Sometimes it’s really nice to work on a quilt that doesn’t require matching seams and not cutting off points!  I’ve enjoyed choosing the five fabrics for each block, making sure they are different -

 

 

 

 

 

And the dark blue for the sashing seems to provide a strong contrast to them -

When I last went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC (two years ago I think) one of my purchases from Cotton Patch was a delicious collection of fat quarters by Dan Brown -

 

 

 

 

 

As they were far to nice to cut up into little pieces or dilute with other fabrics, I’ve been looking for a quilt design that would enable me to showcase them.  And I found this  design by Elizabeth Hartman which seems perfect -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I’ve spent the afternoon cutting up my precious fabric ready to start sewing – I’m relieved to say that the pieces are quite large so it wasn’t too traumatic!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, when I visited Jinny Beyer’s studio last November, I bought a couple of her kits so I could get to use her fabrics on some very nice designs.  I’ve just made up the first of the kits – a fabulous tote – I love the rainbow fabrics which are foundation pieced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the contrast fabric which also is used for the lining really gives it a lift.

It was an expensive kit ($92)  so I was rather disappointed that the foundation piecing was printed in two sections which needed to be enlarged on a photocopier.  As I don’t currently have access to one, I had to draw out the foundation section on interfacing (which wasn’t supplied despite being required).  I find this a disappointment with so many kits that not everything you need is included and given the price of this one, it could have been.  Rather than putting in a zipped top, (again no zip provided), I decided to make a tab and button closure.

Having said that, it is a very lovely bag and I’m looking forward to using it a lot!

This design is a real favourite of mine.

 

 

 

 

 

I made it before when I made a set of cushions in NYC fabrics and wanted to make it again.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s quite time consuming in terms of working out the colour placement and making the right half triangles but I think is worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I need to do now is add a border and get on with the quilting.

With the weather being so miserable these last few days, I’ve been somewhat hibernating and am glad to have a hobby like patchwork to keep me occupied.

I finished the applique on the second of the cushions and then got on with the quilting.  I decided to have a go at free motion quilting on my fairly new Bernina – as a long arm quilter I find quilting on a domestic sewing machine, something of a challenge.  Moving the fabric instead of the machine takes a bit of getting used to! Actually it went reasonably well, though I didn’t manage to avoid eyelashes from the bobbin thread showing on the tighter curves even though I had a fiddle with the tension.

 

 

 

 

 

For this cushion I just free motion quilted the border then did a wiggly line around the tan large squares and a X through the smaller tan squares.

 

 

 

 

 

And here they are in situ  – at last!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was in New York in the autumn, I paid a final visit to City Quilter which had announced the closure of its physical store and tracked down Gotham Quilts which is a small location in the heart of the garment district.  While browsing the mainly modern fabrics, I found myself drawn to some precut packs of large hexis using Tula Pink fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

I’d always vowed never to do hexis but with precuts, modern fabrics and no need to arrange them in Grandmother’s Garden layouts, I’ve succumbed.

I’ve been sewing them into strips while working on the split stars quilt, using them as starters and leavers so I can constantly chain piece. And now have quite a pile -

 

 

 

 

 

I’m quite sure about the layout – I’ve been inspired by some of the designs in Carolyn Forsters book but think I might applique them at different heights onto a dark background so they float.  It may just end up as the back of another quilt – for the moment I just need to finish up sewing the hexies.

 

So I’ve spent the last couple of weeks putting together four patches using the fabrics from the stars for a border for the split stars quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It always amazes me how long it takes to add borders to a quilt top but yesterday I finished it! And I realised this the first “serious” quilt I pieced for a quite a while and feel inspired to do more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quilting though will need to wait until my quilt studio is lined out and I can get my quilting frame up – I want to use this top of experiment with some modern quilting.

After some months of distraction since the lap quilt including working on the split stars quilt, I finally got round to starting to make some cushions for the sitting room.  Once again I turned to my copy of Pillow Pop which has some great designs.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my first choice – I’ve decided to make two cushions with different design on the front and the back so I can swap them around.  As they come out as quite large, I don’t need more than one for each corner of the sofa.

 

 

 

 

 

For the other side, I decided on this design -

 

 

 

 

 

As it suggested using blanket stitch for the applique, I decided it would easier to use bondaweb rather than sew on the applique

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is all stuck in place and ready for the blanket stitch which will be a bit of an adventure as I’ve not used that stitch yet on my new machine.