Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Mini Medallion

It's time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival again, and once again I'm entering two quilts.

The first is my Mini Medallion, which I finished earlier this year.  I'm entering this quilt in the Hand Quilted section because I hand quilted it all with beautiful Perle 8 threads.

The hand quilting category was almost dropped from the Bloggers' Quilt Festival last year, but Amy listened to her audience and retained it.  I'm a member of the Celebrate Hand Quilting facebook group, and more and more people are turning to hand quilting to give their quilts a unique look. Celebrate Hand Quilting is a private facebook group, but anyone can ask to join, and the members are very supportive. There are more than 10,000 members in the group now, so hand quilting is alive and well.

This quilt is made from a free pattern which you can download from here.  I did it as a mystery quilt along, so I didn't know what it was going to look like until the final month.

I love bright colours so I used bright Perle 8s for the decorative quilting, and regular quilting cotton for quilting in the ditch.

Fortunately I had the perfect backing fabric in my stash.

Finished size: 36" x 36"

You can read more about this quilt in my earlier post here.  My other entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival is my Flower Garden table runner, and you can read all about that quilt here.

Voting isn't open yet, but I really encourage you to go and check out all the other quilts in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. More and more will be added to the linkup until entries close on 21 May. Then voting will be open from 22 May until 29 May. Winners will be announced on 30 May.  It really is a great way to see a huge range of quilts from the comfort of your own home.

Another finish - my Mini Medallion

Well, I feel like I'm on a roll here. That 2015 Finish Along that Adrienne is hosting on her blog On The Windy Side has certainly spurred me into action.  That and my own New Year's resolution to finish more than I start this year.

So I'm very happy to share with you my finished Mini Medallion quilt.

This quilt started back in the middle of 2014 when I saw someone else's centre block online. I had received some fat quarters in a give away, and thought they would be perfect for a small quilt like this. I also thought it would be useful to learn some patterns that I could transfer over to the Possum Magic quilts because they were medallion quilts too.

Funnily enough, although I liked the fat quarters I received, I had never used those colours before, and they didn't really match much in my stash. I naturally added a few more fat quarters (as you do when you win something) and now they have grown on me and they are creeping in everywhere!

The Mini Medallion pattern was designed by Chrissie of Sewlux, but released month by month by Clover and Violet. You can find the final pattern here, with links back to all the previous patterns if you're interested. The final pattern was released in November, so I guess it's not too bad that I finished my quilt in March. There are plenty more people who started but haven't finished yet.

This quilt along is the reason I joined Instagram. I had resisted up until that point, but I wanted to see what fabrics everyone was using, and there was no traditional linkup, so I had to join Instagram. I'm so glad I did now, because I've not only met lovely quilters, I've also met a lot of embroidery people from all over the world. Yes, it can be a time waster, but I find I'm looking at Instagram rather than magazines or non fiction books. It's a huge source of inspiration for me, as well as a way to connect with like minded people.

I hand quilted my mini medallion because I like the extra control it gives me. I used different
coloured Perle 8, and some regular quilting cotton. I used a blue washout pen to mark quilting lines.

The backing is a lovely fabric called Seeing Spots by Michael Miller. I bought 2 metres of it when I saw it really cheap in a shop. It ties in so well.

Finally, some shots to show how difficult it is get good help around here:

Quilts stats:
Finished size 36" x 36"
Backing Michael Miller Seeing Spots

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday and WIP Wednesday.

Where did February go?

Well, February is over and we're into March. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. We're still having some lovely warm days though.

What did I get up to in February?  Here's a few highlights:

1. Government House tea party on Waitangi Day 

My husband and I (do I sound like the Queen?) were lucky enough to attend a garden party at Government House on our national day, Waitangi Day. It was a special party because New Zealand is now 175 years old - yes, that's all.

There were 3,000 people at the garden party. We've both been inside Government House previously, so were quite content to stand on the lawn, drink and eat, and listen to the music and speeches. The NZ Army Band played a wide range of music, and as a special surprise Sol 3 Mio sang some songs. They are three young up and coming New Zealand / Samoan opera singers who are very talented.

Just to prove I was there

2. Stonestead Outdoor Quilt Festival

That same weekend we went to the Stonestead Outdoor Quilt Festival. I decided to get brave this year and entered two quilt in the festival.  When we got there I realised that although mine were colourful, they were very small in the great outdoors. I made a mental note to enter bigger quilts if I enter again next year.

My Trellis Crossroads being dwarfed by my friend Alice's Arizona quilt

My Radiant Poppies next to an amazing Catherdral Window quilt

That Dear Jane quilt was amazing - so much work

3. Finishes

I finished my Halloween and Kaffe Christmas tree minis during February. I don't like doing things under time pressure, so I enjoyed finishing them in a relaxed mood in February.

I also completed my border on Serena's Possum Magic quilt.  I'll do a separate post on that next week. You can see all of the Possum Magic quilts on the tab at the top of my blog.

4. Progress

I've started hand quilting my mini medallion quilt. It's the third thing on my Finish Along list for quarter 1, so I hope I can finish it in March.  I plan on using a range of quilting methods and threads on this quilt. I think that's becoming my style.

I've kept up to date with the Women of the Bible quilt - see previous post. For those who have asked, the shop is naming each block after a woman from the Bible, and providing a small reading about her with each pattern. Some of us just gloss right over that, but others enjoy reading about the women.


5. New starts

This section should really be empty, but there were a few new starts in February.

Firstly, my crotchet ripple blanket. I started this blanket when I was sick at the start of the month. You probably know what it's like - too many things on the "to do" list to just do nothing for a few days, so I started the blanket early. The Down Under Australia crotchet along starts on 1 March, but my blanket is already about 70cm high = 28".

Secondly, the Russian whitework / needlelace. I've done the external border but that's all at the moment. I think the lady running it is busy with work so hasn't posted the second installment on her blog yet - at least that's what google translate seems to be telling me.

As yet another avoidance tactic, I started this quick little kit from The Sweetheart Tree. My mum gave it to me a couple of years ago, and I never started it. Last week I saw a lady on Instagram make it in just 2 weeks, so I thought I should really get onto it while I'm in a Sew My Stash phase. My mum's coming to visit in April so I plan to have it done before then.

Lastly, I made a scrappy bear paw block. Capital Quilters will be 30 years old this year, and the bear paw block is our logo. Some of the group have come up with the idea of making one of these blocks per month for 9 months. I plan to make 9 different coloured blocks. My first one is orange!!

It started out a nice light orange with the elephants, but quickly descended into fiery red orange once I remembered my Kaffe fabrics.  I've had to give in and buy some low volume fabrics for this quilt. They have never really appealed to me in the past, but I can certainly see that they have their place in this block. They separate out the orange sections and reduce the brightness of the block - well slightly anyway.


So that was February for me. A wide variety of projects worked on. I hope you had a productive month too. I wonder what March will bring?

A Finish - at last

At last I have a finish to share. Some of you might not consider finishing a quilt top a true finish, but I do.

I usually take a break between finishing a quilt top and quilting it. I like to think about what I'm going to use for the backing and how I'm going to quilt it.

I'm still not sure if I'll machine or hand quilt this one. I haven't done any hand quilting for a while, so it might be time for another hand quilting project. Unlike my friends in Perth, I don't need to worry about it being too hot to hand quilt in summer in Wellington!

This could be my first project for 2015 Finish along, which Adrienne from On the Windy Side is going to be hosting next year.

This quilt pattern was designed by Chrissy of Sew Lux and released by Clover and Violet. It's still available on their blog if you would like to try it too.

And yes, I've changed my blog header to be more festive. If you're a newish follower and don't know about my Gingerbread Village, you can read all about it in this post. I'll post some more photos of my hand made Christmas decorations over the coming weeks.

Mini Medallion Quiltalong - part 4

I spent most of Saturday adding the latest border to the Mini Medallion Quiltalong published by Clover and Violet. This is how mine looks now.

Mini Medallion Quiltalong

The third border was Snowballs, which I hadn't made before. Although my border looks fine from a distance, when I get up close I can see that some of the patterned fabrics aren't lying totally straight. I"m not going to go back and change it, but I will just remember not to use directional fabrics for snowballs again.

I had two aims when I joined this quiltalong:
1. to learn some new techniques which would help with selected borders for the Possum Magic round robin
2. to use the fat quarters I had won earlier in the year.



Well I can't say that I've really used much of the fat quarters I won, but I have used plenty of the fabrics I bought to complement them.




There are two more borders to go, and I still intend to use those fat quarters I won. I'll have to because I'm running out of the other fabrics I purchased.

An unexpected bonus of this quiltalong is that I've met some new quilters online, and I'm now following their progress on the quiltalong too. Here's a snapshot of some other people's progress:

Mini Medallion Quilt a Long - part 1

Yesterday as I was going through my daily feed on Bloglovin, and I noticed Staci of The Confused Quilter was doing a mini medallion quilt a long. I followed her links and found that Clover & Violet were running the quilt a long.

my centre block

I read all about it, and decided a little 32" x 32" medallion quilt would be fun to make. It would also provide me with a few more tips and tricks on borders for the Possum Magic round robin.

The quilt needs 10 fat quarters and 2 half yards. I like to know I've got all the fabrics I need before I embark on these types of things. Then I can balance the fabrics and not end up having to add a totally new fabric on the final border.

Back in May I won 5 Michael Miller fat quarters during the Sew Mamma Sew Giveaways.  They are teal which is a colour I like, but not one that I've used a lot. I do know it's very popular at the moment, and it would look nice in my family room if I decide to turn the quilt into a wall hanging.

the fat quarters I won in May

I decided to visit my local quilt shop to buy 5 more fat quarters to complement the ones above. There were so many options in teal. I ended up buying a yellow / mustard one just to provide a 'pop' element. I already had 2 larger pieces at home that are suitable for the background fabrics. (Yes, that's more than 10 fat quarters, but always better to be on the safe side!)

fabrics for mini medallion quilt a long

So knowing that I had all the fabrics I needed, it was safe to start. I made my little centre block in less than 2 hours, and am quite happy with how it turned out. It's ages since I've done flying geese, so it was worth it for that alone.

Fortunately I don't have to wait long for July's instructions to arrive. That's the beauty of joining in a bit late!