Bloggers quilt festival

Hello there

The Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by the talented Amy's creative side is on again and I am entering for the first time with my most favourite quilt "White House Hexagons".

I am entering into the Large Quilt category. As you can see this is a large quilt, measuring 2.75m x 2.15m or 108" x 85"

Made entirely of 1" hexagons hand pieced using English paper piecing method. I worked on this quilt for over two years, basting hexagons in the car while traveling with kids sports and visiting family and friends. As the collection of basted hexagons grew I would piece them together into long diamonds, then I would piece 3 diamonds together with neutral hexagon sashings to create a very large hexagon. All the fabrics are civil war reproductions with many neutrals used in the sashing. I machined quilted with straight lines running through the middle of each hexagon side

 

 

I really love this quilt and loved making it.  It is called White House hexagons, and is based on a quilt made by the daughter of  US president  James Monroe. Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur, is the first daughter to be married in the White House in 1820. Maria's quilt was made with 3/4" hexagons and was never finished. 

Please go and look at all the quilts entered in the Bloggers Quilt Festival and vote for your favourite. Amy does a wonderful job every year hosting this wonderful display of quilts. 

 

Bye for now

 

Fiona

Urban abacus

 

Hello Again

I have pictures to share today from the Urban Abacus class I taught last week. I love teaching, I get so excited seeing the girls "get" the techniques, stop being worried about what to come, and start having fun when they see it not that hard. Anyone can tell when the fun starts by the way the girls start talking about fabric choices for the next quilt they make.

Urban Abacus is from Sew Kind of Wonderful and uses the Quick Curve Ruler.  So far I feel this is about the easiest quilt to cut and piece using the Ruler.

We had the class at The Patchwork Angel, and again the shop helps us all relax and create in a very pretty and wonderful class room. During the class we get used to the cutting and then sewing curves and then the final trim of the blocks.  This all takes time to make sure everyone is confident so when the girls get home they can pick up right where we left off in class.


This pink and vintage quilt is mine as a class sample.  Everyone knows this is mine, cause it so pink.

 

Kaye is using bright purples,pinks and greens with a black background for a sons girlfriend.  He must think she is a keeper to deserve a quilt.

 

Robyn is sewing with some fantastic Aboriginal prints.  Robyn I am looking forward to seeing this one finished.



Daphne's quilt is going to be so cool and modern with black and white prints mixed with the aqua background



Bev is making her quilt in a classic blue and white combination




And lastly, Sue is using a beautiful collection of soft florals in pinks and greens with a cream background.



Wonderful work by all the ladies and I would love to see all of these quilts when they are finished. They will all be beautiful.



My next teaching gig is on Saturday 30th of May.  I will be teaching the Metro Hoops quilt by Sew Kind of Wonderful and the Quick Curve Ruler.  The class will be held at The Patchwork Angel again and I believe there are still a couple of spots left, give the girls a call and come along and join the fun.



This stunning version is from one of my students from the last time I taught Metro Hoops, very different to my white and pretty one above.

See you all soon

Tumbling Blocks Class

Hi everyone

Wow it been a long time since I last posted, so sorry to make you wait, if you are still with me.

Also several weeks ago I taught a class, at The Patchwork Angel, on the Tumbling Blocks quilt, pieced with strip sets and no Y seams, easy as...

But I now can not remember who's piecing is who's.  All the girls were great students and had wonderful fabrics to play with.  Thank you Christine L, Wendy, Sue, Christine M, Michelle, Nicky Shirley and Tracey for coming and sharing your passion with me.

Pretty pinks and blues

 

This is Michelle's bright citrus fabrics, fantastic



Modern aquas and greys



Striking pinks and purples



Subtle tan and blue



 Sue is  using many reds and blues for a traditional feel to the quilt.



And in solids for a very striking effect.

The whole quilt comes down to choosing the right values in fabrics and straight sewing, easy as....

And one of the girls showed her Metro Hoops quilt top, from a previous class with me.  This is fantastic with the dark background and vivid batiks, well done.



I am teaching both the Tumbling Blocks and Metro Hoops again at The Patchwork Angel, contact the shop for all the details.  These quilts are great in that they look complicated but are NOT....

Lone Star Class

My last class taught for the year, at The Patchwork Angel, is a Lone Star quilt.  I love this teaching this quilt, the fabric choices made by the students are varied and so all the quilts look different but all stunning.

At the end of the second class the girls had half the quilt sewn together.  In the first class we learn how to construct the star points with strip sets.  The second class is putting the star points together with the background fabric.

So here are the girls beautiful quilts. I love how this photo worked out all the halves lined out. I get all excited and start jumping around waiting for the ladies to get to this point, this is when it all comes together and you get your chance to see how all the fabrics have worked together and how stunning it really is.

 

This is Kathrine's top. It is over the top of mine so it looks a little jumbled.  Kathrine used civil war reproductions in greys, green and the pink is actually a red.  The background is a cream with red print.

Thurley went a completely different way with her colours.  Stunning yellows, reds and oranges.  Thurley's background is a black with white spots.

Sharon used blues of all shades for your Lone Star Quilt.  This has a completely different feel compared to Thurley's, the fabrics give it a cool feeling.  Sharon used a pale blue spot fabric for the background.

I didn't get a photo of Michelle's on her own.  So sorry Michelle.  Michelle's is the one right in the front of this picture. Michelle used beautiful civil war reproductions also but with greens, pinks and browns with cream background fabric.  The same type of fabrics as Katherine but they look so different.

 

This is one of my class samples.  Completely scrappy star points and a vibrant Shot Cotton pink used for the background.  Different look and feel again.

 

Thank you ladies for coming to my class, I am hoping to see your finished tops next year.

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.

Metro Hoops Class

Hi everyone

This past Saturday I taught at The Patchwork Angel, the Metro Hoops quilt by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Here is the great work done by all the girls

 Deb is making hers for a sweet little girl.  These colours are just perfect.

 Katherine is colours are just wonderful, the orange setting triangles just set off the blue so well.

 Wendy used almost the opposite to Katherine.  I loved these rings.

 

 Donna did a great job with these very pretty fabrics.

 

Next to Donna was Helen.  I love the way Helen uses colours and fabrics, the two backgrounds are perfect.  I have been quilting for Helen for a couple of years now and am always amazed at her selections.

 

Gals fabrics are very warm and cozy feeling.  The chocolate was a great match for them.

 

 Margot couldn't come to class until later in the morning, but she certainly didn't waste time and did a wonderful job catching up and learning what we had already covered.  Margot left with a ring complete and smile on her face.  Glad you could make it to class, Margot

 

 

 

Catherine with a C ( there were 2 in class) did a great job in class.  Catherines bobbin ran out halfway through the last seam at the very end of class, don't you just hate that. But her points meet where they are supposed to, just like all the girls blocks.

During class we learnt that not all 1/4" feet for machines sew a true 1/4", and that not all Jelly Rolls strips start at 2.5" either.  For this class it is important to start with the correct size strip sets.  A couple of the strips were narrower than needed so we used the practice curves cut from some pieces I gave the ladies at the start.

We talked about the seam not necessarily needed to be 1/4" but more importantly having the units been sewn together measuring accurately after the seam is sewn.  That is when sewing 4 strips that are 2.5' wide together the final unit should measure 8.5" across.  Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame has a great tutorial in how to get your units to finish at the size they should HERE. And HERE is a link to create an accurate seam guide for any machine. I hope you find these helpful.

Thank you ladies for a great class on a very wet Saturday morning.  I am waiting to see how your quilts turn out and to see you again in a class with me.

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