Triple Treat

Last December I completed a scrap quilt flimsy - I blogged about it *here*. 

It was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Triple treat leader-ender challenge. Every year she shares a scrap friendly block pattern and invites followers to sew along with her in creating lots of blocks, using lots of scraps and maybe even making a quilt from them.
These blocks started with four-patches which were then sewn together with larger pieces. 

I used 2" squares rather than 1½" as suggested by Bonnie. I found that they were fun blocks to make - it was very satisfying sewing them all up.

I basted the quilt quite soon after finishing the flimsy (which is quite unusual for me) but it had sat waiting for attention ever since.

Until recently. To be honest, I realised that all my basting pins were tied up in quilts and I had none left for anything else!

I chose to quilt it with a basic meander/large stipple. I haven't quilted a big quilt with meandering before but I decided it would be perfect for a scrap quilt. The fact that I wouldn't have to think much, and that it wouldn't take long to clock up the miles also helped!

I got so excited to finish it that I even started sewing the binding on before I had finished quilting it!

Here it is when I'd first finished it; woohoo, loving it! —

And today I took it out into the wild for its official photo shoot —

A pieced backing —

I couldn't resist taking this photo in amongst the Loquat tree 😃

I have started another Scrappy Leader-Ender quilt. Not one of Bonnie Hunter's challenges, but one I saw at our Scrub Stitching retreat earlier in the year.

It is Bonnie Lass by Jen Kingwell —

Another easy and addictive leader-ender project that doesn't use up nearly enough scraps!!

'til next time,
Happy stitches,

Raewyn

PS Is anyone else having issues (again) with Blogger? All comments are coming through with no-reply email addresses. I tested by commenting on myself and even though it looked like I was properly signed in, my email came up as no-reply. OR is it a setting I've inadvertently changed?

September Ends

It's hard to believe another month has whizzed by so here is a quick attempt to get a post done by nightfall.

The big news is that I finished my Cross and Crown quilt!

The quilt was made from the Cocoa Pink range by Laundry Basket Quilts. It's a sample for The The Country Yard so I took a few photos before taking it into the shop to display.

I had no more dramas with stabbing myself (see *here*) while quilting. Vireya suggested putting the back-pin-cap of an enamel badge on the upright pin; a great idea, but none of my badges had one the right size - grrrr. However I managed to sort my hands out so the rest of the quilting went smoothly.

I ended up using the Westelee circle template for the whole quilt, doing semi-circles along the edges in the border. I am quite pleased with the effect.

One more scenic shot. Our son's sheep are grazing our orchard at the moment -

I don't think I have shared this block yet. It's another for The Country Yard 20 Year Challenge. The theme is 'Have a Cuppa' -

I've started joining my blocks for my challenge quilt. Here is the top row.  I've not used much of the challenge fabric so have decided to use it for cornerstones in the sashing.

It's been a whirlwind 24 hours on the grandparenting front; last night I babysat the three next door while their parents had a very rare dinner out.

Then this morning Odie and family came out - 

Then the rest of the day was spent with Lily and George while their parents were busy. Of course calf duties time arrived and they enjoyed helping for a while-

We set up a 'table' to draw at and they were busy wee bees alternating between calves and pencils. It was a wet and windy day so that limited play a bit. I'm pleased we came up with an alternative!

I'm looking forward to a quiet Sunday - hopefully I will get more of the challenge quilt done.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

A finish!

I don't seem to have many these days so it's exciting to be sitting here announcing a QUILT finish!

Back in February I shared a wee peek of some blocks I was making and I haven't talked about them since. The blocks are from a Sampler Quilt by Pen + Paper Patterns.

The fabrics I used are from various Poppie Cotton ranges, and the sewing was for the New Year's Launch at The Country Yard (discussed *here*) .

The block numbers multiplied and by March I finally had a top; basting time —

Firstly I quilted in all the blocks —

Then I started on the background fill —

It was a silly idea to do such a busy fill, but once I'd started I had to keep going - unless I wanted to unpick it all!!

By the time the New Year's Launch came around I wasn't finished. However, I sewed a bit of binding on and tidied it up. It looked reasonably presentable - and I'd done enough for people to see - it was/is a Block of the Month for the shop.

However I brought it home and have now finished the quilting.
Serious shot —

Close - up —

Fun shot —

Orchard shot (with no chickens) —

Corner showing how I did the binding. I used a tutorial by Karen of Karen's Quilts, Crows and Cardinals. I love this technique/finish and have used it many times over the years. It is a nice way to machine sew on a binding.

And because I couldn't decide which orchard/over the gate shot to use, here's another one!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Finishing bits and pieces

Some heavy rain over the weekend granted me my wish of a quiet, inside, sew-day. I had a few bits and pieces I really needed to finish up.

I had got to the binding stage of a wall hanging by The Birdhouse which I started and shared a couple of posts ago. 

I made a couple of corner triangles to insert a dowel for hanging, and then machine sewed the binding down.

Santa's Workshop by The Birdhouse

I know some people don't worry too much about quilting these little hangings but I like the finish that a little bit of quilting gives. The photo doesn't show it well but I used the walking foot to stitching in the ditch of the border seams and a couple of straight lines in the outside border.

Then I used the hopping foot to quilt around the outside of the stitchery.

Next on the agenda for the day was to complete a wee bag using this stitchery —

Some straight forward sewing and the bag was complete —

Alphabet Birds by Fig N Berry

Finally, I made the finishing touches to my Bear quilt. I shared copious amounts of photos of this in my last post. I machine sewed the binding on —

I also remembered to include a corner triangle (in the pink) to use as my label. The photo below also shows the scrappy backing. It's all brushed cotton, which I like to use for my young people quilts.

The background fabric I used is a light pink grunge - I'm really happy with how well it worked. 

I've seen other people share fun photos showing the threads they used. I'm pleased I have a 'comprehensive' collection of Aurifil - being able to match the threads well helps to hide the wonky stitches!!!

The quilt pattern is from Sew Fresh Quilts.

So that was a pretty good sew-day!

Since then, I have completed one more project. It's a small pouch for storing threads in —

Country Garden by Marg Low Designs.

It was nice to finally have three finishes for OPAM (the final pouch is a November finish). Although with all my galivanting about this month, I have only made 10 blocks for the 350 block project - and that includes the three stitcheries I've shown above! Swings and Roundabouts.

The flurry of wee finishes is just in time - they are samples to showcase patterns for The Country Yard. Today we are packing up the shop and going down to Auckland for Festival of Quilts. This is the first time this has been held for a couple of years so it will be nice to be there! I'm looking forward to being there and seeing everything :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Really...?!

I have no idea where the last month has gone and had no intention of taking a bloggy/social media break!!!

But here I am back again, ready to share my May finishes and achievements- yes there are some!!

The biggest finish of the month is shown here, being given the cat seal of approval by Nigel —

This started off as leftover blocks from Xavier's quilt. I added to the three Buggy Barn blocks intending to get it to my great-nephew last winter. Life got in the way (big time!) but I have now finished it for this winter! 
I had put it away with not too much needing doing on it - the quilting had been started so last week I got busy and finished that.
The farmyard shots of it were a bit glarey — 

...so I had to take a floor shot as well —

The quilting was fairly simple; straight lines in places, simple meandering in others, with a bit of wishbone and this and that thrown in elsewhere.

The border just got piano-key style quilting. It's so dark and busy, I decided that was all that was needed.

In my desperation I even roped in the MOML as a quilt handler...hehe check out the gumboots camouflaged against the shed!

Another quilt finish on a completely different scale is one I have called 'Lily's first quilt'.

I had two children here one day and they decided sewing would be a fun idea. We went through a range of ideas until 'we' decided a quilt for their dolls would be perfect.

Very random sized scraps of winceyette were sewn together —

And quilted —

George was the pin remover, pedal pusher and scissor snipper.

We just did a  simple zigzag around the outside edge —

George started one too but we didn't get that finished - that will be for another day.

I've also made Odie another pair of pants. This child literally grows before your very eyes and just when YD thinks she has his wardrobe sorted, he has another spurt! 

I used the Scout pattern by Twig+Tale. Although I have an overlocker, it's buried under unfinished quilts so I used the stretch stitch on my Bernina which worked well.

A modelled pic —

The final make for the month was a beanie I knitted for my sister. I made myself one a couple of years ago and always wanted to make one for her too. I finally got some yarn with possum fur in it (Outlaw Yarn; 45%Polwarth, 45% Alpaca and 10% possum) which I had been on the look out for. The possum is extra light and cosy and gives it a lovely feel.

The pattern is Everglade by Woolly Wormhead. The design on it has good texture without being too complicated to knit.

With the one I made myself back in 2020.

So, productivity-wise, not a bad month for me :-) 

It feels nice to be writing/blogging/documenting again!

'til next time,

happy stitches,