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 :)

So this is 2014….

It still feels a bit like 2013!

As per blog etiquette, I thought I would post a 2013 retrospective on my quilting….I use the word quilting very loosely, because when going through my projects over the last twelve months, I realised that I have only in fact quilted two things!

Scrappy Trip

So here's the thing…. I love piecing….that's the bit about sewing that is therapeutic for me! So I have any number of quilt tops done….but the quilting only gets done when it is "for" something….so the quilting I did in 2013 was for the guilds exhibition…note: I did get a highly commended for my Peppermint Sparkle quilt (sorry had to brag...again)….and it is going for a visit to Quilt Conference in Melbourne in April I think.

So this morning I got out all my 2013 quilt tops and hung them out in a line for a photographic session....they looked pretty good I thought!

Which ever way you look at them….

Introducing in order from left to right, is my Bonnie Hunter scrap baskets…

My Anna Marie Horner feathers….

The Orange Sunburst fun runner…this is actually an interloper because I realised after I had taken the quilts down that it is a 2012 finish…and still un-quilted…fancy that! But while we are talking the Sunburst quilt….checkout this one that Victoria Finlay just finished…quilted and everything!

The next is the Retro-astic quilt…note it has additional borders now? This was a late finish on New Year's Eve (day).

And lastly the Made in Cherry which I posted about early this week.

So yay me….would have loved to have done more sewing in 2013 but you can only do what you can do :)

So of course...quilting resolutions for 2014 are....to sew more fabric....buy less fabric....and to quilt more quilts! Do you have any quilting related resolutions for this year?

Happy New Year !

Almost Happy New Year

Finally, I have some time off work and time to sew….but not for long, as I am off on family holidays…..but I am trying to squeeze in a couple of posts as an end of year wrap up!

So firstly I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with family and friends!

My extended family spent the day at chez Hendo, at one point we had 17, it makes for a fun and hectic day ;)

My sewing effort in the lead up to Christmas is Sarah Fielke's Made in Cherry….Except mine is the miniature version 40" x 40"….it really is a very simple pattern, but for some reason it took me forever to put together.

Rule number one for piecing….do NOT ever EVER use two machines to piece one project on. I won't bore your with the details, but the quick un-pick got a good work out.

At the beginning of the year, a friendship group I belong to issued a challenge to make a quilt using paint chips picked by someone else, I couldn't believe that I drew out my favourite colours, pink and green!! This top will be quilted in the new year, and will make a great girl baby quilt!

Of course in my excitement of using pink and green I cut way to much fabric, and ended up sewing these babies as well…..as it wasn't a part of the above challenge, I used lots of other pinks and greens out of scrap pile, and some yellows….unfortunately I have the same issue with the seams mention above…so these blocks will have a little special treatment in the New Year.

As a part of having some spare time I have finally made time to join up Blog Lovin, a new to me blog reader. Follow my blog with Bloglovin .

Hope you all have a great New Year….I will back soon with my New Years resolutions!

Dont look at the fabric….

Now I haven't been to Spotlight for a while for a number of reasons, firstly I like to support my local quilt store, secondly they have been running down their patchwork lines, and thirdly they have stopped getting in the Denyse Schmidt fabrics….which I am really grumpy about.

However, today I was on a mission to buy curtains for my daughter….and I wasn't going to look at the fabric but….this panel caught my eye…

I don't know how long they have had this for, but it is a panel by Prints Charming, Sydney….so cute...

and, of course, I found a couple of other fabrics to go with it, the blue and orange in the background are also Prints Charming fabrics…the orange one was $4 a metre! The little set of five in the front is Sarah Fielke new range - Millefiori…very cute…perhaps a baby girl quilt-in-a-day?

One last thing, you know how Spotlight always have heaps of fabrics not put away near the counter…well this was on top…a lovely little canvas fabric... it is going into pillows for my thirteen year old daughter's bed.

So bouquets to Spotlight for supporting local Aussie designers, and having cute deer fabric, but a big raspberry for not stocking Denyse Schmidt fabrics anymore :(

Memories of Halloween 2012

Here in Australia, Halloween pretty much passes us by, although over the last few years there seems to be more people (kids!!) that are interested in the celebrations....but I have been thinking about where I was this time last year.....

Yes in America, New York....

.....Dallas

and finally Houston! I don't think I have any pumpkin photos in Houston....because by then I think I had seen every shape and colour of pumpkins....and of course my interest in all the fabulous quilts had taken over by then!

So just in case you are interested, the winners for this year Houston Quilt Exhibition have been announced, see here, and I was very bemused to see that the winning quilt has been created by the quilter after seeing this fabulous Chihuly glass exhibition at the Dallas Arboretum, which Mum and I also saw, this is the actual photo of the gondola...

...can you imagine creating a quilt from this....I would love to see the quilt in real life! This article in the Houston Chronicle has a better photo of the quilt.

On my own personal quilting... I have been up to my eyeballs in pink scraps, which I will share in later post (I am not happy with my pink scraps so I am ignoring them for a while)... but I have been having some fun with BROWN fabrics.....hard to believe....but I bought this pack of brown and grey fabrics when I was in Houston last year, and the guild has been playing around with clam shells, and I had clams shell papers and a glue stick, and hey presto.....

I am cheating with sewing down the little clams with a zig zag stitch....I have only done one row so far, and glued down the second row ready to be zig zagged...

There will be about 10 rows in total, big enough for a large pillow, or small quilt...I haven't decided yet!

That's all for now....I think I can hear some little trick-or-treaters coming down the path :)

Happy Halloween!

Retro-astic!

After weeeeks of quilting and general family busy-ness it was time to have a sewing day! Yeah :)

One thing that hasn't been shared on my blog, is my fondness for "retro" fabrics....there is a "small" collection of fabrics from the sixties and seventies taking up space in my cupboard, so today I decided it was time to have some fun with them! Firstly some strips were cut, with scissors, improv style to make this little  cute thing...Check out these lovely little prints....I really love the green....

 And what about this lovely lime rose...

It was fun combining all these different scale prints....

The size of the top is about 40", not sure what border will be put on, but I am thinking about lots of the lights at the moment...I had a bag of "dull" homespuns I was going to send to the second shop, but they found their way into this project...

Did you have some sewing fun today?

Loads of quilts - Part 2!

As per my previous post, there were many lovely quilts in our Territory Quilts Exhibition, so I thought I would show the rest of the quilts from the ladies in my friendship group "The Bay Babes", and a few extras that caught my eye.

Introducing Lillian.... "Marvellous Day for Dancing" is Lillian's original design, using hand dyed red fabrics.

Det Nua Fortress - pattern by Esterita Austen is the bottom quilt in the photo below....

Introducing Alison ..... who had so much spare time she made One Fish, Two Fish (72.5 x 59cm) (top quilt in photo above) as a part of Helen Godden work shop, and then made a miniature ( 31.5 x 22.5 cm) below ...

This is one of my favourites from Alison....Morning Glorified... she bought the blocks in Pine Lake Mountain, a small town at the entrance to the Yosemite Nation Park, California in 1996. The blocks were made in 1951. 

Doesn't it look great with all this perl thread quilting.....

Kimberly Camping, another lovely piece from Alison with hand dyed silks....

and loads of perl thread stitching and beading.

Memories of Crete - Highly Commended Art Quilt

We are nearly done now....check out the next  quilts that  caught my eye, firstly Jane Price's Hexagon  Garden (208 x 188cm), quite large and very attractive with loads of Kaffe Fassett fabrics

Jane had her quilt commercially quilted Denyse Bold of "Bold Quilting" and the colourful variegated thread has come up a treat on the black.

This quilt was inspired by photos of the red and white quilt exhibition "Infinite Variety". The shades of red come up beautifully in this photo, in the centre of the squares were lovely red work embroidery motifs. This is a group quilt by The Piecemakers from Alice Springs (244 x 183 cm).

Last, but certainly not least, is this lovely quilt by Elizabeth McCallum of Alice Springs. This quilt "My Roses in Broderie Perse" (260 x 230cm) won a Highly Commended in Professional Traditional quilts section.

Beautiful machine quilting...

Lovely machine applique...

That's all for Territory Quilts 2013...hope you enjoyed...and as they say "What's next?"