I could have tossed a coin....

But I went for Mr Random Integer Generator instead and charged him with the responsibility of choosing either number one or two.
If I knew how to paste a screen grab you would have seen he came up with number 1. (If anyone wants to send me the instructions on how to paste a screen grab, I'd love to know!)
The mini AMNYSIA quilt is going to live with Kay.
Thanks to both Kay and Clare for passing on their best wishes on my blogging and quilting milestones. Happy quilting!

There goes the neighbourhood!

The Girl Guide Fundraiser Quilt is finished!

Miss Polly is sad to see this quilt go....she was quite enjoying sitting on the current stack! And I'm sad to see it go too....it was a much loved/desired design right from the start. You know what that means.....I'll just have to make another one!
The binding was fun but tricky, little blotches of colour in between strips of white. (For the blotches of colour, I used all those little bits of left over binding that I file in a zip lock bag.) I totally miscalculated the dimensions for where the colour would land but hey....I'm sure the recipient won't be as critical as me. It was also unusual to join the binding pieces on a straight seam rather than angled.
The backing fabric is a tiny spot - orange, green, yellow, blue on white....perfect for the majority of white and colours used in the front.
The stippling was tricky. As I've said in previous posts, I think I've lost my strippling mojo....but I think that was a thread issue.
The quilt measures around 60" square.

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!

Fantastic Value

The black and white value quilt is finished!
As the quilt is destined to be a lap quilt I wanted to keep the quilting loose and snuggly so I opted to quilt either side of the seams and just around the diamonds. This took quite a bit of time but was very easy to do. (I think I'm preferring my walking foot to my darning foot these days and seem to have lost my stippling mojo! But that's another story.) I used a grey thread and this looks unobtrusive against both the black and the white fabrics.
The binding is a fabric called Baby Safari from Spotlight. I'm not normally one for 'road kill' type prints but I did like the diagonal movement of the print. It works well as a binding.
The backing fabric is from Ikea from their Cecilia range. Unfortunately it's currently out of stock but I understand they're going to get more in around October. At $6.95 a metre and 150cm wide it's a real bargain. I didn't have to join the back at all which is always a bonus in my book.
The finished quilt measures around 140cm x 160cm.

If you want to make a value quilt there's a great tutorial here. The trickiest thing is determining the 'value density' of your fabric. It was a little easier using just monotone prints but it's not foolproof. I used 6 1/2" squares and that seemed to work out quite well. I have to admit that I didn't square up my squares are rejoining the triangles but it didn't seem to cause any problems....I don't think they were that out.

This quilt has gone into the cupboard ready for a Christmas present.

Outside

I tore myself away from handstitching two quilts worth of binding yesterday afternoon for a session in the garden with the kids and Joe. We've planted tomatoes, corn, spring onions, leeks and strawberries. This was our reward at the end of the day.....a steady sprinkling of rain to dampen everything down followed by a double rainbow. Glorious!

Charity begins in the home....

The Girl Guide fundraiser quilt construction is powering along. All the little house blocks are built and are ready to be joined to finish the top.

I inadvertently (another word for mucked up whilst working late at night) trimmed one of my blocks 1" too small, so I had to trim all the others back! They're now 12" square which is a little smaller than I'd originally planned. I think lots of white around these houses work so much better.

I loved the process of making these little houses....it reminded me of all the houses I used to make out of lego or old bricks when I was little. Here are some of my favourites.

From little things.....

Big things grow.

I've been inspired by Amanda Jean who in turn, was inspired by Katy's flickr posting of the Birmingham Quilt Show and in particular Ingrid Press's absolutely stunning little house quilt. I can't stop looking at it, it's so beautiful. Amanda Jean quickly siezed on the wonderful notion of getting her Sew Connected Quilt Group to help build her village (how Amish!). But I don't have that kind of support (yet) seeing as I've only been blogging (and quilting) for a little while. So......I had a go at construction last night using nothing but my scrap bin. It's very liberating to realise that each of these little house/tree blocks have been made out of reclaimed fabric. I stayed up way past my bedtime and managed 14 blocks. Only 11 more to go! Some of my buildings turned out a little larger than I originally intened but with lots of white around them they'll soon look smaller against the background. I'm aiming for 12 1/2" square blocks for each.

I'm thinking this quilt might be a nice little fundraiser for R's Girl Guides. And I'm also thinking that down the track the girls might be able manage one of their own!