My scrap heap challenge!

My Scrap Heap Challenge - The Trifle Dish Quilt

Trifle Dish Quilt top complete without borders

My scrap heap challenge was on!  A friend decided to start a Facebook group to do a quilt along of the Moda Bakeshop Trifle dish Quilt, but instead of doing it weekly we would do monthly.  Some people were getting fabric kits once a month but i decided this would be a fabulous quilt to use up all of the itty bitty scraps that just seem to multiply.  I have only made a small dint into them.  I plan on doing more quilts like this as it was such fun.

organising of the heart blocks

sewing of the heart blocks

two of my strawberry hearts

The strawberry hearts I designed as I felt it needed smaller pieces compared to what was in the pattern, also I was using scraps so large pieces were not an option for me.  I was also rescaling every block to a slightly smaller scale to accommodate the scraps and to make a slightly smaller quilt

citrus peel block

Citrus row complete

Pinwheel block complete

Two of the spool blocks

Sponge Roll Block

Butterflies and 4 patches

lower half of quilt

ready for last row of butterflies and 4 patches

complete without borders

Now for the fun part of adding the borders, I decided on a sawtooth border as I felt this framed the quilt nicely as you can see in the photo below.  I have cut out a binding from the scraps and it will be bound with a scrappy look, I also have the backing and I will be hand quilting it with Aurifil 12 wt thread.  I am looking forward to quilting this in the coming weeks.

Gelati Bowl of Lygon Street

I am renaming this quilt as I have done some considerable changes to the original pattern and used different techniques to assemble and make it.  I would encourage you to sign up and follow my blog for there are lots of exciting quilty adventures and projects I am about to undertake and I would hate to see you miss any of the opportunities and offers which will be coming your way. 

Also just incase you haven't done so don't forget to check out Amy's Creative Side for the the spring bloggers festival,  I have two quilts in, one in large is my Love calms the seas and the one in hand quilting section is Time Warp.  I would appreciate your vote if you have time and the eye candy is worth the look around.

Until  next post have fun Quilting and Creating,

Wendy

Love Calms the Seas - A blog for Spring!

Please vote for Love Calms the Seas for Viewers Choice Thanks

Please vote for Love Calms the Seas for best Large Quilt Thanks

Thanks must go out to Amy's Creative Side for hosting the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival.  What a wonderful opportunity of joining blogs together and gathering a lot of magical eye candy.  I like to thank all of the sponsors and also all of the bloggers who are linking to make this a wonderful interactive festival such fun.

Completed Love Calms the Seas

Love Calms the Seas Quilt was made for my youngest daughter as she completed her final year at Secondary College. I planned to finish this so she could have it with her on her new journey in life at University, to have a little bit of home and me with her.

starting of the piecing and placement of colours

I decided to piece this on the machine using the freezer paper foundation method.  This really helped as it was a very large quilt.  In fact this is the largest quilt I have ever made measuring 93" x 96".  Initially it was to only have one heart in the centre, but my daughter loved it so much we decided to put four more hearts in the quilt.  I am so glad we did for I feel it is very balanced now.

Quilting the waves

I love to hand quilt so with Aurifil 28 wt thread, in a blue, green and a purple and a turquoise. and my John James needles quilting began.  I was using the storm at sea quilt block but as the quilting  flowed I decided this quilt really needed to be called 'love calms the seas'.  I quilted waves into the quilt with blue going one way and the green areas going the opposite direction.

another shot of the waves being quilted

after the waves are quilted ready to quilt the hearts

When it came to the quilting of the hearts it called for something different.  I felt like the waves needed to be calm within them, as my desire for her life ahead to be full of more calmness than stress.  I was quilting my love into this quilt, so she can forever have a hug from her mama bear.

starting the quilting on the centre heart

another heart in the midst of quilting

Label just had to be a purple heart

At last the label screamed to me to be a heart.  This quilt took me 18 months to make and another few months of planning and gathering fabrics.  Whilst my daughter had completed her first year of University before I finished it, she now has her quilt and loves it very much.  I am so glad I took the time to quilt it the way I did.

here she is hiding in my back garden

Thanks for reading my post and for voting for my quilt, I also have another quilt entered in the hand quilting section - Hand quilting 'Time Warp' and I would appreciate your vote over here also. 

Please enjoy the eye candy and be inspired,

Keep on quilting and quilting,

Wendy :)

My 3D Heart Block

My 3D Heart Block

As Promised I designed a new block for me today.  I found these lovely fabrics in my stash and decided to do a block which could be used on its own or in a sampler block quilt.  A little while ago I was asked by a former teacher Cheryl Billings Smith to come up with a block for a sampler quilt.  So this is it.  

These are the fabrics out to the box

You can check out Cheryl's page on sampler quilts here at Chebbies Sampler Quilts Australia

My new sewing caddy

Today saw the first trip to sewing with my new toolbox! It was the centre of attention and Masters may have to order more in as a few of the ladies were ready to go and buy one.  I fitted my machine and my iron in plus other things and I still had room to fit more.

I have been in an apron swap and I got a lovely lady from USA.  Her request was blues, and she would like a bib and a longer apron, she liked roses and frills.  I had this gorgeous fabric with roses and cup cakes and teapots and sugar bowls on it, so it seemed the best option.  I then teamed it with some blues and one of them was a rose print.  I was then package and sent off overseas.   

A little over a week later a surprise arrived in her mailbox and she now has my apron to wear whilst she is cooking.  Oh by the way she says she loves it!  I am now just waiting for my apron to arrive in the mailbox for me.

this is my finished apron before it left

This is Gelato

Don't forget to visit the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival and vote for your favourite quilts.  I have entered Gelato in the Hand quilting sections of Amy's creative side blog.  Just click on the heart which is located on the thumbnails in each section.  You can vote for two quilts in each section each day of the festival.  I would like to thank everyone who has been visiting my blog,  also many thanks to all who have left comments and thanks to all who have voted. If you have a few moment click on here and vote now

Have a fantastic day everyone and I will share some of my morrow with you tomorrow!

Wendy

Saturday moves into a slow stitching Sunday

My frame in its new position

I spent time on Saturday tidying up my craft area and managed to change the orientation of my quilt frame around.  I normally sat between the window and the frame to quilt.  I now can look out of the window as I quilt.

this is the centre looking toward my desk area

This became a wonderful achievement as I have been planning this move for awhile but never quite had the time or the helping hands since I have the largest size of poles in the frame at the moment.

On Sunday I was able to do some slow stitching to my Love Calms the Seas quilt and as you can see I have started to make some progress.  I am hoping to be able to move the quilt on the rods to a new section by the end of the week.

Just a few shots of Love Calms the Seas progress.  This week I am linking to Kathy's Quilts for a Slow Stitching Sunday and to My go go life for Sewjo Saturday

Motivation Mayhem Monthly Muster!

My exciting news is that I will be teaming up with my friend Kathi from Designs Originals by KC to host a link party.  We are calling it Motivation Mayhem Monthly Muster!  Our aim is to set goals and be accountable for them and we plan on  blogging  about them.  They will be for the month approaching and accounting for our goals from the past month.  We are hoping that you will join in with us and write a blog about your goals.  These are not necessarily quilting goals.  

We plan for this to occur on the last Friday of every month,  the link will be open for the weekend.  Both Kathi and I are ecstatic about this link and we would love you all to joint us.  Let us see how many goals we can achieve for the year!  So grab our button from the side bar and get your blog ready for Friday!

Just a little reminder that Gelato is featuring in the Hand quilt section of the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival, I would appreciate your vote if you can spare a couple of minutes by clicking on the heart of the thumbnail of the quilt and voting, Thank You

Why not sign up and follow me, tomorrow I will be posting a new block I have designed and made so stay tuned for my reveal.

Have a great day,

Wendy

Lang Lang Quilt show 2014

The first weekend of May was the annual Lang Lang Quilt show,  I thought I would

share some of the beauty which was displayed there over the weekend.

Along with the quilts were quite a few shops and stalls sewing their goodies.

One of the highlights is the Scones, Jam and Cream for afternoon tea

Each year there is a challenge and this year we were given a 3" orange square and had to use only white or green and no more orange.  The block was to be a 10" finished block.  Unfortunately i got distracted and forgot to take a photo of all of the blocks.  The one above was my entry.  This show is a judged by the viewers and tallied at the end of the last day.  For all of the challenge blocks and more details visit the Lang Lang Quilt Show Facebook page

Whilst we are speaking of Quilt shows be sure to visit the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy's Blog, I have entered my Gelato in the Hand Quilted Section and would love your vote, so come over and have a look at vote for your favourite

this is Gelato

So until next time, have a wonderful weekend and recharge for the coming week.

Keep Smiling,

Wendy

Friday's Happy Dance (Whoop Whoop)

my latest Whoop!

What a wonderful Friday it was, hubby and I went and did our usual weekly grocery shop but before that we decided to stop at a couple of hardware Stores.  This is where my Whoop Whoop started!

I had wanted a mobile box to put my sewing machine and tools in to take to class and i decided that maybe a toolbox would be a great thing rather than the soft boxes that are sold for this purpose and of course these are normally a third of the price of the official sewing machine caddies on wheels.

this is it! Whoop

Imagine my delight when the box I thought would work was on sale for $50.  So we decided to give it a try!  As we were leaving the store the sales assistant told us if it doesn't work bring it back!  Another whoop! This wouldn't be a waste of money if it didn't work

So after putting the groceries away we went to try and fit the machine in knowing that it was going to be a tight fit.  First owe thought this was going to be returned,  then we realised that i could take of the cotton reel to make it work for me.  I was all prepared construct a little pocked with velcro attached to the handle to hold it.  Then the real WHOOP WHOOP happy dance happened as we realised that the underneath of the trays could be trimmed! 

Like This, Whoop!

Now my machine fits perfectly and I have plenty of room for all sorts of things. I have lovely little boxes which can be filled with cotton, scissors, jack the rippers and lots of fabrics.  With my ruler and other things snug in the bottom I will now be able to go to craft groups easy with just one walk into class without a juggling act!

Next Week will be a fun trip to classes and groups!  Whoop Whoop!

My other Whoop for Friday is that I have entered Gelato into the Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival in the Hand Quilting Section and would love it if you could  find a couple of minutes to go and vote for me here at Amy's blog, thank you!

this is my entry! whoop whoop!

So this is my whoop and I am linking today with Confessions of a Fabric Addict,

I hope you are having a fabulous time and doing the happy dance with me.

I would love to hear what is making you go Whoop Whoop for a happy dance.

So until next time, enjoy life,

Wendy