June UFO Done & Dusted (and May's too!)

Following on from my post about my June UFO here I have managed to get myself organised and finish it! In my last post I had got as far as stitching the wadding to the organza.

The next stage was to pin and sandwich it to the backing fabric:

Then I quilted it

 I used a small spiral in the centre and a larger spiral in the outer section.  You can see it better on the back. (I made a cushion and as the colour of the backing didn't matter I used up some ugly fabric!)

Then I rinsed out the water soluble thread and trimmed it up

Then I made it into a cushion.

I did have some little spots where I nicked the organza and didn't quite catch it in the stitching but for a first go it turned out okay!

I also discovered how hard it is to take a photo of organza, it always shines even though it doesn't look shiny on the cushion in real life!

With that project out of the way I managed to crack on and finish quilting the rest of my May project, my second Star Surround baby quilt. Then I had to wait for a brief moment of sunshine in a very wet and grey week to snap a photo!

Pretty happy with this one. I resisted the urge to keep quilting as I wanted it to stay a bit softer as its will be for a baby.

Back on track with the UFO quiltalong Twelve in 2014 at Marti's 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks.

Thanks for visiting my blog today,

My Favourite Quilt - Dragon Fortune Quilt

At the moment people are sharing their favourite quilts as part of a link up at Sew Mama Sew so I thought I would share mine. It wasn't easy to pick just one but I chose this one as I felt by the time I finished this one that I was moving in the right direction with quilting!

Tell us about your favorite quilt. When did you make it? What pattern did you use? What fabrics?
This was a quilt of my own design. My son (older teenager at the time) had asked for a dragon quilt and I had trouble finding something that wasn't too childish so started gathering fabrics which felt 'dragon-y'. Later I found the feature fabric used in the border at a stall at our Quilt Fair in Adelaide. It came from Logan's Patchworks but I can't recall what it was called and I don't have any left at all, much as I wish I did! The centre dragon is the Good Luck Dragon, a Smee Designs pattern which I doubled in size and machine appliqued with satin stitch using embroidery threads.

The four corner designs I found on the internet and are meant to mean (clockwise from top left) Blessing, Long Life, Happiness and Longevity.  Hopefully they do as it was hard to find these designs so not sure if the meanings are accurate.  The blocks in the centre of each border were drafted from a tiny photo of a block I saw in a magazine somewhere.

Have your shown it at any quilt shows or entered it in any contests?

No I have never shown any of my quilts at any quilt shows. Maybe one day I will who knows?!

What memories or people does the quilt make you think of?

As it was made for my son, it reminds me of him and although I called it Dragon Fortune, its known in our house as Kieran's quilt!

What do you like best about the quilt?

There's not much I don't love about this quilt. It came out the way I wanted it to. The central black area is the first time I ever free motion quilted a quilt and is done in monofilament thread. This quilt was such a long time in the planning process that it was such a joy to finally get it finished and have it turn out so well.

How did you grow as a quilter while making it?

I learned a lot about making designs fit and quilting, including free motion quilting. I also learned not to have the iron too hot when doing the final press on the back as I managed to melt the stitching on the back of one of the corner panels and had to re-stitch it again!

If you could make this quilt again, what (if anything) would you do differently?

Not a thing, I love it just the way it is!

Where is the quilt now?

It is on my son's bed and he loves it so much he doesn't even take it off the bed in summer, which here in Adelaide, South Australia can get mighty hot!

Linking up with Sew Mama Sew's My Favourite Quilt Series.



Thanks for visiting my blog today,

UFO Project for June (and May too!)

Well given my distraction (also known as Olivia, our new puppy) over the last few weeks,

A distraction, me?!

not surprisingly I didn't quite get my UFO for May quite finished. However this month I'm determined to catch up and get back on track.

The lucky number for this month over at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks Twelve UFOs in Fourteen is 10. My No. 10 project is to try a new technique for me from this book which I've had for a little while now.

Geta Grama is a quilter from Romania who does some lovely work. If you haven't seen her work before take a look at her blog here.  Anyway I was interested in her technique and wanted to try it.

I printed out the practice design, taped it together then pinned it to a piece of organza and some polyester wadding, then stitched around the pattern using water soluble thread.

 Next step was to pull off all the paper carefully:

The next step is a bit more challenging. You have to snip away the wadding from the spots you don't want it without hacking great holes in the organza.  Here it is after I trimmed the outside bits:

There was the occasional snip through the organza but they shouldn't be visible once its quilted.
These photos were taken while trialling backing fabric.  I want to make this into a cushion and use it in my loungeroom so I selected some fabrics that would suit and layed the trimmed organza layer over them to see which works best.  Apparently the colours will be stronger once its quilted.

I like the last two best, the blue one is the strongest but the last one suits the colours in my loungeroom more. Hmmm not sure which one I'll do.

I have also done the last of the quilting on last month's designated project and just need to trim it up and bind it.  As a reminder, this is last month's project:

This one will be for a new baby due in December for my hubby's niece Marita and her new hubby Clint. We went to their wedding in February.

So fingers crossed I can get both done and stay on track now.  Watch this space!

Sunday Stash - Okay, last purchase this year...really!

I have been meaning to write this Sunday Stash post for weeks but there was a little distraction which arrived last month.  Well, actually not so little. Its Olivia, our new 9 month old Golden Retriever.  More about her later!

First up I took part in a Rainbow WOF Swap as part of the Rainbow Fabric Fun group on Facebook with my girlfriend Kerry (who is being seduced to the dark side/quilting at the moment). We each sent off 3 fabrics in our colours cut into 2.5" strips and then each received back a lovely rainbow jelly roll after all the swaps had been collated by the lovely Sally.

My last purchase was in the sale at Craft Depot which someone kindly alerted me to. Now in my defence I did need some red fabrics having discovered a major lack of reds in my stash so this purchase is totally justified (as far as I'm concerned) but I do not want to buy any more this year if I can help it! (That didn't sound too definite did it?!)

On to the fabrics:

Now I think I have these names right but forgive me if I get them wrong! Above on the left we have Grand Bazaar Spade by Patty Young for Michael Miller in Pomegranate, then Romance Small Leaf Print in red by Vicki Lynn Oehlke. In the centre is Marylebone Rajah by Kaffe Fassett for Liberty in Red, then Marle Fantasy in Cranberry and on the far right is Tonal Vineyard in red.
  

On the left above is Marylebone, Plumes by Kaffe Fassett for Liberty in Peach, in the centre is Tonal Scroll Smoke and on the right is On the Rio Grande, Scale Dots in red by Terrie Mangat.

Lastly above on the left is Paisley, Piccadilly Circus in Black by Kaffe Fassett for Liberty and on the right is Paisley, Cravat in Turquoise by Kaffe Fassett for Liberty.

Oh, you noticed some of those weren't red? Oops!

Linking up with Sunday Stash with Ms Molli Sparkles don't you know?!          




Now back to our new little distraction. Here is Olivia our lovely platinum blonde!

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth right?  .....Wrong!  I think the mattress looked at her funny!

Is tea ready yet?

Thanks for visiting!

A Win for Me!

Recently I had a lucky win on a giveaway over Jennifer's blog Hoodies and Flip Flops.

The giveaway was sponsored by Shannon at Fabrics N Quilts.

My prize arrived the other week and its a very cute little thread spool wallhanging kit.

Some cute fabrics:

I thought I might use it to teach my bestie Kerry to quilt. I'll post a photo when its done.

Thanks to Jennifer and Shannon for a great giveaway!