I'm so excited! I'm so excited!

That's what my daughter exclaims just before lifting a flap in a lift-the-flap book. It's also how I feel about Wollongong getting its own Modern Quilt Guild! Unfortunately, I've missed out on the first few meetings (things like my son's 5th birthday party getting in the way), but the coordinator has been excellent about communicating with me and invited me to participate in the group's first charity quilt. Here's my contribution:

I was sent the pink squares and added the rest from my stash. We were asked to add jewel tones from our stash and use this tutorial to make a 12.5" wonky star block. I love using scraps from special projects - all three were used to make a dress or skirt. I hope I've done it justice!

When I go to my first meeting later this month, I plan to sew lots of half square triangles to start my daughter's quilt. She was very interested when she saw me laying out the squares for Joseph's quilt:

We looked at fabrics and patterns together and she was very opinionated - It's a Hoot for the fabric, and pinwheel blocks with no sashing. That's a lot of half square triangles!

Luckily, I have lots of It's a Hoot fabric - 2 charm packs, 5 fat quarters and some yardage. That should be enough for the pinwheels, one or two borders, binding, and a pieced backing (I'm making a single/twin quilt). Last night I cut 88 5" off-white squares.

Can't wait to start sewing!

Wheels Quilt

Finally a finish! At about 11 pm the night before my son's 5th birthday - so had a bit of time to spare! I washed and dried it while he was at school and presented it to him that evening. He immediately snuggled into it right on the floor and it's been on his bed since. I'm so pleased that he loves it so much and it was really nice that he showed it.

I borrowed it for some photos today. Although it was overcast, the photos came out ok. It's made from Riley Blake wheels fabric, with three different kona solids thrown in to tone it down a bit. I did three different proportion square in squares, which mathematically allowed me to cut squares and strips perfectly out of 1/2 yard cuts. The blocks are 10" square and the quilt approximately 67" x 86". It generously fits his single (twin) bed.

The backing was pieced out of what I had left! I hadn't foreseen how huge this was going to be and was lucky to find enough 'leftover' fabric for it. As for the quilting, I ended up using gutterman cotton in a pale blue to match the backing. I got to use my new walking foot and LOVE it! I quilted straight lines about 1/4" either side of the main seams. And I must thank this post for solving some pretty serious and frustrating tension problems. If you don't know what that little screw on the bobbin casing is for than check it out!

My son wanted the red dots which I really love as the binding:

I sewed the binding by machine a la Red Pepper Quilts tutorial. It's not perfect but it took me about an hour instead of many many long evenings.

My next quilt project will be a single quilt for my daughter - she's already chosen the fabric AND pattern. At two and a half she already knows what she wants!

We have a quilt top!

Those that have been following my blog for a while would know that I've been making my son a quilt for a long time now.

You can see my son checking out the fabric way back in 2010 in this post. And some sample blocks at the end of this post. I've been ever so slowly working on it. I'm not sure why it is taking sooooooo long. I aimed to complete it for Christmas 2010, then his birthday 2011, then Christmas 2011. Wow! That's pretty bad. So now, I WILL finish it for his 5th Birthday, which gives me about a week. Today is basting day. I'll straight-line quilt it with my new walking foot. Hope the machine (and I) can handle it!

Any quilting suggestions? And what type of thread do you use for machine, straight-line quilting?

Red Letter Day Doll Quilt

Just in time...
Well, just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but not quite in time for its recipient. I've literally just finished hand-stitching the binding and with less than 3 hours left to post it I've taken some indoor photos on a wet and gloomy day.

Blogger's Quilt Festival 

I'd hoped to finish this doll quilt and it's coordinated baby quilt before my girlfriend's baby was born. But the beautiful girl arrived yesterday afternoon, and I have yet to baste, quilt and bind the larger baby quilt. At least I can post some photos of the finished doll quilt - under the assumption that the mum won't be looking at my blog in the next few days with a newborn baby!

This is my second quilt (albeit small) but there were some firsts - first time I pieced randomly (so much fun!) and first time I free-motion quilted (also fun!). I really enjoyed the free-motion quilting and will definitely stick to that for a while, at least until I give in and purchase a walking foot.
I really love the back of the quilt, probably more than the front:

 And was pleasantly surprised with how good the quilting looks on my first effort:

The pair of quilts are for a good friend who has just had her second baby girl. Her older daughter and my son are best friends. The idea is that the larger baby quilt is for the newborn, and the small doll quilt is the gift for the new 'big sister' to use with her doll and cradle.
We're off now to visit them and meet the baby girl for the first time!
Thanks for visiting my blog.

Latest Projects...

Since I finished my first quilt, I've been busy completing a few UFOs and have started Joseph's quilt. I've also joined the Ice Cream Social, but I'll write about that in a separate post.

A set of placemats (four of six shown):

I started these months ago, to practice cutting strips using my new rotary cutter, and to practice piecing with a 1/4" seam. I had the tops pieced and the flannel 'batting' and backings cut for months, and finally finished them last night. Hooray! The fabric is Natural Effects by Michele D'Amore. I used most of a set of 6 fat quarters and a bit of yardage. I made up the pattern.

Softie Wheat-bag Friend:

I've made lots of knitted toys; this is my first sewn plushie. I think it was supposed to be a Christmas present; it finally got to its recipient on the weekend. The pattern is the 'Softie wheat-bag friend' from the 'Meet me at Mike's' book, compiled by Pip Lincolne. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow. It's stuffed with wheat kernels to make a nice warm friend! The fabric is mostly from Spotlight with a re-purposed Japanese hanky for the ears.

Do we really have to give it to Auntie Jeremie??

Cheery chicken potholders:

I made these as practice for quilting and for attaching binding and mitering corners. We also desperately needed to replace the potholder we were using under our teapot. So they're really used as trivets instead of potholders. The fabric is Metro Market from Robert Kaufman, with some dots from my local fabric store.

Joseph has claimed the other one as his own coaster; notice how it is perfectly aligned with 'his' new placemat:

Finally, I've made some sample blocks and then cut lots of strips for Joseph's quilt:

The fabric is Wheels from Riley Blake. I think it might be a bit busy and could do with some coordinating solids? Any thoughts?

My First Quilt - FINISHED!

Basting...a couple of hours quilting...a day or so of indecision...an hour and a half of ripping out stitches...a few more hours of quilting...machine-stitching binding...hand-stitching binding...a wash and a dry...rainy day photos...

At last, my Wonderland Quilt is finished. It's a 'crib-sized' quilt, about 38" x 50", for my baby girl's first birthday in August.

Here's the front:

And the back:

And a close-up of the binding, made using that first piece of quilt fabric (Tweedle Dee in tomato) I ever acquired, as a gift from a friend:

After ripping out a lot of stitches and then re-quilting, I arrived at an amount of distortion and puckering that I think is acceptable, even to my perfectionist self. I think realism reigned, and I had to accept that there were going to be some imperfections, especially using a normal presser foot.

And, I will do it all again. I've already designed and started cutting for my next quilt - a single (twin) bed quilt for my son, using Riley Blake Wheels fabric. It's been really fun involving him in the fabric choice and design process. But that's for another post.

My First Quilt - Part IV

A Progress Report

I've made some progress on my Wonderland Quilt. I finally stitched the border on the quilt front:

And I've pieced my quilt back (sneak preview below) and prepared the binding (out of that first inspirational piece of tweedle dee in tomato):

I've got the batting, basting pins, and masking tape ready. Now I'm just waiting for a quiet day (preferably without the kids) to baste. But I'm quite nervous to start quilting. I plan to machine quilt but don't have a walking foot (I can't commit to buying one yet). Any tips? I plan to quilt as in this quilt.

My First Quilt - Part III

I've nearly finished the quilt top and I love it!

I was surprised that I enjoyed sewing this so much - not even the pressing of seams was tedious. It was a joy to work with each little square. And I only needed to rip out about 4 seams (when my second strip came out about 1/2 inch longer than the first!). Of course the squares don't always align perfectly but I can live with that. Here's one of the better 'intersections':

Now all I have left to do is:

1. Finish the quilt top by adding the border strips
2. Design and piece the quilt back
3. Baste
4. Quilt
5. Bind

So it should definitely be finished by next winter.

My First Quilt - Part II

Last night I arranged 48 Wonderland charms on my dining room table. They're on top of the fabric I'll use for the sashing, but the sashing will be wider (1.5") - I just didn't have enough room anywhere. Here's what I came up with:

I arranged the blocks quite deliberately. With my minimal knowledge of colour theory and design I divided the charms into 3 groups:

• light - cream background
• medium - green, blue, pale pink background
• dark/bright - red, bright pink, brown background

Next I started to place them one by one (starting at top left and winding down row by row), choosing from the pile I thought best at the time. As much as possible, I also alternated, checkerboard style, between the regularly patterned blocks (butterflies, scissors, dots, etc.) and random blocks (floral, etc.). For the 8 extra blocks I needed from my second charm pack, I chose the blocks that I also have in yardage. A few snapshots and a few swaps of blocks led to the final arrangement above.

I noticed that I'd placed most blocks that were directional right-side-up - as if the quilt had a top and bottom. I randomly changed some to see which I prefer. Here are the two side by side:

So the big questions are:

1.  How's my layout? I want the eyes to travel all over the quilt and not just focus on one part. Are there any squares I should swap around to better achieve this?
2. What about the orientation of the squares? Random or all in the same direction? Can you even tell the difference between the two above?

Remember, this is my first quilt, so I'd love all and any advice!

My First Quilt - Part I

I began writing this post and then realised that I was writing about my process. I've therefore decided to take the Process Pledge:

I've been thinking about my first quilt for some time now (at least 6 months). I've spent lots of time browsing Flickr and blogs and then daydreaming about how I could best use my Wonderland charm squares. Some of my favourite Wonderland quilts are below:

1. Untitled, 2. Autumn Cot or Lap Charm Quilt, 3. Wonderland Jelly Filled, 4. Gingham in Wonderland, 5. quilt front, 6. Wonderland Quilt

Although I love the idea of 1.Untitled (could make with my charms and honey bun) and 5. quilt front, I've decided to do a sashed quilt like 4. Gingham in Wonderland. I think the best part of a quilt made with this fabric is the fabric and that the sashing really frames each little work of art. As for the other two that I like, well, I think for my first quilt I should stick to some basic piecing.

The next step was working out how big to make the quilt and how wide to make the sashing. This is for a cot quilt for my beautiful daughter, and some Internet research said some common sizes are 36" x 48" and 40" x 52". As for the sashing, the quilts I liked the best on Flickr had a ratio of about 5":2" in width, including the seam allowance. Thus the blocks with turn out to be 4.5" square and the sashing will be 1.5" wide. A bit of maths led to deciding on the final size: 6 charms x 8 charms = 38" x 50" quilt.

Next is arranging the 48 charms out before sewing, but I'll leave that for another day.