back from the quilters

I've just received my 'queen of the May' quilt back from Leeanne the quilter.

Here's a few progress photos first, lots more here

{and see way back here, here and here for inspiration details and earlier decision dilemmas}

It's the first time *Leeanne & I have collaborated on a quilt together

and the quilting was not without a few panic moments!

It was quite touch & go with the yellow floral situation. I was seriously running out of it by the time I had finished piecing the quilt, and ended up joining it in quite a few places to get the required look. So, a few seams were narrow, less than your usual 1/4" which, once stretched out on the quilting frame, became somewhat comprimised.

And there was some fullness in those dresden circles too. I did wonder about cutting out the background once the cirlces were appliqued down, but it's not something I would usually do. I guess the thickness of the circles, plus the ricrac all shifted in the piecing process. 

However, Leeanne has done a brilliant job of sorting out my slap happy technique. Have a closer look . . . 

Thank you so much Leeanne.

Onto the binding this weekend now. 

Linking up with Kelly for 'needle and thread thursday' here at myquiltinfatuation
and with Myra for 'finished or not friday'  here at busyhandsquilts 

a bit more #66

*Leeanne is based in Whangarei, NZ and specialises in custom quilting.

To see more of her work or contact her, pop over here at quiltmekiwi

or here on instagram
- there's more close up quilting pics of my quilt over on Leeanne's blog too.

vintage 9patch

In my ventures this year to use up all my scraps, every now & then I take a break from present projects, and dig deep into my storage baskets. I came across a set of 3 1/2" strips all cut out and thrust into one end of a scrap basket.
Not a UFO as such, just a bunch of pre-modern florals & solids all mixed up together, and tied up with a strip of selvage. I'm sure I must have had a plan sometime, however today I just began sewing them together.

What actually attracted me back to this little collection was the hefty amount of solids,
and {inset smile} solids never go out of style do they?

Simple sewing, random and without a plan. 

Nothing was nicely matched into light and dark nor did it fall into any clear patterns
- but I was happy enough to be sewing with solids
and, there were some of my oldish favourite florals included too.

Before too long I had a bunch of 25 all joined up together,
and I plan now on making another 11 blocks to get it up to a decent size.

Sew happy to have found a way to keep things moving forward with these fabrics

. . . and if nothing else, it'll make a good backing for another quilt !

Linking up this week with Lorna for 'letsbeesocial' here

and with Esther for 'WiPs on Wednesday' over here

starting with tradition

This weekend I started out with a bit of traditional piecing
using a scrappy selection from my stash . . .

I'm using Judy Newman's pattern 'vintage comfort' from her new book
(see here for details)
It's made up of six rows with sashing inbetween, and is easily machine pieced.
After making up a few blocks traditionally, i.e. light/dark combos,

I decided to change a few things and try using a small-scale red gingham as my 'neutral'.

I've been really inspired by some wonderful quilters lately, 

and something I saw somewhere on IG

sent me off down this particular colour combo path. 

Victoria Findlay Wolfe's idea of 15minutesofplay
also had me veering off on a crazy tangent too, 'making' fabric . . .

Here's where I'm at right now

# pics updated as things have a habit of changing-as-I-go around here!

I stumbled across a 'soft' chartreuse in my stash for those wider sashing strips. 

It's all still very much a WiP but you will get the idea hopefully.

Linking up with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' here - where there's lots of scrap sharing

& inspiration!
and with Beth for 'monday making' here at lovelaughquilt
and Beth (again) for 'main crush Monday' here

a bit more #65

Oh, and I do still want to use Jennifer Paganelli's lovely bright 'Sophia in Pink' 

- just don't know quite where yet!

fabric love

A bit of retail therapy to brighten up a wintery day

Fabrics from MarilynsPatchwork in England - the postage to NZ was unbelievable!

But  . . . the fabrics are gorgeous

a long quarter - that's all that was left - of 'peony & butterfly'

from Philip Jacobs "snow leopard designs"

a 'classic floral shirley poppies', another new one from Philip Jacobs "snow leopard designs"

and a vintage 'special' 

which will be perfect with those HST's I've beeen making.

#fabriclove

sew stitch snap SHARE #9

Hello again, time for another fortnightly 'Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE' linkup

First up, what's happening in the sewing room here?

Well, I've been faffing around with some improv borders for my 'florabunda' quilt, wasting time busy trying out lots of options. And, I think I'm getting there. Loving the Kaffe stripe, it seems to keep my eye moving around. The next border I decided on was simply to use one bright feature fabric along with lots of neutral fabrics, and I kept the same size flying geese for this border, to help with design continuity. 

- a bit of improv touch & go at the corners!

All ready now for basting & quilting. And, rather timely, I see Angela Walters has new blog series called 'deciding what to quilt'  - it looks very interesting, see here for lots of practical tips, pics and inspiration.

There were lots of inspiring projects shared last time too.

What really interested me was how Kaja from sewslowly
is progressing with her latest WiP. 

She starts out with a fabric pull, and a little seed of an idea, and away she goes.

Love the colours she is using,
they remind me of days gone by, of vintage tea dresses and garden parties!

Pop on over here to read more as she shares her improv journey with us.

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 again, we can't wait to see what you have all been creating
Julie & Linda

florabunda

Thanks so much for all your helpful comments about my 'florabunda' quilt. The deciding factor in my setting & border decisions was design - no, no, it was which fabric do I have enough of left!

Loving these dense clusters of starflower blocks, using simple shapes & random colour surprises. Such a fun way to use up some of my large scale florals.

It's all coming together nicely now . . .

- the Kaffe Marquee stripe was an afterthought late this afternoon!

 I found heaps of ways to create variety by playing with the value placements in each block.

I'm using Amy from diaryofaquilter size chart for cutting these 'sawtooth star' blocks
{you can find it here}

. . . onto the next border now!

Linking up with Myra here at busyhandsquilts for 'finished or not friday'

and with Cynthia for 'oh scrap' over here

florabunda mish-mash

A few more to add to my 'florabunda' mish-mash collection 

Time to start joining these blocks with stitches instead of using picasa camera collage!

And I guess I should explain . . .
I had this idea to make up a whole lot of blocks, easily recognisable, using just my stash
and with really random fabric choices that played with the value placements in each block.
It's certainly taken my traditional background to another level

#1 sidebyside, alternating light/dark a bit, original idea
* EDIT : with AMH border maybe

However, I seem to be more indecisive than usual and, as you can see,
there's lots of options . . .

#2 onpoint & going for more of an overall merging look

#3 going mad with plaid

What's a girl to do?