Honeysweet Swirls

Life has been very busy as of recent - we've had renovations done to our house.  Over the last nine weeks we have stayed nearby with my parents-in-law who have been FANTASTIC!

I haven't done a lot of sewing, but enough to finish off some projects, including this...

I made it from a jelly roll of Fig Tree Quilts' 'Honeysweet' collection, with Kona cappuccino as the contrast.

The swirls were made with two jelly roll strips and then cut into 90 degree triangles using my Jaybird Quilts' Hex'n'more ruler.

I added a small amount of similar fabrics to get the half-hexagons - but am super pleased with the result.

I quilted it using segments, an idea I got from Angela Walters new book 'Shape By Shape', and the border's arches idea came from a lovely friend at my patchwork group.

The backing is from Fig Tree Quilts' earlier line 'Avalon'.  The binding is a red from the 'Honeysweet' range

Love this quilt!  And my mother-in-laws' garden where I shot these photos on a beautiful spring day last week!

Finished size: 65" x 64"

Many more finishes needed...  better get unpacking!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts' 'Finish it up Friday'.  See you there!

Another WIP

I have plenty of other things to do, but there are also many ideas brewing and all those lovely fabrics calling!

Here is my latest start, a jelly roll quilt using 'Honeysweet' by Fig Tree and Co.  I've adapted a variety of patterns to get this layout and it's looking great!

I have made most of the half hexies and just waiting to get some Kona Cappuccino for the contrast triangles before I start sewing it all into a quilt top.  It's going together very quickly.

I used my Jaybird Quilts' 'Hex N More' to cut out the triangles.

Linking up with 'WIP Wednesday' at 'Freshly Pieced'.  Thanks Lee!!

A Work in Progress: Lots of Crosses

I should be doing dozens of other things but last weekend I started a new quilt - I felt like piecing and I had just finished three other quilts!

I'm using the pattern 'Dream Big' by Camille Roskelley from her book 'Simplify with Camille Roskelley'.  It is a quilt with crosses as I have noticed that they are particularly popular at the moment.

The fabric is 'Flats' by Angela Yosten and I have used a jelly roll.  I've got some of the reds for the border... but still need to do some thinking first.

It is going together really well.  I cut it all out and planned then sewed all the single rows in just over a day (less helping on the farm), with K helping me place out the pieces.  But my quarter inch seam allowance must be a fraction out as now that I am on to sewing the rows together the crosses were not lining up quite perfectly.

I have fixed that as I have gone to pinning from the left.  This enables me to leave the removal of pins to the very last moment - my quarter inch foot has a guide on the right side so the pins need to be out of the way by then.  I think I'll have to re-do the first few rows as I plan to quilt it with simple lines later.

My magnetic pin holder is twenty years old but fantastic.  I got it from Bernina when I purchased an overlocker.

I've pinned all the rows on to a piece of flannel and can therefore sneak a few rows in my schedule without worrying about them getting out of order.

Now trying to link up with 'WIP Wednesday' at 'Freshly Pieced'.

Almost blown away... and a quilt to share

At the top of my to-do list has been a quilt for my mother - and five days ago I finally finished it.  I went out on Monday and took photos, then on Tuesday we had the strongest winds I've ever known - I think they were the worst in forty years.  Canterbury, NZ, is known for strong north-west winds that come over the Southern Alps and gust across the plains.  Luckily no-one was hurt and most of the damage is to trees,  power lines and irrigators - and so we have had no electricity for three days.

Everything is now back to normal - and we were lucky we had a generator, a log-burner and gravity fed water in the meantime.  K even enjoyed running around with torches and getting to see almost as many candles as a birthday party.

So... here is the latest quilt I have finished.

It is made with a jelly-roll of 'Petite Odile' by French General.  I had seen a picture of a quilt made like this then tracked down this tutorial on how to do it.

I really free motion quilted it using this fantastic tutorial from Oh Fransson! and although I have certainly not made the most even shapes, they look quite good as a whole.  I did 'stitch-in-the-ditch' between each 6" square to add extra stability.  The size of my squares was on the big side for quilting like this - but it worked.

Once again I've had great fun taking photos in my garden -

 

 You can almost see in this picture (above) that I backed the quilt with some more of this FG fabric and used the same fabric for the binding.

So 'Happy Belated Birthday' Mum... I hope you enjoy your quilt... I'm looking forward to giving it to you in a month's time.

Here are two pictures of the damage the wind this week did to trees...

...this is a large cedar that fell in the garden - luckily I was wanting it down anyway - and it fell in exactly the right place, avoiding the rhododendrons around it.

... and this is a plantation near us - that was a whole block of trees, once.

I'm going to try linking this all up with 'finish it up Friday' on 'Crazy Mom Quilts'.  My first time trying this - we'll see if it works.  :-)

Butterfly Garden with love

 My finished work....

 

The pattern is 'Hexagonal Garden' by Pam and Nicky Lintott from their book 'More Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts'.  I slightly changed the dimensions so I could get as much from the yardage as I could, hence the slightly cut-off hexagons on both sides.  There is enough fabric pieces left over to make a cushion now.

 

The fabric is 'Papillon' by 3 Sisters for Moda.  It was as a jelly roll, with extra yardage (108" wide backing) for the backing, border and binding (44" wide in the aqua).  'Papillon' is butterfly in french.

 

I made this quilt for my mother-in-law's sixty-fifth birthday.   So I went out yesterday and took some pictures on a beautiful day in the garden she created.

 

  

Can you see my H on his tractor two paddocks over?

George and Daniel the lambs decided to be in the photos.

George having a look at me!

I free motion quilted it using an butterfly shape template that I centred around the hexagons.  I then filled in the gaps with extra butterflies and swirls.  I even started quilting without a marking when doing the border - am now feeling more confident to try an allover loop next time!

 Next project - finish a quilt for my mother!

For Sleeping...

I made K a new pair of jim-jams over the last day.  They are Oliver+S 'Sleep-over Pyjamas'.  Great pattern - again!

She loves them!  I made them size 5 but they're a bit too big - so its lucky she will grow and then we can let down the folded up leg and sleeve cuffs.
The trim is purchased broderie anglais.  I loved that stuff when I was a child - so this would have been right up my alley too.