HST Festival Finals!!!

I woke up to a lovely email from Megan telling me I'M IN THE FINALS! I'm so excited and honoured - there are some seriously awesome entries in the competition. And the final ten is stiff competition. But I'm feeling all competitive all of a sudden - there is a $100 fat quarter shop voucher up for grabs...

So now dear readers, it's all up to you to vote for your favorite. So head over to Megan's blog. In case you're interested, mine is #57...

Outfoxed on the High Seas - A Finished Quilt

I am so, so happy to have finished this quilt. I made the quilt top back in January this year and then had a major brain freeze when it came to working out how to quilt it. After my sewing mojo issues last week I needed a finish to perk myself up a bit - so I picked up my High Seas quilt and did some sketching to work out how I was going to quilt it.

Three days of some pretty hardcore night time quilting (plus most of today thanks to my Mum looking after the smallest child) it's done. Quilted, bound and finished :o)

The pattern I used for this quilt is High Seas by Lizzy House, from her 5 Magical Projects book (all using 1001 Peeps). I used a bunch of different fabrics when making it, including lots of Outfoxed (in the blue/coral colourway), Denyse Schmidt, various Kona Solids, and some Amy Butler. The pattern did call for a border, but I decided not to - I like the way the waves appear to continue off the sides of the quilt.

I decided to try something different (for me) for the quilting on this one. I quilted the light spirals in a feather type motif, and the dark ones with a pointy flower just in the centre, with no quilting out in the 'arms'. It's not perfect by any means, but overall it looks really effective I think.

Apologies for the numerous quilting shots, I'm just a proud mama of this baby ;o)

I'm happy to say this quilt has been claimed by my 5 year old son (yes, the same one who declared last week he didn't want a quilt). Despite the pink in it, he loves the spiral pattern and has spent this afternoon snuggled under it :oD

Quilt Stats:

Design: High Seas by Lizzy House
Fabric: Outfoxed, Kona solids, Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler
Size: 54" x 63"
Quilted by myself using cream Aurifil 50wt thread

I am entering this into the Festival of HSTs over at Canoe Ridge Creations (its nearly all comprised of HSTs of various sizes)

xx Jess

Weekend sewing

I have been flitting between projects like a crazy butterfly recently. After finishing my sushi quilt early last week, I've been at a loose end. I had a few hours on Tuesday when my mum looked after my boys (who have had a week of school holidays) to sew and faffed around and got nothing achieved apart from sewing a few pieces to some random blocks. Then got pissed off with myself and grumped around for the rest of the day.

Wednesday I tried to convince my 5 year old to let me make him a quilt (it was his birthday on Friday, so I thought a late birthday quilt would be nice). Complete lack of interest. Which is weird, since he love snuggling under the other quilts in the house. Then Mr. 7 decided he would like a quilt, and the fun began. I've had a giant chevron quilt planned in my head for months, so I drew a sketch for Finn he loved it. He helped me design it, picked out fabrics and is really excited about it. I got it all cut on Thursday and sewed all the HST blocks together on Friday night. And then lost all motivation.

I thought I'd lost my sewing mojo. Seriously devasted. I have so many projects started, and so many in my head wanting to be made, and I just. couldn't. do it. And then I had this crazy idea that maybe I should actually finish something off. Maybe I should actually start seeing projects through from start to finish. Not all the time, obviously (I don't think I can work that way) but sometimes.

So I picked up my Outfoxed on the High Seas quilt top and did some sketches to work out how to quilt it. And just like that my sewing mojo was back! I've been quilting it tonight and I think it's going to work pretty well:

This is the quilt top I'm talking about - I have a love-hate relationship with this quilt so I'll be glad to finish it.

See how there are light wave shapes alternated with dark wave shapes? I've decided to connect with my inner Angela Walters (yeah, right!!) and quilt the light ones with a feathery type motif and the dark ones with a flowery design. I quilted my first light one, and then unpicked most of it (I forgot to take photos) because I didn't think ahead at all, and it looked awful. The next go was slightly better - not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it considering I've never done feathers before. It's a bit hard to see the stitching cos I'm using Aurifil 50wt cream thread and it's disappearing into the quilt beautifully. I'm hoping it will mostly be the texture rather than visible quilting.

Same thing with the first dark one. Quilting, then frogging. Second go wasn't too bad if you don't look too closely ;o)

So wish me luck. I've had this very late realisation (like five minutes ago) that this quilt is in fact almost entirely made from HSTs. Which means it's a perfect candidate for the Festival of HSTs at Canoe Ridge Creations. Which means I need to get it done in the next 48 hours or so to enter it. Bets on whether I can do it?

x Jess

Outfoxed on the High Seas

I finished putting all the blocks for my High Seas quilt together yesterday/last night. I'm pretty happy with how they line up - not perfect, but you only notice if you look closely!!

I'm trying to decide whether to put a border around it (thinking not at this stage) and considering how to quilt it. I'm thinking of quilting the lighter swirls quilt densely so they sit quite flat (either echo-wavey type design, or even spirals), and not doing much to the darker ones... but any ideas would be appreciated :)

To get this quilt top finished was my 'one thing, one week challenge' aim (I was hoping to get it pin basted as well, but the main aim is achieved, so YAY!!)

I'm also linking up to {sew} modern Monday

and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory. 
Glad I've finished the top - it can languish in my WIP pile until I decide what to do, while I get on with my swoon blocks!

xx Jess

WIP Wednesday - High Seas blocks done :)

After a veritable sewing frenzy over the last two nights, I finished off the last two rows of blocks (apart from the first three which I still intend on re-doing!)

So there it is in all its glory (?). I think I like it, but I'm still not sure about a few of my fabric choices... I think I'm going to leave this one for a while and work on some other projects (of which I have many lined up - more about that in a moment!) I've also just noticed that the first block in the third row should be rotated 90 degrees to look like it actually will...

So other projects? Well after much (well a small amount of) resistance, I've decided to join in the Swoon QAL. I've signed up for the 4 x 5 bee (yay! my first bee!) and the for the love of solids swap (also yay!).  I'm also participating in the Name Game Swap. Plus the Sew. Happy. Quilt QAL. And possibly get something on the go for the Tango challenge. Overcommitted you might ask? I think if I prioritise and keep up the ridiculous amount of time I spend sewing each night it will be fine :) I just might not be all that sane by the end of it all...

So my WIP list just got massive-er. But I'm really excited about all of them, so that must count for something, right? Right!

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday and Fabric Tuesday
xxx Jess

High Seas progress

I have had such a brilliant sewing weekend! My partner went camping with our big boys and Zoe and I stayed home. Thankfully, with such a peaceful house, she decided that daytime sleeps were still a good thing (YAY!!) so I managed to get a couple of hours each day, on top of my normal night time quilting obsession. So I've actually managed to get 5 rows done. I finished the fifth tonight so haven't photographed yet, but here's a mosaic of the first four rows:

The blocks are all square - I'm just really terrible at taking straight photos with my camera. I still need to pull apart the top three (or maybe just recut the fabrics... haven't decided yet) and redo them without the light green (I'll be replacing with Kona Snow). I accidentally 'enhanced' the really bright one in the bottom row which is why its so much brighter than the rest... although that's probably more the true colours (its been really overcast and grey, so the light for photography has been terrible!) I'm pretty happy with how it's all coming together, although I'm now questioning the green DSQ check fabric as well. I'm not sure I'll have the patience to pull them apart and use anything different though! I'll cross that bridge once I've finished them all, and can see the entire quilt together I think.

I'm linking up to Manic Monday over at Sew Happy Geek




Happy stitching,
Jess

WIP Wednesday: more new projects?

I have had a few finishes since last WIP Wednesday

My daughter Zoe's 1001 Peeps quilt (her Christmas present)

My Charmed Prints QAL quilt for my nephew's Christmas present (note - will NOT be pebble quilting again for a looooong time)
:

And a non-quilty finish (my sister's Christmas present):

And two start to finishes as well:

Willow Wren quilt:

Boys at play quilt:

New Projects:
I really should be getting some things finished rather than start new projects, but I just can't help myself. Hence my WIP pile is getting out of control (not to mention my piles of fabrics heaped up all over my sewing room, ready to finish said WIPs). I hereby vow NOT to start anything new until these projects are finished.

High Seas quilt (from Lizzy House's Five Magical Projects book). I've made five blocks so far:

The first two will probably have to be redone - the light green is Kona Green Tea, and I've actually decided to replace it with more Kona Snow because its actually a fair bit darker than I first imagined. Also it took me a few blocks to get the size right and get my points lined up right. After the first few blocks I had an 'ah-ha' moment, and I'm now squaring up and trimming them down between each addition of sets of triangles.

I've also started my Sew Happy Quilt QAL blocks.
My fabric choices:

My woven block:

No Progress:

Modern BOM quilt

Japanese sampler quilt

Pop garden quilt

Fandango quilt

Started (and finished!) since last WIP wednesday - 2 

Completed projects: 2

New projects: 2

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

Happy stitching, 

Jess

My first snail trail block!

Over the last two or three nights, I put together my four-patches for my High Seas quilt - so now its 'just' a matter of putting them all together. Phew. This one just took me nearly 1 1/2 hours to finish (and I think I'll need to redo it anyway...) - and there are 42 blocks all together, so its going to be a fairly labour intensive exercise. I hope its worth it - its still a little hard to work out if its going to look ok or not.

Only problem is they are meant to finish at 9" (so 9 1/2" unfinished) - and this one is very close to 10". I'm really not used to this - usually my 'tricky' blocks finish small, so I'll need to work out what's going on. You can probably see the points don't all quite match up - so obviously I've gone wrong somewhere in my piecing. Not sure where - I used really accurate 1/4" seams. I did press my seams open though (which caused a lot of bulk in some places) so the next one I'm going to press them toward the triangles, and see if that makes a difference with matching the points, and getting the size right.

If anyone has experience making these blocks, some tips on how you pressed them would be appreciated. I have become used to pressing seams open (I really like the sharper seams I get doing it that way) - but I am thinking it might be better to press to one side for these blocks, to reduce bulk where the points meet...

Off to try another one and see if I can get it to work!

I'm linking up to Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek (also go check out her QAL starting very, very soon! It's going to be fun!)



happy stitching,
Jess