a not so pastel 'vintage comfort' quilt

My not so pastel 'vintage comfort' quilt got the extra border treatment today. I'm using Judy Newman's pattern from her new book here and I tossed up for a while about making my version in soft pastels too. But I've seen some other inspiring colour combos over on instgram lately - see here,   here, and here . And, I'm a big fan of the modern way Sheena Chapman uses vintage fabrics, see here too, so I decided to be a bit adventurous, à la Sheena!

However, the other thing that also determines the direction of most of my projects is what I actually have on hand in my stash at the time. I mainly buy fat 1/4's, I figure that's a good way to get variety, and as I'm into scrappy quilts, variety is good.  The problem arises when I need larger amounts of fabric for borders, backgrounds and dividing strips, like today! Things got a bit touch & go with the red & white microdot background fabric and the wasabi green linen- both of which I ran out of midflight.

Still with this controlled pallette, a crazy mish-mash of old & new fabrics, a playful stripe, and lots of improv piecing, I got there in the end. It's quite a big quilt, approx. 170cms (68") x 200cms (80"), my usual spot on the deck for pics wasn't high enough, but you get the general idea.

Love to hear how you decide just how much fabric to buy? 

Linking up with Cynthia over here for 'oh scrap'.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This week starts the Fall 2017 edition of the Bloggers Quilt Festival, and I have decided to participate too and share one of my most recent, most favourite finishes and one a few of you will have seen here before, my "Queen of the May" quilt.

On my last trip to Melbourne I visited Somerset Patchwork and fell in love with Karen's quilt 'Circle of Sisters' that was on display in the shop.
It was such a bright recreation of a vintage quilt. The blocks were on a wonderful yellow cheddar background, the whole quilt simply glowed, and I've always loved the idea of making a quilt one day on something so bright too.
And so back in January this year I jumped right in!

Inspired by Kathy from materialobsession and her use of contemporary fabrics with traditional designs, I've been experimenting more lately, mixing and matching bright fabrics from my scrap basket. I used a template set  "queen of the May" from way back, it was my favourite block from an earlier Material Obsession BOM quilt that I made.

The 'printonprints' effect is quite wild and colourful, and a fun way to go! It's such a very different direction from where I would usually go, and the hardest thing was not to make them all too nicely co-ordinated.

Choosing my background fabric also proved tricky. After quite a few days of experimenting with different borders, different sashings and different settings, I ended up using the lovely Victoria Findlay Wolfe yellow floral, Elise Mostly Manor. Such a riot of busy happy colour!

As I made up the blocks and trialled them on the yellow background they seemed to get a bit lost on it. So what to do? Then I had a light bulb moment ... ric rac.
I've seen ric rac used on some quilts before - Rachaeldaisy from 'blue mountain daisy' has used ric rac in some very inspiring ways on her lovely quilts. So off I went to 'Spotlight' (it's similar to 'Jo Anns' I think), and bought a few metres of blue ric rac. 

- close up of the beautiful machine quilting by Leeanne from quiltmekiwi

I really enjoyed making this quilt, from making all the wild fabric choices right through to the traditional construction. You can read lots more about my inspiration details and decision dilemmas from an earlier post here  - it is my most popular post so far.

Pop on over here to amyscreativeside for a look at all the festival quilts,

it's a great way to discover and follow new quilting blogs too. 

pat-next-door's quilt

And finally, after having lots of projects mid flight
it feels good to have a little finish!

Pat-next-door is going to be a great grandmother in October and requested a 'pink' quilt. 

'Pink squared' is all ready now for her
and her soon to be born great granddaughter over on Waiheke Island

- I did lots of simple straight line quilting all over this quilt

- and Evie had a little test drive this afternoon before we handed it over to Pat.

- close up of binding & backing

 a few quilt stats:
I joined in with #junequiltqal a couple of months ago over at crazymomquilts, 
- such a fun easy way to make a quilt
Finished quilt measures 130cms x 175cms
I used a limited colour palette,
featuring Les Fleurs rose tapestry, rifle paper for Cotton & Steel for the larger squares
and a cute pink fabric from Andover Fabrics, Lizzy House for the smaller filler squares.
Backing was a soft pink flannette sheet from Pat's cupboard
and the binding was a blending stripe from my stash.

Linking up with Emily for 'moving it forward' over here at emsscrapbag
with Beth for 'main crush Monday' here
and with Lorna for 'let's bee social' over here at sewfreshquilts

bits & pieces

Taking a break from sorting 'house' things and playing with fabric today.
But what a mess,
seems some serious sorting is required in here too! 

Hey wait a minute - is that part of a quilt under there?

These zigzag blocks are in no particular order just yet. I've got a few more blocks to make as I want to have a 5 x 7 setting, so there's still plenty of wriggle room for a reshuffle. I'm also thinking about running the vertical darker colours into each other a bit more.

There's a mixture of Outback Wife fabrics and a few Anna Maria Horner ones. Loving the mix of these floral with stripes & checks, and I'm finding that repeating some fabric combos helps with calming things down!

I've also made a bit more progress on my 'whimsy' blocks. I'm enjoying making these, just wish I could be enjoying it a bit more often.  It seems to take me a least one block to get back into the swing of making them, what with those cheeky little inset seams and remembering to use a scant 1/4" as I piece them.

hm-m-m- a little bit of unpicking needed for my 1st block today
but this next one is looking a lot better . . .

15 blocks so far, here's a group photo . . .

I do love a little bit of vintage in some of my quilts, and so earlier in the year I signed up to the 'vintage fabric club' with Jen from apieceofcloth .

My first package arrived this week and it's an interesting selection, very different to anything we get here in NZ. I'm looking forward to using them.

Linking up all these little bits & pieces with Cynthia here for 'oh scrap'

sew stitch snap SHARE #12

Well hello!

Thank you all for linking up to 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' over the past few months,

- it's been great to see such a variety of projects.

Things around here have got slightly diverted off course this week, are you not surprised? I started out with the best intentions, we are moving and my mission was decluttering & destashing. But it's always a risky activity when I start sorting scraps. Have a peep at what happened . . .

I love mixing florals with stripes 

and plaids

Totally inspired by Lee Ann from niftyquilts, I have wanted to make a version of her 'tennessee lightening' quilt for ages now (see here), and have just been waiting for a bold floral to set the blocks with.

Her pattern uses the simple way of making two HST units at the same time. First, cut your squares and match two right-sides-together. Draw a diagonal line down the back of one side. Sew a 1/4″ seam on both sides of the drawn line. Cut on the drawn line. (There's also a great tutorial here by Amy from DiaryofaQuilter, if you are not too sure what I mean)

More soon.

Time now for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup

My pick from last time was the WiP Nicolette from dutchcomfort is working on,

her all-solids version of 'down a rabbit hole'  . . .

She also has a few other great projects on the go too, like her Delilah blocks.

I love her mix of fabrics and quirky selection of low voloume backgrounds, look at #3 . . .

- pop on over here to see lots more & be inspired! 

And what are you working on right now?

Whatever you're sewing or stitching, you can link it up here.

Just follow these simple guidelines:

1. Link up from any post from the past week that features something you have been sewing or stitching. You can write as much or as little about your project as you like, or simply let your photos do the talking.
2. Somewhere in your post, please link back to this post.

3. Please comment on a couple of the other Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE links - its fun to receive comments from new people, and we are trying to encourage people to read blogs and to keep blogging. Hope you find some new inspiration too!

Thanks for joining us, Julie & Linda

a mixed bunch

It's a quick post today, as I've been busy packing up things.
 However, a little treat arrived in the post
and so, in the absence of any sewing, I thought I'd share my recent fabric finds.
They are a bit of a mixed bunch of florals . . .

Amy Butler, Soul Mate, Inner Vision in Turquoise,
Poplin Bone Kaliedescope (which has to be my favourite) & Prismatic in Cocoa 

A few pinky purples to add to the (packed up) stash, a colour I don't often buy

'Dawn' Sunny Isle by Jennifer Paganelli 

and a couple of Joel Dewberry fabrics, Wander Rosetta 'Meadowby' & 'Moon Garden'  

Two small itty bitty prints, AGF Studio, Abloom Fusion, 'Ladylike in Abloom'
& Bonnie Christine, Hello Ollie Organic, 'Blossom Drift' in Roseate, both will be very useful
oh, and a pretty larger floral from Rifle Paper Co, Menagerie, 'Jardin De Paris in Mint' 

I love mixing fabrics from my stash with vintage and new prints for a eclectic, funky mix

and I'm sure these will fit in nicely with my latest WiPs too . . .

Three new fabrics from Denyse Schmidt, Washington Depot,
Flower Girl in Wild Rose, Wallflower in Linoleum & Flower Girl in Teal,
2x Robert Kaufman's London Calling
and the last one is from Josephine Kimberling, Daydream, Cherry Blossoms in Pink.  

Now to find some extra time for sewing!

Linking up with Molli here for 'sunday stash'

See you back here on Wednesday for 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE'

a tale of two wives

I think this is the first quilt I’ve ever made twice. I was crazy mad in love with my first Gypsy Wife quilt. I had lots of fun chosing from a large number of scrappy fabrics, I ran lots of colour through my blocks and through my vertical rows, and I love everything about this charming vintage looking quilt.

I loved it so much that mid last year, I thought I'd join Megan from jaffaquilts and make another one. I'd like to think the fabric choices I made about my new “wife” were different. I mean why bother making a second one if not to make it a bit different?

There was lots of fussy cutting & scrappy colour still, but I felt it was more co-ordinated, more 'modern' looking. And all my vertical rows were to be in low volume greys & whites. I even had a focus fabric as my jumping off point, to guide my colour choices, something that had never occurred to me first time around! 
I made up all the first sections and then I'm not sure why, but with half the quilt done, I stalled.

Fast forward to today . . . while decluttering the sewing room this weekend, I came across my GW #2, including all the little blocks, all pieced and all ready for making up section 6. I ironed everything and spread it all out on the design floor.

I took a few photos,

and here's an interesting little collage of three of my favourite blocks,

nurses cross - colour wheel - pershing

 GW #1 top row, GW #2 bottom row 

I know we all see colour differently and it may be just me, but I think my two wives look oh so very similar. Hehe, I guess I do have a certain 'style' after all - and I obviously got bored with doing it all over again! Wondering now about continuing on or not. Linking up with 'finished or not Friday' here at busyhandsquilts and with 'oh scrap' over here 

a bit more #67

If you are tempted to give this a go,

I did a bit of a search and discovered there's a GW sew along happening at present,

and lots of pics can be found here #gypsywifesal

Angie from gnomeangel has also put together heaps of information,

including ideas about fabric choices & a colouring chart.