  Nearly there!! YAY!!

I cant wait for the next assignment! My favourite part about quilting is putting the blocks together. I changed the layout ever so-slightly that Melissa gave us. I really hope it turns out well!

Something that I have never done before I started following Melissa's blog, is trim my half square triangles. As you can see above, most of them have been trimmed, but some haven't (I will remedy that before I sew them into the blocks!). Since the first time I trimmed them with her last quilt-a-long I have always trimmed them!

I'm always surprised that no matter how carefully I cut, and how precise I try to be with my 1/4 inch seam, they are nowhere near perfect!! Trimming not only makes them the perfect size, but gets rid of those annoying dog ears, that get in the way when sewing the blocks together!

If you want tips on how to trim your half-square triangles, Melissa has a fantastic tutorial over on her blog.

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Flying Geese : :

The next step in the Star Light Star Bright quilt-along is the flying geese. I love love love the way Melissa does hers. I do them this way every time.
However everything was combining against me making these flying geese last night!
After first realising that I had done all my cutting wrong last week,  re-cutting everything, sewing my fabric together the wrong side down, then having to unpicking it all and sew them again, I finally have my super-sized flying geese to show for all that frustration! (I was seriously thinking of just giving up on this quilt-along...for like half a second. So glad I didn't!)
So here they are....flying in formation!

I am LOVING these colours. SO fresh and lovely.
Be proud of me. Seriously. I did all of my trimming by torch light last night after the power went off for 8ish hours! Pretty much as soon as I had finished ironing my last 'goose', off it went. Thank heavens I didn't need my sewing machine or iron anymore!

Hope next weeks assignment runs a lot smoother than this one!

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Cutting : :

As part of the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long that I've joined I have to post a photo of my weekly process and link it up on the Happy Quilting blog.

I decided to go with the Just Wing It fabric. I also completely changed my mind and I am now making a 2x2 block quilt. Each block will be 40'' x 40''. I'm using Kona white for the background which Im excited about as I don't have any white quilts yet, and I'm hoping it will have a lovely fresh-modern look to it.

So here is my progress thus far...

Last time I did a quilt a long with Happy Quilting, I chose a 4 x 4 block quilt. It looked fantastic, but it was soo much work making 16 blocks. I'm very happy to be making only 4 blocks this time!

Jessica

Quilt-A-Long with me! : :

I'm so excited!! Melissa over at Happy Quilting is having another quilt-a-long!!
I joined the fun for her last one, and ended up having that quilt on show!!

This quilt-a-long is called 'Star Light Star Bright'. Here is a picture of the pattern using a bundle of fabric that is for sale (check out Melissa's blog for more info).

 Cute huh?
So....for this one I *think* I have decided to do a 3x3 queen sized quilt (there are lots of different layouts and sizes to choose from).
Now just for picking out my fabric.....Ive raided my stash (in true stash diet style), and have come up with two different fabric bundles that I could use for this quilt.  Help me choose!