Monday 31 May 2010

More Mod Sampler

I've been making great progress on my mod sampler!

I took this rather boring picture, because spreading out the batting is one of my favourite parts of quilting, especially using natural fiber batting that feels so nice to brush my arms over and that sticks to the backing fabric. Aaah.


The quilt top looks so different before it's quilted!


I finished the binding just the other day, that was a get-it-done-in-one-sitting-job... took about 3 hours, I think.


Looks just like "Oh Fransson's!"s quilt :)

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Ah, I'm so tired these days - too much computer work, but I just didn't want to miss the Blogger's Quilt Festival... so here's my last minute contribution.

The first quilt that popped into my mind (apart from the very recent quilt finishes :) is the Brown and Turquoise Quilt I made for my best friend back home.

The front

I had the idea only a short time before visiting her (shipping would have been expensive and I'd chew all my nails off worrying about the quilt being lost in the mail! Though I don't really chew my nails...). However, the blocks are 13" square, so that saved lots of time :)

The back

The quilting was also relatively quick: big BIG spirals all over the quilt. I really like how that pattern turned out and have used it again very recently.


All the colours in this quilt are favourites of the recipient, though I'm quite partial to the brown-turquoise mix myself... just not so much of a pink person :)


My friend was thrilled to receive this quilt and I know she'll treasure it - what more could a quilter ask for???

Monday 24 May 2010

Whoops

First I told you with big fanfare that my Apple Owl Quilt was pretty much finished, and then I never showed it to you, geesh! (at least I couldn't find it in the posts :)


I've been sleeping under this quilt for a couple of weeks now and it's lovely! I just enjoy the colours so much, they're mild, for want of a better expression, or maybe soothing expresses my feeling better...


Spirals galore!!!


Another finish - makes me happy happy happy :c) My UFO pile is decreasing every week!

And here once more, with a different perspective and some scale (thanks to the lovely quilt guild ladies for holding up the quilt!):

Saturday 22 May 2010

Springy

My spring quilt is done-done-done! Last stitch in! (Well, the last-last, because I thought I was finished already, then I found a few small squares I missed during quilting, haha!)

It fits a double bed quite nicely, with sufficient overhang! And doesn't it brighten up a room?


Check out the quilting I ended up with:


The loopy stuff in the squares you already know from my other posts. I've also added quilting to the white sashing, though, just a random design, done free-hand in every sashing strip.


You can just make the pattern out a little bit on the back (a vineyard print in pale khaki-green).


I had a couple of ladies at the quilt hold it up to finally get a nice shot of the full quilt ;)


Yay, quilt number two for me!

Thursday 20 May 2010

President's Challenge


Last night was our monthly guild meeting and it was finally time to reveal all the President's Challenge entries!

To refresh your memory: in November, participants received a piece of red fabric that was to be incorporated into a small quilt (up to 100" circumference in any shape), primarily constructed of log cabin blocks (traditional, wonky, variations).

Last night, all guild members had a chance to vote for their favourite quilts in the following categories:

Best traditional design
Best contemporary design
Best choice of colour
Viewer's choice

In June, we will find out the winners!

I thought it'd be fun to have our own online vote, so why don't you copy the categories into the comment form and let me know what your favourites are! I'll put a number above each quilt to make it easier!

(***EDITED: Traditional vs contemporary --> this was explained to me at the guild meeting as traditional means straight/right angle edges as opposed to contemporary variations of log cabins (wonky/wavy)... the terms refer to the log cabin blocks in the quilts more so than the overall quilt.***)

Here are the entries:

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

#7:

#8:

#9:

#10:

#11:

#12:

#13:

#14:

#15:

#16:

#17:

I'm so curious to see what you vote for compared to the guild's results! I'll post on that next month!

And of course, I was thrilled to see all the different entries - they were so varied, though I was surprised at several entries that also did a "log cabin in a landscape" scene :)

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Wonderland Irish Chain

A long time ago (actually, almost exactly one year ago), I bought some MoMo Wonderland charm packs to make one or more quilts from. As always, I couldn't get myself to use them up, silly me :)


When that wave of creativity and motivation struck on Saturday, I finally opened a pack. Not only did I use the charms, I also CUT into them, gaaah! :c)

I paired 13 charms with solid white charms that I cut myself:


There are my little charm treasures, sigh, soon to be cut into...


Then I sewed each pair together on two opposite sides, and sliced them down the middle to get these half 'n' half squares.



Those were cut in half again:


... which left me with lots of these, hmm, quarter-square rectangles (QSR)? My term, I think :)


Lots and lots of them, despite having used only 13 of my treasure charms! So frugal :)


I laid those out in random 9-patch patterns to get an Irish chain design. I don't like constructing Irish chains purely out of complete 9-patch blocks, because the chain always looks so cut off around the edges of the quilt, but using the QSRs, I could just stop at a natural junction in the chain by having some 4 patches in the corners and 2/3 of a 9 patch around the sides. I'm happy with that and it was easy to do.

I joined the rows, that was quick and easy:


Then played around with some border/binding combinations - though "played around" is an exaggeration - I took the first fabric I tried :)


And now it's ready for hand-quilting, because that's what I made it for... I do like having a little project to hand-quilt, and I've also had some interest from friends who'd like to buy a baby-quilt that's hand-quilted as opposed to everything done by machine...


Don't expect a finished product soon! I'm taking my time with the hand-quilted quilts :)