Two Quilt Tops Finished

Over the last 18 months or so I have been slowly working on hand stitching 2 quilts
Last month I finally finished Mountmellic.

Mountmellic is designed by Di Ford Hall and was the Quiltmania Mystery Quilt for 2014.  I received all the fabrics from Threadbear Quilting in Castlemaine in their Block of the Month program.
The whole quilt is stitched by hand. Piecing was with Aurifil thread and I used YLI slik for the applique.

In June I finished My Small World top.

My Small World was designed by Jen Kingwell and the pattern was published in the Quiltmania Spring 2015 magazine. This quilts is also made completely by hand and took almost exactly 12 months to finish.
At the moment I am hand quilting it...

I am using Aurifil 12 for the sky and Perle 12 for the rest of the quilt.

I am working on finishing a couple of other projects too. More about them soon. :)

May stitching

I have all my Noah and Matilda blocks sewn together! I opted with this layout because I want to hand quilt it. The original has the blocks on point with lots of blank blocks in between.
I still have the borders to make. I (hopefully!) have all the grapes made and I have made a start on the flowers and leaves.

Here are a few of my favourite blocks...

I have kept up with CCCQ, so here is the penultimate block!!

Block 32 Alice Carlile.

I have started back stitching Mountellick from last year's Quiltmania mystery BOM. I am working on part 2, the first border around the centre medallion.

I am using BOM fabrics from Threadbear.

I have put together some hexies using Cotton & Steel fabrics.

These are for the top of a small bag.

Earlier this week I visited a new shop here in Melbourne.  Cutting Cloth has been open only a few days and is run by Kellie of Don't Look Now. The shop is set out beautifully.

I came home with a lovely piece of Cotton & Steel lawn, some fat quarters of Alison Glass fabric and the perfect piece of fabric for my Joseph's Coat quilt that I started on line with Kellie several years ago! The top has been finished for ages. I have just been trying to find the prefect backing fabric.

Today I put the last stitch in the binding of small quilt.

More photos when the quilt has been gifted.

Almost Christmas!

There has been a mixture of hand and machine stitching here in the last few weeks. Some piecing and some applique.

Slowly but steadily my lone star is growing. Half way there now!

Its getting huge!!!


I finally finished November's Noah and Matilda blocks.

Here is my completed Flower Wreath block from my last post. The yellow flower centres are french knots.

This next block looked a bit daunting at first!  I began by making the centre section.

Then appliqued it over the rest of the block.

Rose Beauty complete:

All three November blocks complete:

There are 4 blocks again for December. I've prepared the freezer paper templates and chosen the fabrics, so its almost stitching time.

A couple of nights ago I finished the latest Chester Criswell block.

CCCQ Block 27 Susanna Criswell.

On the machine I have been making purses and bags.

I used Cotton and Steel fabrics for this little purse. On the outside I stitched cross stitch with pearl thread over the little crosses printed on the fabric.

Inside....

Dumpling Pouch pattern and tutorial at Michelle Patterns blog.

I have plans for a couple more different pouches using metallic zips.

Next a completed and now gifted Christmas gift.

I hand pieced the flowering snowball block for the outside pockets (one on each side).

More pockets on the inside. And more Cotton and Steel fabrics.

Love the button!

Pattern from Annie's Quilting Fat Quarter Shuffle. (photo of book at the end of this post)

Today I started cutting out another of these bags.

Only 2 more sleeps till Christmas Day.
Remember the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!!

Noah and Matilda, CCCQ and more

On the last day of September I put the last stitch in the last of September's Noah and Matilda blocks.

Just made it!!

This month there are only 3 blocks, but one looks like a doozy!! Lol

I have been trying to get a photo of all my CCCQ blocks together in one place. I tried outside (not enough space inside) a couple of times, but each time a breeze blew just as I was taking the photo and blocks went everywhere!
Finally I have a photo!

There are just 9 more blocks to go!

A quick update on some other stitching.  My lone star is progressing slowly. I have almost finished the 3rd section.
I have also started cutting and sewing up some of my Cotton and Steel fabric,

Some family news... My daughter has just released a new range of clothes and accessories for babies and young children. To see some of her designs take a look at @kromekids on Instagram or Krome Butterfly on Facebook.


Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Piecing and Applique

There is not as much time spent stitching around here these days, but I am still managing to fit plenty in.

Last week we went for a long drive and I attempted, for the first time, to hand piece in the car. I can't read while the car is moving, so I was quite surprised to discover I could stitch!
The extra stitching time meant I could make lots of progress on my lone star. I finished the first diamond a couple of days ago.

Two of the rows are fussy cut from one piece of fabric.

Luckily for me there is only a tiny amount of wastage from the floral fabric.

My Noah and Matilda BOM is going well.  I have completed 3 blocks...

Those circles of fabric on the bottom right will be made in to tiny purple grapes. There are 67 of them!!! I usually use Perfect Circles to make circles, however these need an even smaller circle than the smallest I have.  I'm still trying to figure out how I will make them.

I have finally finished part 1 of Di Ford's mystery quilt for Quiltmania.

Slow progress has been made on preparing the circles for part 2.


Now, I don't really need another project to work on, but I started another little quilt for my grandson.
This one will be totally machine pieced, so won't take too long to complete. I've made 2 of 15 of the pieced blocks...

The alternating blocks are plain.

I first saw the quilt on the Instagram page of @messyjesse1. The pattern is from Quiltmag.com and search "nautical".
I will be making a smaller version.

Have a great week everyone.

Piecing, plenty of applique (with some tips) and AQC

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy here, so not very much sewing has been happening. Above is my latest finished Jane Pizar block. These blocks are fun to make; especially choosing all the fabrics. JP blocks finish at 9 inches and are all hand pieced or appliqued.

I have made a good start on this month's Noah and Matilda blocks. The first is finished.

The next block I am working on has 30 something berries that will be less than 1/2 inch in diameter. To stuff or not to stuff.....that is the question!! Lol

My first completed block every month is always the Chester Criswell block.

This month it is block 20, Margaretta Harris's block.

This is how I prepared this block.  I started by tracing 1/4 of the block onto freezer paper, then folding the FP in 4 and stapling the 4 layers together to keep them from slipping as I cut the shapes out.

I only partially cut along each channel.

Next I ironed the fp onto the fabric

and traced along all the stitching lines.

Next I joined all the lines and basted around each ring of fabric that would be staying.

Before stitching I cut out the centre, leaving a seam allowance to turn under. Each channel was then carefully cut in turn, starting at the innermost channel, before it was stitched.

For the outermost channel I pinned the tip of each curve to keep it in place while I stitched.

And finished!!!

Last week Melbourne hosted the 10th annual Australasian Quilt Convention.

The quilt which won the National Best of Australia award was made by Janet Treen (Quiltsalott blog). Photos of the quilt on Janet's blog here.

I bought one pattern..

The pattern is based on a small section of the Rajah Quilt which is held in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

I purchased a few smaller pieces of fabric, mainly for Jane Pizar.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Blessed Easter.

Mountmellic block 1 finished.

This year Quiltmania magazine is publishing a Mystery Quilt, designed by Di Ford, called Mountmellic. 

I have completed the centre medallion using all French General fabrics.

I've made a start on lots more applique

In a previous post I showed a photo of the French General fabrics I selected to use on Mountmellic, Di Ford's mystery quilt in Quiltmania. I finally made a start! All the flowers and leaves for the broderie perse have been chosen and I have started appliquing them down. The fabric I used is a chintz-like print from La Belle Fleur. It has been lightly tea dyed to match the background as closely as possible.

I also chose to receive the BOM fabrics from Threadbear. I will make the quilt up in these fabrics as well, but (at the moment!) I plan to just make the centre block from my French General fabric collection. It has been fun to sort through fabrics, just restricting myself to French General fabrics, and make choices for all the parts of this block.
Part 2 has been released already, so I need to get a wriggle on! Lol

I have also made a start on block 19 of CCCQ

This one won't take too long.

I've also started selecting fabrics for 3 of the next 4 Noah and Matilda blocks.

The 4th block is much more intricate and will require more fabrics. It even has some embroidery!! :)

Photos and news from in interstate holiday in my next post.

There is also quite a bit of secret creating going on here. :)