Rainbow in the winter sky....

The little 1/2 square rainbow zig zag top is finished. I think it's lovely and will be perfect for a little baby. I love how the white makes the colour shine. I'm still debating how to quilt it but am leaning towards stippling.
It measures 40" x 48" and was a great exercise in cutting, trimming, piecing, matching up and ironing seams!

Today is a lovely clear winter's day....albeit a little cold and windy.

Here's a quick snapshot of the back.

The New Quilt 2010 Exhibition

I have been interstate for work these past few days but managed to steal away to have a peak on the very last day at The New Quilt 2010 exhibition at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. A collection of 26 works by the The Quilters' Guild of NSW.

To be honest, quilts on walls are not my cup of tea but it was lovely to indulge my obsession with something other than work! And was extremely lucky that the exhibition was literally across the road from where I was staying. Bushwalk:Flora by Anna Brown

Mantle/Dismantle by John Parkes

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!

Left behind....

It's back to work today after a week and a bit off and I'm finding it hard to focus whilst I'm dreaming of what I've left behind! And yes. I started another quilt top. It's a practice piece....well that's what I'm telling myself.

It's also a very foggy morning in Adelaide today - the first for the year. Not extreme by some city's standards but I find it so unusual when it strikes our dry little town.

Munki Munki rainbow top

I've finished my Munki-ing Around quilt top. It's modelled on the recently completed Fruit Salad quilt, using the same measurements for the coloured blocks and sashing. Some of the blocks are set off-centre and this was primarily on a needs basis to have a more efficient cut and use up scraps of solid colours in my stash before cutting into the new stock. I'm glad I did set these blocks off because some of my sashing was a bit out of kilter and I had to trim a few blocks down to make it work. Thankfully they don't look out of place. I was pretty sure that I'd trimmed the blocks accurately before piecing in the white so I'm guessing that my 1/4" seams are the problem. The top took a long time - about 3 days. A lot longer than the few hours it takes for this quilt top normally. But the culprit was the fussy cutting, adding small borders, matching solids and individually measuring the coloured borders to obtain an 11" finished square from various sized centres. But all worth it in the end. It's a bit of fun and lovely to see the individual Heather Ross illustrations in one collection.

Munki-ing around.....

It's hard not to get caught up in the fabric crazes that you observe when you're a blogger and it's nothing short of disappointing when you've realised that you've missed one. I'm sure there's a thesis in consumer behaviour there with the roller coaster of emotion you feel when the last of fabric is sold out or you can't replace what you've just used up!

Being newish to quilting and fabric worship and living in a far flung continent with shops who have to charge double for dollar conversion or don't even carry some lines has resulted in me coming in very late to the 'Flea Market Fancy' and 'Munki-Munki' obsessions. Thank goodness for Etsy and Ebay (and boo to sellers who charge as much as a replacement body part!) because I've managed to accrue some small semblence of a minor collection in both of these ranges.

My Munki-Munki bits are just that....small bits of fabrics purchased as a job lot. It's a risky way to buy because you don't really know how the piece has been cut until you get it, whether it's cut from used pj's or off a roll and there's usually other bits in the bundle that you don't really need. However it's a good way to buy if you want to create something at a reasonble price that features a selection of Heather Ross illustrations. So I've commenced cutting out little squares of images and have made 20 blocks. (And I still have some left for another something later on.)I've taken inspiration from Film in the Fridge and Me a Mom and am incorporating a rainbow selection of solids around each of the mini blocks. The solids are mostly Kona Solids from my stash and purchased online from The Fabric Shack. Delicious!

Stay tuned for the Flea Market Fancy quilt.

Fruit Salad....

I have finally finished this quilt that has been a little bit over 12 months in the making!

When I originally constructed the top I was really miffed that the colours seemed to all merge -my first lesson in understanding the concept of contrast and colour density. I was so miffed in fact, that I folded it up and popped it back in the cupboard.

I recently posted that I'd pulled it out again on a mission to finish this long abandoned WIP. I received a lovely blog comment from Dirt Road Quilts who referred to the citrus colours it features and it got me thinking of the other fruity colours that are also in the quilt. So 'Fruit Salad' was born to reflect the citrus, honeydew and rock melon, strawberry, banana and persimon colours.

The quilt measures 80" x 65" (203 x 165cm), is stippled and bound in Amy Butler's Martini Dot in orange. All the fabrics are Amy Butler (midwest modern and Lotus) apart from the border and the back. The back is a mixture of pale pink tiny polka dot, fuchsia and white tiny polka dot, orange and white medium polka dot and Kona Celery - all from the stash!I was lucky enough to be stitching the binding on in the sunshine for an hour or so today but by the time I finished the rain rolled in so my holder upper models had to stand on the front verandah. The colours are a little washed out due to the speed in which I had to take the photos. At least the clothes line doesn't answer back or muck around after I take the photo!