Friday 28 September 2012

Modern Mystery Part 1

A FB friend asked where Part 1 was - oops forgot to post, so here it is.

The pattern says to use solids on a light background, but I chose a black background to make the colours more bold.

Part 1 involved cutting random rectangles within a size restriction. I cut heaps so have now also added to my strip stash.

Before I started I couldn't get my head around what I had to do, so I actually drew a plan LOL.

To remember which fabric was the centre, I placed a pin in the middle until I had sewn two sides.

All the seams were to be pressed open. I usually press to the dark.

Adding the ends to make a rectangle inside a rectangle.

The finished part 1 blocks.
Happy sewing
Allison

Modern Mystery Quilt part 2

I like holidays - it gives me time to do what I love - sew.

After finishing a lap quilt for grand-daughter Ava, and a Halloween lap quilt for Emma, I continued with the I Spy jar quilt wall hanging and I'm very happy with it. I only have the appliquƩ on the bottom shelf to do and it will be ready to back.

 So I started on part 2of the Modern Mystery Quilt. I printed out the template and went through the kitchen cupboards trying to find a plate, bowl or lid that would fit - no luck. I didn't want to make 30 patterns or make a plastic template so I decided to use freezer paper.
I traced over the template and then folded the freezer paper in half before cutting. This gave me a circle.

I folded the circle to make a semi circle again and placed it around the long end of the background fabric. I pinned 4 layers of fabric together and used a dressmakers pencil to trace around the freezer paper and cut with scissors. The pattern says to discard the cut out fabric - YEAH RIGHT!!!! I'll use it for something. 

The larger circle I ironed onto one piece of fabric. I used scissors to cut around it. 

I then pinned the paper and fabric to about 4 layers of fabric and cut around that.

After cutting 15 circles I needed to cut them in half to make 30 semi-circles.
 I did this by folding the original paper and fabric circle in half and using my rotary cutter and ruler i carefully cut each group of 4 fabrics in half.

 I watched the Amy Gibson Craftsy video again to see how to sew circles. She is so good with her explanations and hints.

http://www.craftsy.com/lecture/September-Curved-Piecing/551.html?t=1958
 You will need to register for the class - it is free - and the whole class is full of different hints and ideas, it is well worth it.

After sewing 2 or 3 blocks it became easier to pin and sew the curves.
One good hint was to pin the middle and the two ends a couple of times with one pin, and all the other pins only once picking up a few stitches only. This allowed the fabric to move to where I wanted it to be when sewing.

Amy's video showed exactly how to sew and lift the foot to move the background fabric around so it wouldn't pucker.

And here we are with 30 finished part 2 blocks.

Some school work to do then back to start sewing part 3.
Allison

Tuesday 25 September 2012

UFO 2 finished

So happy that I finished little Ava's Quilt on Saturday, I decided to finish another quilt I had started. This one is for my daughter Emma. Her birthday is Halloween, so I thought a Halloween lap quilt would be in order.

In between, I opened an Etsy store and a Pink Fairy Quilts Facebook page. We'll see how these go.

While on our trip to USA in September 2010 we were driving up the historic Route 100 in Vermont and came across a quilting shop - nothing else around other than trees - so we had to stop, oh dear LOL. This is where I bought the Halloween quilt kit. The only instructions were a picture and I copied it as much as I could.

 The ladies in the shop were very helpful and cheerful and said it was ok to take as many photos as we liked.
It was a wonderful find.
http://www.waterwheelhouse.com/



So..... in December during the first week of the school holidays we went to Corindi, on the mid North Coast of New South Wales and I started Emma's quilt.
It is almost summer so Emma didn't need a large quilt, a lap quilt will be fine for those cooler spring evenings.



So here are on Sunday.
I had some children's material mask fabric and decided to use that as part of a pieced back for the quilt.
I cut lots of strips of 'Halloween' colour fabric and added one piece of Halloween printed fabric and simply sewed around 'log cabin' style.



..... and finished back.

I decided the best quilting to do would be a giant spider web - to keep in line with the Halloween theme.

Pinning the border

Finished quilt


You can see the spider quilting here.

Now I really do need to move on to the I Spy Cookie Jar wall hanging - or maybe part 2 of modern mystery quilt (part 3 comes out tomorrow).

Happy Sewing







Saturday 22 September 2012

Thank Goodness it's Holidays

I still feel a sense of relief when school holidays start - even though I always have a lot of school planning and assessing and reporting and other school related things to do, but at least I can do it at my own pace. These holidays we are not going away in the van, so I should have a little more time to spend blogging.

First day today I decided to finish a project so I could have the good feeling of achieving something.
I chose to finish my adorable grand daughters quilt Ava's quilt. Ava lives in England. She is two years old and has visited Australia twice.

When we were travelling to Victoria in March 2011, I found this beautiful panel that said ADORABLE on it. Ava's name is ALWAYS VERY ADORABLE.

So here it is.
Quilt top all laid out 
 It took me ages to find the fabric to make the border, and then I found the most perfect fleecy for the backing.
 I used a thin light green solid fabric as the binding.


 I stitched Ava's name on the quilt.
 And of course a label
 The finished size is 95cm X 130 cm (37.5" X 51")
Showing the back of the quilt.

Now what should I finish now? Maybe the jar wall hanging.

Sunday 9 September 2012

Wildflowers Quilt

I made some time this week to finish the Wild Flower quilt for a friend. She did a great job with the appliquƩ and I added the sashing, binding, boarder and backing. I really like it.

 Sewing the backing.

 Changing the foot to a quilting foot.

 Changing back to 1/4 inch foot for sewing the binding on.






The finished quilt is beautiful.


Now I'm going to start on some I Spy blocks.
Happy Sewing