028 A Finish to show you - Water Lillies

You may remember my class with Rachelle Denenny where I worked on a wallhanging featuring lots of new (to me) techniques.

I'm pleased to say that three and a half years (how is it that long??) later, I have finished!

There's loads wrong with it, and I have since learned a better way to do machine quilting (at least a better way for me), but I'm pleased with how it worked.

I took that photo up against our cacky coloured pin up board at quilting.  Hence the yellow behind it.

Maybe that's a better one.

I even faced it myself, despite never having faced anything before.  Who knew it was so easy!

First day back at school for child one.  She's not overly enthusiastic.  Child two goes back tomorrow and whilst I always love having them home, the house is just beyond help and needs me to get back into some sort of a routine.  So that's my plan!

Hope your day is going well, talk soon!

007 - Show and Tell (Flower Baby Quilt)

Some of these older quilts I'm just downright embarrassed to show you.  But I'm going to anyway.

This one was designed for those customers who were brand new to quilting.  It's a very basic quilt.  Sadly it looks like a dog's breakfast but what can you do?

It's part of my quilting history and I guess it at least shows how far I've come?  

Happy quilting!

006 - A Finish To Show You

I've not just been resting on my laurels over the last six months.  I've been Finishing. Some. Stuff. Off.

I have a feeling I've shown you this before, but it might not have been finished totally.  It's totally bound, labelled stitched on, all good to go.

I even machine quilted this myself on the long arm.  I did okay.  Bit wonky but okay.

I had grand plans to go once a week to Mum's house and get good at long arm quilting.  But like all of my craft plans, I ran out of day and week, and that stopped.

I'm trying to get back to it.  We'll see.

Hope your day is going well.  Happy Quilting!

Log Cabin, The Reveal!

This one is totally, one hundred percent finished.  Stitched, quilted, bound – even has a label on the back! 

Yay me!

I’m so thrilled to pieces (haha) with this one – it turned out so lovely.  I hung it in our quilt show as a first reveal and sadly didn’t win viewer’s choice, but I did get some very nice comments.

Each block is four inches finished.

There are four hundred 4” blocks in the quilt.

There are 13 logs, including the centre ‘fire place’ in each block.  So that makes a grand total of 5200 little logs in the whole quilt (assuming my maths is correct).

So all in all, a good few weeks’ work.  I would have loved to hand quilt it but you and I both know it’ll never happen.  So the long arm quilter (mother) kindly quilted it for me and I am very happy with it.

Does it surprise you that I’ve already started on in my thirties prints?  No?  Didn’t think so.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

13 years later, it’s now a quilt…

Or at least, a flimsy.

Were you one of those collectors like me who, wayyyyy back in 1999 collected a million squares from all over the world?  Were you planning on making a millennium quilt, so we could have something for posterity to mark the occasion?

Were you like me, in 2012, still with a box of squares you just didn’t know what to do with? 

I had a box like that.  Filled with 3” squares, which at the time seemed like a good size to swap.  But three inch squares aren’t a good size to work with, at least so I’ve found.  I’ve pulled that box out year after year waiting for the inspiration to hit me, and nothing ever did.  I know I could have made about a million half square triangles, but the thought of trimming them all just did me in. 

So this year, I decided – that’s IT!!  The little buggers are just going to be sewn into one huge postage stamp quilt.

And here it is.

It’s not my best work, though I did try very hard to make my points match.  But I like the overall look of it, and it sure screams scrappy.  Which is the aim.

I began by sewing squares together to form a rectangle:

Then when I had made all my rectangles, I sewed them together into a width that was ‘long enough’. 

That was about six or so units.  I’ve lost count.  Oh, to be organised.

Then I had the problem of what to do with all the signature squares.  I could have randomly placed them throughout the top of the quilt but that idea only came to me after I’d sewn most of my rows together.  So I pieced them in with some left over squares and I decided I would use them on the back. 

Do you recognise your name?

I often wonder where the lives of these ladies have taken them in the last thirteen years. 

So that’s it.  Another flimsy bites the dust.  Another box out of the cupboard and stitched together. 

 

 

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Monsters Revealed

So you may remember my monsters a few posts ago?

I’ve finished!

I thoroughly enjoyed the making of it but I must admit, I had some angst in the setting of my blocks.

I had a picture in my head, and it just looked awful.

I had planned to cut a whole swag of 3” squares and sash them around the blocks.  But when it came down to it, it looked just toooooo bright.

I’d tried a few sashings, and the further I went on with it the more wrong it became. 

I must admit it doesn’t look so bad online, but the real life version was wayyyyyy too bright.

So I unpicked it all and sulked for a while.

Then I went over to the next town (150 kilometres away) where I could buy fabrics and I brought one fat quarter of each bright fabric plain I could find.

And then I sashed each block with a different colour.

And hey presto, it actually worked!

I have fallen totally in love with this quilt, and though my brother has asked for it for his son, I may not part with it.

It’s one of the few I’ve actually finished!

I think I probably will give it to my delicious six month old nephew for Christmas this year though, so I will have it for a few months.

It’s a bit difficult to see here, because I’ve artfully cropped out the exact part of the quilt I wanted to show you, but can you see the binding?  I couldn’t find a colour that matched how I wanted it to, so I sewed 3” strips together and made a matchy matchy one.  And it was a buggar of a thing to do (*scuse my language) but I think it was totally worth it.

So there you go, my dears.  A lovely new quilt.  I am quietly thrilled to bits with it.

Hope your quilting days are going well.

Suzie

Some stitching to show you

I went to an all day quilting day on Sunday (which was bliss) and got a LOT done.

I quilted this:

And managed to get it bound.  So all I have to do is finish it and hang it on DD2’s wall, and that’s one more UFO off my books.

I also bound this one, and did all the eyes and bows:

This UFO was a particularly old one.  I started it in the shop, and we’ve been gone from that for nearly five years.  Slowly but surely, they are getting crossed off my list.

And yesterday, because I had a spare few minutes, I actually DID A DEAR JANE!  Don’t fall over in shock.

I’m quite pleased with my applique on this one.  It’s all needle-turned, and my points actually worked pretty well!

So all in all, a productive weekend for me.  Makes a change!

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

A TaDah moment

If you read Lucy’s blog over at Attic24, you’ll know that a finish is a real ‘ta-dah’ moment.

So:…..

Ta Dah!

It’s only a top for now.  But I hope to have it quilted soon.  The block’s official title is a Blackford Beauty and it’s always been a favourite of mine.  And who can resist an Amish design?  Certainly not me.

It’s also one of my UFO 2012 challenge projects.  So I have finished at least two of them.  That’s pretty good, though not brilliant.  I have to have three finished by the end of March to be on top of things. 

We’ll see.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

One Finish Down!

A while ago, I made a UFO list that I posted here:

http://sillygoosequilts.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html

I'm pleased to say that I have been able to cross one off that list!

She's a big one, this is just as much as I could fit in the camera while balancing on a chair!  It's going to remain a flimsy for now, but that's okay.

It's another scorcher of a day today. The little people have cabin fever.  We're off swimming.

See you tomorrow.

Suzie

A couple of flimsies for you

Today was/is a gloriously sunny day, and I was childless this morning (one in childcare, one in school) so I took the opportunity to try some outside photography of my quilts.

You'll remember the apple core quilt?

It's a flimsy now.  I can't decide if I want to take the quick way out and slice the edges straight to make the quilt rectangular or if I want to scallop the edge with the binding.  My nan was here today and she suggested that I float it onto a background border by applique.  I'm not sure how that would work with my skill level, though I think it's the idea I like the most. 

I will chew it over.

This is another flimsy recently finished....it's in my lovely 30's fabrics...

Just another flimsy for now.  I'd never made a tumbler quilt and I liked the idea.  I've got a tumbler dye for the Go quilter now so I might make more.  I'm thinking a truly scrap one, from the overwhelming pile of five inch squares I have right now.

I'm in the process of picking out my Orca Bay fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, starting soon.  She's doing red/black and cream.  I'm thinking maybe, but then I saw someone who was doing teal, purple and cream.  And I really liked that.  I've already sorted all my fabrics in my sewing room into their colour groups, so when she posts the cutting instructions, all I will have to do is just pick a box!  I'm very clever, I do think. 

What does worry me about my fabric boxes is that they never, ever seem to be depleted.  It's like they are breeding in there.

Are you doing the Bonnie Hunter quilt?  I'd love to see your fabric choices.  And I'd love to see your blogs too!  Now that I have so many more new friends, I don't know how to find your blogs - so if you would like me (and any other readers) to visit, please email me at sillygoosequilts@hotmail.com or leave me a message after this post and I'll happily come visit you too!

Anyway.  Must fly.  Children to pick up.  The day went so quickly.  Sigh.

Talk tomorrow.

Suzie

At last, something to show you

I finished something this weekend!

It's another pastel quilt. I know. I'm just about pastelled out but the box of those scraps is nearly empty now. I'm thinking I'm going to hang this on my daughter's wall. She has a quilt in there already (actually she has two!) but this one is more little girly than the one she has now, which is just stars.

Just a quickie post today.  Hope your day is going well!

Suzie