Carry on finishing

My plan to finish more than I start this year is going well.

Next on the finishing list were the Gravity quilt by Jaybird Quilts. I would show you a pic but it's too big to photograph!

Happily I do have a pic of my next finished top - Moccasin by GenX Quilters.

Pretty isn't it? 

Let the year of finishes continue!

Hello - yes I'm still alive!

I know, I know - it's been an age since I posted. 4 and a half months in fact. But nothing having to post over the winter was such a relief that I thought I'd take a little break. I'm not sure how often I'll post - I guess when I have something to say and/or show.

Vermont in November was lovely - still green and gold in places but torrential rain in others. I had great fun but didn't visit any quilt shops whilst I was there. I did take some pics though. 

Lake Champlain is beautiful. 

I said "goodbye" to my beloved Bovinity Divinity at the Ben and Jerrys factory. And said "hello" to a gorgeous brownie brown ale reserve ice cream. Yum!

I also bought far too many candles. Oops.

On the quilting side, I finished the Fat Quarter Shop Snapshots quilt along.

Finally finished the Social Butterfly quilt using Flutterberry fabric. 

I was brave and quilted it with Aurifil 50 weight rather than my usual Isacord and things went ok. Apart from going backwards, which consistently broke the thread. Apparently Naomi the Janome doesn't like quilting backwards. 

I did feathers in the butterflies, swirls in the background and a swirl border design in the border. 

It now all washed and ready to go to its little owner. And before she graduates from college too!

I've now moved on to trying to finish the Eclipse quilt and am almost there. I'm determined to finish more projects then I start this year, if only to clear some space in the sewing room. Anyone joining me for a year of finishes?!

Sunday Stash #25

Phew it's been a busy few weeks which haven't left much time for sewing or blogging. I have at least cut out and labelled the pieces for Lella Boutique's Social Butterfly but haven't got any farther than this.

My first stash purchase was an extra fat quarter of the navy floral pattern from Melly and Me's Flutterberry as I stupidly miscut the original fat quarter. My miscut meant I couldn't get the 4 4.5" x 6.5" pieces i needed, hence the extra fat quarter. Still the remainder goes in the stash!

Also delivered this week was a fat eighth bundle of Canyon by Kate Spain for Moda. 

I haven't worked with fat eighths before but whenever I use a fat quarter bundle I always seem to have loads left over. Hopefully that won't happen with a fat eighth. 

I also received a fat quarter bundle of Handcrafted 2 by Alison Glass from Massdrop. 

I purchased two extra panels in black and white to go with and I'm not sure I could cut into them.

They may languish in my Alison Glass drawer for some time. Speaking of which, the drawer is now very full.

I'm  off to Vermont at the end of this week and Naomi the Janome is off for a service at the same time. Is that the sewing machine equivalent of a spa? If so, she deserves it! 

Happy Sunday sewing!

Gravity is catching up with me

Or rather, I'm catching up with the Gravity quilt. In all other aspects I think gravity is winning...gulp.

I've powered my way through the two Eclipe blocks, which come in blue and yellow/ochre colour ways. Here's the yellow one.

Although there are two partial seams in each block, the blocks come together fairly quickly and easily provided that you leave a big enough "gap" for finishing off the seam. I think Julie from Jaybird Quilts recommends leaving a 1/2" gap; I confess I left at least 1" if not more.

I've found that the big risk with partial seams is that the two parts of the seam don't match up and lay flat. Maybe this problem is exaccerbated by the larger gap I leave but I'd rather have too much wiggle room rather than too little.

When I come to complete the seam at the end, if I sew from the edge of the pieces back in towards the partial seam (i.e. I'm heading back towards the point where I left off the seam when I first sewed it) I risk not meeting the end of my partial seam exactly and creating a buckle in the fabric. I've found that starting the partial seam from the middle and sewing out to the edge works better for me but you lot probably do that, right?! I'm so slow.

Voyage comes in blue and orange colour ways, of which I've only completed the blue so far. 

No partial seams in this one, just lots of points to match! As usual I'm using a long basting stitch to sew the seam and check that my points match perfectly. If they don't, I pull the basting stitches out, adjust, rebaste and then check again. Once everything matches up perfectly, I sew the seam again using a 2.0 stitch length and then pull out the superfluous basting stitch.

Once I've finished the orange version of Voyage, I still have to cut and piece the monochrome setting triangles which finish off the quilt and piece the top. And then there's the bonus cushion...

So much to do, so little time!

Finally, my usual October plea to any quilters from Vermont who may be able to recommend quilt shops for me to visit in October. No one had been able to recommend any so far so I'm wondering if maybe there aren't any? I'm conscious that Vermont is a relatively small state and maybe everyone crosses state lines to shop? Ah well, more time for the Ben and Jerry's factory tour!

Sunday Stash #24

Just a couple of deliveries this week and no purchases! I'm being good in advance of Vermont. It doesn't come naturally...

First up, the rest of the Make Modern block of the month kit appeared.

I seem to be all about the solids at the moment.

Now I've got the fabric I can make the block from last months magazine. Already behind, eek!

Also arriving was the binding and backing to go with.

Both are from Moda's new low volume collection called Modern Background:Ink by Zen Chic. The small print is going to be the binding, the text is going to be the backing.

Finally, my usual October plea to any quilters from Vermont who may be able to recommend quilt shops for me to visit in October. No one had been able to recommend any so far so I'm wondering if maybe there aren't any? I'm conscious that Vermont is a relatively small state and maybe everyone crosses state lines to shop? Ah well, more time for the Ben and Jerry's factory tour!

Putting on my shoes

Next on my list of "oh good grief, I'm so ridiculously behind" projects were the September and October blocks from the GenX Quilter's Moccasin block of the month project.

Although these blocks are 9.5" square, I seem to wizz through the cutting of them a lot quicker than some of the smaller 6" blocks from the Moda Building Blocks and Farm Girl Vintage projects. Perhaps because there's only 7 or 8 fabrics in total in Moccasin?

Here's the September blocks.

And then the October blocks (a bit cropped).

I love the neat, bright contrast of these blocks and am a little sad that, after next month, we're all done!

Finally, I'm adding a plea to all my October blog posts this month and it's aimed at any quilting Vermonters (Vermontees? People of Vermont?) out there. As you may know, I'm gradually visiting all 50 states and this November I'm visiting Vermont. As well as visiting various tourist attractions I'm also hoping to do a bit of quilt shopping. Can anyone recommend a quilt shop? Or anything else for that matter!?

Just in case anyone is about to say I'm missing the awesome fall colours by not visiting now (and I'm sure they are absolutely gorgeous) - this is the view I see out of my bedroom window every day.

I live in Sherwood Forest (alleged home of Robin Hood) so have beautiful woodland views every day.

Sunday Stash #23 and an appeal to any Vermonters

I'm almost embarrassed about the amount of fabric that I've added to my stash over the past two weeks. Almost.

First up is a bundle of Kona solids to be used in Don't Call Me Betsy's Epic Sampler BOM.

The teal and white dots are hopefully going to be the backing when everything is finished. Anyone else sewing along?

Next a fat quarter bundle of Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman. 

I've got a fancy for some scrappy Hazel Hedgehogs.

Next were some purchases from Fat Quarter Shop when they had their flash 20% off sale. Well, it would have been rude not to right?

A fat quarter bundle of Shimmer 2 by Jennifer Sampou for Robert Kaufman, an anonymous bolt end of shimmery silver disco balls on black and a layer cake of Lucky Star by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake fell into by electronic basket. 

The fat quarter bundle of Flutterberry by Melly and Me for Riley Blake finally appeared. Along with the yardage I posted about last time, this is going to be turned into a Social Butterfly quilt using Lella Boutique's pattern.

And finally the first part of the Make it Modern BOM kit turned out. The rest is still in the post but i find it funny that the one bit of the kit that I probably didn't need turned up first. I must have almost a bolt of Kona Snow in my stash, albeit in several cuts. So I probably need another few yards like a hole in the head but oh well!  

Finally, I'm adding a plea to all my October blog posts this month and it's aimed at any quilting Vermonters (Vermontees? People of Vermont?) out there. As you may know, I'm gradually visiting all 50 states and this November I'm visiting Vermont. As well as visiting various tourist attractions I'm also hoping to do a bit of quilt shopping. Can anyone recommend a quilt shop? Or anything else for that matter!?

Just in case anyone is about to say I'm missing the awesome fall colours by not visiting now - this is the view I see out of my bedroom window every day.

I live in Sherwood forest (where Robin Hood allegedly lived) so have the beauty of Autumn colours from the comfort of my own home. Aren't I lucky?