Another Completed Quilt for 2025

After having no completed quilts for the year up until a week ago, I now have three.  That is so better than none.

This also finishes off a UFO, so a double win.

The next one is the Dr Seuss Quilt.  This one was pieced back in September 2024 from fabric that we found at a garage sale in the street behind us.  You can read all about that discovery here.

This was the second quilt that was quilted using Elly May.

I used a quilting pattern that looked a bit whacko, so I thought it suited a Dr Seuss quilt.  I could have made it a bit bigger, but it does give a nice texture.

I added the binding today while joining in with the final Zoom session for the year.

This quilt will be donated.

Quilt Information 

 Pattern - Made up using a panel and scraps from fabric cut out for face masks from a garage sale and stash.

Measurements - 58” high x 46” wide 

Quilting Design - Chloe E2E Lizzy Allen

 Batting - Cotton/Polyester

Backing - Wide back from stash

Thread - Glide - Steel Blue

Binding - Green solid from stash.

A Rainbow Scrap Challenge Finish for the Year

After working on blocks for just one quilt for the last three years I finally have a completed quilt.  The colour is looking way too yellow in these photos.

I finished piecing the top back in September.  This shows the colour much better.

This was the third quilt that I quilted on Elly May, using an all over loopy design.

I added the binding today while joining in on the final Zoom session hosted by Chookyblue for 2025.

This quilt will be donated.

Quilt Information

Pattern - Split Nine Patch using fabric from stash.

Measurements - 51” high x 41” wide

Quilting Design - Loop Meander E2E

Batting - Cotton/Polyester

Backing - Wide back

Thread - Glide - Cool Mint

Binding - From backing - added and finished by machine.

I am linking up with So Scrappy. Thank you so much for running this challenge and I look forward to participating again next year.

Elly May’s First Quilt

After a bit of a play, it was time to quilt my first quilt on Elly May.

In anticipation of her arrival I threw together a very simple quilt top using a panel I had bought a couple of years ago, together with a few other bits and bobs I had.  The advantage of an oversized stash.

The automated quilting has several levels and I have started off with the basic edge to edge level.  The program comes with several preloaded patterns and I chose the one with butterflies.  It seems to suit the quilt.  I had also ordered a few more cones of threads in various colours, so was waiting for those to arrive.

Loaded, ready to go.  I did the quilting two days before Christmas.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

And the back.

On Christmas Eve I added the binding by machine.  The quilt is actually straight, it is just the way it is hanging on my design  curtain.

Do you think I look happy?  You bet.

This quilt will be donated.

Quilt information:

Pattern - None, just thrown together with a panel I bought at the Balranald Quilt Show in 2023 and stash

Measurements - 51” x 46”

Quilting Design - Edge to Edge - Butterflies E2E

Batting - Cotton/polyester

Backing - Pieced from stash

Thread - Glide - Tabrid Orchid

Binding - Scrappy from the backing, added and finished by machine

My December Wishes

December, the final month of the year.  I can’t quite believe it.

On the stitching front I don’t have a great deal planned.  

The main priority is to remove all the foundation papers from the Wensleydale Quilt blocks and get them stitched together into a flimsy.  I’m rather looking forward to playing with this one.

I have a little secret stitching to still complete, but that won’t take too long.

The blue and cream linen top needs to have its extension created, so I can actually wear it, once the weather finally decides to become summery.  I do hope it works out.

On the non stitching front, who knows?

We do have to get our Christmas decorations up very soon.  They should be up by now, but we have both been a bit otherwise occupied.

We would like to sneak in a couple of Christmassy outings.  If they happen they do, but if they don’t it doesn’t matter.

I bought a few Christmas themed novels at the recent Lifeline Book Fair, so would like to read at least one.

While I’m at it, check out their beautiful Christmas tree.  This was used for Santa photos, which would be so much nicer than some of the ones you see.

Christmas Day will be rather low key.  It will be a very different day, being the first one in 60 years without seeing my Mum.  Obviously, Mick will miss his Mum too.

In that rather strange few days between Christmas and New Year Mick will be glued to the tele, watching the Boxing Day Test of cricket.

I will keep up my new tradition of completing a jigsaw puzzle.  I came across another quilt themed one earlier in the year, so it has been placed at the top of the queue.

Oh, and I am receiving a nice Christmas gift.  I’m a tad excited.  More on that as the time arrives.

Wensleydale Blocks All Done and Cleaning Up

I did it!!!  I managed to get all the 60 blocks (plus one extra) completed by my self imposed deadline of 30  November.

Here are the last 21 blocks.

And a quick collage of the completed blocks. This is not the final layout.  

My next job is to remove all the foundation papers and then I will play with the layout on my “design curtain”.  

I’m really enjoying making this quilt.  I hope to have the top finished by the end of the year, if not earlier.

Of course, after such a sewing marathon, there is the mess to clean up.  I have already put all the main fabrics away and also tidied them up, which was needed.  All the scraps are colour sorted in bags, but need to be put somewhere.  A job for another day.

Today it was clean the sewing space.  Firstly, my machine. I had cleaned it before I started, but thought it would be a fluffy mess after this. However, I was pleasantly surprised.  As you can see, it still needed a clean, but not nearly as much as I had feared.

My sewing table was a different story.  It hadn’t been cleaned for some time and was a real mess.  As in get the vacuum cleaner to dust it.  It looks so much better now after a good deep clean and polish.

Next, for the cutting table.  The right hand side was piled with “Stuff”.  It has now been removed and the table and shelf above given a good clean.  It looks so very much better and makes me want to start doing something new.  I’ve hardly done any machine stitching this year and now have a renewed enthusiasm.  (The “Stuff” is all in a bag to be dealt with later.  Not sure what to do with some of it.)

Last week I gave the top of my cupboard a good dust.  Now, that was like an archaeologist dig through the dust.  Definitely another vacuum job.  I know it is cluttered, but I do like all my little bits and bobs.

The dresser top also got a good dust.

It feels so much better to have them clean.  There is much more to do to get my happy place back to being “happy”.  It will happen over the next few days.

By the way, after a few months I have my empty bobbins to add to the yearly total.  Not a lot, but there was quite a bit of thread on those cardboard spools.  I’ll share my dismal yearly total at the end of next month.

Now, to get back to playing.

A Wensleydale Quilt Update

It has been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted for a while, so I’ll give you a quick update on the progress of my Wensleydale Quilt.  I’m having great fun with this.

To recap, I discovered a quilt along for this quilt on 3 November and decided to jump in feet first, as I had the book and papers ready to go.  I also decided to use 300, yes 300, different fabrics, being five different fabrics for each of the sixty blocks with no repeats.

It was fun having a deep dive into the stash and playing with colours.  I ended up getting everything cut into section  for each block over the next few days. I love the colours together.

Time to make a test block.  That first block took over an hour!  Once I started to get a system and routine going I now have it down to just over half an hour, if everything runs smoothly.

Firstly, I make a fold on every stitching line.  Normally, I would use a cardboard bookmark to make the fold crisp, but it lost its sharp edge very quickly, so I grabbed a large sheet of template plastic that was in my ruler rack and that is working a treat.  I thought about cutting a strip off it, but having the large sheet is working really well.

I have a little cutting station set up next to my machine to trim down the seam allowances as I go.  My large Add a Quarter Ruler finally had its first outing.  I’ve only needed the smaller one for previous projects.  Also, sitting in the ruler rack was a long, skinny cutting mat.  I’ve no idea where it came from and I’m sure I’ve never previously used it, but it is just ideal for this project.  My ironing board is just behind me when I’m sewing and I don’t mind getting up and down to press each seam.  At least it gets me off my butt for a brief moment.

So, I have been plugging away over the last few weeks and, as of today, have forty of the sixty blocks completed.  Let’s have a look.

I made a quick collage to get a bit of a feel for how the quilt will look.

I think it has the rich, snuggly look that I was hoping for. 

I’m up to working on blocks with directional fabrics.  Some of them are being a bit tricky, but I’m getting better at them.  One block is currently sitting in the naughty corner, waiting for me to have another go at it.  I may have to recut one fabric.  We’ll see.

I did discover one duplicate fabric that snuck in, so there was a bit of fiddle faddling to find a suitable substitute.  I considered leaving it there, so it could be a challenge to find the duplicate, but decided against it.

Fingers crossed that I can make the remaining twenty blocks by the end of the month.  We’ll see how we go.  In the meantime, it is rather satisfying to look at this little pile.

Oh Dear… I’ve Found Another Squirrel Down a Rabbit Hole

I know, very mixed metaphors….

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a new Quilt Along.  It is the Wensleydale Quilt by Jen Kingwell and is hosted by Quilted Chicken.  I’ve had the book and foundation papers for a few years and this was just the encouragement I needed to make a start.

The Quilted Chicken has a YouTube channel and a few years ago she shared her ingenious method to cut fabric for this quilt that is very efficient.  There are 60 blocks in the quilt and she cuts 60 widths of fabric by 6 1/4” strips.  She then shares how to cut the fabric to make one of each of the five sections of the block.  From those you can get a rather scrappy looking quilt, without having to pull hundreds of different fabrics.  There are 300 fabrics if you were to not repeat any in the quilt.

The Quilt Along only started on 2 November USA time, so I stumbled upon it at just the right time.  It runs for 6 weeks and the first week is to select your fabric.  Week 2 is to cut your fabric. Week 3 is to sort your fabrics into blocks and start sewing.  The next week is Thanksgiving, so a break or keep sewing.  Week 5 is to arrange your completed blocks and the final week is to stitch the quilt top together.  There are already a couple of YouTube posts about it and a PDF with the cutting instructions.  She has also set up a Facebook group to share your progress.

The timeframe sounds a bit ambitious, but will certainly give me the impetus to make some progress on this quilt that I really want to make, but just haven’t made the start to pull fabrics.

Today, I made that start.

And, that is 300 fabrics!!!!!

Why choose just 60 fabrics when you can pull 300?  Hopefully, there are no repeats.  I have removed a couple that snuck in.  Fingers crossed there are no more.

I kind of have it in the back of my head to add an extra column to make the quilt fit our bed a bit better.  That is only an extra ten blocks.  What is another 50 fabrics?  I think I’ll just start with the 60 blocks for now.

The fabrics are mainly reproduction ones, with a scattering of others, but it should still be colourful.  Many have come from a destash I came across a few years ago. Others have been in my stash for a very long time.  There are four I can date back to the 1980s when I first bought some “American Patchwork Fabric” when it was quite a new thing in Australia.

The cutting will probably take quite a bit longer with this variety of fabric, but I’m currently up to date, so I will take that as a win.

I know a few of you have the book and papers.  If you want to have a look or join in here are the details:

Website with link to Wensleydale Quilt along.

YouTube Channel

A Play Date

A good friend came over today for a play date of crafting.

Not a lot of crafting took place, but a lot of talking, oh and quite a bit of eating.  You know how it is.

What I did achieve was some garment embellishment for my friend.  She had bought some cute overalls to wear while tending her farmers market stalls, but they were too short and just looked a silly length.  Would we be able to do something?

I’m sure we could.  Let’s see what is in the stash that would be suitable.

Ta da!  The sunflower fabric was one of the first patchwork fabrics I bought, well over twenty years ago.  I had used some back then, but still had plenty and it isn’t something that I naturally gravitate towards.  It was, however, perfect for this project.  They will look rather fun when she has her stalls.

While I was playing with sunflowers, my friend did achieve a small amount of her crochet rug.

After the garment tweaking, I did a little of my slow stitching, and I had also done a little at my stitching morning on Friday.  This is where I am up to.  I said it would be slow progress, and it is. I am having a bit of fun with it.  No stress or perfectionism involved.

The overall piece.

Some details of the texture.  There will be some more stitching in the hexy, I just have to decide what it will be.  The little leaves are just tracing the fabric design.

The doiley section will be stitched down later.  As you can see, there is quite a bit more to do, but I think I am at the stage where I can pin on more fabric, as I have freed up quite a few of my appliqué pins.

By the way, Mick’s rug got its christening on the weekend while watching the footy.  The weather was absolutely freezing, so he was happy to have it.

Meanwhile, no start has been made on the Sew Together Bag for this month’s Chookshed Challenge.  I met a bit of a road block, but that has now been navigated, so a start should be made soon.