Finish it Friday - some quilt flimsies using up bee blocks!

In the middle of our holiday we had a few days at home while Maggie, our puppy, was having her neutering operation.  It was a good time to do it, as we had to keep the other two away from her for a few days, in case they would go at her stitches and she was able to keep me company, while I caught up on a few things and not get too bored all on her ownio!

While sorting my stuff to tidy up before my cousin came to visit, I found some stash bee blocks made for me, from stash bee 2014!  I had picked the Spring Blossom quilt block by Charise Creates and didn't really have a plan in mind for them.  As always with Bee's you get unexpected things, sometimes blocks are a little too big or a little too small, or an odd colouring to the other blocks like the navy centre one above.

I had recently bought Amy Gibsons Quilt Block Cookbook with 50 block patterns in it.  Having been a big fan of hers since I learned how to piece blocks on her free Craftsy Class Block of the Month 2012, I knew I was going to really enjoy her book.  The blocks are fun but even better are the 7 layouts she gives for using some of the 50 blocks, to make a not so traditional sampler quilt.  The few pages at the end of the book got me thinking and made buying the whole book so worthwhile.  So I took apart a version of my star crossing block above, in navy and lemon, and used the pieces to frame the flowers.

I managed to get a small cot quilt out of both and really like that the navy in the squares now makes the dark flower centre work!  There are 5 blocks left still, so I had a go at putting them into a flower garden of my own and another of Amy's layouts from the books using columns of colour.

I think I am going to go with the layout from the book below but would like to come back to the garden for another go at it as I think there is something there.  I can complicate designs and sometimes I think simple is best!

Not having gotten around to that one yet, I did revisit the blocks I made in 2012, that were still sitting in a box!  I made the mistake of buying the cheapest fabric I could for my first quilt and not really liking it much, I still liked the blocks but didn't overly love it enough to finish the quilt.  I now only buy fabric I love and try not to think too much on the price (unless its Liberty at 24 a metre!)

Using Amy's celestial layout, I picked the blocks that I thought would work well together and added in a lot of Kona Snow, that I had on hand on a bolt. (I bought a whole bolt of Snow and White and it was the best decision ever as you can get right to making when inspiration strikes!)

At our last branch meeting, I showed my two new finished quilt tops - all from my WIP box and no new blocks needed!

And for the stuff I should have been making?  Finished my Snowflake Shimmer quilt (QAL with Quilting Jet Girl) and there is good chance I will have this finished for Christmas!  Made lots of progress on my round on Erin's Round Robin quilt!  200+ paper pieced sub-units later...

This seemed like a great idea when I first started it.  When I realised how long it would take me, I did think twice but it felt like the right thing for the quilt and I didn't want to let Erin down by doing something not as good so I just had to get on with it!

Nearly there now!

So a bunch of finishes and a lot of work in progress!  Happy Friday everybody!

WIP Wednesday - lots of them!

Flower Power -  WIP from Christmas!

I have never been a work on one project at a time until you finish it kind of girl. It’s not that I get distracted by shiny new things – well ok I do a bit – but its more like I’ve gotten to a point and I’m not sure which way I want to go next so I let it stew for a bit. Usually when I get stuck like that I make a bee block or a swap item and the complete change in project gives me space to stand back a bit and have a think! The problem with this approach is that it can take an awfully long time to get back to some things and the WIP’s and UFO’s start to pile up.

Quilted this beastie on my home machine - next time I have something this big it's getting longarmed!

I currently have 13 quilt tops awaiting backs and basting and 3 more very close to assembled and ready to join the pile. I have no idea how that happened except maybe my impatience to test a design or idea naturally leads me to piecing more than the quilting side of things. I’m also addicted to learning so love trying new techniques and playing so maybe this leads to lots of starts and not as many finishes!

Deciding how to quilt the hexies!

Flower Power stalled as I had no idea what to do with the hexies when it came to quilting.  I made up some actual sized hexies on the computer and printed them out to practice with patterns from Pinterest  Now I know what I am doing with this one I hope to finish this big bed quilt this month!

Now I have plans!  Nice to know what direction to go in.

I do have 2 actual finishes to share – I finished them a while back but didn’t get to photographing them yet and I think Pets on Quilts starting this Sunday over on Lily Pad Quilting might make for the perfect photo shoot! We’ve entered the linky party for the last 3 years and can’t wait to add Maggie our new pup to the wall of fame! 

Charly, our Pricess and the Pea loves layers!

Wilburs tail on a quilt - best we could manage our of him last year!

For the moment, settling back into my sewing space and moving out the paint tins, roller trays and
brushes – keeping the masking tape –(might prompt me to baste some stuff!) I have found that a good tidy up has helped clear the mind and get me back to making again. So here’s whats going on in the get things finished list!

• Finish Flower Power above! 
• Add next round to Modern Irish Bee Round Robin Quilt:  I added the skinny back border to bring it up to 36 1/2" square so I can add a paper pieced border - thinking white background with light and dark grey intersecting diamonds!  Templates from quilters cache ready and fabric on hand so no excuse to finish this one and pass onto Mary next!

•  Baby Medallion quilt for a colleague:  I don't normally do panels but a work colleague had a baby boy and she loves giraffe so this seemed perfect for her.  Panels are quite often not square but this one is pretty good - the only complaint I have is the critters border.  Couldn't they have given you a 1/4" on either side of the cut lines for piecing?  I think some of the butterflies are going to loose bits of their antennaes if I'm not careful!

 Cute backing fabric on hand - hoping this will be a very quick and fun gift!

•  Hand quilt Rainbow Rose and maybe my Modern Traditional Sampler with these Valdani pearl cottons just arrived in the door from Massdrop - last purchase of the year!  (Fingers are crossed saying that just in case...)

I just can't stop looking at these beauties!  Is hand quilting 2 quilts at the same time massively daft?  We'll have to see how I manage that one and keep them away from needle sharp puppy teeth.  Maggie can manage to get up on the sofa now all by herself!  oh oh time in our house for puppy proofing!

So there you have it - bit late with the mid year review and this barely makes a dent in the WIP pile but its a start!

Linking up to

WIP - traditional blocks made modern!

I've been having fun making some colourful blocks!  I'll be giving a workshop in June on traditional blocks made modern and I've been designing up a storm, working out dimensions, playing with colour and having great fun shopping for solids!  As its my first workshop I might just be over preparing but I have to say I am really enjoying the exploration of it all.

It may have seemed a little quiet here on the blog and getting the time to comment on my favourite bloggers posts.  It's been a busy time of it, some stressful with health blips popping up in the family and the dog!  Some not so stressful with lots of workshops and guild work.   I'm on the committee of our local branch now so getting more involved in guild work and continuing to admin the Modern Quilters Ireland group.  But I have been making and sewing throughout and  reading lots of blog posts on my iPad even if I don't get to comment on them all! 

Lots of people have written about finding that balance between making, blogging, other social media, family and the day job and there are times when it can seem too much but I love blogging and I love making so I'll keep trying to find a way to share as much as I can.  At the moment, trying to post once a week seems to work and after June I really look forward to be able to share some of the finished quilts I hope this round of designing will result in! And then maybe get back to the other 30+ projects on my to do list!

This is my first block, my modern take on the economy block.  I've made this one in solids but think it might just be the thing to showcase some of my dog fabric.

The centre square is 5.5" finished and it could be fun to strategically cut some cute doggy faces into this square and frame with some dog bones!  I have worked up a version to use a charm squares too so am trying to decide which size to make and be consistent!  Decisions, decisions....

I've also had fun playing with colour for a very simple offset log cabin construction.

So far I have 3 blocks made for this which will be set into this Kona Mango.  Orange might not be to everyone's taste but I love the idea of using it for a background colour and am enjoying trying it out!

 This is where I've gotten to this week!

 

And there will be lots more on the way so I hope you'll stick with me over the next few weeks!

Using Playcrafts palette builder to choose fabrics!

If anyone is interested in pattern testing a block or one of the patterns I'll be working on over the coming weeks I'd love to hear from you.  In the meantime I have photos from the free motion quilting workshop with Tomomi of Slaney handcraft  to share with you yet and hope to have some finished quilts done and dusted soon too!  Need your advice first on one though - any ideas what colour to use as binding for this Charm Pack Cherry quilt?  Am totally stumped!

Made with Noteworthy and Moda bella naturals charm packs

And because I haven't linked up in a while linking to

WIP updates on lots of things!

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter!  We had yesterday off as a Bank holiday and the extra day helped me make some headway on a few projects.  I had over a week of no sewing, what with being away with work and catching up with family, so it was nice to have the whole afternoon yesterday, to get back into the swing of things and catch up on some TV programs I had missed.  I watched 5 episodes of Suits back to back while chain piecing  my triangles for Sassy Quilter's Triangle-A-Long.

I don't know why, but I had the idea of triangles being really difficult to work with.  I'm fairly rubbish at managing bias edges but starching twice and using lots of pins really seemed to make this part go together nicely.  I got 2 rows put together with no problems at all!

Points matching quite nicely too.  Only 9 more rows to go in my rainbow version of this Quilt-a-long. 

I'm all set up for chain piecing the rest of them!  They do shrink the row length quite a bit when pieced!

I did make some progress over the rest of the weekend on finishing Bachelors Walk and hope to have that to show on Friday and managed to finish my 4 blocks in our Thursday night group quilt.  I'm not too keen on the last block I made for this project and may make one more to swap this one out.  All blocks are free patterns for the Moda Signatures Quilt-A-Long and can be found at Sylvia's Stitches.

Finally, while the rest of the triangles are on the table for chain piecing, I used the space on the wall to put up my Hexagon Medallion Quilt for the Modern Irish Quilters QAL.  Yes I have 86 flying geese all made and am ready to sew them together, at long last!  Update for this is meant to be today! 

I have 4 hearts to piece for the corners and then the last border of 40 stars!  Nope I'm not finishing this one on time!  I was a bit tempted to stop at this border and frame it with a purple print but I've gone this far with it I might as well keep going and finish it right. 

So that's what's happening this week.  End of April is approaching and I've Bee blocks to do as well - going to be busy here in the crafty corner (ahem kitchen table!)

Linking up to

WIP Wednesday - Bits and Bobs

It's a mixed bag of projects this week.  I made blocks 27-30 of the Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks book.  Tula's blocks on the left and mine or the right.  Fabric is Boho by Annette Tatum.

I'm trying to stick to Tula's colours as closely as I can to make up the diagonal rainbow effect and so far, 30 blocks out of 100, it's coming together.

Also made my Flying Geese for the Star Surround Quilt -A-Long over at Happy Quilting.  I'm making a 40" baby quilt with these :

I also signed up for my first swap and first Bee, ordered fabric for the Penny Sampler Quilt over at Stiched in colour and completed my 4 Houses cushion and swap blocks - it's been a busy week! Linking up to