Block of the fortnight

That's a new name isn't it - Block of the fortnight.  Well that's what this quilt is. Each fortnight a shop called Little Quilts in USA releases two more patterns for the Women of the Bible quilt.

We're just about half way through the quilt now and I'm pleased with how mine is turning out.  I've chosen to use Denyse Schmidt fabrics that I purchased at Spotlight NZ. I've added in a few complementary fabrics that I had at home, but I'm trying to keep it blue and pink (with a touch of green now and then).

I've decided that rather than hauling all my fabrics out every fortnight just to make 2 blocks, I'll save up the patterns for 3 fortnights and make 6 blocks all at once.  Here's what it looks like with the first 20 blocks made. Some are 15" blocks, others are just 10" blocks. This isn't the final placement, it's just to get them all in one shot.

Here are the new blocks I made this weekend - blocks 15 to 20.

Most of these designs are new to me, and there's often more than one way to piece them.  I tend to cut my squares bigger than the pattern for the HSTs and them trim them up.  Some of my first blocks don't have much of a seam allowance on them!

Unfortunately Little Quilts won't let anyone else join this program at the moments. they have said that they will sell the patterns on a CD at the end of the program for USD 10, so if you're desperate to do it, you will have to wait until mid year and then get the patterns.

Kaffe Christmas Tree

My Kaffe Christmas Tree is finished - in February, of course. I purchased the kit for this mini quilt back in April 2014. I don't know why I never managed to get it finished for Christmas 2014, but it is now ready for Christmas 2015.

Kaffe Christmas Tree

A number of people on facebook have asked me for instructions to make this quilt. If this design was available as a downloadable pattern I would direct you to the online shop to buy your own copy. However, it's not, and I purchased the last kit at the shop, so I will provide some brief details about my quilt.

As you can see from the photo, there are 40 squares of different coloured green fabrics. I cut at 2.5" so they ended up as 2" squares. My kit contained mainly Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I love Kaffe fabrics, but you could use any green fabrics. Or I've even seen someone do it in blues and that was lovely too.

In the background there are  48 x 2.5" squares of white and cream fabrics, some of which have sparkles.

Then there are 18 half square trianges. As you know, you need to cut the squares bigger for half square triangles and then trim them to 2.5" square. I used the same green fabric for all of my HSTs.

I used a single piece of brown fabric for the base of the tree. It's as big as 4 squares combined.

I laid out all the pieces in the shape of the tree, and then sewed them together in rows. I then joined the rows, starting from the centre and working up and then down.

I cut 1.5" narrow border, and then a 3" wider border. I made my binding 2.25" wide from the same fabric as the tips of the branches.

The finished size is approx 27" wide x 30" high.

 


I quilted the green part of the tree with a great new thread called Wonderfill Dazzle in dark green. It has a sparkle embedded in it.  I got mine from a supplier at the New Zealand Quilt Symposium, but here's the website of the manufacturer.

Wonderfill Dazzle

I used Perle 9 to outline the tree and the borders, and I used regular cotton to quilt in the ditch between the white and cream blocks. I also quilted narrow lines on the trunk of the tree in brown Perle 8.

Although this quilt is small and could be used as a table runner, I put a hanging sleeve on it so it can also hang in our hall way at Christmas time. Of course I used Kaffe on the back of mine too - this is Paperweight in Jewel.

This is the second item on my Finish Along list for the first quarter, so I'm on track. Just one more mini quilt to hand quilt and finish before 31 March.

I'll be linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday and Crazy Mom Quilts.

A winner and lots of no reply comments

Nearly a month ago I started a give away for the Grow Your Blog event. Up for grabs were these purple fat quarter. Many of you left lovely comments telling me where you had been on holiday, thank you.  A surprising number of you know someone who has been to New Zealand.

But as I was reading all the comments I was quietly thinking that people must have finally got the message about no reply blogger status, because I wasn't getting any comments from no reply bloggers.

Then today when I went to do the draw. I went to my giveaway folder in gmail and thought 105 is quite a low number of entries for a give away, So I checked on Blogger to see how many comments had been made on this post and it said 173. Help! Where were 68 comments?

It turns out that I previously put some comments from a no reply blogger to spam, and now gmail thought every message from a no reply blogger was spam. I've now fixed that so it won't happen again.

About half of the no reply bloggers had included email addresses in their messages so I rescued those messages and included them in the draw. However, there still at least 30 people who I couldn't reply to and therefore didn't include in the draw.

If you commented on my blog and have not heard back from me you may well be a no reply blogger. If you're not sure please check out this post on Adrienne's blog.  Or you can leave a comment on this post asking me if you are a no reply blogger. I will answer on this post so you will have to come back and check again the next day.

After note - there are usually two reasons for someone being a no reply blogger. The method above helps those who have a google ID, and are no reply bloggers. The second group are those with Wordpress blogs. For some reasons wordpress users appear as no reply bloggers on blogspot blogs. Unfortunately blogger and wordpress show no interest in working on a joint solution to this problem, but most wordpress users know to leave their email address when they comment on blogspot blogs.


Anyway, onto happier news.  The winner of the giveaway is Her Indoors - a great name which makes me smile and think of UK comedies. Her Indoors lives in the UK and I have already sent her an email. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.

I'm feeling better now thank you, and making great progress on v2.0 of my ripple blanket. Here's how it looks today. It's now at the point where it's warm on my knees as I crotchet. Some rows are variegated wool, others are plain.

Ripple Blanket v1.0 and v2.0

I've been sick for the last week so I decided to make a start on my crochet ripple blanket. I bought the wool with the intention of joining the Down Under Australia Crotchet Along which is due to start on 1 March, but I made a sneaky start last week while I was under the weather (sick).

I've crotcheted a lot in my past, so I thought this blanket would be easy enough. My first mistake came when I misread the pattern and cast on 231 stitches instead of 213. I think I only figured that out yesterday after a week of crochet!

I suddenly started to think yesterday that I might not have enough wool to make the blanket tall enough. I'm not using the wool in the pattern because they used acrylic. In New Zealand we need wool in the winter, so I'm using a lovely 100% wool called California by AusSpinners. It's lovely wool, but it's not cheap and I didn't really want to spend any more money on this blanket.

I laid the blanket on my bed to see how wide it was in reality, and got a shock to see that it was 150cms and covered the top of our Queen sized bed. It was only meant to be 120cms and cover the top of a single bed.

I also started to notice how dense the stitches were, and therefore how heavy it would be when it was finished.

All of those factors led me to make the decision to unpick 6 nights work and start again with a fewer number of stitches, and a bigger hook. Although the wool says it is 8 ply (double knitting), it feels more like 10 ply so I stepped up from a 4mm hook to a 5mm hook.

This time I actually made a test square to see how it would look on a 5mm hook and I liked the more open texture.

Last night I made a start on v2.0 of the ripple blanket. (pattern by Attic24). I started in blue this time so I wouldn't get confused between v1.0 and v2.0. I'm working to a colour card, but I just started at the top of the right hand column this time.  I've now got less stitches in the same number of cms, and shorter rows, so it shouldn't take too long to catch back up to where I was.

I still need to unpick the first attempt because I'm going to reuse that wool. Unfortunately the lovely fluffy mohair nature of the wool means that it's difficult to unpick, but I might rope in one of the kids to help wind it up while I unravel it.

So the moral of that story is, don't start a new project when you are sick and can't think straight. Even straight forward things can be mucked up if you're not thinking clearly.

A finish at last

I've started quite a few new projects in 2015 which is always exciting, but I've also had one tiny finish.  This Halloween table mat was one of 4 items on my Finish Along list created about a month ago.

It's a purpose built mat for my Haunted House to sit on when it gets finished later in the year.  I'm pleased to say that yesterday I finished embroidering the back of the Haunted House, and it's the biggest section.

Haunted House by The Victoria Sampler

The other sections will be slightly faster now that I've got the dimensions of the house, and figured out the satin stitch at the top.  I often find it easier once I've done the first section. 

So, come Halloween, the house will be sitting on this mat in the hallway.

As soon as I finished the Halloween mat I pulled out the next item on my Finish Along list. A Christmas Tree mini quilt. I know, I'm doing everything at the wrong time of the year, but if I leave these until the end of the year they just won't be done in time (again).

I always intended to hand quilt this Kaffe Christmas Tree.  I decided to try something new and quilted free hand squiggly lines in the green section. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. I used the green sparkly thread I picked up at Symposium. It's great to quilt with, but it does fray terribly so I have to be careful with the ends.  I've still got to decide what to do out in the white section yet.

 

Although I'm trying to be good and stick to my list, I couldn't resist the temptation to join up with a needlelace stitch along being run by a Russian lady - Daria. Here's a link to her blog. 

I've met many Russians on Instagram and they do beautiful embroidery. Daria has got permission from a Japanese lady (Erba?) to run a stitch along based on one of her free patterns.  Here's a link to casaerba.  This is what we are going to make.  It's shown as a table runner here, but I might just make mine a square and get it framed. 

Isn't it beautiful? It looks Eastern European / Turkish / Russian to me with those domes on the buildings. Although I don't usually do things in white, I think this one should be white so I'm using the bright white - B5200 coton a broder. I have accepted that I can't see clearly enough to do 32 count anymore, so am using 28 count linen for mine.  Daria says the instructions will be spread over 15 fortnights, with about 6-10 hours work per fortnight. I think that's manageable. (don't laugh)

Last night I made a start on the four sided stitch (box stitch) border, and I hope to finish that this weekend.