Quick Quilts – Not!!

No quilt is a quick quilt in my opinion. However, some are slightly quicker to complete than others!! I was lucky enough to receive a gift of some Moda pb&j  2 inch squares for a New Year gift from a friend.

Naturally I wanted to make something as soon as possible  as it was the start of the new year and I had a gift of new fabric to play with.  At the back of my mind I  thought  shouldn’t even be considering a new quilt as I promised myself this year to finish some projects before starting anything new. Hmmmm.

some of the gorgeous colours in the range

The fabric kept calling me to use it – and so I gave in ! (i.e. little willpower when it comes to new fabric).    I wanted a quick quilt, and I thought that I could make a small quilt to fit the little quilt frame I had brought last year.   The frame meant I had to make a quilt 12″ by 14″ which shouldn’t take long and it would  give me the pleasure of creating something with the lovely fabrics.

Another thing I had told myself (another one of those ‘resolutions’ for 2014) was to use some of my stash to work with the new fabrics.

I made some half square triangles and then put them in a chevron pattern.   It was easy to quilt in Aurifil Ne 40 and I am delighted with the finished result.

I hope to make another small quilt for the frame, in another design. Making a  ‘mini’ quilt satisfies my need to create a new item, and do some quick quilting as well. It  took me a couple of days to finish so I still think nothing is quick in patchwork and quilting!

A Happy New Year? Starting AND Finishing a Project in January

I have never finished a brand new project in January before but this one was irresistible. I received a beautiful Jinny Beyer Pixie Runner kit as a Christmas present.

Jinny Beyer border fabrics are always fun to use and this one was no exception. I used my Marti Michell Magic Mirror to “see” what my design would look like before I cut a single piece.

Marti Michell’s Magic Mirror

The centre result cutting 4 triangles from the same design on the fabric

The top went together in an evening and I machine quilted a simple 1/8″ outline using Aurifil 40wt Cotton Mako. I used my sewing machine’s walking foot as a guide so there was no need to mark the fabric at all.

My Pixie Runner fits the cupboard perfectly

Pixie Runner makes plain pottery look good

TA-DA!

The perfect start to 2014.

Tell us about your first finished project for 2014?

Tuesday Treats: Get a copy of our 2014 Calendar

We have been sharing a free printable Calendar with our readers for the past few years and the tradition continues …  a little late this year but it is now finally done and ready to share with you.

I like a calendar that lets me make daily diary entries so here is a sample of what we have created for you.

Each month has its own page with space to add a diary entry each day

It was fun sorting through the photos of our 2013 projects to come up with colourful set of images for each month.

Ladybirdee’s quilt features as “Miss March”

And of course we had to have a few photos of Aurifil thread

Use the link below to download all twelve pages of the calendar as a pdf,  ready for you to print at home.

Download a copy of our 2014 Calendar now

Downloading & Printing Notes:

• This is quite a large document so please allow time for it to download.
• Depending upon your browser security you may have to “allow pop-ups” to open the download page
  • Read the message that appears on your screen to work out how to do this.
• If the link above does not work on your computer, the calendar may also be downloaded using the link in the File Sharing box that we use to share patterns found to the lower left of the screen.
• When printing, note that the calendar has been formatted for “letter” paper so the document will not require re-sizing to fit to the page.

Enjoy!

Always Playing with Aurifil Thread: 2013 blog in review

We don’t post every day, in fact some times we don’t even post once a week, so I was surprised to see these results for our blog in the 2013 annual report prepared by the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 46,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

The most popular post was …… you guessed it ….. about Hexagons …… thank you “KnitsnQuilts”

Quilting stitch around the edge.

Click here to see the complete report.

Wednesday Wonder: It is a wide brown land in which we live

Happy New Year to all, wishing you a wonderful crafty 2014.

I think this gum blossom could be a great template for a thread painting exercise

After three weeks spent driving from one side of the country to the other, and then back again, I am trying to get my thoughts back into work mode this week without much success.

A view of the Great Australian bite from the edge of the nullarbor

I’ve driven across the Nullarbor many times  but I always forget how far it is between towns, and localities, and just how far it is in kilometres from one side of the country to the other.  

Flat country as far as the eye can see

(We drove 7,800+ kilometres from door to door, & back, leaving home on 19 December & arriving back on 12 January)

How do these trees survive on the edge of a salt lake?

So I thought that the post today should be about the amazing country through which we traveled.

This beautifully carved sandstone sculpture in Wudinna commemorates the contributions of farmer to the Australian economy

It was worth all the driving as we had a great visit with family  for Christmas, and then met up with more family at a nephew’s wedding.

We bush camped one night in among this breakaway country

In the process we were able to test the livability of a great little camper trailer along the way.

Here we are bush camping on the edge of a salt lake,

I’ve hardly picked up a needle and thread since mid December (I tell a lie … I had to repair a lost button while we were travelling … but that doesn’t really count as stitching does it?) but I think that I have collected some great photos for landscape appliques and thread painting!

The fields of wheat at the foot of the Stirling ranges remind you of how tough life must have been for the soldier settler farmers

But not everything was dry and brown

the birds are beautiful

The honeyeaters made the most of the water bath in this garden

and the kangaroos treated one of the caravan parks where we stayed as home.

It was 6am and the Kangaroos had already had breakfast and were getting ready for a lazy day in the shade.

The ocean views were stunning

The water around Esperance is a vivid blue

as were the sunsets

It makes me realise that I really should take more time away from the city to enjoy a quiet time without the telephone, computer or TV.

Not all the country is dry and brown. The Wimmera River was a welcome sight at Dimboola

Well our next post will be back to work with some great ideas for using fabric & threads  so do subscribe or call back to this page regularly.