Isosceles On Point - A Triangle Quilt

I'm incredibly proud to do the big reveal of my triangles quilt! As you well know, this project has taken me longer than usual, and has made me use my brain considerably more than usual. But it's done! And dusted! And delivered! I've called it "Isosceles On Point", because of the 338 triangles and their beautiful points. Enjoy.......

I was somewhat surprised that it ended up relatively "square" when it was finished. Those pesky little half triangles down the side of the quilt were so out of whack, I thought for sure it would be all over the show!

 

I can't take any credit at all (well, just a little) for the fabric/colour combinations in this quilt. From the moment Larissa (my husband's cousin) approached me to make a custom quilt for her, she had a vision of what she wanted - and she stayed very true to that vision! I was VERY nervous taking on the order - Larissa is a visual merchandiser (think Freedom Furniture) and is rather fastidious in her taste for all things interior design. So I was more than happy to sit back and give her space to work out her fabric choices. It worked beautifully, because she managed to find the exact hues she was after, and delivered it! The ONLY say I had in terms of design, was in my finding of the black and white stripe, and the choice to use Aurifil #4670 40wt thread - a divine variegated silver/grey. Larissa trusted me with both of these choices!

 

The biggest decision she had was in the backing fabric. Larissa had seen my Wonky Star Cot Quilt, and had fallen in love with the Paloma Grey dot I used. So I searched the web and discovered plenty of yardage at fabric.com. I think it was the perfect choice!

 

This photo shows the thread off beautifully. The way it goes from dark grey to a light silver is just divine.  It was my first time using 40WT Aurifil, I'm a 50WT kind of gal.  However, I loved the slight difference in thickness of the thread.  My machine seemed to REALLY like it!  So it looks like another order is in order....

And you can see the same effect on the back. I straight line quilted myself silly on this one. I used my walking foot and did straight lines 1/4" on either side of every. single. triangle. That's a lot of lines. FIVE bobbins worth of lines. It is also the biggest quilt I have put through my darling Bernina. It was quite the workout!

 

I love how it looks against the background of my very bright green lawn in the afternoon sun!

 

LOVE how the colours all look together. LOVE.

   

 And this last photo? Well, we were sitting at the dining table eating dinner, and I looked towards the staircase where the quilt was hanging. The sunlight was streaming through the front door and I jumped up and grabbed my camera announcing it was the perfect light! My family looked at me like I was crazy crazier than normal, then continued eating whilst I snapped away. Sigh. 

 In the details - Size: King single 87" x 67". 

 Fabric: Prima Homespun solids from Spotlight. Stripe from Lincraft. Dear Stella "Paloma". 

 Batting: Cosy Cotton 

 Thread: Aurifil #4670 40WT - Variegated silver/grey. 

 Quilted by: Me! On my domestic Bernina 430

I'm happy to say this was received with much excitement on Sunday morning.  And I am more than happy to see the back of triangles for quite some time!  Well........ I do have quite a few leftover, so maybe I'll just make something with them......

For those of you who have asked me to do a tutorial and for tips on sewing triangles - have no fear!  I took a gazillion photos during the process and will get down to the task of trying to make them make sense for you all very soon!  Give me a week or so and it will be here!

I'm linking up with a bunch of wonderful linky's this week - You can too!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Scrappy Refractatorium Bee Quilt

For my second entry in to the Blogger's Quilt Festival - run by the lovely Amy over at Amy's Creative Side - I have chosen my Scrappy Refractatorium Quilt!  (You can find the original post HERE) I was torn over whether to pop it in the Wall Hanging category or the Bee category? The decision was straight forward in the end - this divine piece of work was a culmination of mine and eight other fabulous ladies - whom I like to call my friends. 

I was approached earlier this year by my lovely friend Gemma. She told me she and the other gals in Wombat Stew would love me to join their paper piecing bee! I nearly fell over..... You see, I had seen their work in our quilting group on FB, and I knew how good they all were - and I didn't know if I would be up to their standards! But I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth - so I jumped in - head first! 

When it was my turn to decide what I would like the ladies to make for me, I really only had one idea. I'd seen Quilt Jane's Refractatorium quilt on IG and on her blog. And I adored it. So I chose that pattern. Then came a tsunami of ideas on how I would turn it in to my own vision? After much thought, Kristy kindly altered the pattern a little, and once printed out, I got my black texta and got to colouring in! I worked out that I wanted black to be the "constant" throughout the project, and then threw caution to the wind, giving my wombat gals very loose guidelines on the types of colours/fabrics I would like included. To say I was happy with the blocks I received would be the understatement of the year decade century. I died, time and time again, as each block arrived in the mail! And after a few months of umming and ahhing about how I would make them in to "something", I decided my first wall hanging was to be...... 

  

My ten year old daughter thinks it looks like an optical illusion.....and I tend to agree with her!

The finished size is 105cm x 105cm.  It is the perfect size for this wall!

    

I pieced the blocks together and quilted it using Aurifil #2692 50wt black thread.  It was super tricky pebbling black on black, but I love the effect it had on the frame around the blocks.

  

I LOVE the scrappiness of all the bright colours together.  Out of the nine blocks - none feature the same two fabrics!

  

Being my first wall hanging, I had to put together my first hanging sleeve.  I was impressed with myself - and it still hasn't fallen down yet!

And the final result.  Hanging proudly on our lounge room wall.  Some days as I'm walking towards the front door, I just stop and stare.  So does the cat.

A BIG thank you to my Wombat Stew girls - Gemma, Jane, Kristy, Marieka, Alyce, Gina, Fiona and Lara.  Becoming a Wombat has opened up so many quilty avenues for me that I truly did not even know existed!  I'm so grateful to be able to call you friends. xxx

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Swoon Bed Quilt

A big thank you to Amy's Creative Side for organising the Blogger's Quilt Festival, so those of us who can't get to Quilt Market have something to get excited about!  I've decided to enter my most beloved Swoon in to the Bed Quilt category.  You can see the original post HERE.  I will have another post shortly for my second entry :)

Those of you who have been around here for a while would have seen many a blog post about this quilt, the whole process was dissected each week through photos.  And you all shared my excitement, which made putting it together even more exhilarating than ever!

I had my fat quarter bundle of Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill for months, and after much searching and thinking about how I would use it, I stumbled across the Swoon phenomena!  I had absolutely no idea that this quilt pattern had swept the world, but was happy to be joining in!

I became rather obsessed with getting the quilt finished, and managed to get it all done in a matter of weeks.  I was able to fussy cut the centre blocks in all but one of them, which was quite an effort given they're all cut from fat quarters.  I tried to choose the prints in each block so that they would accentuate the amazing colours and not overpower each other.  I was pleasantly surprised with the colour balance when I'd completed then all.

 I sent it off to the quilter (the first time I've had a quilt quilted by someone else!) and was stunned with the end result!  The binding went on quickly and that night, I put my kids to work holding this huge baby up!  Bella the cat inspected it and was very happy.

The backing was made up of rows of left over Notting Hill and the white broadcloth I used for the top. And then lots of yardage of this divine print.

I'm happy to say it lives very happily on our bed.  I'm not very happy to say that Bella still loves the quilt, and leaves her black hair as a calling card.....

The gorgeous all over quilting design.

And the quilt that took over our lounge room.

I say it with most of the quilts I make, but I think this really is my all time favourite.  Perhaps just because it was made for me, right from the time I purchased the fabric.

In the details: Machine pieced on my Bernina.  Finished size: 90" x 90".  Machine Quilted by Jeanette @ Gone Aussie Quilting.

Wordless W.I.P. Wednesday - What I Did Tonight.

Fairytale Finish

Hoorah for a Fairytale Finish!  I've taken lots of pretty pictures for you all......

As you can see, I made my fairytale blocks in to a wall hanging.  I wanted to make something for my god daughter in Tokyo, and have already made her a quilt (only a rag quilt, she will get a "real" quilt very soon!) and cushion, so checked with her Mummy that she liked fairytales (she's 2.5 - OF COURSE she likes fairytales!), and was also told she had nothing on her walls yet.  Bingo!  

Now, I know the blue block stands out a lot more than the others, but I just couldn't come to terms with either omitting it or making another brighter hued block and omitting a different one.  So, it is what it is!

When it came to the quilting part, I thought quite a lot about how I was going to tackle it.  I knew I wanted to free motion myself silly, but how?  I started off with one design, and then unpicked.  Started another, unpicked again.  Then just sat.  And stared.  In the end, I picked it up and just went with the flow.  Each block is completely different.

I googled each fairytale individually, because we don't actually own any of them!  I free motioned a quote from each of them.  Once the quotes were done, I whacked in a different coloured thread and had fun.

"Happily Ever After" - The Cinderella block has an organic kind of baptist fan! And then on the doorway, some sharp lines.  I've just noticed she needs a bucket handle! I was very careful not to quilt over the faces of each Princess.

"She slept for one hundred years" - Sleeping beauty was already quite a busy block with the text print and different colour combinations.  So I stuck with some little flowers on the quilt and lots or organic lines throughout.

"Once upon a time, long long ago" - Snow White got some more organic straight lines.....

And was officially my first ever attempt at embroidering a face!  Oh, and an apple stalk.....  It's hard to tell, but there's also "love" free motioned on the text print.

"So they called her Thumbelina" - I don't even know what to call the pattern I quilted here!  But I like it!

 

Lots of diagonal lines across the castle, and the clouds have little curved arches, the same as the fabric print.

 

Which makes it all cushy and cloud like....

 

And the backing is my favourite Ikea print.  I did the hanging "pockets" the same as on my Refractatorium wall hanging.  Little triangles in the corners to slip the dowel in to, and then a 10" pocket in the middle so it doesn't sag.  More hand sewing on there - I seriously don't know what's wrong with me?!!?!

And this photo?  Well, I took it on my iPhone, and really just love the angle!  I adore this project, and I can't wait to give it to my little god daughter when we meet up on the Gold Coast the week before Christmas!

In the details:

Finished size - 46" x 24"

Fabrics - Too many to declare!  But a special mention to a bunch of Art Gallery prints that have been sitting in my stash awaiting their calling.  The white & pink fabric used for the clouds was from a fabulous low volume bundle I bought on special from Pink Castle Fabrics - meant to be really!  That fat quarter JUST scraped in being big enough for its purpose!  The sashing and binding is a Michael Miller Dumb Dot - not so dumb really....

Thread - I used a few different colours in this project!  Aurifil #2024 white, #2605 grey/silver, #2000 sand, Aurifil #2692 black for the writing and face embroidery and because I couldn't wait for my next Aurifil delivery to get this finished, I pulled out a beautiful baby pink Gutermann I had.

Patterns - The castle is a pattern by Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts (not for sale YET!) and the fairytales are by Kristy @ Quiet Play, which you can find HERE.

I'm linking up all over the place this week - because I can!  And You can too!

Sunday Stash - Topping up Parcels again.

I was too busy last week, celebrating a two year old's birthday, to post Sunday Stash!  But I'm here now!  A few weeks ago, I had to order yardage of Paloma Grey Dot (not pictured here), for a quilt back, so who am I to not make the most of a parcel - and add lots more yardage?  This is what I threw in....

And this is what they have become - so far.....

I still have a few custom orders available from both the above fabrics!  

This Size 2 set is for sale HERE.

And then on another fateful day, I popped in to a de-stash group I'm in on FB, and tripped over these two prints....

Dodgy iPhone photo does not do the colours justice!

So bought them.......  The VW Kombi is going to make a VERY cool dress for Ms Chelsea's ten year old self - which she is MOST happy about!  And the Sponge Bob??  Who knows! I'm thinking Summer pyjamas!

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth - You can too!