My first finish of 2019 - and the Peacock Party

I have a new quilt to share - Spotty.
This was quite an easy finish because I'd made this top back in 2015. Although it's a very pretty quilt, it's not exactly my style for my home.  So, I'm going to sell it.

The quilt measures 90" x 70" (229cm x 178cm).  It's multi directional, so can fit long ways on a single bed, or across a queen sized bed like this, with substantial amounts hanging down each side:

Here's some closeup photos of some of the blocks.  The main fabrics are from a range designed by Denyse Schmidt exclusively for Spotlight Australia / New Zealand.  That's why I've called the quilt "Spotty", because Australians refer to Spotlight as Spotty.

The quilt has pure cotton batting.  Here's a view of the back:

The quilting shows up really well on the back.  I had it quilted on a long arm machine at Busy Bee Quilters Wellington, NZ with hot pink thread:

These blocks were all made as part of a block of the month programme I participated in in 2015.  The shop that ran it has closed down now, but a number of us enjoyed making the blocks each month.

I intend to list this quilt on TradeMe next Wednesday 17 April.  If you live in NZ, and are interested in buying it, you can send me an email before then, and we can discuss.  I'll post the link to the TradeMe listing if it hasn't sold prior to Wednesday.

This sale is open to New Zealanders only.  I am not willing to post this quilt overseas sorry.
Repeating the vital stats:
Size 90" x 70" (229cm x 178cm)
Cotton batting

And now it's time for the Peacock Party.  What's everyone else been up to this week? Feel free to add a link below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

December WIPs

Hello, and welcome to all my new followers. Thank you for entering my giveaway.  I did read all the entries, and I now know that your favourite TV programmes are:

NCIS
Dr Who
Downton Abbey

I've never watched NCIS myself, although it is on TV here. I was a big CSI fan (all 3 variations) until it ended.  I've never watched Dr Who - the music alone scares me.  I love Downton Abbey and will watch the first 2 seasons again with my mum during the Christmas holidays.  It will be fun to see how the characters have changed over time.

The winner of the give away was Judith of Slow Thread who just happens to live in Victoria, Canada, home of Victoria Sampler, the designer of my gingerbread village. Congratulations Judith.

This week I've been trying to finish up a few of my WIPs before Christmas.

I've now finished hand quilting my Stacks of Colour quilt.  I've got the binding cut, and may even get it sewn on this weekend. I'd be very happy to finish this before the end of 2015, because the label is already on it, and it says 2014.

I've been working on my Gingerbread Tree Etui every night, but it's still not finished.  I think it only needs another 2 or 3 nights though, so I hope to assemble it at the weekend.

I've been looking at my la passacaglia again, because I need to pack some stitching to take away at Christmas. I can't take my whole fabric stash, so I have to make some decisions about which fabrics I'll use in the remaining rosettes.  I'm very slow at decision making when it comes to this quilt.

I know I should be writing cards and buying Christmas presents now, but I'd rather be sewing! I have posted about 20 Christmas cards, and bought a few presents, but I'm just not feeling it yet this year. Maybe the Christmas spirit will descend on me at the weekend. Here's hoping!

Women of the Bible quilt

Towards the end of last year I thought about making the Modern Building Blocks quilt. I don't really use a lot of solids, so I thought it would extend me.  I liked the idea of a modern sampler quilt, but in the end I decided it wasn't for me.

While I was waiting for the Modern Building Blocks to be sent the Women of the Bible quilt came to my attention.I cancelled my order for the Modern Building Blocks and started receiving these patterns for free. The patterns were sent out by email every second week, from Little Quilts in USA.

The programme has finished now, and I have received all the patterns. I made a big effort a week ago to finish all 40 of the blocks and here they are:

I used Denyse Schmidt fabrics from Spotlight New Zealand.  Her range came in blues and pinks, so I decided to use a bit of both in my quilt.  I think most other people have chosen quieter fabrics, but these appealed to me.  I didn't make it for religious reasons, I made it because I like the patterns.

It felt like a major achievement to get all 40 blocks finished, but then I realised that the pattern included lots of 5" blocks as fillers.  I tried to lay the quilt out without the fillers, but it would end up 60" x 90" if I just sewed it together as it is. I did play around on a piece of paper trying to think of layouts that could incorporate as many blocks as possible.  There are 12 very large 15" blocks and the smaller blocks are 10".

Here's a picture of someone else's finished quilt top, with all the filler blocks. It's more square than mine.

Yvette has made all the filler blocks and it does look good. I think I will have to do them, but they might not be flying geese and half square triangles. I think my fabrics are patterned enough that I could just cut 5" square in some cases.

Sorry about the poor lighting - it's winter here and it just keeps on raining at the moment.  If you would like the patterns for these blocks you can buy them on a DVD from Little Quilts for USD 10.

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.

Symposium shopping and other news

I've had a lovely long summer holiday, but I had to go back to work this week and will be working every day for the next three weeks. I'm sure I'll still fit some sewing in, but it's always a busy time when the kids go back to school and work starts up again.

I"ll be taking part in the Grow Your Blog event which starts this weekend. Vicki compiles a massive list of blogs taking part, and everyone can explore blogs which may be new to them. I'll provide a link to the list when it goes live.

In the mean time, here's what I've been up to.

I showed you some of the beautiful quilts from the exhibition at Symposium, but I didn't show you what I bought.

Symposium purchases

I bought Quiltmania because it's got a review of the Sydney Quilt Show (Australia) and I knew there were photos of Wendy Williams' amazing quilts in there.

The Tuscany Tote bag pattern is one that I've considered making for sometime. I won't be using Downtown Abby fabrics, though they do look nice in the photo.

The most significant purchase was those 3 rolls of thread. It's Superior Threads Wonderfil Dazzle, a metallic/rayon with a sparkle in it!!

It's just perfect for this large scrappy quilt which is my oldest WIP. I made this jelly roll style quilt with the leftovers from my Bordered Peacock quilt. It's been sitting in it's current form for about 18 months now, however I'm feeling quite excited about it again now that I finally have a plan. I stumbled across the water drops quilting pattern last week (overlapping circles) and now I have an amazing thread. This thread is quite thick - think Perle 8, but the metallic bits are so well embedded that you don't even feel them and the thread will still glide through the needle. This will be my winter hand quilting project for 2015.

Funnily enough I feel quite naughty each time I walk past this thread on the table. I just know what some of my friends will say about it. However, I don't mind. It's me and I love it.

In other news:

I finished this cross stitch beaded Santa from Mill Hill. I'm not going to put a hanger on him, I'll just perch him somewhere on the tree next year.

Mill Hill Santa

I made the next 4 blocks in the Women of Bible quilt. I'm trying to stick to pink and blue but I did introduce some new fabrics this time. Here they all are together.

Women of the Bible quilt

I picked up Serena's Possum Magic quilt and I'm starting to think about what I will add to it. I'd like to use the two fabrics on the left of the picture. It's very grey at the moment and I think it's my job to break up the greyness. Let me know if you have any great ideas please.

Serena's Possum Magic quilt

Lastly, I've fallen into a sea of la passacaglia pieces. Although I'm planing every step meticulously, I'm still sometimes finding that what I though would work, just doesn't work. The colours still work OK, but I think some of the patterns are too busy next to each other. I don't want to revert to solids, so will just keep accumulating all the spare pieces I've cut, and use them in future rosettes.

Only 3 or 4 of the rosettes are as big as the one in the top left of the photo above. All of the rest are smaller, so I've cracked open my Kirsty Allsopp notebook and devised a system to avoid making too many of the wrong sort. Kirsty is very British, so I was thinking British thoughts while organising my notebook, and thinking that Kirsty would be very proud of me getting organised.

Kirsty's lovely notebook 

Inside the note book

I photocopied the pages from the original book, and then cut them up and put one pattern piece on each page of the notebook. There are only 13 patterns, but I think there are about 40 rosettes in total. Now I can make a note in the book each time I finish one. I need 8 of the type on the page shown above, so I'll note each time I finish one.

That's all for now. Back to the glue stick to prep some more pieces for joining tonight.

Merry Christmas

It's Tuesday here now so there's only two more sleeps until Christmas. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

We will be having a quiet family Christmas at home. Our planned visitors had to cancel, so I haven't felt the need to get busy in the kitchen at all. The men folk in my life don't really like cakes and biscuits, so I've been getting quite a bit of sewing done instead. I've got more time now that work, school and sports have finished for the year.

My Beaded Angels ornament that I made some years ago.

Here's a quick run down on what I've been making lately:

Yesterday I made my first ever open wide zippered pouch using the Noodlehead pattern. It was quite straight forward and I will definitely use this pattern again. I already had these fabrics in my stash so I only needed to buy the pink zip. I'll give it to my 6 year old niece for Christmas.

Open wide zippered pouch

I finished all 3 of  my Mill Hill beaded ornaments at the weekend. I love these - so sparkly and they were fun and quite quick to make (but hard to photograph due to the reflections).

I managed to catch up on my Women of the Bible blocks at the weekend. I made 4 new blocks and now they look like this:

I probably need to tone down the pink in the next ones!

Yesterday I started some more wool felt applique. It's the cover for a sewing kit that I got for my birthday back in October. I figured I better try and finish my birthday gift before new Christmas sewing projects land in my lap on Christmas day.

Yes, it's lime green with pink and purple! I hope it's going to be fantastic.

Merry Christmas to you where ever you are. I hope you have a lovely day with family and friends.

WIP and a winner

I drew the prize today and the lucky winner is number 11, Cathy from Cathy's Sewing Room in Adelaide, Australia. Congratulations Cathy and I hope you can make something nice with the fabrics. I'll be in touch to arrange shipping soon.

It was lovely to hear from so many people about the new things they have tried this year. Thank you all for taking the time to leave a comment.

I've still been really busy with work this week, so I haven't got a lot of sewing done. I have managed to add another very narrow striped border to the mini medallion quilt along.

Today I've been working on the final border for this quilt. The colours are quite different to what I usually use, but I do like them. I've really enjoyed making this.

I've also been selecting the fabrics for my next Women of the Bible blocks. We have Rebekah and Ruth to work on next. I'm trying to do one blue and and one pink each time the patterns are released, to keep the quilt balanced.

That's all for today. I'm hoping for quite a few finishes in December, but probably being unrealistic. It would be nice to start the new year with a clean sheet, but that's probably not going to happen (unless I stay awake sewing until 3am each night).

More work in progress

Great news - the book, templates and paper pieces for the La Passacaglia quilt arrived last week. The bad news is that the book is shrink wrapped so I can't take a peek before Christmas. That's probably just as well because I would be tempted to make a tiny start, and I've got so many other things to finish first.

I have picked up a few fat eights though so I'm ready to make a start on Christmas Day (ha, ha - Christmas lunch is at my house this year, so that won't be happening. However Christmas in New Zealand is often low key, and my husband has announced we'll just have a BBQ, so maybe there will be sewing time after all).

The Kaffe fabric at the back is my inspiration for this quilt

I've seen people doing amazing things with their fussy cutting for this quilt, so I'm keen to give that a try with the stripes and zig zags.

I've been working away on 'Your Place or Mine?' because I am committed to finishing the top before the end of 2014. I've now made three of the four corner sections and only have one panel left to applique.

I've also made the next two blocks for the Women of the Bible quilt. I love how they are turning out too.

Noah's wife

Sarah

all four blocks together 

I hope you're having fun with whatever you're making this week.

2015 Plans

As 2014 starts to draw to a close, I've been thinking about what I might like to make in 2015.  Yes, of course I'll finish 'Your Place or Mine?' first, but then what will I do?  Someone suggested I might get more done if I wrote a list, so here goes:

1. Most of you will know that I like complex challenges that test my brain, so yesterday I ordered this book from Paper Pieces.

I've always loved Kaffe Fassett's Millefiore fabric in blue (below), and the patterns in the book reminded me of this gorgeous fabric.  

I've met quite a few people on Instagram who are working on the la passacaglia pattern from this book. If you're not on Instagram, just google la passacaglia and look at the images. 

It's all paper pieced and hand sewn. Would you believe there are 2,400 pieces in it? A lot of people are fussy cutting their fabrics, so I've ordered acrylic templates too. 

Watch this space.

2. On a more modern note, I've also ordered the Moda Modern Building Blocks kit. The Fat Quarter Shop are currently sold out, but I'm still hoping to get it before Christmas. It comes in a lovely box and my husband can wrap boxes, so hopefully it will be sitting under the tree on Christmas morning. Is it OK to sew on Christmas Day?

I've ordered the fabrics too, but I intend to mix in my own fabrics as well. Again, lots of people are already making these and I've seen a wonderful variety of quilts. I don't even know if I'll do the biggest blocks as they are, I might try and resize them down and fit in a few more smaller blocks. Who knows at this stage.

3. I've just started receiving the free patterns for a Women of the Bible quilt and it will run into next year too.  I'm not at all religious, but I liked the idea of trying out lots of different blocks. It's run by www.littlequilts,com, although I think signups might have closed now.

Women of the Bible

Yesterday I made the first two blocks:

Eve - she deserves pink for being the first woman

Rachel

They are quite big - 15" x 15" each. I decided to use my Denyse Schmidt fabrics that I bought at Spotlight recently. The blue block looks a bit busy, but I refuse to unpick or remake at this very early stage. I'll reassess when I've made more of them. 

4. Possum Magic - of course I'll continue working on the Possum Magic quilts too. That will run until about June. 

5. Then there's all the embroidery projects I want to do. I think I'll do another post about them another day.

The Bloggers' online Quilt Festival starts this weekend. I'm entering two quilts this time - my Trellis Crossroads and a Redwork Christmas that I haven't put on my blog yet. Here's a sneak peak: 

 I hope you're having fun wherever you are.