Rainbow Leaders and Enders Prep

I've spent a fair bit of time getting some leader and ender groups ready. I've done a heap of cream and blue ones, for when I'm sewing 1800's repro quilts and now I've done some for when I'm sewing white quilts. 

I got these at the Sydney Quilt Show last year. Fat 1/8's. I love the way they look together. I had planned on a rainbow quilt, but I think I'll use them for something more random.

These are some more I pulled from my stash. Slightly stronger colours. But I think the variation will help give it depth.

The cut up bits after they were run through the Sizzix machine.

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Batik Stars

I've never really used my Sizzix much for quilting, mainly because most of their quilt templates are for applique, though they are producing more piecing templates now.

Accucut have put out a whole range aimed at quilters. I can't really justify buying another machine, but one of the members of my Guild has one and let me borrow it. I was keen because there was one die I really wanted to use, Blazing Star.

I had to make it hard on myself by wanting to reverse the pattern, I wanted the dark on the left rather than the right of the pattern.

I decided to use the batiks I'd been collecting. I am really happy with how they turned out. I've got a heap of pieces cut out. I just need to sit down and decide on pairings.

For such a complicated looking block, it goes together really easily and without having to be super careful about accuracy. I can't wait to do some more.

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Using Up Scrap Strips

I got a heap of scrap strips from my Guild swap day. So far I've managed to sort most of them out by colour. I've also sorted the blues into size piles and into light and darks.

Not sure what I am going to do with the random florals in the bottom corner. Probably just sew those as is. 

 I 'm going to use them as leaders and enders. Once I have them together, I will cut them using my new Sizzix die and make them up into blocks, then into donation quilts. I'm really happy with how they look.

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Block-A-Day - Block 8 - Pinwheel

So I was keeping up with the #BAD2014 challenge pretty well. But then last week I had a migraine which knock me for six for a couple of days. And then I managed to chip a tooth, which meant a dentist visit and the inability to feel half my face for most of the night!! Anyway, while I've been making the blocks I haven't been posting. So I will now start to catch up.

So two birds, one stone - new toy and another #BAD2014 block.

Even though I own three Sizzix machines, I haven't really gotten in to using the dies for quilting. Most up until recently were for machine applique which I wasn't interested in. But now they have a growing range of machine piecing dies. Again, I wasn't very interested but I've seen Wanda over at Exuberant Color using the Pinwheel (what's up with the Sizzix packaging where the two examples they show using the die to make blocks ARN'T a pinwheel but some other weird block?) and the isosceles triangle with corners. So really wanted the triangle but of course once I ordered I got a call saying they were out. So I'm still waiting for that to arrive. Annnyway, played with the pinwheel. I cut them with the fabric right side up and it orients as below. I will try wrong side up cause I want the dark colour on the top of the spin? Does that make sense?

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Hexagon Crazy

I have finally weakened and joined the hexagon craze. I have to admit I've always been a bit biased against the poor English Paper Pieced hexagon. I could never for the life of my work out why this technique was used as a beginner quilter method! It's not hard, but it ain't easy either!! Or fast!

So I have been enjoying all the projects people have been making and was persuaded to join in when Sizzix released some hexagon dies. I didn't want to hand cut the papers or buy them. I also didn't want to be using paper clips etc to hold them together. So what I've done is basically use the method I use for doing applique.

The Sizzix dies allow you to cut a variety of materials, including fabric. There hexagon dies come in a series of graduating sizes. So you can cut the papers using one size and the fabric the next size up. What I did was use the largest size to cut the papers and then just strip and rotary cut the fabric.

However, I didn't use normal paper. I used my freebie freezer paper substitute. Waaay back in the olden days when I was last doing alot of quilting and before Internet shopping was all the rage, getting hold of American freezer paper was quite difficult and expensive. The frugal quilters of Australia worked out that the wrapper paper that Reflex photocopy paper came in was pretty much the same thing. I worked somewhere that went through that by the box load. So over a period of several months, I saved dozens of sheets of it. So this is what I use for applique and what I used for cutting out my hexagon templates.

Above, you can see the die, the cut out reflex paper (with holes punched in the middle to stick a needle in and lift the paper from fabric for easy removal once all sewn up) and the templates ironed onto the wrong side of a 2 1/2" strip of repro fabric. I then rotary cut (very quickly and without a ruler - too much time), between the template pieces.

Above are the cut out bits. The bottom of the photo shows an individual unit before sewing up and after. I haven't gone through the papers, but rather under and over the fabric. This should make the papers reuseable and allow me to keep the papers in during construction.

Finally, here is what a finished piece looks like.

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Newcastle Craft Show

So the big annual craft show was on last weekend. I had hoped to go on Friday but there was no way I was getting a day off work! So Saturday it was. It was blowing a gale, I actually had a head wind walking in from the car park.

There was a good variety of stalls across lots of crafts. I had a short list of things I really wanted to get hold of and I managed to get most of them.

Below are some of the fabrics I picked up. I got some more shirting fabrics to work on a 1800's Repro inspired quilt. Also, some Fat Quarter brights to match a Fat Eights pack I got at the Sydney show. The Eighths packs are great, but they don't go very far! I also found a few fabrics I hope with work with the Gatby fabric I have. I am confident on a couple, but will need to test the other two. And finally, got 5 flannel FQ's, to got with the Fat 1/8's pack I already had. I was hoping to get some more but flannels are just so hard to get here, which is understandable as we just don't get that cold.

And I got some really great tools as well. A bit more of a money investment, but they should save me heaps of time, so they will pay for themselves in the long time they will last.

I've toyed with getting the Gypsy Gripper for a while, boy is it worth every cent I paid for it. Even as someone who doesn't have any hand strength problems, it really helped my cutting when I tried it. It may have in fact contributed to me getting a bit carried away cutting up my shirting fabric. I have WAY too much for the project in mind. But I'm sure I will come up with a use for it.

I have also decided to join the Hexagon revival but don't want to use bought templates or sit and cut them out myself! So a couple of hexagon dies for my Sizzix machine. They are scaled so I can use the smaller one for paper, larger for fabric or just use both for cutting templates. And finally, a small, rotating cutting mat. This one will be used for squaring up smaller projects. This one has two solid bases. Other rotating mats just have the swival in the centre and they are uneven and don't turn easily. This one works great.

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