A Sampler!

It all started [in Jan 2017] with being bored and not really wanting to face up the prospect of having to move house and live in a Caravan Park until the next house was ready.  You know the scene, scrolling, procrastinating, not wanting to face reality, "I really want to start something new"...  all those wonderful excuses we give ourselves?  

As I was scrolling, I came across the 182 Day Solstice Challenge - a fun, sampler quilt with blocks of all sizes jumping into the mix for the fun of playing together.  

The blocks I've made so far, laid out on a bed sheet.  The large centre block is my own design.

I started with a beautiful piece of French Linen, some shot cotton and a background.  The rest of the bits coming from my stash.  

At the time, I took my little travel machine and sewed while sitting in the "budget" cabin at the caravan park while my boys started at their new school and my DH went to work.  This project was a bit like a saving grace for me.  We were in a new town and I was looking at starting all over again with getting into new groups, finding work and so on.  It gave me an excuse to go and check out the local quilt shops and have a focus on something other than moving house.

And, after the move?  I worked on it for a little while until I lost 1 single solitary triangle from the centre panel.  Yep, you guessed it - this project has then sat in it's tub, patiently waiting in the cupboard until last week, when it jumped off the top shelf and into my hands while I was looking for something I could cut out and prepare for Friday Quilt Group.

When I opened the box the blessed lost triangle was sitting on top looking at me!  Seriously!  After huffing and puffing at myself (grrr) about the triangle, I sat down very calmly and put the block together, framed it and voila!  I LOVE that big middle block.

After making 4 blocks last Friday, I just felt happy.  It is so good to have a focus for this project and to see the direction it is heading in.  Once the blocks are completed, there will be some filler sections to make, but they can wait.😉

Today, I got all of the remaining blocks cut and they are now in plastic sleeves with their patterns, ready for tomorrow's quilt group gathering. 

**  The blocks from the 182 Day Solstice Sampler Challenge can be found here.

Green Ocean Waves

 Half square triangles.  A "bazillion" of them, or so it seemed at the time.  Over the years, I had been cutting up left over pieces of green from my quilt making into 3.5in squares and then turning them into half square triangles (hsts).

Counting the hsts.

The white fabric was a reject from another project, where it appeared to be "too white" but worked perfectly in this project.  After making and trimming to size all of the hsts, I then had to find pieces of green to make up the bigger plain squares.

Selecting the fabrics for the plain squares.

In an Ocean Waves quilt there are 3 block types:  A, B and C.  It's all about the directions of the triangles in the blocks.  So row 1 is A, C, A, C and then row 2 is C, B, C, B and so-on until the whole quilt top is laid out.

Laying out the quilt top.

I pieced all the A blocks first, then the B and finally the C.  That was fine.  The tricky bit was the layout and keeping the triangles going the 'correct' way with the block placement.  It did play tricks with my eyes and thankfully I pieced the top at a Retreat, so there many opinions in the room!  I found it interesting by the divide of opinion in the room.  It was like or dislike!  Having so much green was quite polarising for some.

Then came the pressing before quilting.  All those seams!  I pressed a bit, took a break, pressed a bit more.

I quilted Green Ocean Waves with a wave design and used a khaki coloured thread which blended beautifully with both the white and the green  

More green for the backing, with the meandering line and dots, I really liked how it set off  and complimented the colours on the front.

The first whole quilt photo was taken indoors and it glows.

And.... here is the whole quilt photo, taken outdoors in the late afternoon dappled sunlight.  Awesome!

I gifted this quilt to my 15yr old nephew K for Christmas 2020.  As soon as unwrapped the gift, he wrapped himself up in it, then opened it up and spread it across the couch, covering up his Nana and Dad at the same time.  He was very, very happy.  Being a teenager, I wasn't quite sure how the quilt would be received.

The next morning, he asked me a whole lot of questions about how I made the quilt, did I cut out all the triangles individually, how did I put it together for quilting......  My Sister (his Mum) said to me later that he had been complaining about all the "blankies" being too small to cover him while watching tv or lounging around and he had been asking for a bigger one.  She was happy too.  

I am happy.  The response from K was far better than I could have imagined.

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! 

Daylesford

 Each project needs its own time to shine - even if it was started way back in 2007!  I do firmly believe that each project seems to know when it needs to be completed.  Daylesford is a case in point.  I showed a photo of this quilt, (not quilted) to a shop and they loved it and wanted to know when it could be delivered to hang on their wall for a while - so a finish it became!

I have named this quilt Daylesford, because I received a small gift of the star fabrics at the now defunct 6-12 group retreat in October 2006.  We were staying in Daylesford for the weekend and it was our first time away together.  It was the wonderful friendship of that group and the continuing life-long friendships with those girls which made it easy to choose the "friendship star" block.

Here's a block close up:

Corner detail - yes there are 2 different shades of sashing/border print.  There was not enough on the bolt of either colourway, so I used both as best as I could.

Then, in another shop, they wanted a sample to showcase some newer, more 'modern' fabrics. 

Daylesford is a quilt which is truly full of happy memories and I am very pleased that it is now completed after all this time to give love and joy.

Diamond Triangles

Diamond Triangles is a fun quilt.  Using up many pieces of fabric from designers
Kaffe Fasset and Phillip Jacobs, it was a joy to see the optical illusions of diamonds and triangles appearing throughout the quit top.

With colourful fabrics and simple straight line quilting, the design by somebody else was a chance to indulge my hobby when life was very busy.

I enjoy the brightness and bold colour of the Kaffe Fasset Collective fabrics.  I also wanted a quilt for me for winter or those cool nights, which would be "too flowery" for the males in my house.  With 60% Wool/40% Cotton wadding, it is sure to be warm.

I completed this quilt a few weeks ago, but it was snaffled up at a sit'n'sew day to become part of a display for Kaffe Fasset himself when he visited a local quilt shop (Mill Rose Quilting - Ballan).  Unfortunately I could not attend the lectures, but have had wonderful reports from others of how fantastic the weekend was.

Pattern:  Three Times Around by Valori Wells.

Finished Size:  145cm x 169cm