2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry #2

And this is my second entry in the applique section of Amy's Quilt Festival, my hand-appliqued queen-sized Bear Family Album...each bear was hand-appliqued with blanket-stitch...

 ...with twelve different members of the family, this is  photo-heavy post, but worth it!

You can nominate my quilt for the Viewer's Choice here (if you like!)

...this was a block of the month quilt from Whichcraft in Invercargill, created over a period of months during 2008-2009. In 2012 I was able to sash the blocks and it was beautifully long-arm quilted by Barbara Joyce Quilting in Otatara...

Naturally, the teacher is my favourite!

Pre-quilting photos of each block...Sporty Bear...

Teacher Bear

Mama Bear

Papa Bear

Engineer Bear

Jogger Bear

Quilting Bear

Fishing Bear

Techno Bear

Gardener Bear

Nurse Bear

Dancer Bear

2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry #1

 

I'm entering my Comma lap quilt in the Modern Quilt section of Amy's annual festival...voting begins November 11th...

You can nominate my quilt for the Viewer's Choice prize here (if you like!)

...it is made with the Comma range by Brigitte Heitland from Zen Chic for Moda, plus a green spot from the Free Bird range by MoMo for Moda...

Pattern: Charm Pack Cherry from the Fat Quarter Shop

I fell in love with the fabrics back at the start of the year and knew I would have to create something for our sitting room.  I love the citrus colours with the charcoal.

The Cherry Charm Pack pattern was so easy to follow...and I quilted with randomly spaced straight lines in different colours of grey, cream, orange and lime.

Sunny Southland Day lap quilt

A finish for my wishlist for the  Littlest Thistle Q4 Finish-Along! And now that she has received it I can reveal that I whipped this up last week as a gift for my lovely workmate, Jo Stanway, who had a 'significant' (yet still plenty young enough) birthday on Sunday and is a true-blooded Southland girl, so what better name for this quilt than 'Sunny Southland Day'?
Here in Southland we can sometimes have 'four seasons in one day' at any time of the year but today was absolutely gorgeous and sunny, which happens a lot more often than many North Islanders would believe!

View from the top of the Edendale hill, looking south-east into the Lower Mataura Valley, Southland.

I spent all day and evening on Saturday getting this quilted and I put the plain pale aqua binding on while watching the All Blacks beat Australia 29-29 for the Bledisloe Cup. Way to go AB's!!

Can you spot my Black Bess in the sunshine?

Made during the week from two charm packs of Kate Spain for Moda "Sunnyside" range, plus yardage of white solid...approx 53" x 55".  Photo obviously in the shade - the colours look darker here than in real life but you can see the pattern I used and the loops I used for quilting. The quilt has crinkled up nicely after being washed.

It is based on Meadow Mist Designs' 'Looking Glass' quilt.

I quilted lines of loops side to side and then loose double loops around the outside border.

The back is made from a pale aqua green basket-weave fabric.

Some close ups of some of my favourite blocks - such gorgeous fabrics and the colours are a wonderful mix of aqua, pale blue, a sort of lime green, some inky blues, light and dark salmon/tangerines, lemons and golds, pale and smokey greys...(and the blocks are straighter than some look in the photo, the quilt was folded a bit bumpy underneath)...

One more photo, this time looking east from the hill, with the top of the Fonterra Edendale factory showing in the distance...

And me...(Brian wanted me to hold it for photos to prove to me it wasn't easy to have arms outstretched while holding up a 'heavy' quilt...I was fine!)

Linking up to share with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday! Welcome to the sunny south everyone!

'Sunny Southland Day' lap quilt

I got inspired (read "distracted") last Sunday night and started a new lap quilt when I found two Kate Spain (for Moda) 'Sunnyside' charm packs in my stash and just had to do something with them...ta-da!!

Quilting and binding are this weekend's jobs...

I got the idea for the block pattern from the Charm Packs board on my Pinterest page and it is inspired by the Meadow Mist Designs 'Looking Glass' quilt pattern.

When laying it out I tried just randomly putting down the blocks and then I also tried to group the blocks so that there was a sort of ombre pattern with similar colours together but I didn't really love the way the way it looked (I had really only randomly placed the charms together when sewing and had no real master plan).

So I left it for a night and when I had another look at it all I decided to break up the blocks with white sashings and I really love the way it has turned out..

This range is really gorgeous! 

Close up of the block pattern...

Linking up with Crazy Mom's Friday Night Finish - hi everyone!

Here's Hoping - Q4 Finish-along Wishlist

The Littlest Thistle blog (aka Katy) is running a finishing challenge - great incentive to win any of the awesome prizes. I entered the last quarter challenge and got three projects completed which is not too bad, and with the final term of the year being only nine weeks long (with reports due and a concert item to practice) I am sure time will fly by.

So I have made what is hopefully a realistic list for this last quarter of the year...we all need a target don't we?!

And after all, I'll then have six weeks holiday to bust out any other projects I want to get stuck into.

Here is my "fingers-crossed list"!

• finish toy giraffes #11 #12
• complete my Amelia's Hot Cross Buns quilt (top right) (quilt and bind)
• use my Kate Spain Sunny Day charm packs for a small lap quilt - DONE 19 Oct
• FMQ and bind my Fizzy quilt (right)
• make a small applique wall-hanging 

Cat approval granted...

Well, now that my String of Pearls Remixed quilt is finished (see it here), I took advantage of still being on school holiday to get straight into my version of a Fat Quarter Fizz quilt (though I stuffed up on the placement of the fabrics, so was not able to get the design looking right, and decided to make a new design by cutting the block rows at semi-random widths and re-sewing them to make what I am calling my Fat Quarter Fizzy! Sigh...)

Anyway, this newest project obviously passes the feline warmth factor test...either that or Rumbles is really just looking for attention...just not very helpful when I am wanting to get onto basting! (He does this when I want to make the bed too!)

When I turned back from getting the basting pins...

...he had a "so what are you going to do about it?" glance at me...

...then moved into his favourite sleep position...

Yes, he is a weird cat - this is his "I'm blissed out" sleeping position, mostly seen when on sofa or in front of fireplace.

After being evicted, he got the hint...

..but didn't go far! (Note the tail still touching the batting - yes, he is red-headed rebel!)

I think he was missing Brian's lap to lie on...

but at least it meant I could finally lay out my Fizzy quilt to start pinning (before the netball game started!)

Fabric: Merry Little Girls Stonehenge range by Deborah Edwards and Linda Lucovico for Northcott Fabrics
Purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop in two FQ bundles

As always, welcome to any visitors, especially those from Lee's WIP Wednesday blog!