The non retirement quilt

I'm squeezing in one more finish before the end of the year and then my next blog post will be my annual wrap up. 

This quilt was designed and made for friend and work colleague. We gave it to her this week and she was thrilled.  

It possibly looks a bit washed out in these photos but it's bright!!

It's all 6" finished half square triangles but the placement works so well with these strong colours.  

I had this one long arm quilted at Busy Bee Quilt shop in Wellington.  The backing is a Kaffe Fassett wideback.  

I showed it at Capital Quilters guild meeting with my own purple/green version from quite a few years ago.  

The finished size is 60" x 60".

Good Fortune - Part 2

It's the second week of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt.

This week we made blue and white half square triangles.

Blue is probably my favourite colour, so I had a lots of blues in my stash to chose from.

After seeing all that red dye last week, I decided to prewash the blues too.

I also had a number of low volume prints with hints of blue on them, so I've used up some of them too.

I prefer to make my half square triangles (HST) by cutting squares 1" bigger than the finished size of the block.  I then mark a diagonal line with a ruler, and sew 1/4" either side of it.  I cut down the line and then press the two halves open.  I use my Bloc loc ruler and my rotating cutting board to trim up my HSTs.

Bonnie suggested a couple of methods in her blog post for making HSTs, but I'm comfortable with the method I've been using for some years now.

I'm linking up with Bonnie Hunter's linky party here.  You can see everyone else's progress if you take a look at Bonnie's post on her Quiltville blog.

More half square triangles

Can you believe I won another set of half square triangle blocks at Capital Quilters? Just 13 months after winning more than 200 half square triangle blocks, I've won these much bigger blocks.

Don't they look great when they're all on the wall together.

I made three blocks, and I ended up winning all 32 blocks. Here are some of my favourites:

I've already got a plan in my head for these blocks.  I think I'll add sashing and set them on point so they look like pyramids.  Well, that's the plan at this stage.  I suspect it will be months before I actually start to do anything with them. 

Our guild now has a blog, a Facebook page and an Instagram account (@capitalquilters) if you would like to follow us.  We're getting ready for our QUILTED exhibition which will be at the brand new Lower Hutt Events Centre on 11-12 August 2018. 

I'm working on two quilts for our challenges.  Both will be a secret until the exhibition opens.  I hope to see you there.

Picnic Quilt

My Picnic Quilt is finished.  I love how the pattern emerges when it's viewed from a distance. 

This quilt is made from blocks that I won in our Block of the Month draw at Capital Quilters.  I did add a few more blocks myself to balance out the colour scheme in some areas.

I hand quilted it with Aurifil 12wt.  I initially intended to just do straight lines running through each block, but I felt it needed more stabilising, so I added echo quilting in grey in the opposite direction to make each of the darker rows stand out. 

I chose a brick red colour for the binding because it works well with the red spot I used on the internal border.

the binding, before it's turned to the back

This quilt has more red in it than anything I've ever made before!

The finished quilt is 76" x 76". I used wool batting so it's lovely and soft.

Picnic Quilt (previously known as BOM HST)

Last week I started hand quilting my Picnic Quilt.  I've decided to call it a Picnic Quilt because it reminds me of mum's quilt that we sat on at picnics when I was growing up in the 1970's.

Mum made most of our clothes, and many of the scraps were included in the picnic quilt. I remember sitting on that quilt and identifying all the fabrics I liked in the quilt.

It's grown bigger than this now

My quilt is made from Half Square Triangle blocks that I won at Capital Quilters Block of the Month last year.  So it contains scraps from lots of guild members. The blocks are 4.5" unfinished - 4" finished.

I didn't have to sew it up in this way, but I really liked the design so I just kept it that way.  However, sewing together blocks trimmed by other people can be a bit difficult, so I put in some borders to reset the alignment.

Not a great photo with the light shining through, but you get the idea.

I'm hand quilting straight lines on this one with Aurifil 12wt in red.  I like big stitch hand quilting so the stitches show and add character to the quilt.

  I'm also echo quilting in the opposite direction in grey so the coloured sections pop out (you can see that around the central motif).

I've been really good at keeping on task so far this year. This quilt is number 5 on my Quilting Priorities for 2018 list.  I've finished numbers 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 are still WIPs.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2017 - Tussie Mussie

Once again it's time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.

I love this quilt festival because the quilters don't need to put hanging sleeves on their quilts or send them away in the post, and the viewers don't even need to get off their sofas to see a wide range of beautiful quilts.  That's a win, win as far as I'm concerned.

I'm entering two quilts this year and the first is my Tussie Mussie that I finished a few months ago.

I made this quilt using a pattern in Kaffe Fasset's Quilts in Italy book.  It was quite simple to make because it's just big half square triangles.  I used some of my stash of gorgeous purple and green Kaffe prints.

I usually like to hand quilt my quilts, but I've got a bit of a backlog developing so I had this one quilted by Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilting in Wellington, New Zealand.  I chose a swirly pattern and I'm really pleased with the finished result.

These pretty photos were all taken in my mum's garden in Auckland.  I even used Kaffe Fasset's extra wide backing on the back and I love the smooth silky texture of it.

You can read more about this quilt in my earlier blog post here.  

My second entry in the festival is my Holiday Homies quilt and you read about it here.  

Please pop over to Amy's blog and look at some of the other great quilts in the festival.  The system is a lot simpler this year because there's only one category for all of the quilts.  There won't be voting either - just prizes awarded to contestants on a random basis.
 

I hope you enjoy visiting some new blogs.  Please try to leave a comment for the bloggers, even if it's just "I love your quilt".   

My Tussie Mussie

Tussie Mussie is finished and I'm using it on my knees on these cold winter's nights in New Zealand. The pattern is from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy book. I took the quilt to Auckland a few weeks ago and photographed it in mum's garden.

I love seeing all those gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabrics together in one place.

Although I do love hand quilting, some time there just isn't enough hours in the day to do everything, so I got this quilt quilted by Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Lyall Bay, New Zealand.  I chose an overall swirly design which I felt suited the fabrics well.  It certainly looks great on the back with the Kaffe Fassett wide back fabric.

I asked Sue to use Aurifil 40wt on the top, and 50wt on the back.  I chose one of my favourite colours - Aurifil 1243 - Dusty Lavender.

 

You can see earlier WIP photos here if you wish.

My quilt is 60" x 60" because my half square triangle blocks are smaller than the ones in the pattern.  It makes for a perfect lap quilt because I chose wool batting.

Tussie Mussie - a finished quilt top

Last weekend was our Queen's Birthday holiday weekend.  It wasn't the Queen's real birthday, but in New Zealand we always celebrate her birthday on the first Monday in June.  Unfortunately the weather was wet and cold, but that was a good excuse to stay inside and quilt!

I joined up the last few rows of my Kaffe Fassett Tussie Mussie quilt and now I have a finished quilt top. (I'd started this quilt back in February - you can see my first post about it here.)

I was going to use a big piece of Kaffe wide backing I bought for another quilt and didn't use, but when I realised this top was only 60" x 60" and the backing was much bigger than that, it seemed like a waste.  So instead I pieced a back out of some of my bigger remaining purple and green Kaffe pieces.  I'll show you the backing when the quilt is finished.

This pattern is from Kaffe's book Quilts in Italy.  I modified the size of the blocks because I had a 6" Bloc Loc HST ruler.  The Bloc Loc rulers are great for trimming HSTs neatly. You can read more about them here.  Lots of local quilt shops stock them.