Category Archives: finishes

Quilts for Lachlan & Heidi

Hello! I’m still here! Went a little bit AWOL from blogland for a bit there. The 1st Modern Quilt Show Australia back in May last year was a huge success (more on that to come) but boy, was I wiped out afterwards. Just as I was getting my sewjo back a couple months later, we went and bought a house (as you do) and so everything was packed up and moved and unpacked. There was just enough time to settle in before all the Christmas/Birthday craziness, with a few house warming parties thrown in for good measure and so here we are at the end of January and I’m finally getting back in the groove.

I have been sewing & quilting a bit here and there and popping pics up on instagram. Now I finally have a handful of fun things to share with you all, including a couple of special quilts for two awesome little people.

First up is Lachlan’s quilt, a Single Irish Chain in rainbow colours over a silvery mid-grey solid background. It worked out about 42″ square.

Lachlan's Quilt

Simple straight line quilting outlines the chains in both directions, and bright blue binding keeps things fun.

Lachlan's Quilt - Detail

For the back I used a darker grey (which I secretly prefer and wish I used it on the front to, the colours pop right off it). Both quilts have their name and the year embroidered on as a simple label.

Lachlan's Quilt Label

Heidi’s quilt features pinwheels, made up using the leftover HSTs from another quilt I’m still working on. This quilt measures about 36″ x 47″.

Heidi's Quilt

The fabric line is Domestic Bliss by Moda, with Moda Solid in Snow as the background. I’ve quilted straight lines in the sashing and border to help define the individual pinwheels, and hand quilted inside the background on each pinwheel using Perle 8 thread. This was actually my first attempt at borders, for some reason those long strips scare me but at least on this smaller quilt it worked out ok.

Heidi's Quilt - Hand Quilting Detail

I love this binding, is there anything Architextures Crosshatch (in Plum) cannot do? Another embroidered name & year.

Heidi's Quilt Label

I hope to see both these quilts being dragged around, snuggled with on the lounge, used as picnic blankets outside and maybe occasionally make it back onto the beds of two adorable little munchkins.

Quilts for Lachlan & Heidi

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!

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.

Super Stars – A Finished Charity Quilt

Super Stars is my first quilt finish for 2014. It probably should have been my final finish for 2013 but just spilled over, oh well it’s finally done! It finishes at 60″ x 75″ using a 4×5 layout of 15″ blocks.

Super Stars - WMQG Charity Quilt

I used a 50w Aurifil thread (2021) to free motion quilt a pattern of loops and stars in the background and a wonky star in the middle of each of the pieced stars.

Super Stars - WMQG Charity Quilt - Quilting

This quilt was made as part of the Vintage Made Modern charity quilt challenge, issued by Rachael, the leader of our guild, to use up some of the huge stash of vintage fabrics we’d been gifted, as well as to help our favourite charities.

Some of the blocks were cut & pieced by fellow members of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild at our dedicated sew day in August (yep that’s me, piecing away on my Juki and pulling a ridiculous face). We managed to get all the blocks cut and pieced in the one day.

Super Stars - WMQG Charity Quilt

Over the next couple monthly sew days I got all the blocks put together into a top and then basted the quilt. The floral print on the back was the first fabric I picked and then I pulled the other fabrics from there. All except for the yellows are a white-on-colour small floral print.

This was my first time doing free motion quilting on anything larger than a fat quarter, it was also my first attempt at machine binding. I used a 2.5″ wide strip for my binding to give myself a little extra to catch on the back. It’s a good method, I just need a little more practice so I can then reduce the strip width back to my usual 2.25″.

Super Stars - WMQG Charity Quilt - Backing & Binding

I’m linking up this finish with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Christmas Presents

*blink* I totally missed that, where did the last couple months go?

During November I was mostly working hard and travelling all over the place including two cycling trips down to Bright, VIC which is the most beautiful place and highly recommended! December has been… interesting. I’ve had to put on my nurse cap after the other half broke his collarbone in a race on one of said cycling trips. The plus side of that has been that he’s home more (not always out riding) and I’ve naturally retreated to the safety of home and doing the things that bring comfort – like working on quilts and other sewn gifts for Christmas.

Most of these items were finished just in time to be gifted, so I didn’t get a chance to photograph them properly, but was able to get a few decent pics on my phone & up on Instagram. So here goes… Insta-Christmas!

It was the year of the zippered pouch, I think I’m up to 6 so far and had a great time choosing fabrics and matching threads from my Aurifil suitcase (best prize ever!). I love this tutorial by Make it Perfect for zippered pouches, and I finally mastered which way to fold the zipper for nice neat ends, woohoo!

Choosing Aurifil threads for Xmas gifts

Below is one of the finished zippered pouches. The front is a screen printed panel featuring the Eye of Horus, I printed a stack of these as part of a 2 day screen printing workshop with the delightful Saffron Craig back in October with the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild.

Xmas zippered pouches with screen printed panels

A quick collage of some of the items I made for presents.

  • Top left & bottom right are three of the zippered pouches I made, these went to my three closest friends filled with goodies.
  • Top right is one of the cushions I made for my nieces. The side shown is part of a panel from the Magical Lands line from Saffron Craig from a couple years ago (not that I was hoarding it or anything). Both pillows have this on one side and the other side uses different prints from the same line, with each of the girls initials added using raw edge applique, to help prevent any fights about which cushion belongs to who. These finished at about 12″ square and have a hidden zippered in the bottom.
  • Bottom left is a log cabin pin cushion made with Liberty fabrics for the Wollongong MQG Kris Kringle swap. This finished at about 6″ square.

Xmas Gifts Collage - Zippered Pouches & Cushions

And finally, I may have gone a little overboard with washi tape, but how cute are those trees!

Xmas gift bags decorated with washi tape

Here’s hoping you had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. So long 2013, bring on 2014 and all that lies in store.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Madrona Road Festival Flags

Madrona Road Festival Flags is my fourth quilt finish!

It was completed as part of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road Challenge and just in time for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. If you’re visiting from the festival, welcome!

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Front Madrona Road Festival Flags - Back

This baby quilt measures 35 inches by 48.5 inches. Most of the bunting flags were hand appliqued to the quilt top, however some flags were made to be double-sided and left loose for little hands to play with.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Front QuiltingMadrona Road Festival Flags - Back Quilting

I echo quilted the flags with up to 5 lines and the filled up from the string below, roughly half an inch apart. My favourite, favourite bit is in the top right corner where I decided to echo quilt some phantom flags, inspired by a tip from Angela Walters in her Craftsy class on Machine Quilting Negative Space.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Favourite Detail

The print fabric is Madrona Road by Violet Craft, and was very generously donated by Michael Miller Fabrics for the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge which many members of our guild took part in. Our fabric didn’t arrive until January and was handed out at the February Sew Day, with the finished quilts to be ready for our May Sew Day. While we weren’t able to be a part of the main challenge it was a great experience for many of us, and every single quilt was so different. The solid yellow was also supplied and I used Kona White for the front and Kona Medium Grey for the back. You can see more of the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road Challenge Quilts on Flickr and the WMQG website.

I finished the quilt off with a cute scrappy binding and after a wash it’s come out nice and crinkly. There’s no label on yet, but once the new owner is chosen it will be included on a extra flag on the quilt back.

Madrona Road Festival Flags - Scrappy Binding

Last year I saw so many wonderful quilts during the Blogger’s Quilt Festivals in Spring and Fall (Autumn), I’m still surprised that I’ve actually made some of my own quilts and am so happy to be able to participate. If you haven’t taken part before don’t be scared, just take part and enjoy being part of this awesome event.

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2013