Bec's Quilt {the back}

I found this vintage fabric in an op shop years ago (I think its intended for curtains maybe, because it is quite heavy, and has a more open weave than quilting cotton) and decided to use it as the basis of colours for the back of Bec's quilt.

So I basically pulled all my fabrics in colours that would look right at home in a baby's nappy and went from there!

Bec's Quilt {the front}

Recently I finished this quilt for my sister for her 40th birthday.  Its a little late, she's about to turn 41 - but better late than never, right?

Chunking - New classes!

Exciting news - this year I will be teaching a new class at the Timaru Sewing Centre.  I'm really excited to be teaching patchwork classes again.

Ohio Star Quilts and the perfect binding

Recently I finished the second of the #milaandcuatroOhioStar quilts I have been making for my daughters.  When Ruby saw her one finished she exclaimed ecstatically:

#spherepicnicquilt - all finished and ready for ... winter???

I'm so pleased to share a finish with you - my Sphere picnic quilt!

Wonky Pods - the lap quilt edition

Another quilt made using my newly released Wonky Pods pattern, this time I used a strip piecing technique to create random/crazy pieced blocks without borders, and substituted these for the wonky cut pattern blocks.  The quilt finishes up at about 56" x 57" so is a great lap/throw size.  It uses a mixture of prints from my stash - Botanics,  Mormor, Alison glass text prints ... and a few others.  I find when creating crazy pieced blocks it's good to have at least 10 fabrics - preferably more.

I FMQed it in an all-over meandering, I love the texture and how it crinkles after washing, this is definitely my current go-to quilting style.

It is backed with a vintage sheet.

If you're interested in making one of my patterns, they are all currently marked down 25% to celebrate the release of my Wonky Pods pattern and I Spy a Charm pattern.

Quilt Stats
Finished Size: approx 57" by 56"
Pattern:  "Wonky Pods" (available in my Craftsy store) 
Fabric: Various.   Background fabric is Kona Snow. 
Backing: Vintage sheet.

Binding: Fanfare (from Spotlight)

Pieced and quilted by: me

Linking up to:

TGIFF

Finish it up Friday

Friday Finish: Wonky Pods (TGIFF)

Hello!  This week I'm hosting TGIFF, so if you're here because of that then thank you so much for stopping by.

This week I'm sharing a special finish with you - a quilt for my youngest daughter, who will soon be moving into a big girl bed.  The quilt is my own design and was heavily inspired by some of Elizabeth Hartman's work, in particular this quilt. 

I love that it's a girl's pink quilt, without actually being overly pink.

The blocks are made using a wonky cut layout I came up with last year, after playing around with a charm pack.  At the time, I knew I wanted to float them randomly across a quilt top.

I wanted something with a lot of negative space that I could meander over, I have wanted to FMQ an allover meandering pattern for a little while now, and I am really pleased with the result.

Meandering detail

 

The back is a vintage sheet.  The batting and binding fabric were purchased specifically for this project, everything else came from my stash.

QUILT STATS:
Finished Size: 56" x 85"
Pattern: Wonky Pods - available in my Craftsy store
Fabric: a "curated" charm pack from my stash, Moda Bella Azalea for the pod borders, Moda Bella Ivory for the background.
Backing: vintage sheet (100% cotton) from my collection
Binding: Michael Miller Ta Dot
Pieced and Quilted: By me, on my domestic sewing machine- my first time FMQ meandering!

Thanks again for stopping by, now why not link up your own finishes?  I will also be linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Sew Cute Tuesday and Fabric Tuesday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fixing FMQ bloopers

I recently free motion quilted an entire bed-size quilt, this was quite a leap as previously I had only free motion quilted either practice pads or these bowls.  I quilted it in a mostly all-over meandering and ended up with a few "whoops" that I needed to fix.  On other things I've quilted I have thought to myself "I'll fix that at the end" and then haven't been able to find the bits that needed fixing, so this time I thought I'd mark the bits that need fixing by putting a bit of washi tape through some basting pins, so once I move a little away from the blooper, I put in a washi-ed basting pin and then carry on my merry way.

Once I'd meandered my way over the whole quilt, I went back and fixed things one by one.  Here's an example of how I fixed some of them.

1. Find the problem

2. Redo the quilting, making sure you stitch over existing quilting to lock the stitches

3. Unpick the original stitching

The repair doesn't look perfect (I'm still an FMQ beginner!) but it's only noticeable in the photos, when viewing the quilt in its entirety it would probably take me quite a while to find the repair.

What do you do with quilting that needs to be redone?  Do you fix it at the time or do you fix it later?  How do you mark the bits that need fixing?

Linking up to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins

Cat Bag - Cannon and Amber (Scraps 101)

Did any of you participate in Elizabeth Hartman's Catvent?  I didn't do the quilt-along but knew it was just a matter of time before I tried one of the cats - here's Cannon and Amber, made into a little bag for Ruby and made entirely out of scraps from my scrap stash (including scrap batting), so that makes this project 24 of Scraps 101.  Most of the scraps are from trimming the back of Ruby's quilt before binding.

Amber

Cannon

Its perfect for carrying credit cards and any letters she needs to post!

The handles have batting in them so they've got some structure as well as being nice and soft.  I free motion quilted in the negative space around the cats, a different design on each side, and then quilted the whiskers.

It's good to be getting some FMQ practice, but it'll be a while before I'm happy with my skill level I think.

Linking up to:

TGIFF hosted this week at That's Sew Julie

Crazy Mom Quilts
Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story 

FMQ Starter

Recently I bought Christina's book 'First Steps to Free Motion Quilting' - which is an excellent book: it is well written, the projects are simple yet useful, and its substantial enough to be a useful resource in the future when I'm not an absolute beginner.

Practicing - this was fun once I sorted out some tension issues

Scrap batting sewn together with zigzag stitch

I made a pile of practice pads using scrap batting strips sewn together, and used scrap strips leftover from trimming a quilt back - so these practice pads are project 22 of Scraps 101.

I have managed to do one of the projects from the book - these little fabric bowls which my girls love playing with.  One of the bowls has scrappy binding, they both use scraps bits of batting sewn together like my practice pads above, so these two bowls are project 23 of Scraps 101.  Expect to see more FMQ around these ways in the future!

Linking up to:

Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts
I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins