building blocks downsized

The original Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt is a big quilt ( 84" x 96") and is made up of all solids. It's got quite a clean graphic design, and the solids do work very well. However, I wanted to put my own touch into this project and, as I'm not a big fan of the all-solid look, I began including a few AMH fabrics.

here's were I was at  

Since January, it has been a quilt that I have worked on a little here, a little there.The instructions are great, easy to follow, and I love my fabric choices, but I must admit I'm still not, how do you say, feeling-the-love for this quilt top!This week, rather than spend more time making something I'm not enjoying, I decided to stop there and try & get it all together. Lucky for me.. after I made a few more 6" blocks and did some tricky improv piecing, it all seems to fit ok! My downsized BB version now measures 75" x 72" approx. And it turns out, that while I feel the big blocks are simply way, way too big, my daughter just loves it! I'm couriering the finished top down to Linda in Taupo, aka the razzle dazzle quilter here, for some custom quilting magic!

extra 6" blocks

I was 4" too short.... flying geese border to the rescue! 

So these building blocks have gone from a WiP (work in progress) 

to WITHWIT (what in the heck was I thinking?) 

to TIH ( there is hope!)

Linking up with WiP Wednesday here at freshly pieced

off the wall

Been a little bit 'in between' projects lately

But today I've got the time... tick!

still got all those HST's up on design wall... tick!

and it's raining ... tick!

so I've got no more excuses... tick!

lots of chain piecing

trying to focus on the lights & darks not the pretty fabric!

joining up the HST's together into little blocks of four

then joining the blocks into rows

and joining all the rows together 

et voila! 

 I spent a lovely afternoon sewing today

I managed to get those HST's down off the wall & all together into a quilt top!

It's sort of allover the place, I know... almost but not quite random... 

I do love the simplicity of this sort of patchwork sometimes, don't you?
simple repetitive sewing, with a scrappy selection of pretty fabrics 

There's quite a few Anna Maria Horner fabrics, some Denise Schmidt, some solids, 

and some fabrics I tend to use over & over so I popped them in too! 

I had alot of fun mixing it all up!

Linking up with Cynthia for 'Oh Scrap'  here

Pop on over to see the scrappy delights others have been working on too!

quilts for Vanuatu

Broken Dishes Quilt

There is a group of people throughout New Zealand donating quilts for Vanuatu. 

Cheryl from 'All Things Patchwork' @ Waimauku Village 

is one of the drop off points here in Auckland. 

Fastway Couriers will be collecting the quilts from specified drop off points approx.10th April. 

Quilts required are ones that are brightly coloured, washable and firmly made.  

A quilt I made last year has sat around here waiting for 'a-home-to-go-to' 

so I popped out there today & left my quilt with her.

{oh, and I did just a little bit of 'stash enhancement' while I was there!}

a weekend of bits & pieces

fabric pull for a new quilt? hm-m-m maybe not!

 a few pics from an amazing exhibition! 

home sewing for babe evie! 

incoming... new umbrella prints!

But wait, there's more ....

 from this...

... to this! 

My weekend has been full of little bits & pieces, again! 

• My grand-daughter, Olive, had fun picking out a few fabrics for my next quilt... good taste, see the AMH there! 
• My sister, my niece & I went & checked out 'WOW - World of Wearable Art' show at the Auckland Museum today, amazing! see here for more in-depth details 
• Oh, and I spent some time with my daughter making "fluffies" - remember those? {the soft outer layer for night time nappies} I did suggest she just pop down to Farmers & buy a couple! The first one was too big, the second one was too small, the last one... but hey, you know how this is going to go?!? 
• I received a lovely little package this week from a new source, Umbrella Prints, an Australian textile house specialising in organic printed fabrics. {See here for more info} Linking up with Molli here for Sunday Stash 
• And, I had a lovely surprise from Alma who bought my AMH quilt top on Trade Me a while ago... she unpicked my sewing, sliced it up, sewed it all back together again, and sent me a pic, and I'm sure you will all agree... WOW, such a lovely use of my fabrics, upcycling I think it's called!

Hope you all had a great weekend! 

hand quilting vs machine quilting or both!

I've got a finished quilt to share today! 

{yay-e-e-e finish #4, another project to cross off my FAL  list!}

the back

I tossed up for ages about how to quilt this scrappy stacked coins quilt! It's a simple pattern, with a simple (if somewhat 'bright') colour scheme, surely one element, like maybe the quilting, could be a just a bit more dynamic? But I struggle with fmq and I thought I would get bored or give up if I hand quilted it all!

In the end I had it machine quilted by Carol Fearon, however, I asked if she would leave all the pink solid bits unquilted for me to do. I do hand quilting now & then, but I've never tried the big stitch quilting before. I experimented a bit with different threads & needle sizes, looking for which would stitch smoothly & easily. And I finally decided to use a pink variegated embroidery floss with a large eyed needle! Like most things, the more you do the better it is, and I found if I loaded up the needle, my stitches seemed to look that much more even. I'm very happy with the finished combined effect!

On another note, I'm also finding my DS fabrics blend in really well with many others, do you find that too? I used several in the piecing of this quilt, the geometric fabrics are a nice balance with the florals, and her Franklin Glen Geo Calico worked really well for my binding too! This quilt is now finished and on a bed in it's new home.

For more details about my progress & inspiration on this quilt see here.

Linking up with aylin here  for TGIFF.
{finish #5 see my FAL 2015 list here}

chevrons, and pinwheels, and stars... oh my!

I haven't made any more actual sewing progress with this during the week. I keep playing with it all up on the design wall! I'm mainly using an assortment of light & dark fabrics, which together create a nice 'high' contrast. Then I found if I threw in an occasional medium fabric, it takes on more of a softer feel. It's a lot of fun, you can do so much with HST's, creating so many different patterns... chevrons, pinwheels, stars, hourglass, zig zags, flying geese, etc, etc. Better stop playing with all this and get onto actually sewing it together now! Linking up with Lee here for WiP Wednesday.

babe Evie's quilt {a finish}

a few of my favorites close up...

and on the back...

                                                           

a few quilt details: 

I chose from a selection of old tablecloths, tea tray sets & doilies from my mum & Mr D's mum. Once Aunty Freda saw what I was making she wanted to add a couple too! We spent a lovely afternoon together going through all her own special collection. 

Embroidery rectangles cut at 10 1/2" x 9 1/2 " 

Log Cabin strips from Old New Fabric Collection by Lecien, cut 2" wide.
See here for more quilty details & here about my inspiration for this

Custom quilted by Carol Fearon

Binding: an old Kaffe F. stripe

Backing: a selection of leftover vintage sheets

Single bed size quilt for babe Evie 

a busy week of little bits & pieces...

.. this week I've been busy making bindings

.. and busy with a little bit of stash building!

Fresh Air by American Jane/ Moda in yellow, blue & floral, Walk in th ePark by Maywood Studio

Herb Garden Arcadia by Sarah Watson

Moda bella solids 30's fat 1/4 pack

Westwood Liberty fat 1/8th bundle of the month {see here if interested}

.. busy enjoying some hand quilting in the evenings

the back

.. and busy putting the binding on this quilt, another project to cross off on my FAL list!

last year I participated in the 'Classic meets Modern' quilt-a-long

linking up now with Erin here for the finale 

{pebble quilting by Carol Fearon}

also linking up with TGIFF this week over here at Quilt Matters

                      .. oh, and I've been busy enjoying my new book, 'Quilt Lovely' by Jen Kingwell

Have a lovely weekend!