"NEW YORK STATE OF MIND" - ONE BLOCK WONDER

Another challenge quilt between Lorraine and myself from the book " One Block Wonder" by Maxine Rosenthal.

The fabric, purchased at "The City Quilter" in New York is part of their Grand Central Line.

It's just magnficent fabric, soft and has a great hand.

This quilt was relatively fast to put together, but to arrange the blocks, I would use the camera on my phone to get the blocks in the right spot. I would then put it on black and white to check the tone.

I did have to get the inner borders and the back (same line) on a random unplanned trip to NYC last July.

I managed to get the to finished in time for the Scquilters Restreat in Canberra.

Just love this.

Quilted by Sharon Vickridge- Smith with a New York Skyline pattern.

Farmers Wife Quilt

Got hold of this book last year. by Laurie Aaron Hird It's a collection of blocks to make the most wonderful quilt and you can use scraps if you wish. Here are some of my recent blocks. 

It's been nice to just sew lately. Little bit here and a little bit there :) 

SOMETHING NEW?

Got so many other things I could be doing (housework comes to mind) in preparation for arrival of family for my Grandma's 100th birthday on Jan 6th or even finishing a UFO? But why do things like that when you can start something new and kid yourself that starting to use all the pink strips on quilt as you go blocks will be quality usage of your time tonight?
Pulled out all the pink strips and strings.
These are 4 blocks that will get used somewhere but not sure how.
Will do the tops at 9" and the batting and back at 8.5" so can sew the tops together with no sashing to keep the pattern.
Managed to mess up one of these so instead of ditching that one, cut all 4 down before I realised I would lose the pattern if I had to sash.
Not a drama, can probably use these in the border. 

BONNIE HUNTER: LEADERS AND ENDERS TUMALO TRAIL

So this is my current Leaders and Enders project since Patches and Pinwheels moved into construction mode.
Tumalo Trail which is in Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps and Shirttails II
I sewed a bunch of shorter strips together and cut them into 3 patches to sew together.
Almost done with these and will need to move onto the next element of the block, the half square triangles.
Even after P&P and this new one, not much of a dent in the strip stash... I persist!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com.au/p/book-pre-orders.html
I even got a comment on my post from Bonnie which always makes my day.

Allietare Week 2 Bonnie Hunter Mystery

Motoring along with #Allietare
Clue 2 done by Sunday. So loving getting to use my neutrals.
16 different reds, 16 different neutrals.
I also got a "great job" from Bonnie Hunter- which is always exciting.
And very excited to see I got a special mention in this weeks links blog post.
Looking forward to Week 3 and hoping to get some string blocks going as I have TONNES of strips and strings already cut and ready to go.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/allietare-mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html

Bonnie Hunter Mystery 2015 #Allietare - Fabric Choice

Slightly different to Bonnie's choice with using the green instead of her gold.

Looking forward to really using the neutrals this year now I am out of the boredom of tone on tone.

So much variety to pick from and still have the option of using strips from by neutrals tub!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/11/mystery-monday-link-up-allietare-part-1.html

LEADERS AND ENDERS- BONNIE HUNTER

So the photo below is my box of twosies made from onesies to ultimately form the 16 patches required for Patches and Pinwheels, a free pattern offered by Bonnie Hunter on her blog.
Just scraps, done on a light/dark formation and as leaders and enders.
What is a leader and ender? You know the piece of fabric you use so your threads don't get all caught up, well straighten them up a bit and make a quilt instead, putting these thru before the blocks of your main project! I've got 1360 squares sewn in to 680 twosies there which will make 340 x 4 patches which will then become 85 x 16 patches.

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.