T.G.I.F.F. - Pink Posy

It's a late night edition of T.G.I.F.F. tonight! I finished my gorgeous little Pink Posy quilt yesterday and I am hopelessly in love with it!  This darling little quilt will be up for sale at The Handmade Library's Pretty in Pink Showcase on 11th of September.  I'm feeling incredibly efficient having it finished now!

 

Isn't she lovely?  As I mentioned previously, I have never used this much pink in a quilt before, but am thoroughly pleased with the end result!  I basically went through my stash, after adding another half a dozen pink prints from a quick trip to Spotlight, and pulled out every single pink fabric I could find!  From each print, I cut 4.5" squares.  There are a few duplicates in there, but overall, there are 57 (if i counted correctly!) different pink prints here.  The white fabric is a Kona charm pack I bought ages ago, trimmed down.

 

I stuck with a really simple quilting design.  Lots of straight lines on the diagonals, and then around the border, I got my free motion on!  Gorgeous little flowers and meandering paths between them.  All the piecing and quilting has been done in a very pretty baby pink Gutermann thread.  I have almost completely run out of Aurifil and am waiting on my friends (YOU know who you are lol) to decide which ones they would like before I put my next bulk order in - so the Gutermann was called upon!  What I like about piecing with the pink, is that on the fabrics with a white background or just plain white, the pink almost shimmers through.  It's a lovely effect, and totally unplanned!

 

 I managed to fussy cut quite a few of them, which almost makes it like a little "I spy" quilt!

 

Pretty little pinwheels in the corners, that unfortunately lost some of their points in the process!

 

And one of the prettiest views of a quilt - all rolled up and yummy.

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted over at Bedtime Quilting this week - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Pink

Short and very sweet post tonight.  I started working on a project for a "Pretty in Pink Showcase" on Monday........ Now I don't generally do much pinky pink, but I pulled out all stops for this one!  In fact, this project led me to a few stash observations and a bit of stash renovation.  I'll talk about that in another post!  But for now, here's the beginning of something beautiful.....

I'm halfway through quilting, will get it finished tomorrow with any luck.  Keeping it simple.  And hopefully understated.

Are you a pinky pink kind of gal?

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

The BIG Swoon Reveal!

The day has finally come - I can share my biggest finish with you all!  That's right - my Swoon is done and dusted!  I managed to bind it on the weekend, and Saturday night, got my little minions to work, using muscles they never thought they had.  This baby is HEAVY!  I could have waited for delightful sunshine and dry skies - but you wouldn't have seen photos of it for about a month - Melbourne's Winter is in full force at present!  So, without further ado - here she is - "Swoon".....

Bella the cat appreciates a good quilt when she sees one.

Minion's muscles fading fast.  I LOVE how the pieced back shines.  And I LOVE the fact that you can hardly tell where I have joined the prints!

But most of all, I LOVE the beautiful quilting that Jeanette over at Gone Aussie Quilting did for me!  This is the first time I have sent a quilt away to be quilted.  It took me days of looking at digital designs, making a short list, and then asking my quilty friends for their votes, before I went with this vine design.  It is literally PERFECT in every sense.  I didn't want a dense quilting pattern, I wanted it to skim over the blocks and not take away from their brilliance.  I think my choice has achieved that!

And here it is on our queen size bed.  I took a gazillion 50 photos that night, but thought I would spare you!  I could sit and look at this quilt all day, but alas, I have other quilts to make now.

Through the process of making my Swoon, I've had many people ask me if it is a difficult pattern?  My answer?  It really is a fairly simply pattern to make.  It is made up of HST's and Geese, and a bunch of squares and rectangles.  The cutting for the blocks is a little tedious, but once I made the first block, I then worked on three blocks at a time, chain piecing them to make the process run smoother.  The blocks then came together relatively quickly.  In fact, I made all nine blocks in around four days.  Yes, they were big days, but it's very do-able!

In the details:  Machine pieced and machine bound.  SIZE - The finished size of the pattern is 80" x 80", I made my sashing 5" wide, which brought the finished size up to 90" x 90".  As you can see, that is plenty big for a queen size bed!  It will shrink up a few inches on its first wash, and will still be big enough.  FABRIC - I used Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry.  I bought the entire fat quarter collection - which you can still get HERE, HERE and HERE (just to name a few!).  This pattern is perfect for fat quarters - you only need 18 in total.  QUILTING - Jeanette from Gone Aussie Quilting is situated in New South Wales.  I posted the front and back to her, and she supplied the batting.  She has a TONNE of digital designs to choose from for her edge to edge service.  And she has a fabulous special price for quilting Swoon quilts.  And she's also super quick!  If you're in the USA, there is a special quilting offer for edge to edge quilting from a lady in New York.  If you join the Swooning on a Hop Along Flickr group HERE you will find that offer too.  And if you want to buy the pattern for yourself, you can find it HERE.

So.  Where to now?  More quilting I guess!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday AND Show & Tell Tuesday - You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. - Circa is Finito!

Hoorah!  Another finish!  I put the binding on this baby yesterday morning and had it washed and dried by afternoon.  Unfortunately the lighting in our neck of the woods was atrocious, so the beautiful gem tones of the Circa fabrics just aren't showing as well as they could be.  But here she is....

I'm not usually one to wash a quilt before it finds a new home, but given that I used chalk stencils and hairspray whilst quilting, it was in desperate need of a wash!  I will write up a post and my review of the stencils I used, so you can see if it's something you might like to try!

It's come up beautifully - nice and crinkly all over.

 

And the back - a TONNE of negative white space for the quilting to show!  I LOVE it!

This photo is probably the best representation of colour - and it was pre-wash!

And now?  Well it just needs to find a home!  I have submitted it in to a gorgeous Jennifer Paganelli Showcase over at Fabric Love Australia.  There are some stunning handmade items in the showcase, so be sure to check it out!  It begins tomorrow night and runs for a week - hopefully somebody loves it enough to make a purchase!

The need to know bit - Measures 75" x 54" after being washed.  Fabric - Circa by Jennifer Paganelli and white broadcloth.  Design - Simple 9 patch and reverse 9 patch on top and bottom.  Bamboo batting.  Aurifil white thread for quilting!

*** I know I said yesterday that I would have my Swoon quilt finished to show you today - but it just didn't happen!  But here's a sneak peek for you.....

I am incredibly happy with it and just can't wait to get the binding on and have some good weather to take the big finale photos!  Watch this space!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. over at Quokka Quilts - You can too!

Fresh Sewing Day - July Round Up!

It would be fair to say that I've had a pretty big month!  In fact, it's the biggest July I have EVER had in my life!  Apart from all the interesting side stories happening, I managed to sew up an absolute storm hurricane.  It truly is amazing how much you can get done when you put your mind to it AND desperately use sewing as therapy!  Here's a little old round up for you......

Clockwise from top left: My first Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Block of The Month - I forgot to post about this one!  Admittedly, it is not my usual style at all - but I'm going to stick with it, and at the end will have a lovely little semi-traditional quilt to give to someone!

My 9 Patch Mash Up Cushion - boredom with a block got the better of me, so I tried something different, and showed you a little tutorial of sorts.

Goldilocks & The Three Bears paper pieced block - for Gina's month in our Wombat Stew Bee.

A sweet little Field Study Pinnafore ordered by a friend for a gift.  I love it when my customers see something someone else has ordered, and have to have one themselves!  I now have two more of these beauties to make - in the blue colour way.

I somehow managed to start AND finish my Swoon quilt!  I'm still wondering where and how that happened?  I think someone must have slipped me something in my cereal for a few weeks??  I am VERY pleased to say that this humungous quilt arrived back on my doorstep this morning, from Jeanette, who did the quilting for me!  Come back tomorrow and you will see the completely finished quilt!  Eeeek!

And just because I bought new fabric and had to sew with it - I also started and finished this divine Circa quilt top!  The quilting was completed yesterday, and today I did the binding.  Another big reveal for tomorrow!

I also snuck in plenty of repairs and alterations for work - the only people I will willingly do that for!  And made a couple of gorgeous dresses for my girls.  It's certainly been a productive month!

Hello August!

I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - Circa Continued....

A very quick W.I.P. Wednesday (yes I know my posts of late are all very quick, but there's a reason.  Will explain another day!).  I shared my Circa quilt top with you LAST WEEK.  I finished quilting it yesterday, and tomorrow will be binding!

Here's a little peek at what I've done.....

See you Friday for the big finish and reveal!

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

Sunday Stash #20.

 A nice quick and easy post for a Sunday!  There have been a few additions to my stash this week......

I went to drop the kids at school the other day and there was a little parcel sitting at my front door.  I was THRILLED when I flipped it over and saw it was sent directly from Kate Spain herself!  I won a surprise gift from her, through the Kate Spain Blog Hop, and ripped the parcel open with my teeth (whilst my children laughed) to discover a gorgeous Honey Honey Jelly Roll and Sunnyside Charm Pack.  Thanks so much Kate! (You never know - she may read this!)

I bought these three little fat quarters from the girls at Snap Fabrics.  One of them is a local, so she hand delivers my purchases - nice!  A little more Cuzco and some wood grain - something I never thought I would buy until I started paper piecing!

And on Thursday I headed in to the city to the Craft & Quilt Fair.  I showed amazing self control and restraint amongst the fabulous vendors, but came away with this little stash of goodies.  Half a metre of Reunion bunting fabric to go with the charm packs I've had sitting on my shelves for a year or so.  An air dissolvable pen for marking my FMQ - I'm still too scared to use it because it's hot pink!  And some fabulous stencils for quilting.  They are used with a chalk block which you rub over the stencils and then quilt over the top of them.  I practiced on some scraps and was getting frustrated because the chalk was disappearing, but then I remembered the lady who sold them to me said I could give them a light spray of hairspray to hold it.  I'm happy to say it worked.

I'm not so happy to say that this will be the first quilt I will have to wash before selling!  You can see in the above photo the lovely blue stencils, which smell delightfully of Taft Super Hold Hairspray!  

Here's an example of what the stencil can look like when practicing!

And that's all folks!

  

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