Rainbow log cabins

 

And that makes four quilts finished in the last week - well at least they're quilted. Three can go back to their owners but this one is down to me to bind. It's been made up of 14" log cabin blocks in a rainbow of colours. I love the fabrics that everyone's used and there are several repeated motifs which ties everything together - spots, stripes, stars, 1930s cute fabric, sketch, text etc. I've just realised the rainbow doesn't work this way up, but never mind. I'm going to use the same plan for the second Siblings Together group I'm in to make a pair.

 

I bondawebbed the label to the corner of the backing so it would be permanently affixed. To make it easier to place, I quilted from the bottom up.

 

You can't beat Ikea's Bitten for a backing. And I think I do have enough left for a backing for a second similar quilt. I wonder when I can stock up on some more? The pantograph is Allium by Hermione Agee and the thread is Cleopatra by Superior Threads.

Flutterby

 

And here's Susan's pretty batik quilt which I quilted with a Handiquilter pantograph called Flutterby. It's no densely quilted so as to not detract from the pretty panels.

 

 

I'm surprised the quilting doesn't show better in this photograph as it's a bright blue thread called Aswan by superior Threads on a brown backing.

Flowing floral

 

This is Judy's quilt and I love the yellow dot she has used for the background. I am envious and wish I'd chosen yellow for Matthew's quilt. You can't see very well in this photo but the blocks aren't just squares. I used a pantograph called Flowing Floral which is a new one and which turned out really well using Shekels by Superior Thread as my thread.

 

 

 

And here's the pretty blue backing.

 



 

And here's my quilt model who has just two weeks before he leaves for Loughborough Uni. He has upgraded his 50cc motorbike to a 500cc. that's a whole lot more power. He has booked his test for the bigger engine for next week.

Moda Modern Building Blocks Sewalong - getting started

 

 

Welcome to the start of the Moda Building Blocks Sewalong. If like me, you've seen photos of this lovely quilt popping up over blog land and have been tempted to make the quilt, then you're in the right place. My pattern arrived last week from Sew and Quilt but I'm finishing off another project before diving in.

 

So what do you need to do to join in?

1. Purchase the pattern, this is not available as a download. I've seen it available at:

Sew and Quilt where's it's currently sold out

Fat Quarter Shop who are also doing a kit which starts shipping in November

Simply solids who are doing a monthly kit
Fig Tree are doing a lovely kit combining solids and some small prints from their new range.

 

2. Download the assembly and finishing directions at Moda Fabrics. This will also give you the fabric quantities to enable you to:

 

3. Assemble your fabrics so you can share your plans in a linkup on Monday, 22 September. We will then start making four blocks every four weeks with a link up here on the Monday for you to share your progress.

 

4. Grab yourself the Sewalong button on the right.

 

 

Timetable

8 Sept    Start of sewalong

22 Sept  Share your fabric choices

20 Oct   Share your first four blocks - I will be making blocks 1,5,6 and 7 so I can make the B section

17 Nov  Share four more blocks - I plan to do blocks 4, 9, 14 and 18 to complete block D

15 Dec  Share four more blocks and we'll have done a third of the blocks - I plan to do the remaining 36" block - 2 along with blocks 25, 36, and 43

12 Jan  Take it easy over Xmas and do blocks 23,38,40 and 41

 

Come back here next Monday and I'll show you how I'm organising myself for this sewalong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moda Modern Sewing Blocks Sewalong

Come back tomorrow for the start of the sewalong.

FNwF update

I have made good progress with the fabulously fast quilt started at the Fat Quarterly retreat. All of the four patch blocks are made, half of the diagonal rows are sewn together and the rest is on my design wall ready to be pinned and sewn together. It looks even more red in real life!! I am using the leftover jelly roll strips in blue, cream and grey to make a scrappy border and the remaining red strips will be sewn together for the binding.

I also finished a customer quilt on Friday which needs to be trimmed and ready for delivery on Wednesday. A family party was organised for two weeks time and it was  lovely to catch up with those that I only usually see at funerals. it's not as if we live very far from each other on an island 9 miles by 5 miles.

September goal and FNSI

 

As I want to finish the Fabulously fast quilt for Matthew to take to University, it has to be my September goal. I don't yet have the pattern to finish it, but I can see where I'm going and I have all of the strip sets pieced and cut into 2.5" chunks. So now I have to sew together the four patch blocks. I should work out today whether I need some more of the background fabric as the shop isn't open Sunday to Wednesday.

 

 

So I'm planning to work on this quilt this evening for Friday Night with Friends. But first I need to finish quilting a quilt on my long arm.

 

Anchors aweigh

 

I hope you can see that I am making progress on quilting Jane's Tula Pink - Anchor's Away quilt. I was having problems with the thread snapping but after days of tearing my hair out, I changed back to the old software, and touch wood, no breaks yet in two rows. It is going at a slower pace which I'll have to try with the new software but not on this quilt.

 

September sees a new year for A Lovely Year of Schnibbles hosted by Sherri at A Quilting Life and Sinta at Pink Pincushion. Do go and have a look at the recap of the last year's projects. This month's project is Whit above with three choices of layout. I've chosen layout two with the grey background. 160 flying geese from 2.5" mini charms. Bonkers!!

As I've been watching my machine, I've cut out the fabrics for Whit from two Bonnie & Camille mini charm packets and some Kona graphite. I've also got cut the strips for the quilt for Matthew and pinned them ready to sew this afternoon.

Sunday sewing

Another FQR project has been dug out of my stuff to be worked on. This was taught by Amy Smart and is from her book Fabulously Fast Quilts.

 

I was frustrated by my lack of progress during the class as I struggled to get the unfamiliar sewing machine to sew properly. I then changed machines and found sewing a quarter inch seam a struggle too. Hopefully I can "fix" any differences in block sizes as I go along.

 

I pulled out a jelly roll by Sweetwater for Moda and took out the predominantly red strips. I then stepped out of my comfort zone of white background fabrics and chose this spotty fabric by Makower. It looks very odd in the first photo, but the close up shows it's just a regular spotty fabric. I have all of the strip sets sewn together. Tomorrow's task is to sub cut the strips into 2.5" chunks whilst my long arm does its thing. I'd like to finish this quilt for Matthew to take to Uni at the end of September. Hmm, a tad ambitious perhaps? I plan to use the 22 leftover strips to make the border and binding if possible.

No trip to Sark today

 

After I dashed to the shops at 7.30 am to buy milk and juice, I returned to a text to say the forecast was dodgy with the wind pushing 17 knots and a 6ft swell. Not ideal for a 12 seater RIB. Never mind, we all have an extra day to do stuff - Nick is cleaning the garage, Matthew is shortening his shower curtain and I've finished a FQR 2014 project.

When I saw the details of this class with Brioni, I picked out colours to go with our kitchen. On my return Lizzie said it was perfect for the kitchen. The reds are just scraps from my scrap bags as were the black half square triangles.

 

At The Festival of Quilts I bought some of this franked fabric in black and having used the white version on the front, I thought this was perfect for the back. I quilted half inch straight lines on the back of the cushion. On the front I did blanket stitch around the petals, quilted the seam between the four flowers and around the black border.

 



 

I did consider doing a scrappy red binding, but soon found the remainder of the red dot fabric from another, as yet unfinished project from FQR. The binding was soon on, and stuck down with quarter inch seam a seam tape on the reverse, a couple of rows of straight stitching on the front and then a decorative feather stitch on the front and it's finished. well all apart from one press stud which is half done. I was going to use a new pack of bigger studs but couldn't work out how to attach them so I need to order some more from Amazon.

Moda Modern Building Blocks

 

(Image Source: Bloomerie.com)

 

I spotted this quilt on the internet a few months ago and immediately started looking for a source to buy the pattern and found that you could pre-order it from Sew and Quilt. So I pre-ordered a copy for me and one for Jane (without telling Jane). However Jane asked me about two weeks ago where the pattern could be downloaded and I admitted to already having it on pre-order.

 

 

Image Source: QuiltinginCarmichael

 

Fig Tree are also doing this as a Block of The Month using their own signature colours. In the UK Justine at Simply Solids is doing it as a Block of the Month using the original Bella Solids by Moda.

 

I understand the UK distributor was taking delivery of the patterns on Wednesday, so mine should be here next week. Happy dance. What do you think about doing this over the twelve months as a sew along? There are 48 blocks which makes for easy maths and I thought of breaking the blocks down into the seven sections shown in the Block assembly handout. I am going to start with blocks 1,5 and 6 to complete section B and block 4 from section D.

 

My colours:

Low volume for the backgrounds instead of eggshell

Modern fabrics in similar colours to the Bella solids

 

If you'd like to join in, come back on 15 September to share your fabric pull and on 1 October to share your first four blocks.

Siblings Together update

That's a relief, I found the wallet of blocks to add the two I received this week and I even found my own block. I believe I have two still to come. And the month isn't over yet. These girls are quick. Several, including me, have already done their September blocks.

Seeing these on my design wall I was wondering whether I needed to make some more blocks to make it square. However I moved Jane's green block and it looks better balanced.

Ladies have used lots of my favourite fabrics - text, Bonnie & Camille, pearl bracelets and more.

Mani pouch

This pouch from the free Noodle head pattern at Robert Kaufman has been 90% made for about two months. As my mojo seems to be on holiday I've been attempting some easy finishes. This is one of my successes.

 

Pretty ribbon, I'm sure you realise that I added this to cover up a mistake. Practise using the Prym fasteners before using them on your finished article is all I'll say!!

 

This is designed as a manicure pouch but is best for flat bottles such as the Sephora polishes. It could also be used to hold four reels of cotton in the top section and scissors and needles in the zipped section. If you'd like to try your hand at Zippy pouches, Sirens WI have a zippy bag session on Saturday, 13th September at ST Saviour's Parish Hall. E-mail me if you'd like further details.

 

 

This was one of my Q3 finishes that I chose here - http://jersey-scrapper.blogspot.com/2014/07/q3-plans-lots-of-quilting-planned.html

A bit more sewing

Mary is the Queen Bee over at Siblings Together for September. She drew up this plan for her quilt for the charity in Touchdraw. I've done the Touchdraw session at FQR twice and still haven't used it. I like the free Quilt assistant programme for block drawing, so haven't pushed myself to use Touchdraw.

 

 

 

I found a great blue fabric immediately and set about cutting, oops I cut it 6" wide and not 6.5", so I dived into my purchases from Festival of Quilts for this great honeycomb print and also the spectacles. This quilt is designed for a boy, so I hope my choices are okay.

 

Don't forget if you'd like to participate in one of these bees, Siblings Together 2 are looking for two new additions to their group.

 

 

A little bit of stitching

 

Jane was the Bee Mama for the Siblings Together Quilt Bee for July and has received all of her blocks back. Her dilemma was whether to include two blocks on the reverse or make three more to make a quilt 6 blocks by 5 blocks. Both Jo and I offered to make an extra block so here is mine. Her blocks so far look great.

 

If anyone would like to join the Siblings Together 2 bee, we are looking for two extra ladies and we will be working from stash. Visit the Flickr pool for an idea of what was made in 2013/14. The blocks tend to be a quick make and can be sewn along with a bigger project.

A start and a finish

I know I didn't need to start another cross stitch pattern, but I bought this whilst on holiday and sourced the threads at the Festival of Quilts. I was even recommended to buy a larger needle to solve my problems with metallic threads. It's official I am not going to work with metallics again. I hate the way they look and feel.

This pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkins and is called The Bee Keeper.

Stash Bee blocks August 2014

Nancy was very kind to us for August and requested a 12" churn dash block. Her instructions were:

Churn Dash Fabric Color:  greens, green to greenish blues, or teals (no neons please)
Background Fabric: neutrals, low volume prints, except bright whites or bright white on whites. Text prints welcome!
*Please have the middle square be the same as the background neutral fabric.

 

The tutorial is from A Quilting Life. I love the churn dash pattern and made some mini quilts for the sample swap at retreat using a nested churn dash pattern.

 

 

I broke out my newest fabrics which had been put away tidily. The background is by Art Gallery Fabric and the teal is Bike Tracks by Alison Glass. I bought a couple of yards of the White on White Bike Tracks at festival of quilts for only £6 per metre.

 

Same background but this time paired with Cotton and Steel purchased from Simply Solids.



I hope Nancy likes the blocks which I will mail out tomorrow.

Rainbow log cabin blocks

Sorry to have been away so long on a two week cruise and then a few days at the Festival of Quilts and then caching around the West Midlands. I arrived home on Tuesday but have been licking my wounds as my right shoulder was so painful - even getting dressed
was excruciating.  So I've been resting up and it has improved with regular applications of a freezing gel given to me by Chris.

 

 

 

I have little to show from the last few weeks, but I am bee mama for the Siblings Together quilt group for August and I have received seven blocks already - some in person at the FoQ which was lovely and some in the post.

 

 

I am loving the rainbow look at the moment. Jojo was kind enough to let me know that the photo of the rainbow quilt I donated at this year's FQR in London was the most favourited photo of the event.  I was so chuffed. Here's a photo that I took of the quilt before going to retreat.

 

 

 

August 2014 Bumbling Honeys block

The other Sue B handed Carol and I our packets of fabric goodness at the FQR retreat to save on postage. Clever girl. She was very kind to us and had cut everything out to make and an A and a B block for a "scrap vomit" quilt a la Quilt Monkey.

 

This block has a diamond in the centre of the black and turquoise which pulls the whole quilt together.

 

The alternate block is just random squares. Honestly my block is not as peculiarly shaped as it would appear in the photo.

 

Here they are together. By now they should be in Sue's mail box as I was able to make these before leaving for holiday.

August Siblings Together block

 

 

I am the bee mama for the Siblings Together Quilt Bee for August and have requested one 14.5" unfinished log cabin block in shades of one colour (eg red OR yellow OR blue). I love how my ST rainbow stars quilt looked and I'd like to do something similar for 2015

Start with a 2.5" square for the centre and add three rounds of 2.5" strips. Please add the strips so they increase in size in a clockwise direction. Having done another scrap strip swap at FQR, I'm looking forward to selecting some fun, bright prints from my boxes and adding some scraps from my stash too.

You will need to cut:
2    2.5" squares
2   2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
2   2.5" x 6.5" rectangles
2   2.5" x 8.5" rectangles
2   2.5" x 10.5" rectangles
2   2.5" x 12.5" rectangles
1   2.5" x 14.5" rectangles

 A tip - if after the first round you forget where to sew the next strip, it's always the side which has two seams running into it