Wild Goose Chase quilt

I've got another recently quilt finish that I've realised I forgot to share here: my Wild Goose Chase quilt.

I started this quilt almost three years ago, when Keera of Live Love Sew put a call out for pattern testers for her new quilt pattern. I used a F8 bundle of Kate Spain’s Paradiso collection to make some test blocks.

I ended up making about half the blocks I needed for the quilt but ran out of time to make the rest before heading on a long overseas holiday. Instead, I used a few of the blocks to make a baby quilt.

The rest of the blocks have sat in my WIP pile since then, and the project has been regularly featured on my finish-along lists. I am so glad I actually got it done this time.

I was extremely fortunate to be the lucky winner of some long-arm quilting during a quilt along last year and sent the finished top off to Jane of Sew Inn to work her magic. It’s the first quilt that I’ve had professionally quilted and I have to say that I am in love with how smooth and consistent the stitching is. It certainly puts my FMQ to shame.

I think it looks especially pretty on the guest bed. The cushions are another recent finish, but I'll share more about them in the next post.

I'll be linking this one up with the quarter 1 finish-along when the linky opens, as this quilt was on my list of finishes for this quarter.

Kat

Mandolin quilt

I finished my Mandolin quilt!!! I am so excited, as this is my first ever hand-pieced quilt.

This quilt is my little scrapbook of the first two years of Cotton + Steel, with each block being made using prints from one of the first 20 collections. Each column represents the first four releases of the division (starting with Spring 2014), and each row captures the first four collections by each of the five original designers.

These first collections were released shortly after I started quilting, and are a large part of the reason why I became so hooked on this hobby. I mean, how awesome is this little sloth?

The top is hand-pieced using the awesome pattern designed by Jodi of Tales of Cloth. You can find the free tutorial here.

I quilted it by machine, using some free-motion organic wavy lines, and bound it with one of my favourite C+S basics.

It has been such a pleasure to work with some of my all-time favourite fabrics over the past year, and I can’t wait to see what these amazing women will release as part of their new venture as Ruby Star Society.

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and the Q1 finish-along, as finishing this quilt was my goal for February and one of my proposed finishes for quarter 1.

Kat

A birthday quilt for Rupert

My little man turned 6 last weekend. As has been the tradition for the past few years, I spent the eve of his birthday finishing a handmade gift while my husband baked the cake (we are total last minute crafters).

 

Rupert is a big fan of all things space at the moment, so this year I made him a small version of the Milky Way sampler. I used prints from the Cloud 9 We Are All Stars collection for the front and a cool solar system print for the back.

We play to hang it on the wall in his bedroom above the bookshelf where he keeps his telescope and space books.

I'm linking up with the Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal finishes and the 2018 Quarter 4 finish-along, as this project was my goal for October and on my proposed list of finishes for this quarter.

Kat

Scrappy trip around the world quilt

I finally managed to get some better pictures of the trip around the world quilt I finished in July.
I started this one as part of a quilt-along last year (the #summertripwithme2017) and finished it as part of a similar quilt-along held this year (the #scrappytrip2018).

For my version I made slightly larger blocks, using 8 strips to make 16" finished blocks. I found making bigger blocks was a more efficient use of the strips (almost no wastage), and faster overall, because I didn't need to make so many blocks.

I finished it with a simple diagonal crosshatch in a soft pink thread using my walking foot and hand-sewed the binding. It's already been put into use several times as a backyard picnic rug for my little ones. You can find a few more photos on my original post.

I'm linking up with the third quarter finishes party for the 2018 Finish-along, as this quilt was on my list of proposed finishes for this quarter.

Kat

Homeward Bound quilt

Today I'm linking up with the quarter 3 finishes linky party for the third quarter of the 2018 Finish-along and sharing my biggest finish for this quarter: my homeward bound quilt made using prints from the Botanique collection by Joel Dewberry.

I started this quilt several years ago when testing the pattern for Keera, but stopped about half-way when I realised that there was no way that I was going to be able to finish a 96" quilt on my tiny domestic machine. However, I'd been wanting to make a quilt for my sister and brother-in-law, and they have a super king sized bed, so I added this WIP to my list of proposed finishes for this quarter.

I've been sewing away in secret (my sister follows me on instagram, but hopefully doesn't read my blog :)) and finally finished it last week. I've now got a slightly bigger sewing machine and managed to FMQ it myself.

I can't wait to surprise them with it when they come to visit next month. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better pictures too (they are experienced quilt holders :)).

Kat

Numbers baby quilt

Last week my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Jackson. Before his arrival, my eldest son and I worked hard to make him a couple of baby quilts. One of the quilts we finished was a number quilt, made using the Spell it with Fabric pattern (from the Moda website) and some leftover jelly roll strips from a cute kid's collection.

I started this project a while ago, intending it to be a matching wall hanging to the alphabet quilt I made my son for his birthday a few years ago. However, I thought it would be much better used as a baby quilt (and also a quicker finish than starting a new project), so I added it to my list of proposed finishes for quarter 3 of the 2018 finish-along.

Rupert insisted that we make the numbers 1 through to 10, so I had to play around with different sashing widths to end up with a square quilt.

I used a print from an older Cloud 9 fabrics for the backing (I was pretty pleased with how well the colours matched) an quilted it a free-motion loopy design.

As with the other quilt for Jackson, we also made a matching mini for big sister's dolly.

My attempts at getting my boys to hold the quilts for a photo were a complete disaster, but a lot of fun.

We managed to the quilts washed, dried, bundled up, and in the post a few days before he was born.

I can't wait to be spammed with photos of Jackson on his quilts.

Kat

Fabric storage trays

I finally got around to finishing up a project that has been on my 'to-do' list for a long time; some fabric trays for store my smaller pieces of fabric (fat eighths etc.)

I'd been on the hunt for a while for pre-made trays that would fit nicely on the shelves where I store my fabric. When I wasn't able to find anything suitable, I decided to make my own, using a great tutorial for making custom-sized sturdy fabric baskets by Lillyella Stitchery. I made a prototype in late 2017, but then the project sat on the backburner for a long time.

Over the past month or so I've been making some QAYG panels for the remaining trays and finally finished them up over the weekend. I'm too embarrassed to admit exactly how badly I fluffed these up. Let's just say that I wasn't supposed to quilt my fabric directly onto the interfacing. But it was a good exercise in creative problem solving and another reminder why it's not a good idea to start a project and then leave it a year before picking it back up again.

They are a bit dodgy in places, but I'm a big believer in 'finished is better than perfect' and think they don't look too bad sitting on the shelf (there's raw edges hiding underneath).

They also do the job they were designed for, which is organise my bits of fabric so I can easily pull out a colour when I'm hunting for prints for a bee block etc.

I'm linking up with the Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal September link-up and the quarter 3 finishes linky party for the 2018 Finish-along, as this project was on my list of proposed finishes for this quarter was was my specific goal for September. Now I need to decide which of my long-term projects I'll tackle next month.

Kat

Blue and white baby quilt

My sister is expecting a baby in less than a week and I promised I'd make the baby a few quilts. In my usual fashion I left it way too late to begin (#lastminutecrafter), and so I'm been picking some current works in progress that could be quickly finished up. My sister suggested that navy would be a good colour (her husband is a Geelong supporter), so I pulled out my Sewcial Bee Sampler blocks from last year and have been busy turning them into a baby quilt.

I made a couple of extra blocks to balance out the layout (the blocks have different sized frames) and added some navy blue sashing and borders. Here it is expertly held up by my 5 year old, who is super excited about getting a new cousin.

I quilted it with a serpentine stitch using my walking foot and used a nice blue cross-hatch for the binding.

When I asked my sister if I could make anything for the baby's big sister, she suggested making a matching smaller quilt for her dolly. I chose my favourite block, added a navy blue frame and finished it exactly the same as the larger version.

I tried to get my younger son to hold up the mini quilt for me, but he wasn't having a bar of it.

He did test out the baby quilt for me though.

The quilts have now been through the wash and are currently drying outside. I'm hoping to get them in the post tonight. Luckily we have some good drying weather today.

I'm linking up with the quarter 3 finishes party of the 2018 Finish-along, as this project was one of my proposed finishes for this quarter.

Kat

Farmer's Wife mini quilt

It's school holidays at the moment and my older son has been spending a bit more time with me in the craft room. While he's not quite ready to learn to sew, he is full of suggestions for what I should sew next. One of his suggestions was a quilt for his little sister's dolly.

I have a big pile of half finished projects and a long list of proposed list of finishes for quarter 2, so it was very easy to put together a little dolly quilt.

These blocks were made about 2 years ago as part of a Farmers Wife quilt along I joined but quickly fell behind in. I think one of the reasons I ran out of enthusiasm is that I approached the blocks without any plan for the colours or style, and found that they weren't working well together.

I do love sampler quilts though and may even try the Farmer's Wide sampler again one day. But not before I fulfilled a few more sewing requests from my little guy, including a new pair of space pajamas.

Kat

DS mini quilt

A few weeks ago one of my quilty instagram friends, Andrea, suggested that we do a Denyse Schmidt fabric swap. I'm a big fan of swapping prints - it's a great way of add variety to your stash without adding more volume, and is much more economical.

Andrea needed extra prints for her Tula Pink City Sampler that she is sewing up at the moment, and had extra of quite a few prints that I didn't have, so we each filled a small satchel of DS goodies for the other. I thought it would be fun to make a little swap extra so I turned my scrappy DS star kisses block (from last year's honeypot bee) into a little mini quilt for her.

This project was on my list of proposed finishes for this quarter. I had intended to make a whole lot more of these blocks (they are great scrapbusters) and turn them into a larger quilt, but decided that it was not likely to happen this year. I may end up making a bigger quilt in the future, but for now my scraps get to survive another day and I get to cross another WIP off my list.

These are the delicious prints she sent my way.

I'm looking forward to seeing Andrea's quilt come together, and to someday getting back to my other DS WIPs (yes, I have more than one project on the go using DS fabric).

Kat

July ARTastic challenge

It's been a while since I shared any papercrafting projects but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, starting with this month's ARTastic challenge. The challenge for July is to make a project inspired by the following artwork by Roger Kemp, and to also use pen.

I was inspired to by the colour pink to make a pocket page featuring some photos of my daughter on her first birthday.

I used a pen to outline some of the elements (including the hand-cut "1") and to add the journalling. It's amazing to see how much she has grown in just a year. As you can see from the layout below (that I made earlier but forgot to share here), she was such a tiny little angel.

As promised in my last post, here's a look at the quilt that I finished up for her first birthday (one of the projects from my quarter 2 list of proposed finishes).

Given that it seems to take me a year to finish a quilt, I had better get started on the one for her second birthday :)

Kat

Frances Firefly quilts

I'm a little bit behind in sharing some of my recent finishes on my blog but now that the quarter 2 finishes linky for the 2018 finish-along is open, I thought I'd better catch up.

Two of the projects on my list of proposed finishes for quarter 2 were a pair of Frances Firefly quilts for my little ones. I started them last year, hoping to have them done before they were born. However, the angled piecing proved to be too much for my late-pregnancy baby-brains and I abandoned the projects in favour of simpler quilts.

This year I managed to get them finished at about 11pm the night before their first birthday.

These quilts were made from the Frances Firefly pattern by Elizabeth Hartman and a jelly roll from her paintbox basics collection. I love making them coordinating items from the same collections in different colourways (as you can probably tell from their mum-made rompers).

Here's a full shot of the one I made for my little man, Gregory.

I'll share a full shot Harriet's one in my next post.

Kat

Hazel hedgehog quilt

Just a quick post today to  link up my finished Hazel hedgehog quilt with the Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal link up. Finishing this quilt was my goal for this month and I finished it this morning with less than a day to spare!

The quilt is make using the Hazel Hedgehog pattern by Elizabeth Hartman and prints from the Eastham collection by Denyse Schmidt. For the background I used a cotton/linen blend by Robert Kaufman, which proved to be a bit challenging to work with given the small pieces.

For the quilting I used an all-over sharp stipple FMQ design. I love this design; it's easy to stitch, allows me to avoid bulky points and gives the quilt a great texture. All the lines of quilting also make the quilt really soft, like a piece of paper that has been creased a thousand times. Plus, it's a great fit for the spikey hedgehog blocks.

The sun finally came out in Melbourne today so I was able to get a few quick photos of the finished quilt. It now just needs to be washed and dried and it will be ready for snuggling.

I'm also linking up with the 2018 finish-a-long as this was one of the projects on my proposed list of finishes for quarter 2.

Kat