2015 Finish Along - Q1 Finishes

Woohoo - it's the end of Q1 and time to link up your finishes!  I hope you've had a productive quarter and I can't wait to check out what you've been making.

Here is a quick reminder of the rules:

The Rules:

- At the start of each quarter there will be a linky party for you to link up your proposed list of finishes. You must link up in order to be able to be eligible for those prizes at the end.  Please only enter ONE blog post or flickr photo or instagram photo at this starting link-up.

- In order for your projects to be eligible, they must at least be a tangible project at the start of the quarter.  That means, at the very least, a pile of fabric pulled along with a pattern, or a quilt top needing to be quilted, or a half knit jumper. I love seeing your bee blocks, but they won't count unless you happen to be turning them all into a fully completed quilt!

- As you complete each of your projects on your list, write a post all about it, or a description of a Flickr pic.

- At the end of the quarter, link up each individual post/Flickr pic (please link back to your original list in some way). For each finish/link you complete, you get an entry into the draw, and therefore it's in your best interest to write up a separate post for each!

- A finish is defined as a completely finished project, eg a quilt, quilted and bound, a bag that's fully lined and functional, or a jumper that one could wear out in public. I'm happy for you if you get a quilt top completed in one quarter, but hold onto it for the next quarter and see if you can get it quilted and bound before entering please.

- You won't be punished if you don't finish your entire list, so feel free to make a big list and roll projects over from one quarter to the next if you need to.

- All qualifying finishes will be put into a prize draw, and the names drawn at random for each of the prizes donated by our sponsors for that quarter.

- The finish link party will be open for a week, and then the next quarter will open on the following day.

- During the week that the finish link party is open, there will be a series of tutorials appearing here on the blog. If you'd like to contribute a tutorial, please drop me an e-mail at adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com.

- The FAL is open to anyone, anywhere in the world.

I'd love if you'd spread the word about the FAL by popping my button in your post or on your blog.  You can grab the code for a large button or a small button below:

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<a href="http://onthewindyside.co.nz" title="2015 FAL at On the Windy Side"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLa5EAJAZBi7Pne3V0jjAHssLE728vInB2538GfT32l3KuHDe89y31sL_bH9ns6N0bIvn8TxLhI0uleIPC_W6QIxN-TqJRW-6e7yzQMrV2Xz59Tjaq65RvRaIJtY7z9WdjChgo871X3v_/s1600/2015FALbutton200.png" alt="2015 FAL at On the Windy Side" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<div align="center">
<a href="http://onthewindyside.co.nz" title="2015 FAL at On the Windy Side"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZ3NCfVpFdL4nWI4jmQdTJfqA2NjK6tTeJm03g9jw7-JbUZSQ9EMzOvHJAuhB0mRyEI-070j6lUUr3ejM3IX9nUfpbxM7KzGyrAYUTP5bojM1AMms5QtwGv1FR4zdV3xzqqkq1aL1vshI/s1600/2015FALbutton125.pn" alt="2015 FAL at On the Windy Side" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

We have awesome sponsors on board and they are providing amazing prizes!

Sponsors:

For Q1 of the 2015 Finish-Along:

Fat Quarter Shop is providing a $75 gift voucher.

Rachael from imagine gnats is providing a $30 gift voucher.

Sara from Sew Sweetness is providing 3 patterns of the winner's choice.

Melissa from Sew Bittersweet Designs is providing 3 patterns of the winner's choice.

Becca from sew me a song is providing a $25 gift voucher.

Green Fairy Quilts is providing a $25 gift voucher.

Mad About Patchwork is providing a $30 gift voucher.

Juliet from Tartankiwi is providing 3 patterns of the winner's choice.

Fabricworm is providing a $30 gift voucher.

Alex from Aurifil is providing four prizes - 2 large thread sets and 2 small thread sets.

Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts is providing a copy of her Bright Sky quilt pattern.

The team at Make Modern are providing a copy of the current issue of their magazine for two winners.

 Danielle and Jeanette from Polka Dot Tea are providing a lovely prize which is yet to be confirmed.

Donna from Donna's Quilt Studio is providing a bundle - the specific fabrics to be included are to be confirmed closer to the time.

Rhonda from Quilter in the Gap is providing a surprise prize.

And finally, I will be providing a copy of each of my self-published patterns to a winner (full disclosure - at the moment there is only the one!).

So, start linking up.  The linky party closes on 6 April at 11:00 p.m. PST - if you're in a different time zone, please check and make sure you know what time that is in your part of the world so you don't miss the close.  World Time Buddy is my favourite time converter.  I'll remind you closer to the closing time.

Please make sure you link up a separate post for each finish.  If you need a refresher on how to link up, , Katy from The Littlest Thistle did a post which explains how to use the link-up tool really well - you can find it here.

If you're planning to use instagram to link up, Katy from The Littlest Thistle has done another tutorial on how to link from instagram using your computer (here).  If you are working on your phone or your tablet, Rhonda's tutorial on how to link from instagram (here) is for you.

An InLinkz Link-up

Moonshine Stars Quilt

Woohoo lovely readers - I am delighted to have a finished quilt to share with you today!

This quilt was made with a bundle of Tula Pink's Moonshine collection, and some co-ordinating solids that I pulled from my stash.  It's very similar to the Acacia Stars quilt I made last year, except this time I get to keep it!

This quilt is pretty big, and I loved the star quilting that was done on my last quilt, so I sent it to Sue Burnett for quilting again.  I had the stars quilted with a star design, the narrow inner border quilted with a rope kind of design, and the outer border quilted with a border design that matches the stars.  I picked a light pink thread which blends on most of the fabrics, but shows up against some of the darker fabrics in this range.

 

I really love the Moonshine collection.  The colours and prints are a lot of fun, and I like that they allowed me to create a kind of rainbow effect with this quilt.

Both the border fabrics and the binding are from the Moonshine collection as well.

There are only a couple more days before the linky party for the 2015 Finish-Along opens on the 31st of March.  You have until the 6th of April to link up, so crank up those sewing machines and move on some WIPs.  I'm excited to see what everyone has been up to!  This was on my Q1 list and takes my list of finishes to, I think, four.

I'll see everyone tomorrow for some linky party fun!

Caturday Wisdom #113

Be sure to package your most precious goods with care. Ralph

 

I got it! As I mentioned last week Ralph has recently fallen hard for a large piece of bubble wrap that is in the house, and I was dying to get a photo of the little weirdo in his bubble-cave. Here he is! I also took a little video where Ralph gets comfortable while Ivy wonders where Ralph's mind has gone and whose hair is on her face.

Atria (a finished quilt)

This weekend I finished up this pixelated heart quilt which I started rather a long time ago.  The quilt top was made using Jolene's pixelated heart quilt tutorial, using 2.5" squares.  I've been waiting to quilt it for a long time.  I wanted to quilt feathers on this quilt, but I hadn't really quilted feathers before and I was nervous.

Even though it wasn't really meant to be included in Krista Withers' compositional quilting class, Krista taught us how to quilt feathers.  Feathers are notoriously tricky but Krista shared a technique for making them easier.

Anyway, I did this quilting on my Juki, mostly free motion, but also using my walking foot a little bit (for the stems of the feathers and the straight diagonal lines).  After I quilted the feathers, I added in the straight lines to divide up the space (one of the key concepts from Krista's class was dividing the space into different segments and using different quilting designs to fill them).  I then filled in the unquilted spaces using two different motifs - paisley with bubbles and straight(ish) lines.

 

I really had to throw a solid fabric on the back of this quilt.  Nothing else shows up detailed quilting as well as a solid!

 

I will pop a label on this quilt and then I really want to send it through the washing machine and see how it changes after washing.  At QuiltCon, I got to touch a couple of quilts that Leanne (shecanquilt) had quilted very densely and then washed a couple of times.  They were so much softer than I expected!  The paisley / bubble quilting is pretty dense so I think this quilt could use some softening up.

I am pretty thrilled with how this quilt came out.  I'm really inspired to keep working on my free motion quilting.  It's all about the practice!

Have you been working on your free motion quilting skills lately?

This quilt was definitely on my Q1 list for the 2015 FAL!  See you very soon for the Q1 finishes linky!

QuiltCon Recap 3: The Classes

In this post I want to share a little about the classes I took at QuiltCon.  I was extremely fortunate and managed to get into every class I wanted to take.  I took a reasonable number of classes - I figured since I was at QuiltCon, I might as well do and learn as much as possible.

 

My first class was on Thursday, and was a long-arm quilting class with Krista Withers.  This is the set-up of the room - I guess there were about a dozen long-arm quilting machines in there with two students to each machine.  Krista taught her compositional quilting technique and I learned heaps! 

Me with Krista Withers

I don't want to share too much about the content of the classes here.  As a teacher myself, I know how much hard work goes into preparing for a class and I think it's respectful to allow the teacher to chose how and when to share their work.  However, Krista's ideas about how to divide up the space in your quilt top, and make it look like different motifs were sitting in front of or behind each other were brilliant.  I also feel like this class gave me permission to free motion quilt straight lines, and not worry about whether they are perfectly straight. 

 

Above is the sample I worked on in class.  I brought it home and I think I'll throw some binding on it to keep as a reminder.  I have a quilt coming up later this week which I quilted using some of the ideas from Krista's class, and I find myself excited about the quilting part of creating a quilt again.  Krista was a really awesome teacher - she had clearly planned the class well, and we moved between receiving instruction, planning, working and receiving more instruction in a really nice way.  

 

My next class was Anna Maria Horner's Mod Corsage class.  This class included elements of fussy cutting, piecing, appliqué and broderie perse to create a modern corsage block or quilt.  I am a huge fan of Anna Maria Horner's fabrics so I was super excited to take a class with her.  

The class was great, and it was awesome to see the broderie perse quilt above which is from Denyse Schmidt's book Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration.  Anna Maria had just bought it from Denyse which was pretty awesome.  Also awesome was the fact that Denyse Schmidt herself was a student in the class (clearly she and Anna Maria are good friends and she got a bit of a ribbing from Anna Maria about how it was good she was finally learning patchwork).

Anna Maria Horner and me.

It's a bit hard to see, but Anna Maria's quilt is hanging behind us.

 

I was lucky enough to sit next to Ashley from Wasn't Quilt in Day.  She is so lovely and the piece she was working on was amazing.  I thought about stealing it during the break but resisted temptation!

 

This is what I worked on.  I was feeling a bit more is more in the class!  This will mostly be needled turned appliqué, so don't hold your breath for a finish any time soon!

Yoshiko Jinzenji and me.

My second to last class was with Yoshiko Jinzenji.  I've been a fan of Yoshiko's work since before I was quilting myself (my mum has a couple of her books), so I definitely had to do a class with her.  I enjoyed this class, which involved quilting a layered panel consisting of a shiny fabric, a few shapes and then a sheer fabric over the top.  Working with the sheer fabric wasn't as hard or scary as I thought it might be, and it's definitely something I would like to experiment with more.

My last class for the trip was with the quilters of Gee's Bend.  Anne and I decided to do a collaborative piece, which you can see above.  One of our local guild members who often works with shirts curated a bundle of old shirt fabrics for Anne, and we both added a few fabrics from stash (and a few bits and pieces from the scrap bin in the classroom).  This was a really enjoyable class and a chance to just sew.

The Gee's Bend quilters mostly wandered round disbursing little bits of advice, but they also shared a few songs with us - very beautiful.

So there we go, my QuiltCon learning experience.  The classes were uniformly inspiring and had me excited to get back to my sewing machine.

Caturday Wisdom #112

When trying a new task, remember to have patience. Ralph

 

This is me if I tried knitting for more than 5 seconds.

Somehow Ralph always knows where to find wool, I don't even know where it's kept and yet Ralph will find it.

Wool is pretty good but currently Ralph is loving bubble wrap the most of all. I'm dying to get a photo or video of him but he doesn't make it easy. There's a big piece in the house at the moment and he likes to make a tunnel and get right inside it, make little squeaky sounds (while also purring) so that you come over and then comes out for a pat as soon as you do.

2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge - an update

I've been working away on my Marsala quilt, and I know Anne has been working on hers too.  We thought it was time to remind everyone about the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge, since the deadline for entries is coming up pretty quickly!

This is where I'm at with my Marsala quilt.  If you're interested, you can check out my last post on this quilt.  I've made a lot of progress, with all 12 of the 12" traditional blocks finished (although the one in the bottom left corner is really bugging me so I may well end up re-making it).  I'm hoping to work on the border in between the central block and the traditional blocks this weekend, but I also need to get all the appliqué in the central block stitched down before I add to it.

As always, feel free to grab the button and share it!

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<a href="http://www.onthewindyside.co.nz/p/2015-pantone-quilt-challenge-marsala.html" title="2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge: Marsala"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLVg9GeddQE_Ls9Hjc2hLzaqIgn_EYBk2DWYJJxUVdd2soNk8ZevJTlBVIaZ7dGfUSvTtrAd8DzkjYWS0frMkFqp2xpNIO45Z-OeeiSv0Kl1m7McU88o7ubMXznLx8kE_wHbro3ZoxON4/s1600/Marsala+button.png" alt="2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge: Marsala" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

You can find all the details on my 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge page.

The key dates are:

- April 17, 2015 - linky party opens
- April 24, 2015, at 11pm PST - entries close
- April 29, 2015 - winners announced

I've been loving seeing all the progress on people's quilts on Instagram - it's really exciting to see all the different things people are doing with Marsala.  We are sharing quilts there using the tag #pantonequilt2015.  I really cannot wait to see the quilts that are linked up in April.  Even if you haven't started anything yet, I definitely reckon there's still time - especially for a mini quilt or a quilt top.

I feel like pushing myself to use Marsala, a colour that's definitely out of my usual comfort zone, has really helped me be more creative and try things that I perhaps wouldn't otherwise have thought of.  That's why I love these challenges, and I encourage you to give it a go even if Marsala isn't your favourite colour!