Too many WIPs - Progress report

I became a finisher.
Now, I have returned to my earlier self and procrastinate.
I started to piece some drunkards path blocks - I want to make two lap quilts for a couple of friends, but I'm wavering on the layouts. Here are some possibilities. I might make them mirror images, one with the dark quarter circles and the other with the light. Any ideas?

Matchy matchy

Not matchy

The start of a mirror image
I need to commit to a couple of things, one of which is to finish stuff before I start anything else. Other current WIPs are:
Waiting to be basted and quilted

This one is boring - well it was but the photo has disappeared. Bad blogsy.  Put it back now!

Lovely tone it down

Long term project

Still working on this shawl

Owl tea cosy for my sister

APQ Tone it Down quilt - blocks 15 and 16 - hooray!

Only four left to make!  I've started to put up some of the sashing that I originally cut up.

That blue sashing at the top right might have to go.

Even after I make the last four blocks, I've still go heaps of little nine patches to make - there's only one up so far, but it is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I think this will be a very pretty quilt.  Not sure if I should give it away or keep it for myself.

Hexagons so far for my not GMFG really quilt.  These finish with one inch sides.

APQ tone it down blocks 13 & 14 WIP

I've snuck in a bit of sewing during the week and this WIP is for two blocks for the tone it down quilt, not for the quilt itself :-(

Block 13 has two seams left to sew. I knew this one would be problematic, as the fabric for the centre of the block is a bit light in value. I had to try and use low value fabrics that wouldn't compete with the main colour. I think it's turned out alright.

For block 14, all the little bits are sewn together, but there's still a fair bit of sewing to do. It's not ready to go on the design wall. I've also made and connected another 5 hexi flowers for my other quilt, but no photo of the new flowers yet.

 

Linking up to Lee at freshly pieced for WIP Wednesday. http://www.freshlypieced.com/2014/03/wip-wednesday-vintage-quilt-revival-at.html

 

APQ Tone it Down - blocks eleven and twelve

I had a big sewing session last night and this morning.  Blocks eleven and twelve are now done - It takes about four solid hours of sewing to complete two blocks - that is with most of the pieces already cut.

Blocks so far...

I've also completed a few more flowers for my hexi quilt.  I only make these on the train, down at the dog park and at night time if I watch a bit of telly.  These hexis have one inch sides, excluding the seam allowance, and I've been sewing them together with a running stitch.  This is more my style - lots of loud colour.

I'm still painting our little sitting room - it is bright yellow.  So, lots of things in progress.

Oh no! Not another!

I have too many WIPs. Last week I finished two flimsies and still haven't basted them, never mind quilted them. No progress on the tone it down QAL. But..... I have started a new quilt.

 

Hexis. One inch hexis, sewn with a running stitch, as EPP does not appeal to me. I've started with a central fussy cut single petal flower and each centre expands to become the petals of the next flower. There will be approximately 365 flowers and I only have enough different fabrics for about 175 flowers. Looks like I'm going to have to have repeats. There is no way I can afford fabric for another 180 different flowers.

Linking up with:

http://www.conniekresin.com/2014/03/linky-tuesday_11.html

TGIFF flimsy

I'm not sure if it counts as a finish, but the lap sized flimsy for my sister's husband is done.  Have to baste it and quilt it now.  Fred is still watching those kangaroos.

I've also started to sew together my unsuccessful low volume quilt that has no purpose.  Four seams left to sew and then I might get around to quilting it.

No progress on the APQ Tone it down QAL, as I need to finish these first.

I've crocheted another floor rug, but no pics here.

Now that I have nothing left to do on the train, I've started hand sewing another hexi quilt.  This time, I'm using 1 inch hexagons and creating single flowers which will butt up against each other.  There will be a few fussy cut flowers, but not too many to overwhelm the other flowers.

I'm not sure if this will become a queen size or double, but I plan for it to take a long time.

I hope I like this one when its done, as I don't really like the last few quilts I've worked on.  This one is more my style.

Linking up to TGIFF

Prizes received and finishes achieved

My little prize packet of Aurifil threads arrived.  Lovely colours.  I also won a $50 voucher from the fat quarter shop, through the 2012 FMQ Challenge hosted by SewCalGal.  Sadly, postage to Australia has increased a lot, so I had to pay about another $20 to get a colour card for Kona cotton and two charm packs of Kaffe Fassett fabric.  All the prizes have lovely bright colours.

A couple of weeks ago, I finished my sister's quilt, a red and white double nine patch on point.  It's taken about five washes to try and get the dissolving thread out, and the lines from those stitches still show.  Hopefully a few more washes and they'll be completely gone.  My sister will be coming up for a visit in a couple of weeks, so I won't post it to her but wait to give it to her when she arrives.
Here it the back of the quilt, hanging on the clothes line.  Its the first sunny day we've had in a couple of months.

Here it is lying on the floor - the ripple in the side is only due to the clothes line.  The border is actually flat - hooray.

Border quilting

First alternate motif

Second alternate motif

On the train to work yesterday morning, I also finished hand sewing the binding to my mother-in-law's GMFG hexagon lap quilt.

I also started an improv star quilt as a present for someone.  It didn't take long to piece and I've started to quilt it in the last couple of days.  Progress to date.

Australia day long weekend progress

What an eventful long weekend. On Friday night, we had DH's wine tasting. Cyclone Oswald was just starting to make an appearance in SE Qld, so it was raining, but not too bad. On Saturday, I continued to quilt motifs on my sister's quilt, but kept having trouble with the washable marker, as the marks disappeared soon after marking, due to the constant rain, heat and humidity. Sunday morning was no better. It started to rain very heavily throughout the morning and I had to stop to dig trenches in the front yard to get rid of the water pooling on the high side of the house. I also moved lots of things from a concrete ledge to the floor under the house, as lots of water was coming onto the ledge.

In the early afternoon, we went to see if our neighbours needed help moving furniture, as their bottom floor was going to flood. By the time we got back, the bottom of our yard was a foot deep in water and was rising at a rapid rate.

Went into high drive after this, as we were worried that under the house might flood and moved the washing machine, sewing machine and a million other things upstairs. By night time, we were both very tired, but glad to see that the water was draining away and would not reach the house.

Another flood is about to hit Brisbane, while further north, lives are likely to be lost from more flooding.

Today, I moved things back downstairs, as our flooding comes from a local creek in high rainfall and not from the Brisbane river, which is due to peak tomorrow. We have had about 300 ml of rain in the last couple of days, with almost 200 ml on Saturday.

I really needed to do some quilting, so started stitching in the ditch of the GMFG hexi quilt for my MIL then quilted some of the flowers. I know lots of people think that hand pieced hexis should be hand quilted, but ..... Forget it. This one will be hand pieced and machine quilted and bound.

Pics are below. Good luck for tomorrow everyone and I hope not too many houses are flooded. Many have already lost power and phones.

WIP Wednesday

Quilting of the white blocks continues.  I drew a couple of motifs for my sister to choose from and ended up going with this one.

Given that there are 6 x 5 white blocks, and the linear nature of the motif, I decided to quilt this motif on alternating white blocks and maybe use a wreath type motif on the other white blocks.  This would help to disguise any wonkiness in my quilting the first motif as I wouldn't have to line everything up perfectly.

 

I quilted the large motif five times in the first two rows and then thought, why not use the central part of the motif for the other blocks?

Using Don Linn's method to mark the motif onto tulle and then onto the quilt, I tried out the smaller motif.  I didn't quite like its placement, so removed the marks with water.  To my horror, some of the permanent marker was left on the fabric!   I emailed Don to see if he had come across this and he replied that he had not.

As the quilting is nowhere near finished, I tried to spot remove it, to no avail.

I decided to try and hide it by quilting over it and I've now almost completed two rows.  Here are pictures of the quilted motifs.  I'm going to have to try and find another method for marking motifs without a template, as I just can't run the risk of this happening again.  I had the same problem on a section of the border of my mother's quilt.

Finishes or WIPs

Hooray
On Wednesday, I had a few completions.  First, I finished the continuous curves on the double nine patch.  I've now also finished off all the SID in the borders and basted the outside border.  Here is a pic of the basted and continuous curves.  The basting of the nine patches was done with water soluble thread, but with the heat and humidity we've been experiencing, I had a lot of thread breaks.  Hopefully it will wash out.

I hope the basting washes out!

continuous curves

I also finally finished adding the last row of flowers to my grandmother's flower garden.  It has taken ages since we got home, as I have only worked on it on the train to and from work.  Next up is basting it.  I have to have both quilts finished before the upcoming birthdays in late March and early April, and have to send the late March one off to ensure it reaches my sister in time.

I'm glad to have finished this flimsy.  So, two sort of finishes and WIPs this week.

I'm now planning possible quilts for my niece and nephew, both young adults.

Lying on a queen size bed

Hanging in it's own glory

GMFG update

I'm busy back at work and trying to complete the Dresden plates quilt before Christmas - I don't think that is going to happen.

Since arriving home, I've sewn all the white hexis around the full perimeter of the GMFG quilt and have been sewing the half flowers for the last row. I'm now joining the last row together, before I can attach it to the rest of the quilt. As all my hand sewing is only happening on the train to work and back, my progress is slow. I live too close to town as its only a 10 minute trip!

Here is a photo of my current progress. The colours are much truer now that I can upload photos from my camera.

Final full flowers

We have been in Bangkok for three nights, on our way home.  I found a fabric shop in Edinburgh with some quilting fabric.  The woman behind the counter wasn't very friendly, but I bought some plain fabrics so I could make the final flowers using fabric I bought in Amsterdam and Ljubljana.

My final full flowers are below.  My phone is so frustrating as it washes out all the colour.  The blue flower has delft blue in the outer petals.

I've been quiet as I've been joining all the original flowers together.  All I have to do now is join the last four flowers to each other and to the rest of the flimsy, sew together two half flowers (don't have the fabric to do that until I get home), add in the two missing petals that I lost on the train and finish off the white border at the bottom of the quilt.  

Ill post a picture of the full flimsy when I get home and can upload a photo from a real camera.  It should only take a couple of fullish days, so maybe at the end of next week I'll definitely have finished the top.  I'm not sure if I'll finish it with straight edges or do a hexi border.  Any ideas?