Saturday 16 March 2024

March Sewing and Flashback.

Sad the cruising season is coming to an end, but that will give me more time in the sewing room, at least until we head off in the caravan. 

A few years back, 2020 - during that time when we were all stuck at home 😉, I came across a facebook page - Partners in Design: Where Friends and Fabric Meet -that was starting a sew along "By the Sea". We all had plenty of time, so I started. It included a lot of different sewing techniques, some I was familiar with and others I was not. I did complete all the blocks but have not yet finished the quilt. It was fun and I even won a prize pack. In that pack was a pattern called "Beach Reading" from Pretty Piney - now Sugar Sand Quilt Co. - and that will become the middle of the By the Sea blocks. I guess that is what I may work on this week.

The next Partners in Design sew along was the end of 2021. The name, Destination Blocks, I adapted it to the Aussie Road trip that we  were on when it started. The first block had many many pieces and I hand stitched them together as we were travelling.

I decided to make the quilt as photos and use in the spare bedroom for the grand kids.

Now to this weeks sewing - I mentioned the Partners in Design FB page (which is not very active at present), on that page I came across Jennifer Fulton and The Inquiring Quilter, and I have been following her on Instagram as well as her webpage/blog. This block Cosmopolitan I found on Jennifer's blog and I instantly knew I had to make it. It is part of Quilt Block Mania and March is drinks. I only had a small amount of wave fabric so I decided to make the size of the block as wide as the wave fabric. I looked at the other drink blocks from the other designers and chose a few that I liked to add to the block.

So I started with the Cosmopolitan, one of my favourite cocktails - and I have many - and decided to add a cocktail shaker from Tamarinis.

I next found a pina colda, one of Peter's favourite drinks - and he now has a few different cocktails he likes. This one from Appliques and Quilts in a coconut, that would be cool, but we always get them in a glass. The other drink is a Toblerone.

Here we are with the finished block. I think it will become a cushion, with another cushion with some other cocktails to go with the soon to finish By the Sea quilt 🤞. Thank you Jennifer for the inspiration and the block.

Cheers!

Link Up Parties: 

Wednesday-Wait-Loss – The Inquiring Quilter

A Pageant of Finishes – From Bolt to Beauty

Finished(or Not) Friday – Alycia Quilt

Off the Wall Fridays - Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Put Your Foot Down - A Quiltery

Saturday 9 March 2024

Indigo Way Complete

Indigo Way quilt is now completed and gifted, and I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Had a lot of work with "Jack" but the results were worth all the hours. I made a whole clue incorrect and had to unpick 6 of the nine blocks. It happens - at least I could binge watch TV.

This mystery was an interesting one in that there was traditional piecing and foundation paper piecing. I must admit I'm kind of liking the foundation paper piecing. I like to reuse the papers as many times as I can, so I use printer paper to make a master that I file away after making a few copies. I fold back the paper and sew right next to the edge, that way I can reuse the papers and my needle is going to last that little bit longer. I make templates for the individual pieces and chain sew each block.

I like to sew and watch TV. Lucky for me my sewing room is also our theatre room.

As I said last post, I do not like the sandwiching and pinning of the layers. I don't mind the quilting and would like to improve my quilting designs - maybe this is the year 😊.
I even hand embroidered the label, something else I need to improve on. For backing I used fabric in Rose's favourite footie team colours.
My first finish for 2024.

Link Up Parties: 

Wednesday-Wait-Loss – The Inquiring Quilter

A Pageant of Finishes – From Bolt to Beauty

Finished(or Not) Friday – Alycia Quilt

Off the Wall Fridays - Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever.

Saturday 24 February 2024

Completing a Quilt - Almost

A busy week, starting with the tidying of my sewing space so I could get started on the quilting part of Quiltville Indigo Way. Not my favourite part of quilt making, but it needs to be done. 

However, I did start and finish the community block for the Focus Cutting sew along 2023 quilt. I appliqued the honeycomb block onto a neutral square and as embroidery was to added I used a variegated thread. I am not very good at embroidery, maybe with practice I will get better. The completed block is now on its way to England.

The hardest, least enjoyable part of making a quilt for me, is the sandwiching of the three layers. It takes so long to get all three layers straight and flat and pinned ready for the quilting part. I don't mind the quilting part. I'm doing a straight meandering pattern for the quilting, all while watching and singing along to music videos.


Link Up Parties: 

Wednesday-Wait-Loss – The Inquiring Quilter

A Pageant of Finishes – From Bolt to Beauty

Finished(or Not) Friday – Alycia Quilts