I Love NEW YORK !

No matter how many times I visit New York, I can never get enough of this vibrant city.
A couple of years ago I returned to New York and visited The City Quilter for the first time.

One of the things I purchased there was a kit for a wall hanging. In the past few days I've been putting it together.



It's machine appliqued and I used a straight stitch around each shape.

This section of the quilt is suppose to be the the Guggenheim in New York  .



Other well recognised landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, the Chrystler building, the Empire State building and the Citicorp buiding are all in the quilt.

And this is what the quilt looks like.

I would have preferred to photograph it outside but the weather is not the best today.

I used for the backing the 'New York Taxi Cabs' fabric.

I'll be enjoying looking at it for a long time and dreaming about my next visit to New York !

That's my first concrete goal done for 2012..
Next I'm going to play again with my scraps doing a little project before tackling the next goal.

Table Topper

I had a play with my AccuQuilt GO as I purchased the smaller tumbler recently.
I cut out the blocks from some leftover fabric I had from a quilt I made my mum  last year.

Its very scrappy but I like the way it turned out.

I have a few days left before I go back to work and the weather forecast is just perfect for staying indoors and quilting...

But I can still look out of my studio window and enjoy my garden...



In my next posting I'm planning to show you a completed quilt that I'm currently working on that symbolizes a place that I absolutely love....

First completed project for 2012

I am hoping to make a few smaller quilts this year, so here's my first one...



The fabrics came from an half a charm pack I had purchased years ago. All dot fabrics.

The main reason I haven't been doing a lot more sewing in the past couple of weeks is because I've been gardening and taking advantage of lovely weather while I'm home on vacation.
Here are some photos of my backyard and outside my studio...

I enjoy having breakfast in this spot early in the morning and listening to the  birds singing ...

The bulk of the gardening work is now done, so I just have to keep up with the maintenance and enjoy the beauty and lovely scents.

And finally, some music...

I don't often get comments about the music references I add to the blog, but today I've chosen a very beautiful song called "Heaven in your Eyes".  It has a special meaning to me and I would like to share it with you.
The main artist is the contemporary jazz saxophonist Elan Trotman and it features the keyboardist Brian Simpson...

2012 Resolutions and Orca Bay progress

Happy New Year !

Today I managed to get into my studio later in the afternoon to do some stitching and formulate my quilting goals for 2012.

Given that Orca Bay has now been revealed I decided to do a couple of blocks to get an idea what the overall quilt would look like. 
I have to admit that I am not too happy with the Ohio Star blocks. They seem to get lost with the other blocks, lacking contrast.

Looking at the blocks before stitching them together, the blocks with the darker corners I am not too happy with and once I put them together I deslike it even more !

I tried various combinations to give these blocks some definition, including use of the same fabric to the corner squares but even that didn't work. The Hourglass blocks are the problem in some instances and I was not inclined to do more of them.

For the Ohio starts I should have used darker blue fabrics instead of the varieties of blues I used. I'm going to put aside for now what I have done until such time I come up with a different layout or use the blocks on another project.

I feel this has been a disappointing start to my quilting year....

On a more positive note, I have set out for myself for 2012, to complete 8 UFO's, at least to completed top stage. The rest of the goals will be to do a couple of new projects for gifts, try out new techniques and make smaller projects.

I hope you started 2012 inspired....

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.