Project Quilting

I really like the idea of project quilting but find I don't have the time or the inspiration at the moment. Until this week. The challenge is triangles. I have been wanting to make new placemats inspired by this tutorial on Moda Bakeshop. I simplified it and used a single fabric instead of charm squares. I want to make 4 arranging the half square triangles differently for each one. I will make one first so hopefully will finish before the dead line.

Batman cushion

I decided on a quick and easy project a few weeks ago and made this cushion for my son. I used the rectangle squared tutorial from Film in the Fridge. I would really like to make a quilt with this block!

Last weekend I did a Sydney harbour challenge. It was between 20-25kms in Sydney Harbour past the zoo, cruise ships, the opera house and under the harbour bridge. It was an amazing experience but the race was gruelling to say the least!

Block 2

I have finished block 2 of the Aurifil BOM. I am using scraps with some fat quarters and a black Kona as it is hard to get black batik. My second block is too small at 12 inches finished because of the half square triangles. I might add a thin blue border if I need to.

Mug Rug and A Winner

I decided to make a mug rug and try a new way of quilting. As you can see I reverted to good old straight line quilting. What a wimp. The pattern, Matchsticks is a freebie by Amy Newbold and you can find it at the Art Gallery Blog. It is basically a mini disappearing 9 patch. I won a prize at the Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio Blog while in Perth.

I won 3 patterns but it is the Studio Stitches pattern I want to make first. I got the pattern in a PDF format which is great because I got it straight away. I won a book last year which I didn't get at a different blog. It is very expensive to send things to Australia and I hope it wasn't sent and not lost in the mail.

Some Plans

I am going to join in Little Miss Shabby Quilty Stitches Stitch Along. It is a cross stitch based on quilt blocks and is sooo cute.For my floss I wanted to use what I have so I got out the latest Australian fabric I bought and am going to pull the colours out of this.

I also want to make a plus quilt using Australian fabric and some batiks simlilar to mug rug I made earlier. I saw a gorgeous quilt on Cabbage Quilts blog which has made me really want to make one. Unfortunately I am working full time starting tomorrow for 6 weeks so will probably not start it for a while.

Aurifil Block of the Month

I decided to do the Aurifil Block of the Month. January's designer is Brigitte Heitland from Zen Chic. I have used batik scraps with black background. I have so many batik scraps and fat quarters in these colours I have enough to do all the blocks but I am tempted to add a few spool blocks and make a sewing machine mat. Brigitte made a cute table runner with these blocks. Still undecided at the moment!

Christmas in Perth

We had a lovely family Christmas in Perth. It was so nice to spend time with family and friends. I love living here but we are so far away. Before we left for Perth I had a dream that when my mum opened her presents she was very disappointed and told me I did not get her enough [my mum would never do this]. So I quickly quilted a table runner I had made with Jelly Roll scraps from an old Deb Strain line to give her. I quilted it with straight lines which I love but the quilting dragged the quilt a little so I wasn't completely happy with it but I gave it to mum anyway. I figured she wouldn't care.

I love the racoon print in Tula Pinks Acacia line so I bought a charm pack. I decided to make something for B because she loves racoons. My husband was a little put out as he thought I should have made him something. I wanted to make a big cushion and used a European pillow for the cushion. I got the idea from the Crazy for Daises cushion pattern that was a web extra at McCalls quilting and changed the measurements so I used a charm square cut in half for each block. I used a couple of Kate Spain prints to keep the colours I wanted.