Electrolite

"Electrolite" is another pattern from new designer Thimbles and Needles.  I really like her use of scrappy accent and low volume fabrics and the easy way the blocks go together.  Great designs to use up loads of favourite small pieces from my stash.

Karen, Quilting on the Coast, quilted this one with Flowers for Lynda.

I wanted the quilt to be more bed-sized so I added a braid border.  First time with one of these and I was really happy with how it turned out.

Love this backing fabric - Beach House designed by Jen Kingwell.  I was very tempted to make a dress for me out of it.

Last Week

Most sewing over the last week or so has been "Blueberry Kisses".  Some more rows to add and it will be ready to go to the quilter next week.

Two quilts are on the way back from Karen - "Electrolite"

and "Feathers".

Looking forward to seeing them quilted.

Saturday week ago was "National Jelly Roll" day and during the week before I cut into a hoarded "Breakfast at Tiffany's" jelly roll to make another "Floral Bouquet" quilt - this will be the third I've made over the years.  

These are great chain-piecing blocks and go together very quickly.  I'll get back to these one day. 

While I was having a break from "Blueberry Kisses", I cut out another quilt - "Loveliness" designed by Coriander Quilts using loads of Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

So I'm back to making a few hourglass blocks each day.

When Gulli was here for homeschooling in July, we visited an online Australian fabric shop recommended by my daughter - Material Difference.  Gulli chose fabrics for his three cousins and himself and they arrived on the weekend.  These fabrics are individually printed for orders and are french terry so they'll make nice spring-weight clothes for the little ones.

A close-up of Gulli's fabric.

Stripe Me Lucky 2

Michelle Mackillop is an Australian quilter and her designs are so full of colour and excitement - I love seeing what she's up to through her Instagram account.  I've made a couple of her designs twice now.  During the week I finished the second "Stripe Me Lucky" quilt - a fun design.

The quilt has a great border.

Karen quilted this with an abstract butterfly design - it's very cute and suits the quirky style of the quilt.

Borders have been added to "Electrolite".  I was very nervous about the maths working out for the borders but it all fitted pretty well.

Trivia with my friends tonight.  Lovely way to end the week.  Looking forward to some laughs.  And I have a zoom meeting with some on-line quilting friends tomorrow afternoon.

Week 9

Week 9 of lockdown is coming to an end.  Since the travel restrictions became even more stringent my little homeschooler hasn't been coming, so life is extra quiet.  I'm grateful I can visit Mum and she can visit me.

"Nine Patch Waltz" arrived at its new home on Saturday and some photos were sent through - the colours looks wonderful in this bedroom.

This week I've been jumping from one quilt to another.  "Boho Heart" blocks for June, July and August.

 

"Electrolite" quilt top is together.

This is a throw size quilt but I thought I'd like to make it bigger and on Instagram asked for some border suggestions - Julie suggested a braid and I found plenty of ideas on the internet.  I've made these four border strips.  I have a little black spot on white to use as an inner border to help with the maths to make these braids fit and then there'll be another black spot border and blue binding. 

The last "Sampler Spree" blocks have been made.  I haven't quite decided on the colour for the borders so putting the quilt top together is on hold for a little while.

A previous customer has been in touch and asked me to make "Feathers" - a design from The Pattern Basket.  This will have lots of FigTree fabrics and maybe some royal blue and a little bit of brown.  The original was made in "Strawberry Fields Revisited" - I have a few pieces of that range so they will be included.

The start of the flock of "Feathers".

We had a terrible storm on Tuesday night - the winds were around 120 kph, power went out at 9.30 pm for about 8 hours, loads of rain.  Lots of damage in the neighbourhood and a little at my place.

Next door's back fence was completely blown down, a huge branch is down in another neighbour's yard.  There are a lot of very tall trees in this area which provide beautiful shade but they are a constant worry.

On-line trivia with my friends tonight and over the weekend I plan to baste and start quilting Vincent's cot quilt.

Another Story

One of the people I've been following on Instagram for quite a while has started designing quilts.  Her patterns are fun, easy to follow and give me a chance to dig into the stash.

"Another Story" is her first design and it's terrific for favourite fabrics - 3" hexagons and all machine sewn.  I'm now working on her second quilt pattern "Electrolite" and will also make her third "Blueberry Kisses".

The quilting design is called "Chantilly", not my favourite but it looks really nice on this quilt - lots of interesting shapes with the hexagons.  Quilted by Jenny of AngelCake Quilting.

"Sampler Spree" week 9 - black/grey.  Not much of these colours in my FigTree stash and there were two blocks I didn't make:  one because I left it off my list and the other I don't want to make.  I'll make the missing block this week.  One more colour to go and it will be time to put all these blocks together.

These sawtooth star blocks are for "Electrolite"- there are 56 in the quilt along with 42 nine patches all set on point and then there will be setting blocks.  I finished the sawtooth stars last night.  2021 seems to be the Year of the Sawtooth Star.

A couple of weeks ago I finished the "Nine Patch Waltz" quilt top and had 1-1/2 jelly rolls and some border fabric left over.  I had a look through some pattern books and decided to make "Twin Stars" from "Jelly Roll Quilts" book.

Used up the lighter jelly roll strips making the ric-rac border and the quilt is now with Jenny (AngelCake Quilting) - don't know when I will be able to pick it up in this current lockdown.

Lunchtime Cutting Out

On the days that Gulli isn't here, I've been spending lunchtimes cutting out a couple of quilts.

The first one is "Electrolites" designed by Thimbles and Needles.  The blue fabric arrived earlier this week, so I was keen to make a couple of blocks as I wasn't 100% sure I would like it - very happy with the blue.

The blocks are set on point in the final layout so it appears all my flowers and stripes will be on the diagonal.

I also cut out some trackies for the little ones.  Jenni bought the bright bug fabric for Vincent and there was enough to make him a size 2 tracksuit and a little t-shirt for next summer.

Two European pillow-size shams to go with the Nine Patch Waltz quilt.

The backing arrived last week and I'm hoping to drop the quilt and pillow shams to the quilter in a couple of days.

Last week's "Sampler Spree" colour was Navy.  I have a very limited supply of FigTree navy and didn't want to have too many fabric repeats.

Month 8 "Shine On Sampler" blocks.

"Stripe Me Lucky" is together.  Michelle Mackillop has designed the best border - everything goes together like clockwork.

Close up of the orange-spot used for the background.

Made the final "Sugar Plums" block last night.  I'll add the final corner blocks when the layout is finalised so that there is more variety in the four patches these little squares make.

Latest lunchtime cutting out is "Twin Stars" using up jelly roll and strips leftover from "Nine Patch Waltz".  There is a lot of cutting when making this quilt from jelly roll strips - if I make it again I'll definitely not use a jelly roll.