Cobbled Nines - Part II

I sometimes wonder why I take such a long time to get my quilts quilted and finished.  This black and white beauty was made into a quilt top waaaayy back in 2014, as you can read in this blog post.  

It is probably one of my most favourite quilts of all time, made up from 'orphan' blocks where I co-ordinated the colours and went for a two-tone look.  It was also part of my black and white series.

Cobbled Nines - perhaps I should have had a different angle for the photo
- there's the shadow of a tree going across it! :)

The photo below is from my original blog post when I had just put the top together.

Below are some detail shots - I really, really should have thought about the shadows!  Two detail shots and one of the backing fabric which has some very cute deer on it.

I quilted cobbled nines with a metallic silver thread, using a clamshell design on my domestic sewing machine.  There were a couple issued with thread breaking, until I remembered to adjust my top thread tension on my machine - oh what a difference that made!  

Cobbled Nines was donated to "Gather the Girls" as one of their silent auction items and it raised $280.  I would have liked to have seen it go for $375, as that was the set reserve price, however, the lady who won it is very happy.

My second quilt that I donated to Gather the Girls is Spring Splash.  Upon re-reading my post about Spring Splash, I had completely forgotten that I was going to donate it to a different cause!  So, here I am now, donating it to another very worthy cause.

9 Patch Illusion

Sometimes, when you have completed some very involved quilts, such as my versions of the 1718 Coverlet and Rotherfield's Grey, it is nice to work on something which has only 2 fabrics.

This quilt went together surprisingly fast!  Rotary cutting and strip piecing just made it so very easy.

9 Patch Illusion quilt hanging at the Kilmore Quilters Quilt Show in Oct 2019.

Backing fabric.

I had to wait until there was a quilt show to hang this quilt so that I could get it all in the photo.  It turned into an absolute delight to make and quilt.  

For the quilting, I kept it very simple.  Cross hatching through the 9 patch blocks and feathers in the borders.  I used Superior Threads #100wt rayon for the quilting.  I did not want the quilting to overpower the optical illusion of the 'waves' over the quilt top.

The hardest part of the whole quilt was choosing just 2 fabrics that would play well together because I did not want a plain white background.  I loved the dark teal as soon as I saw it, but the initial background I had chosen was unanimously rejected by those who live in this house with me.  Back to the shops to find another background.

In the craziness that only Quilters can understand, there were 3 shops  and approx 200kms of driving involved in the front and back fabric selections, which gave me 3 very nice days out!

Starting with in the ditch quilting..

Feather quilting around the outside border.

Sometimes simplicity is what you need to keep the mojo happening and this quilt did "soothe my soul" by giving me a fun project with terrific results.

The pattern for the quilt can be found here:  Rolling Waves Pattern published by McCall's Quilting

March is for Donating

During March, the time of Lent, it is a time to give something up and also to think of others in their struggles.  For me, in my own personal life, there are two amazing women who do a lot of work to support very sick children.

As I've written in some previous blog posts about donating quilts, here are some quilts that I've finished over the past 12 months and they have not found homes, so I'm donating them to the Very Snuggly Quilts program, which supports long term or terminally ill children at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.
Squared Away - Green

Squared Away - Purple

Little Big Stars

Orange and Green 9 Patch

And for my beautiful friend E, who runs a Royal Children's Hospital fund-raiser each year since her daughter died, I have donated:

Blue Stars

Red and White Checkerboard

* As a side note, I took the two quilts (above) to a professional appraisal/valuation, so that their true value can be put onto the silent auction form.  A very interesting experience, if a bit nerve-wracking!  You leave your quilts and then pick them up a few hours later.  It's all in their hands and you really have no idea until you read the valuation certificate after collection.  And... my nerves were all for naught - the valuations surprised me and the ladies who are the "officials" of the day were wonderful.  A process I shall certainly take part in again.

And..., one more donation to the Lions Club of Quilters for their bushfire victims collection, I am donating "Cobblestones and Bricks", which was my very first quilt that I made a pattern for.  It now has a chance to go to a good home and be loved now that the pattern has been retired.  A good "manly" quilt this one to be sure.

With donating quilts and being asked to take part in a donations program, you know there is always someone out there who will receive a good quilt hug.

Little Big Stars

Pre-cut squares - A challenge?

Well, the challenge was issued on a Yahoo quilt group, and I have to admit I didn't think I'd take it up - Sewing with pre-cut squares, despite having 3 charm square packs, nicely tucked away in the cupboard with their sketches and extra fabrics.  "No, I must work on other things" I kept on saying to myself.

Fast forward a few days and I was home with two unwell sons.  I was in a bit of a funk and really couldn't seem to focus on anything.

So, I looked in the cupboard for some inspiration and one package of charm squares simply leapt into my hands.  They are so pretty, the picture I had stored with them looked so simple.  Nice, relaxing.... fun, pretty and bright... 

I had stored the charm pack, not only with a sketch with an idea of what to make, but the extra fabric for the stars was there too.

Well, now, a few days later, it's a quilted quilt.  Not huge, a beautiful little baby quilt with an interesting backing.  

A nice red binding to really make the stars pop and to tie everything together.

And the backing? - well, that became interesting too!

There were a couple of charm squares left over...  I drew 'splotches' onto vliesofix and then appliqued the splotches onto the backing for a bit of fun.

Then I sewed all of the left over 'stitch'n'flip' quarter square triangles into hourglass blocks and pieced a section for the back.  
  

Now, I have a fun backing and there are no left over fabric pieces.

Totally happy, despite having unhappy sons, my sewing was relaxing and they were happy because I was right there with them.  This is a definite "make again" pattern, very satisfying.

Dancing Queen......

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen....  - remember that glorious song by ABBA?   The song was so stuck in my head while I was quilting this quilt - Dancing Nines by Bonnie Hunter.

Back in October 2016, Bonnie Hunter was booked to come to a local group and teach, however, her trip to Australia was cancelled, but she did graciously allow us to still make one of her patterns.  A very clever and super fast sewing member, M, of our group, made her own Dancing Nines quilt and then proceeded to host and guide us through the day.

I cut up all of my Batik scraps in blue/green, plus a jelly roll.  There were hundreds of squares to be cut up, including a few little pink/red/orange ones for interest.

I laid out each of my nine-patch blocks individually.  That was my personal choice because I wanted to use up the fabrics evenly.

Very addictive, once I had made one block, I just wanted to keep on making more and more....

 Eventually the time came to put them together into a quilt top.  The sashing fabric is a very soft pastel batik green with leaves on it.  Making the individual blocks and then putting them all together was an absolute joy.  A very quick, fun quilt to make - did I mention addictive blocks?

I cut out the border pieces while cutting for the main quilt top.  I love how the border surrounds the blocks to give a nice frame, and the little peep of burnt orange/red to separate the centre from the border.

The binding is the same fabric as the inner narrow border.  There is the most subtle of gold metallic print on it.

And the backing, a lovely, very indulgent purchase of blue/green batik....

 

This is the first really big quilt that I have quilted with my new sewing room set-up, and I think I am going to have to make some changes to stop the quilt from sliding off my sewing table, especially at the back.  It was very hard work to quilt the borders because the quilt kept on falling of the table.  My piano key quilting is very wonky... ho hum... 

Goal setting...

No photos today - sorry folks, but I have set some goals for August, and hopefully, by writing them down here, I will be accountable to cross off as many as I can.

In a message on a Yahoo group that I belong to, one of the members asked:  

• How about you?  Do you have plans for August??

And here is my reply; 

Why, yes I do, thank you for asking! :)  My August plans are:

1. Continue to quilt  my version of "Dancing Nines" 
2. Bind Dancing Nines.
3. Complete "Bali Bluster" quilt top - it's in many, many pieces at the moment and is made up of Birds in the Air blocks.
4. Layer, baste and quilt Bali Bluster quilt and hopefully get the binding done too.
5. Work on Splendid Sampler blocks.
6. If I get done on the above, pull out "Garden Gate" kiddie flimsy to baste/quilt for a baby, which is not due until Feb - but I'm pretty slow at hand-sewing binding.

To tally up:

- Dancing Nines is an UFO from Aug 2016 (pattern by Bonnie Hunter)  
- Bali Bluster was started on 21/07/17 - new start 10 days ago in a class at my local group.
- Splendid Sampler I started in May this year when the second sew-a-long started.

- Garden Gate is an UFO from October 2014.  (see this post)

These are big goals for me, as I'm not as fast as some at quilting/binding, but I'm being very optimistic.  Two UFO's and one new start to be completed by end Aug.

It feels good to have this out of my head and written down.  This list has been printed and put up in my sewing room so that I can have the satisfaction of crossing things off a list! 

Orange and Green 9 Patch

Orange and green nine-patch, also known as, the leftovers quilt!  The green, orange,white and busy print were large pieces left over from when I over-estimated how much was needed for preceding projects and, not wanting anything to go to waste, I made up a nice simple quilt pattern. 

9inch squares alternated with 9inch 9 patch blocks - too easy, well until I put it altogether and it looked blah...

So, back to the drawing board to figure out what to do, oh, I know, make an Ohio Star block - bingo, looks much better now.

Simple cross-hatch quilting finished off this quilt, complete with red backing and orange binding.

The rain managed to hold off long enough for me to get photos, except the brilliant patch of sunshine has highlighted the fold lines in the quilt - poor thing had a wait of several months to get the binding hand sewn down.

Sometimes there is a nice contentedness with working on an easy, relaxing project.

Flying Kids

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in my last post that I'd begun a brand spanking new quilt, well ta da - here it is.  Measuring just 36in (90cm) square. it's a perfect size for a little one.  

A quilt of my own design to use up a frivolous piece of novelty fabric and fabrics left over from last year's transport quilt.

This cute airplane fabric I picked up a from a craft fair.  I had just enough to cut out 5 x 8in squares.  I wanted to keep the pieces big to show off the fun flying crafts.

Simply just fun.  Two easy blocks, an afternoon of happy sewing.

Anyone can make this quilt - it is just Nine Patch Blocks alternated with Snowball Blocks and being selective about where the 'pop' of strong colour is placed.

And here is the finished quilt - all ready to be donated to a Silent Auction, which will benefit the sick kiddies at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Cobbled Nines

In 2008 I took part in block swaps of 9-patches and cobblestones. It was fun to send off your blocks and receive surprise packages in return.

In 2012, I took part in a class, 'blocks on parade', where the aim is to use up your odd blocks and pieces of fabric.  I found it hard to focus with this particular project at the time due to some other issues going on in the background, which is a shame because the Teacher on the day was nothing short of amazing with how she could put the oddest pieces together and come up with a cohesive quilt.

With everything being made from black and white, I put the three projects together into a zip-lock bag and then added a good dose of of zero inspiration, simply because I could not figure out what to do with them.  

From humble beginnings way back in 2008 and some extras being thrown in from time to time, the "pot" or rather zip-lock bag was shaken up and stirred around the sewing room a few times.  Eventually a quilt top had to come out.

Here is the result of a recent burst of creativity from the percolating zip-lock bag.  The blocks, after breaking the seal on the bag, spilled themselves out over the lounge-room floor and jumped around for a while.  When they settled down, they then demanded I sew them together, to make "Cobbled Nines".

Not quilted, but pieced "Cobbled Nines" quilt top.

Thankfully each of the projects used 6in (finished) blocks, so they all fitted together nice and snug.

The males who reside in this house love it.  The quilting buddies also like it.  And, I found a fantastic fabric for the backing in a red spot sale bin, which is washed and joined ready to go.  

The binding is already made, using left over batik fabric from when I made my knitting bag.

I've chosen a silver metallic thread for the quilting, which I think will work really well.  Using plain grey thread in any shade was just a bit too dull when I laid it/them on the quilt top.

It feels good to put 3 projects together with some extra bits and make one funky quilt out of it all.  

Blogging Again!

Gosh, it seems like forever since I have published anything here on this blog - I'm sure it's feeling very lonely! :)  Life has given my family some interesting curve balls lately, so while I have actually been knitting and sewing, I haven't been blogging - but now I'm back and hopefully there will be weekly posts again, just like my earlier blogging days.

Nothing too ambitious to post today, just a simple blue, white and taupe Ohio Star block.  Finishing at 6in square, this block will become part of the Kilmore Quilters banner.  Each group member has been asked to make a block which best represents them individually so the true diversity of the members can be represented. 

Because I just love star blocks and the colour blue - I couldn't resist making my favourite block of all time - the Ohio Star.  Simple, effective and just plain nice - ahhhh.....

Sparkling Opals

The fabrics I have chosen for the Bloggers BOM which Jackie from Canton Village Quiltworks has organised, remind me of Opals.  Those beautiful stones have an inner fire which glows and I feel that the Kaffe Fasset/Phillip Jacobs fabrics I have chosen for my quilt blocks glow like opals.

It was mid-August when I stumbled across the project and just "had to do it".  I became so excited that I made all the 12 blocks below in one day - it was a long sewing Saturday, but really, what's a girl to do when it's pouring rain outside for hours on end?

** Block captions contain the name and blog name of each of the designers.

Block 1
(Sherri McConnell - A Quilting Life)

Block 2
(Vicki Welsh - Field Trips in Fiber)

Block 3 - Split Star
(Stephanie Dunphy - Loft Creations)

Block 4
(Pat Sloan - The Voice of Quilting) 

 After making the first few blocks, I found that I really needed to reduce the number of fabrics I was using.  My blocks were not looking too good - think psychedelic pizza - so I re-made the blocks with fewer fabrics and darker value colours. Then I achieved what I call perfection - blocks that glow!

Block 5 - Sands of Time
(John Adams - Quilt Dad)

Block 6
(Amy Smart - Diary of Quilter)

Block 7 - Churn Dash
(Allison Harris - Cluck Cluck Sew)

Block 8 - Triangle Squares
(Amy Lobsiger - Mrs Schmenkmen Quilts)

Block 9 - Jewel Box
(Cathy Underhill - Cabbage Quilts)

Block 10
(Pam Vieira - Pam Kitty Morning)

 Block 11 - Split Ohio Star - not yet made.... :(

Block 12
(Amy Ellis - Amy's Creative Side)

Block 13 - Star in a Star
(Sarah Fielke - The Last Piece)

 I can't wait until the 25th October, when the final step will be revealed - will it be another block or layout?  Who knows.  Just like a mystery quilt, you don't know what each step will be until it is shown to you....