There's always hope....

When it comes to quilting, things don't always turn out the way they were originally envisioned. Even after all the blog-land inspiration and the mountains of book and pattern referencing and the zombie like state quilters take on whilst their thoughts wander because they're in the 'I've got this idea in my head' zone. Which is then followed by the 'play around block' which accounts for a bit of sewing energy and lots of experimental fabric play. Sometimes that can even lead to the full piecing stage. I've also been known to get to the quilting stage and still manage to birth a complete disaster. This accounts for the numerous 'problem children', at varying stages that live in my quilt cupboard.
Don't get me wrong...there are lots of positives but sometimes things don't always go to plan and well....this story WAS one of the negatives.
I fell hopelessly in love with Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley as soon as it was released. It was almost a fever having been at the complete outer of her earlier Flea Market Fancy and Katie Jump Rope releases and spending way more than I should have to acquire whatever I could because I was suffering from acute HAVE TO HAVE fabric addiction. (I'm still debating about writing a thesis on the buyer behaviour of fabric consumers who are at the tail-end of a popular release but that's another post...). So, because of my past DS fabric purchase indiscretions, I maintained a modicum of restraint and purchased just a fat 1/4 only of each of the Hope Valley range.
Before cutting, I scoured every book I owned and numerous flickr images for the perfect pattern and settled on half square triangles set in Kona Ash....AKA Kaffe Fassett 'Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts' - Clay Tiles  or Indigo Points.

However, in my haste to produce the perfect quilt using the perfect fabric, I omitted the trimming stage. I was an impatient newbie on a steep learning curve to completion and I learnt a very big lesson and that is .....don't cut corners. Or should I say, do cut corners and do trim!
So the short of all this is that what I had made was a disaster. My seams were disgusting, nothing aligned, my corners were lumpy bumpy and my fabric investment that I carefully cut from  premium priced fabric was on the pile of shame, thrown to the back of the cupboard.
I learnt that lesson over and over after that attempt. Every block I made that was trimmed made a beautiful quilt. Every one that was not trimmed, didn't. Where is this going? Well, I pulled that precious Hope Valley conglomeration from the back of the cupboard (which is sounding more and more like Narnia over the years) and pulled it apart. I sat on the couch one night and stripped it back  from 16 unit blocks... to single 1/2 square triangles.
Now back to basics, I re-made the concept. It's a bit like starting afresh but with a head start! This time I sashed the poorly made 1/2 square triangles with 2.5" strips and voila a better square than before which made trimming spectacularly simple.

I've only used a small portion of the previous 1/2 square triangle shamozzle, edged it in my remaining Kona Ash (of slightly different die-lots) and re-built it into quite a lovely cot sized quilt of 40" x 50" in the style of Alison from Cluck Cluck Sew (Modern Quilts from the Blogosphere).
Now the possibilities of much improved quilts for the remaining blocks are endless.

This version is backed with more Hope Valley, Diamond Dandy in Fiesta and the binding is the Canyon Stripe in Piney Woods.
And speaking of birthing babies...in a round-about fashion, my baby is 12 today. Where has that time gone? Needless to say, he is made from the perfect pattern and continues to amaze us all! Happy B-day L!
Another wonderful finish it up Friday to link!

Indian Summer....

It's been really warm this week with temperatures hovering between the mid to high 20's, record temperatures for May and a bushfire in the hills this morning. In MAY! I heard someone say the other day that we now have two seasons. Summer and not quite Summer. So even with the leaves changing colour and falling to ground this balmy weather has obviously influenced the colour pallet for this little baby quilt. A simple half square triangle quilt featuring pinks, greens, blues, brown and yellow from 5" squares. Let me indulge you.....

There are some of my all time favourite fabrics and designers in this quilt, Bonnie & Camille, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Sandy Henderson, Denyse Schmidt, Paula Prass a whole bunch of 'I can't remember' and some Spotlight. The back is a cherry print that I found on the end of roll at Spotlight. It's a cotton dress fabric but I couldn't leave without it. It's been in my cupboard just waiting for a little girl quilt. The binding is also a Spotlight fabric, a dotty dot in hot pink and white.
The quilt is stippled and finishes at around 30" x 35"....give or take!
This quilt is a gift for Joe's boss whose wife has just had their second baby, a little girl.
A very pretty finish it up Friday!

Rainbow magic finish....

Quite possibly the only chance to see a rainbow in today's dreary sky as I managed to dodge the rain and sneak some shots in of the now completed Rainbow Magic baby quilt.

I'm very pleased with the finished result and am sure that the soon-to-be parents will be as well. Mind you, they're still getting over the 'magic' of having a baby....but that's another story for another time!

The back features a stripey fabric from Ikea which apart from the co-ordinating splashes of colour it provides it's also very wide and meant that there are no joins in the back....kind of a blessing with all the other joins of the 1/2 square triangles! Just a bit of a challenge to make sure that the backing fabric was straight. Mine is slightly skewed!
The binding is tiny white polka dot on orange. Lovely!
Now to package it up and send it off to Surrey in the UK.

Rainbow magic.....

I mentioned in my last post that I'd started a practice piece. It's a little 1/2 square triangle quilt for a yet to be born (and gender unknown) baby.

I've got another 1/2 square triangle quilt running around in my head so what better way to familiarise myself with the 1/2 square triangle process again than by producing a small scale version.

This quilt was inspired by the scrappy zig zag quilt made by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew but I've inverted my zig zags and added a couple of extra blocks and another row. Mine will end up around 40" x 40". I've had rainbows on my mind lately too so I tried to make it as close to ROY G BIV but seeing as I'm just not a purple person my Indigo and Violet stash was pretty limited. (It's funny how everyone seems to say they're not purple people but they can usually find a bit or two in their stash!) So for this quilt I and V have been incorporated into one. Funny thing is, I really like the purple row! There's hope for me in the colour spectrum yet.

I love how 1/2 square triangles can take on so many configurations. I haven't done it, because it was so late when I laid this version out and I really liked it, but you could turn the blocks and end up with something completely different.

I'm absolutely thrilled with this little quilt and have taken a lot of time to make sure that my squares are trimmed to size.....that's the daunting bit for something bigger!

Pyjama Party Finish....

Thanks to a public holiday day of sewing earlier this week (and a lack of commitment to my studies) I've managed to finish my Pyjama Party quilt.
Roughly 141cm x 128cm (55" x 50"), this little 1/2 square triangle layout features 12 fabrics, one of which is a leg from my discarded rose print pyjamas plus white for the borders and Kona Coal on the back. The back also includes a row of the offcuts boardered in white.

I wanted to keep the quilt soft so I opted for a double line of straight line diagonal quilting either side of the direction of the triangles in one direction. The white border is stippled in a small meander.

I agonised over the choice of colour thread and tried all sorts of colour combination tests. Whilst I would have preferred the back stitches to be less obvious by using grey in the bobbin, I hated the show through of grey cotton on the top. A case of the lesser of the two evils by choosing neutral for both top and bottom.
The binding is red and white polka dot. I love red and white polka dots but red can be problematic. The fabric used in the body of the quilt was tested before using and didn't run. That used for the binding does so I pre-washed and washed and washed it. You should have seen the dye that escaped leaving several rinses pink. Not even with the addition of salt (which I swear by) helped. And the problem escalates with low water use washing machines (which I have), leaving your lovely quilt ruined with red run stains. So hopefully I now won't have a problem.

I really love this little quilt and think that this is the classic hand made quilt I've had sitting in the back of my mind for some time now. And....I'm certainly not done with 1/2 square triangles just yet because a few other possibilities have popped in my head recently. However, I'm resisting the urge and will wait to see what other inspiration strikes on the weekend as Clare, Kay and I head off to Melbourne for the day on Saturday for the Australian Quilt Convention. We're very excited to say the least!