Aussie Modern Instabee – April

Yep I realise it’s June. I fell a bit behind with my Aussie Modern Instabee blocks which my bee mates have been very understanding about.

On the plus side, it has worked out that I’m making the same block pattern for both April and June so getting all the cutting done at the one time and making a single text block has been great.

Here’s my Trellis Crossroads test block in my colour scheme of rich jewel tones & a scrappy low volume background. I played around with my fabrics to make a bit of a gradient around the quarters.

Aussie Modern Instabee - Trellis Crossroads test block

And here’s my April block for Claire who requested emerald greens with a pop of orchid on a medium grey background which she supplied. I was a bit low on greens so it was a great excuse to extend the range of greens I had. There are some real beauties in there including Botanics with a hint of metallic gold, Terra Australis, Saffron Craig & Pearl Bracelets to name a few.

Aussie Modern Instabee - Trellis Crossroads for Claire

Unlike me, the bee mates I’ve had so far have all been super prompt in sending their blocks to me. Clockwise from the top-left we have my March block from Natasha, May block from Crystal, June block from Clare and my April block from Liz.

Aussie Modern Instabee - Mosaic Tiles blocks March-June

I’ve got my June block cut out and ready to go (the same Trellis Crossroads pattern as above) and my May test block has been done so I’ll be taking those along to the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild Sew Day this Saturday and I should be all caught up!

Sunday Stash – Catchup

I may have been quiet here recently but not for lack of new fabric acquired, so what better way to resurface than with a Sunday Stash (linking up with Quilt Show Winner Molli Sparkles), and a sneak peek at what’s been keeping me busy (psst… it’s sparkly!)

Sunday Stash - Fat Quarters from Kate Quilts
Making more of an effort to buy citrus colours, the purple is from Collage which I’ve always wanted and the kitties were just too cute. All purchased from Kate Quilts at the Quilt Show.

Today I’m sharing the fabric I picked up at Australia’s First Modern Quilt Show. April was a whirl wind of helping to get everything organised for the show and not a lot in the way of sewing, except for the quilt sleeves on the back of my quilts.

Sunday Stash - Low Volume Fat Quarters from Kate Quilts
Adding to my mini stash of low volume from Kate Quilts, these have been great for the Aussie Modern Instabee

It was hectic but all worth it, we were so happy with how everything went and that so many people came to visit.

Australia's First Modern Quilt Show
The main hall of Australia’s First Modern Quilt show, see more photos over on Instagram #modernquiltshowau

We also had a wonderful range of stalls who I was more than happy to support, I just wish I has some more time to go shopping. I did get to go visit My Patch Fabrics in Milton after the show and picked up a few more low volume pieces to.

Sunday Stash - Screen Prints from Ettie + Marion
These beautiful fabrics were hand screen printed by Minevra who launched Ettie + Marion at the show. The octopii were a bit creepy at first but I think they’re more friendly in peach.

As soon as the show was over I was straight back onto another project, a costume that had to be ready by the end of May (eek!) for WAMED, the West Australian Middle Eastern Dance Festival. Lucky I enjoy hand sewing because this was pretty much all done by hand. The sequins are a fabric, I’m not quite crazy enough to sew all those on individually but it is a pain to sew through. The beads and crystals take a while but they’re sparkly and pretty to look at so not all bad.

Anubis Costume - original design by Virginia Keft-Kennedy
Anubis Costume – so shiny, yet tricky to capture in a photo!

The costume is an original design by Virginia Keft-Kennedy with each of the seven performers designing their own motifs. Being creative on a short deadline isn’t always fun but I’m happy with how all the motifs turned out.

Anubis Costume - Motif close up
Motif close up to show the colours of the Volcano crystals – my favourite

Australia’s 1st Modern Quilt Show

It’s finally here! Only one more sleep until we open the doors to Australia’s 1st Modern Quilt Show.

This year the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild is presenting a Modern Quilt Show for the annual Berry Quilt Show. We’d love to see you there if you’re in travelling distance. Berry is a gorgeous little town with lots of fun shops, great cafes, and the markets will be help on Sunday just down the road. For more details visit the website.

We have some amazing quilts from Kathy Doughty, Sarah Fielke, Deborah Louie and some of my favourites from blog land Jess @  Elven Garden Quilts, Amy @ Badskirt and of course Molli Sparkles!

Australia's 1st Modern Quilt Show Flyer

Our committee has been working tirelessly to get everything ready. It’s our first ever show so we’re jumping in the deep end and there’s a lot to learn but considering we’ve only had a few months to pull everything together I think we’ve done a pretty good job. There’s a lot to learn and we have lots of ideas for improving things for next time.

I cannot wait to walk in and see all the hanging quilts tomorrow.

Aussie Modern Instabee – March

It’s been a bit quiet over here, I’ve been a busy little bee and there’s lots to share with you all. Rather than hanging out here, I’ve been building the website for Australia’s 1st Modern Quilt Show presented by the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild, and helping out on the committee for that, it’s all very exciting and I’ll have more on that soon.

I also just spent an amazing weekend learning from Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession, in a two day modern wedge workshop. She’s one amazing woman and gave me a bit of a kick in the pants to enter the Under 35s Quilt Competition so I hope to share my quilt progress for that to.

Aussie Modern InstabeeSomething else new for me that I wanted to share is the Aussie Modern Instabee! Back in February I saw a few posts on Instagram about organising hives for a quilt bee based on the book Modern Bee by Lindsay Conner similar to those happening in the states. I haven’t joined a bee before as I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up and that my work wouldn’t be to a standard where I could make things for other people. I tried a block of the month last year and got a few months in but didn’t really have anything pushing me to get the blocks done, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy making them and I hope to finish them off but I need a little more concrete motivation. After checking out the book I decided to put my hand up and give this bee a go.

The Aussie Modern Instabee (#aussiemoderninstabee) has been organised by the awesome Lisa Chambers (@chambsvacc) who has pulled together 6 or 7 hives of 12 people each to take part in this awesome bee (there are 10 or more hives in this bee in the US)! Rather than it being 1 persons month to receive all their blocks, it’s been organised as a round robin, where each month everyone makes a block for someone else, which means we’re all working on different blocks and everyone gets a block each month. I’m in hive 3 and you can find all our blocks and chatter on Instagram with the hashtag #aussiemoderninstabeehive3, while you’re there you can find me @pescapresents

I’ve chosen the Mosiac Tiles block and have requested bright jewel tones ranging from greens through blues, purple, pinks & reds against a scrappy low volume background. You can see my example block below.

Aussie Modern Instabee - Mosaic Tiles Test Block

Here’s the first block I received in March from the lovely Natasha.

Aussie Modern Instabee - Mosaic Tiles Block - March

The first block on my list to make was the Come Together block, this one is a monster finishing at 20.5″ square (20″ square once in the quilt), so with just 12 blocks you get a 60″ x 80″ quilt. I’m making a test block for each different block design in my own fabric scheme just to make sure I get it before I make my partners blocks. I quite enjoyed this one and really love the size. Here’s my block in jewel tones & low volume.

Aussie Modern Instabee - March - Come Together Block Tester

And here’s the block for my partner Alex who supplied the greys so that all her blocks match at the joins, and requested aquas, teals, navy with a bit of mustard yellow and a white background. I hope you like it Alex!

Aussie Modern Instabee - March - Come Together Block

I’m really looking forward to trying out the variety of blocks, I think our bee only has 2 double ups across the book so there will be plenty of new skills to learn.

Riley Blake MQG Challenge – Quilt-As-You-Go Bag

It was a perfect match, a Modern Quilt Guild Basics Challenge sponsored by Riley Blake Designs to make anything quilted, with six fat-eighths to start us off, and a fabulous Craftsy class to make Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags that I could not wait to try. I’m so excited to share this bag so look out, lots of pretty pictures coming up!

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

I’d been hoping for a chance to take the Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags Craftsy class with with Tara Rebman when it was announced that Riley Blake Designs would be sponsoring the 3rd annual MQG members fabric challenge, we heard about it at a Wollongong MQG sew day and I knew exactly what I was going to make. Light bulb moment!

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

We received our fabrics towards the end of last year as 5.5″ x WOF strips from the range of Riley Blake basics. The fabrics I received were:

  • solid dark grey
  • light grey and white 1″ stripes
  • navy and white medium gingham
  • aqua tone on tone medium chevron
  • white on yellow small dots
  • orange pop

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

I’ve supplemented these with some other Riley Blake fabrics from my stash and a few solids including:

  • yellow tone on tone small dot
  • orange tone on tone small dot
  • white on aqua dot
  • orange solid
  • yellow solid
  • sea green solid
  • navy solid for the bias binding
  • navy blue solid cotton duck cloth for the bag base

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

I started off by cutting a few small and medium strips and squares of varying sizes from each fabric and began the quilt as you go process which uses a log cabin approach. Each round adds a new piece of fabric to cover the join of the previous two pieces and gets quilted down (as you go), towards the edges using pre-patched slabs rather than single fabric pieces. Stay tuned for an upcoming post reviewing the class and sharing some more details of the bag making.

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

I used Aurifil 50wt threads for this project, a light grey/silver (2600) for piecing & quilting the main panels and navy (2745) for quilting on the base panel and attaching the bias binding. My quilting is roughly 1/4″ apart, though I did vary on purpose to give some subtle difference in textures and in some cases to suit the fabric.  My favourite part of the quilting is this navy gingham piece below.

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

The bag is a pretty good size as you can see above with it on my shoulder. In opens up wide and has a handy flap with magnetic snap to keep it closed. I included both pocket options, a hidden zipper pocket on one side and a divided pocket on the other.

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

I really love these challenges, this one in particular took me out of my comfort zone with colour but seeing all the fabrics combined I quite like the overall effect of the outside of the bag.  I wish I didn’t choose an orange solid for the lining, next to the navy binding all I see is football team colours. This is a perfect case where a subtle tone on tone chevron or dots would have been a better choice for such a large area. I already have some fat quarter packs of the Riley Blake small dots and tone on tone dots and I’m sure more of their basics will make their way into my stash, I just haven’t been able to source it locally yet so couldn’t get it in time to finish my bag.

Riley Blake Challenge - Quilt As You Go Bag

A huge thanks to Riley Blake Designs for sponsoring this challenge and providing the fabric for us to play with. Thank you also to the Modern Quilt Guild for organising these challenges for us and to our awesome leader Rachael of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild who does all the organising so we can participate.