Quilt as you go...

Penny from sewtakeahike hosted a little quilt-along earlier this year. It looks like a great way to use up scraps of batting and fabric, so I had it bookmarked for laters.

Then, Kellie from the Australasian Bee sent out her fabric for May, and asked us to make up one or two blocks using Penny's tutorial. I was only too happy to oblige. Kellie's blocks are the last two pictured (blogger didn't put the pics in the right order).

After making Kellie's blocks, I realised how great the individual blocks would be for making cushion covers. I needed two for a birthday party on Thursday night, and managed to churn them out pretty quickly.

The orange and brown one went to a 4 year old boy,

the blue and green to a 3 year old boy.

Their mums were delighted!

Below are Kellie's two blocks.
They measure 10 inches square,
and both feature a gorgeous little fussy cut Heather Ross print. Too cute.

I have loads of batting scraps taking up precious space in my fabric cupboards, so I look forward to making myself a 'quilt-as-you-go' quilt sometime soon. For now, though, I'm frantically trying to get my sister's birthday quilt finished in time to present it to her on Tuesday night. Wish me luck!

Grandmother's Garden

I thought I'd post some progress pics of my hexie quilt top (and, in particular, the back!) after seeing Christina's work. When I saw how neat and tidy the back of her hexagons were, I felt a pang of jealousy (and a little bit of shame) that hers were so neat and mine are not. She has done a very beautiful job!
But then when I flipped mine over to photograph it, I remembered just how beautiful I think the back of my hexagons look. And really, not so messy as I had imagined.
In fact, I was discussing the back with my sister just the other day, and she commented that it looked a little like fabric origami. Then, as i recall, she said it would make a great scarf, and we both took a moment to stare off into the distance imagining a fabric origami hexie scarf....

My hexagons are made using 1 inch precut paper shapes and 2.5 inch squares of fabric. How do you make your hexies? Are they tidy like Christina's, or fabric origami like mine?

May Bee Blocks

For Julie

Two for Nichol

Contemporary Quilt Blocks

July is my month to send out fabric for the Bee Addicted 3 quilting bee, and after months of indecision I've finally settled on the style of block pictured below.

I made my first prototype today, and I'm really happy with how it looks.
I'm using kona cotton in charcoal for the background, white for the strips, and Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons for the coloured pieces. This block measures 10 inches square.

When I'm deciding on quilt blocks for a bee I never draw up a plan of how the quilt will look, or what size it'll be. I figure that all that will be decided when I have all the blocks laid out in front of me. I can always add borders if it needs to be bigger :)

For those of you who make quilts, do you draw up plans first? Or do you fly by the seat of your pants like I do?

Glorious Colour

My drought-breaking purchase of Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons arrived today.

They'll be sent of in late June to my fellow Bee Addicted 3 bees with some charcoal or coal Kona cotton.

Sewing Machine Cover

Here it is - the sewing machine cover I made for Nova as part of the Urban Home Goods Swap.

I was inspired, of course, by the Denyse Schmidt Single Girl quilt pattern, but opted to make my own version of the circle that was small enough to fit on the cover.

When Ollie saw a photo of this yesterday, he called out "My O! My O!". I now have to make him something with the 'O' for Ollie on it :)

Urban Home Goods Received

I'm feeling very fortunate at the moment. Look at what I received in the post last week!

Four beautifully made place mats and a moleskin journal with gorgeous fabrics stitched to the front. Perfect for a quilt journal, me thinks. I can write down my ideas for new quilts, with block layouts and measurements, etc. Perfect.
This was all made for me by a talented crafter from Denmark, Isa. Thank you, Isa! I love them.

The goodies I made for my swap partner were posted late (but I used Express Post, so hopefully that makes up for it!), so I won't show you any pics til they've received it. Hate to ruin the surprise :)

(crappy photos taken on my phone)

Squid Eye

What sounds like a terrible water-born disease of the eye is actually just the name of one of these quilt blocks - see the middle one.

Tanya from the Beehive asked for circles. She included a photo of this great squid eye quilt as part of her inspiration .

The two blocks with the coloured backgrounds are smaller, 6 inches I think, and the circle on white is 12.5 inches.

Aren't they great colours!

Catch Up Post

April was a busy month for me. As well as working more regularly (and saving for a trip to Japan later in the year- more on that another time), I have been quite productive. I'm caught up on all my quilting bees, and have even posted off most of the blocks (I'm pretty bad at posting things on time). I've nearly finished my secret swap item for the Urban Home Swap, and I've also nearly finished 2 quilts - the smaller is nearly bound, and the larger is nearly quilted. Very good for me, I like to start things then lose interest well before it's finished.

So, onto the show and tell. This block was made for Katrina from The Beehive. It measures 16.5 inches, if I remember correctly.

This is a single bed quilt that I'm making entirely from the stash (saving money for Japan, remember!). The dark blue is Kona cotton in Indigo, most of the rest of the whirlygigs (or windmills) are made from a stack of leftover fabrics given to me by mum last year. They are not what I would ever buy myself, but I like how the quilt has turned out. I've thrown in a few other fabrics from the stash to get the size I wanted. I've quilted more than half (so far) with an invisible thread - not sure what I think of the invisible thread, though. I like that the stitching is, well... invisible, but it is shiny, which I don't like so much. Jury's out.
Below is a block I've just made for Julie, also from the Beehive. She sent out some gorgeous Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons that have caused me to splurge on fabric for the first time since December!! It was a self-imposed fabric diet that shall continue from tonight onwards :)

Anyhoo, the block measures 13-ish inches (slightly bigger).
Last, but not least, Viv from the Australasian Bee asked for 16 inch blocks with 1.5 inch squares (but not limited to squares!). It's been interesting seeing the variety of designs that the other bees have come up with. I thought I'd throw in a curved corner since I'm not scared of them anymore :)