Charm Dance!

Welcome back to the Autumn Quilt Bloggers Festival.  Thank you to Amy from Amy's Creative side and to all of the sponsors for your support and making this possible

I would love you to vote for me when voting opens here, for my charm dance quilt
I have also entered my Sydney Swans Quilt here in original designs. 
I would also love you to nominate me now for viewers choice with my Sydney Swans quilt by filling out the form on this link, thank you

Let Charm Dance begin, first we will play the music!  So grab your partner and lets rock!

A new friend from Texas asked if I could help her make a quilt online for her daughter.  She showed me what she wanted and asked if it was possible.  I said of course!  I had some charms that were given to me and I wanted to do something with them.  So out came my Kona solids and I decided on the grey and pool as my solids.

beginning stages

My husband and I found out a friend was feeling not well and needed some treatment.  I was suppose to make her a big quilt but decided I would make this quilt alongside my friend from Texas (via msgs etc) and I would gift mine once finished to our sick friend.  As sometime I take way to long on a big quilt.

starting to come together

I started working on this and realised I needed some more charms.  I was at my sewing group and a friend had a pack so I was able to buy the pack from her...a little bit further I decided I would need another pack so later that day a search with another friend located some not far from me.  So the very next morning I rang and purchased that pack.  I had to wait a day for them to arrive and then back into the sewing of the top and the border to complete my flimsy.

one quilt top ready to go on the frame

This quilt top without the delays of waiting for a charm pack really only took two days at maximum to complete.  The finished size of the flimsy is 53"

commencement of quilting

Next delay was waiting on the Wadding to arrive.  I decided as we are coming into summer it might be nice to use a cotton batting, so I ordered Quilters Dream Request and it was magic. I also needed a batting so around to the local lady who has some backings I needed this quilt to be done fast.  I had also decided that using 12 wt Aurifil would be the go.  After using it on my Sydney Swans quilt I knew I could quilt fast.  

Next to decide was on the design.  I decided a nice large overall pattern would work well.  So i drew a large daisy and laid it on top of the quilt on my frame.  and it looked great so off to work I went.

quilting away

Between the daisy I decided big loops to link were the way to go and to even out the quilting.  I managed to do a row a day so 4 days of quilting and I just loved how it all came to life.

finishing stages

As soon as I had it off the frame the sun had just come out in the morning so out onto the front verandah to see the sun sparkle on that quilt.  Then back into to start the binding and the label.

my little label to complete the quilt

Once the label was on and it was into the machine for washing and then drying.

washed and drying

We then had to take a little journey for a lovely photo shoot.  Here she is waiting on the station for the train that doesn't come to town anymore!  So instead I had to deliver this little beauty to the recipient myself.

waiting on the platform before delivery

Once again I would love to thank Amy for hosting and I encourage you all to check out her blog and site and all of the eye candy in this years festival.

Thanks again for reading my little charm dance story, I hope your feet were tapping to the beat.

Until next time have a wonderful read of all the blogs and keep on smiling,

Wendy

Sydney Swans quilt

Welcome to my post for the Autumn Quilt Bloggers Festival 2015

Thank you all for taking the time to read, vote and nominate my quilts for the following.  I would like to thank Amy for hosting and for all of the supporters for their generosity into making this a wonderful time of the year to celebrate our quilts.

I would appreciate if you could please click here and nominate me for viewers choice by filling out the form, this is open now.

My Sydney Swans quilt is entered into original design category here, please click on and vote by clicking the heart button once voting opens

I have also entered my Charm Dance in the Modern Quilt section here, once again click on the little heart once voting opens.  thank you

Now let the story begin

So here is my quilt complete

So let me begin at the very beginning.  My youngest daughters partner is an avid Sydney Swans Football Fan.  It was his upcoming 21st birthday and my daughter and I decided he needed a quilt for this celebration in the form of a red and white quilt.

Starting of the arcs

I had a little bit of a design forming in my head.  I figured that the Sydney Opera House which is in their emblem wasn't so far removed from the traditional block called New York Beauty.  So with a bit of drawing and tweaking the above arc was the start of my blocks for the main part of the quilt.

lots of arcs complete

I had decided the centre of the quilt would be like the Jumper the footy players wear.  So I went about making this.  It required a bit of appliqué work and was lots of fun.  Except I thought I had it all looking fabulous and my husband pointed out that part of it wasn't quite right.  So back to drawing and re working the opera house in the emblem and all was good.

here is the Centre of the quilt ready for construction

Starting to take shape with additional blocks

Start of the border quilting

start of the arc quilting

moving along ready to start another block with some of the background grid showing

another photo of the quilting advancing

This was the centre of the quilting 

Centre of the quilt coming to life with the quilting

During the quilting I decided this would be good as a quillow, incase you do not know this term it is when a quilt becomes a pillow or cushion.  As my daughters partner used to play for the juniors I decided it would be cool to make the cushion the back of a jumper as if he was still playing.

Binding being completed

I had been quite busy with life matters leading up to this quilt being made.  I had two weeks to complete this quilt.  I did not have the quilt quite done for the party, It was all quilted and ready to bind and assemble as a quillow on the night.  So it was presented in a box and I then brought it home and finished it and he received it a couple of days later.  I hand quilted this in 10 days.

all folded up as a quillow

This Quilt measured 80' x 60".  It was made using Kona Solids and quilted with Aurifil 12 weight thread using Hobbs Tuscany Wadding.

Thank you for taking the time to celebrate this quilt and the reason it was made.  I do thank you very much for voting for me and I do thank Amy from Amy's Creative Side for making this all so possible.

Until next time thank you and remember to check everyones quilts out and enjoy the eye candy of all.

Quilting makes me smile,

Wendy.

Back to big stitching -Hawaiian Quilt Style

Earlier this year I was asked to demonstrate my method of hand quilting.  I had been thinking the easiest way to get people hooked was if they could do something that went quickly and looked fabulous.

My idea came about when my hubby noticed a lovely Hawaiian quilt as a prop in a movie.  I started my investigation and thought I would love to try one of these.  Firstly I needed to work out if I was able to do on a smaller scale.  Hence came about my large cushion for the couch.

So back at the start of May I started this as a demonstration and then life and my other projects stopped me from working on it.  I just finished a couple of things this last week so I decided to take a look at this one, just for fun.  I thought it shouldn't take to long to finish and I will then have another project complete.

Found its way to my hoop

this is my Aurifil 12 wt and my Shashiko needle for stitching

After a few needles

adding the echoing around the design

after two rows of echoing around design

A circle in the centre seemed to be fun

echoing of centre circle

starting the inside echo of the design

loving the effect of this coming together

You can see I am having so much fun doing this cushion.  There is no pressure for a finish date just fun fun fun.  At the start of every year I write a list of all of my projects started, and what I would like to start etc. This year I had a list of 29, previous was 20.  Well I did a calculation this week and I have managed to complete 10 quilts, 2 charity ones, plus I have managed to do fmq to a few other little charities for practice. I have done several blocks for swaps and I have managed to complete 4 tops also.  I still have two and a half months left in the year.  I am hoping to be able to complete a lot more in this time.  Today I am linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday.  This is what has been in my hoop today and over the weekend.  Do you love Hawaiian Quilts? Have you tried stitching any?  I would love to here from you so leave a comment and don't forget to follow my blog.

Thanks for the visit and have a fun quilting day

Wendy

Big Stitching Charm Dance

Charm Dance Quilt Top

I would love to share my big stitch quilting adventure with you!  Earlier this year i received a surprise parcel from my very good friend Kathi from http://designoriginalsbykc.blogspot.com.au with a lovely charm pack by Moda called Happy go Lucky!  I stored this pack away to do something with later and another new friend from the States Bobbie Jo asked about doing a charm quilt for her daughter.  I decided the easiest way to do this was to do one myself so out came those charms from Kathi and off I started cutting and piecing with my Kona from my Kona Club to get the top above.  I love to use the Aurifil 50 wt for piecing and I always piece with grey thread, I have a light, medium and dark grey and it blends beautiful and helps me piece so much better.

Trial of quilting idea

flower now taking shape

happy with this flower for my template

Whilst I am making a top I always consider my quilting design.  I had decided an overall pattern would be good, I find playing with a drawing app which I can take a photo of my quilt into and then just doodle different designs on helps with this process.   I needed to make this quilt and have it quilted quickly.  This brings me to my new love in hand quilting - the BIG STITCH or utility quilting.  I love to use Aurifil 12 wt for these projects.  This quilt measures 53" which will be a good lap size quilt.  I recently quilted a single bed size quillow also in big stitch and had it completed in 2 weeks and who said hand quilting takes forever.  I am using a Shashiko smaller needle and it makes quilting a breeze, I also use a clover adjustable thimble, one for my thumb to quilt away from me and one for my middle finger so I can quilt towards me.

choosing thread colour for backing purposes

choosing thread colour for quilt top purposes

So I have my quilting design all ready to go with the flower and I will just wing some swirls between those flowers to connect it all together and make sure the quilting is all around the same amount of denseness.  I am then deciding on the right colour for the job.  My thoughts this time was between a lemon or a white thread.  I ended up choosing the lemon as it just seemed to give more warmth to this project and blended well with the back as with the front.  I want my design to pop so I don't want to hide my stitches.

starting of quilting

flower and loops beginning 

halfway through within a few days and getting ready for the happy dance

last night before bed the last row of stitching waiting for me

So this morning I woke to the last row of stitching.  This quilt will be finished today with the binding hand stitched down tonight.  If you would like to see how I do this I have a blog tutorial here

I am linking this with Sew simple Saturday with Sew and Sow Farm and with Kathy's slow stitching Sunday  Be sure to check them out and make sure you follow me as I have lots of exciting news to come in the next few weeks.  

So until next time have a wonderful day and keep on smiling and stitching up a storm,

Wendy