5 of 12 Tops finished

This top was made last June, but now it is a fully fledge quilt.

If you look too closely, you will see that my points aren't that perfect but never mind. This was my first half square triangle quilt and I was really happy with how it turned out.

It was made with a scrap collection I bought online. I don't have much of these sort of fabrics, fresh, bright and pastel and realised it when looking through my stash for binding. Luckily I had bought this stripe a few months ago when I was looking for bargains. The backing is all dotty, more from those bargain fabrics I bought at the beginning of the year.

It took me a while to decide on how to quilt it, but then went for this really simple FMQ pattern which I was really pleased with. I used the same wadding as the last quilt which has a really high loft, so the quilting really stands out.

Favourite Things Friday

To check out more FTF head over to Mrs P at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2011/03/favourite-things-friday_25.html.

This week my Favourite Thing is:

My certificate for the end of this phase of my counselling course. I have finished a year of study now and we have a break until September.

After that we have another 3 years to go so I still have a long way to go but this was a big milestone and I'm really pleased about it.

4 of 12

I finished my 4th top from my big pile yesterday. This one has also been hanging around for about a year. The top was made with AMH Good Folks range. I have to confess, once I had it pieced I didn't like it at all although adding a piano border helped a bit.

In hindsight, I realise it needed something else to break it up, such as a solid in the way my Innocent Crush top worked once the solid was added. But a year ago I was less experienced and just stuck it out. However, the fabric itself has a really lovely soft texture.

I used a new poly wadding (well new to me)  and it had a really high loft so I just did a loose wavy loopy FMQ and it kept it really puffy. Its not that big 42x56 inches before washing, I forgot to measure it afterwards.

For the backing, I used some dots and flowers. I had a shopping spree earlier in the year that I didn't admit to where I bought loads of on sales fabrics, 2 yards of each just to have in stash for backing. These ones went very well I think.

Finally, I have decided on the fabrics I will use for Sarcastic Quilter's Paper Pieced QAL (see button on the side). It will be very scrappy, in shades of green and yellow.

More dresdens

I've done my 6 dresdens for Lynne's Quilt Along over a Lily's Quilts.

Once they are cut out they sewed together a lot easier than I expected and every single one laid flat! Hooray!

I made them all out of Pat Bravos Paradise and used both colour schemes.

Whoopee - First Dresden done

This is my first dresden plate, made for Lynne's QAL over at Lily's Quilts (see the button on the side) and I was really worried that it wouldn't lay flat when it was all sewn together - but it did!!!

I have to say I'm glad its so big, (each blade is 9 inches) as I would loose a lot of patience on doing lots of small ones.

I even pressed the seams open - shock. I've only ever bothered doing that once before, but as there are only 6 mega-size blocks in this quilt I thought it was probably worth the extra effort!

I've got two more cut out so I'm nearly half way through already. I'm still nervous about how we are going to attach it to the background but I'll trust in Lynne.

Two Quilt Alongs in one Week!

I must be going a bit doolally as I have never joined in on a Quilt Along before and now I am joining two in the same week.

This second one is with Becky at http://sarcasticquilter.blogspot.com/2011/03/quilt-along-post-1-suppply-list.html and I saw the design she was doing a few months ago and it was so lovely I knew I wouldn't be able to resist.

She has so many wonderful layouts from the same block I've spent all afternoon trying to work out which one I want to do.

I have finally (maybe but nearly definitely) decided on this one.

I am going to do in in greens and yellows with a bit of white. One of my cousins has asked for a quilt for her cottage in Ireland and was very vague on colours as she hasn't decorated there yet. So green, white and gold seem fitting.

I've just been trawling through my stash for all my greens and yellows (well some of them) as I am going to do it quite scrappy. I figure as long as the values in each part of the block are the same it should work out ok. Now I just have to sort them into the correct values!!!! I've never done that before but I think it will be okay.

3 of 12

I finished another quilt today - hooray.

The top was finished some time last year and is a string quilt that contains lots of my scraps from 2010. It was lovely quilting it to keep spotting little bits of fabric and remembering what they got used for and where they came from.

I just did straight line quilting in a cross hatch pattern. Its hard to see with the amount of patterns and colours so it wasn't worth doing anything else.

I had made the top using muslin as the foundation rather than paper. The extra layer it adds is noticeable, it makes it a bit heavier. I'm not sure if I prefer it; obviously it is lovely not to have had to peel away all the paper foundation but the overall texture is different. It doesn't seem as soft and snuggly.

I'm also joining my first quilt along. Lynne has designed a lovely quilt which will take me right out of my comfort zone. Dresden plates, curved seams and quilt as you go blocks!

These are the fabrics I've selected which are Pat Bravo Paradise collection with the yellow background.

Favourite Things Friday

Its been a while since I joined in with Shays FTF gang but check out the others at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2011/03/favourite-things-friday_11.html.

My favourite this week is Fabric Scraps!

I love my scraps, I never throw any away until I'm sure they are too small and I get so much pleasure from playing with them.

This week, they seemed to be getting a bit out of control so I thought it was time for a scrap attack.

My little bitty bits I put together into 3.5 inch squares and got quite a few more done.

I added these to my existing ones and decided to sash them with a brown from my stash. I got a lot of larger blocks together so it won't be long before there are enough of these to make a bonus quilt top.

I finished my wonky stars tops a while ago, even though it isn't quilted so I went for something different with the triangles this time. I got the idea for this from Gwen Marstons Liberated Quilting 2. I save my triangles from scraps and my binding which is why I ended up with so many. I really like the look of these blocks. I'm thinking of surrounding each one with longer strings to get those used up as well.

Lastly, I did a bit more hand sewing of hexies using my 2.5 inches scrap squares. This is my whole stack of flowers so far plus some more loose ones I've got done.

I can't believe that when I started quilting I was really tempted to chuck all these bits. They are the most fun of all in my book!

2 of 12

No, that isn't my borg designation but the number of tops I've turn from my ufo pile into finished this week! Hooray for me.

This top was something I put together when I had flu last month. As my brain wasn't really working very well, but I still wanted to sew every now and again, I started looking in my oddments pile. I had a few jelly roll strips left over and started adding all sorts of other bits and pieces to the mix, all sorts of colours and patterns.

I went for simple piecing so I didn't have to think too hard and to be honest I didn't feel this top at all. When I got a bit better, my reaction was "what the hell was I thinking" but with more colourful words!

I pieced the leftover bits into little blocks for the back and then this week went looking for something to go with them. I couldn't resist the orange. It seemed to lift it all. I have to admit, I love orange. I've even put it on walls before which is why I had this in my stash. Its even brighter that the pic in real life.

The orange did something magical - it made me like the top. Even if you couldn't see it somehow I knew it was there.

I just did really simple loopy free motion quilting for this one and it only took about 1.5 hours. The more I quilted, the more I liked the top. And it got a name "Tropical Crush".

My crappy flu quilt is now one that makes me really happy. Yay for orange!