Starlings of Summer

My intention was that I wasn't going to make anything new in January and that I would just complete some UFOs and WIPs. Ha, ha, dreaming! (Anything to avoid doing school work...)
Actually, I decided to make a large lap quilt for my lovely, young workmate, Emma Diack,
to mark the occasion of her marriage to Phillip (Harvey) Norman.

I could not resist the challenge of trying out this pattern and trying to win 

a fat quarter bundle in the process and so I have made this Starling lap quilt 

after seeing a Fat Quarter Shop quiltalong on Instagram.
(AND, good news...I DID win a bundle, so excited!)

The pattern is called the Starling Quilt (can you see the birds in it?) and it is great for fat quarters - 

I used a bundle of Art Gallery Fabrics 'Imprint' collection that I have had in my stash for a couple of years and added some new yardage of the light grey print and the blue-black print.

Size: 52.5" square

For the backing I used two aqua prints from my stash (yay for stashbusting!) and I made a scrappy binding from leftovers of the fat quarters.

The pattern is super easy to follow and I had the top made and basted in one day, with a simple all over curved line pattern of quilting done with the walking foot (inspired by Jacquie Gering) 

all done the next day.

When making the starling blocks there were a lot of half triangle cut-offs that I decided to 

sew up with other scrappy leftovers from the fat quarters to make another quilt...

usually I would stuff them in a scrap bin until I 'get round to it' so I am feeling quite proud 

of myself for using them (and it is looking really cool - will reveal when finished!)

Hello to all my crafty visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party
and from Myra's Finished or Not Friday linky party - nice to 'see' you all!

Country Favourites

This was a kitset which I must have purchased from an Australian quiltshop's website maybe 10 or 11 years ago (I'm not sure, but the copyright on the pattern says 2007). The shop was called In Stitches and the pattern is by Karyn Herbert www.butterflyquilts.com.au

The quilt is 44 x 52", with the blocks being 8.5".

It was a panel of the images along with yardage for the blocks. I can remember cutting it out and sewing it up at the time I received it, but then the top has sat in my UFO pile ever since (basically because I really don't like it LOL!) - so my New Year resolution was to get it quilted so I can give it away.

I've decided, in hindsight, that the golden yellow of the background fabric (which is what was supplied in the kit) is just too much (it is a lot darker than it looks in these photos) and it maybe would have all looked a lot nicer if the background had been more of a cream colour to help tone it all down.

For the quilting I did stitch in the ditch or echo quilting to outline the main shapes of the images; the pieced blocks just had simple criss-cross lines. 

The backing was pieced (at the time I first finished the top)
from leftovers plus some green that I had in my stash.

Anyway, it's finally finished, out of the pile of UFOs (of which there are now only two) and ready to find a new home with someone who will appreciate it - charity shop, here I come!

Thread Painted Portrait of Bess

This is our beautiful Bess (part Labrador, Retriever, Huntaway and Samoyed!) who turns nine in February and has been with us for eight and a half years after we adopted her from the SPCA.

In October 2018 I attended a two-day thread painting workshop in Winton, with tutor Sonya Prchal, hosted by the Otautau Patchwork group. After our New Year holiday I took a day to finally 'frame' the picture up as a wall-hanging.

I really enjoyed learning the technique of thread painting (basically using free-motion stitching to 'colour in' a pre-printed photo) - it was really fun to do and so exciting to see how effective it looks!

We started with our photo printed onto fabric. Sonya guided us through the stages of thread colour selection, use of the free motion, where to start, where to move to next etc. Here are some progress photos...

After printing our photos Sonya had worked out some of the main colours we would need for thread and instructed us to buy those; thankfully she had her own collection of a huge range of colours for us to make use of for the areas where we only needed small amounts of the colours.

After all the stitching was done Sonya helped us to use some fabric colouring pencils to add depth or shading as well.

Original stitching 6x8" and final wallhanging 16x12.5"

Here is a photo of the work of some of the other workshop ladies - their quilt group holds an annual exhibition (photo via Sonya's Facebook page):

 

Happy summer hello to anyone visiting me via Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party!

Lucia's Christmas Stocking

It was my pleasure to design and make this felt Christmas stocking for my cousin's new 

baby, Lucia, for whom this is her first Christmas. This was my 42nd quilt/craft project for the year!

I used a print and some felt to applique this angel onto the front.

As with previous stockings I have made, I hand-stitched Lucia's name at the top.
I love the little star button detail.

And I found these cool star and heart buttons at Spotlight.

Joining up to share with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party - 

Happy New Year quilters and crafters!! 

Head in the Clouds

(Sorry about photos...I needed to get it to Gore before Xmas and the weather was too yucky for an outside photo session.)

My final quilt finish of 2018...a baby quilt, 44" square and made entirely from my stash.

As you can see I quilted it with diagonal lines. 

The backing is a flannel that was also sitting in my stash.

I used Leah Day's Disappearing Nine-Patch pattern, with the cloud print as the consistent base fabric amongst a selection of other solids/prints. I'd had this cloud print for a while so it was nice to finally have a reason to use it.

This was a commissioned quilt to be gifted to a baby due early in 2019.

Joining up to share with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party - 

Happy New Year quilters and crafters!!