Ruby +.....

I'm a bit lost for words over this one so I'll pepper this post with lots of images.
This is my Ruby Plus Quilt that I commenced back in December last year. I finally finished it last night and I'm as pleased as punch to have done so. Here goes....
Quilting started last Sunday morning. I was on a mission to get this quilt quilted before my holidays ended and even though it was the last day of our holidays and we'd headed to the country for lunch, I managed to finish it by days end. Needless to say I was a little bleary eyed once back at work!
This is such a pretty line of fabric by Bonnie and Camille. I've used the reds, greens, greys and a smattering of the pink.The binding is delicious!
This one will end up on R's bed. Those of you who know me will guess why!
It's lovely to have a quilt finished. Now onto some of the other UFO's that are calling for their finish. And here's another pic just for fun!

Floral Bouquet...an epic finish....

Now according to my little notebook I started this quilt back in November 2010. Yikes! I recall the fabric arriving (jelly roll of Bliss by Bonnie & Camille), cutting out the components with gusto and piecing virtually all of the blocks in a weekend. And then the top stalled. The pattern is Floral Bouquet from the clever Jelly Roll Quilts book by Pam & Nicky Lintott.
Some months later, in a fit of WIP reduction, I finished the blocks and completed the top, showed it off at Show and Tell with the girls, and there that top sat in my cupboard for months.
Last year I re-measured the top and ordered the fabric for the back. By this stage the colours I wanted were no longer available in large quantities so I compromised and chose the green medallion. It arrived. I had a bit of a think about how I'd build the back and then, you guessed it, it stalled yet again.
Well fourth time lucky on an absolute mission to finish this quilt, that I must say is my absolute favourite from the book and cannot explain to myself with any reasonable excuse, why I didn't finish it! I pulled it all out, set about piecing the back, basting and quilting it all in a matter of days.
Free motion quilting was an epic adventure. This quilt measures 90" x 62". The biggest dimension I've encountered so far is 80", so that extra 10" plus 3" of backing overhang was a real test. I have to admit I got lost in the quilt on a couple of occasions and couldn't work out where I was and more to the point, how I was going to get back to where I needed to be to keep the quilting moving around to finish back at the start. But I got there in the end!
I debated long and hard with myself about binding. Primarily because I'd chosen the green medallion for the back. I was worried that the aqua and lime dot would clash too much with the green. But now that it's on, I'm really happy with it. It's quite lovely on the front and works quite well surprisingly on the back.
The biggest thrill with this finish is the fact that it's finished and what's 14 months between friends! Another spectacular Finish it up Friday that makes me smile....a lot!
Quilt specs:
Pattern: Floral Bouquet
Fabric: Bliss by Bonnie & Camille for Moda, and a Moda solid that I've forgotten the code for!
Size: 90" x 62"
Quilting: free motion by me!

On the plus side.....

I love this time of year and having some time off work in between Christmas and New Year and catching up on some long overdue sewing. I've had this gorgeous Ruby fabric cut out for a couple of months and have been waiting patiently, finishing off a few other projects before starting this Plus Quilt that has been running around in my head for an age. So not like me to not go diving straight in! But I was very good and even though the beautiful cut pile sat and sat it meant that the other morning I could get started with the layout and top assembly. It feels like the top has only taken two days to make because the cutting took place so long ago! The other reason I'm glad I waited is that this sewing time has given me a chance to really look at each of the prints and decide what to buy for the back. I have to say, it's a hard decision as they're all so gorgeous. I'm thrilled with the pattern which I followed from this easy tutorial. It's a great way to show off a range and the Plus construction is very forgiving. The pattern calls for 20 fat quarters and I've chosen the red, green, pink and grey colours from my fat quarter bundle. Here's a shot of the back on this wonderful warm summer evening!

Semi moment of fame....

Camille Roskelly the designer of my current favourite ranges of fabric, Bliss and Ruby, and the designer of my current favourite quilt pattern, Swoon, is featuring all the Swoon blocks from her Flickr site on her most recent blog post. And guess what? I'm part of the post! How cool is that? I'm mildly chuffed. Thanks Camille.
Here's the link....my blocks are 16th from the bottom....that will force you to look at them all now, won't it!
And seeing how gorgeous everyone else's quilts are, I better get a wriggle on to finish mine....two more blocks to go!

Blissful finish....

I haven't posted anything quilty for ages so it's absolute bliss to have something actually finished and photographed on a beautiful 'almost end of winter' (or is that pre-Spring?) day. Mind you, the quilt photograph had to fight for space on the clothes line given this glorious weather! This quilt is for my sister in law who has recently experienced a rather nasty work place accident. I won't go into details but we had coffee yesterday and she is saying that she's 50/50...but she's also trying to be extremely positive and wishing for good health for the future. Her accident and recovery is at the opposite end of the bliss spectrum so I'm directing some positive vibes her way so her quilt will feature some of Bonnie and Camille's Bliss range. I've used 4 charm packs of 5" squares which I've had in the cupboard for ages and yielded 168 squares, in a 14 x 12 block formation. This fabric is so delightful it didn't call for any fancy piecing...just join the squares. I love it. It's simple. It works. The colours and prints are divine and the soft fabric has been a pleasure to work with. The top lay on the floor for a couple of days because I loved the look of it. I couldn't stop staring at it, marvelling at its beauty and asking everyone who walked past to agree with me that it was 'just perfectly gorgeous'...(for the record...they did...or is that household coercion?). For the back I chose solid stone colour and joined it with some left-over Bliss strips that I had from a 'yet to be revealed' jelly roll project. The quilt is stippled which is something I had got out of the habit of doing but for this size quilt, it was perfect. There were a few little hiccup sections but for the most part, the stippling process was smooth and I kept wondering why I hadn't stippled for an age. The quilt is finished with plain red binding and I think this frames the quilt perfectly, contrasting with the back and not fighting with the front.Normally I would lament giving a quilt that I love like this one away...but I know it's going to a good home and to someone who will love it like I do!
Now for the stats:
Quilt measures: 62" x 54"
Fabric: Bonnie and Camille Bliss for Moda, Spotlight solids (homespun) in stone and red
Quilting: stippled by Theresa (me!)
Gifted: to MG

Baby Bliss Bow-Tie.....

The 'Baby Bliss Bow-Tie' quilt is finished and is even more divine than the first bow-tie mini quilt I attempted a few weeks ago. This one is slightly bigger at 32" x 36", made up of 4" blocks (8 x 9) that feature triangles cut from 2 1/2" wide strips. All of these triangles are from the off cuts from a Bliss jelly roll (Bonnie and Camille for Moda). Bliss really lends itself to cream, pink, aqua, grey and green backgrounds. I've also used white in some of the blocks and whilst Bliss is cream based, these blocks really pop and look lovely and crisp.The quilting is straight line in between each of the joins in both directions....simple! I've used a Moda plaid fabric (sorry, I've forgotten it's name after cutting off the selvedge) in grey which is a lovely choice for a neutral backing that doesn't fight with the front or the binding. The binding is a Spotlight version of honeycomb in red and white which also works well Bliss. This range was a lovely quality and I'm kicking myself for not stashing more as the red has run off the shelves at my local stores.

Belated bloggerversary....

Last week I past the two year milestone of this little blog. I didn't forget, I just wasn't sure what to write. Last year I wrote about how I'm constantly inspired by my surroundings and how I see quilts everywhere. Nothing's changed! And in fact, many of these sightings are generally right under my nose, like this 'little' beauty two streets away from my home. This is a very large shed wall that is part of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Adelaide. About 20 years ago the Thebarton Residents Association lobbied to paint a mural on the wall. It reflects the spirit of our neighboured with elements such as the large Greek community (the biggest in SA), Aboriginal housing, local schools, services and the history of the area. My friend Tara, who is a reader of this blog and now living in Portland was involved in the painting of one of the diamonds (sadly now painted over). We were very worried when the wall was barricaded a few months back, fearing it was to be demolished when the roof was pulled off but thankfully Coke kept the wall and just renovated the attached structure! I love looking at this wall because of its quilt attributes, its small diamond patchwork pieces gathered together to make one large mural. In this case many hands have combined to leave their mark on our world....often like the process of making a community quilt. It's a neighbourhood treasure and something to be admired for many years to come....again just like a quilt. My own recent finish is also a lot like the patchwork mural featuring many pieces of fabrics left over from numerous projects and formed into a network of diamonds using the string piecing method. I had actually finished this quilt top back in January 2010 and it has laid idle in the wardrobe all this time! I'm on a mission to finish up the many incomplete projects I have and to use up fabrics that have a habit of being purchased because 'I have to have them' only to store them away. So no starting anything new until then....well that's this week anyway. Let's see how many I can bowl over!
The quilt is really bright and cheery and I'll be gifting it to my mother in law who is in hospital at the moment facing a second cancer diagnoses. She is very fond of bright colours so I hope it does indeed brighten up her day. The quilt is straight line quilted which I'm a big fan of these days because of its speed and economical use of thread but it also proved the perfect quilting method for the plethora of seams found in string pieced blocks. The straight lines offset against the angles of the strings also looks really great. The back features the lime hippos from Ikea. I don't think you can get this fabric any longer. I've had mine tucked away for this quilt for a long time and also have some red hippos in the cupboard for the right project to come its way. The pink and lime backing works perfectly with the binding which is a multi striped fabric that was purchased from Spotlight. This is the same fabric that's also used in the inset border. It's one of those crisp cottons that I find myself using less of in favour of better quality cottons but I had it stashed for this quilt and thought it was a good opportunity to use it up. I had to laugh though when I noticed that Sarah Fielke (AKA Material Obsession I and II co-author) had used it as a binding in her Woodpile mini quilt in her new book 'Quilting From LittleThings' which I was lucky enough to get from the family for Mothers Day last week. Just goes to show that even great quilters use any fabric so long as it works!And if you're still reading after this long post, here is a gratuitous shot of a little project I've been working on lately. It's actually at binding stage but I think the colours are just gorgeous and I love the look of it all pinned down. It's another 4" block bow tie quilt made up the triangles left over from yet another project I've also resurrected this week. Again the triangles were cut from 2 1/2" strips, so they're pretty tiny. The fabric is Bonnie and Camille's Bliss. I still love it. Now, I'm thinking of pulling yet another UFO from the wardrobe but have to also jump over a mountain of washing first!