gone to a good home

                               My daughter has a habit of finding homes for my finished quilts!

- the minute I put the last little stitches into the binding 

- off out the door it goes! 

border, binding & backing close up pic

Blue & Brown Rosy Quilt

This is one of my 'go-to' quilt patterns for using up scraps.The layout of alternating 9 patch and large squares is one of Kaffe's earlier quilts, excellent for a particular colour story or maybe conveying a certain mood. I started it some time ago, just had the binding to add which I was doing today... and the rest, as they say, is history! I'm glad it's gone to a good home! 

Linking in to tgiff  here at anja quilts
and 'oh scrap' here at quilting is more fun than housework
pop on over to see lots of quilty inspiration!

{p.s. I've just received a lovely email from the lady who received this quilt, and she loves it!
Hey, isn't that why we do all this cutting up of fabric and sewing it all back together again?}

that perfect pattern

Ever had a special little bundle of fabrics and just not too sure what to do with them?

Inspiration from three sources got me busy this wet weekend making a new quilt top. Firstly, a lovely fat quarter bundle of organic printed fabrics from Umbrella Prints in Australia - I was not sure at all about how to use these fabrics so they've just sat on the shelf looking pretty ever since I purchased them! 

Then I saw a lovely quilt recently at the Quiltmakers show here in Auckland -Tripping Lightly by Robyn Croft - and I just knew my fabrics would be the perfect start for something similar!

But while I pondered about the reality of my actually making a full on trip-around-the world the traditional way, I came across the perfect pattern, Bonnie's easy individual block instructions for scrappy-trips-around-world! Using my special bundle, along with extra scrappy blending bits from my stash, I followed Bonnie's construction method. But I took more of a selective scrappy road-trip and had a bit of fun playing with the sequences!
Goodness! I've just loved making this quilt, simple but effective. A traditional design with a minimal colour scheme to give it a modern twist. Linking up with Julie at pink doxies and Cynthia here at 'oh scrap'  and then with Lee here at freshly pieced for WiP Wednesday later in the week.

I'll leave you with a molli sparkles comment that sums it up for me 

{quote} "It's all about finding that perfect pattern that strikes your fancy" {unquote}

WiP Wednesdaisy!

lots of inset seams

hey, these daisies are taking over my design wall!

Just loving watching it all slowly come together! This Daisy Day block is a remake of a 1930's pattern, with the petals stitched onto an octagon, squared up with triangles & squares, and then set on point. In true Jen Kingwell style, I'm using as many fabrics as I can! Little scrappy bits of brights, florals & spots, lots of my favourite ones that get used over & over. They are all mixed up with some of my new Gardenvale range. And I've used a variety of background fabrics too, whites, creams & grey with a couple of beiges - hopefully creating a more scrappy vintage feel.

Enjoy the photos! 

Linking into WiP Wednesdaisy here at freshly pieced

I'm having a pink day

It's been a sort of girly pink day around here...
tidying up the cotton reel drawer,

wintery pink camellias out in full,

another daisy block, pink this time,
and latest op shop find {pink Shelley plate/ Sheraton}

this week...

bright & bold building blocks all finished! 

a little bundle of new pretty fabric 

up on the design wall
{WiP}  

The Warriors are on... playing Parramatta 

so I thought I'd write a quick post about my week!

• First up, I went dancing! Over the years I've been to jazzercise, then zhumba, and now I go to dance class! It's 'in town' so travelling in & out is a bit of a pain at rush hour, but I love the class. It's for women of a certain age (!!) and we are learning to use our bodies with ease and (re)discover the joy of movement! It's contemporary dance, easy low impact, and alot of fun. Ha-ha, we don't really all look like that in pic #1!
• Book club again this week. My pick of the bunch is "The Extraordinary Journey of The Fakir Who got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe." We follow the main character, Ajatashatru Oghash (pronounced "a-jar-of-rat-stew-oh-gosh") on his accidental European journey. He's a likeable rogue exploring the perils of emigration, and meeting unlikely friends in odd places. A good read!
• I finished sewing the binding on my Building Blocks quilt. Finish #2 ticked off my FAL list  yayee! Linking into tgiff over here at quarter inch from the edge
• And I made a few more scrappy daisy blocks. I'm mostly using small to medium scale prints, lots of different fabrics from my stash along with my new bundle of fabric by Jen Kingwell, Gardenvale from the Fat Quarter Shop. These fabrics seem vintage-y with a bit of a modern twist, pretty little pieces, just 56cms x 23cms {22" x 9"}, but perfect for mixing up into the one quilt. Linking into Molli here for Sunday Stash. The block backgrounds are all a mixture of cream, white & grey neutrals. Scrappiness at it's best I reckon! 

sewing pretty- take 2

Olive's first quilt 2011 

oops, petal up the top the wrong way... where's my seam ripper?

A new week, and here's what's happening here in my sewing space

Well, I had planned to spend time machine quilting a couple of WiP's this week but... I've been doing some slowish sewing instead!
Maybe it's these colder evenings?
Maybe it's taking the time to enjoy the process that really appeals just now?
Or maybe I just wanted to open up my new Gardenvale bundle? These fabrics are pretty! Kinda vintage with a modern twist and they mix in well with my other scrappy bits & pieces too.

I'm using see through templates - I originally used these templates 4 yrs ago as the centre for Olive's first quilt {see pic #2}. I sort of made up that quilt as I went along, thankfully all the borders met beautifully! Anyway, I'm machine piecing these little 8" Daisy blocks, and plan to set them on point... and yep, it's all inset seams! I've got the 'needle down' option on my machine so I stop at all the 1/4" intersections! And I'm now also cutting my background squares just a wee bit bigger to allow for tweaking when joining everything up later.
Happy to truck along slowly at present, just doing this at my own pace, one scrappy daisy at a time.Will keep you updated on further daisies!

my tip of the day #2

How do you use up some of your older, not so loved fabric stash?

Some of my fabric stash really is quite dated and I've found it so hard to use lately.
 Many of you probably already do this too, but for any new sewers ...
I've started sorting some of the larger pieces into main colour groups 

 and am now making up scrappy but blending backings for finished quilt tops!

Linking into 'oh scrap' here

and WiP Wednesday here @ freshly pieced

Why not pop on over to see what everyone else has been up to! 

this week...

• This week I got my quilt back from Linda, the Razzle Dazzle quilter. I think she has done a beautiful job of blending in her quilting in with my piecing, can’t stop looking at it! Next up, binding! If you want to see more pics, I'm sure Linda too will be writing a post soon, pop on over & see here
• Some time ago I ordered a new book and it arrived this morning, "The Improv handbook for Modern Quilters" by Sherri Lynn Wood. A very interesting approach to creative quilting, has anyone else read this? 
• Oh and I made a yummy cake, Chocolate & Beetroot - yes beetroot - cake! {recipe here}

Have a lovely weekend! 

sewing pretty

et viola Poppy has a new quilt!
finished size 70cms x 75cms

Well I have to say, making doll quilts has never really appealed to me! But this weekend, my little 4yr old grand daughter, aka partner-in-crime in the sewing room, insisted! "We need a quilt for Poppy, Granny!" {Poppy is the old doll in pic #2} So forget "the FAL list", enjoy the moment, and together we sorted a few fabrics - and yes, you all know how that went don't you! Anyway, I cut out some hexis, got the 'olive' approval, and later on-after she went home-got busy making this little quilt.

I really did enjoy sewing with this pretty mix of fabrics too! And it got me thinking...
There's some lovely inspiration around, I especially enjoy catching up with Meredith's 'show & tell' here. Week by week we get progress pics on some beautiful, pretty projects, and most are of the slow & steady kind.They are "under construction" - a term I came across here at sew mama sew! {which is an interesting read in itself!}
Of course there a lots of lovely books too, like Jen Kingwell's book "quilt lovely" and "Feathering the Nest" with vintage inspired quilts by Brigitte Giblin. Brigitte's book is written in English & French and is full of beautiful images of old quilts, real labour of love type of quilts! And as she says, she doesn't set out to copy them but rather, makes her own in a simpler form that still captures the feeling of the old.

I followed one of Brigitte's patterns for this little quilt, the instructions were for a proper sized quilt of course, not dolly sized! I did the 'pillow case' style of layering & flipping things, hand stitched the opening closed {not too sure how to explain that!}, and then did some straight line machine quilting. It didn't take too long!
But in contrast, it certainly takes time to make all those other pretty heirloom quilts. And right now I'm thinking maybe I should be exploring this 'sewing pretty' a bit further, maybe on something a bit bigger!

                                     Linking into "Sew Cute Tuesday" here for the first time