Labour Weekend Progress

This weekend I am officially the mother of a 16 year old!  How has this happened?

Luckily some crafting has also been happening.... in an effort to de-stress and keep those grey hairs at bay 😂

Today I finished putting together the last 3 applique blocks for This Little Piggy.  There is still blanket stitch to do... but such good progress!

I also finally decided to just DO IT!  And started the FMQ on the There's A Square In There quilt... which has been basted and waiting patiently for inspiration for months!

I am using rulers to outline the cream background sections of the blocks and then filling them with a mixture of swirl and pebble quilting... depending on the size of the space.

It's been a while since I really did any FMQ and it shows!  Trying to track over the top of previous stitching lines was a bit hit and miss but I do need to approach this as finished is better rather than perfectly unfinished.

I have quilted the first 4 blocks... and have an idea for the background/sashing between blocks but will come back to that once the blocks are finished.

Striking while the irons hot

Sometimes an idea just grows and snowballs and overrides all other plans.

Dylan's quilt started with three little fat quarters that i bought a few years ago.  The multicolor print is from a 2016 collection.  They sat project less but together on the shelf.

The instructions for this quilt has 6 fabrics in various quantities... although none of them seemed to be fat quarters.

Undeterred I added more and more stash fabric... building on the colours from the multicolour print and expanding the range to bridge the gaps between differences in quantities.

Some block arrangements just set off the fabrics perfectly.

The neutrals play nicely with the mix of different sized prints and depth of colour.

Although I got to the stage where I just didn't have enough fabric to stick to the diagram... so I winged it with some multicolor blocks... and ended up switching a couple of blocks around to make things balanced but it is looking great.  I also had to sew together some offcuts to make units big enough.

The last fabric addition was this teal fish fabric... the occasional orange fish means it just makes sense with the solid jade and the orange dot.

So now it is just pedal to the metal...

Meanwhile Nadias quilt is slowly growing...

Where one thing leads to another

I started these school holidays with a real cleaning and reorganising whirlwind.  Part of this was moving furniture in my lounge, and shifting my craft bookcase from a hallway to prime location centre stage in the lounge.

Having the books so accessible has encouraged me to pick one up now and then and browse.  One of those books was this one, Utility Style by Sharon Holland.

And although i can't admit to remembering this particular quilt, this time it really stood out.  And ideal quilt for Dylan... interesting, bold, traditional and a little bit quirky.

My pet peeve about quilt books is not showing a full shot of the finished quilt, although a diagram is better than nothing... I suppose.  The second partial picture is at the end of the book illustrating the quilting instructional section.

And these are the fabrics I have narrowed down for it.  I am not 100% confident that i have the correct quantities needed... but I am confident I can make it work.

My design wall had become overcrowded with projects which was starting to stall progress on multiple projects.

Firstly I laid the timeless traditions quilt back on the design floor because it really has just got too big to manage on the wall, and I feel like I need to see all of it to make applique fabric decisions.  This project keeps getting passed over on my To Do List so I am hopeful that this will aid in getting some more done on it.

Moving the log cabin blocks for the moment means I can work on This Little Piggie and the Bursting Star pattern without too many problems.  These look so pretty together.

I cleared some items off the wall space next to my sewing area, and set up a smaller secondary design wall - just some batting pinned up to the Hessian board a bit over 1m square.  Woohoo.  I think I'll start laying out the beginning of Dylan's quilt here.

And that's about it.  My two weeks of supposed holiday means 7 of those days spent at work, and one day with the car at the garage.  Let's just say I'm not looking forward to going back to work on Monday.  Not surprisingly, I also haven't finished the cleaning and reorganising...

Practically a mid month check in

Wow... once again time has just flown along.  I have been plugging away with Meadowland column construction, and finally have a finished top ready for bed top measurements!

 and pondering Dash to the finish border options,

I used the fabric provided in the kit for binding to make this green pieced border.  It was always my intention to carry these triangular shapes into the border.

And I am currently angsting over whether to cut into this exquisite floral to create a final wider border.

Still a tiny bit small on the bed.

I have been playing with fabric selections for a quilt for Dylan.  Almost 16, he has actually asked for a quilt after lots of years of duvet usage.  What can a quilt mama do??

I have had this fat quarter for a number of years just waiting for the right project.

I am slowly accumulating coordinates... not quite there yet... but very close.

Now that my design floor is clear I could start playing with some layouts.