BOOK REVIEW : NEW CUTS FOR NEW QUILTS - BY KARLA ALEXANDER

This book was purchased by my quilting partners in crime, Aunty Anne and Lorraine when we were in Townsville for our retreat challenge. The challenge was to choose a quilt from this book and make it in time for the next retreat (which we ultimately did not go to in Bendigo and thus showed our quilts in Launceston). The criteria was we had to use stash AND we had a communal fabric a brown/green batik which we had each bought half a metre of which also needed to be used in the quilt.
I chose the 9 patch design, Trident Links. At first it took me a while to get my head around the main deck stacking instructions but once I had the fabric out and worked out my stacks, I was ok.
I found with this quilt pinning the stacks together was useful. Do read each instruction/step carefully.
There are some great quilts in this book (17 to be exact) that would also make great stash busters as well as project a group challenge amongst friends or within a guild or maybe on your own on a rainy day. You could piece a top within the day.






Click here if you cannot see the picture in your email.

My quilt is called "Berry Nice" and you can see it below. Quilted by Sharon "The Patchwork Quilter" here in Adelaide.

 My cat Halo loves this quilt, as do I

On show at Launcestion retreat

So for some great project ideas, grab a copy of this book, shop your stash and make some different quilts!

Enjoy your Sunday :)

CHALLENGE: SCRAP ORGANISING- BONNIE HUNTER

I was introduced to the world of Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter by my friend Lorraine. She said she read her blog every day and she had some good tips.

Good? They are just great. Bonnie Hunter to me is the quintessential quilter. Making quilting accessible for those who maybe don't have much money or need a bit of simple guidance.
One of my favourite posts of Bonnie's is that regarding her Scrap-Users System.
It really gives you a good system to tame those scraps of fabric left over from other quilts. The number 1 piece of information is- you pay the same amount per metre for the bits left over, so why not consider them as valuable as your yardage.
Honestly you would be surprised how many quilts you can make with your scraps.
If you tame them in to usable strips and squares, they are ready to use for your next project.
I have spent quite a bit of time taming scraps and some yardage in to usable strips and squares. Below you can see some of my handy work thanks to Bonnie's techniques.
If you aren't sure about what size to cut your strips (I pondered on this forever as I thought what if I cut it the wrong size?) then Bonnie has also a PDF which highlights which of her free patterns used what strips. Click here for this.
So click on the free patterns, pick some and then get cutting so your scraps are usable!
I'm a total convert now. I still have a tub of fabric to cut but am trying to get organised and finish some of those UFO's. I allocate 20-60 mins a night to sewing activities, so it may be cutting, binding, sewing. By doing that you get bits done, you will be surprised how much you can get done by setting a 20 min timer. So get out your scraps and start doing a little bit each day, they will be tamed in no time and you can use them rather than looking at them and saying" Ugh I have to iron and organise all of that."
You will then also have scraps ready for Bonnie's mystery quilt later in the year.

 1.5" , 2", 2.5" and 3.5" strips

2" squares for Patches and Pinwheels sewn in to twosies, light/dark.

Ready to be pressed and sewn in to 4 patches. 

CHALLENGE: OLDEST UFO TOP "The Blue Train" - RAIL FENCE BLOCK

My Aunty Anne, friend Lorraine and a number of other SCQuilters decided at last years retreat in Launceston  that one of the year's challenges was to complete our oldest UFO before Canberra's retreat (at the end of July). I had designed this rail fence quilt from blue fabrics. The blocks had been sewn together already. Somewhere in moving house I had lost the pattern, so was left wondering how I had laid it out. Today, after it has sat on my sewing table for 6 weeks screaming to be put together, it has been and has taken 3 hours. I cut this when I knew not much about fabric, seams and really anything about quilting. The light fabric is some sort of poly- mix so a hot iron is a killer for it. So have managed to get it flat with a very low iron. This fabric means I will have to quilt it myself which will be the next job for the year. In the ditch or cross hatch is the question?
I've had to square up the 4 blocks, then square up the rows. I reckon it was originally sewn on my old Janome.
Still deciding on borders as it is under 4 feet square, to make it usable for me I would want it at least 5.5' square for use on the couch. I've got some spare 2.5" strips that I could use as a thinner border, all sewn together lengthways, then add some of the navy cotton I bought in Egypt 14 years ago as a bigger border.

Based on it being a rail fence, I have called it "The Blue Train".
I love train travel and "The Blue Train" is a journey I would love to do one day.
Click here to read about the journey.

Whatever is under your needle, spend 20- 30 mins sewing and enjoy.

CURRENT PROJECTS - BINDING- FINISHING UFM's

So here are some of my current projects, so close to being finished.... Binding is on one side of all of them. This week begins project bind-a-thin.
There are 4 quilts there, 2 which will be up for sale.

1) The purple one, a basic rag quilt that I used up a collection of fabric I had in my stash for years. The backing on that which you can see just near the right of my quilt inspector was a US import from about 10 years ago which actually has patchwork blocks on it. After 10 years, it is nearly all gone. Another quilt made from my stash. This quilt will be up for sale a little later on.

2)The star quilt was a block swap I did a couple of hers ago. I did it a quilt as you go. The back is a fabulous green batik style fabric. Really easy process, and just did basic cross-hatch quilting, however I used thread the colour of each block, so the quilting matches the colour of that block, and then a matching green for the back. Whatever I added was from stash only.
This quilt will also be up for sale a little later on

3) The one with the black border is a challenge quilt from on of the Squilter's retreat (challenge between Lorraine, Aunty and I) from the book "Nine Patch Pizazz"
Get the Book Here

4) The little one being inspected by the quilt police will be a gift to the daughter of a young friend. She was born 10 weeks prematurely on 15-5-15. Made purely from Stash, it measures about 26" square.

My Aunt renamed the UFO to UFM (unfinished masterpiece).
Enjoy your Sunday!

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