Night Sky Finish

While most of this month I have been working away on projects I can't share just yet, I am happy to say the Night Sky Quilt is finally finished. I didn't get it completed in time for December 25th but did manage to finish it yesterday for January 25th! The pattern is Camille Roskelly's and can be found on her Thimble blossoms shop here.

When Jana asked me if I wanted to take part in a Quilt-A-Long to make this I instantly said yes.  I love Camille Roskelly (have 2 of her books!) and wanted to make a Christmas quilt.  This seemed perfect for it.

The pattern is made up of 8" and 16" sawtooth stars and as I was making mine from scraps, (Joy by Kate Spain, a little bit of Riley Blake, some new Folk Art Holiday and leftover solids Kona Navy, Snow and Ash), I was happy enough to make a smaller size.

Much and all as I love the look of this quilt, the repetitive nature of so many 8" blocks makes me happy I made a child quilt or throw sized quilt.  Leaving out the last column and the two bottom rows gives a 48" x 56" quilt and was perfect for the scraps I had on hand.

This is destined as a late baby present - sorry Charly you can't keep this one (even though I quite like it in the study too!)

There will be a final link up on Jana Machado's blog for the Quilt-A-Long finish over the next few weeks and linking up to the Friday Finshes this week at Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF and Can I get a Whoop Whoop!

And finally, this is one of my goals for A Lovely Year of Finishes and Finish-A-Long 2015 so quite a bit of motivation to get his one done!  So happy to have this first finish for 2015 done and dusted, a happy way to start the year.

Night Sky Update

Well, all the Flying Geese are made at last and up on the wall!  The blocks are still not yet pieced but I think Jana might be extending the Quilt-A-Long, so I might get this top together before the 25th.  There are a lot of Flying Geese in this pattern.  My small verison has over 90 and the full version of the quilt over 170 of them!

Camille Roskelly uses the stitch and flip method in this pattern.  You cut 2 squares for every one rectangle and place one of the squares right sides together on the rectangle, sew a line along the diagonal corner to corner and trim the excess 1/4" away from your sewn line.  Do the same again with the other square on the remaining side.  This means a lot of scraps! 

There are other ways to make Flying Geese, specialty rulers like Fons and Porters, paper piecing or the make 4 at a time from a larger square.  During the angled on line class with Rachel @ Stitched in Colour the pros and cons of each method was looked at and the Fons and Porter ruler got the thumbs up and the 4 at a time method, the thumbs down (harder to keep 1/4" at the centre seam and 3 usually turn out ok and 1 a little off!).

I made mine using the stitch and flip method and still got 3 good ones to 1 wonky one when I chain pieced them.  Next time, I will slow down and pay more attention!  Still now that everything is up on the wall, I know what Christmas fabric I have left in my stash for other projects (mum wants a table runner!)

As for the scraps, they are the perfect size for my Cushion and small decoration for the Modern Quilters Ireland swap.  I made a tiny 3" star from the leftover triangles of a small star and used the Red, White and Aqua triangles below from 2 of the larger stars. 

Adding some layer cake squares and some Kona Snow for background fabric, I have a shining star!  Hope my swap partner likes it!

Now just to quilt it! 

Happy weekend everybody! 

WIP Wednesday

Got my camper van cushions finished just in time for my cousin to give as a Christmas present - I just love these and in the new year I'm making one for myself!  The fabric was Kona solids with Essex Linen in Steel and fat quarters from the Tidal Lace bundle I won from Anne@Playcrafts.  Still have a good bit of this bundle on hand and am pondering projects...

In the meantime the Christmas sewing is in full swing! 

I've finished up my three carol singing snowmen.  This is for our branch challenge in the Irish Patchwork Society.  We are to make either a Christmas stocking or a wine bottle cover.  These three guys are singing Rudolph's song where Santa asks him to guide his sleigh.  Now just to come up with a back and a cuff and put it all together!

Finally last week, while writing about the Night Sky Quilt-A-Long that Jana is hosting on her blog, I was struck by the red, aqua and white colour combination of this little star.  I'm still thinking of this for a larger project but I had an idea to use the left over triangles from the large blocks in this Christmas Quilt. 

The 16" blocks use flying geese made with the strip and flip method in the pattern, which gives a nice big leftover triangle.  So instead of putting them in the scrap basket, I'm using them for my Christmas cushion swap with the Modern Quilters Ireland.  We had some last minute join ins and my swap partner changed, so I've been having a rethink of what to do for a cushion top. 

I think this shining star would be perfect, so partner I hope you like it!  I found it while having a browse in Barbara Brackman's Encylopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns while looking for something else.  It caught my eye and I had a go at drafting it up to a 16" size.

I have just enough triangles left over in red and aqua and am using a layer cake square for the ray in fabric similar to the triangles. I think it will be really nice hand quilted.  Here's hoping it all goes to plan!

Linking up to Finish it Friday and

Murphy's Law meets Night Sky QAL

I've been making progress on my Night Sky Quilt this week.  Not a lot of progress it has to be said, but still some!

Jana @ Jana Machado has organised a Quilt-A-Long using Camille Roskelly's pattern Night Sky.  Today is link up day over on her blog and I am pleased to say I have one block made.  Yup, just the one!

The rest are like a giant jigsaw puzzle in pieces up on the design wall!

I'm making a small version of this quilt 48" x 56" from my on hand Christmas fabrics.  Mine is a scrappy version made up of a left over Layer Cake of Joy by Kate Spain, Riley Blake's Santa's Little Helpers and a smattering of Folk Art holiday.

I've added in Kona Snow, Ash and Navy in an attempt to pull the scrappiness together, very similar to the palette in the original pattern made with Bonnie & Camille's new line of fabric, Daysail.

Not using fat quarters, I started with cutting up all the pieces I would need, working out how many of each block and what colours I wanted, whiled away the whole afternoon last Sunday. 

I thought I had everything nice and orderly, then realised the aqua solids I had sewn into my centre 4 patches, were meant to be star points!  I am very good friends with my seam ripper (have 4 of them!)

 So I ripped and laid them out again this time by block!  Much better.

Then got to chain piecing.  All was going fine until I ran out of bobbin thread.  I didn't notice until the last one went through- doh!  

So I wound a new bobbin, decided to be very good and give the machine a clean while I was at it and tried again.

Yup made a hames (Irish term for a right royal mess!) of threading my machine and chain pieced them all like this!  More ripping and redoing.  I didn't swear once, I might have sighed a lot though!  I eventually got this one lone navy block sewn together.

As I was working from layer cakes one of my big blocks is made up of 2 colours of the same print.  I quite like it though it is a bit crazy looking!

I'm loving the large 16" blocks in this pattern.  This red block is my favourite so far.  I really like the red white and aqua colour scheme too.  Must think about that for another project!

So, worrying I wouldn't have much to show you today for Jana's blog hop, only 1 poor solitary star block pieced together, I cleared the design wall and started laying out.  This was tons of fun!  It really is like playing with a big jigsaw!  And look,  I have one piece in the large aqua block, second row, laid out backwards! 

Quite a bit left to do but it's coming together, despite Murphy's what can go wrong will go wrong influence.  Row 3 and 5 will be very similar to row 1, so a really scrappy Christmas looking quilt I hope, in the end.  Eventually!

Linking up to Jana today.  Please head on over there for more of the blog hop and to see her fabulous blocks.  So far Jana has managed to make unique blocks, no two the same!  Some people even have a finished quilt top!  No pressure then, it's not like I have a deadline or anything!   34 more days, plenty of time don't you think?

WIP - Night Sky QAL & Christmas projects

Have you seen Camille Roskelly's new star pattern Night Sky?

To me it looks really Christmassy, must be the time of year or the Christmas to do list but this starry quilt is calling to me!

Jana @ Jana Machado is having a quilt-a-long using this pattern which is available to buy on sale at Fat Quarter shop here as pattern of the month!

I met Jana this year on the Let's Get Acquainted blog hop run by Plum and June.  It was a fantastic blog hop and there have been so many connections made and even quilt bees started from it that when Jana asked me if I wanted to quilt along with her I jumped right in.

Jana has organised prizes  for the Quilt-A-Long and has even given away a copy of this pattern last week.  We are one week into it and Jana is sharing her first row of blocks already!  I'm only at the fabric pull stage!

The pattern quilt finishes at 64" x 80" and uses 28 fat quarters plus background fabric.  I'm planning on making mine a little smaller by eliminating the last column and the last 2 rows and finishing closer to 50" for a baby present.

I'm going scrappy because I don't have the 20 or so fat quarters in Christmas fabrics I will need so I'm using what's left of a layer cake of Joy by Kate Spain (you'd be surprised how much you can get from a layer cake) and some new fabric from Fluffy Sheep Quilting called Folk Art Holiday.  What do you think?  Want to join the fun?  The details are on Jana's blog here!

I still need to make a Christmas cushion for my Modern Irish Quilters swap.  Partners were assigned yesterday and having read my partners likes, I know exactly what I want to make!  Before there was Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, there was Love Quilting and Patchwork.  It came out twice to see how the market would take to it and we loved it.  In Autumn 2013 edition Katy Jones @ I'm A Ginger Monkey had a paper piecing pattern using hexagons,rectangles and triangles.  I'm hoping to make a Christmas version with red blue and green on a white frosty background.

The branch I'm in of the Irish Patchwork Society are having a Christmas Stocking challenge and I'm hoping to make one with an embroidered version of this Rudolph card pattern I found in one of mum's old craft magazines Crafts Beautiful from November 2013.

So that's the plan!  We'll see how far this little bit of fabric will stretch with some Kona Snow and Navy thrown in!  I have a feeling there will be a trip to the quilt shop needed too!

Linking up to