My First Quilt

On one of the Quilting email lists I'm on (ReproFabricLovers) someone asked what quilt we currently have on our beds. As it happens, the very first quilt I ever made is currently gracing that position.

It's made from 3 small scraps of fabric I bought at a church fete. It is a medium twill/drill fabric, as is the white.I made it using diamonds, the coloured fabric made into stars (using six diamonds) and the gaps filled with hegagons (made using 3 diamonds and y-seams). It was filled with thick poly batting and hand quilted. Bound using pink twill. All hand pieced and hand quilted. So I made it about as hard for myself as possible. But it was made using scraps of fabric and what I could get for free. So proud in the tradition of quilting!

But even after a hard life (always machine washed and tumble dryed), it is still going. The batting has completely flattened and I noticed last week that some of the binding is starting to fray. I will have to rebind at some stage. But I still love it and it's got many good years left in it.

BTW, the white fluffy bed doll is Hattie!!

BBTW, I am currently re-organising my quilting space, so no new sewing to report. But I hope to have it sorted out this weekend.

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Country Colours Ninepatch

My use of nine patches continues! A friend of mine bought a Jelly Roll of the Collections for a Cause - Comfort fabric. I used these and a few co-ordinating solids to make a large pile of nine patches.

Pile of Nine Patches

The next two photos are off some of the blocks. There were two many variations to show. Basically, from each strip of fabric, I got three nine patches. Two with darks in the corners and one with lights.

These blocks below were made from the strips left over from making the nine patches. Cause I didn't want to waste anything, I added a couple of strips of the matching solid and got some more blocks.

My friend hasn't decided on a pattern yet, but I think that Turnola Trail by Bonnie Hunter would be a great choice.

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Sydney Craft Fair Stash

So I made the trip down to Sydney a couple of days ago to go to the big, huge, annual craft fair. It's my once a year shopping splurge and also a chance to see the Quilters Guild of NSW Annual Show. It's a long day with the 4.30am start but well worth the effort.

The quilts were all gorgeous, with some great inspiration to be had. I can't post pictures but you can see the winning quilts at the Quilters Guild of NSW page.

Below, the William Morris Layer cake and some matching fat quarters.No idea of what to make with these fabrics but I think something "modern". The colours and the plainer patterns just seem to want to be doing that.

A range of shirt fabrics for a 1800's Repro project. No pattern in mind at the moment but I am really liking these fabrics at the moment. I'm really liking Dresden Plates in repro fabrics at the moment, so maybe something along those lines. Maybe a Spiked Dresden Plate? There is only local shop with does alot of repro fabrics but they don't have alot of shirting fabrics, so one of my aim for the show was to pick some up.

Japanese Yarn Dyed Cotton fabrics. I saw a quilt at the stall I bought these from and I really fell in love with it. Very simple stacked rectangles. Only problem is that the quilt is a small wall quilt, but I want something bigger!! So I may have to buy some more fabrics to pad them out.

Various brights. I don't have alot of these really clear bright fabrics. So I bought these two packs and some individual FQ's.

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All Tied Up Quilt Finished

Last weekend I finished my first completely machine made quilt. I've done limited machine piecing before, but I haven't done any machine quilting. For this project, due to the quilt patterns and my beginner status, I decided to go with a basic cross hatch, using my walking foot. Boy, does the right tool for the job make all the difference.

I decided to quilt it using a cream that matched the background fabric. I knew this would show up on the darker parts of the blocks, but I really didn't want to detract from the four patch corner pieces in each block. Also changing thread colour for the quilting would've added a huge amount of time to the quilting process. Below is what the finished quilt looked like with the light quilting on the dark blocks.

However, once I saw it finished, I thought it would be better with the quilting made more invisible on the darker blocks. So, I decided the solution was to "colour in" the quilting on these darker blocks. As luck would have it, I had the exact colours I needed in my stash of scrapbooking pens - Zig Microns in Heritage Blue, Green, Brown and Red!! So after the quilt was completed, I sat and coloured in the quilting on the dark blocks. Below is a close up of what this looks like. I think it really works and because they are pigment pens, it will be waterproof.

I also made a quick label for the back. Need to come up with a standard design for me.

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