Xmas gifts and BDSI projects

These are my quilty Xmas gifts...
Electric Quilt 7, Moda solids including cheddar colour and some Civil War reproduction prints.

On the 26th December, many people (in some countries) go shopping to take advantage of the Boxing Day sales.  Sandy  from "Quilting for the Rest of Us" podcast organised the Boxing Day Sew In (BDSI) for those who want to stay home and sew as much as possible in our jammies...

So after breakfast, I headed for my studio and started to tidy up in preparation for my sewing marathon..

Last week I had picked up these taupe fabrics (collection by Yoko Saito & Lecien) very reasonably priced ...



Made 1 Ohio Start block. Finished block size is 8 1/2".

A second block...

 And a 3rd....

I then used one of my disks from my sewing machine to quilt the centres with a varigated thread.  The rest of the quilting was done in the ditch.

And this is the table runner completed.

I didn't follow any pattern but instead used a couple of formulas to work out the corner triangles and the side triangles, using one square.

To work out how the size of the square needed, these are the formulas:

(My Ohio Star finished block size is 8 1/2")

This is the formula for the Corner Triangles:

Finished block  size / 1.414 + .875  , round this up to nearest 1/8" . Mine ended up being 7".

Cut square once on the diagonal. Yields 2 triangles.

This is the formula for the side Triangles:

Finished block X 1.414 +1.25 , round this up to nearest 1/8" . Mine ended up being 13 1/2.

Cut diagonally in two directions so that it yields 4 triangles.

Then I moved on to some mini logcabin blocks. I have been doing them in this past year and will continue to do more with my tiny scraps.

I had recently purchased Jo Morton latest book but had forgotten to blog about it. Its a lovely book and I loved the quilt ever since I saw it on Jo's visit to Australia a few months ago.

To finish off for the day, I made another 4 blocks from the year-long postings done by Barbara Brackman Civil War blog.
Block 52 which is the last one, was published a couple of days ago but I still have at least 15 blocks to do. It will be one of my goals for 2012 which I'm hoping to finalise on my next blog posting...



Before I go, I had intended to add a musical reference for Xmas, so in the spirit of the festive season, here it is my favourite Soul musician who is no longer with us...

Luther Vandross.... will never be forgotten.

Orca Bay - Part 5, Show & tell

Cutting and sewing 700 triangles has been quite a lot of work, but its all done !!!
I have started Part 6, which Bonnie kindly agreed to post a few hours earlier. Thank you Bonnie....

My friend Jan-Maree send me a few Xmas gifts...

I have been admiring her Xmas ornaments and she sent me these 4 adorable ones which I have hung up on the tree.

She also sent me these lovely buttons to add to my collection and these 2 little bags..

Jan-Maree and I have been swapping blocks each month and she sent me these...very cute.

 

 Lastly, I have hung up above the piano my Xmas quilt I made last year.
All machine pieced and quilted in gold thread.

Happy Christmas everyone  !

Orca Bay part 4, Civil War blocks and Button Collection

I have started Part 4 of Orca Bay mystery quilt.
I have a lot of red fabrics so the variety will make the blocks quite interesting...
Hope to complete the required blocks before part 5 is published next Friday.

Barbara Brackman's  weekly block quilt-along is coming to an end, so I'm trying to catch up with previous blocks.
Here's three more done.

Susan made me this one.



I have been preparing the pieces for another Civil War Bride block but not quite enough done to show at the moment.

I'll share with you some of my collection of buttons, starting with the novelty ones....

Some I have purchased in Australia, others in New York, Toronto and Johannesburg.

These are just odds and ends and quite a few came from my grand-mother's sewing box over 30 year's ago.

Baby Quilt, Orca Bay Part3 and other blocks

This week has been very productive..
I'll start by showing you a baby quilt I made for a colleague  at work, who's going to be a grand-mother for the first time in January 2012.

When I saw this fabric at the store recently and loved it, so I had to get some. It was designed by Sarah Fielke (Australian designer).  I made some Pinwheel blocks, added a few solid blocks and with a stripe accent fabric and there you have it !!

Orca Bay - Part 3

This week's challenge was to make 350 half-square triangle units to end up with a block measuring 2".

Before I began, I gave myself a task of investigating various methods of coming up with this block. I identified at least 8 methods and tried 5 of those. 

I start with the premises that I am big on accuracy even if I have to make an effort with trimming the blocks. I'm also not that keen on cutting or sewing triangles so my decision was not too hard to make.

Option 1 : The option suggested by Bonnie, using the Easy Angle ruler.
                After trying this option I decided that cutting or sewing triangles was not for me.

Option 2:  Using the AccQuilt value die, used the Half Square triangle shape.

               This one was speedy in terms of having the triangles cut out fast, but I'm not

                keen on sewing triangles. In the end this would be my second preferred option.



Option 3:  Investigated using the Square in a Square Ruler Video by Jodi Barrows.

                Once again I have had this ruler for years. 

                This is a good method but for this exercise I don't think its the fastest method.

 Option 4: This option is mostly suitable if you have already precut 2 1/2 " squares in the

                desired colours. I had some in blue and white. For this method, I simply rule a

                diagonal line and sew on each side of the line. Cut on the marked line and

                you'll end up with two blocks. 

     

Option 5:  This is the method I have chosen to complete my blocks for part 3.

                It involves only cutting squares, only sewing on straight lines and

                it makes 4 blocks at once.

                It's the same technique I used for the Pinwheel block I used on the baby quilt

                completed above.  For more information take a look at ttp://missouriquiltco.com

                - How to make pinwheels for a quilt the easy way!

                I started by cutting a 3 1/2" square of white and blue fabric. Sew completely

                around your square sandwich then cut diagonally twice and you'll end up

                with four blocks. Very easy and very accurate.

I must point out that for all methods I trim the blocks carefully.

I've made 95 blocks this morning, so I better get back to completing the rest ..



Doing this exercise was of great value to make me learn new techniques or think about skills I had but don't often think of its use outside the project I used them on. For those who are doing this quilt, I encourage you to try various options which you may use for future projects or later on another part of this quilt.

  ......And lastly...

I have been playing with another of my favourite rulers which I have not used for years.

Its the "Flying Geese" ruler made by Quilt in a Day.

My friend Jan-Maree sent me a lot of scrap fabrics recently and I made these blocks for her to make charity quilts. It was great fun combining the fabrics.

Each block is 12 1/2" and I made 20 to send her.

Various projects including Orca Bay - part 2

This is my 12th completed block of the Civil War Bride quilt. Its a very time consuming project so along with other projects I do, I aim to complete one a month. 

Next one will probably be done next year.

Another on-going project I've been doing for a couple of months is the Farmer's Wife quilt. Teresa and I swap blocks and these are the latest blocks we exchanged.

She made me these...



And I made her these...



 She also made me this cute mat which is now decorating my newest fabric cupboard...
I love the fact that she embroidered my name on the applique flower.

And now part 2 of ORCA BAY.  I choose yellow. 

I cut strips from some of my stash and cut 3 3/4" squares of paper from an old phone book.
I have never used this technique before but it was really easy and quick (but very messy). Even removing the paper was quick provided the stitch lenght was very small.

And these are my little guys ! 72 blocks measuring 3 1/2 "... Love them !

Bowtie Blocks and Orca Bay - Part1

I have been experimenting with the Bowtie Quilt Block, using the technique explained on a tutorial made by The Missouri Quilt Company. The way its done is very quick and simple, so I made a table topper and ...

a table runner...

I have a number of these types of fabrics (fruits and plants), so I am thinking of using them up in similar projects.

Years ago, one of my first quilts was a Bowtie Quilt, I still have it...
It was made with templates and hand-pieced and took a lot longer to complete.

I've been antecipating the start of the mystery quilt Orca Bay designed by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.
I have done mystery quilts before in a class setting but this is the first time I have participated via the web.

I will be using blue, white, red and yellow fabrics from my stash. I don't intent to buy any new fabrics for this entire quilt.

I selected blue and white/cream based fabrics for this block and went though all my fabrics and as much as possible I tried not to duplicate each fabric.

For the first part, we are required to make Hourglass blocks that measure 2 1/2" square.

Trimming each block using the "Quilt in a Day" ruler.

It was a lot of work involved but I'm glad its done ! 224 blocks.

Now waiting for Part 2 to be released on Friday... I wonder which colours will be in this section ?


My friend Jan-Marie sent me these cute blocks. We've been swapping with her since the beginning of the year and I always love her choice of fabrics. Thank you Jan-Marie !

Catching up...

First up, I want to share with you a quilt I made many years ago that's hanging up in my home. The quilt is called Fairmeadow and was designed by Jeanna Kimball.
It's hand appliqued using blanket stitch and I challenged myself to use orange instead of red.
I hand quilted it but should have quilted a lot more in the borders. 



Here's a close up ...




And closer still.


Orange and black go really well...

I played a little with my little scraps and made 12 more mini logcabins....58 done this year..



I made a few more blocks as part of the Farmer's Wife swap but can't show the photo because I want to surprise the recipient...


And now for some music....

Since I started this blog I've been focusing on mostly Smooth Jazz artists... Today the featured artist is completely different but an old time favourite... My earliest memories of this artist was when my dad and I (I must have been 10 years old or so) used to play his music time and time again.  To this day I still enjoy these old songs and the newer ones too.
So without further to add, here it is ..... TOM JONES...