Sewing Sunday Slowly Away

Happy Sunday to you all!  I hope you have had or are having a wonderful day!

Let me introduce you to my oldest UFO (unfinished object). This is Decades of Stars.  Now I will not go through all the details today as to why this has taken way too long to finish but I just want to let you see the start.  I will be posting photos of this over the next few weeks as I continue to work a little bit each day on it alongside my other projects.

Loading of the quilt onto my hand quilt frame

Ready to start quilting life into this baby

These are a couple of photos as I was loading this on the frame a couple of weeks ago!

Threads for stitching

These are the threads I had purchased several years ago, they are Superior Threads Treasure hand 

quilt thread.  

Cable for the border

This is the border as I started to work on it again.  This quilt had been on the frame a few years ago but was removed as I had more pressing deadlines.

Border complete

Border was completed during the week.

Side border started 

This is the start of the right hand side border.

Start of the main body of the quilt

After a few hours it is starting to look quite ok and I am starting to get excited for this project again.

 where I am tonight, I am loving how this is looking

And this is where I am quilting tonight. This quilt is mainly all Debbie Mumm fabrics.  It does have very special memories which I will reveal with the completed quilt as soon as possible.  So what are you stitching up this Sunday?  I will be linking this Slow Stitching Sunday and would like to thank Kathy for hosting this link up once again.  

Have you heard that I am hosting a Winter Mystery quilt along?  If you would like to join in please check out the featured post on the blog.  Plus here is Link to the clues so I hope you can join in.  

So Until later in the week take care and have a great day and remember to give a smile away! :)

Wendy.

Clue 2! Winter Mystery Quilt Along! Come Join the Fun!

Happy Friday to everyone!

What a week I have certainly had and its been lots of fun and lots of planning of many many fun things to come. I hear you saying "Seriously you are saying just get down to business and let us all have the mystery clues".  I hope you are enjoying it, don't forget I want to see all of the photos of how you are going.



So without any further ado, here goes:-

Today you will need to bring out the little 2" squares we put away last week and to this we will add some background and our medium fabrics.  I am using two different colours so I will give you total to cut and then my breakdown incase you are using two colours also.

Cutting instructions:-
from last week the 36 dark 2" squares (18 blues and 18 greens)
36  pieces cut at 3.5" x 2" of medium fabrics (20 Pinks and 16 yellows)
*note I cut these in lots of four of the one colour, if you can this would be a good idea unless you are doing a completely scrappy quilt
9 x 3.5" squares of your background fabric

pieced all cut and ready to sew

Sewing instructions:-

From your medium strips you have cut separate into two halves keeping them in pairs.  

Take one pile to the sewing machine with the 2" squares. 

*if you are using 2 colours separate the colours and take to the machine with your medium strips.  I had 10 pink strips and 8 yellow strips. 

We are adding a square to each end of the strip.  If you are using two colours add them to opposite ends of the strips.

ready for sewing

The next stage take the 9 backgrounds with the remaining strips to the machine and sew the strips to either side of the background fabric making sure you use the same fabric on each square.

prepared ready for sewing

And this is what we achieve, 5 pink units and 4 yellow units and 18 strip units.

all pieces joined into units

Last stage for sewing this unit is, to join the strips together as follows.  

Remember if you are not using two colours for you darks it will not matter how you put the small strips to the centre of the block.  If you are using two colours make sure the colours are opposite each other as follows in photo below.

Ready to sew unit together

all units stacked in order for sewing

Clue 1 and 2 all complete 

Now we have completed clue two.  We now have 9 uneven 9 patches and 36 four patches.  Only two more clues left folks!  How are you enjoying this?  Are you loving my colours coming together or are you enjoying yours more.  Don't just visit leave your calling card!  Say hello, and let me know where you are visiting from, I love to chat!  

Don't forget to join me on instagram here  and don't forget to tag your blocks with #Wintermystery2016 or on Facebook  at Wehago Designs Quilting Community

So until the next post over the weekend to let you know how my sewing is going, have fun and keep on smiling and quilting!

Cheers!

Wendy

Start of Glacier Star Quilt! Whoop Whoop

Fabrics for the quilt

Yesterday I went to do a class on how to do the Glacier Star Quilt by Judy Neiymeyer. The above photo is the fabrics I chose to start with.

Start of piecing

Once in the class I decided I needed one extra pink, so lucky Janene was walking around the class and gladly went and selected a couple for me to chose from so I have a lovely baby pink batik to fit in with these fabrics now.

Here is my New York Beauty Block moving along

Almost there

At this stage I just wanted to get a glimpse on how it might look together

oh look at these! whoop whoop!

And Ta Da!  Here are all of my eight blocks together. Next is onto the smaller New York beauty blocks for the inner part of these blocksw.

next part to piece

Here you can see I am ready to start these tomorrow. This will just leave me with my homework of cutting the papers and the fabric for the next months class. 

oh the start of the mystery after clue 1

Now this is all my first clue waiting to have the next part cut and pieced ready to add to the pile so we can complete this quilt.  Don't forget to check the previous post if you would like to join in with the Winter Mystery quilt along for this year.  I am really doing a whoop whoop for this new quilt, I just love the way the pink sparkles are showing up.  I am also whooping it up for this little mystery I am sharing with you and I am getting back into sharing with you all through my blog.  I would really love to say thank you to the linky host today of Confessions of a fabric addict (check out her giveaway today and many many thanks) .

So until the next post which maybe tomorrow if I manage to get back to the hand quilting.

Have a great day!

Wendy.

Ready, Set, Sew! Winter Mystery quilt along!

The time has arrived to reveal the first clue!  Hope you are ready!  If you missed the first blog post with the requirements you can find it here.

Ready? Set? GO!

For this weeks clue you will need just your background and your dark fabrics which you have chosen.  So let's begin!

My colour selection - answered

I decided I wanted a bit of variety in my quilt and not just three colours.  So I have chosen green and blue as my darks so to speak.  These are both next to each other on the colour wheel so they will blend well.  I haven't worried that they are lights or darks just that they show blue and green or a mix.  

For my medium I decided to use pinks and yellows, these have two colours between them on the colour wheel and go together well plus they are two colours away from the green.  You could work the opposite way or chose and fabrics like this in a combination you like.

my fabrics from stash

Cutting Instructions

Ok you will need to cut 2" strips from your background fabrics,  I have actually used partial strips as I am busting my stash for this little quilt and I want variety to create movement in my quilt

You will require 288" in length overall

From your dark fabrics cut the same amount of 2" strips plus an extra 36, 2" squares and put these squares aside for next week.

colour wheel

Cutting Instructions

Ok you will need to cut 2" strips from your background fabrics,  I have actually used partial strips as I am busting my stash for this little quilt and I want variety to create movement in my quilt

You will require 288" in length overall

From your dark fabrics cut the same amount of 2" strips plus an extra 36, 2" squares and put these squares aside for next week.

strips ready for piecing

Strips cut and waiting to be paired and sewn.  I lay might out like this, I take a background strip and then I put another coloured strip on top and sew together.  If the fabrics are different sizes I just sew to one is complete and add another as the photos below show you.

let the piecing begin

sewing a 1/4"

Once these are all sewn, take to the pressing board and press with the seams towards the dark fabric. 

Then off to the cutting mat where we sub cut these strips into 2" just like the photo below.  We require a total of 72 (2" X 3.5" strips) of each colour 

Subcutting strips

subcut pairs

Strips all subcut ready for pairing and piecing into four patch blocks.  Don't worry if you have a few extras you may like to use your favourite combination and swap some around later.

ready to make four patches

Now off to the machine to sew these babies together!

final seams happening for this week!

Sew the four patches together using the 1/4" seam.  Remember to make sure you butt your seams to each other so your centre of the block, this will ensure they match nicely.   Just like below. 

unpressed block straight from the machine

After you have sewn your units please go and press them all. They should measure 3.5" now
And you should have a total of 72 four patches. 

Patches to be put away ready for next clue

Clue 1 complete! Yay!

Above you will see the extra squares with the four patches all complete.  Now I would love to see all of your creations.  So remember you can come over toWehago Designs Quilting Community Group on Facebook the or hashtag your photos on Instagram with #wintermystery2016 and follow me on Instagram @wehago.  I also have a Facebook page Wehago Designs and I plan on putting this pattern on my website once we complete the quilt and it will be a free downloadable pattern.

So off you head to the cutting board or the fabric stash and start your creation.

So looking forward to seeing this come together all over the world, and many thanks for coming with me on my quilting journey. 

Have Fun

Wendy

June Bom is Here!

Happy June Block of the Month Day!  

Seriously I hope you are all well and are surviving the extremities of weather we are all encountering throughout the world.  It seems no one is exempt.  Today I have a cold and wet day so what better way to spend my time than to create this Block for you.

Well this Month I chose the Monkey Wrench block, one I like it and two I need to get a few monkeys off my back so to speak this week.

These are the fabrics I have chosen for last month and this months hand piece blocks

So for this month we need three Fabrics, and we need to cut the following

from your background                 4 x 3' squares

                                                     2 x 5 3/4" squares

From secondary fabric                 4 x 3" squares

From main fabric                         1 x 3" square

                                                      2 x 5 3/4" squares

                                     

Fabric cut to above sizes

We then take the two larger squares of the background and main fabric and lay them on top of each other.   Note if using directional fabric you need to cut each in a different direction.  I did not but I am leaving mine as I love the movement and it is subtle.

either rule a line down this point and sew either side with a 1/4" or cut and sew
whichever you are most comfortable with

block laid out without the corner half square triangles

Stitch the centre blocks all into a row and the the other two into pairs, this way we can join in rows

I pressed my seams towards the green squares on these rows and pairs

block laid out ready for stitching

stitch blocks in rows

I pressed the seams towards the centre for ease on the triangles and less bulk in the seams.  

And Ta Da!  A delightful Monkey Wrench Block.

complete Monkey Wrench Block

Our blocks so far!

Now I must let you know that things have been a bit busy around here and I haven't been able to do my hand pieced blocks but I plan to take them with me on Thursday when I take my mum to the Cardiologist as she has had a few problems this past month which ended up with a couple of stays in hospital. Whilst this doctor is very good he is always late so I will go in prepared.

Don't you love how these blocks are all coming along.   Now it will be time to start considering how we will start to lay them all out.  We have a few options, we can just join as they are, we can add sashing, we could even put them on point.

Don't forget this is End of Financial month here in Australia so I thought why not give you a bonus month so in a couple of weeks I will give you a bonus block.  On another exciting news I will be posting the Mystery quilt on Friday so that post will come up each friday for the next 4-6 weeks depending on how we all are going and coping.   

I dearly would love your feedback on how you are enjoying these blocks and if there is anything you would like me to start blogging about, whether it be my colour choices etc or just the way I like to piece etc. so whats keeping you from leaving a hello and how your going in the comments.  I promise I will answer them and keep in mind your suggestions. 

So Until friday take care and have lots of fun stitching this block together ,

Wendy.  

Whooping for the Weekend to finish with a slow stitching Sunday!

Hello Everyone!  How are you all on this weekend?

Firstly would just like to say I am linking with the following and thank them so much for the opportunity to link to their wonderful blogs.

Sarah for Whoop Whoop it's Friday, 

Zenia From A Quilted Passion 

and to  Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday     

The first two for a couple of finishes that can't be shown yet, but mostly for getting back to sewing my winding ways quilt top and for loading my oldest UFO quilt back onto the frame to be hand quilted.  I'm really doing a happy dance and I am whooping the town down this weekend for this.

I am really loving the way this winding ways is coming along.

Then I managed to sort through my fabric scrap bins and pull these fabrics for the mystery I will be sharing with you.  Yes, if you missed my last post I am going to be doing a mystery quilt for Winter.  Since my BOM blog is due in two days I will share the first clue on Friday with you.  I hope you can come and join in on the fun of this mystery.  Just in case you need the requirements Here is the post you need

My yellows and pinks are my mediums, my lights are my backgrounds and all tone on tone whites and my darks are my blues and greens.  Whilst they might not be truly lights, mediums and darks they will work as the colours are different.   I will use a few more pinks than the yellows and the blues and greens will be around the same.

Now to end the day with slow stitching, I have pulled out my oldest UFO called Decades of Stars.  This quilt commenced it's life around 15 years ago.  This quilt is dedicated to all of the loved ones who have departed this earth and now watch over me.   The special lady who carefully picked out a fat quarter from an Amish shop in Pennsylvania all those years ago is now looking down smiling that this quilt is being finished.  

The stitches from a few years ago.   I am not happy with what I did in the corners so I will remove that and redo but I just love this cable.  I am looking forward to writing on this label. 

Look at how it looks on the front!

So I will do a few needles of thread each day and am hoping this will be off the frame in the next month and I will start the next special quilt in my life for someone.  

So I hope you have had a great weekend, please take a couple of moments and say hello and let me know what you have been doing or just let me know you are cheering me on with my UFO or joining with me for the mystery.

Keep smiling and keep creating it's great for our soul!

Wendy.  

Winter Mystery Quilt-Along 2016

Well are we ready for a bit of creativity as we start our winter to keep our souls nice and warm. Yes I am in the southern part of Australia and we are just starting our winter.  So far it hasn't been to bad, we don't get snow where I live jus lots of rain and sludge often and cold winds to chill you to your bones.  

It is at this time after completing or almost completing a lot of quilts recently that I need to sort out my scraps and what better way to sort than to sort with a quilt in mind.  Well I have one.  It will be 54" without borders.  If you want to make it a bit bigger you might just have to make a few more blocks.  So tomorrow I will start sorting my fabrics but I have got some fabric requirements ready for you to join me in this mystery! 

I hope you are excited because I certainly am.  I am planning to make mine scrappy.  

Now for the requirements:-

For your background you will need 2.5 mts (2 3/4 yds)

Now the next lot of fabrics you will require will the the opposite of this colour.  For example if you are using a light then you will need to use dark fabrics, if you are using a darks for background use a lights for this fabric and you will require 1.15 mts (11/4 yds)

And of your medium fabrics you will require  3 mts (3 1/4 yds).

Now I hope you are excited to look in your scrap heap this year and join with me.   Don't forget to put a new needle in your machine, fill your bobbins and most importantly put a new blade in the rotary cutter.  I'll be back during the weekend most likely Sunday with your first Clue. Don't stress if you don't have all of your fabrics sorted it will work out and you will be able to gather them as we go.  

Now I must go and get some sleep so that this will all fall into place.

So until the first clue is released, have a wonderful time discovering fabric you had forgotten about.

Let's warm the creative juices of the souls,

Wendy