Revisiting UFO's etc

As many of you who follow my blog know, I belong to Kathy Tracy's 'Small Quilt Talk' online group.
Each month she offers members a challenge, I'm usually so far behind but this month I actually managed to get the current challenge completed!

Kathy gave us a Contrary Wife block and asked us to create anything we wanted using this block.
I have a love of solids and lots of left over scraps, mostly small pieces, so had a play and came up with this! 

I suppose you could call it a mug-rug, it's finished size is 6 1/2" x 6 1/2", and each square is 1" x 1".
It's handquilted quite simply with four rounds following the square shape!!!  Some of those tiny pieces I've had squirrelled away for over ten years!!

Here is what Tracy gave us:

Because I quite liked this block I decided to make some larger ones as well!  I gathered up some more solids and prepared to make some 9" x 9" blocks. 

These are not colours I would normally go for, but decided to get out of my comfort zone and try a slightly different look!!!!  I'm taking the flimsy to the longarm quilter, so all will be revealed soon!!!  The jury is still out on the colours, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, even if the dog gets to sleep on it LOL!!!!!

I have lots of UFO's, what quilter hasn't!!!!  Before I got into making small quilts I used to make large bedsize quilts, some have been quilted, others have languished for a very long time!!!!
I've decided to bring some of them out of hibernation and set them free - to see the light of day and get used !!!!

Back in 2005, I attended a four day Quilt Retreat with Kaye England.  It was organised by a quilt shop in north Queensland, to be held at the Gympie Conference Centre nestled among tropical rainforest.
I had a wonderful time, there were about 40 or so ladies and I learned so much from Kaye.  Learned to throw out my 'everything must match' thinking and get a little more liberated with fabric!!!

This was her new publication at the time.

The quilt featured on the front cover is what she thought would get us all out of our 'funk' with trying to be so 'ordered' and 'matchy'.  It sure was a learning curve for me!  I made several blocks at the retreat, and when I returned home became quite obsessed and sewed like a crazy woman for a week getting the other blocks completed and the quilt top sewn.

I had a large collection of Aboriginal fabrics set aside for this quilt which contained wild colours and patterns!!!  Some of the other ladies used batiks as Kaye had also done, others used African prints.

This is Kaye with her batik quilt!  A group shot at the top and the Conference Centre at the bottom.

My flimsy has been waiting patiently for me to notice it again, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to get it quilted!!

Told you it was pretty wild!!!  And this is the binding, all prepared and ready to go!!

This quilt is huge!!!!! over 2 metres square!!!! 

This has now started a commitment of wanting to tidy up the UFO pile!!! 

This is a sneak peak of another scrappy - lots of left overs - nine-patch!!!  This must be around 7 years old!! and about the same size, just over 2 metres sq.

My tastes have certainly changed over the past several years, but also fabric availability, and that is a good thing, means we are not stuck and happy to embrace something completely different!!!  I also find it quite a challenge to manoeuvre metres and metres of fabric just for one quilt after getting used to much smaller quilts.  I'm figuring out my sewing room needs to be twice the size - well it used to be! - before I started filling it with extra tables and wardrobes for my ever growing stash and family of sewing machines LOL!!!!

One of my American followers mentioned whenever she heard about ANZAC Day and more especially ANZAC biscuits she always thought of me!   They are very easy to make, but I'm not really a biscuit (cookie) maker myself and buy them at the supermarket instead!

I have started to nibble my way through this packet, great with a cup of coffee!!!!

My last flowering 'hangers on' in the garden, poor little marigolds, before the winter sets in!!  and behind them a beautiful cascade of  basil!!!

I also received two new books, full of inspiration and loveliness!!!

I read 'Lizzie's Legacy' in one sitting, a lovely read and some gorgeous quilts in that book!!!!
Have a safe and productive weekend,

Take it easy,
Merilyn

ANZAC Day 2013

Lest we forget!!!!

Remembering three young soldiers from my family who never came home from the first World War.....


Merilyn

Little Bit of This 'n That

The trend of all things romantic and sweet is kind of following me around at the moment!!!
I forgot to add a sneak peak of another vintage romantic style quilt I was completing in my last post, anyway it is now finished and making itself at home on the back of one of my lounge chairs!

I was given a charm pack of Butterscotch and Roses quite some time ago, I wasn't sure what to do with them, but decided to just sew them together fairly randomly.  I then went in search of two fabrics to get some yardage, for a border and binding.  I was lucky enough to find the fabrics I had chosen, although I would have been grateful to have used any of the others, as the line had been out for a while, and sometimes what you are looking for is not always available.

Again, not a line of fabric I would have chosen, but sometimes it is good to get out of your comfort zone, and make the best of a thoughtful gift!

I actually made a boo-boo when cutting out the borders, (I cut the top and bottom pieces just a tad too short) so had to get creative and make a cornstone block and included some of the binding fabric!  I think I got away with it alright!!!!!

It's called an Economy Block, which I found on EQ.

My local longarm quilter did a great job as always!!

The quilt measures 38" x 41 1/2".

As most of you who read my blog know I belong to Kathy Tracy's online SmallQuiltTalk yahoo group.

Kathy designs small quilt patterns which you can find here:  http://www.countrylanequilts.com

I recently purchased a few of her patterns and they came in the mail last week.

There was one in particular that really caught my imagination!  The Scrappy Hourglass quilt.  Kathy added a few pieces of reproduction farbic to the pattern, I then scoured through my scraps to add to them and spent two wonderful sewing sessions putting it together!!

Just loved putting those little hourglass blocks together, transforming scraps into something pretty!!!



Love the mosiac effect!

I used an old Jo Morton for the outer border after searching for just the right brown for the inner border!

I'm really happy with the way this turned out!   Still to decide on the fabric for the binding after I get it quilted!!!

I usually always have a cup of tea with me in the sewing room as I listen to classical music and sew, and shamefully have used a piece of cardboard as a coaster for my hot cup.  How disgraceful for a sewer with a room full of fabric LOL!! So I decided to make up a small coaster/mugrug using some of my smaller scraps, and Insul-Bright as the wadding!! 

It mesures 3 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Much better don't you think!!!

The beginning of another month means of course another Block from Barbara Brackman's Dixie Diary quilt project!  I'm still trying to get my head around such large pieces of fabric for one block after working with tiny pieces most of the time. 

These blocks look a bit bare, but I've yet to applique hearts/stars onto them until I work out my layout for the quilt once all the blocks are completed.  I still love the fabric line here, they are quite sumptuious!!!

This months' BOM is called 'Asylum'.

We're definitely into Autumn now, which is quite a lovely time of year, with cooler days and evenings, it means that I can now snuggle under my feather doona at night, it also means that most of my flowering plants have offered their last sprays of colour and fragrance for the year. 

I have a wonderful large bushy shrub with Orange scented flowers just outside my kitchen, it flowered a couple of times just recently, but this was the final spray it offered before it rests for the winter months.

Their fragrance is really gentle and orangey, not too sweet, I planted it several years ago and it never disappoints.  The photo is taken from my back verandah and looks down onto the garden, it is a little wild and carefree, but I like it that way,  magic happens in a slightly wild garden I always think.......

Thankyou for dropping by, hope where ever you are, life is treating you well, and that you can make time to sew!!

Take it easy,
Merilyn