Disproportionately pleased

I guess improv quilting is dis-proportional.  And I have to say that when I started my improv background for my medallion quilt for this year's Sue Ross Challenge Quilt (SRCQ) I went all out for the improv, crazy, helter-skelter look.

Couldn't do it.  Well I could, but I didn't like it with the medallion I had pieced.  It was too crazy, too improv and all in all a bit too scary for my naturally symmetrical quilting self.  It serves me right for laughing at Sue's need to use a ruler.

So what to do?  I decided I would go for a pieced improv look.  Not controlled improv like Kim, but pieces with the improv in some of them.  This way I could use up some of my crazy attempts but get nice evenly sized blocks too.  I am dis-proportionately pleased with the result which is in the photo below.  Only five of the four inch blocks are improv, the rest a mix of different light fabrics, including the bucking broncos which are a new favourite.  (I may have to invest in some more of that fabric.)

In other sewing news, I have finished the 21st quilt I brought to class last month and also the improv meets Gwen Marston baby quilt I had just about done in class.  The first will be off to the quilter, while I will do the second myself when the Big Bernina comes back from being mended. I am  powering along with the other 21st quilt which is much simpler, but still a bit of work.  Here's a sample block.  4 made, 21 to go!  This one sure uses up the starch.

  Happy stitching.

Long time no post

This however, does not mean that I have not been quilting.  Just busy.  This is a work in progress .... It's a (not very good) photo of a pinwheel quilt that I have been doing in class lately with Sue Ross.  I was determined to work in a more subdued palette.  And I nearly have!  Every now and again my natural tendency for brights sneaks in, but I am happy enough to have these flashes of colour to keep the quilt looking alive enough for me.  Despite not being so bright, I love the muddy aqua that I've used in this quilt.  Now I'l like a soft fine knit winter cardigan out of the same colour.

The other thing I have just finished is a little cot quilt for a friend's baby girl.  This is a sad quilt story ... I tried to quilt this on the machine in loopy patterns, but didn't notice until I was 3/4 through that the tension was out.  So out came the unpicker and I spent 3 nights undoing all my freeform quilting ... sigh ... After that it was going to be straight lines, which I am also happy with.  I hope my friend and her baby like it.  I found using a sharper needle really helped with the Anna Maria voiles, so I am a bit more of a fan than last time I used them.  Zoco, my gorgeous Somali wasn't allowed to lie on it ... only beside.

Not enough hours in the day

My paid job is pretty full on at the moment.  And for one reason or another my boys are calling on a lot of my time.  Last month it was serious "training" for the school swimming carnival.  And this it is extra time with the little guy helping him through what seems to be a tough time in his life.  And yet, I hanker after more time at the sewing machine.  Particularly after a machine quilting class at Material Obsession with the fabulous Kim, AND the start of Sue Ross workshops for the year.  I felt pretty pleased that I had been able to knock out a present for Son #1's teacher's new baby using some scraps and a lovely piece of linen.  I am hoping the linen won't be toooo scratchy on lovely new baby skin. 

This project also gave me the opportunity to practice a little  machine equiting although it's still baby steps at this stage.  And a WIP. A double wedding ring quilt I've been working on in class.  I love those little flowers, by my they are time consuming!

Liberated

I've been browsing a couple of Gewn Marston books lately but have been steadfast in my commitment that I needed to finish my many UFOs before launching into a new quilt.  HOWEVER, my dear friend and landscape gardener - who helped my make my garden what it is today - conventiently had a baby girl.  Great excuse for a new quilt.  And here it is. 

The fabric is a combination of Anna Maria voiles (which I found quite hard to sew with) some solids, some shot cottons and a piece of heavier cotton which came from Purl Soho on a trip to the US last year.  I love it and I hope little Lola will too. 

 

A fetish for Aqua

Aqua. I love always have.  When I was a kid, there were five of us ... four girls and to keep track of whose clothes were whose (especially smalls) we had to embroider a couple of stitches of our designated colour on all our clothes.  As the last of the tribe, the primary colours were all taken, so my colour was aqua.  My bath towel was aqua too I think.  Anyway, you'd think after that early childhood experience that I would hate it.  In fact, I am surprised how often it somehow emerges in the colour choice, so when I finally finished my colour wheel quilt and saw the backing/binding alongside a new "present for self" Christmas mug and my summer handbag, I had to smile.  

Sometimes the simple things are the best

Sometimes we spend a lot of time on a complicated quilt.  And I love the results.  But other times, the simple, time-worn, tried and tested approach is the best.  I'd been cutting three inch squares for a while.  And had worked out I needed about 864 to make a decent single bed sized quilt.

Back in August when I had a lot on my mind, I started sewing them together - other than organising colour groups together it was the mindless sort of sewing I needed.  When I got to the end though, I thought I needed to tie it all together somehow.  A piece of black and green and mustard marbled fabric was a great contrast to the reds, oranges and pinks that seemed to make up mos of the scrap squares.  And a Kaffe stripe was a fun binding.  I love this quilt for all sorts of reasons.

    

And Gussie looks pretty impressed by it too >>>>>  She an Abyssinian and very fussy, so it counts.

Too many quilts on my mind ...

I am making progress on about four fronts at the moment.  The double wedding ring for my Sue Ross class.  A great quilt pattern of Kathy's from Material Obsession Two (MO2).  Another from Kaffe's Kaleidescope of Quilts and some with a bit of Gwen Marston inspiration.

The  MO2 pattern is photographed here, not particularly well (sorry).

I'm using a great Kaffe from this season's range and a Lecien which looks like a fuschia version of the David Jones herringbone as the main two fabrics, and "favourites" for the stars.  I've been surprised how hard it is to make those stars stand out  Other patterned fabrics seem to just blend in, even if the colours are quite different.

 And in between quilting a "mini-party" for my big guy, say me make some special lolly bags for two friends to take home.

Cowboys fabric, some cotton tape from the haby drawer and old labels from an ancient dream of starting my own market business ...Happy Birthday!