Great Retreat :)

For the last couple of years, (last year's post) I have gone down to Mt Bundy for a three day retreat with the local guild, Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters....this year was no different....twenty plus of us sewed day and night....there was plenty of laughs....lots of sewing and lots of eating, and plenty of "rural action".

I decided that I would take projects that were already cut as I have a sore shoulder....too much rotary cutting I suspect. These lovely Amy Butler's had been sat in the cupboard cut up ready to be sewn together for about two years....so they got an airing....

Now there is  42 12.5" blocks, and I realised that I hadn't brought the sashing (sigh), it's going to be a queen size quilt, so I packed up the blocks and started on the next project. Anyone who has been to a retreat knows that you need to take more than one project!

Remember these blocks from an earlier post? For the uninitiated this is a free pattern on the Anna Marie Horner website.

Well nine more were sewn up....till they looked like this...do you like my improv design wall?

....then some playing around happened....and they looked this.

Quite a pretty little quilt...maybe for a baby girl?

This Anna Marie Horner Field Study Range is so gorgeous :) lucky I have some scraps left...maybe I will use them for a border?

So after finishing this quilt top, I got out my THIRD project....but I will save that for the next post :)

Mrs Billing's...oh no moment!

Over Christmas and the last couple of months I have been plodding away on my Mrs Billings project, that I started last October. For new to me visitors, this is the end product, yes I have a long way to go....

I was hoping to have a ta-dah moment this post and share my progress by having my first diamond border attached...

but after hand stitching away on Sunday afternoon, I had an oh-no moment instead when I finished this little stripy border...

Spot what's wrong with this picture....should there be a very precise 1/4 inch over hang here? And after lots of head scratching I realised the answer is NO!

I pinned the strip on a 1/4 inch out on both sides, making the border 1/2 inch shorter than it should be...no wonder I had to ease the fabric as I was sewing!

And then I remember having the same easing issue on the first stripy border....yes I measured up and you guessed it, it was out by 1/2 inch too...I have done mitres before....I can't work out how I made such a dumb mistake...grrr....it really hurts to unpick hand stitching!

Other progress to share is my hexie flowers...I did these while travelling in Tasmania in January.

So cute don't you think? There will be twenty eight of these little beauties....

I am committed to doing this project....I am not going to put it away...I have made a pact with myself to have the borders out to the first diamonds done by the end of this month....

Quilting done!

Thank Goodness, I have got the quilting done on my scrappy trip around the world, it wasn't that hard once I actually sat down and it did it, I decided to quilt it every second square, horizontally, vertically and diagonally...

...and on my new Janome, it really powered through the quilt, I think it took around 8 hours, split up over two weekends! I used a Denyse Schmidt, Katie Jump Rope on the back, which is a nice happy fabric! So now all that is left is the binding...is there any such thing as binding avoidance?

With all the quilting out of the way I got stuck into my Bonnie Hunter scrappy baskets....which I am really happy with...

I have them all up on my "design wall", quilt batting held by coat hangers on a sliding door pelmet, ....ready to stitched together!

Speaking of which I better hurry up because the fan keeps on blowing bits and pieces off :)

It's Official...No Quilting here

Officially quilting avoidance has commenced, I blogged a couple of weeks ago here that I had finished my scrappy trip top, I have even made up the backing, and pinned the thing....but not a quilting stitch has occurred....so what have I been doing?

Remember this book....

 and this pattern...

and these little string blocks, well I have finished the 32 string blocks...

And I have made a couple of little basket blocks....

with different baskets....

and then I had this other block I had cut out from before Christmas, so that got sewn together.

Tutorial for this block can be found over at...Bloomin' Workshop. It will be included in a red and white sampler I want make...I am going to include these blocks from the Bloggers BOM...but it's slow boiler...not sure when it will be done  :)

And I also have been doing some hand sewing... I will show you that soon. Saturday, is a day at the guild's club rooms...maybe I will do quilting there....but maybe I won't...sigh...really need to get on with this quilting !

Inspired to feather...year of the finish

This weekend I am trying to get my sewing space organised for quilting my Scrappy Trip Top, this means putting away piles of fabric, and finishing some half finished projects....like my Anna Marie feathers.

I actually made these before christmas...I was inspired by a picture I had seen on Flickr of someone making these feathers with different whites as the background, do you think I can find the photo now? I forgot to mark it as a favourite...grrr...

If you like this pattern check out Molly Flander's blog for lots of colour options...and make sure you spend some time looking at her other posts because she has some lovely ideas.

I have made four blocks so far, and seven more cut ready to go....so should I sew them all before I start quilting? I suspect I may be going into Quilting Avoidance....a condition I suffer from regularly :)

Scrappy trip top done!

My first top for 2013...waa-hoo....very happy with how it's turned out...

Nice colour close up....

and another one...it's very easy to get good photos with lots of light and bright colours :)

What backing should I use?

What shall I do with my scraps?  How come there are still scraps at the end of a scrap project?

Seeing as the scrappy trip block tutorial was done by Bonnie Hunter....I raided my local quilt library (mum's house), and borrowed Bonnie Hunter's latest book....String Fling....Bonnie has quite a few publications, and they all have loads of great scrappy and recycling ideas!

This little block caught my eye....so I have found a new scrap project for the scraps!

And of course I had to start "stringing" straight away...on pages from last year's telephone book.

I am making up 32 of these, and 16 of the little basket blocks...will report back on this soon!

Sunday update - Scrappy Trip Along

WARNING: Colour Overload in this post :)

Since last weekend I have been sewing up a storm, these blocks are so much fun, I was making 16 but I expanded to 24, seeing as there no real shortage of fabric in my scrap boxes!

Of course I was spurred on by the fact I am using a new-to-me sewing machine. I recently bought a second hand Janome Horizon, but of course the machine is only two years old so it is like a brand new one. It's been 25 years since I have sewed on a Janome and I have been enjoying it.

It still is surprising me how all the different fabrics play nice together...

The blocks that had the strongest diagonal row are the ones that have worked the best.

And I just love the yellow in the blocks.

Hope you all had a "sewy" weekend !