Star Runner for Christmas

Two weeks ago I had a fabric give away in conjunction with Sew Mama Sew Give Away Day and Sunday Stash #92. I had mismatched cheater stars left over ( 2 matching and two not) and decided to make Tristan's teacher a Christmas table runner.

It turns out that she is leaving to study her doctorate in Education and I only found out about a week before school finished. So it was a bit of a rush to get it done.

I did a tiny bit of free motion quilting in the corners but mostly it was straight line quilting.

This gorgeous fabric was perfect for the back.

An Orange Story

My Wombat Stew friend Lara and I have never met in person but I think we would be good friends if we ever did.

We both love love love the colour orange!

We also love Mid Century Architecture and Design.

We both love tea and teapots.

So it was not hard to select fabrics for Lara's ATC pouch.

And I had a lot of fun Straight Line Quilting the back over this gorgeous fabric. I just used my walking foot to make the straight lines and turned the corners manually with the stitch up/down button. 

I got my inspiration from this version on Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/232709505718414511/

ATC WiP

I actually had most of this sewn last Wednesday but was too busy to post about it.

I have been working hard on my Artist Trading Cards these past 10 days. 

I was struggling with the whole concept of a card that does nothing but form a piece of art (sorry folks I am a practical kind of gal!). 

So I asked the Wombat Stew recipients if they would not mind if I turned my card into a useful zip pouch.

They were all gracious enough to say yes. I have been buzzing ever since. 

Each pouch now has a back, an inner and some quilting to match each of the Wombats and their personality.

Loving this project.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday.

Almost Enough

I started quilting the Tall Boy Runner last night. I trimmed.

Then I had some original binding left over from the Astor Manor quilt. Score!

Darn!

Modern Sliced Scrappy Block

This block design comes from Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.

The Slow Kite

Katie Jump Kites

So things have been progressing slowly with quilting KJK. Even straight line quilting takes time and a bit of wrestling with the heaviness of the quilt sandwich. I have done on the verticals once and am now doing the other side of the ditch. 

I also decided to do the horizontals just where the back has the pieced strip. I could come to regret this though. The trouble with a quilt back is sandwiching together with accuracy to get the verticals and horizontals to match. I have come close on this one but as you can see, it is out on the horizontals. I may just unpick it all if I am too bothered. I don't know how Rita from Red Pepper Quilts manages to line all her fronts and backs up so perfectly!

This Week's Stats

Completed projects  -  'snow globe' embroidered tree decoration

                                          - Wombat Stew sewing block for Kristy

Currently in progress - Katie Jump Kites - quilting

                                               

Yet to start  - 4 Liberty Pillowcases 

                         

On Hold projects   - Mystery Quilt back 

                                     - Sherbert Dreams Quilt

                                      - Craftsy BOMs from June, August, September, October and November

Linking up late to WIP Wednesday because Blogger tells me that I have reached my 1GB of free storage wants to charge me to upload more photos. Anyone else had this message appear? I have had to use Flickr to store my photo and then grab the HTML code to post these 3 pics above. I am not sure if this is legit. and I am hoping for a way around it somehow. Let me know if you come across a solution. Thanks, Fiona

The Great South (flooded) Land

Well the flood crisis in Victoria and the south west slopes, Riverina and plains of NSW continues.  On the weekend, parts of Gundagai were well underwater as the Murrumbidgee River swelled to near 1974 record levels. 

Sheahan Bridge crossing the flooded Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai - Monday 5th March 2012

My husband worked as an engineer on the duplication of the Sheahan Bridge, across the floodplain, in 2007-2008. So a second of his flood evacuation bridges came under pressure to perform in the same week. It held up swimmingly. See video here.

Even the spiders had to head to higher ground as the floods rose.

Last night the Murrumbidgee River came about 10-20cm short of breaching the levies around the city of Wagga Wagga. 9 000 people had been forced to evacuate the night before. 

And as the floodwaters spread out and isolate farms, livestock, roads and properties, the towns further west are also bracing for their inundation. We pray for mercy on Forbes, Griffth and Leeton.

WiP Wednesday


Meanwhile back at the ranch....


the dolly quilts were feeling very neglected so their creator selected some vintage sheet fabric. 

Cut and taped it to the tiled floor.

Threw down some batting and laid on the quilt top.

Then pinned away watching 'Deadliest Catch' reruns. Sig made his crew do a 40 hour grind to make the quota, Keith lost his temper with another greenhorn, Jonathon was on the crab again and Phil was recovering in hospital after a blood clot in the lungs.

And so Dolly Quilt #2 & #3 were basted.

The creator then  used a 'King Tut' variegated thread in pale green, yellow, pink and blue and shadowed the ditch in SLQ - Straight Line Quilting.

She tossed up the idea of quilting on the diagonals but the centre squares were already appliqued and she wanted to keep it simple.

Now the Dolly Quilts #2 & #3 were quilted.

And happy because they looked very matchy matchy...

on the front and on the back.

After much agonising, she decided on another vintage sheet to make binding. And that's as far as the dolly quilts got.

Notebook #4

I did have a bit of fun making another notebook cover though. This time I used 4" squares that were from a scrap bag.

Here they all are looking delicious together.

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2 notebook covers
                                            2 Craftsy March blocks
                                            6 'garden gate' blocks in grey and gold for QCA March Bee

New projects - 1 = baste and quilt 'HR Far Far Away 2&3 Fussy Fairytales' quilt

On Hold - 1 = Feb  scrappy log cabin quilt - once all the blocks come in

Currently in progress - 1 dolly quilt to be basted
                                             - 2 dolly quilts - basted, quilted and ready to be bound.

I am linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced....come and check some other blogs out.

An extra day!

I had a finish this week. My very long table runner, slated for the top of my bedroom dresser, was quilted and bound. I had planned to just shadow the ditch but it meant only 4 lines of quilting  and was very lacklustre. So I went to 2 blogs for inspiration: this block by Jess of 'The Elven Garden'

 and this block by Kristy of 'Quiet Play'.

From what I can gather both ladies did 1/4 inch distances between the triangular lines, however, I wanted to keep the fabric and design soft, so I opted for nearly 1/2" distances.

I knew that I needed something geometric to give the central strip some character and texture. So, taking my trusty 6.5" ruler I set to work making the diagonals with a washable marker.

I used a walking foot.

I was afraid that it might be too stark, so I put out a call to my online Quilt Club Australia' friends for opinions. No one though it was too minimal. 

I like the use of negative space in design. I did seriously consider a small triangle opposite the point of the negative space, but thought it might like too trite.

Then I used up some scrappy binding and added some more....

and was "this close" when I ran out. Dang! Inset new piece of binding and join the ends together.

Then instead of pinning, I decided to try a bobby pin method I'd seen on Pinterest. It seemed to work quite well and much faster but next time I will put them in upsidedown.

The scrappy binding looks much better then the tone on tone brown I auditioned.

The new look dresser table top.

Beside table - his

Beside table - hers

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1 = Scrappy "Hope"  table runner 

New projects - 1 = baste and quilt 'HR Far Far Away 2&3 Fussy Fairytales' quilt

On Hold - 1 = Feb  scrappy log cabin quilt - once all the blocks come in

Currently in progress - 1 notebook cover,
                                             - 3 dolly quilts - 2 of them are now backed, basted and ready to quilt.

I am linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced....lots of other goodies out there today.

'Heather Ross Far Far Away 2&3 Fussy Fairytales' quilt top ready to baste.

My mum pieced this one and she altered Kate Conklin's pattern by making the coloured frames floating and adding more blocks. It is just gorgeous and the linen blend fabrics are so nice to work with.