Quilt tops ….before trip to Indonesia

Quilt tops ….

Why the heading "Quilt tops"? Well, before I got my HQ, I had a pile of quilt tops, always delaying the quilting while I stitched and pieced the next quilt.  Now I seem to never have enough tops to quilt!  When I have finished one quilt, I can't wait to get the next one loaded onto the HQ and have even resorted to just loading a plain piece of fabric on the HQ just so that I can do some quilting when I didn't have a quilt top ready. Is that possible?  Well yes, and I decided to do something about it.  So this month, while my HQ was in sick bay for 2 weeks (timing issues, which are now thankfully sorted out) I started cutting out my next 4 quilt tops (4 because my Husky was having a service at the same time -and no, I did not plan it this way!)
I did make up for not being able to sew for 2 weeks though and stitched two more quilt tops and these are now waiting for quilt design inspiration:

These are the blocks from the first quilt:

Most of the fabrics are from the Stonehenge range by Northcott.  I used a solid black for the triangles around the centres and the centre blocks of both block designs are in a mottled autumn brown. The pattern is called "Texas Star" and is by "Whirligig designs".  I am still waiting for inspiration on how to quilt this top, but love that there are large open spaces for quilting, not so sure about the blocks...    

Now how to quilt it?

The second quilt is called "Kleintyd by Ouma", which translated means "Childhood with grandma".
I have called it this as my earliest memories were of staying over at my grandma's house where the curtains in her lounge were in a rich red floral print chintz.  There was a rose hedge all around the front garden and Ouma's favourite colour was red. I was given the most lovely soft red brushed cotton  pyjamas with little rosebuds embroidered all around the yoke when I stayed here and Oupa gave me my breakfast every morning which was homemade rusks dipped in steamy hot coffee made with condensed milk. Ouma sadly is no more, but she has played a huge role in my life and I dedicate this quilt to Ouma.
The piecing is an uncomplicated design, but I plan to make it very special with the quilting design.

Kleintyd by Ouma

Trip to Indonesia

During November, I will be away for 3 weeks as my lovely hubby and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on 29th October.  We will be doing an expedition cruise starting in Singapore and stopping along the way at several islands in Indonesia before flying home from Cairns in Australia.  I am not sure how much sewing I will get done during the trip, but I am planning on taking my Dutch Treat project with me.  At least it will keep me busy during the long flights!  I  managed to stitch 26 blocks during October, so I am way ahead of my target now.  These are all the blocks I have done so far, the pile is nicely growing (grin):

Only 123 to go

I have however just realised that the piece of fabric I had set aside for the border, is no longer, as I have used it for a background piece on my hexagon quilt, forgetting that I have not yet cut out the pieces for the border, so in next week I will go back to the shop where I bought it from and hopefully they will still have some, otherwise I will need to rethink my border.  Does anyone make notes of where they bought each piece of fabric? And will it be any use, as undoubtedly, should you run short,  by the time you have discovered this, the line will be sold out and discontinued?  Note to self…cut all the pieces out at the start of the project so you can get the shortfall while it is still available. Unless of course you are just buying a piece because it will become a piece of fabric to be stored with other stash and to be looked at occasionally.
On this note, I bought some lovely fabric in Borneo on our trip there at Easter, not for stash!!!  I have still not used it, but I have plans for it.  Watch this space ….

Fabric sold  with a second smaller piece,  meant for a sarong and a scarf 

These are sold as fabric panels for making sarongs, but I have other plans for them

One of the expedition guest lecturers  on our cruise is Kim Jane Saunders, author of "Contemporary Tie and Dye Textiles in Indonesia", sounds like a kindred spirit to me.   I am hoping we will be visiting some fabric shops so that I can support the local economy  and come and advertise on their behalf. (LOL)

Happy Halloween everyone

Hearts desire

 Great news
I took my quilt "Sea Urchins" in to my local quilt shop this week as it will be on display in the shop during the Contemporary textiles exhibition from 14th to 19th November and a photo was taken of the quilt and then tweeted by the shop.  Not long after, I am told that the editor of a British patchwork magazine has phoned up and enquired whether I would be willing to do a feature in the magazine. I have no idea how this is done, but will no doubt find out, this is so exciting!

Hearts Desire

I have been making a quilt for a baby girl, she is due in December and mum wanted a wholecloth quilt in pure white, with the stitching done in maybe white or pink.  Mum liked a design with a heart, but also liked the idea of having the baby's name quilted onto the quilt, so I adapted the pattern to fit the size of cotbed and added an extra design in near the bottom so that the baby's name can be quilted and framed by feathers and flowers.

Design all marked out

Stitching main design

Starting with backgound fill

Having done a few small practise pieces, I decided to do the quilting in white Gliss thread with Pink Gliss outlining the flowers and feathers.  The background quilting is done with Superior Kimono Silk thread in Rice White which looks really nice on the Kona Solid white cotton fabric.  I used a size 14 needle for the Gliss threads and a size 12 needle with the Kimono silk threads.
Having tried a few types of wadding, I decided on Quilters Dream Puff, as it gave the most "puff" in the feathers and flowers and is lovely and soft apart from in the most densely quilted areas.  It also is pure white, so the quilt will remain pure white, rather than look "antique" white.

Detail of border 

Detail of heart

Space for baby's name

For now I have left the baby's name blank, Mum is happy to tell me what it is going to be, if I promise not to tell anyone else, but I would rather add it later.  Perhaps it might be better to put just the initials in rather than the full name?
All that is left to finish the quilt  is the binding and then quilt in the baby's name and fill in around the name.  I will post a picture of the whole quilt once it is all finished.  Because this baby is a long awaited for baby, I have called the quilt "Hearts desire"
I just love how this has turned out.

Update on Dutch treat
Hooray, I have done 15 blocks in September, here they are:

September blocks - now only 149  to go

 and I also made this gorgeous fluffy Smiley cushion cover for the youngest daughter, or rather I just finished it off for her.  She has done the smiley face a while ago and didn't know what to do with it, so we talked through the options and she decided that she would like it on a cushion.  I think it has turned out rather fun and cheerful.

Remember to post a comment if you would like to win a quilt from me :-)

Want to win a quilt?

When I had just started this blog, it was to really start to record what I am doing and build up a timeline.   I thought I might get the odd interest and maybe all the rellies will be looking at it. After the first month, I had just under 300 views and I was so excited.  I thought I would have a huge  celebration when I have reached 1000 views, but then I missed it and did not pay too much attention to how many viewers I had as I was struggling to organise my time efficiently between spending time with family, going on holidays and trips, still keeping up the stitching and doing lots of courses.  (I have discovered the joy of tutorials on Craftsy and so many many more on You Tube and can safely say I have become a bit of a tutorial junkie).
Then when I updated my last blog, I had a look at all my settings as I am thinking of  updating my profile and to my surprise there were 4,996 views (my own excluded).  I could hardly believe it, but kept my fingers crossed and wondered if it would reach 5,000 without another update. It did and now I am celebrating!

ANOUNCEMENT

Everybody who leaves a comment from now on, on my blog, until I have reached 10,000 views, will be entered into a draw to win a quilt.  The quilt will be made by me and quilted by me, it will be a double size quilt  and I will post updates on the blog with photos of the progress of the quilt.  The quilt will  be delivered by myself,  if this is possible, or posted out by secure post.  Should the quilt incur import taxes, I will however not be responsible for that. I will announce the winner of the quilt on this blog within a month of reaching 10,000 views.
Thank you to everyone who has so far showed an interest in the blog, I do hope you will come back to see what other projects I am working on.