Ring cycles, a class with Leesa Siegle

 

After what seems like forever I back, maybe briefly, to show what I have been doing.

 

This class was fabulous.   For me the class was about tackling and mastering Set In seams, there  is a lot of these to be done to make this quilt.  Leesa calls this quilt Ring Cycles but it is more commonly known as Jacks Chain. Leesa is a great teacher with lots of knowledge and all too willing to share with her students.

 

First it is making lots of 9 patch units, and 6 units are needed per hexagon.  So lots and lots are in order.  Mine are pieced very scrappy.  These units are 3" finished.



 

 

next,  a 60 degree triangle is sewn to each 9 patch, starting and stopping at the 1/4 inch mark.

then attach then all to the centre hexagon, easy as.  Yeah Right



I had started to make this quilt a few years ago and only got as far as one hexagon unit, slightly put off by all the set in seams. I had many of the pieces cut out and was really really hoping that the same pieces would be right for the class.  Yeah they were the exact sizes for the triangles and hexagons.

 

 

right from the start of making this quilt I had decided to use a big variety of neutrals and that was a good decision on my part.

 

 

 So as of now the I am making more 9 patch units and then joining them to the hexagons.  The first pattern I had was putting the quilt top together similar to a Double Wedding Ring with whole and part hexagons sewn in rows. .



With Leesa's quilt, lots of hexagon units are made and sew together with a two triangles sewn between the hexagons.  Rows are made and then sewn together, again with all set in seams. Then half hexagons used at the end of the rows to square off the edges.  This quilt will the end up finished when all the hexagons that I had cut previously are all sewn.




I am enjoying making this quilt, set in seams and all.  I do want to make this again, this Ring Cycles has been on my quilt bucket list for many years and am very glad I took the class.

I bought myself something

and it was not fabric, this time....

 

Yes, an Accuquilt Go Cutter.  As with most dedicated ( or possessed) quilters, I have a pile of scraps and leftovers from past projects.  I now hope to get on top of them, turn them into usable pieces and then into new quilts.

 

I bought my Go Cutter from Bayside Stitchcraft.  The ladies there were wonderful.

 

I have also purchased some extra Die's to help with this mission of scrap taming.  The Die's will cut strips in a few different widths for me, and then I can turn the strips across the Die and cut squares. 

This is the starting point of my scraps.  These are huge tubs and there is a box behind the tub and all are overflowing. crazy....

So after part of a weekend of pressing and cutting and some throwing out of fabric I emptied the tub and the rubbish bin ( the bin is a small one).  This felt so good.  So what did I turn these scraps into...

3 1/2" strips.  I have put a pair of Karen K Buckley scissors next to the piles to help give you and idea of the volume, hope it helps.

these are 1 1/2" strips

 and a mass of 2" strips.  My 2" bin is totally full and will have to start several projects with these. Some great ones can be found here

these are some 4 1/2" squares, 2 1/2" squares and 2 1/2 Hst from the Die that comes with the Cutter.

 

 

With all these strips cut I am hoping I am going to be ready to sew along with Bonnie Hunters next Mystery Quilt. If not I am armed and ready to cut what may be needed.

 

 

And to finish off this post with a patchwork picture, I have been piecing 9 patches with 1 1/2" strips, some from my cutting weekend but not that many.

Snowballs, Snowmen and other quilts

 

 

Here I am again with lots of pictures of quilts and fabric bits

 

 

This is a long term piecing project that I had fun with.  Its called Snowballs and Snowmen, well because they are snowball blocks and I used Snowmen Gatherings fabric from Primitive Gatherings.  

This fabric was all the blues and tans through to white.  It has cute snowmen and snowflakes and wintery stuff that I don't get where I live in Australia. Insert sad face here.

 I threw in the reds to add a bit of pop.  I just love this angle and the red scattered through out.  This again is a largish quilt top at 74" x 90".   Snowballs and Snowmen is now sitting in the "to be quilted" pile.

 

 These beautiful wattle trees are in full flower all over the place in my streets.  This was a couple of weeks ago and the trees are now weighed down with the blooms and the bees.

Another top I have finished of late is this Metro Hoops by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  I have it quilted but sorry no photo at the moment.  I am teaching this quilt on Saturday at The Patchwork Angel.  I just love this one too.  The colours are so bright and fresh. 

 

I wanted to make another Metro Hoops but was stuck for inspiration.  So off I went to the shops and found this display at Bed Bath and Table. Shop displays are always a good source of colour inspiration.

 

 

And here are the colours I chose to  use.  This top is coming along nicely.  With this Metro Hoops I have used one fabric for the Hoops instead of strip sets.  Its looking good.

A few weeks ago, Jenny of Sew So Crazy and I went to a trunk show put on by A Piece of Cloth.  I cam home with this quilt top, like I need another quilt top or another quilt with 60 degree pieces in it.

 But I could not help myself.  It is from around the 1940's.

 The top is pieced from hexagons, diamonds and jewel shapes

 The colours are vibrant and cute.  The yellow background is very sunny and sweet.

 look at this fun print

There is hand and machine piecing throughout the top. And as this picture will also show you is that some of that piecing is not as accurate as it could be.  With this is mind I am working through whether to leave it as is and quilt it or undo some of the machine piecing and work out some of the excess fabric.  I know I can't unpick the hand stitching, that has to stay.

 

So that is about all that has been happening here with my quilting.  We have lots going on with the kids activities over the next few weeks, why does everything seem to happen in a short time frame with sports and school stuff.

 

anyway, I hope to have some hand sewing to show you next time.

 

Keep stitching

At the End of the Day

I got most of what I wanted or was on my Wish List for the day done.  I knew not all of it would be where I had hoped because there will always be other things that come along and slow you down.

So here is where I started just to recap

The yellow quilt was so very close to together at the start of the day.  Now here it is all together.  This is a Christmas gift, so far I am on track to have it done by then. 

 

I just love it.  The pattern is called Star Blossoms by Kim Brackett from her book called Scrap Basket Beauties by Martingale books.  The orginal has 12 blocks mine is 16 blocks and measures 65 x65.  It was super easy and quick to make.  Next is to quilt it.

I did get the bundles of fabric cut, not as far as I had hoped but I was getting tired at the end of the day and thought it was better not to cut them, just in case I stuff it up.  These are for Metro Hoops quilt by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  I am teaching this on August 16th at The Patchwork Angel. There is already a sample in the shop, this one will be a little different. It will also be bigger than the pattern size also.

And I got the borders pieced for the Fat Quarter Shop 2013 Mystery Quilt. Many Flying Geese units pieced and then sewn into the border strips.  Very happy with them, the border strips are the length I need to fit my quilt top.

So there you go.  I had tried to load these pictures last week but something wouldn't work right to make it happen.  Most probably it was user error.  Anyway here they are for you to enjoy

Keep stitching

Fiona

White Wedding Hexagons

I finished the hexagons, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a close up of the piecing....

 

I started basting my hexagons at the same time my son started Kart racing.  This was something to do while in car and to also help with my anxiety with my son racing around a track at great speeds.  So two and half years later I am done piecing.

 

I have used Civil War Reproduction fabrics for the pieced diamonds and many random Shirtings, from white backgrounds to tans,  for the neutral sashings 

 

this is a big quilt, 114" x 91", it does not fit in my camera screen,

These are 1" hexagons and I have no idea or want to know, how many I have pieced into this top.  I do have heaps of leftovers that have just been put away with my hexagon papers, not to be touched for maybe a year or two.  I am kind of  done with hexagons.  I have started another EPP project for Karting road trips, the papers have a 45 degree angle this time.

It looks different from this angle.  I just love this quilt and hope to get it quilted one day now, just trying to find the perfect backing......  I am counting this as a finish though.



I hope you like it also.

Random Bits

Hi again everyone

I don't have alot to talk about, I have been busy but without much to show for it personally.  Most of my time has been working on customer quilts, not complaining at all.  I am still working away on my hexagons that I have shown several times before, so I wont bore you with that again, but it is getting closer to being a complete top.  I have all the rows together, and it is huge, and am now filling in the gaps around the edges.  I love this quilt and will show a picture of the top soon, i hope.

So, to show you what has been filling in my days.  This beautiful quilt belongs to Jane, I had fun with this quilt and had trouble handing this one back.

This next quilt belongs to Barb N and was another one I had trouble handing back.  This is The Circle Game quilt by Jenny Kingwell and looks stunning with the black background and all Kaffe fabrics for the piecing.  That lime gree in the sashing is just perfect for the whole quilt

I really like this block

 

 I did get to quilt two of my quilt, but can't find a picture of the second one at this time.  I wil look for it or take another one shortly.

This is a mini version of my Pretty Clamshells.  It didn't take too long to quilt on a quiet Saturday morning.  I have it now hanging in my sewing room and just love it.

This is the back of Pretty Clamshells showing how I quilted each clam with feathers.  The backing fabric is one of the piecing I Ice Dyed last year.  The colours are perfect. I have crossed this one off my long list of Tops to Be Quilted. and it is bound to

This is next picture is still in need of borders.  It is from Bonnie Hunter and is called Nine in the Middle. It is a great scrap quilt and has been easy to put together so far.  I have a border still to piece but need some more scraps cut to size to continue.  This top also still needs a good press.

 

 

 

Just after Easter, hubby, kids and I went to Melbourne for a few days.  We had a great time, I hope to remember to share photos one day.  We did a day trip to Sovereign Hill in country Victoria.  It is a place showing life in the Gold Fields in the early days of the goldrush.  So in one of the homes there was a quilt and it just happened to be hexagons.  So of course I had to take a picture. I don't think it is an antique, but at least it fit the time period.



 



 

I did take some basting to do on our trip and here is what I got done.  These are tiny pieces so it looks alot done but in not alot of time. The down side of this is that I will need heaps and heaps of them to make any sort of decent size quilt...... on I go with them.

 

 

So that is all I have for now, hope you liked the photos.  I am off to  sew some more hexies together for the edges while trying to stay warm.  We are having some cold nights lately.

 

keep sewing

 

Finishes 30th March

Welcome to another Finishes post.  The school term is nearly finished so some of my spare time has been used to help the kids get assignments and other school work completed and handed in.  I did get some bits for myself done also.  First up....

I had to get the windows tinted on my car, which happened to be in the same street as Breezy's Cakes

so I finished this yummy cupcake and a cuppa while I waited.  The things I have to endure!!! The store has kids classes on the school holidays, so my daughter is all booked in for that.

 

 

 I finished another block in the Fat Quarter Shop Mystery BOM, very cute. The next block has arrived already, I hope to get it cut this week, fingers crossed.

 

I have basted 20 bazillion neutral 1" hexagons for my hexagon diamonds, don't they just look lovely.  I am hoping this is enough to finish the quilt, but maybe not...




I basted some 1.25" hexagons also.  These are from leftovers and is a very long term project.  I started this one Christmas 2012 and am just throwing them into a bucket as I do some.  This project stays in my car and is done while I wait wherever for whatever...


My Celtic Solstice top is complete.  This was a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.   I love this quilt.  It is now in the pile of tops to be quilted :(






and these are some of the diamonds I have completed for the quilt.  I have many more done, with only one more complete diamond to make then I can start putting them together into the groups of three, then those into rows, then sew the rows together.  then I will have to make the partial diamonds to fill in the gaps at each end of the rows. gosh that exhausting.

well I think that is it for now.  I do have other stuff  I am working on but they are not in any form to make a pretty picture, sorry.

take care and keep  stitching