A finish....at last!

I've finished my sister's birthday quilt at long last....and what's more it's before she returns to Adelaide in a few days. The last stitches were snipped off last night at our weekly 'Sew and Sews' Thursday night catch up.

The quilt measures approximately 165cm square (65") and features Amy Butler Daisy Chain and Midwest Modern fabrics in greens and blues. The binding is a combination of Kaleidescope, Honeycombe and Wildflowers fabrics....all used in the top. I don't know the brand of the fabric used in the back but it is the most glorious shade of duck egg blue and sits beautifully between the green, blue and white.

The pattern is based on a disappearing 9 patch of 6" squares. After cutting the 9 patches, I didn't reassemble....so does that make it a 4 patch after all?

This quilt was easy to make but my proscrastination has impacted my love for it. Don't get me wrong....it's lovely and fresh.....I just don't love it. But that's a good thing when you have to give them away. So onto the next one.....maybe the one that's in my head based on the leftover blue backing....I'm thinking duck egg blue and chocolate and it might be for me....someday!

Sea of green and blue.....

Do you ever have good intentions to make a gift and then you run out of time and end up buying something instead? Well this quilt is exactly that.

I started to make this quilt back in October in good time for Christmas. Then other things got in the way (which was totally my doing) so I decided to not fuss, buy a gift and give it to the recipient for her birthday.

Her birthday is tomorrow! I've done it again!

The fabric is all Amy Butler and the design is completely inspired by Faith's Autumn Squares. It's based on disappearing 9 patch blocks however, after cutting they're not reassembled but sashed instead. I finished the last of the borders yesterday afternoon. Made a mad dash to the local quilt shop before it closed to make a new selection for the backing on account of not liking what I'd ordered on-line and managed to baste it last night.

I won't finish it in time for tomorrow due to other weekend commitments but luckily the recipient is my sister who will be away interstate for a few days so I've bought myself a couple of extra days to finish! I just have to make sure I don't squeeze in some other projects before this one.

Speaking of the local quilt shop. For all quilters in Adelaide, Hetties Patch has taken over the shop next door. It's huge and full of even more gorgeous fabrics.

AM-NYS-IA

What? That's not how you spell amnesia. I know. And recently I could have been accused of having it. It looks like I've completely forgotten that I even have a blog given recent absences but that can be easily explained away with an assignment to hand up and preparation for a mid term test. I'm afraid I'm a terrible procrastinator and choose fabric over text books any (every) day! So needless to say, I was way behind in the academic department! (It's the same excuse I have when it comes to housework I must admit!!)

But no. The real issue surroundging forgetfulness is my lack of observance over two little milestones.

1. My 50th blog posting (this is 53!) and 2. my year of quilting. (insert clapping and trumpet sounds here)

It's been a year since the Sew & Sews girls decided to make a quilt to celebrate our mentor Carly's new little baby Olive. The Sew & Sews originally met at a Thursday evening art class at Nest Studio and we continued to meet after Carly went on maternity leave. We chose the Goodnight Sweet Prints design from Material Obsession 1, each of us creating a panel surrounded by 4" squares. It was a lot of fun working collaboratively even though I think back now to how we blindly plundered through the process with only a couple of books as references. We've all come a long way in our quilt making and fabric obsessions since then. Even CZ who on our first S&S's fabric buying trip to Melbourne declared she wasn't a quilter has started a quilt!

A year ago I'd never even heard of Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt or Anna Maria Horner. Now their names are part of everyday vernacular in our household! I now have two sewing machines and a renovated antique wardrobe is standing in pride of place with fabric jewels to worship as you pass. And of course, a blog.

To celebrate these little milestones I've made a mini quilt featuring these 3 wonderful designers. It measures 40cm x 40cm (approx 16" x 16"). It's the AM-NYS-IA mini quilt (AMy deNYSe anna marIA) and each of the designers are featured. Where's Anna Maria? She's on the back in the selvedges! Her colours just weren't working on the front! Sorry AMH!

There are two selvedge panels on the back. And the quilt is straight line quilted which was a first for me. I'm really thrilled with how it worked out.
So let's share the moment. The AM-NYS-IA mini quilt could be yours. Just leave me a comment and say hi. I'd love to hear from you. I'll announce where this 'Little Sew & Sew' is going to live next week. Happy blogging, studying and sewing!

I heart Amy....

Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Anna Maria Horner, Tania Whelan....(sigh). And that's what this little pile represents - lots of yummy fabric that I bought with my 'birthday' money back in February when I visited Patchwork on Central Park for the very first time. I hadn't found the right project to cut into it until the other day when I was cruising quilting blog world and discovered this quilt-along that The Old Red Barn Co is hosting. Looks like fun and seeing as it's over 6 weeks, managable!

I've been working away on the red and pink zig-zag today and it's really been giving me some grief. If anything was going to go wrong, it did. Lots of broken cotton.....but that's my fault for using cheap cotton. Lesson learnt. Then there was the caught up lining. Bah! Don't you hate that? So a bit of time spent unpicking and re-doing. I think most of the problems were caused by patching a strip of batting to make it wide enough, added to the huge amount of seams, so it was possibly a bit lumpier than usual. But all that aside, the stippling is all done. Now I just need to have a stretch and a think about what the binding should be. I'll let you know.