some more quilt as you go...

So far I have made 19 of my required 56 blocks.... progress has been slow over the last 2 days (which means I've done nothing). However I have taken some more pics...

Also I'm so excited to have a new fandangly sewing space... Previously I had taken over the spare room as my sewing/craft area. But since our family is about to go from 3 to 4 + a dog + my parents staying for 6 weeks, and we have a 3 bedroom house, I had to give up my sewing room. So after quite a lot of reshuffling I now have a spot in the lounge and it's working SO well. Yay!! So here it is - my little corner of fun and sanity... (or insanity - one of the two)...

biting off more than I can chew....

Recently I stumbled upon some inspiring blocks over at Red Pepper Quilts. Well I should probably rephrase that - because I stumble upon inspiring blocks at peoples blogs all the time - but you know what I mean. The "quilt as you go" technique that Rita was using on this occasion particularly took my fancy for a couple of reasons... a) I love straight line quilting but was a bit nervous to try it on a bigger quilt yet and b) I really am keen to make a queen size quilt for our bed - but the thought of quilting a queen on my domestic sewing machine gives me the shudders.
So I have decided to be brave and give making these gorgeous little quilt as you go blocks a try. The original tutorial that Rita used can be found over at Penny's blog over at Sewtakeahike.

I started making my blocks on Wednesday and I'm sooo in love with how they are turning out. Since I don't have a big stash of scraps yet I have decided to go with a specific colour theme. Also because I'm not brave enough to put that many colours together yet and have it a success. With 56 total to make I doubt I'll be finishing this before baby arrives in the next couple of weeks but I'm certainly going to give it a try!! So far I have made 19 which is pretty good progress I think. Lets see if I can keep it up though!!

Here is progress so far...

I still have a few baby quilts to finish too for friends of mine who are having babies after me. So it's going to be a busy few weeks...

finally... I got my camera out!!

Well... despite not blogging in over a month - whooops... it doesn't mean that I have lost the sewing bug. Probably more the fact that I've been spending all my time sewing rather than writing about sewing. So - I thought it was finally time that I updated on my progress... Lots of new skills tried and learnt this month. Lots of learning about myself and what I'm capable of too. For example I've learnt that I strongly dislike basting. I've tried both spray and pin basting and neither really takes my fancy. Probably does not help that I'm now 8 months pregnant and crawling around on the floor isn't all that desireable :)

Anyway here are my most recent projects...

Orange Butterfly Quilt:

A Christmas present to an unnamed recipient (just in case she should stumble across this....) My first try at just chopping up my fabric, starting to sew and seeing what I ended up with. Not entirely within my comfort zone to use this method but I'm super happy with the results. I had seen this style by other people heaps of times on their blogs and fallen in love with it. I'm pleased with how it turned out. It was also my 2nd effort at free motion quilting. I tried a "koru" type pattern which is symbolic of NZ, since this quilt will be rehomed in England. I was quite ambitious with my choice of a darkish orange thread to quilt - hopefully it doesn't detract to much from the fabric. But I'm happy enough with it

Blue Star Quilt: 

 Another Christmas present, this time for my mum. First try at a proper pattern. Both quilts look a lot better in real life. I probably could do with ironing the creases before I photograph them so that they don't look so wonky - but hey - these will do for now....

 

 My new favourite couch snuggly...

Chose a very simple pattern for this one since it was for me and I wanted a big one all before baby was born. I decided to back it with fleece to make it more cosy. NOT something I'm going to choose to do again for a quilt of this size. Fine for baby quilts but it's a nightmare to sew. So messy to start with and so stretchy. Does make for a super cozy quilt though so it was worth it in the end. For this quilt I mostly stitched in the ditch as I didn't want it heavily quilted. However I did add some feature quilting to break up the solids which I learnt off a tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh Fransson! It was actually a lot easier than I thought and finishes the quilt off nicely.

The only other exciting quilt news is that I made my first online fabric order from overseas. So far I've just been shopping at my local fabric stores - but I'm going to embark on a really big quilt for our bed next and I really wanted to branch out and get some awesome fabrics. I can't WAIT until they arrive!!

Thx in advance Hawethorne threads!!

Anyway that's probably enough for now... After all these big quilts I'm moving back onto another baby quilt. Hopefully I should have it finished in the next few days and you never know - I might make another post before the month is out.