Japanese X and + Progress

I finally bit the bullet and sewed these blocks together. Cause I'd run out of the background green, I only had enough fabric to put four blocks together. I have two others left over.

I have plenty of the Gatsby fabric left, so now I have to decide what colour to use for the background. I'm thinking a bone or taupe? Any comments? What about something completely left field? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is the construction. If you put a strip between each block, you then get a repeat of the overall pattern. Good bang for your buck!!

Each of the blocks had the same green background, then the cross done in various fabrics from the Gatsby range and the plus done in a dark brown (one of which was from Gatsby).

This one has be matching Gatsby brown.

This is Cleopatra making sure it's comfy!!

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Friday Finish - Repro Ninepatch Cat Quilt

I felt like I was creating problems by only having one cat quilt. So I pulled out my stash of 1930's repro ninepatch blocks. I have heaps of these, as I basically use these as my "have 5 spare mins" project. Always already cut up and just need to be sewn. They can be used for sew many things.

Finished 1930's Repro Ninepatch Cat Quilt

Annnyway, I whipped this up pretty quickly and decided to use it as a test run for some Free Motion Quilting. I literally have never done any of this. I practiced for about 5 mins and then gave it a go.I didn't really feel confident enough to do it totally free motion, so I marked a quite open meander on it. I think this actually made the regulation on the stitches worse. I was concentrating on the pattern of the stitching rather than the quality of it.

Below is the back of the quilt. There were only a couple of places where the stitching jumped. If it was anything other than a quilt for the cats, then I'd fix it.

This is the back of the quilt. I really love this pattern, but whenever I try to do it free hand (without marking the quilt) I always end of boxed into a corner or not getting an even coverage.

Here is the front before washing and binding.

Want to see what other people have done this week? Check out Link A Finish Friday over at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

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Repro Log Cabin Comp Winner

A little bit late with this one, but it should affect the results. So the winner of the Dresden Plate template is:

Congratulations to: Cait 

who voted for Barnraising (which I called Barnstorming). So, I've emailed Cait, and should have her prize to her by the end of the week.

The Results

• Barnraising - 3
• Fields and Furrows - 1
• Streaks of Lightening - 5
• Star - 9
• Sunshine and Shadow - 1
• Other - 1

Very interesting results, all options got at least one vote. And the votes pretty much align with my top choices (Star, Barnraising and Lightening). I think at this stage I am going to go with the majority and make the Log Cabin Star. I think I will make a few more blocks, to make the barnraising outer section stand out a little more. And I have the feeling that I might have another one or two Log Cabins in me at some stage.

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Old Fashioned Charm Hand Quilting

More work on UFO's today. It was a bit cooler and I wasn't feeling real crash hot, so I thought I'd pull out my Old Fashioned Charm quilt and work on the handquilting. I had hoped to have it finished by now but still working on it. I was trying to get the quilting done during winter but I never seemed to get into the swing of it. But I  got quite a bit done today, 6 squares.

 

I've done 3/4's of the pieced inner section. That leaves 4 pieced rows to go. Then the border. The border will be done as basic cross hatch, although I will probably outline the vines, leaves and birds as well.

It looks a bit rough, but I've been working on this quilt on and off for 5 years including quilting on a hoop. It gets roughly wrapped between quilting sessions, so it looks alot better than in the photo!!

Below is the quilt on a double bed. Just hanging off the left side is the other vined border.

 

And just for giggles, a close up of one of the corners.

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Repro Log Cab Pattern and Competition

So I've finished a pile (about 36) of traditional Log Cabin blocks. They will be 7" finished. Now comes the hard bit, what layout do I use? Below is a collage (thanks  PicMonkey!) of some of the more common Log Cabin settings.

I don't have a real favourite at the moment. But this block is a real good example of how important getting good definition between your lights and darks. I'm working on a pink and gray log cabin as well, and you get a very different look when the colours don't contrast so strongly.

It's quite small at the moment, so I will probably need to make some more blocks, but they work up very quickly.

Competition 

Anyway, in an effort to make a decision, it's time for a bit of audience participation. I've put some more detailed photo below. The prize is a 20 wedge Dresden Plate template from Matilda's Own. Somehow, I've ended up with a couple spare of these, so I figure better to give them to a new home than just sit in my cupboard. It's brand new, never used.

If you've never used these templates, they are super easy to use. You can complete a plate very quickly and it's all straight sewing, no funky seams.

So, to enter the competition, just post a comment telling me which layout you like best for these blocks. Or, if it's not shown here the name (or a link to a picture) of another setting you think I should try.

If you want a second entry, then start following my blog or let me know if you are already a follower.

I will cover postage costs and it's open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Competition will be drawn Moday 21 Jan 2013 (Aussie time).

NOTE: if you don't have a Blogger account or you are a No-replay blogger, please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win!!

Barnraising (Not Barnstorming!! duh!)

Fields and Furrows

Streaks of Lightening

Log Cabin Star

Sunshine and Shadow

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Cat Quilt - First Finish for 2013

So I had my first finish for 2013 yesterday. It is a very small quilt, made for my cats!! Yeah, yeah I know, but better they get their furry fur on this one that I can chuck in the was, than other things which are a much bigger pain to wash! And I figure I put this near the sewing machine and they sleep on that rather than what I am trying to work on. I also chose this one as I am really trying to finish off some of my UFO's especially the smaller ones, now that I am giving machine quilting a go.

This is Miss Cleopatra (Cleo) using the finished product.

Below is Miss Hatshepsut (Hattie) helping me with blocking the quilt. Normally, I don't block my quilts, but this one uses blocks which were my very first attempt at machine piecing, so there was some interesting results. Also, this has been sitting in the UFO pile for so long it was pretty dusty and stinky (as was the batting off cuts used) that it was gonna get a wash anyway.

So, after washing, I pinned it to my cardboard cutting mat, which is actually perfect for this, since it has the grids for aligning and gives me something to push the pins into! I would worry about the damp damaging it, but after spin drying and the hot temperature, it didn't stay wet for long.

So here is the finished product. The quilting is a bit dodgy, I was in a rush and the blocks weren't exactly in perfect alignment (although blocking it did the world of good in getting it squared up). It is actually alot squarer than it looks, it was given a good test drive before I could get a photo, so a few creases. The similar blocks are ones I made and the alternate ones are some that I received in various 9 Patch swaps, 6" blocks.

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Reconsidering The Log Cabin Block

I have to admit, I've always been a bit biased against the poor old Log Cabin block.  I don't know why. I've always been drawn to the more traditional designs of patchwork and quilting. So I'm not sure where the bias came from.

So now I find myself in the postion of making two Log Cabin quilts. Well, the blocks for them anyway.

These are the strips for the very traditional version of the blog. The strips are left over from my Ohmygosh Redux quilt. They are 1 1/2 inches wide with varing lengths. I went with the traditional Turkey Red for the centre square. I should end up with about 36 squares.

The second one is going to be a more modern interpretation. I've been slowly sucked in by all the lovely greys that are now so popular. Normally I'm not into grey, but there are so many nice, warm greys at the moment. So I ordered up quite a few and had to come up with something.

I have a pretty good collection of pinks and that with grey is a pretty traditional combo. Below, on the left of the cutting board is the various strips cut out. The long strips on the right are the leftover pinks. I might have gotten a bit carried away with the cutting out! I didn't really calcuate the requirements, just kept cutting.

Below are the left over grey, after I've cut the required strips. Again, a bit over excited with the cutting. But, I have another quilt planned for the left over grey involving some nice orange fabrics.

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