The latest project...

So back in November, when I thought there would be loads of time to sew on a new project, I decided to start Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice,  I knew I would have no chance of keeping up, but thought I would improve my chances of doing the smaller sized quilt which is 75"x75"...the larger one is 110" square....not for the faint hearted!!

So these are the colours I have chosen...

Fairly close to what Bonnie used with two changes one being exchanging the dark blue for the brown…fancy me having so many browns!

And switching up the orange to include tomato red….

Needless to say, I didn't get as much sewing done in January as thought…sigh... but I will plug away at this project for the next couple of months.

One of the thing Bonnie suggested before starting the project was to go and get some paint slips to help pull your fabrics…what a great idea...

Loving that tri-rec ruler….not loving so much making 100 chevron blocks...

I think it will come together nicely, but it sure will improve my piecing skills, 'cause there is no room for sloppy piecing in this project :)

Can you believe it!

On Thursday night I attended the Darwin Patchworkers and Quilters Exhibition opening....and guess what? My Peppermint Sparkle (pattern from Applique Outside the Lines - Piece O' Cake Designs) won a Highly Commended prize...

...quite surprised, but very happy....especially since it languished in the cupboard unquilted for a couple of years....just goes to show what can happen when you dust off those UFO's!

Speaking of UFO's....after Mum and I saw the V&A exhibition, Mum decided she really needed to finish this quilt....it only needed the binding...the pattern for this quilt is in Kaffe Fassett's V&A Quilts. This quilt is huge, 109" x 110".

And guess whose bed that goes on? Yes, that's right, me! Wooot woot.

My other entry in the exhibition was my Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trip (find pattern here), which people were quite interested in...mainly because all those colours pack a  punch.

Mum's second quilt in the exhibition...a pattern from Flying Fish Kits....I really love all those japanese naomi fabrics...

And aren't these 1/2 hexagon so sweet....Mum is very nifty with the needle and especially with appliqué....so she is able to whip through binding like butter...I think she got 18 metres of binding (two quilts) done in less than a week!

I have more photos to share, but the house is waking up, so I think I might go an make brekky for everyone....scrambled eggs with chives might the order of the morning :)

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 :)

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!