Hand Quilting & a Finish

 Good progress is being made hand quilting this top during the holiday break. 

Pattern is La Passacaglia from Willyne Hammerstein's 1st book Millefiori Quilts

Here's a shot from the back

Up closer

  I'm enjoying revisiting the fabrics used in each rosette as I quilt them

 Sometimes the fabric pattern dictates how that rosette will be quilted

 I'm about two thirds of the way done so far & am determined not to start anything else until it's complete.

Last month I finally finished a WIP that has been on the back boiler since 2010!

Tessellations BOM pattern by Australian designer Brigitte Giblin

 

I really didn't like the border fabric below that was provided so the blocks remained unframed until I came up with a different plan

Original border fabric that was provided - used some for the back

Back view

Wishing you all a Happy & Healthy 2016 full of quilty possibilities :)

Update 13/01/2016

I'm still hand quilting my Millefiori top & making good progress, linking up to weekly WOW

Playing with circles

Audrey over at Quilty Folk is sewing a circle a day for 365 days, loved this idea for using up some of my Kaffe Fassett scraps

The first 6 days worth of 4.5" blocks

Realizing I would end up with lots of neutral circle cut outs, I thought, what if I add these to the mix too?  (I hate wasting fabric)

So this 4.5" x 8.5" block was born

Then I thought what if I throw in some bigger circles using up bits of made fabric from scraps a la Victoria Findlay Wolfe 15 minutes play time?

No waste here either as I can get a 4.5" background for a smaller circle block from the cutout

A few sewn together..........and here we may have the beginnings of a pattern for a quilt? 

Not sure I'll be able to stick to making just one circle a day from now on though!

December 1st update:

Having started sewing circles on 5th November I'm now up to day 27. I'm counting each background piece of fabric (whether it contains one circle or three) as one day's work, so without further ado, here they are to date:

It's quite a nice process coming in from work each day & dipping into the Kaffe scraps to choose that evening's fabric for my daily circle & quite a relaxing bit of mindless stitching after a stressful day. I couldn't resist fussy cutting some of his bigger prints to throw in here & there as well. 

Linking up to Quilty 365, thank you Audrey for the inspiration :)

Little Things

Sometimes it's just satisfying to complete a small project in a short amount of time....

Earlier this year I made a few small items for my son & his partner for their new flat. The 1st item they requested was a narrow runner to fit a radiator shelf, the remit was "bright & cheerful"......I think this qualified.

Next Steph asked for long armed extra thick oven gloves as commercial ones were far too short & she frequently burnt her wrists

 & a set of 6 place mats as most sets that you purchase only contain 4

This next small project is a Dilly bag made of 2 inch EPP hexies using some fab aboriginal fabrics using Brigitte Giblin's pattern, available here

This last weekend I just needed to make something small & quick again, so I fished out this free pattern I had saved to make this Megga Pinnie

This pincushion is a mini workstation in itself & great for storing all your quilting tools near at hand

 Here it is next to Lucy for scale, it's huge!

As I was on a roll, I carried on & made some small fabric bowls/baskets to use as thread catchers, these would make great little gifts for quilting friends with you know what coming up soon :)

The free patterns for these can be found here for the Round gathered basket & here for the Hexagon fabric tray.

So now that this little things urge has been satisfied, it's back to hand quilting La Passacaglia which could take a while!

.Have fun stitching :)

Calling all EPP Addicts

POTC

As you've probably gathered by now, I love English Paper Piecing........choosing & cutting the fabrics & even preparing all the pieces to sew together is quite therapeutic, then there's the advantage that your project once prepped is extremely portable.

Japanese diamonds

For a while I've been thinking of creating a facebook group just for all of us EPP addicts to meet & share tips, techniques, patterns etc while we work on our various projects & show that EPP can go beyond the humble hexagon where most EPPers learn the technique. Hexagons will be welcome too of course!

Rainbow Hexies

Many quilt blocks & patterns can be converted to EPP........

Periwinkle/Hummingbird block

Vintage Stars

Starry clams

Variahex or This Goes with That

Lone Star

I know there are a few groups out there already & some set up for specific projects but I feel it would be great to have a small friendly, maybe restricted group where we can all meet & share all our various projects & ideas, they can be purely EPP and EPP appliqued to backgrounds etc as in many quilt designs.....what do you think?

If you would like to be part of the EPP Addicts group on Facebook click the photo link at the top right hand side of this blog to go to the page & hit the join button. Look forward to seeing you there:)

Thanks Gisele x

POTC

Back in 2010 when I first started dabbling with patchwork, this was one of the first books I bought & was totally inspired by this lady's amazing patchworks all done by hand which is what started me with my love of English Paper Piecing (EPP)

I have read this book many times from cover to cover & had one day planned to make this iconic quilt of hers........ The Patchwork of the Crosses

Well that day has come & I've finally made a start. 

For this quilt I've chosen to work mainly with Civil War reproduction fabrics from my stash although a few extra fat quarters may be acquired along the way, well we always need a bit more variety, don't we?

Here are the first few blocks: 

These 2" squares below are great for using up small scraps & really fun to fussy cut. They form the centres of what I call the connecting blocks or even could be considered as cornerstones between the main blocks 

Hmmmm..........I'm already seeing another quilt design forming using these fun squares, Watch this space!