Houdini

I've called my Lollie Wheels quilt "Houdini" because it's magic.  There's an optical illusion that make you think that there's a square in the middle of each pinwheel block.  But it's all due to fussy cutting! The fabric has printed lines of stitching on it, and if you cut it right way you can make this effect. 

I made my quilt from some pieces of Lollies, Looking Forward and Remix that I had in my stash - along with contributions from 4 other sources.  Jen Kingwell has a whole new range of Lollies fabrics coming out right now and the Lollie Wheels pattern was released at Quilt Market to go with the new fabrics.  The pattern is available as a free download from the Amitie Textiles website. 

You can read more about the cutting process on my earlier blog post here. 

I asked my long arm quilter to keep the quilting simple and just do straight vertical lines with pink thread.  I'm really pleased with it.  I think it allows the viewer to focus on the blocks without getting distracted by the quilting.  

If I have left over fabrics I like to put them on the back because then I can show people how I did the fussy cutting. 

My quilt ended up bigger than I initially planned because I was able to source more fabric than I expected.  But I love the variety of fabrics in it.  There certainly won't be another one identical to this!

My finished quilt is 64" x 72".

Lollie Wheels

This week I decided to start something new.  I saw a cute quilt in the background of Jen Kingwell's booth at Quilt Market and I thought about some of her fabrics that I had in my stash.  

This clever version of a Pin Wheel quilt is made by cutting Jen Kingwell's Lollies fabric in a particular manner. Jen offers a free pattern to make in on her Amitie Textiles website - it's called Lollie Wheels. Fortunately I had a few pieces of the first run of Lollies in my stash so I decided to give it a try. 

 

width of fabric of Lollies

More of the colourways that I just happened to have

I was very pleased with my first blocks so I kept going and now I'm on a roll.  

Maybe I'll be able to report back next week with even more progress.  The blocks are 8" finished so I'm aiming for 49 of them to make the quilt 56" x 56" as per the pattern. 

It's Winter

Yes, it's winter here, and the raindrops certainly are falling on my head.  

A lot of people marvel at how green New Zealand is.  That's because it rains a lot here. So it seems appropriate that I'm back working on my "Raindrops are Falling on my Head" quilt by Willyne Hammerstein.  

Strangely enough though, my quilt is full of hot colours, so I might have to think of a new name for it before I finish it.  

I'm hand piecing this quilt.  I used to do a lot of English Paper Piecing, but I found it hard on my hands, so I set myself a goal of learning hand piecing.  You can read my previous post about Raindrops are Falling on my Head here.

I've made quite a few hand pieced quilts now and I really enjoy the technique.  Here's a couple of them:

Lady Wigram using Bella Ruby pattern by Treehouse Textiles

Glitter in Green using Glitter pattern by Jen Kingwell

Lots of people asked me how I do my hand piecing, so I made some YouTube videos and put a tab for them at the top of my page (or you can click here).  I've received a number of messages with people telling me that they have found them useful, so that's very nice.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Progress on Raindrops are Falling on My Head

My hand pieced Raindrops quilt is coming along nicely. I've been experimenting with other fabric combinations because I don't want all of the blocks to be the feature fabric.  

I'm not sure if all of these rosettes will make it into the final quilt, but I need to see all the options before I start joining the blocks.  

The plainer blocks are good because they give our eyes a resting place.  However, I can see that the dark green in the centre rosette might be too dark. 

Last week someone asked me how I calculate how much fabric to buy for a quilt like this.  There are few factors that come into that decision:

- how big do I want the quilt to be?

- how many rosettes will I need to make it the desired size?

- how many pieces can I fussy cut from each motif in the fabric?

- how many motif repeats are there per metre or yard? 

Originally I only had about 1 metre of this fabric.  I bought it in Sydney two years ago, not knowing what I would do with it, but it looked exciting and full of possibilities.  

When I decided to use it for Raindrops are Falling on My Head, I went in search of more, and was lucky to find two more metres online.  However, now that I'm adding plainer blocks to this quilt, I don't know if I'll need the full 3 metres.  I guess I could use it in a border, or even on the back if I end up with leftovers. 

The motif on this fabric is large so I can cut a number of different pieces from it, but I will need 8 repeats of each motif to complete a full rosette for the quilt, unless the flower at the other end is identical. I'm getting seven different pieces out of each motif, and could possibly get nine.

I draw the cutting and stitching lines on the back, not the front.

Here's now the pieces might look in the quilt:

I'm not sure if that explanation helped or just confused you! But, the answer is that the quantity of fabric required depends on a number of variables.  

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

All The Blues .... A Lucy Boston quilt by Joy Hill

My mum's Lucy Boston quilt is finished and we both love it. Mum's favourite colour is blue, and she loved choosing fabrics for this quilt.  Hence the name .... "All The Blues".

Mum finished her quilt before Christmas, but she was keeping in under wraps because she was going to enter it in the Auckland Festival of Quilts this year.  But unfortunately that's been called off, and it will be another 18 months before the next Festival, so mum gave me permission to share it now.

Mum has developed a great eye for fussy cutting, and she had fun using every last inch of some of these fabrics.  

The border fabric is from Spotlight NZ and finishes the quilt really nicely. By the time mum had decided on the border, the fabric had sold out at her local Spotlight, so we were lucky to find just enough online. 

I did try to convert mum to hand piecing, but she likes English Paper Piecing, so this quilt is English Paper Pieced.  

Me demonstrating hand piecing to mum

Mum demonstrating how quickly she can EPP

Once mum started EPPing she just kept going! Each week she'd send me a photo with more blocks completed.

Then when it was finished mum hand quilted it all herself.  She's a machine at 78 years old.  

So what's next you ask?  Well, mum has the paper pieces for Raindrops Are Falling on My Head from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.  Although we studied colour palettes and tried to steer away from blues, I'm afraid it's going to be blue again.  Maybe she'll call it "All The Blues Two". 

My mum, Joy Hill with my son

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What have you been up to this week? Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter