FQS Mystery BOM 2014

These days it's rare that I go for full fabric ranges as I prefer to mix it all up but one range that caught my attention last year was the Designer BOM by the FQS using the the lovely Snowbird range by Edita Sitar.

I love blue, polka dots & stars, so how could I resist joining this BOM?

I'm now caught up with the blocks all of which were constructed using my 1929 Singer Treadle machine. Here they are in order:

Block 1 - designed by Edita Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

Block 2 - designed by Karla Eisenach, Susan Kendrick & Lisa Burnett of Sweetwater

Block 3 - designed by Bonnie Olaveson of Cotton Way & Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms

Block 4 - designed by Sandy Gervais of Pieces from My Heart

Block 5 - designed by Polly Minick & Laurie simpson of Minick & Simpson

Block 6 - designed by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co

Block 7 - designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig tree Quilts

Block 8 - designed by Kate Spain

Block 9 - designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters

This last block is the centre block designed by Edita Sitar for the final layout as all the mystery blocks will be set on point surrounding this block. There are only 3 more to go before the whole top can be assembled so I eagerly await the next one.

This is the first BOM I have participated in via the FQS & can honestly say the patterns are very clearly written & printed in a nice booklet format. The fabric provided is more than enough to produce each block so there is extra for oops moments or even to make a second block. I will definitely be keeping an eye open for future BOMs on offer that may appeal.

Please note I have no affiliation with the Fat Quarter Shop other than being a very satisfied customer with their excellent service. :)

Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Foundation piecing Wild Geese & A Very Old UFO

This year I participated in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt along - Grand Illusion & decided to only work with fabric I already had in my stash, thus a different colour palette was used to Bonnie's

My fabric selection

Clue 1 underway using the trusty old treadle

I liked the main block created by all the units but the green sashing units just weren't doing it for me (too dark) so decided to go for plain cheddar sashing with friendship star cornerstones.

The nearly finished top - looking at this picture it needs another narrow border of the black to contain the stars on the edge. My "Inspired by Grand Illusion" is quite different from the Bonnie original which using the suggested colours looks fabulous, just google Grand Illusion mystery quilt & check out all the lovely photos.

Not wanting to waste 120 orphaned sashing units, I decided to convert them into 9 patches

Surround them with cheddar, geese & square in a square cornerstones. I hand drafted a foundation pattern for the geese to fit & used Bonnie's free pattern here for the cornerstones

Playing with a layout

1st 10 blocks together. 

Having finally got the hang of foundation paper piecing I was hooked & just couldn't resist having a go at some Wild & Goosey blocks everyone was playing with over on Quiltville's Open Studio

This pattern was originally published in Quiltmaker May/June ’13 issue under Bonnie Hunter's addicted to scraps column. The original pattern is for 3.5" units unfinished, I enlarged mine to 4.5" The PDF pattern can be downloaded from Quiltmaker here

This is a great pattern for using up tiny scraps but I decided to go controlled scrappy with this one & am still using fabric from the stash, mainly left overs from other projects

 

Now on a foundation paper piecing roll, I came across this fabulous site by Susan Gatewood who generously shares her foundation patterns for the Dear Jane quilt, so I dug out my very old UFO & decided to re-tackle this one. 

Row 1 so far

Current favourite block 

So, unintentionally, I have already started 2 new projects this year & revisited a UFO. I'm hoping to concentrate on existing WIP (works in progress) & in order to take stock I've created another page which also helps remind me I need to finish some of the older projects before starting more new ones.

Having said that, I find I am more productive by having so much variety to work with as I never get bored & they will all get finished in the end!

How many WIP's do you currently have and are there ones that will remain UFO's? What do you do with them if you really don't like them anymore? Would love to hear your views on this:)

A productive 2014

In no particular order, here's my 2014 round up -  this little quilt was commissioned for a baby due in December whose parents farmed & loved tractors......hence the choice of fabrics used.

Hand applique & hand quilted using perle cotton 8

Earlier in the year I was given this huge pile of fabric which had been used as wedding bunting & asked to make a memory quilt for the young couple

The fabrics were a varied mix of cottons & polycottons 

So this was what I created in order to try & use as many of the fabrics as possible

Thought it was best to keep the design simple & also constructed this one using the quilt as you go method with narrow sashing.

the back

Then in December, their first baby was born & this was made for the happy couple still using fabric from their wedding bunting.

I also finally finished the recycled shirt fabric sampler quilt for my son, so far this is one of my favourite quilts, it was just so much fun to make and put together like a puzzle. I blogged about the construction here.

Back showing the hand quilting

Other projects completed last year included these 3 tops:

EPP hexagons using Saltwater range fabric by Tula Pink

Japanese boxes using Kaffe Fassett scraps - EPP

(the triangle border on the right has now been removed)

Depression block - Scrappy half square triangles
 machine pieced

2 more quilts which I've blogged about in previous posts were also completed:  Easy street, a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt was hand quilted & bound. Then in October I  finished the modern Oakshott cotton quilt which I wrote about in my previous post here

All in all, a pretty busy year :)  More to come for 2015, I have so many projects on the go it may be time to seriously take stock & complete these before starting anything else.

What do you do to control the urge to keep trying new patterns, techniques etc? 

Fabulous Oakshott cottons

 

 Remember these gorgeous Oakshott cottons? I blogged about them back here and here,

Well I finally got my act together to complete this project this year. I had made a dozen or so 18.5" blocks of the 30 required when my trusty little electric Brother machine broke down.

  

The only way I was going to get this finished by my friends birthday in early October was to use my 1929 Singer 66K treadle machine which I acquired this July & hadn't quite mastered the art of treadling yet......... that soon changed!

The blocks are constructed individually quilt as you go method (I used Hobbs 80/20 fusible batting for this project) here's a quick photo record of how I did this. 

I would start with a simple pieced background using a couple of colours or some circle units made up of drunkards path blocks and add some straight line quilting to the background.  

The green section below

Next I would play around with placement of odd scraps/offcuts & folded 2"strips 

A bit more background quilting added here

more folded strips are added, careful placement of these secures the rectangle scraps added on top when the strips are stitched down

these are then pressed over & stitched in place

this vintage Singer machine really does stitch beautifully!

Sewing curves for the Drunkards Path blocks on the electric machine was easy following this great video tutorial I found on you tube, however this technique didn't work on the treadle, believe me I tried.......you would need 3 hands!

After some practice  with scrap fabric, I mastered curves on the treadle: the secret? use lots of pins!

.......and before long, I was motoring away and was gradually running out of floor space to lay out these large blocks

Finally enough were made to complete the quilt. The blocks were joined together using my usual quilt as you go method (see labels on side for a link) with plain black sashing to try and add a little control to all this colour

 I have to mention here that all the credit for the inspiration of this quilt goes to Marianne of The Quilting Edge blog who very kindly gave permission to use her quilt as inspiration Thank you Marianne :)

and the leftovers?

Well I just couldn't let these go to waste now could I ? They were cut into squares & framed with a very pale grey (Kona shadow)

and over a couple of weekends, a lap size top was created

all with the treadle!

I have loved working with these gorgeous fabrics, Oakshott cottons have such vibrant colour & shimmer, can't wait to work with them again.