A Trip Around the World

Happy New Year everyone. 

No sooner had I dropped my mum and dad at the airport on 27 December than I started getting inspired on Instagram.  Often I will start a Christmas themed cross stitch between Christmas and New Year, but this year I started a Christmas quilt and I had the whole top pieced in just seven days.  

I was inspired by this photo on Instagram:

But I used the brighter colours from this Christmas gift bag:

The photo I liked was by Edyta Sitar so I used her Laundry Basket Quilts PDF pattern for a Trip Around the World quilt.  I watched her video first and I liked the sound of her method, so I purchased the pattern and made a start.

I did consider making the quilt larger, or enlarging the size of the squares, but either option would have meant that I would need more than a fat quarter for the 4 consistent colours that run through it.  I wanted to make it all from my stash, so I stuck to the instructions.  

I used scraps of fabrics on many of the rows but if you're going to do that, just be careful to space them evenly when you're sewing the columns together.  I like how my scrappy fabrics are evenly spaced out in the final design. 

 
While I was in the mood I even pieced a quilt back using one of my precious Cotton+Steel fabrics from 2017.   I do love the ski jumpers, but if I haven't got around to using it yet, it's best to put it on the back of a quilt and at least I will get to see it sometimes.  

So now I have a lovely Christmas quilt ready for hand quilting with sparkly threads when the weather gets cooler.  

Finished size is 54" x 62"

2024 is off to a good start.  

My quilting priorities for 2016

After reviewing my progress against my 2015 goals here, it's time to make a new list for 2016.

Here's some ideas that have been running around in my head for a while.

1.  Mediterranean Hexagons. I'm attending a Kaffe Fassett class at the end of January 2016 and we're making the Mediterranean Hexagons quilt from his Quilts in Morocco book.  The quilt in the book is in blues, but I'm breaking out and using hot colours like pinks, reds and oranges.  I've only just realised that it will no longer fit the Mediterranean name in those colours.  Maybe I'll call mine "Mediterranean Sunset Hexagons".

2.  la passacaglia I've got 90% of the top together, so need to finish the top, add the borders, and then hand quilt it.  I can see that this might take quite a few more months yet, but I do want it finished in 2016.

3.  My Small World.  I started this quilt back in May, but I wasn't happy with how it was turning out, so I stopped.  I may continue with this one, or I might start again in a different style.  Now I have the foundation paper piecing templates it might be easier.

The pattern

My effort to date.

4.  Possum Magic quilt.  I'm looking forward to hand quilting this in 2016.

5.  Women of the Bible quilt. This was a quilt along where 2 patterns were released every second week for 40 weeks. The blocks are all joined now, and I just need to piece a back from the scraps.  Then I'll get it professionally quilted.

6.  Spinning Stripes v2.  I cut out the pieces for a second Spinning Stripes mini quilt when I went to the class with Shirley Mooney last year, but I still haven't sewn the second one together.  Getting all the stripes matching takes time, and machine quilting the last one took weeks due to all the ends that need tie-ing off and burying. It will be something like this - I can't find a photo of my original plan, but fortunately the pieces are all pinned to an old sheet in the correct layout.

7. Oh! Christmas Tree.  I made a small start on this in 2015, but I would really like to have it all finished for Christmas 2016.  It's wool felt applique, stitched by hand. It's another great design by Wendy Williams.

8.  Smitten.  I've had the paper pieces and pattern for a while now.  I've also got a bundle of Tula Pink Elizabeth that I'd like to use for this quilt.  It's made using English Paper Piecing, so I'm avoiding starting until I've finished la passacaglia, and had a little break to do some embroidery.

9.  Trip around the World from Kaffe Fassett Heritage Quilts book.  This block has appealed since we made them for our Capital Quilters block of the month. I've got some fabrics put aside for this quilt.

10.  Glitter.  This is a pattern by Jen Kingwell.  I've seen a number of these quilts on Instagram and would like to try one myself.  I don't know how big I'll make it, I'll just see how I enjoy it.

11.  Ballet avec Kaffe Fassett.  This is from Willyne Hammerstein's second book.  Again, it's more English Paper Piecing, so it will be later in 2016, or possibly even 2017.

Photo from Millefiori Quilts 2 by Willyne Hammerstein

12.  Stacks of Colour  I've finished hand quilting this, and now I just need to put on the binding. I plan to finish it in January.

13.  Felt quilt. I saw photos of some beautiful and unique quilts by Gillian Travis at the UK Festival of Quilts.  Since then I have bought her book, and have plans to do something along these lines in 2016.

So that's 13 possible quilts for 2016.  Quite an ambitious list, but if I leave myself too much free time I will just come up with even more ideas.  I'm looking forward to making these quilts. What's on your list for 2016?

Review of my 2015 quilting achievements

A year ago a wrote a list of quilting I'd like to achieve in 2015.  Before I write my list for 2016, it's now time to check back on that list and see if I managed to stay on task.

The list was as follows:

1.  Your Place or Mine? - wool felt applique  FINISHED

2.  Halloween Mini  FINISHED

3.  Kaffe Christmas Tree  FINISHED

4.  Mini Medallion  FINISHED

5.  la passacaglia  - still working on it, but I didn't expect to finish it in 2015

Half done in October 2015

6.  Stacks of Colour - still a WIP, but the hand quilting is almost finished. Then it just needs the binding which is already cut and set aside.

7.  Possum Magic.  I finished working on everyone else's quilts, and have my original quilt back now.  I'm looking forward to hand quilting it in 2016. You can see the other quilts from this round robin on the Possum Magic tab under the header photo at the top of the page.

8.  Women of the Bible.  I joined all the blocks up at the end of November.  Next I'm going to make a pieced back from all the scraps.  I think I might get this one quilted because I've got no great desire to hand quilt it myself. I am happy with how it's turned out. It's currently 90" x 70".

9.  Oh! Christmas Tree.  I've made a small start, but it won't be finished before Christmas this year.

10.  Folded Star. I still haven't tried this technique, but maybe I will in 2016.


So that was my 2015 list.  I think I've done pretty well.  In addition to all of that, I've also made my scrappy bear paw quilt to celebrate our guild's 30th anniversary.

my Halloween hexie table runner

my mini tree quilt

and my Spinning Stripes mini quilt.

and done a lot of embroidery.  I'll write a separate post about that.

Overall, 2015 was a very pleasing year for quilting for me.  I finished a lot of things on my list, and made 4 extra unexpected quilts.  I know I'm fortunate to have the time to do all this.  I hope I can continue to maintain this kind of work / life balance in 2016. I'm also grateful for all the kind comments you, my readers, have left during the year, and the friendships that I've made through my blog. I hope you all find time to quilt in 2016 too.

Possum Magic - Sharon's quilt

Our Possum Magic round robin is coming to an end and the quilts are being returned to their original owners. You can see progress photos of them all on the Possum Magic tab at the top of this page.

Sharon's quilt on my spare bed

The final quilt that I worked on was Sharon's. Each of the quilts was different to the others, but some how this one seemed even more different.  For a start there was a lot of white in it, which is very different to what I'm used to. It was also filled with many tiny pieces of fabric. I'm not one for taking the easy way out, but I've also never used that many tiny pieces in a quilt.

Tiny hexagons added by Jane 

Alice and I decided to share the last border because the quilt was getting quite large.  Sharon had made her original centre back in June 2014, and then 5 other people had already added their borders before the quilt got to us. We just had to put on a final border.  This is what it looked like when we received it from Rebecca (One Wee Bird).

We added a crazy mosaic type border which complemented the rest of the quilt nicely.  There was plenty of white in our border, but some colour too.

The quilt is now back in northern Queensland, Australia with Sharon, and she's thinking about hand quilting it one day when the temperatures get cooler - she could be waiting some time!

I'll be writing more Possum Magic posts over the next few days.

Trellis Crossroads

Firstly, thank you for all the kind comments about my Bordered Diamonds / Bordered Peacocks quilt. I'm a member of two facebook groups and both Celebrate Hand Quilting and Kaffe Fassett Collective members have been heaping on the 'likes' too. I nice to know that other people like it too.

Trellis Crossroads in Batiks

Lately I decided to try something different. I've seen lots of swoon blocks on the internet, but I don't really have any great desire to make a swoon block. (see the picture below)

However, I did see another modern block that I liked and it was Trellis Crossroads.

Most people were making it in soft pastel colours, but I started to think about some bright batik charm squares I bought about a year ago. I was originally thinking I'd make them into something simple like columns of flying geese on dark navy, but then I thought I could make some of them into a Trellis Crossroads block to just tryout the pattern.

a single block looked lonely

Well of course once I got going I had to make more. I thought I'd do 4 blocks, but I kept going until I'd used up all the bright batiks (and I even purchased a couple more fat quarters to balance up the colour distribution).

It's ended up being 9 blocks and almost 40" square and I'm stopping now. I"m going to machine quilt it with my new walking foot (thank you Judith) and turn it into a wall hanging. 

I liked this pattern because it left ample fabric for squaring up the blocks. However, if you are going to make one yourself, just remember to centre the square before you do your trimming.

Here's the photo from the book with the pattern, Modern Bee by Lindsay Connor.

Trellis Crossroads from Modern Bee by Lindsay Connor

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Bordered Diamonds becomes Bordered Peacocks

I"m thrilled to say that my Bordered Diamonds quilt is finished and we're using it on our bed. I've decided to call it Bordered Peacocks because there are some bordered peacocks within it.

My Bordered Peacocks

I loved making this quilt. I took my time and enjoyed every step of the way, from fabric selection to planning the layout, to hand quilting it. Now that it's finished I'm delighted with it and I admire it each time I walk into our room!

One of the Bordered Peacocks

I started this quilt back in January 2012 when I first saw the Timeless Treasures Plume range in my local quilt shop. I just loved the colours in the Peacock fabric, and knew I'd like to make a quilt with it. I spent 24 hours going through the saved images on my iPad, trying to find of a pattern which would frame the peacocks and flowers. I'd always admired the Kaffe Fassett Bordered Diamonds pattern (from his Simple Shapes and Spectacular Quilts book), so I decided to use that.

Bordered Peacocks close up

I went back to the shop and bought some of the Peacock fabric plus a couple of other fabrics in the range. I then spent most of 2012 collecting complementary fabrics. I picked up more of the Plume range from other shops, plus some from the Timeless Treasures Shimmer range, and other fabrics that I knew would tie in well.

I love these blue flowers in the Peacock fabric

It wasn't until January 2013 (a whole year later) that I started to cut into the fabrics. By then I had far more fabric than I needed, but the left overs have ended up as a whole other quilt and a bag you can read about here.

My matching bag made from scraps by my mum

I machine pieced the top during the early part of 2013. Then I started to think about the backing fabric and decided on Eden in black by Chong-a Hwang. It's part of the Tree of Life range by Timeless Treasures, so tied in beautifully.

Backing fabric is Tree of Life by Timeless Treasures

By mid 2013 I had a quilt sandwich, but it was the biggest quilt I've ever made. I knew it was going to take time to hand quilt, but I never considered getting it machine quilted. I love the soft texture that hand quilting gives, so I always knew I would be hand quitling it.

Hand quilting inside each diamond

I quilted in the ditch around each of the 108 diamonds with black quilting thread, and quilted inside each of the diamonds with Perle 8 in either blue or gold. By the time I was about half way through the quilting, it was Spring in New Zealand so I put it aside to work on other things.

Last month (July 2014 - winter in NZ) I decided that it was time to finish it and start using it on our bed. There were less than 40 diamonds left to do, so I knuckled down and quilted them in less than three weeks.

Bordered Diamonds becomes Bordered Peacocks

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I love the deep blue colours and the gold metallic accents that give it added life.

I did find this quilt particularly hard to photograph -probably due to the gold metallic accents. Please forgive the photography!!

The facts:
The pattern is Bordered Diamonds by Kaffe Fassett from his Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts book

The finished quilt measures 84" x 96"

Most of the fabrics are by Timeless Treasures

I"m linking up with Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts, Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation, Esther's blog., Confessions of a fabric addict and Crazy Mom Quilts