Star Crossed - Waterfront Park

If you've been around these parts a while, you may remember I fell madly in love with Violetcraft's Waterfront Park last year?  I ordered my bundle, received it, and swiftly turned it in to a quilt top........ I even got halfway through making the quilt back.  But for some reason (known to me - the quilt top was a tad wonky) it languished in my WIP pile for far too long.

Fast forward to this week.  

 

And she is complete!  I am still utterly in love with it, and am quite torn about giving it away.  When I showed my Mum today, and told her I was a little sad to see it go, she told me to keep it.  But I've got to come to terms that I just cannot keep every. single. quilt. I. make.

 

I had this baby basted quite quickly, and then sat in front of it wondering how on earth I was going to quilt it?  I had a migraine last week (the first in about a year) and the headache hangover still had not shifted, so needed to quilt quite minimally.  And because of its slight wonkiness, I needed something that would not make the wonkiness scream!  I ended up going with some pretty organic straight line quilting......  Organic because I did not measure the spaces because the lines.  I just winged it.  I used my very trusty Aurifil #2024 in 40wt for the quilting, and it didn't let me down.  When you get close up, the shimmer is divine.

 

And love the end result.  I even love the wonky backing!  It is actually quite squared up.....but the writing on a slant doesn't help!

 

I envisioned a beautiful photo shoot down at the beach for this quilt.  Clearly, that vision did not come to fruition - so I had to settle for the front yard and help from my three youngest children.  My gorgeous Chelsea wrapped herself up at the end and I couldn't help but keep snapping.....

If you wish to make your own version of this quilt, I used a free tutorial for the star crossed blocks by Don't Call Me Betsy.  They're a fun block to make, with endless possibilities for fabric selection.   I then just whipped up some simple cross blocks for the cornerstones, to match the width of my sashing.

And just for a laugh, I thought I'd show you this......

Whilst photographing yesterday, my youngest (who is currently nicknamed "devil-child") was being a fool.  It wasn't until I uploaded the photos today that I spotted something flying through the air in the very first shot!  Pretty good (or bad) timing really!

So - this throw sized pretty will be off to its new owner and I will be crying in the corner.  Nah, i'll be happy to make someone else happy!

THE STATS:

Size: 43" x 61.5"

Fabric: Waterfront Park by Violet Craft

Backing: Ikea Numbers

Thread: Aurifil #2024 40wt

Another WIP bites the dust!

Wordless WIP Wednesday.....On A Thursday

Almost..... This was cut out and placed on my design floor Saturday night.  And pieced together Sunday afternoon.  Can't. Wait. To. Quilt. It.

 

 

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Star Crossed

I'd like to put "lovers" after the star crossed, but that really wouldn't make sense!  Anyway, I'd love to share with you my almost finished Waterfront Park quilt top!  I finished the 20th and final block for it a few days ago, but have been busy with orders, so didn't get around to putting it together.  Until today...

** Warning - ordinary photos from my iPhone due to major laziness **

I am completely and utterly in love with this......and am so glad that I didn't take the easy way out like I was contemplating, and stuck with my original plan.

 

The plan that looked somewhat like this.  You know when you know what you want to do, but really have no idea how to make it happen?  Well, you do, but your lack of mathematical skills get in your way?  Yeh, that.  Lucky for me, after an hour of trying to work out those little crosses, I threw my hands up in the air (and no, I did not wave them around like I just don't care), and sent out an SOS to my Wombat Stew gals.  Alyce the maths genius came to the rescue and told me exactly what to do and how to do it.

And these little 3.5" babies were born.

It all went rather smoothly-ish, until the last row was being sewn together.  Which I won't show you because I'm still trying to work out whether I can be bothered unpicking the row, then the little block and then trying to make it work better.  But let's just say my intersections aren't matched up in two spots, and it will more than likely annoy the shit out of me when I next pull it out, and will more than likely be fixed.  Or not.  Who knows?

Sooooooo, this bad boy will have to wait until next week for more progress - for we are off to Lorne tomorrow until Sunday!  My brother-in-law and his lovely fiance are getting married on Friday, so we're making a lonnnnnnng weekend of it!  I. Can't. Wait.

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced - You can too!

New Year - New W.I.P's!

Happy New Year!  I hope you spent it with family and friends wherever you were!  We braved the trains and crowds, and headed in to the city for the early fireworks - and it was well worth it! 

 

'Twas a bit sunny at first!

 

The gathering was held on the grounds outside the MCG - perfect slopes for child rolling!

 

And the wait for the toilet line was far longer than the ten minutes of fireworks!  But it was fantastic!  Our three youngest kids really hadn't seen anything like it before - we are so glad we took them!

Now - on to quilty things….  What is a new year without new projects?  Nothing.  Well ok, life would still be alright, but you know…..

I asked you all a few weeks ago which direction I should take with my next quilt?  Which fabric collection should I go with?  Well, it was decided by both the majority of you and myself to go with Waterfront Park.  BUT - I then spent a ridiculous amount of time trawling Pinterest and Google for design ideas.  And was getting incredibly frustrated.  So I took a break from it all the other day, and in my desperation for something to sew, I pulled out my Fat Quarter Shop Designer block of the month packs.  I signed up at the start of 2013, and have received six or seven deliveries now, but was a little underwhelmed by the first month's block.  So the little packs have been put on the shelf each month…..  Until a few days ago.

 

I pulled out the one designed by Camille Roskelley and Bonnie Cottonway.  Love it!

 

So then I grabbed the next one designed by Kate Spain.  No words required.  But in Kate's words, who saw this on my IG - "whirly swirly awesomeness!"  I concur.

Anyway…….it lit the fire to get my Waterfront Park quilt started, so I headed back upstairs to the computer and googled for another hour or so.  And found THIS.  I'd been debating between star or cross blocks - this combines both!  BINGO!  I ran straight downstairs and starting chopping!

 

And this was the first block I fell in love with!  LOVE!

So they very quickly began to multiply…….  And today, I have cut out another seven blocks.  They are only 10" blocks, so it could do my head in by the end, but hey - when you love something……

So there you go!  My first project/s for 2014…….  

I'm linking up (if Lee is hosting!) to W.I.P. Wednesday - You can too!